Linear Measurements
12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
1 inch = 72 points or 12 lines
1 nail = 21/4 inches
1 palm = 3 inches
1 hand = 4 inches
1 link = 7.92 inches
1quarter = 9 inches (1 span)
1 cubit = 18 inches
1 pace = 2ft 6 (military)
1 pace = 5 feet (geometrical)
1 fathom = 6 feet
1 rod, pole or perch = 5.5 yards
1 chain (100 links) = 22 yards
1 furlong = 40 rods (220 yards, 10 chains )
1 mile = 8 furlongs/80 chains/320 rods/1760 yards/5280 feet
Dry or Corn Measure
2 pints = 1 quart
2 quarts = 1 pottle
4 quarts = 1 gallon
2 gallons = 1 peck
4 pecks = 1 bushel
2 bushels = 1 strike
4 bushels = 1 coomb
8 bushels = 1 quarter
5 quarters = 1 load
10 quarters = 1 last
140 pounds = 1 boll of meal
2 bolls = 1 sack
Grain often sold by the stone of 14lbs
The bushel also reckoned as follows:
Wheat, English 63lbs
Barley, 52 & 56 lbs
Oats, 40 & 42 lbs
Rye & Maize 60lbs
Buckwheat 52lbs
Wool Measure
7lbs = 1 clove
2 cloves = 1 stone
2 stones = 1 tod (or quarter)
61/2 tods = 1 wey (1cwt,2qrs,14lbs)
2 weys = 1 sack (13qrs)
12 sacks = 1 last (39cwts)
Worsted Yarn
80 yards = 1wrap
7 wraps = 1 hank (560yards)
Cotton Yarn (also Silk)
11/2 yards = 1 thread
120 yards = 1 lea or skein
7 skins or leas = 1 hank
18 hanks = 1 spindle
Hay and Straw
1 truss of straw = 36lbs
1 truss of old hay = 56lbs
1 truss of new hay = 60lbs
36 trusses = 1 load
Weights - Avoirdupois
24.34375 grains = 1 drachm dr
16 drachms = 1 ounce
16 ozs = 1 pound
8lbs = 1 customary stone (butchers meat)
14lbs = 1 legal stone (horsemans weight)
28lbs = 1 quarter
4qrs = 1 hundredweight
20cwts = 1 ton
Apothecaries Weight
20 grains = 1 scruple
3 scruples = 1 drachm
8 drachms = 1 ounce
12 ounces = 1 pound
Liquid Measure
1 gill = 8.665 cu ins
4 gills = 34.66 cu ins
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon
Gallons
Firkin(qrtr barrel) 9
Anker 10
Kilderkin, rundlet or ½ barrel 18
Barrel 36
Tierce 42
Hogshead (ale) 1.5 barrels 54
Puncheon 72
Butt of ale (3 barrels) 108
Pipe of port 115
Teneriffe 100
Marsala 93
Madeira & Cape 92
Sherry & Tent 108
Butt of Lisbon & Bucellas 117
Aum of Hock & Rhenish 30
Hogshead of Claret 46
Port 57
Sherry 54
Madeira 46
Square or Land Measure
144 square inches = 1 sq ft
9 feet = 1 sq yd
301/4 yds = 1 sq rod, pole or perch
16 rods` = 1 sq rood (1210 sq yds)
4 rood = 1 acre
30 acres = 1 yard of land
100 acres = 1 hide of land
1 sq mile = 640 acres
Notes
Furlong The term originally meant the length of a furrow in a common field regarded as a square of 10 acres. As early as the 9thC it also came to be regarded as the equivalent of the Roman stadium, which was one eighth of a Roman mile, hence furlong has become the name for the eighth part of an English mile even though this does not coincide with the original agricultural measurement.
Stadium (OED) approx 185 metres, equiv to (185 x 1.0936) = 202.316 yards
Original agricultural measurement
Square root of 10 = 3.16
Therefore original furlong = (4840 x 3.16)/8 = 15,294/8 = 1912 yards
Yard comes from the old English gyrd meaning stick or twig. 13thC Assize of Weights and Measures prescribed the Iron Yard of our Lord the King at 3 feet of 12 inches or 36 barley corns.
The hide (also called the caracute from the Latin for plough and ploughland) was a bit vague but the area required by one free family with dependants and that could be ploughed with one plough and 8 oxen in one year. This was in turn divided into 4 yardlands of 100 acres, the definition of which was the amount of land that could be ploughed by one yoke of oxen in one day. I think that means I acre. In Norman times the acre became precisely defined as 40 x 4 perches thus preserving the shape of the Saxon strip acre ie 1 furlong by 0.1 furlong (220 x20).
The largest Saxon mete-wand, the gad, was 1 perch in length ie one quarter of the breadth of a furrow. Hence 5.5 yards,
In 1610 Edmund Gunter (Oxford mathematician) invented a unit of measurement the chain, taking the breadth of a furrow and dividing by 100 links of 7.92 inches (4 perches or 66 feet or 22 yards). By 1661 use of this chain had become sufficiently popular for the word to be used to designate the measurement itself. The chain became the common measuring tool for land surveyors. Even I remember Gunters chain.
Another Saxon measurement that had been standardises by the time of Edward 1 was the ell. He required that there should be an exact copy of his ell-wand in all towns of the realm. The ell was 45 inches. It was used regularly for measuring cloth (hence its later name of clothyard and it was the duty of the kings alnager to check that all cloth was one ell in width.
The ell was divided into 16 nails of 2 13/16
Out of interest:
In cricket, the distances between the inner edges of the creases was 1 ell (45 inches) and the wicket was 8 nails by 2!