MRP: C5/485/75
C5/485/75
Abstract
The technical vocabulary used by the appraisers to itemise the timber in George Moore's & Thomas Gaskin's timber yard is extensive.
Timber is categorised as battens, balkeins, baulks, beames, boards, dales, lathes, lumber, sparrs, and stawes
Dales are prefixed cleane, coarse, covering/cawring, cutt, halfe, ?launick, ordinary, plain, rack, white
Boards are prefixed oaken and elme boards
Sparrs are prefixed boome, middle, and mill sparrs
Balkes are prefixed double, oaken, and white balkes
Boards are prefixed barrel, oaken, and elm boards
Stawes are prefixed barrel stawes
The prices of dales vary according to type as well as length, e.g.
14 foot Dales 6:li 5:s p C:d
12 foot Dales 5:li 5:s p C:d
Larwick dales at 4:li 7:s 6:d p C:d
Drani Dales at 4:li = 15:s = p C:d
Long Rack dales 4:li = 10s p C:d
Coarse Dales over the saw=pitt at 3:li =15:s p hund
White Dales 3:li 7:s 6:d p C:d
?Mawa Dales at 3:li 10:s p C:d
Short ?wheete dales at 3:li - 7:s - 6:d
Coarse dales at 3:li-5:s p C:d
Covering dales 50:s p C:d
?Launick dales 2:li - 10:s p C:d
Halfe Dales at 2:li = 5 p C:d
??Cawring dales; at 2:li p C
Broad Dales at 15 p peece
Cleane dales 15:d peece
Slitt dales at 11:d p peece
Halfe Dales slitt 5:d p peece
Quantities mentioned are dozens, quarters, fathoms, pieces
The length of the timber is sometimes mentioned in general terms, e.g. "long rack dales", "half dales", "smallest Balkes"; and sometimes more precisely, e.g. "12 foot Dales", "14 foot Dales", with significant non linear increases in price with length, e.g. 12 foot Dales 5:li 5:s p C:d, 14 foot Dales 6:li 5:s p C:d
Width of the timber is occasionally mentioned, e.g. "foote Elme boards p foote"
Types of wood identified are oak, elm, and fir
Oak is priced higher than fir, e.g. oak balkes are prices ar 4:s per piece vs. 3:s per piece for fir balkes
Some descriptions hint at the geographical origins of the timber, e.g. Christiana ordinary, Larwick dales, Drani Dales, ?Mawa Dales, ?Launick dales
The colour of timber is occasionally described as white or yellow
Transcription
f. 4
LH side of page
//An Accompt of the Goods that was Appraised//
//at M:r Thomas Gaskins yard the 25:th//
//of ffebruary: 1678//
//?Cowering dales at//
//Coarse dales over the same: ?pid//
//Coarse dales at 3:li-5:s p C:d//
//Oaken baulks XX ?IInterest;//
//Long double XXfers//
//?Barlings 4:6 peece//
//Oaken baulks upon the wharfe//
//Beame of a ould ship: Oake//
//Some lumbar and a pump//
//Long saXXX ?EaXorr 2:?9:s p peece//
//??Rack dales 55 p C:d//
//??Cawring dales; at 2:li p C//
//peece Round wood 5 p Dozen//
//halfe dales at//
//oaken Baulke//
//Middle sparrs at 35;?s p C//
//Slit dales at 6 p C//
//XXXX: Cutt dales 5:li p C//
//Dozen ?pann tile Lathes 16:d p dozen//
//Oaken Boards 16 p peece//
//Broad Dales at 15 p peece//
//Slitt dales at 11:d p peece//
//halfe Dales slitt 5:d p peece//
//Dozen ½ Battens at 3:d p peece//
//packs of XXost 5 in each pack ?7:s: 6:d pack//
//weight of Twise ?layd Reape 15 p hund//
//Black ?& ould Roape ?& ?slate//
//?Roules X scrue ?& Male at//
//ffathome of peeces at//
//?Dram halfe Dales 58:?s p C:d//
/ould quarters at 6:d p peece//
//Long ?sound dosbalkes 3:li ?10:s//
//Mills sparrs 35:s p C:d//
//Tonn ?all white balkes ?9:li p C:d//
//ffathom of ??Trmmells att//
//ffathom of drye Barrell Boards at//
//short ?wheete dales at 3:li - 7:s - 6:d p C:is//[1]
//halfe Dales 35:?s p C:d//
//Course Dales at 3:li p C:d//
//Boome sparrs at 5:li - 10:s p C:d//
//Oaken Baulke at//
//Baulkes at 7:li p C:d//
//halfe Dales at 2:?s p C:d//
//Rack dales 2 peeces at 50:?s p C:d//
//?Double Baulkes at 8?li p C:d//
//Double ?Balkeins 15:li p C:d//
//?LoXXX & 5:? Lath 20:?s p Loade//
//XXXXX halfe Dales at 5:li - 15:s p C:d//
//Cowringe Dales 2:li - 10:s p C:d//
f. 4
RH side of page
//fathome of Barrell stawes ?46:X at 30:X p//
//Greate baulkes 3:s: 6:d p peece//
//fathom Lath wood 2:li p Xath//
//Loade 2 Bundle Laths at//
//Burlings 2:?s: 8:d p peece is//[2]
//Double XXXXX 9:?£ p C:d//
//ordinary Dale 5:?s p C:d//
//Five Baulkes 7:li p C:d//
//Rack-Dales 3:li p C:d//[3]
//plaine Dales//
//halfe Dales 2:li 5:s p hund//
//a parcell of Lumber//
//Rack in 2 piles 3:li p C:d//
//?Launick dales 2:li - 10:s p C:d//
//Rack dales 2:li = 10 p C:d//
//Long Rack dales 4:li p C:d//
//Smallest Balkes ?1 = 15 p C:d//
//halfe Dales at 2:li = 5 p C:d//
//Single ?Balkeners 4:li = 10:s p C:d//
//Covering dales 50:s p C:d//
//Foote Elme boards 1:s p foote//
//Rack dales 3:li = 10:s p Cd//
//Cleane dales 15:d peece//
//Long Rack dales 4:li = 10s p C:d//
//Boome sparrs XXX 6:li p C:d//
//Smallest baulkes 35:s p C:d//
//oake balkes 4:s p peece//
//Firr Baulkes 3:s p peece//
//??Bergondells 3:li - 5 p C:d//
//Covering Dales 50:s p C:d//
//parcells of Lumber in the ??innard (Or, inward) yarde//
//peecs of yellao and white Timber//
//contenieinge 125 loads 40 foote at 25:s p Loade//
//Mast 9:t 15 Loade 11 foote at 46 p Loade//
//of Drani Dales at 4:li = 15:s = p C:d//
//Christiana ordinary 4-2.6:d p C:d//
//good ?Charria 4:li 0 15:s p C:l//
//12 foot Dales 5:li 5:s p C:d//
//14 foot Dales 6:li 5:s p C:d//
//short long XXXX 3:li: 17:s: 6:d p C:d//
//white Dales 3:li 7:s 6:d p C:d//
//Rack dales 2:li 10:s p C:d
//XXXXXXXXX//
//XXXXXXXXX//
//at 4:li = 5:s p C:d//
//at 4:li = 15:s p C:d//
//short ??Freedrick ?stav 4:li: 5:s p C:d//
//14 foot long dale at 6:li=10:s p C:d//
//Larwick dales at 4:li 7:s 6:d p C:d//
//?Mawa Dales at 3:li 10:s p C:d//
f. 7
//An Accompt of the Goods that was//
//Appraised at M:r Thomas Gaskins yard//
//ffebruary the 25:th 1678/9 the moyety whereof//
//belonged to the sayd Thomas Gaskins and the other//
//moyety belongs to George Moore as followth viz:t//
//Covering Dales at 02:li=15:s p C:d//
//Coarse Dales over the saw=pitt at 3:li = 15:s p hund//
//Coarse Dales at 3:li = 5:s p hund//
//Oaken ?Bankes and ??Ankerst 0:li = 9:s p p:ce//
//Long double ?Enfers 0:li = 2:s = 4:d p p:ce//
//Barlings 0:li = 4:s = 0 p p:ce//[4]
Commentary
Possible secondary sources
Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Forests and sea power: the timber problem of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862 (Cambridge, MA, 1926)
- This looks a useful book, with detail of Warren's shipyard etc.
Christiaan van Bochove, The Economic Consequences of the Dutch: Economic Integration Around the North Sea, 1500-1800 (Amsterdam, 2009)
Aksel Erhardt Christensen, Dutch trade to the Baltic about 1600: studies in the Sound toll register and Dutch shipping records (E. Munksgaard, 1941)
C.W Pearson, "England's timber trade in the last of the 17th and first of the 18th Century, more especially with the Baltic Sea" (London, 18XX)
Tim Peck, The International Timber Trade (Cambridge, 2001)
- ↑ See following usage: "New Brunswick spruce deals are held back for the chance of better demand when the cheap stock of Baltic white deals has run out, and before fresh supplies can arrive." ('The Timber Trade' in The Architect, March 19, 1870, vol. 3 (London, 1870), p. 142
- ↑ Possible meaning. "Burlings: Pieces of dirty wool" (James Orchard Halliwell, A dictionary of archaic and provincial words, obsolete phrases, proverbs, and ancient customs, from the fourteenth century, vol. 1: A-I, 3rd ed. (London, 1855), p. 220)
- ↑ See usage as follows: "Were the rack deals imported from Norway superior in your opinion to American pine ? — No ; inferior for almost all purposes. ('Minutes of evidence taken before the Select Committee on timber duties', in H.M.S.O., House of Commons papers (London, 1835), p. 315)
- ↑ See the following usage: "The smaller spars, usually of spruce, were referred to as "boom," "cant," and "barling," according to size." (Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Forests and sea power: the timber problem of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862 (Cambridge, MA, 1926)
