Does anyone know what "Quick" is please?

[jmp]

An archivist looking through the parish records of Ash near Sandwich has come across a reference to a John Ratcliff being "paid 9d for 500 Quick" in 1834.

John was either a labourer or a weaver at the time - I dont know if that helps.

The only references I have been able to find is that it may relate to Hawthorn or couch grass but it seems a very strange thing to be paid for.

I wondered therefore if "Quick" is a peculiarly Kentish term for something else

Anyone any other ideas please
Jackie

[Mombasa]

In the 1750's Hawthorn was grown and sold as plants or sets by nursery gardeners for hedges known as a Quick or Quickset hedge, a Quick denoted a live hedge. 
I dont know if that had changed by 1834.

John

[DJFRENCH]

Hence the quote from - i think Shakespeare - the Quick and the Dead. ?

dj

[Berlin-Bob]

Hence the quote from - i think Shakespeare - the Quick and the Dead. ?

Sorry dj, it's the Bible

The phrase The Quick and the Dead originates in the bible, 1 Peter Chapter 4 (verse 5 in the King James Version), describing Jesus' judgment of all people, both living (quick being an older phrase with that meaning) and dead:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quick_and_the_Dead  (includes original quote)

Bob

[DJFRENCH]

Oh dear Bob !

oh well !! i'm sure God will forgive  me eh ??  My halo is definately round my knees 

Interesting about the hedges tho !! 
Debz

[suey]

The Hawthorn is also known as Quickthorn and is still sold under that name as a hedging plant today.

Suey

[Maggott]

Were there enclosures around Ash in the 1830s?  Quite possible -if so the new owners (of formerly common land) were planting hedges round their propery as fast as they could dig the holes.  Most of the these were quickthorn & blackthorn.  They last, too, unless they were grubbed out by agrobusiness in the 1960s & 70s - we've stil got enclosure hedges in Oxfordshire.
Maggott

[jmp]

Thank you everyone