Genealogy Chat

Hi, From Sasine Abridgements 1780-1820, I have found that one of my ancestors under burden of a life rent annuity paid his mother-in-law, £5.00, for 2 merklands of the 20s land of Nether Bargreggan. Hoping someone knows of a website that can give some idea as to how much his annual rent would be today? Many thanks. Helen

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid In 1780, £5 0s 0d would have the same spending worth of today's £314.25 In 1800, £5 0s 0d would have the same spending worth of today's £160.85 In 1820, £5 0s 0d would have the same spending worth of today's £209.60

Thank you very much Lunar, appreciate all your help. Bye Helen

Just for fun..... In 1969 I would spend 10/- (10 shillings or 50p)on the Sunday joint of meat. If I paid 12/6d (12 shillings and 6 old pence) it would have to do for 2 days dinner. That was to feed a family of 4....and it did. This is how I converted to metric lol Now then!... ..... Can someone please tell me what a centemeter/a kilometer/or a meter is please????? Feet n inches? Then theres the Killograms! and the the liquid thingys too!!!? ......I cant even spell them! 1 Metre is 3 feet 3 inches..thats all I know.This doesnt help if your baking a cake lol Too ashamed to sign my name x

pmsl Still Looking. I'm exactly the same.... except that I don't bake cakes lol. Jean x.

It's quite difficult because there are several ways of working it out. This is the results I got from a website that does 5 different calculations, you can see how much the amount varies! In 2005, £5 0s 0d from 1830 (earliest date site does) was worth: £339.41 using the retail price index £433.35 using the GDP deflator £3,711.28 using average earnings £5,012.58 using per capita GDP £12,675.09 using the GDP I quite like the average earnings comparisons because I can related to that quite easily. Perhaps the £5 was about 3 months salary???

As Helen pointed out there is no correct answer as it depends what you use for the inflator. The RPI is not really relevant because the things we buy now are so different from the things they bought then. Some things such as manufactured goods or good s were very expensive then and cheap now, other such as labour and land are the opposite. My gut feel would be several thousands of pounds

LENGTH 1 inch = 2.5 Centermeters / cm 1 foot = 30.5 cm 1 yard = 91.4 cm 1 Meter / m = 3' 3 4/10' 1cm = 4/10' VOLUME/ FLUID 1 fl oz = 28.4 mls 1 pt = 568.3 ml 1 pt = 0.5683 l 1 gallons = 4.5461 l 1 ml is 0.0352 fl oz 1 l = 1.76 pt WEIGHT 1 oz = 28.35 g 1 lb = 0.4536 Kg 1 st = 6.3503 Kg 1 Kg = 2.2046 lb

Thanks everyone for your input, appreciate all your help. I believe my ancestor died a wealthy man, so I guess what he had to pay his mother-in-law didnt break the bank :-) Helen

Still looking!!!! Join the club mate, I can 'see' inches, feet yards etc. I can judge half a pound, weight that is, I can walk a mile, but I cannot see them in metric. Shhhhhhhh, I bought a donut the other day and as I paid for it I thought....'My gran would have heart failure if she knew I had just paid 9 shillings for it', I even cancelled my Womans Own magazine because it went up from 5 and half old pennies to 6d.... Kathlyn

Still Looking I must have been posher than you - I spent 11 shillings on the Sunday joint, lol! I very rarely eat crisps, but had a sudden yen for a bag the other day. Came out of the shop thinking 'I've just paid EIGHT shillings for a bag of crisps'. I don't do metric. The world is still in feet and inches, ounces and pounds as far as I am concerned. OC

.... and I thought... anorak Maudsley... was a man! M

I am glad I am not alone! Can't figure the metric at all, fortunately in the U.S. it didn't take hold in the measurements so we still buy in lbs and ozs, and measure feet and yards most of the time. I can at least do fractions better than I can do decimals, that's one advantage of knowing pounds shillings and pence and the 'old' measures!!

as an aside, those struggling with metric might be interested that one can type say '12 acres in hectares' or '145 lbs in kg' into Google (or a Google searchbar if you are smart enough to use Firefox as your web browser and it will give you the answer