What's It Worth

What's It Worth?

Back in 1680, employing a craftsman for 13 days would cost you the equivalent of just one hour for a modern plumber. In 1270, for the same amount, you could add five extra days of craftsman work, 14 lbs of wool and a bale of wheat.  How do I know this?  Well I found the converter on www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency  At The National Archives the new currency conversion program where you can convert old money into new equivalent values, and at the same time you can also see what the relative buying power of money was in days gone by.  For example, did you know that Jane Austen left £50 in her will in 1817?  That sum is approximately equal to the spending power of £2,096 today.  It would have bought her beneficiary:  318 days of craftsman labour or,53 stones of wool or, 8 quarters of wheat or, 9 cows or, 4 horses.  
Grasby had a visit from a gentleman who lives in Hykeham and more years ago than he would like to remember his address here was the same as mine is today.  He was kind enough to let me scan a postcard he had with him which was of our house in the very early part of the 20th century.  What is it about these old postcards that makes them so much more evocative than the coloured ones of today?  When these visits occur always try to get a name and contact number.  Me? I forgot!  Hopefully he will get in touch again.
A document recently for sale dated 6 April 1773 in the 13th year of the reign of King George III and for the Release of land in Wigtoff, Lincolnshire, between John GAINSBOROUGH of Swineshead, Lincolnshire, yeoman and Mary his wife (nee WATERS) and Samuel FOSTER of Swineshead, yeoman. The property is All that piece of land in Wigtoff called the Fore Fen of 4 acres lying South East of the turnpike road from Boston to Donington (No 49 on the Inclosure Map).  
By 1881 the FOSTER family seems to have disappeared for the FOSTER that is living in Swineshead comes from Stamford and has his father in law Levi DAYBALL staying with him.   The  name FOSTER,  so the book says, might come from Middle English foster as in cild-foster, a foster parent or nurse.  However having seen the name FORSTER, FOSTER and FORESTER being used for the same family I feel that it is more likely to be the occupational name of a person who works in a forest.  
The Mormons with the IGI lump all the DIBBLE, DYBELL, DAYBALL, and DABBLE together as having the same root. Just about all of the elder members of these families came from Norfolk according to the 1881 census.  I seem to spend this week disagreeing with the book; it says that DAYBELL is a nick name that came from the practise of ringing a bell at dawn which was called imaginatively enough the day-bell.  The alternative, and the one I prefer, is the ease with which some words can be changed by using a D instead of a T.  The name Tibbald was represented in Old Saxon as Dibald which started off as the font name Theobald.  It is not very far to go to get DIBBLE or DAYBELL from DIBALD.
Bits and Bobs
LRSM 8 December 1848 - Spilsby Petty Sessions 27 November - Ruth DAWSON, of Bolingbroke, applied for an order upon Wm. STENNETT, of Revesby, to prove that the defendant (who is cousin to the plaintiff) had sent her money not to swear the child, plaintiff had called a second Wm. Stennett, also a cousin; but upon examination he swore positively that he had never spoken to the plaintiff upon the subject, and so prevaricated in his statements that it was clear he had been tampered with. The magistrates expressed their strong disapprobation of the witness' conduct, and of the defence which was attempted to be set up. Order granted for 2s 6d weekly and expenses.