Does Anyone Know what a Lucy is?

[Headley]

Hi,

I have the inventory for an ancestor's estate (a farmer) from 1827 in Banffshire and whilst the handwriting is difficult to read, I believe one of the items describes " Three two year old Lucys".

I could be misreading the 'L' but I cannot find a definition anywhere - can anyone help?

Many thanks.

[WilmaM]

I don't know what a 'Lucy' is, but Mules and donkeys can be known as a Molly or a Jenny,
could it be a Doric version of that ?

What other livestock are mentioned? would that shed any light?

[LesleyB]

Any chance you could upload an image of a paragraph or two of the document, including the problem wording, to a site such as photobucket, www.photobucket.com so that we could have a look at it?

Best wishes
Lesley

[Russell]

I was going to ask the same thing Lesley.
I have checked umpteen possible sources including the Scots Dialect Dictionary (usually good for regional specific terms) but nothing even came close.

Russell

[LesleyB]

Is it one of these from 1827 on Scotlands People?

MARGARET FARSKINE, CHARLES STEWART, JAMES SCOTT, ALEXANDER TROUP, JEAN STRACHAN, PETER MACKAY or PETER MITCHELL?

[grannysrock]

The L couldn't be a G could it ?
How about a GUSSIE, n. Also gussy, guis(s)ie, †gussey, †goos(s)y, -ie; gu(i)s(s); gos ( from the DSL ) - a young pig or sow .Perhaps the clerk didn't know what he was hearing !


Sally

[Headley]

Hi,

Many thanks for your replies, I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this.

The Inventory is for Peter Mitchell in 1827 (a direct ancestor) and I have started working on a narrative for the family tree and wanted to include the items listed on the inventory, but I would also need to offer an explanation. The item above the 'Lucy' is a 'Stot' which I believe is an Ox.

I will try and upload the image in the next couple of days.

Cheers & thanks again.

[Currie]

Hello Headley,

There’s a bit of information about this subject in ‘Notes and Queries”, 1856, “Popular Names of Livestock”, p416-417.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NGJn ... q=&f=false

When you have the spelling sorted out you could try:

“A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words” – 1868.

Volume 1 (A-I)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=FbH ... &q&f=false

Volume 2 (J-Z)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=TPM ... &q&f=false

“A Dictionary of the Scottish Language” – 1867 (Sally’s DSL I think)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2CM ... &q&f=false

Hope that’s useful,
Alan

[LesleyB]

There’s a bit of information about this subject in ‘Notes and Queries”, 1856, “Popular Names of Livestock”, p416-417.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NGJn ... q=&f=false

Crikes, I'd no idea that the vocabulary for horses, pigs, cows and sheep were so complex. A good number of the terms were familiar, but I'd no idea it was so precise as it is descibed here....
Good find Alan. (though no "lucy" contender that jumped out at me...)

Best wishes
Lesley

[Currie]

Hello Lesley,

They’re only talking about horses, pigs, cows, and sheep. What other animals could a Scottish farm have that would be worth giving an age for? There can’t be many. Goats? Children?

I think it is one of the cattle variety. From “Notes and Queries”, “In the second year …………… and the female a quey or heifer” The age is right and a bit of imaginative handwriting could probably make Quey into something that looks like Lucy

All the best,
Alan

A little bit later: Was the old style handwritten 'Q' like a '2'? I can't remember.

Alan