Here is a list of the persons who had property in the "compact" part of
Providence, RI, in 1759. Because of fire problems, a tax assessment was
made against property owners in the city proper, to defray the cost of fire
protection. The tax assessors thus provided us a written list of who
owned property and something of comparative value of real estate property
held by various owners of property.
The list of 223 properties assessed has been put by us into alphabetical
order, for ease in finding the persons you are interested in, with a number
following the person's name. The number after the person's
name indicates the amount he was assessed.
Captain Joseph Bucklin 4th, and Jonathan Bucklin show up in this list. Joseph
was assessed 20 pounds, which put him in the top 25% , by property wealth, of
the town citizens.
List of Persons Assessed in 1759, amounts assessed in
English pounds (£).
The Upper 10% of persons were assessed over 30
£.
The
Upper Quartile were assessed over
18 £.
The
Median person was assessed 10 £ .
The Lower Quartile were assessed less than 6 £.
Thus you can have an understanding of the
valuation of his property relative to the property held by others on the list.
In short, the more he was assessed, the more his house or other buildings were
worth.
