Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/506

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
406
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.

did. The two lived at Long Swamp corner, at the head of Drownville road, where Scipio Allin (alias Freeman?), afterwards lived. Philissa made the wedding cake and Tower played the fiddle at the wedding of Sarah Medbury and Dr. Rodliffe, at the old Halsey house, in East Providence, formerly John Medbury's.

The value of an able bodied man-slave in Rhode Island was from twenty-five to one hundred and twenty pounds. Matthew Allin bought "a certain Negro Boy called Prince, about fourteen or fifteen years old," of John Usher, Jr., of Bristol, for three hundred and seventy pounds, current money, In the year 1752. As old tenor and real values were as sixteen to one, the market value of Prince was about £25, or $125.

David Brown of Ashford, Conn., sold the services of "one negro man named Pero, about seventeen years of age for the space of eleven years from the second day of April, 1783," for the sum of £45.

In the inventory of the goods and chattels of Peter Bicknell, of Barrington, taken by Solomon Peck and Samuel Allen, Appraisers in 1769, the following items appear among the live stock:

"Five cows £11, 2s., Four calves £2,
Fifty sheep £12, 10s., One horse, saddle and bridle, £7.
Two steers £3, 12s., Four swine £2,
One negro boy named Cuff£20,
One negro boy named Pomp£3.
One negro woman named Merea£35.

In 1742 Thomas Hill of North Kingstown sold to Matthew Allin of Barrington "one negro girl slave named Felles (Phillis) about ten years of age; the said to have and to hold to the proper use and behoof of him the said Matthew Allin forever," for "the sum of ninety-five pounds of good and lawful money of New England."

In the estate of Matthew Allin, probated 1761, appears the