Dear Listers, This is my first posting to the list. I have recently acquired a box of 18c documents which are directly related to the parish genealogy and local history study. I think I can read most of the handwriting but some of it needs a more expert eye. Please could I ask for opinions on the last four lines. I think it states - `for qutoring in the park maddows three hundred and forty 6 Rukes. for qutoring in the Blythe medows three hundred and twenty five Rukes`. The present day word `Ruck` is commonly used locally to describe a pile or stack of hay. http://www.caverswall.org.uk/document_transcriptions Thanks, Steve Baggaley

Hi Steve - Ricks in Somerset & Dorset, after Hayricks! Devon & Cornwall also I reckon. The word "qutoring" may be a spelling of guttering? This fits with the other items of thatching and is possibly the small trenches dug around the ricks to drain away the rain water, in the same fashion that campers do (or should do) when setting up their tents. Kind Regards and a Happy Easter June & Roy http://www.btinternet.com/~roy.cox/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: Steve Baggaley [mailto:s.baggaley@tesco.net] Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 2:27 PM To: OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [OEL] Bill for farm work, 1749, North Staffordshire Dear Listers, This is my first posting to the list. I have recently acquired a box of 18c documents which are directly related to the parish genealogy and local history study. I think I can read most of the handwriting but some of it needs a more expert eye. Please could I ask for opinions on the last four lines. I think it states - `for qutoring in the park maddows three hundred and forty 6 Rukes. for qutoring in the Blythe medows three hundred and twenty five Rukes`. The present day word `Ruck` is commonly used locally to describe a pile or stack of hay. http://www.caverswall.org.uk/document_transcriptions Thanks, Steve Baggaley ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== OLD-ENGLISH Web Page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/

Could the word be "rudes" as in "roods", the unit of measure, rather than ruck? Charles -----Original Message----- From: Steve Baggaley [mailto:s.baggaley@tesco.net] Sent: 11 April 2004 14:27 To: OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [OEL] Bill for farm work, 1749, North Staffordshire Dear Listers, This is my first posting to the list. I have recently acquired a box of 18c documents which are directly related to the parish genealogy and local history study. I think I can read most of the handwriting but some of it needs a more expert eye. Please could I ask for opinions on the last four lines. I think it states - `for qutoring in the park maddows three hundred and forty 6 Rukes. for qutoring in the Blythe medows three hundred and twenty five Rukes`. The present day word `Ruck` is commonly used locally to describe a pile or stack of hay. http://www.caverswall.org.uk/document_transcriptions Thanks, Steve Baggaley ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== OLD-ENGLISH Web Page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/

I too think it is Rudes, as in the measurement. I also think it is gutering (guttering) and not qutoring. Cheers, Liz in Melbourne Quoting "Charles.Russell" <charles.russell@ntlworld.com>: > Could the word be "rudes" as in "roods", the unit of measure, rather than > ruck? > > Charles > > -----Original Message----- > From: Steve Baggaley [mailto:s.baggaley@tesco.net] > Sent: 11 April 2004 14:27 > To: OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [OEL] Bill for farm work, 1749, North Staffordshire > > > Dear Listers, > > This is my first posting to the list. I have recently acquired a box of 18c > documents which are directly related to the parish genealogy and local > history study. I think > I can read most of the handwriting but some of it needs a more expert eye. > Please could I ask for opinions on the last four lines. I think it states - > `for qutoring in the park maddows three hundred and forty 6 Rukes. for > qutoring in the Blythe medows three hundred and twenty five Rukes`. The > present day word `Ruck` is commonly used locally to describe a pile or stack > of hay. > > http://www.caverswall.org.uk/document_transcriptions > > Thanks, > > Steve Baggaley

In message <1081719408.4079ba703dd2e@webmail.hotkey.net.au>, emagar@hotkey.net.au writes >I too think it is Rudes, as in the measurement. I also think it is gutering >(guttering) and not qutoring. I haven't looked at the original - but a rood is a square measure, a quarter of an acre which doesn't fit in with guttering, which would be lineal measure. 356 roods would be almost 90 acres.Even if the word intended is rod, of which 40 make up a rood, it is still square measure and around 20+ acres. I could see drainpipes in a meadow, but guttering is normally round a building not in a meadow./ An alternative could have been quartering, meaning possible the provision of hay for soldiers' horses and bedding, in a camp. However, though this would make a lot of sense in 1745, when soldiers were on the move all over, by 1749 there would have been much less of this. If the word ruck is used for the more normal cock or stook, then this is a possibility iof the militia or army habitually went on manoeuvres here. I will try to get around to looking at the actual document. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

Hi Steve The document reads: for gutoring in the park maddows three hundred and forty 6 Rudes - £1 8s 10d for gutoring in the Blithe medous three hundred and twenty 5 Rudes - £1 7s 1d A "gut" is a small stream or an underground drain for water and a "rude" would be a "rod" which was five and a half yards or 16½ feet So this is a payment for drainage work. If they were water meadows, it may well be that surface "gutters" were what is intended here, as underground drainage would also involve the cost of the tiles. Looks like you have some very interesting documents there! Kind regards Polly