Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

132 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
but presume it did. I copy from the Genealogical Register,
in which only the gross is given. The same estate was appraised
at £137.13.10 in 1726. 1 have called Mr. Bursley
wealthy. Wealth is a comparative term, and when a man
is called rich, a great variety of circumstances are taken into
account. \\ hat was the cash value of Mr. Bursley's farm
at the time of his death, has little to do with the question.
Eight years after, the Blush farm, now Bodfish's, the next
west, excepting one, sold for £5.10. This Avas worth about
one-third of the Bursley farm, exclusive of buildings. A
common one-story house at that time cost only about £5.
That was the price paid William Chase for building the first
liallett house in Yarmouth. Very little glass, lime, iron
or brick, was used in those days, and the expense of lumber
was the cost of cutting and sawing it. They were very
rudely constructed, and as late as 1700, it was not common
for the walls of a house to be plastered. The joints between
the boards were filled with clay or mortar. The meeting
house built in 1725, in the East Parish, was constructed in
that manner. A house like the ancient Bursley mansion
would not, when that was built, have cost more than £50
sterling. Very little money was in circulation in those
times, and as a consequence prices ruled very low. It is
said on good authority, and there can be no doubt of its
truth, that in the year 1675, five hundred pounds in money
could not be raised in Plymouth Colony; and, for a good
reason, there was not so much money in the Colony.
In 1669, the Otis farm, about half a mile east of the
Bursley, was bought for £150. The latter was then much
more valuable. It was easier land to till, and was in a
better state of cultivaticm. The Bourman farm, not so valuable
as the Bursley farm, sold in 1662 for £78. There is
apparently a wide difl"erence in these prices of property of
the same description, in the same neighborhood at about the
same time. But it must be remembered that the value of
.landed estate depended then very much on the value of the
improvements thereon, and on the kind of pay for which the
property was sold. The usual consideration being provisions
at "prices current with the merchants." Very few
contracts were made payable in silver money.
The names of the children of the first John Bursley
are not entered on the town or probate records. At the