INFORMATION AND DIRECTION TO Such Persons as are Inclined TO AMERICA More Especially Those Related to the Province OF PENSILVANIA Re-printed in the Year 1686 Information and Direction to such Persons as are inclined to America c THat the value and improvement of Estates in our Parts of America may yet appear with further cleaness Assurance of Enquirers I propose to speak my own Knowledg and the observation of others as particularly as I can which I shall comprise under these Heads I. The advance that is upon Money and Goods II. The Advance that is upon Labour be it of Handicrafts or others III. The Advance that is upon Land IV. The Charge of Transporting a Family and fitting a Plantation V. The Way the Poorer sort may be Transported and Seated with Advantage to the Rich that help them VI. The easier and better provision that is to be made there for posterity especially by those that are not of great Substance VII What Vtensels and Goods are fitting to carry for Vse or Profit For the first Such Money as may be carried as pieces of eight advances Thirty and Goods at least Fifty per cent Say I have 100 l. sterl If I am but six in Family I will pay my Passage with the advance upon my money and find my hundred pounds good in the Country at last Upon Goods well bought and sorted there is more profit but some money is very requisit for Trade sake for we find it gives Goods a better Market so that considering the great quantity of Goods already carried it were not amiss at present if one half were in Money and the other in Goods Thus in General But it particularly encourages Merchants because the profit by advance is seldom less then 50 l. sterl per cent which is very considerable and we have already got some things for returns as Skins Furs Whale-Oyle Tobacco c. II. For Labour be it of Handicrafts or Others there is a considerable Encouragement by advance of price to what is here because the Goods manufactured there advance equal to those the Merchant sells and where Provision is at least as cheap and there is such additional gain to the first gain of Handicrafts here of whom the Merchant buys the American Handicraft must have an extraordinary time of it The like may be said of Vnder Labourers for some time untill the Country be better replenished with people III. The Advance upon Land is Encouraging which will be best apprehended by an English understanding in a comparison with the Lands of England that he is familiarly acquainted with If 500 Acres of unclear'd Land there indifferently chosen will keep as many Milch Cowes or fat as many Bullocks for the Market in Summer as 50 Acres of improved Land in England as chosen aforesaid can do then by computing the value of the Summers Grass of such fifty Acres of Land here we shall the better find the value of 500 Acres of Land in America for within that compass the same quantity of Cattle may be well kept Admit this then that the Summers Grass of 50 Acres of middling Land in England is worth 15 l. I conceive that makes 20 l. which is the price of the Inheritance of the 500 Acres no dear Purchass The cost to go thither is no Objection because it is paid by the Advance that is upon the Money and Goods at the rate aforesaid If the hazard of the Seas be objected we see that the five hundreth Ship using those parts does not miscarry and the Risk is run for themselves only However except in Winter passages are pleasant as well as safe But this Comparison draws an Objection upon us that must be obviated What becomes of your stock in the Winter I say our Woods usually keep them for the Market till December and unless it be a more then ordinary Winter which is observed to happen but once in four or five Years or that they are young Stock or Cattel big with Young they mostly shift for themselves But if Fodder be wanted we have a supply by Hay we mow in the Marshes and Woods or the Straw of the English Grain we use or the Tops and Stalks of Indian Corn and sometimes that it self a Thing hearty and easily ras'd and is good to fat as well as keep and answers to Oats Pease Beanes and and Fetches here tho we have of them also This Scheam of Grazing and keeping of Stock may inform Inquirers what the Woods and unbroken Lands of those Countrys in some sort will do in proportion to Lands here allowing equally for Care and Fodder on both sides To be short the produce of Wild Land there in this respect is within less than ten to one of what our cleared Land is here and the purchase here is an hundred to one Dearer which must needs make American Lands no hard Bargain to the Purchasers Now for clearing our Wood-lands in order to corn the difficulty is not so great as is imagined our Trees being not so thick or not so burdensome but that four hands in four months time may easily clear five and twenty Acres for the Plow which at 15 d. English per Day for each hand comes to twenty five shillings per Acre The encrease of which is with less then half the seed at least equal to the improv'd Land of England Add to this the ten pence which buys the fee of an Acre unclear'd and an Acre of Land producing the like quantity with English Ground shall cost 1 l. 5 s. 10 d. which at eight years purchase ought to yield three shillings two pence three farthings per Annum Now where it brings an increase equal to Land of ten shillings per Annum in England and what it produces yields not at present a less value the advantage is almost four to one which I conceive is no inconsiderable advance Having given this general account of Lands in those parts of America which for Variety of Earth and Number of Fountains falls not short in my Opinion of any Country I have seen in Europe I shall in the next place for their help and Direction that intend thither IV. First Set down the Charge of Transporting an ordinary Family Secondly The Method and Charge of their setling a Plantation when there vvhich vvill serve for all Ranks proportion still considered I vvill suppose my self vvorth but one hundred Pounds  l. s. d. For my Self Wife and tvvo Men Servants at 5 pound per head and one Child of ten years old 50 s. for to that age Children pay no more 22 10 00 For a Tunn of Goods each a Chest gratis 02 00 00 For the Ship Doctor per head 2 s 6 d. 00 12 06 For 4 Gallons of Brandy and 24 pounds of Suger for the Voyage 01 00 00 For Cloaths for my Servants each 6 Shirts 2 Wastcoats a Summer and a Winter Suite one Hat 2 pair of Shooes Stokins and Drawers 12 00 00  38 02 06
first place there are such as are able to transport themselves and Families but are unable to build or stock themselves when they are there others that have not enough to transport themselves and Families and such will come under a different Consideration The first of these may be entertained in this manner Say I have 5000 Acres I will settle Ten Families upon them in way of Village and build each an house an out-house for Cattle furnish every Family with stock as four Cows two Sows a couple of Mares and a yoke of Oxen with a Town Porse Bull and Boar I find them with Tools and give each their first Ground-seed They shall continue Seven Years or more as we agree at half encrease being bound to leave the Houses in repair and a Garden and Orchard I paying for the Trees and at least twenty Acres of Land within Fence and improved to Corn and Grass The charge will come to about sixty pounds English for each Family At the seven years end the Improvement Will be worth as things go now 120 l. besides the value of the encrease of the Stock which may be near as much more allowing for casualities especially if the People are honest and careful or a man be upon the spot himself or have an Overseer sometimes to inspect them The charge in the whole is 832 l. And the value of stock and improvements 24â—0 l. I think I have been modest in my computation These Farms are aftewards fit for Leases at full Reat or how else the Owner shall please to dispose of them Also the People will by this time be skilled in the Country and well provided to settle themselves with stock upon their own Land which shall be a thousand Acres their Land-lord will give them which is own hundred to each Family in some part of his five thousand Acres they only paying for the same ten shillings yearly which is a shilling for each Family The advantage of this way is chiefly to those that go for as the benefit seems greater so is the hazard by loss or embezlement of stock unless one were present or a dilligent and honest Overseer there But those that design going and have money and aim to live with most Ease cannot do better for the half encrease of the stock and labour of those Families will supply them with Provisions so that they need not toyl in a way they are perhaps unacquainted with for their accommodations of life And if half encrease be thought a way too uncertain it may be brought to a certain value by paying a yearly Rent for suck stock as aforesaid The other sort of poor people my be very beneficially transported upon these terms Say I have 5000 Acres I should settle as before I will give to each Family 100 Acres which in the whole makes 1000 and to each Family thirty pounds English half in hand and half there which in the whole comes to 300 l. After four years are expired in which time they may be easie in a good condition they shall each of them pay five pounds and so yearly for ever as a Fee-Farm rent vvhich in the vvhole comes to 50 l. a Year Thus a man that buys 5000 Acres may secure and settle his 40000 by gift of one and in a vvay that hazard and interest allovved for amounts to at least ten per cent upon Land security besistes the value it puts upon the rest of the 5000 Acres vvhich vvill be for that reason really vvorth three times as much as before In these Families I propose that there be at least two working hands besides the wife vvhether son or servant and that they oblige vvhat they carry and for further security bind themselves as servants for some time that they vvill settle the said Land accordingly and vvhen they are once seated their improvements are security enough for the Rent There is yet another expedient that is give to ten Families 1000 Acres for ever at a small acknowledgment and settle them in vvay of Village as before by their seating thus the Land taken up is secured from others because the method of the Country is ansvvered and the value such a settlement gives to the rest reserved is not inconsiderable I mean the 4000 Acres especially that vvhich is Contiguous For their Children vvhen grovvn up and Handicrafts vvill soon covet to fix next them and such after settlements beginning at an Improved Rent in Fee or for long Leases on small Acknowledgments and good Improvements must advance the vvhole considerably I conceive any of these methods to issue in a sufficient advantage to adventurers and they all give good encouragement to feeble and poor Families Novv I knovv some think this looks a little hard upon the People that are to pay the said Rent the thing that is most contrary to my inclinations as vvell as design in making this proposal But I am of another mind for in Ireland money bears the Interest of ten per cent Thirty pounds then will deserve three pounds a Year three Years Interest makes 9 l. The 100 Acres surveyed ct Patented are worth 8 l. at least for that is one of the lowest prises Parchasers sell again at The Interest of this 8 l. for three Years at ten per cent is Eight and forty shillings there is also three shillings for three years rent Novv put the thirty the nine the eight and the tvvo pounds eight shillings and the three shillings together and there vvill be forty nine pounds eleven shillings vvhich vvants but nine shillings of fifty pounds and you advance no more then money does in Ireland that is neerer home and an improv'd Country to vvhich add the hazard that is Run in this vvay above a double Bond for the payment of the fifty pounds in Ireland for the ship perish my money is gone if the man or vvorking hands Dye I have a Charge instead of a Revenue that vvill follovv me vvhich plainly evidences that the proposition is not grievous but reasonable and charitable too and especially vvhen vve Consider that Sixty five Days out of the Year at eighteen pence by Day vvill vvithin half a Crovvn pay the Rent and as he has three Hundred to himself Nor is this all he is come to a Country vvhere Lands is cheap and does Rise and vvhere those that have hands cannot but live and in a vvay too not subject to the Contingiences decays of Trades for as belovv the ground none can fall so here every one falls upon his ovvn vvhich brings me to the Sixth Particular about the benefit these Countries bring to Posterity VI. There is an easier and better provision to be made there for posterity especially of such as are not of great substance I never thought but mere Trades vvould do as vvell here as there but vvhen People have gain'd something here by their ingenuity and Toyl say â—000 l. hovv much Land vvill that buy here and hovv much income
vvill that fetch perhaps 50 l. per Ann. on Bond or 40 in Land vvhich at ten shillings by the Acre comes to fourscore Acres This to bring up five Children Feed Cloath School and Portion them vvill be very scanty but then vvhat vvill this do to Estate their Children and so forvvard Novv in America a thousand Pounds discreetly laid out is an Exchequer to a family I vvill suppose I have one hundred Pounds in Land vvhich contains 3000 Acres This I stock to half increase for 360 l. upon this half increase I live vvell till my Children are of age By this time at least the Tennants Term is up and I place my Children in those Tenements vvith a proportion of stock vvithout Portions or Rents to pay Each has 500 Acres besides my five hundred after my decease If each of them have five Children there is an hundred Acres a piece for them besides the 500 Acres I leave them and if any take to Trades the rest have the more Land By this time an hundred Acres may be reasonably presum'd to be vvorth as much as a 1000 vvas in their Fathers time and it must advance yet All improv'd Countries teach us this Novv this is a vvay of putting people into the natural Channal of life to vvit Agriculture and of Adjourning care for posterity to the Fourth Generation Let it be remembred that there is but 360 l. expended of the 1000 l. so that to carry me and my Family and settle us in some proportion to our degree as also to Traffick and encrease portions there rests 640 l. Novv if a 1000 l. in Europe cannot have so natural an increase free of those Contingences that other means of life are subject to I conceive America somevvhat a better place for the good of Posterity especially of such as are not vvealthy or have many Children that they vvould nor should too unequally live and be provided for VII Novv as to vvhat Utensels and Goods are fittest to carry for use and profit I say in general all things relating to Apparrel Building Houshouldstuff Husbandry fowling and Fishing but for Particulars English Woollen and German Linnen as ordinary broad-Clothes Kereseys Searges Norwich-Stuffs some Duffels Cottons Stroud-waters for the Natives and White and Blew Ozenburgs Shoes and Stockins Buttons Silk Threed Iron ware especially Felling Axes How 's Indian How 's Saws Frows Drawing-Knives Nailes but of 6. d. and 8. d. a treble quantity because they use them for shingling or covering of Houses Powder and Lead are often vvanted for the Woods in Winter for Water Fovvl that are very numerous There are lesser things that vvill be convenient to carry but being trivial in themselves and vvhat People 〈◊〉 hardly miss to think upon I shall close this Information and direction vvith my usual Caution and good Wishes Let none be Hasty or Presumptuous The even humble Temper vvill best endure the difference of the Change either vvay A Wilderness must vvant some things improv'd Countries do enjoy but Time and Labour vvill reprize vvhere Industry sooner makes an Inheritance And tho vve have not the Ornaments of Life vve vvant not the Conveniences and if their Cost vvere put in Ballance vvith their Benefit the World vvould be greatly debtor on Account If then vve have less of Art vve have more of Nature and the Works of God are 〈◊〉 objects for meditation and Delight then the Inventions of men In vain do vve admire the First and Simpler Ages of the World and stile them Golden vvhile vve object against America's Rusticity and Solitude I vvill say no more but if Jacob dvvelt in Tents and Herds and Flocks vvere his Revenue a Life like his should be no stop vvith those that love his Plainness and Integrity I beseech God it may be so vvith them that go and I am sure they vvill not have much Reason to repent their Change FINIS