A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Wednesday 6 July 2016

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, by George Francis Dow. 3


The settler also must take with him a supply of food to answer his needs on reaching Massachusetts, and it was advised that enough for the space of a year might be required in which case each person should be certain to have in store 8 bushels of meal, 2 bushels pease, 2 bushels oatmeal, 1 gallon brandy, 1 gallon oil and 2 gallons vinegar. Sugar could be had in New England as the Colonial vessels were bringing it from the West Indies in the way of trade, but spices, necessary to the English diet, must be brought from England.
John Josselyn, writing in 1638, listed the following articles as necessary equipment for every family coming to New England, viz.:
Bellows
£0
2
0
Scoop

0
9
Great pail

0
10
Casting shovel

0
10
A sack

2
4
Lanthorn

1
3
Tobacco pipes
5 broad howes

10
0
5 narrow howes

6
8
5 felling axes

7
6
2 hand saws

10
0
1 whip saw

10
0
1 file and wrest

10
2 hammers

2
0
2 augers

1
0
Wheels for a cart

14
0
Wheel barrow

6
0
Canoe
3
0
0
Short oak ladder

0
10
Plough

3
9
Axle tree

0
8
Cart

10
0
[11]3 shovels

4
6
2 spades

3
0
2 broad axes

7
4
6 chisels

3
0
3 gimblets

0
6
2 hatchets

3
6
2 frows

3
0
2 hand bills

3
4

Nails of all sorts
2
0
0
3 locks and 3 pr. fetters

5
10
2 curry combs

0
11
Brand for beasts

0
6
Hand vise

2
6
100 wt. spikes nails and pins (120)
2
5
0
2 pick axes
0
3
0
Chain and lock for a boat

2
2
Coulter (10 pound)

3
4
Pitch fork

1
4
Plough share

2
11
Household implements for a family of six persons, viz.:
1 iron pot
0
7
0
1 great copper kettle
2
0
0
1 small kettle

10
0
1 lesser kettle

6
0
1 large frying pan

2
6
1 small frying pan

1
8
1 brass mortar
0
3
0
1 spit

2
0
1 grid iron

1
0
2 skillets

5
0
Platters, dishes and spoons of wood

4
0
The above prices are estimated costs in England and the freight on the same would be reckoned at the rate of half a ton per person.

No comments: