The bushel is divided, on its calculated capacity of 13-1/2 pots, = 1631 c.i., into
2 Cabotels 6 Denerels (Jersey sixtonniers) = 272 c.i. 30 Quintes = 54-1/2 „
The Denerel is thus, probably by mere coincidence, exactly the old corn-gallon, and the bushel is 6 corn-gallons.
The word Denerel means ‘standard’ in the sense of the standard coin or pattern piece, the Denerial or Deneral, to which the French moneyers had to strike deniers or silver pence. We may confer with this term the Marseilles Escandau, meaning ‘standard,’ a measure = 3·54 gallons, the basis of a whole system of measures.
But if the bushel were based on another measure than the obsolete pot—on a standard still extant in the Sheriff’s Office, the
_Quinte, grande mesure du marché de Guernesey 1615_,
it would be of larger capacity. For the Quinte, I found when I measured it in 1885, is approximately 54·7 cubic inches, and it is stated to contain fully 32 ounces of water. As it happens to be equal to a fifth of the imperial gallon, the Denerel should be equal to an imperial gallon, and the bushel to 6 gallons.
The Coal-bushel (1611) of 18-1/2 inches diameter, by 8 deep, then stated to be equal to 16-3/4 pots (an evident mistake, in Roman numerals, for 17-3/4 pots) and containing an English corn-bushel.
The Barley-bushel, 1625 and 1673, to contain 17-1/2 pots; of such size that it should hold, striked, as much as the wheat-bushel held when heaped. Its calculated capacity is 2117·5 c.i. = 7·63 gallons.
These have assimilated themselves in the course of trade to those of the countries of exportation, but the fluid measures of the islands still subsist for cider and other liquors. The Jersey gallon is, or was, 2 pots = 247 c.i. The Guernsey gallon is, or was, 1/8 of the bushel = 252 c.i. or perhaps 2 pots = 242 c.i.
Both are somewhat over the old English wine-gallon.
The Jersey pound, = 7561 grains, is 7 grains over the old French pound; 104 pounds make a cwt. = 112·3 lb.
The Guernsey pound, = 7623 grains, differs by only 2 grains from the Amsterdam pound; 100 Guernsey pounds = 108·9 lb.
There is a tradition that this pound was originally 18 ounces of Rouen weight, reduced in 1730 to 16 ounces. But it is not 16 ounces of any weight but that of Amsterdam. It may have been originally 16 ounces of some heavy pound with an ounce of about 530 grains, akin to the Austrian and Russian ounce; then converted into 18 lighter ounces, and afterwards 16 ounces were taken for the pound. In the seventeenth century it is recorded as being 18 ounces of 471 grains, which is approximately the Paris standard = 472·1 grains. In 1730 it was ordered to be of 16 ounces, but of what standard there is no evidence. And in the nineteenth century it is 16 ounces of 476·6 grains, almost exactly the Amsterdam standard. It looks as if the change in 1730 was to 16 ounces of another standard, Amsterdam Troy, instead of French Troy.