Customs House terms, colonial America

[Joel S. Berson]

Duh!  [Me, not Wilson.]  With my head cleared out, there is (as Fred
Shapiro says) the excellent, comprehensive, and readily available OED
(2, in my case).

Wilson's findings reminded me of the common "clear out", s.v. "clear"
v. 26.d. "To depart out of a place, be off, take oneself off",
1825-.  And right next to that is 26.c. "To pass through the process
of clearing on leaving port. (With various constructions.)",
1758-.  Which hints that "the process of clearing" must also be
defined by the OED.  So:13. is "To depart, so as to leave the place
clear (in quot. 1832 with mixture of sense 2: cf. 24, 25); to go
away, 'clear off'", 1805.

And also, more specifically nautical is "clear" v. 20.a. "To free (a
ship or cargo) by satisfying the customs, harbour dues, etc.", 1703
-; plus 20.b. "absol. or intr. in same sense; hence, to leave a port
under such conditions.", 1807-.  (These are without "out"; 26. is
"with adverbs".)

It now seems clear to me that the Boston term "cleared out" in the
18th century customs reports must mean "permitted to depart".  The
corresponding S.C. term "cleared for departure" is more informative
and supports that interpretation.

For the other pair of terms, the Bostonian "outward bound" is in OED2
(adj.) "1. a. Directing the course outward, esp. going from a home
port to a foreign one: of a ship, vehicle, or person; transf. of a
voyage.", 1602-.  Various quotations indicate that this has been used
both for ships under way and those simply ready to depart.  But the
S.C. term "entered out" seems more precise: the ship master has
declared his cargo and/or the customs house official has entered
information (destination, cargo, etc.) into his records, but
permission to depart has not yet been given (the cargo is presumably
awaiting inspection).

Joel

At 7/9/2007 05:54 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>FWIW, HDAS has "I cleared out like a rigger," wherein "rigger" is
>presumably slang for "ship," and "I ... cleared out like a white
>head," in which "white head" may be slang for a kind of ship, from
>1821.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 7/9/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>Subject:      Customs House terms, colonial America
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I would appreciate confirmation of my deductions about the following
>>terms used in Customs House reports in 18th century colonial
>>(American) newspapers.  I infer these meanings because not
>>infrequently I find a ship listed in one issue with the first term
>>and in a later issue with the second term.
>>
>>The Boston papers use these two terms.
>>       "Outward bound" -- having declared an intention to sail for a
>>stated destination.
>>       "Cleared out" -- having cleared customs, with a stated
>>destination, and permitted to sail.
>>
>>The Charleston, S.C., papers use these two terms, which I assume have
>>the same two meanings:
>>       "Entered out".
>>       "Cleared for departure".
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Joel
>>
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