<<And £555 sure sounds like a lot of "necessaries" - unless I'm 
mis-interpreting the meaning of "pounds", or Virginia was experiencing some 
serious wartime inflation at this point.>>


There seems to have been an inflationary reaction after the Revolutionary 
War.  

An ancestor of mine, Thomas Joyce, died in Charlotte County in 1781.  He also 
owned land in North Carolina.  His estate in Charlotte County VA was 
evaluated at 37,100 lbs 10 shils. sterling.  One of the appraisals in North 
Carolina (Guilford County) was evaluated at 33,450 lbs.12 shils. 6 pense 
sterling.  These evaluations included 19 slaves; but that doesn't account for 
the appraisal value.  I assumed that I miscopied the amount,  but twice . . . 
. . ?  And the evaluations coming from two different places?  Checked it 
again, and found that it was copied correctly.

Then I remembered reading the Revolutionary War Pension of Nicholas 
Taliaferro some years ago.  He commented on the inflation immediately after 
the war, recalling when he was making his way back to Virginia from South 
Carolina, he had to pay 40 lbs. St. for a bushel of wheat.  

Someone could do an interesting study of post-Revolutionary War inflation.  

An interesting aside . . . .  I also found a letter with envelope addressed 
to Nicholas Taliaferro in the files of the Virginia Historical Society in 
Richmond.  The address was:

Nic'las Talilaferro
Tottem-Down-Hill
Rappahannock River

He recieved this letter around the 1800 time period  -  don't recall the 
exact date.  His home in Culpeper was named Tottem-Down-Hill.  He produced 
his crop or skill at the top of the hill, then toted it down.


Joyce Browning
Fairfax County, Virginia

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