Manuscript volume used by George Foljambe, a young gentleman of means, to record his expenditure in London for the years 1732 to 1734.
LWL Mss Vol. 278
Acquired November 2022
A collection of 17 notebooks bound in two groups and written by Richard Polwhele between the ages of 12 and 17 while attending Truro School.
LWL Mss Vol. 276
Acquired August 2022
Taken as part of a parliamentary investigation into the living conditions of ‘Lascars and Chinese’ was begun in 1814 An account of the responses to fifteen Asian and Chinese seamen of the East India Company living in appalling conditions at Shadwell in the East End of London. , which produced a Report from a Committee on Lascars and Other Asiatic Seamen in 1816. As part of their investigation, a number of questions required answering; fifteen ‘queries’ were put forward by the committee, with one of their clerks dispatched to Shadwell to receive answers. Thirteen of the questions are answered here.
LWL Mss Vol. 275
Acquired August 2022
Pocket-sized manuscript legal compendium compiled by a Georgian magistrate around 1752, likely in Northamptonshire, as evinced by the sample legal forms included at the beginning. The main content of the volume is arranged under subject headings with references and extracts relating to relevant statutes: “Ale houses & ale house-keepers … Apprentices … Arrests … Assaults … Bakers … Brewers … Bricks & tiles … Bridges … Bail … Burglary … Butchers … Buttons … Callico & cambricks … Cloth & clothiers … Constables … Corn … Cottages & clergy … Counterfeiting … Deer & deerstalkers … Distillers … Dyers … Evidence & examination … Excise … Felony … Fish & fishing … Forcible entry … Game … Gaming … Gaols … Gun powder … Hawkers & pedlars …”
LWL Mss Vol. 277
Acquired June 2022
A manuscript copy, in an unidentified hand, of Horace Walpole’s tragedy. The text appears to follow the original 1768 edition, including the postscript and without the introduction.
LWL Mss Vol. 274
Acquired March 2022
A collection of ten documents concerning a dispute over which of two parishes in Derbyshire should be responsible for a pauper family. The family of Thomas Bottom, his wife Hannah, and their five children (Ann 12 years, Thomas 10 years, Sarah 7 years, Charles 4 years, and Lydia “aged abt 1/2 year”) had been adjudged by two local magistrates to be lawfully resident in Bradburn and therefore were the responsibility of the Overseers of that parish. The Bradburn Overseers, however, produced strong evidence to the contrary and were thus appealing the decision.
LWL Mss File 155+
Acquired May 2022
File 66 809 T627
Acquired October 2021
A manuscript inventory in a single hand, written for probate purposes, lists the contents of the household of the late Mr. Sandford room by room, noting the assessed value of each item, a total for each room which is then carried over to the next page. The manuscript gives insight to the life of a middle class Englishman of the 1790s. The inventory starts with the attic and moves to the China Closet, Lumber Room, and Dining Room, followed by seven pages of books, listed by title. There are multiple parlours and small adjoining rooms, closets, a kitchen and brewhouse, gardens. The china, glass, plate, and linens are itemized, and the whole ends with jewelry, a portrait, and watch and chain. The total value of £413-16-2 attested to by Jno. Hodges and a second man Hill.
LWL Mss vol. 267
Acquired July 2021
Manuscript account books of Robert Ward, an English carpenter and cartwright, covering a period of approximately 30 years. In his work as a cartwright, Ward supplied wheels, spokes, axles and cart bodies, as well as completed regular repairs, with everything itemized and priced in these records. He also doubled as a house carpenter, supplying staircases, doors, door-frames, windows, beams and floors and worked for a number of customers. Several names reappear throughout the manuscript including: Alice Tattam, William Baylis, Thomas Coleman, Daniel Dover, the Earl of Stanhope, William Flowers and Thomas Gurney. Few town or village names besides Long Marston appear, suggesting that his clientele was very local. Ward also regularly supplied fences and rails, coffins for a range of names individuals (men, women and children), and painted signboards. The latter service seems to have become more dominant after the main period the manuscript and among the many in-fillings added after 1810, to the mid 1830s, are several simple calligraphic trials for such signs (mainly Ward’s own name). The later entries in different hands suggest the business and the accounting was passed to a second generation.
LWL Mss Vol. 272
Acquired October 2021
A manuscript account book of a general builder that provides a detailed record of works, in particular bricklaying and carpentry, carried out for different clients from appoximately 1803 to 1814. The prices for materials and employment of additional laborers are included, and in many cases the locations of clients are noted next to their names.
LWL Mss vol. 273
Acquired July 2021