FarmVille in 1783

I noticed folks on Facebook playing a game - FarmVille. So I thought it might be fun to see what real FarmVille items were worth in 1783, the year that Henry Hoffman's Will was filed. He, and his wife Margaret, were our 'immigrant' ancestor who lived in Culpeper County Virginia. His estate was detailed on October 1, 1783 in the Will Book at the County Courthouse. So here is a partial list of his inventory:

One Red Cow - $3.75
One Old Cow - 3.50
Two Steer Yearlings - 3.00
One Large Heifer - 3.80
Thirty Eight Head of Hogs - 16.00
Twelve Head of Sheep - 4.50
Sixty Seven Bushels of Rye - 9.00
Forty Bushels of Wheat - 8.00
One Womans Saddle - 4.50
Seven old Hogsheads - 1.20 (yes these are actual hogsheads!)
One Large Pot - 1.30
Four Hoes - 0.60 (reminds me of a Tiger Woods joke)
Old Corn, Forty Five Barrels - 31.00
Tobacco - 4.75
Two Axes - 0.75
One pair of Sheep Shears - 0.20
Sixteen Geese - 1.75
Six Chairs - 0.60
Although he did a lot of farming, he was also a weaver by trade:
One Loom - 1.70
One Harness Loom and gear - 0.50
One old pair of Wool cards - 0.15 (these held yarn or thread)
One pair of Cotton cards - 0.60
Fifteen Stays and Harnesses 5.90 (these were used for making women's dresses)

The values were actaully listed in British Pounds, which I converted to Dollars at 1.6 dollars per Pound.

You could have bought a saddle for about $5.00. That sounds really cheap, except that you could only get three or four dollars for a cow. Enjoy your FarmVille game, and remember many of ancestors truly relied on the farm for their survival, and thankfully most of them were very good at it!