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Grave | Kilogram/Liter | Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale Portrait of John Quincy Adams by George Peter Alexander Healy |
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The weights and measures used in the British colonies of North America were all English in origin. Yet, at the same time, these measures were highly diverse. The variety in the colonies reflected the diversity of customary usage in England. While the miscellany of measures in use in England had been simplified to a degree in the colonies, competing units of measure still added up to confusion. For example, all of the following capacity measures were used in the colonies: the firkin, kilderkin, strike, hogshead, tierce, pipe, butt, and puncheon. Even when the same unit was used from colony to colony or locality to locality, it often was not assigned the same value. A bushel of oats in Connecticut weighed 28 pounds, but in New Jersey it weighed 32 pounds.
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