The online references I found said 'for weighing hay'. Maybe the lady they were being left to was a larger lady?!?!?! Just a thought.
-----Original Message-----
From: W. Scott Smith <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, Sep 1, 2021 9:01 pm
Subject: Re: Definition of “shilliards and pea”?
A friend who works in material culture at the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation says this is a Stillyard or Steelyard and Pea, which is a
measuring device for weighing larger objects. It’s like a balance scale but
the item being weighed is placed on a hook. The “pea” is the measuring
weight (early ones were spherical, later were cylindrical or squared).
Scott Smith
Columbia, MO
On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 14:01 Nancy Upshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Ok, just found something on Google Books, from the book Caldecote: The
> Development and Desertion of a Hertfordshire Village by Guy Beresford, an
> estate inventory includes “In the Hall, …[furniture], [dishes], one warming
> pan, one clock, one fyer scieve, [more furniture and dishes], two pokers,
> one pair of tongs, four brass candlesticks, one brass pint pot, one brass
> fender, one pair of doggs, one pot hook, one iron cleaver, ONE PAIR OF
> SHILLIARDS, one pair of bellows, one pestol and mortar.”
>
> So they may be a sort of fireplace tool or cooking tool. Maybe the “pea”
> referenced in the wills is a stand or other type of containment for the
> shilliards.
>
> Ok, not so much a puzzle as before.
>
> - Nanxy
>
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