Lambert Zells (Sills), Part 2

With all of this information in mind, Lambert’s land was probably very wooded and rough. He most likely had to clear his original 53+ acres of timber. He would have to set this timber aside to be used in building a home, barn, out buildings and corrals. Some would have been used as firewood and lumber for furniture building. He would have also had to break the ground in preparation for planting. Lambert, being a man of only 24-29 years of age and having no family yet, would have had to work very hard to make this happen.
In 1715, Lambert married a lady by the name of Elizabeth Brewer. It appears that Elizabeth may have been married before. Elizabeth had a son named Thomas that appeared in Elizabeth’s will years later. Death was common in these days due to the lack of knowledge about diseases and medicines. Elizabeth’s husband probably died leaving her to fend for her young son and herself. Most widowed women married soon after the loss of their spouses as was the practice, for practical reasons of course.
Life on the Zell’s farm would have been very laborious. We see by the items that were present in Lambert’s inventory of sale at the time of his death that the Zells were not a poor class of people, nor would we say that he was overly wealthy. They appear to have quite a bit of land and material items in the home. We see that he raised cattle, hogs, and sheep. He also owned farming implements such as plow hoes and horses which indicates that there was planting of large fields going on. He probably planted items such as tobacco and maybe flax.
Several Iron items were present in the home but no forging equipment was mentioned, so Lambert more than likely bought or traded with a local blacksmith. There was a certain amount of lumber and good furniture in the home which may indicate that Lambert may have built most of the household furniture such as bedsteads, chest, stools, chairs and casks. Leather in the house meant that he or Elizabeth probably made shoes for the family.