jan 1, 1642 - quarter

Description:

A measure of capacity, commonly used for grain, and usually equal to eight bushels. 1343 <i>et xxx quarteria avenae ... xl quarteria siliginis</i>, Ryton (SS4/6); 1393 <i>sex quarteria frumenti, decem quarteria brasei ordei</i>, Walton (SS4/187); 1522 <i>I wytt ... a quarter of malt, half a quarter of whete</i>, Knaresborough (SS104/16). It served as a standard measure, and in 1642 Henry Best wrote: <i>To our thrashers that bury </i>[beat]<i> by quarter-tale wee have allwayes given heretofore iiijd a quarter for oates, vd a quarter for barley, vjd a quarter for pease, and viijd a quarter for winter corn</i>, Elmswell (DW148). As a measure for coal it was probably the fourth part of a chalder or chaldron: 1333 <i>quolibet anno de predicti minera de Colsterdale viginti quarteria carbonum</i> (MC133). At Stanley, in 1339, a quarter of coal was valued at two pence (WCR12/84). A later dialect spelling of the term was ‘wharter’.

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