Research Paths and Byways
Provisioning Lists
by Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG

How can we get more accurate images of our ancestor's lives? Probate inventories give us some idea of their possessions, but often with less detail than we would like. There is another record that gives an even more complete idea, at least for a limited time period.

During the earliest years of colonization in America, there was no infrastructure, no English civilized environment or mercantile structure. After arrival, it would take some time before the first crops could be harvested, and these would have to last until the next harvest. The settlers would, literally, have to create their own environment from scratch and supply it with items they brought with them.

To make it more likely that settlements would succeed, promoters prepared and circulated provisioning lists delineating all items that a family would need to bring with them. There are several such lists. I found an excellent presentation and discussion by David Cressey in the chapter called "Needful Provisions" in his book Coming Over. He focuses on early New England, but the items that made up a typical English household would have been very similar from one colony to another.

The lists included the cost of items and were annotated with adjustments that could be made by "the poorer sort."They were organized by categories and included all aspects of daily life: victuals (food), household implements (kitchenware), apparel, arms (for protection and for hunting), items for fishing and for building, tools (for building and for raising crops), and woodenware (which meant tools not made of metal). I've consolidated entries from several of the lists in the discussion below and consulted The Oxford English Dictionary for meanings of obsolete terms.

Victuals
One hogshead [a large barrel of 63 or more gallons] or eight bushels of meal, one hogshead of malt, one hundredweight of beef, 100 pounds of pickled pork or 74 pounds of bacon, two bushels of peas, two bushels of oatmeal, one bushel of greats [grits], two dozen or one firkin [a small cask, about 1/4 barrel] butter, half a hundred cheese, two gallons of vinegar, one gallon aquavitae [ardent (inflammable) spirits such as brandy], one gallon of oil, two quarts mustard seed, half a hogshead of salt to save fish, and spices such as sugar, pepper, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmegs, and fruit. For fishing the should bring twelve cod hooks, two lines, one mackerel line and twelve hooks, and 28 pounds of lead for bullets and fishing lead. With what game they could shoot (you'll notice no mention of netting or traps), this would have to suffice a family of six for many months.

Apparel for One Man
Four or six pairs of shoes, one pair of boots, four pounds of leather to mend shoes, three or four pairs of Irish stockings, one hat, one Monmouth cap [the flat, round cap worn by soldiers and sailors], three falling bands [a band or collar worn around the neck], three or six shirts [varied between lists], one waist coat, one suit of frieze, one suit of cloth, one suit of canvas, twelve handkerchiefs (there is a note that for the poorer sort these may be of blue calico that in summer they could use for [head] bands), one sea cape or gown of coarse cloth, and "other apparel as their purses will afford." For each man there should also be one pair of canvas sheets, seven ells [an ell is 45 inches] of canvas to make a bed and bolster, and one coarse rug [bedcover].

Household Implements for a Family of Six
One iron pot, one great copper kettle, a small kettle, a lesser kettle, one large frying pan, a small frying pan, a brass mortar [for grinding spices], a spit, one gridiron, two skillets [footed kettles placed over the coals for cooking, not frying pans with handles], platters, dishes, and spoons of wood. One list includes the comment "As for bedding, and necessary vessels for kitchen uses, men may carry what they have, less serving the turn there than would give contentment here." In other words, they should get by on less in the New World.

Tools of Various Kinds
For a family, the suggested tools varied between one list and another, but included some of the following: six chisels, one wimble [a tool used for making holes] with six piercer bits, three gimlets [another tool for making holes], one or two hammers, two hatchets, three axes (one broad axe and two felling axes; another list suggests there should be two broad axes and five felling axes), two pickaxes, two steel handsaws, two handsaws, a whip saw, and a file and rest.

Items related to husbandry included three shovels and two spades (one list specified an English spade and steel shovel), three hoes (one broad hoe of nine inches and two narrow hoes of five or six inches; another list suggests there should be five broad hoes), two hand bills [a long staff with a hooked blade on the end], one wood hook, two frows to cleave pail [a frow was used to split the staves for barrels or pails off from a larger block of wood], two curry combs, a brand to brand beasts, a chain and lock for a boat, a coulter [the cutter on a plow for breaking turf] weighing ten pounds, a hand vise, a pitchfork, and a share.

Tradesmen should bring their own tools: "Other tools as men's several occupations require, as hand saws, whip saws, thwart saws, augers, chisels, frows, grindstones, etc." There were reminders that for building they should take nails of all sorts (one hundredweight of spikes, nails and pins), locks for doors and chests (three locks and three pair of fetters), gimmals [rings or hinges] for chests, and hooks and twists for doors.

Wooden Ware
A pair of bellows, a scoop, a pair of wheels for a cart, a wheelbarrow, a great pail, a boat called a canoe with a pair of paddles [could be purchased in America], a short oak ladder, a plough, an axletree, a cart, a casting shovel, a shovel, and a lantern.

Arms
One musket, rest and bandolier, ten pounds of powder, sixteen pounds of shot, six pounds of match [used to light and fire the musket], one sword, one belt, one pistol with a mould, one complete light armour, one long piece, one sword, one belt, one bandolier, twenty pounds of powder, sixty pounds of shot or lead, and one pistol and goose shot.

Can You Imagine?
I began this review trying to imagine the household that was created by the settlers, but I must admit that I complete it wondering who packed all that stuff compactly for the voyage over!

Resource
David Cressey, Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987). I borrowed it on Interlibrary Loan.

Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG, is an instructor, and professional genealogist. Her oft-migrating ancestors lived in all of the original colonies prior to 1800 and in seventeen other states, presenting her with highly varied research problems and forcing her to acquire techniques and tools that help solve tough problems. She is the author of Producing a Quality Family History.

Copyright 2006, MyFamily.com.

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Ancestry Quick Tip

Photo Website and Self-Assessment

My contribution to my family's genealogy collection is to manage a website of family photos, which gives family members access to scads of photos by family line without the expense of making individual copies. I also try to provide something of a biography for each ancestor where information is available, to make it more interesting for those with a casual interest in genealogy. The website has been favorably received by those family members with Internet access; my task now is to get the rest of the family online!

I've frequently wondered about the personalities and motivations of the ancestors whose images I work with. What made them move from here to there? Why did this ancestor become an artist or a writer when all of his/her siblings became farmers? The answers aren't always apparent from regional or local history, and eccentric family members may have been viewed as an embarrassment, or as someone "we don't talk about."

A gift you can give to future generations is a professional assessment of yourself and the way you think. Tools available at websites such as www.assessment.com are usually employed by job seekers trying to identify their motivational interests and strengths. The participant is presented with a series of about seventy-five questions. Based on the way you answer those questions, your resulting narrative will describe everything from the way you like to work to the way you relate to others.

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Corinth, Texas

Thanks to Karen for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to: mailto:ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

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Clipping of the Day
Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio), 02 March 1853, page 3:

From California

A letter from O.P. Stidger, Esq. to [H.?] Stidger, date, Marysville,
January 11, gives a deplorable account of things in that country. He says - It has rained almost incessantly since the 1st of December. During that month our city was inundated with water three different times, and now the whole of the lower part of the city, and the entire country west and south is entirely covered with water. Many of the inhabitants are driven to the 2d story of their houses. The waters have been higher than at any time since the discovery of gold.

All parts of the country have been either overflowed or met with some other casualty equally as disastrous. The snows in the mountains have driven out almost all the inhabitants, and many are to be seen in various parts of the country, begging for a livelihood. Thousands of persons have died, in consequence of being hemmed in by the snow--frozen to death, or died of starvation. Men have gone forty miles to buy provisions, and returning with them on their backs, died with fatigue and the chilling blasting snows through which they had to wade. Every part of the country has been visited with these scenes. Mining of all kinds has been discontinued, and most utter abject misery prevails to an alarming extent.

Thousands and thousands of cattle, horses, hogs, &c. have perished by the overflows of the vallies. [sic] Millions and millions of dollars are lost: More than the gold mines will pay in the next two years. It is impossible to paint the utter destitution and ruin which pervades all parts of this country. Every wind wafts to us tidings of misery and distress. It is awful, awful! The whole Sacramento Valley is one vast sea of water, and Sacramento city entirely inundated, from 2 to 12 feet.

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Thought for Today
Milton Berle

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