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250 years ago, Sudbury resident Experience Wight Richardson wrote in her diary:
“April 13 1776 this day having an oppotunity to converse with one that was shut up in the towne of Boston in the time of the civil War who informed me that two Bullocks heads was sold for 5 pounds & one Quater of lamb that wayed 4 pounds was sold for 5 pound & one lambs head and Pluck for twenty three shillings. A goose that waied 5 pound two dollers butter twenty shilling a pound … beef, veil, mutton, pig, pigeon, fowl, rabbit … to one eag five shilling thus near it comes to the faming (famine) in Samarya and the Army went off in suprise as the Syrya did.”
This price list shows the inflated food prices within the besieged Boston. Five shillings would be about $60 dollars today. Note the mixture of dollars and pounds. Spanish silver dollars were legal tender as well as the Pound. The last bit is a biblical reference to famine and the hasty retreat of the army.
The British hasty retreat was precipitated by the battery of cannon installed at Dorchester Heights. The very cannon that Knox had brought from Fort Ticonderoga.
I’d like to return to Knox and the Sudbury 250 presentation by Steve Glovksy and the question of whether any cannon passed through Sudbury. In his presentation, Steve speculated that maybe some cannon came through Sudbury, up Landam road. That seems exceedingly unlikely. Why would you take a longer route and cross the river when Old Connecticut Path is the best way to Cambridge, which is where many cannon went. They still went through Sudbury because Old Connecticut Path went through Sudbury in 1776. The towns did not split until 4 years later.
Speaking of cannon fire, it will commence at 3PM on Sudbury 250 Day on May 16th.
Full Diary Entry
April 13 1776 this day having an oppotunity to converse with one that was shut up in the towne of Boston in the time of the civil War who informed me that two Bullocks heads was sold for 5 pounds & one
Quater of lamb that wayed 4 pounds was sold for 5 pound & one lambs head and Pluck for twenty three shillings. A goose that waied 5 pound two dollers* butter twenty shilling a pound.
Melases one doller a gallon. Beefe fufteen Shilling a pound a dozen vell twenty shillings a pound, mutten fifteen shilling a pound Pegings (pigeons) 4 dollers to a young fowel one doller, to a Rosting pigg five pound, five for one Rabbet thirty fife shilling to one eag five shilling thus near it comes to the faming (famine) in Samalya and the Army went off in suprise as the Syrya did. Blessed be God for his wonderfull words to the children of men
*Spanish Dollars were legal tender as well as the Pound