[LM_NET] TARGET: research help

[Kaline Goodrich <kaline369@YAHOO.COM>]

Hello everyone.  I just got a request for help from my father who has been 
researching a single subject for the last five years or so.  He has been very busy 
pouring over primary sources and has run into some difficulty in interpreting some 
of the abbreviations used a few hundred years ago.  I've cut and pasted his request 
below.  I don't know if anyone on this list can help him or not - directly - but I 
was hoping maybe someone would know of another list or reseach tool or book that 
could help him.  Thank you for any help you can offer.

Rum is one of the most common purchases mentioned in colonial accounts.  The 
merchants often use easy to understand liquid measure even when abreviated like 
'gall', 'pt', & 'Qt' for gallon, pint, and quart.  A few abbreviations though leave 
me stumped.  (These are all handwritten documents from the colonial period.)  The 
symbles look like '2' and 'W' used separately or together:eg '5 2WRum'.  It is 
possible the '2' is a 'Q'.  'W' could stand for 'West' as in 'West Indian' rum in 
contrast with 'NE' or 'New England' rum.
  Other abreviations which confuse me are super scripted dry measures for objects 
like tea.  These symbles look like a 'u' or a 'w' with a horizontal line through 
them.  I guess it is for 'oz' or 'lbs'.
  Sometimes the word 'weight' is used rather than 'w' as in '10 weight of beef'.  
What is the equivalent of 'weight' in pounds?
  We also find 'm' as in '5 m of shingles'. 
  Does anyone know what these abbreviations mean and does a reference exist that 
discusses them?
  Any help would be appreciated.

Kaline Goodrich, LMS
HES & HMS
Hermon, ME
kaline369@yahoo.com

"The greatest gift is the passion for reading.  It is cheap, it distracts, it 
excites, it gives you a knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.  It 
is a moral illumination."  (Elizabeth Hardwick)


      

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