What the trials actually cost

Figure pack — final. Signed off both sides, 12 September 2026. Miguelle (figures) · Yuki (sources & folios).

The companion sheet to the piece: the county's residual, the keepers' bills, the families' petitions, the receipts, and the one ledger that ran 26 years. Every number comes from a document, and every line says how close the evidence sits to the paper.

Unit. Days of a common laborer's wages, New England: 2s/day [R: Weeden 1890 I p.400, I p.334, II App. A rows; double-OCR-checked]. £1 = 10 days. Days = £ × 10.

Modern column. £ × RPI multiple for the transaction's year, live-pulled from MeasuringWorth on 12 September 2026: 1692 ×220 · 1711 ×198 · 1718 ×220; 1694 ×204, 1698 ×184, 1700 ×211, 1712 ×210 (factor = RPI 2025 180.098 ÷ RPI-year from the same Clark series; reproduces the three calculator pins exactly). Rounded to £10, flagged approximate.

Flags. [R] read in the primary document (this pass, from the SWP texts) · [T] from the transcript side, primary re-pull open · [S] secondary, kept out of tables · [U] unrecovered, shipped as a stated gap.

A. The county's residual — Dec 12, 1693 (the assessment)

The Superior Court's order (n171.1): £130 0s 11d still due on the 1692 courts, assessed on Essex's inhabitants. The item list (n171.2) — twelve net dues that sum to the penny to the order:

Check: the twelve sum to £130 0s 11d = 1,300.5 days = ≈£28,610.

Reconciliation (gross → residual). Gross credits on the list: £216 11s 5d. Already paid by the Sheriff: £86 10s 6d. Residual assessed: £130 0s 11d. 216 11 5 − 86 10 6 = 130 0 11, exact.

→ 2,165.7 days gross, ≈£47,650; 865.3 days already clawed by the sheriff, ≈£19,040; 1,300.5 days left for the county to pay, ≈£28,610.

B. Keeper bills — what prisoners were held against (sampled; distinct accounts, not additive with A or each other)

B1. Boston — John Arnold [n171.8; Mass. Archives 135/24] · bill total £40 16s 6d = 408.3 days = ≈£8,980 [R] · (later audit: B5)

B2. Salem — William Dounton [n171.14; earlier version n171.9, lines struck, totals £24 9s] · diet list totals £27 9s = 274.5 days = ≈£6,040 [R]; salary: 9 yrs at £5/yr, £43 17s claimed due, £12 11s allowed 'in full' for the period since the Revolution; £40 0s 0d allowed [R]

B3. Cambridge — Israel Cheever [n171.13 + n171.18] · total £15 7s 8d = 153.8 days = ≈£3,380 [R]

Note: the two copies differ in row detail (n171.13 reads 37/35 weeks and 6s 6d on the last row; n171.18 reads 17/15 and 6s 8d). Only 17/15 close against the amounts at 2s6d/week; both copies bottom out at £15 7s 8d.

B4. Smiths & deputies — verified samples

Harris, deputy sheriff of Ipswich: full account £2 18s 6d, "allowed conditionally, provided it be not included in the High Sheriff's account" (att. St. Sewall; Gen'l Sessions, Ipswich, Mar 27, 1694) [n171.6] [R].

Texture, not a row: Joseph Fuller, constable — his bill in the witch cases, entered Dec 12, 1693, is marked on the reverse "Acc'ots Not Allow'd." [n171.7] [R]

B5. The keepers vs the state (1700 factor ×211; 1694 ×204 for the Ray fee)

• Committee audit of Arnold's accounts, Boston, June 27, 1700 [n171.21]: the keeper rate restated at "two shillings & Six pence per weeke".
• Found due to Arnold: £38 11s 6d (385.8 days; ≈£8,140) — "never allowed him."
• His Nov 28, 1693 account of £150 (1,500 days; ≈£31,650) had been cut by the Court to £120 (1,200 days; ≈£25,320) "in full" — an abatement of £30 (300 days; ≈£6,330). Arnold: "he was never yet paid for their diett neither by the publick nor the perticuler persons."
• New article: £16 (160 days; ≈£3,380) for blankets he bought for the prisoners.
• Vote passed July 8, order in Council July 16, 1700.
• Keepers vs each other: Arnold v. his successor Caleb Ray, July 21, 1694 [n171.22] — Arnold sued for £4 7s 6d of fees Ray collected on two prisoners; recovered £3 15s (37.5 days; ≈£770) + costs, paid out that day.

C. Families' 1710 petitions (amounts from the 1710 petition transcripts, signed off line-by-line against the folios, 12 Sept 2026)

Jacobs Jr., verbatim: "my wife 11 months and my daughter Seven months in prison it Cost them twelve pounds money to the officers." [n173.27] [R]

D. The reversal & the money back (1710–1718)

D0. The ask vs the award. Committee return drawn up Sept 28, 1711 (Jewett to Sewall; "Ips. 28-9-1711") [n173.43]: amounts requested total £796 18s 0d — "besides Mr English his demands Left to the Courts Consideration & determination." The order of Dec 17, 1711 [n173.48] paid £578 12s 0d across 21 names. Both totals read direct from the documents [R]. (≈7,969 days vs 5,786 days at our unit.)

D1. Committee report, Sept 1710 → Order, Dec 17, 1711 [n173.45; n173.48; Mass. Acts & Resolves IX]. Both total £578 12s; sub-totals 309 1 0 + 269 11 0 = 578 12 0. Paid to Stephen Sewall for distribution to survivors.

D2. Philip English — the long ledger [n173.17; Mass. Archives 135/127–129]

• Estate at issue: £1,183 2s [R] — the account's own carried-over total (warehouse stock itemized: salt, Spanish iron, cod, molasses, wheat, corn, wine, sugar, rum, boards, cloth, fishing gear…). = 11,831 days on our unit.
• From Corwin's estate: £60 3s [R] = 601.5 days (≈£11,910 at ×198): "Never Reseved any other or further satisfacon for them Then Sixty Pounds 3s payd Me by the Administrators of George Corwine Late Sherife desesd" — and "the Estate was so seisd & Tackin away Chiefly by the Sherife and his under offisers" (he had posted a £4,000 bond with surety).
• From the Treasury, Nov 10, 1718: £200 [R: 'allowed & paid out of the publick Treasury Two hundred Pounds, in full Satisfaction'; Read & Accepted, Tho. Fitch] = 2,000 days = ≈£44,000
• Recovered £260 3s of £1,183 2s ≈ 22%; the rest stayed gone. Petition entered June 14, 1717; committee Nov 20, 1717; continued Feb 7 and July 3, 1718; paid Nov 10, 1718 — 26 years on.
• Net: 11,831.0 days taken, ~2,601.5 days back.

D3. The receipts — money reaching the families [n173.79; n173.80]

Feb 19, 1712: committee (Appleton, Noyes, Burrill, Jewett, Sewall) took signed receipts. Samples:

(How's £12 award split across heirs, per receipts; 1712 factor ×210.)

E. Method notes & sensitivity

• Wage anchor, two levels. New England-wide: 2s/day common labor [R: Weeden 1890 I p.400, I p.334, II App. A rows]. County-local instance: William Starling, constable of Haverhill — account for services in 1692, entered Mar 26, 1694; "3 days of 2 hands, 12s; 3 days of 3 hands, 18s" = 2s per man per day, allowed on the reverse ("this acco allowd. For himselfe. & others herin Named.") [n171.17] [R]. Caveat kept: that is public-service labor (guarding, pressing, attendance), not a farm or craft series; the unit still rests on the wider Weeden series. Winter rates ran lower.
• Sensitivity on the modern column: BoE composite price index (to 2024) runs ≈×180 / ×159 / ×183 for 1692 / 1711 / 1718 — i.e. ~15–20% below MW's RPI; and MW's average-earnings measure runs ≈×2,990 / ×2,990 / ×2,830. We lead with RPI and can footnote the spread.
• £20 in the award list = 200 days ≈ 8 months of work [≈£3,960 at 1711]. Range of awards: £6 10s to £150.
• The 1711 ask/award gap (£796 18s vs £578 12s) is stated in the documents, not derived; footnote only, never computed.

F. Open lines — stated, not hidden

• Rope [U]; fee schedule [U] — both ship as stated gaps.
• Middlesex mirror — Phillips' account allowed at £27 2s (Apr 22, 1698) [n171.15; n171.19]; a £42 13s 10d presented copy also exists [n171.20]. Not reconciled; kept out of the tables.
• Jacobs, second item — £11 6s, context text pending re-pull (Mass. Arch. 135/144 reverse; Rosenthal print). Ships [U].
• Requested-vs-awarded runs totals-only (see D0); the per-name column is not attempted — the copies are OCR-risky.
• [S] figures stay out of tables.

The full pack ships as the paid companion. One sheet, every figure sourced. To buy it, write Miguelle at miguelle (at) ilands.app — he holds the buy path.