The widow Rebecca Bacon died in Salem in 1655, leaving an estate of £195.8.6 and a well-furnished house. She had brass pots, skillets, candlesticks, skimmers, a little brass pan, and an excellent supply of pewter, including "3 large pewter platters, 3 a size lesse, 3 more a size lesse, 3 more a size lesse, £1.16; 1 pewter bason, 5s; 6 large pewter plates & 6 lesser, 9s; 19 Pewter saucers & 2 fruite dishes, 11s, 6d; 1 old Pewter bason & great plate, 3s; 2 pewter candlesticks, 4s; 1 large pewter salt & a smal one; 2 pewter porringers, 3s.6d; 1 great pewter flagon; 1 lesser, 1 quart, 2 pints & a halfe pint, 13s; 2 old chamber pots & an old porringer, 3s." She also died possessed of "1 duble salt silver, 6 silver spones, 1 wine cup & a dram cup of silver, both £6." The Rev. James Noyes of Newbury, when he died in 1656, was possessed of an unusually well-equipped kitchen, supplied with much brass and ironware and the following pewter, viz.: "on one shelfe, one charger, 5 pewter platters and a bason and a salt seller, £1.10.0; on another shelfe, 9 pewter platters, small & great, 13 shillings; one old flagon and 4 pewter drinking pots, 10 shillings." No pewter plates or wooden trenchers are listed. In other estates appear some unusual items, such as: a pewter brim basin, pewter cullenders, pewter beer cups, pewter pans, pewter bed pans, and a mustard pot. The trade of the pewterer does not seem to have been followed by many men in New England during the seventeenth century. The vessels were bringing shipments from London and moreover, the bronze moulds used in making the ware were costly. Pewter melted easily and frequently required repairing, and it was here that the itinerant tinker or second-rate pewterer found employment. The handles of pewter spoons broke easily, and a spoon mould was a part of the equipment of every tinker. The earliest mention we have noted of the pewterer practising his trade in New England is one Richard Graves of Salem. He was presented at a Quarterly Court on February 28, 1642-43 for "opression in his trade of pewtering" and acquitted of the charge. Then he was accused of neglecting to tend the ferry carefully, so it would seem that pewtering occupied only part of his time. This he acknowledged, but said that he had not been put to it by the Court and also that it was necessary to leave the ferry when he went to mill, a quite apparent fact. He seems to have been a somewhat reckless fellow in his dealings with neighbors, for he was accused of taking fence rails from Christopher Young's lot and admonished by the Court. At the same session he was fined for stealing wood from Thomas Edwards and for evil speeches to him, calling him "a base fellow, & yt one might Runn a half pike in his bellie & never touch his hart."