Inventory of the goods & chattells of Elizabeth Bayley late of Oakehanger in the County of Southt widdowe [manuscript], ca. 1658.

[Oakhanger, Hampshire], [ca. 1658]

1 item ; 75 x 15 (but stored rolled)

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Great Britain -- England.

FAST ACC 272518

Ordered from Dean Cooke Manuscripts & Rare Books, D9535, 2021-10-06, Cat. "First words: catalogue of manuscripts & rare books to be exhibited by Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd on stand A7 at the firsts fair Saatchi Gallery London 21 - 24 October 2021", item #32 From dealer's description: "32. HIVE OF INDUSTRY [BAYLEY, Elizabeth (d. 1657/8)] A fine manuscript ‘Inventory of the goods & chattells of Elizabeth Bayley late of Oakehanger in the County of Southt widdowe’. [Oakhanger, Hampshire. Circa 1658]. Single, long vellum strip (150 mm x 750 mm). Framed and glazed (but can be removed if buyer prefers). A transcript of the inventory will be included. Rural life in mid-17th-century England was a spartan existence for most of those below the level of the gentry: household possessions were generally limited to items serving the necessities of sleeping, eating, and sitting. This fine manuscript – an inventory of the “goods and chattels” left by a Hampshire widow named Elizabeth Bayley, written on a single, long strip of vellum – records an exception to this norm. As the appraisers (“John Alderslade James Bridger and William Christmas”) move through the late widow’s rooms they encounter the usual selection of places sit on or at (“Chayres”, “stooles”, “table”), to sleep in (“one feather bedd & twoe Boulsters one fflocke bedd Coverletts one blankett”) or store things (“one Chest ffower Coffers”), together with basic kitchen utensils such as “one gridiron one tosting iron one frying pann”, and – less basic – a “Spitt”. None of the items listed suggest that Bayley was a wealthy woman, but she could certainly afford more than the bare essentials one might expect from a small village. Included in the inventory are “one Cowe” and “in the Buttery fower barrells one Butter Churne three formes & sixe milkeing vessells” as well as, unusually, “fower stales [hives] of Bees”. But what sets her apart is her possession of “three Spinning Wheeles” and a substantial amount of cash (“in money – xll”), a combination predating the similar circumstances of George Eliot’s Silas Marner. She also lent money to various of her neighbours (“desparett debts– xvijl”), adding to the impression of a functioning mini-economy, or at least an important centre for the community. Widowhood provided one of the few paths for women to prosper independently; but as this luxury-free inventory demonstrates, practicality always held sway, and even the trappings of the comparatively well-to-do were meagre indeed."

272518