Linda the wonderful Poorhouse Lady:

The word appears to be vendue, meaning to sell publicly, usually by auction.

The town in question is indeed Sandown, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire.

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/nh/rockingham/history/chapter51.txt

The whole region is still pretty isolated, with abandoned farms the norm,
rocks and summer houses being most common.  I doubt that they had an actual
Poorhouse, as it was a low population area, but they would have resorted to
having to "auction" off the care of the poor to individuals who would then
expect some productivity from them in return for their care.

By the time all of you receive this I will be only a few miles from there
on vacation, with no access to the outside world for a week!

     Dan W.
     http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyccazen/





At 08:04 AM 8/15/01 -0500, you wrote:
>We are trying to transcribe a document which is a record of the auctioning
>of the poor of a town in 1832. (This is for posting on the history page of
>our website called The POORHOUSE STORY -- which is a clearinghouse for
>information about 19th century American poorhouses.)
>
>It is easier to SHOW you what I am working with rather than just telling you
>about it. So, if you would be so kind as to go to
>http://www.poorhousestory.com/AUCTION_POOR.htm  you can view the document.
>
>The Title of the document, written in the usual place on the back of the
>tri-folded paper, and the first phrase use a term with which I am
>unfamiliar. And, of course, I have the usual dilemna ... how do you look it
>up (to check the spelling) if you don't already know how to spell it!
>
>The title looks like ... Articles of Vandice
>And the opening phrase looks like ... Articles to vendice (sp?)
>
>We believe that it and the opening phrase in the body of the document
>(below) are related to the derivation of the word "vendor" --
>     Main Entry: ven.dor
>Pronunciation: 'ven-d&r, for 1 also ven-'dor
>Function: noun
>Etymology: Middle French vendeur, from vendre to sell, from Latin vendere
>Date: 1594
>Variant(s): also vend.er /-d&r/
>
>Any help verifying this term would be greatly appreciated.
>
>PS  I could e-mail a larger and somewhat clearer scan of the document than
>was feasible to post on the website.
>PPS We are also having trouble deciphering the name of the town and are
>uncertain what state it was in. Sigh.
>
>Thanks,
>Linda Crannell
>(aka=The Poorhouse Lady)
>