Pigtail Tobacco, Brandy, and Other Necessities

New post by Guest Blogger: Joan Barrett

Part One:

When I read on Facebook an invitation to volunteer for work on the LIFTE project from the University of the Highlands and Islands, I immediately responded, offering to help with the transcription of 17th-century Orcadian documents. My grandfather was born on Westray in 1884; his mother’s family traces there to the mid 1600’s. Over many years I had struggled with their wills and sasines, so I thought perhaps that practice would help me to get started.

Handwriting was my first challenge. I spent untold hours with palaeography tutorials from the National Archives and from ScottishHandwriting.com. I became fairly proficient with Secretary Hand, but little could prepare me for the idiosyncratic handwriting used in “accompts” and letters.

Next was vocabulary. Anne Mitchell, our LIFTE group leader, introduced us to the Dictionary of Scottish Language. Soon my transcriptions became weighed down with footnotes containing definitions from the DSL.

Early in the project, I developed an interest in Captain Peter Winchester. When new documents were offered, I greedily took everything relating to him. Of the ninety-seven documents I transcribed for LIFTE, sixty-six pertained to Peter Winchester, including a few concerning his children. Since the conclusion of LIFTE, I have transcribed thirteen more Winchester documents and have one remaining to be finished.

Peter Winchester presents as both a privateer during the Anglo-Dutch wars and as a merchant, plying his trade in Scotland, Norway, the Netherlands, England, Ireland, France, and Spain. The products he carried, bought, and sold allow us a glimpse into his world. Of particular interest is Orkney Archives D14.6.8.Acct resting PW 1663-7.

Types of merchandise mentioned range widely. Building materials include nails (double, door, and window), knapples or knapholts (clapboard), and wooden planks of fir and oak called deals. Practical goods included vinegar, brandy and “wyne,” firkens of soap, flour, nutmegs, bags of pepper, enetseids (aniseeds), prunes, sugar loaves, horn spoons, and courtain frenzie (curtain fringe). Weaponry-related items include shot, a “great large doubell springed stock lock,” a firelock, and a broadsword. Tobacco and pipes include “cutt & dry tobaco & thre disson of pypes,” twist “tobakcoe,” and “10 p[ounds] pigtaill tob[acco] at 12 sh per pund.”

Much of the merchandise was destined for the tailoring trade. Fabrics include stenting (canvas), buckram, red baize, drop silk, and both “inglish” and “orknay cloath.” Many items were used in the construction of garments, such as hooks and eyes, pasboord (a stiffening) and ballen (whalebone), plus lavish embellishments including gold buttons and “drop silver and gold louping.”

Individual items might have been meant for Captain Winchester and his family: a golf ball, “ane pair childrens shoon,” “a pair quhyt chiverings” (white kid gloves), “ane gray leigh (low) crouned hatt and a kease yrto,” a pair of stockings plus “3 paire ditto fyner,” and a “kain with ane quhyt ivorie head.”

In November 1663, items specifically meant for Peter Winchester were “ane coffen (coffin) to his chyld 24 sh, kirk libartie 40 sh” and “for making the graff (grave) and bell at 27 sh 8 d.” The memorial for Peter Winchester’s wife, Jean Baikie, includes the names of three of their children interred at St. Magnus Cathedral. The death dates of Peter and Arthur are later than 1663, so it is likely that it was Alexander whose death is referenced here.

The years during which I spent discovering 17th-century Orkney have been illuminating and enriching. I will always appreciate the opportunity to be part of the LIFTE experience.

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Archive reference: D14/6/8 from the Walter Traill Dennison archive collection