[I] "Workmen Employed on the farm of Samuel Isted Esq. from March 30th to April 4th Inclusive. /[II] . . . April 6th to 11th Inclusive /[III] . . . April 13th to 18th Inclusive /[IV] . . . April 20th to 25th Inclusive / [V] . . . April 27th to May 2nd Inclusive. ALSO: verso of April 6-11 leaf adds entries.

Ecton, Borough of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England:: 1812., 1812.

Folio. 5 folded sheets [approx. 19 x 15 1/2 inches]. Condition: Excellent. Manuscript record of the worker salaries paid to operate the March 30-May 2, 1812 farm at the estate of Samuel Isted, Ecton. Each sheet, being a record of five weeks labor, lists the workers names, the days they worked, their duties on the farm, and the costs of the laborers as well as totals. Additional entries are made for "work about the home" [handymen] and another provision annotates the income received from rent, sale of wood, etc. The details are what is of particular interest, including a list of the number of farm animals and their types "Stock of Beasts" [9 heifers, 7 cows, 1 bull; Sheep: 5 rams home bred, 1 ewe, 1 lamb, 4 lambhogs, 2 south down rams, 125 ewes, 142 lambs, 30 Welch sheep. Three men are named for "work about the home" [William and James Elson, John Fitsburgh]. There are 17 workers named for working the farm: Samuel Pettit, Charles Hensman, John Hensman, John Randle, John Jolley, William Cox, William Jolley, Benjamin Johnson, Joseph Wooding, Thomas Leach, Richard Leach, Robert Burges[?], William Johnson, William Sharman, William Morris, Thomas Morris, and John Pettit. Their labors are listed as: jobbing about with team, cutting chaff for cloth, threshing barley & winnowing oak take in oak threshing, jobbing about the home, work in gardens, ditching & fencing & cutting hedges, stables, sheep herding. One entry refers to payment rec'd for "wood for Poor People" and another entry states "rec'd for fine wood sold by auction."

Another separate column details added expenses, listed by days of the week: Paid the clerk his Church dues, paid for looking after fowls, paid . . . for advertising wood sale and selling wood, paid for trussing, allowance, payment for cutting and quarter of chaff, paid expense with team fetching, 2 loads of coal & 2 loads of lime.

With each successive week one can see how the daily operations are handled and paid for, income earned, and all the names of every worker.

ALSO: verso of April 6-11 leaf adds entries: Rec'd of Mr.[W?] James Mowkim[!?] payment for a fat cow, lambhog, lamb, ewe, rams, Welch sheep, pig, calf, cow, etc.

Samuel Isted Esq, of Ecton, baptized on May 17th, 1750, wedded in 1795, to Barbara, eldest daughter of Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore. Samuel died August 12, 1827, buried at Ecton. They had one daughter who died in infancy, and a son, Ambrose[?] Isted (d.1800).

Note: Benjamin Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. He was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. Benjamin Franklin himself was known to visit Ecton. Thus one of the founding fathers of the United States had roots in Ecton.

Franklin himself wrote, "The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, for three hundred years . . . is eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor there." – Franklin's autobiography.