What is a "well fath'd house"? 7 August 1731 Newcastle Courant

[Charlie Bucket]

Hello.

The word "fath'd" in the attached article actually starts with an "s".
Can anyone work out what the word actually is?

Many thanks, Charlie

[mckha489]

what about.  “well fash(ione)’d house”

[AlanBoyd]

Possibly ‘sashed’?

OED adj. first defn. “Provided or constructed with a sash or sash windows.”

[Charlie Bucket]

I hadn't considered that the f in hay-loft in the advertisement looks very similar to the s in house.

[Davedrave]

I think that the suggestion that it is well-fashioned probably makes more sense than that it is well-provided with windows, in view of the fact that the window tax was in force at this time. Large numbers of windows probably wouldn’t have been a great selling point.

[JenB]

Like Alan I think the word is 'sash'd' (there are clearly two 'long' s's in the word)'

The OED has an example from Celia Fiennes diary describing a house: ' It is sashed up to the top with low windows to sit in.'

I think that the suggestion that it is well-fashioned makes more sense than that it is well-provided with windows in view of the fact that the window tax was in force at this time. Large numbers of windows probably wouldn’t have been a great selling point.

The problem with that is that the first letter of the word is 's' not 'f'. The cross bar is only on the left side of the word, not going right across it if it would if it were an 'f'.

[AlanBoyd]

For the wealthy, windows could have been a selling point or even a status symbol.

[mckha489]

I will concede Sashed.
I have just found “ Fashion”. On the same page and is spelled clearly with an “F”

[JenB]

Looking at other newspapers, there are quite a few examples of houses for sale or let being advertised as 'well sashed'.