Back to previous page

Costings for Emigrants

Estimation of the cost of emigration to New England were published in the 1600s. The following is a compilation from Higginson and from Josselyn first published about 1630.

Food
£
sd
Tools
£
s d
Meal, one hogshead
2
00Five broad hoes
Malt, one hogshead
1
00Five felling axes 76
Two bushels of oatmeal 90Two steel handsaws 28
Beef one hundredweight 180Two handsaws 100
Pork pickled, 100 pound
1
50One whip saw 100
Bacon, 74 pound
1
50A file, a rest 10
Peas, two bushels 80Two hammers 20
Greats, one bushel 60Three shovels 46
Butter, two dozen 80Two spades 30
Cheese, half a hundred 120Two augers 10
Vinegar, two gallons 10Two broad axes 74
Aquavitae, one gallon 28Six chisels 30
Mustard seed, two quarts 10Three gimlets 6
Salt to save fish, half a hogshead 100 Two hatchets3 6
One gallon of oil 36Two frows to cleave pail 30
Two hand bills 34
Clothing
 Two pickaxes 30
One hat3 0Three locks and three pair of fetters 510
One Monmouth cap 110Two curry combs 11
Three falling bands 13A brand to brand beasts 6
Shirt2 6A coulter wieghing 10 pounds 34
One waist coat 26A hand vise 26
One suit of frieze 190A pitchfork 14
One suit of cloth 150A share 211
One suit of canvas 76One wood hook 10
Three pair of Irish stockings 50One wimble, with six piercer bits 16
Four pairs of shoes 90Twelve cod hooks 20
Boots for men, one pair 90Two lines 40
Leather to mend shoes, four pound 50One mackerel line and twelve hooks 10
One pair of canvas sheets 80
Seven ells canvas to make bed and bolster 50
Wooden Ware
One coarse rug 60A pair of bellows 20
Handkerchief, twelve 40A scoop 9
One sea cape or gown, of coarse cloth 160A pair of wheels for a cart 140
Wheelbarrow 60
Household utensils
 A great pail 10
One iron pot 70A short oak ladder 10
One great copper kettle
2
00A plough 39
A small kettle 100An axletree 8
A lesser kettle 60A cart 100
One large frying pan 28A casting shovel 10
A brass mortar 30A shovel 24
A spit2 0A lantern 13
One gridiron 20
Two skillets 50