A late 1719 Sussex inventory

[Bookbox]

The English Dialect Dictionary has several definitions for scute with origins in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall:
1. A sum of money, a present or reward
2. The metal shield for the heel or toe of boot or shoe
3. The iron point of a wooden plough
4. A small patch of leather put on the sole of a boot or shoe
5. The outside piece sawed off a balk of timber

None of these definitions really fits, especially as there are ten of them and they are specified as being of iron. They were found in the kitchen along with the bellows so maybe something to do with kitchen life.

I can't see a letter t in that word. I'd suggest ... ten Iron Scures (= skewers).

[goldie61]

Just to say on Line 1 you have
'one Cask  one spitt'

I don't think it's cask at all.
It is a 'Jack'.

The capital C appears a lot in other items - Copper, Chest, Chafing dish etc, and it's nothing like the first letter of the word Jack.
This item is grouped with other things made of iron - spit, andirons, fire shovell etc, so I don't think they would have included a cask in with these thing.

According to wikipedia, a jack in this context was 'a roasting jack which rotated the meat on the spit'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roasting_jack

(Sorry to come late to the party! The difficulties of being on the other side of the world!    )

[Bookbox]

lines 9-10: ... two Curtains and one Rod (not Bed – compare the B in Basons, Brass, Bellows etc.)

[londonscorpion]

Goldie, much better late than never. Of course its Jack. I even have another inventory with the same word in the same room! Thanks for your contribution.

And Bookbox thanks to you too: both spot on with skewers;  and rod which I presume is a for hanging the curtains.

I guess that pretty much puts it to bed with the exception of one last mystery in line 49.

What is "the mans bed and healing". The only thing that comes to mind, being in the garret and thus remote, is some kind of sick or isolation room,  with "healing" being a medicine chest. Any other ideas? 

[clayton bradley]

Hilling is a bed covering and may be spelled healing

[goldie61]

For interest

[londonscorpion]

Hi Clayton and welcome to the fray. "Healing" might be another word for a bed cover, but that begs the question as to why the appraiser chose to use it when he has already used "quilt" twice (in lines 27 and 35). And what about "mans bed"?

[horselydown86]

And what about "mans bed"?

Read as:  man(servant)'s bed

A household of a certain status would have a maid and a man.

I'm confident Clayton's suggestion is right, given the association with the bed.  We don't know what was in their minds when they used these terms.  A quilt might be stuffed with down, for example, while a hilling was just cloth.

[londonscorpion]

Thanks Horsely for that final, very satisfactory, explanation.

Case closed.