Keith,

This makes perfect sense when put in context with other of Joseph Balls comments in his letters. In this same letter, he also gives specific details on how he wants a fence built, and says his own overseers are "slubbering sons of bitches" and can't be counted on to build a fence around a certain pasture  worth "a farthing when it is done." He also has the nerve to tell his manager, Joseph Chinn (and his nephew), that his (Chinn's) negroes are "lazy and saucy" and should not be allowed to cut wood on his plantation because they will just steal it. And he does not want his overseers growing any stock or flock of animal on his land, because they simply starve his own flock, and he does not want any neighbors pasturing their stock on his land for the same reason. Oh, he is quite detailed.

Joseph Ball was of course writing all these *dictat* from England and I wonder how much attention anybody paid to them.

Craig


On Apr 17, 2013, at 2:24 PM, Keith Kirkland wrote:

> These may not be tobacco specific terms but may be work related terms.
> 
> "Shamming" is a term that is still used today, mostly by the military. It
> generally means to lay off effort in work or doing work the bare minimum of
> work that could be done more efficiently or more quickly (making a thirty
> minute job last two hours to prevent doing another job that might be more
> strenuous, for example).
> 
> I can't offer any input on "shark".
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Craig Kilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> All,
>> 
>> Here's a question I'm hoping one of our learned list members can answer.
>> Writing to his Virginia business manager Joseph Chinn in 1745, Joseph Ball
>> of Stratford on Bow nigh London, instructs Chinn to grow "right sweet true
>> Townsend" tobacco "clean, stemmed and laid straight" and to take care that
>> the overseers do not "shark nor sham" in making it. (I don't know what
>> "shark" and "sham" here mean either.) Later in the letter he calls it "real
>> true Townsend" and that says that he knows how to make money from it, and
>> that the overseers are to be paid for growing it in Aranoko tobacco.
>> 
>> So, I find myself wondering word these words mean.
>> 
>> Any thoughts or direction for further reading are greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> Craig Kilby
>> 
>> ______________________________________
>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
>> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Keith Kirkland
> 
> ______________________________________
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html