1779-08-25th
At a Legal meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Beverly August the 25
1779.
Josiah Batchelder Esq. was chosen Moderator.
Voted. That the Town highly approve, accept and do hereby adopt the proceedings of the
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Convention held at Ipswich on the 19 instant.
Voted. That the Committee of the People be directed to collect and properly arrange in a list prices
and proportions agreed upon by the Convention at Concord and Ipswich and of this town
together with the Resolves of this Town for carrying of them into effect and have them
printed in hand bills for the benefit of the Inhabitants of the Town which list of prices and
Resolves are as followeth viz.
The Inhabitants of the Town of Beverly at legal meeting held for the purpose of considering of the
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State Convention begun and held at Concord the 14 of July last and the County Convention held at
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Ipswich the 20 of August unanimously approve the same and having calculated the following list of
prices in conformity to the rules there laid down have agreed strictly to conform thereto and the
penalties contained in the resolutions of the Town hereto subjoined.
per Hogsheadper Barrelper Gallon
£ s d£ s d
West India Rum5.5.05.15.66.6.0
New England ditto4.0.04.0.04.16.0
Molasses3.12.03.19.04.7.0
Coffee15.016.60.18.0
Brown Sugar
Chocolate 20/per pound per box 22/ per dozen 24/ per pound
Behea Tea 96/ per [illegible]£ 5.6.0 per dozen £ 5.16.0 per pound
Cotton 30/ per pound per bag 83/ per dozen 36/per pound
German steel Thirty/per hundred 33/ per bar 36/ per single pound.
Salt best quality £ 9 per bushel by the single bushel or larger quantity
£ s d
Indian Corn4.10.0
Rye 6.0.0
Wheat 9.0.0
Barley4.10.0 per bushel
Oats 2.8.0
Peas 9.0.0
Beans7.10.0
Potatoes1.10.0
Hay 40/ per hundred. Beef till first of September 6/ per pound after that 5/ per pound per lot or
smaller quantity. Mutton 4/ per pound, lamb 4/ per pound, veal 4/ per pound. Veal 4/ per pound.
Foreign beef £ 60 per barrel containing 200 weight.
Ditto of pork £ 70. Butter 12/ per pound. Cheese 6/ per pound. Milk 2/6 per quart. Cider exclusive
of the barrel 6 pound. Sheeps wool twenty seven shillings per pound. Flax 14/per pound. Tallow
double the price of beef.
Candles three times price of beef.
Bloomery iron £ 30 per hundred.
Refined iron £ 40 per hundred.
Charcoal 20 for one compared with the price in 1774.
Good oak wood £ 18.8 per cord.
Other wood in proportion. Pine board by retail £ 45 per thousand. All other lumber at 25 for one.
Fresh Cod fish 1/3 per pound.
Halibut 1/6 per pound.
Dry Cod fish of the best quality 6/ per pound by retail.
Common day labor 54/ and found as usual, 66/ and not found.
Ship carpenters £ 5.6.8.
Tide work £ 8.0.0.
House carpenter day labor 66/8 - 78/8.
Masons 80/ - 92/
Sail makers for working a bolt of heavy duck £ 8, other duck in usual proportion.
Bakers for baking of good ship bread 75/ per hundred.
Blacksmith for shoeing a horse all around plain £ 5.8.0.
Shoes steeled in usual proportion.
Ox shoeing in proportion to horse shoeing.
For working of iron by the pound 4/6, hand work in proportion.
Tailors for making of a suit of plain Superfine broadcloth clothes £ 18.0.0, other clothes in usual
proportion.
Coopers fifth Hogshead 96/ each.
White Oak rum Hogshead £ 12.
White Oak rum barrels £ 3.0.0.
Packing a Hogshead of fish 20/.
Other cooperage in usual proportion.
Block work as in Salem.
Shoemakers, men shoes of neat’s leather or calf skin of the best quality £ 7.7.0.
Weavers for weaving of two cloths and all other cloths 20 for one.
Hatters best felt hats 96/
Spinners for spinning 20 knots of linen yarn 10/8, other spinning in proportion.
Coasters for freight of a Hogshead from Beverly to Boston from 48/ to 60/ other things in proportion.
Teaming man and team with four good cattle £ 9 per day, other teams in usual proportion.
Carting wood 40/ per cord, 1/4 of a mile or less, greater distance in usual proportion.
Trucking by the Hogshead under the bank 12/ other distances, usual in proportion.
Sawing a cord of wood 40/
Sawing, splitting and piling a cord of wood 60/
Cording of wood per cord 9/
Wharfage wood 12/
of lumber in proportion.
Mudding for landing of a load of mud £ 10.0.0.
& one pint and half of rum
Innholders. A mug of Flip or Toddy made of the best West India rum 15/
A good dinner 21/
Supper and breakfast each 13/4
Lodging six shillings
Oats per quart 3/
Keeping of horse or yoke of oxen at hay a night or 24/ hours 20/
Sail leather 21/ per pound other tanned leather in usual proportion.
Best curried calf skin’s £ 5.8.0, other skins in usual proportion.
Raw hides 3/6 per pound.
Best hard wide tow cloth per yard 20/
Best striped flannel per yard 36/
Best yard wide cotton linen per yard 42/ other cloths in proportion.
Saddle horse 6/ per mile.
Horse & chaise 12/ per mile.
Sexton for digging a grave for a grown person 90/ other graves in proportion.
All kinds of articles labor mechanical work and country produce not here enumerated nor included
are to be at a price not exceeding the proportion of the foregoing regulations.
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Whereas the delegates of the people convened at Concord July 14 have among other things
recommended to their constituents in each respective Town to make such provisions and to take such
methods as might to them seem necessary for the better carrying the whole into effect and whereas
the good people of this Town have chosen a committee of 13 persons for that purpose.
Resolved, that we, the Inhabitants of this Town, do hereby engage to watch carefully over the
conduct of each other and all persons which whom we have any dealings and whenever it shall appear
to any of us that an offense against these regulations happens we will report the same with the name
of the offender to one of the Committee of thirteen to be communicated to the whole who are hereby
required to summons the person so accused before them and him carefully examine and if after a fair
& candid inquiry into the case it shall be determined that their charge or any part of it is supported
and that he has knowingly and intentionally violated these regulations, then the said Committee are
directed to lay the whole matter before the Town at their next meeting called for the purpose in order
that the person or persons so offending may be reprimanded, be published in the newspapers, be
pronounced to have incurred the just displeasure of the people, or the influence of the Town used in
soliciting the government to transport him or them to the enemy according to the nature and degree
of the crime.
Whereas it may happen from the prejudices and misunderstandings which subsist between some of
the members of every community that jealousies and suspicions of each other will arise which are
founded on nothing but private resentment, to prevent therefore the unmerited sufferings of
individuals from such causes.
Resolved. That in all cases of complaint where the accused on examination shall appear to the
committee innocent of the charge or criminal in so smaller degree as not to deserve public censure,
the committee are hereby empowered to acquit such persons who shall upon such acquittal stand fair
with the Town as though no such accusations had been made by order of the Committee.
Jonathan Conant, Chairman.
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Beverly August 25 1779.
Attest. Joseph Wood, T. Clerk
Josiah Batchelder as quiet chosen Moderator.
Capt. George Cabot, William Bartlett Esq., Joseph Wood & Capt. Moses Brown were chosen
delegates for the Town of Beverly to represent them in a State Convention appointed to be held at
Concord on the first Wednesday of October next agreeable to the resolves of the Convention held
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at Concord on the 17 of July last.