1691 - Inventory of William Botamley, Chair maker of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

This inventory lists the contents materials and tools in a late 17th century Gainsborough chair maker's house and workshop.

"Inventory of [the] Goods and Chattells of William Botamley of Gainsburgh in the County of Lincoln[shire] Chair maker deceased made and appraised the seaventh day of March Anno Dmi 1691 by us whose names are hereunto subscribed as followeth

	£	s	d
Imprimis his purse and apparell	1 -	0 -	0
In the house
Item one pewter Case and pewter upon it	1 -	0 -	0
Item one table & 2 stooles	0 -	3 -	0
Item one range & 2 andirons	0 -	5 -	0
Item 4 Chaires	0 -	2 -	0
In the Kitchin
Item 2 brass pans	0 -	4 -	0
Item one little table & 3 chaires	0 -	3 -	0
Item one skellit	0 -	1 -	6
In the Chamber over the house
Item one feather bed & bedstead & furniture with	1 -	6 -	8
Curtaines
Item one table	0 -	2 -	6
Item one Chest of Drawers	0 -	5 -	0
Item 6 chaires	0 -	5 -	0
Item one glasses Case	0 -	1 -	0
Item one wanded chaire †	0 -	2 -	6
In the chamber over the shoppe
Item one feather bed & bedstead & furniture	0 -	15 -	0
with curtaines
Item one Chest	0 -	1 -	6
Item 2 little chaires & a trunke	0 -	3 -	0
-
Item chaires finished and to finish	0 -	10 -	0
Item wood in the yard	1 -	10 -	0
Item Bumbles §	0 -	5 -	0
Item tooles in the shoppe	1 -	0 -	0
Item linnen & hemping cloth sheets & napkins	0 -	13 -	4
Item in other huslemts §§	0 -	5 -	0
Sum	10	4	0
Edward Loughton
Thomas Kippax
John Hardy
his
Benjamin B Yates
marke
Exhibitum fuit hujusmodi Inventarium apud Lincolni octavo die mensis Martij Anno Domini ( stylo Angliae) per administrationem pro vero et pleno Inventario etc
This inventory was presented at Lincoln on the 8th day of March 1691 (English style) by Adminstration as a true & full inventory etc.

† Wanded chair: chair made of wickerwork or with wickerwork seat and back rushes (Glossary, p. 152 ‘Probate Inventories of Lincoln Citizens 1661-1714’ edited by J.A. Johnston, Lincoln Record Society & The Boydell Press 1991)

§ Bumbles are woven bull rushes (p. 145 ibid.)

See also entry from ‘The English Dialect Dictionary’  Joseph Wright, OUP 1898:

“BUMBLE, sb.⁶ Yks. Lin. [bu-ml.]   1. The bulrush, Scirpus lacustris, with which chairs are  bottomed. Also used attrib.   Lin. The chair's got a bumble bottom (R.E.C.). n.Lin. N. & Q.  (1852) 1st S v. 375 ; n.Lin.¹ I can't abide them bumble-seated  chairs ; it's makkin' onessen like a Paapist to set doon 'e one  on 'em. sw-Lin.¹   2. Comp. Bumble-barfan, a horse-collar made of reeds  or rushes as distinguished from the leather bargham (q.v.).   n.Yks. 12 ne. Yks.¹ The bumble-barfam was specially used for  young colts and fillies when first yoked (s.v. Barfhame). m.Yks. ¹  VOL. I.     [Bull-rushes ... in some countries . . . are called  bumbles, WESTMACOTT Script. Herbal (1694) 32.]”

§§ huslements: abbreviation of householdments – minor and miscellaneous furnishings (p. 148 ibid.)

Reference Name INV/189/196

Name: Botamley, William

Profession: Chair Maker

Place: Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

Date: 1690-1691

Repository: Lincolnshire Archives [057]

© Julian Parker 2020