the half interest which he held in a very large tract lying in Rappahannock.[1] There are later instances in the history of this county of sales and purchases of land by men in this pursuit ranging from one hundred to five hundred acres. The record of the trade in Elizabeth City County is substantially the same. In one instance in that county, a cooper paid as much as seventy pounds sterling for a tract of two hundred and fifty acres, a sum equivalent in value to nearly eighteen hundred dollars in our modern currency.[2]
Coopers enjoyed unusual prosperity in Lower Norfolk. Dennis Dalby, in that county, was in 1674 in possession of six hundred acres.[3] In 1689, Henry Snagle owned in one body seven hundred and fifty acquired by patent. Thomas Salley is found in 1685 selling five hundred acres. In 1690, Robert Butt purchased six hundred and fifty.[4] Moses Prescott, Humphrey Smith, Thomas Miller, and George Ballentine were also among the members of the same calling who were owners of land.
The personal property bequeathed by coopers was often of considerable value measured by the accumulations of the seventeenth century. John Keene died in York County in 1693, having left to each of his three sons five head of cattle and fifteen pounds sterling; and the same number of cattle and the same amount of money were bequeathed by him to each of his daughters.[5]
- ↑ Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1668-1672, p. 239, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 358, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1666-1675, p. 186.
- ↑ Ibid., original vol. 1686-1695, f. pp. 108, 129; Ibid., original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 205.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 316, Va. State Library. A cooper’s inventory will be found in Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 358, Va. State Library.
