Family Wealth Wealthy farmers Wealthy manufacturers and weavers (I imagine wealthy should be put before the occupation *G*) Merchants Cordwainers Just trying to think what I have seen mentioned about people who brought servants over. Eliz On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 3:31 PM, JoAnn <ka7suz@concentric.net> wrote: > At 11:55 AM 10/24/2012, you wrote: > > 10. Re: pasenger fares 1750 (lfenimore) > > Next question, what was the source of income for the 'wealthy' immigrants? > > >says £10 or 60 florins ca 1750s [I think this > >is the original source for this info] but the > >difficulty is that it was only £8 8s in > >steerage in 1856 which was a 100 years later. It is hard to compare. > > > >One source says that in purchasing power a > >shilling in 1770 is worth about $8 today. The > >£10 fare is 200 shillings. By this measure > >that £10 fare is would cost about $1600 today. > > > >Another source says: > > > >In 1750 £2 5s [45 shillings] has a purchasing power of £299 in 2006 > > > >In 1750 a £10 fare [or 200 shillings] would be > >slightly more than 4 times the above amount. > > > >So more than £1200 which today [2012] is slightly more than $1900. > > > >Roundtrip airfare from NYC to London on British > >Air is about $1100 on December 1, 2012. > > > >Liane > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PA-OLD-CHESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

>From skimming the owners/servants info, I realized that there were many more servants than I, personally, had expected, and I think that what may have happened was that servants were not always listed as such and the records I looked were, perhaps, a more complete look at owner/servant relationships. Tomorrow I'll take a look at the data again and see what I can see. I looked in a book on Concord that has a listing of the components of wealth in Concord estates 1756-1789. Land was, by far, the thing most valued commodity, and "land was the overwhelming factor in total wealth." Owning land in Europe was not a possibility for the common man, the reason so many flocked to the New World.... the promise of land. Pa was a bit different than other colonies, though, as it was established by and for Quakers., and that meant Quakers of every social class. In reading about the early settlers there are a lot of well to do arrivals, some of them buying thousands of acres. Sent from Sandra's iPod