586 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1775. 



of the kingdom for many years preceding, might pave a way to that alteration. 

 There had been several contests about the crown, between the two houses of 

 York and Lancaster, till Henry vii by conquest mounted the throne; and in 

 such times of public disturbance, the laws of assize were more likely to be in- 

 fringed than well kept. For, after Henry vii was well settled on his throne, 

 we find complaint was made in the 1 1th year of his reign, that the laws of assize 

 had not been observed and kept. On which he made fresh standards of weights 

 and measures, and sent them to the several shires and towns in the kingdom. 

 But in the very next year, the 12th of his reign, there came out that particular 

 statute, under which the weights and measures were altered; reciting that the 

 king, in the former year, had made weights and measures of brass, according 

 to the old standards remaining in his treasury, which weights and measures are 

 said, on a more diligent examination, to have been approved defective. It is not 

 said, whether they were the old standard weights and measures, or the new ones, 

 made in the former year, that had been approved defective; nor how much they 

 were so; all this is left to conjecture. Therefore we may with great probability 

 conjecture, that they were not defective in respect to their old original standard; 

 but only in respect to the heavier new Troy pound, intended to be then intro- 

 duced. And what warrants such conjecture is^ the express declaration of his son 

 Henry viii, when he abolished the old pound, in the 18th of his reign, and es- 

 tablished the Troy; for he then declares, that the Troy pound exceeds the old 

 pound by |- of an ounce. Hence then, there can be no doubt, but Henry vii 

 altered the old English weight, and introduced a heavier Troy pound, that ex- 

 ceeded the old one by ^ of an ounce; and though none of his standard weights 

 have come down to us, yet his brass bushel measure, with his name on it, was 

 found in the exchequer in l688, and proves to be 2145 cubic inches contents; 

 from which we may form conclusions, both on his weights and measures, suffi- 

 cient to convince us that he altered both. That his bushel was a measure of Q 

 gallons instead of 8, and that his Troy pound was -J-g- part heavier than the old 

 English pound, which was raised from 32 grains of wheat. Experiment has 

 proved, that a measure of 1728 cubic inches of wheat, will weigh from 47^ to 

 about 48^ pound Avoirdupois; but suppose it be only 47^ pounds Avoirdupois, 

 that, in Troy weight, will be SBV^s- pounds Troy. Hence we may easily find 

 the weight of wheat that 2145 cubic inches will contain. For, as 1728 cubic 

 inches : 2145 cubic inches :: 58-yiJg- pounds Troy : 72 pounds Troy, the weight 

 of wheat that Henry viith's bushel would contain. And dividing the 72 by 8, 

 the number of pounds limited by the statute to a gallon, it proves Henry viith's 

 bushel was a measure of Q gallons instead of 8 ; and as 8 bushels made a quarter, 

 then the quarter contained 72 gallons; which seems to correspond with the 

 number of gallons contained in the vessel, called a fat, the use of which was 



