DCHP-1 Online

York

• 1 n. Obs. the standard of currency established at New York, where the dollar was set as equivalent to eight shillings, a unit of account used during much of the colonial period in Montreal, Quebec City, and Upper Canada.

  See also: York currency  

  • 1798  (1935)  We have some very good powdered Maple at 1/6 York of which any Quantity can be sent.
  • 1849  . . . they would run back for change for a shilling York (sixpence) to pay for it, when the train would drive off, with much laughter.
  • 1871  We are willing to stake two and sixpence York, that the fat men will win.

• 2 n. an inland freight boat, descended from the bateau, in common use from the early 1820's but used for tripping as early as 1790, and finally withdrawn from service entirely about 1930.

  See also: York boat  

  • 1935  The water edge was cluttered with craft of every kind, from slender Indian birchbarks to big Yorks. . . .