of tobacco, or £161. The personal estate of Francis Carter was inventoried at 13,728 pounds of tobacco, or about twenty-seven thousand pence.[1]
Passing to the period that followed the middle of the century, and still confining our attention to York, it is found that in the interval between 1657 and 1662, the largest personal estate appraised by order of court was that of Colonel Thomas Ludlow in 1659. It was valued at 118,598 pounds of tobacco, which at the rate of two pence a pound was equal to £988, or in purchasing power perhaps to about twenty-five thousand dollars in American currency. He owned in the form of sums due to him as debts, £449. The personal estate of Francis Wheeler, consisting principally of tobacco due him, was appraised at £1123 13s. 4d., from which a deduction of £379 10s. is to be made for his own obligations.[2] The remaining personal estates inventoried in York during the same interval in no case exceeded 1500, and only in few instances rose as high as £140.[3] In the course of the eight years between 1664 and 1672, the largest personal estate appraised was that of John Hubbard; it was valued at £722, independently of a large amount due him in coin and tobacco.[4] The estates following next in point of size were those of Mathew Hubbard, Richard Holt, and James Moore. The personalty of neither exceeded £200. In the interval between 1672 and 1690, the largest personal estate brought before court was that of James Vaulx, which was valued at 1612, equal in purchasing power perhaps to about fourteen thousand five
