John Henry of Lancaster (d. 1777)

[spgordon]

Does anybody have any information about John Henry of Lancaster? He was William Henry's brother and worked as a gunsmith from the early 1760s until 1777. In 1773 he traveled to Detroit, where he sold 35 rifles in a couple of weeks--and the inventory at his death (six pages long) is fascinating. He had 43 pounds of brass and 400 feet of maple and walnut planks (stocks). I've written up what I've learned about him over the years (sorry, no footnotes yet):

http://www.jacobsburghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/John-Henry-1.pdf

I would love to learn more if anybody has any information about him.

Oh, and here is the inventory itself. What do you see in it that I don't see?

http://www.jacobsburghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/John-Henry-inventory-1777.pdf

Scott

[DaveM]

Interesting, looks like inventory for maybe 50 or so unbuilt rifles?  Interesting that he had a french  fusil also - and that whomever did the inventory (a gunsmith?) knew it was a french fusil

[spgordon]

It is a very unusual inventory that does not include the names of the appraisers--but this one does not. I see now that the last page did not scan, but the names of the appraisers do not appear there, either.

[Shreckmeister]

I thought it was interesting that the locks are described as soft

[rich pierce]

Amazing number of screw plates.

[Bill Wilde]

Next to the last on the list was a "Negro man Sammy" and possibly the most valuable item on the list at 226 pounds if I'm reading it right. Folks usually don't associate Slavery in Pennsylvania but it did exist here in the 18th century.

[spgordon]

Bill, I think that is "Jammy" (Jamie?)--and £225. It is definitely the most interesting item in the inventory!

In 1780, PA passed a law for "the gradual abolition of slavery" that made any child born to an enslaved individual "free"--except that they would remain a "servant" to the person to whom they would have been a slave for 28 years. The law also required all individuals who owned enslaved people to report them to the local courts. Thanks to that, there is a good amount of information about who owned enslaved people in Lancaster County in 1780. In 1790, at the first US census, there were 347 enslaved individuals in Lancaster County.

Unfortunately, some of these records have been lost--but there is an index to the original records (http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r47-SlaveRecords/r47-SlaveRecords-Lancaster/r47-SlaveRecords-LancasterIndex.htm), which can then be used to see the pages in what survive from the original returns (http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r47-SlaveRecords/r47-SlaveRecords-Lancaster/r47-SlaveRecords-LancasterReturns.htm)

By the way: the gunsmith Jacob Dickert owned a slave.

[Bill Wilde]

225 pounds seems like alot of money. I'm curious if this enslaved individual was a trained skilled workman for Mr. Henry and therefore more valuable? I can't seem to find any information which helps me convert his monetary value in 1777 Lancaster, PA to today's dollar.

[spgordon]

It is a lot of money! I've never seen a chart of what enslaved people were worth or one broken down by occupation/labor, but that is a really good question. And would be a great project.

As far as comparing to today's prices, it's very hard because relatives values have changed so much: what cost a lot for them (in their overall budget) cost so little for us, and what costs a lot for us cost nothing to them. The source that many people use for calculating costs in the eighteenth century is:

https://www.measuringworth.com/

[JTR]

225 pounds seems like alot of money.
 I can't seem to find any information which helps me convert his monetary value in 1777 Lancaster, PA to today's dollar.

One possible comparison might be the cost of a rifle from the same time period.
I don't know the cost of a 1777 rifle, but a George Weiker Bucks County rifle, made around 1800, has a price marked on it; $16 - 48. I don't know if there was a difference in Bucks Money vs Lancaster money, nor the difference between 1777 and 1800ish money, but the comparison should give at least a limited idea.
 


I do know that a similar quality Weiker rifle will cost about 850 times that much today! 

[spgordon]

One can get a good sense of relative costs in the 1770s just by comparing the enslaved man, valued at £225, with other items on this very inventory: a tea table cost £10, a kitchen dresser (a hoosier?) cost nearly £3, a couple of rugs cost £2 total, a silver cream jug cost £3, 6 silver spoons cost £7, a half-dozen chairs cost £6. John Henry sold rifles in this period for about £7 or £8.

Indeed, everything else that John Henry possessed, his household furnishings and all the tools and stock from his trade, were worth about (a bit more, but about) what this enslaved man was valued at.

So at £225, this enslaved man had an extraordinarily high value.