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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Northerngirl on Wednesday 20 June 07 17:24 BST (UK)
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Hi I wonder if someone can help.
I've just found an article regarding an ancestor which involved him suing another person for none payment of a debt. The amount at the time in the 1890's was 39 pounds, 17 shillings and tuppence.
How much roughly would that be in today's terms?
Another issue involved the threat to sue for slander for 200 pounds - again in the same or following year - how much would that equate to please?
A rough estimate would suffice.
Yours curiously.
J.A.
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This might help you.
http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/
meles
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Using that, the 1890's debt was worth £3,018.55
meles
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...and the slander compensation was worth £15,127.44.
meles
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Hi Meles
Thank you for the site reference and the calculation - you must be a faster t y p e r than me! I calculated the first sum as 3014.77 but got the same for the slander sum.
J.A.
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Thank you from me as well Meles! My great-great grandmother revceived compensation from the Naval Widows & Orphans Fund in 1890 after my great-great grandfather was lost at sea. The amount was 36 pounds 10 shillings (equivalent of 1 year's wages) and I have been trying to figure out what that would be in today's money. I should have checked rootschat before trying anywhere else!
Thanks again.
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Fifty years ago I worked on the railway, and amongst other things we paid weekly sums awarded to people under the Workmen's Compensation Act (1907?) for injuries that had received while working for the railway. One man received 50/- (£2-50p) per week for the loss of an eye which represented around a third of his weekly income. Really the inflation since 1960 has been collossal, used as a device to reduce the real effects of wage rises I believe?
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In 1819 my 3xG Grandfather received £5 to compensate for the sabre wounds he received at Peterloo. Whether you look at it from the point of view of the RPI or average earnings, it doesn't seem an awful lot in todays terms.
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Well, that 36 pounds was enough to allow my great-great grandmother to live on her own means, with 2 young daughters, for 4 years before she remarried. I suppose she might just have been very frugal but she managed!
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Well, that 36 pounds was enough to allow my great-great grandmother to live on her own means, with 2 young daughters, for 4 years before she remarried. I suppose she might just have been very frugal but she managed!
Then as now I would guess location and the location of the extended family were factors to be taken into account.
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One relative of mine had a pension of 21/6 fro herself and 3 children after her husband dies at the Somme.
I just keep thinking how it now costs 10 bob to post a first class letter!
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I just keep thinking how it now costs 10 bob to post a first class letter!
12/- (60p) I fear, 50p is for bog standard second class.
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Hi I wonder if someone can help.
I've just found an article regarding an ancestor which involved him suing another person for none payment of a debt. The amount at the time in the 1890's was 39 pounds, 17 shillings and tuppence.
How much roughly would that be in today's terms?
Another issue involved the threat to sue for slander for 200 pounds - again in the same or following year - how much would that equate to please?
A rough estimate would suffice.
Yours curiously.
J.A.
If you compare the sums with a years wage for a butler and a parlour maid it it a sizable sum.
A butler would get between £50 and £60 per year.
A parlour maid £20 per year.
Cheers
Guy
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Redrooger - quite right, I never could do the maths!!
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I used this website for converting the value of a 1617 Inventory:-
http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/
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Unfortunately none of the conversion sites will give accurate values, there are too many variables.
Take the Measuring Worth site as an example :
£50 in 1890 could be equivalent to £356 or even £955 in 1970 depending on what one takes into account.
Going back even further to 1500:
£50 could be equivalent to £2,690 or £14,000 in 1970.
By using different variables on the same Measuring Worth site the "value" of £50 in 1500 to 1970 varied between
£2,690 and £473,000.
One may as well pluck any number out of thin air.
Such sites are good for specific economic calculations but have no real relevance for the family historian. ;)
Cheers
Guy
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True Guy, the 1612 version of the Shopping basket used to measure the rate of inflation etc. didn't include margarine and DVDs. There was not even a shopping basket at that time. Invented around 1950 I think.
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Unfortunately none of the conversion sites will give accurate values, there are too many variables.
One may as well pluck any number out of thin air.
Such sites are good for specific economic calculations but have no real relevance for the family historian. ;)
Cheers
Guy
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makes good reading though ::)
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Unfortunately none of the conversion sites will give accurate values, there are too many variables.
You can find some more topics on Value of old money in the
RootsChat Reference (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/Themes/history/images/english/library.gif) (http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/index.php) => Lexicon (click here) (http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/reflib-lexicon.php?letter=V)
(Tip: click on a category - on the right - for related topics)
These topics discuss some of the many variables that Guy has mentioned, and also various comparative values.
e.g. the price of a pint of beer, wages (through the ages), property values, and many others.
Bob