Manuscript ledger of Roger Pettiward for the years 1789-1796, when he was a bachelor in his late 30’s living primarily in Putney. This extensive and detailed ledger offers insight into the necessities and frivolities of an 18th century man-about-town.
LWL Mss Vol. 233
Acquired March 2018
Manuscript account in a single hand of personal expenditures and receipts between 1772 and 1775 for Sir Armine Wodehouse, both in Norwich and visits to London and elsewhere, offering insight to the life of an affluent and active public figure. In addition to wages for servants and laborers, the entries record expenses for travel and houskeeping; food and drink; personal expenses of every kind including ink and paper and books, hair care and other personal care items, clothing, rental on piane forte, clocks, framing for prints, chocolate, clocks, furnitures, etc.
LWL Mss Vol. 225
Acquired November 2016
A manuscript with 78 leaves (54 are blank) in two hands, of the fee farm rents belonging to the Right Honourable Lord Walpole, and to Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. The first half of the volume lists the names, locations, rentals, details of payment etc. in columns in a fine hand. The second half of the volume in the second hand, divides the pages between debtor and creditor. In 1760, Lord Walpole received 76 rents but by 1807, the figure appears to have been reduced to 59, with many properties having been sold.
Title: A rental of the fee farm rents belonging to the Right Honourable Lord Walpole, and to Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, 1760-1814.
LWL Mss Vol. 228
Acquired September 2016
Four detailed manuscript volumes relating to the estates, tenants, farming and household expenditure for Icomb Estate and the Hopton family. The first volume covers the years 1753-1788 (ca. [60 including blanks], 154 pages) and begins with a list of the tenants of Icomb Estate, a small parish near Stow on the Wold in Gloucester and records the farming and household expenditures and receipts, including wages for labor, materials for building works, Ledbury Turnpike, and other routine estate management expenses. The second volume (80 pages, some blank) includes the details of investment and tithe accounts for the period 1769-1786 including shares in the Corn Market (Mark Lane, London) as well as other investments and loans between family members. No. 3 Titled “An inventory of furniture & plate in the new house at Cannon Frome with the prices, where bought & in what year bought. June 1795” ([2],134 p.). The fourth volume (ca. 85 p. with loose pages laid in) is a detailed record of the Anne Hopton‘s personal expenses from 1802-1815 and documents the tastes and life style of an educated, wealthy woman in Regency England.
LWL Mss Vol. 216
Acquired July 2015
Household accounts book for Hardwicke House on the banks of the river Thames in Oxfordshire includes itemized payments to kitchen staff as well as lists of ingredients and the quantities purchased. The household employed two cooks during this period; the accounts are signed by Mary Stent until Christmas quarter-day of 1748 when she received her last payment and then by her replacement by Ann Colet. Under Colet’s management the list of ingredients becomes more detailed. The accounts also list payments for kitchen equipment (ladles, dishes, “wooden ware”, needles, etc.) as well as other items needed by the staff including chamber pots and postage for letters. The accounts were reviewed by Philip Powys Esqr., who settled the accounts with the cooks.
LWL Mss Vol. 213
Acquired November 2013
A fine series of letters from William Tate of Tate and Whiteside, Merchants of Lime Street, London. Acting as one of Adam’s major contacts in the capital and his sometimes business partner, Tate supplied Adams with wine and fruit, looked after his financial interests, procured books and other articles for him, reported on shipping movements and acted as a conduit for Adams in his financial dealings with America and Jamaica.
Added to the Thomas Adams Papers Catalog Record
LWL Mss 2
Acquired August 2013
The account book kept by Assheton Curzon recording personal expenditure and management of his joint executorship, with his father Sir Nathaniel Curzon, of the affairs of his aunt Eleanor Curzon, 1754 December-1758 April.
LWL Mss Vol. 204
Acquired December 2012
Manuscript account book of the collier brig The Royal Briton, for the years 1762 to 1785, in brown ink with columns ruled in red. Built in the Whitby ship yard of George Langborn the ship was active in the coal and timber trades in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, and Norway.
LWL Mss Vol. 197
Acquired August 2012
An account book in a variety of hands that records the purchase price of food that was later sold to customers at the Coach and Horses Inn on Conduit Street, London, between 1756 and 1758. A popular stop for grooms and coachmen, it was located near the Limmer’s Hotel, a haunt for the upper echelons of the mid-Georgian sporting world. The accounts include the prices paid for meat, game, fish, and vegetables as well as details about the kind of fare offered at this time in central London. Other expenses are recorded include payments to maids, valets, housekeeping. Payments are signed and dated. “To Thomas Wilson at Mrs. Graham’s at the Coach and Horses in Conduit Street, London” on back pastedown. Some personal notes unrelated to accounts hint at the lives of the staff: “Miss Mary Ann Lane is [the] best young lady in ale [the] world.”
LWL Mss Vol. 206
Acquired October 2012
A personal account book in a single hand, Henry Boyle’s, of Edgcott, Buckinghamshire beginning January 1745 and ending October 1755, a decade of expenses including travel to France and Spain in March 1748, trips to London, Warwick, and Surrey among other places; wages to servants, payments to tradesmen for wine, clothing, tea, coffee, snuff, venison, medicines, etc.; record bank balances and notes about settling his mother’s estate. He also records receipt of payment for taxes and rents owed him. He includes details about the books he purchases and from whom as well as the occasional philosophical musings, an original song composed in Madrid, and an “infallable cure for the bite of a mad dog”.
LWL Mss Vol. 205
Acquired December 2012
