A Knife as a Seal

From the collection of Durham Cathedral.

3366    n.d.
Lowick, Chapel of
Printed R.N.D. App. 135. See no. 2151 above, where Robert of St Martin uses a like sign in place of a seal. See also letter from the Rev. Dr Greenwell printed in Proc. Soc. Ant. of Newcastle , 2nd ser. vol. II, p. 95.
Size: -
Seal design: A knife with broken blade, the handle is inscribed on one side.
Inscription: signum de capella de lowic
and on the other side: de capella de lowic et de decimis de lowic totius curie et totius ville

Tally keeping at the English Exchequer

A sample was presented at the Society of Antiquaries that is part of an exchequer account.

Other forms of tallying were chirographs (a wavy cut through the word chirograph separated copies of the text) and indentures (wavy cuts on the top of the manuscript pages of the copies).

Of course, not just the king kept accounts; the Bursae of Durham, for example, is equally be worthy of study.

Palmyra population and Scanned US Census returns

The claim is made here that Palmyra's population had risen from 2187 in 1816 to 3124 in 1820 and 4613 by 1825. As usual, there is no reference to any source ... so we need to verify this ourselves.

First of all, it is unclear where the 1816 and the 1825 numbers are from; the census years were 1810, 1820 and 1830. But where to get these US census infos at the city level? Well, just this morning, I discovered that the Internet archive provides the census returns for all of the locales of upstate New York for the early years.

The executive summary is as follows:

• 1810: 2189
• 1820: 3734
• 1830: 5155

But how to arrive at these values?

Discussion

The basic entry point into the census collection is here.

For the Census of 1810, the total of 2189 can be computed from the breakdowns for Palmyra given on page 232/284 (folio #802) on the Oneide & Ontario County roll (33). (Unfortunately, that page gives no column headers, so we use anonymous categories cat1-5.)

Caucasians:

        _____________MEN______________,  __________WOMEN_____________
Town,     cat1, cat2, cat3, cat4, cat5,  cat1, cat2, cat3, cat4, cat5
Palmyra,   429,  202,  168,  222,  104,   428,  176,  177,  198,   75

People of Color:
8 males + 2 females = 10 people.

For example, for Palmyra the population total can be seen on page 19/203 of the Ontario County, New York roll (62) for the Census of 1820: 3734 total. This total derives from the following breakdowns.

Caucasians:

        _________________MEN__________________,  ____________WOMEN______________ 
Town,   to 10, to 16, 16-18, 16-26, to 45, 45+,  to 10, to 16, to 26, to 45, 45+ 
Palmyra,  634,   265,    79,   444,   362, 208,    560,   308,   383,   333, 181   

People of Color:

        __________MEN___________, _________WOMEN__________ 
Town,   to 14, to 26, to 45, 45+, to 14, to 36, to 45, 45+
Palmyra,   12,     3,     3,   5,    10,     6,     5,   2

There were no slaves recorded in the census for Ontario county.

Our anonymous source gave 3124, we have 3734 from the census (which looks suspiciously like a transcription error, 1 for 7 and 2 for 3 ...), so we are probably on the right track.

A decade later, the Palmyra population total can be seen on page 115/682 of the Wayne County, New York roll (117) for the Census of 1830: 3276 total. This total derives from the following breakdowns.

WHITE  , ______________________________________MALE______________________________________________
Town,    LT 5, LT 10, LT 15, LT 20, LT 30, LT 40, LT 50, LT 60, LT 70, LT 80, LT 90, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,  249,   223,   199,   212,   402,   237,    88,    60,    50,    17,     1,      1,    0

WHITE  , _____________________________________FEMALE_____________________________________________
Town,    LT 5, LT 10, LT 15, LT 20, LT 30, LT 40, LT 50, LT 60, LT 70, LT 80, LT 90, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,  302,   211,   212,   190,   308,   197,   120,    54,    35,    12,     1,      1,    0


COLOR  , _________________MALE___________________
Town,    LT 10, LT 24, LT 36, LT 55, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,    20,     8,    11,     4,      1,    0

COLOR  , ________________FEMALE__________________
Town,    LT 10, LT 24, LT 36, LT 55, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,    12,    13,     8,     4,      1,    0

Town,    Total
Palmyra,  3276

At first glance, this result is confusing. We had expected a population of 4613 by 1825, but we are about 1200 people below that value. Furthermore, the 1830 census for Palmyra is lower than the 1820 one ...? (Notice that Fawn Brodie seems to have made that mistake too.)

The solution seems to be that Palmyra was split into Palmyra and Macedon, when Wayne County was lopped off from Ontario County by the special act of NY State Legislature on January 28,1823. Indeed, in the 1830 census, Macedon is listed as a separate township. Thus, in order to obtain an apples-to-apples comparison between the 1820 Palmyra Township and the 1830 Palmyra Township, we need to add in the results from the 1830 Macedon Township, since that was the political entity that corresponds to the formerly Western part of the 1820 Palmyra Township.

WHITE  , ______________________________________MALE______________________________________________
Town,    LT 5, LT 10, LT 15, LT 20, LT 30, LT 40, LT 50, LT 60, LT 70, LT 80, LT 90, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,  249,   223,   199,   212,   402,   237,    88,    60,    50,    17,     1,      1,    0
Macedon,  159,   141,   196,   132,   186,    99,    76,    49,    26,    16,     2,      0,    0

WHITE  , _____________________________________FEMALE_____________________________________________
Town,    LT 5, LT 10, LT 15, LT 20, LT 30, LT 40, LT 50, LT 60, LT 70, LT 80, LT 90, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,  302,   211,   212,   190,   308,   197,   120,    54,    35,    12,     1,      1,    0
Macedon,  156,   130,   132,   119,   189,   98,     65,    46,    35,    12,     2,      0,    0


COLOR  , _________________MALE___________________
Town,    LT 10, LT 24, LT 36, LT 55, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,    20,     8,    11,     4,      1,    0
Macedon,     1,     3,     2,     1,      3,    0

COLOR  , ________________FEMALE__________________
Town,    LT 10, LT 24, LT 36, LT 55, LT 100, 100+
Palmyra,    12,    13,     8,     4,      1,    0
Macedon,     1,     3,     0,     1,      0,    0

Town,    Total
Palmyra,  3276
Macedon,  1879 
Overall,  5155

Han China on the problem of accountability

In his book, The bureaucracy of Han times, Cambridge University Press 1980, Hans Bielenstein makes the sage observation about the Han censorship system, the root of any accountability system.

The repeated alternations in rank between 600 shih and 2000 shih [i.e. bushels, here a symbolic system of rank designation, RCK] must have stemmed from the difficulty of devising a system whereby scrutiny of local administration would function as intended. Should one appoint junior officials at the beginning or senior officials at the end of their career? Would junior officials act vigorously in the hope of furthering their advancement, or, would they, on they contrary, fear to ruin their chances by impeaching powerful men of higher rank? Would elderly senior officials do their duty unflinchingly, since they had nothing to lose and none of the local administrators outranked them? Or would they avoid their responsibilities, being close to retirement and not wishing to be embroiled? Both approaches had their advantages and disadvantages, neither was without flaws, and the government could never make up its mind which to adopt permanently. [p.91]

A tough puzzle indeed.