prick wage

1) A wage totalled up from a record 'pricked' on a tally of some kind.

A single example of this term has been noted and the context helps to define the meaning: in 1694-6 Thomas Hallas was a collier who did not serve out his time and found himself at the centre of a settlement dispute at the Quarter Sessions. The depositions illustrate the complicated way in which some miners were employed: 1694 Thomas Hallas … was hyred by one John Armitage at Lepton … to get cooles as a collier … Armitage gave him 6d in hand and in a weeks time after gave him 2s more for a gods penny and was to pay him dureing the year pricke wage, viz 1s 6d a score provided that he serve his tyme . His wage therefore depended on how many ‘score’ of coals he ‘got’ which may suggest that the daily totals were marked or ‘pricked’ on a tally of some kind.

places Lepton
dates 1694

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Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0