Edward Burton journal and commonplace book of agricultural notes

manuscript notebookA journal kept by the farmer Edward Burton in which he records business matters along with accounts of local events around the Leicestershire villages of Hemington and Castle Donington. He records crops sold, laborers’ expenses paid, and the days on which neighbors began their respective harvests. Burton also used the volume as a commonplace book, including notes on remedies, proverbs from printed sources, and lists of authors and scientists, much of the information derived from almanacs of the day.
Laid in the front pocket of the binding were, eight receipts for purchases, all dated 187-, 1871 or 1872, made out to later members of the Burton family, Thomas and Arthur Burton and Burton Creswell. Now housed separately with the volume.

 

  • Author: Burton, Edward.
  • Title: Edward Burton journal and commonplace book of agricultural notes : manuscript.
  • Production: Leicestershire, England, circa 1771-1798.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss Vol. 259

Acquired November 2020

Dividend receipt from the South Sea Company

description below

Dividend receipt addressed “To Mr. Lockyer accomptant at the South Sea house” and annotated in the lower right by “Rich. Sarum”. The body of the document reads: “Pray pay to the bearer Mr. Daniel Gell my share of the midsumer [sic] dividend due on two thousand four hundred forty four pounds eight shillings 10d.1/2 capital stock in the South Sea Company, and this shall be a sufficient warrant. Westmr. Octr. 25 1722”.

 

  • Title: Dividend receipt from the South Sea Company : manuscript.
  • Production: Westminster, 1722 October 25.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss File 153

Acquired August 2020

Collection of 20 British inn bills, [circa 1780]-1841

collection of twenty engraved and letterpress British inn bills completed in manuscript in various hands from regions throughout England and Wales, dating between circa 1780 and 1841. Many are printed with menus listing food and drinks as well as services, providing insight into what travellers at the end of the Georgian era were offered in any given region in this period; they are also early examples of the growing tourism trade. Beside tea, coffee, milk, soda water, lemonade, cider (cyder), and a wide range of spirits, other options for speciality drinks include: negus, punch, Geneva, perry, and malt liquors. Many of the various services relate to the care and maintenance of horses and carriages; besides blacksmithing, farrier and saddling services, many of the inns offered hay and corn, rush lights, etc. Also on offer were “servant’s eating and ale”, beds with extra charges for “fires in a bed chamber”, and washing; other services listed included “Chaise hire”, servants, providers were sometimes available. Other common services and goods included writing materials, postage, tobacco, and, of course, meals with various foods like fruit listed separately. The printed invoices and menus include some with engraved designs or woodcuts that incorporate a representation of a local attraction or motifs indicative of the trade. Several of the bills also include the imprint of the provincial printer. The majority have manuscript annotations.
Two invoices from Welsh business are produced by “Watton, Printer, Shrewsbury Chronicle” for Bedd Gelert Hotel, Carnarvonshire A. Prichard and Harod Arms Hotel, Devil’s Bridge, a village and community in Ceredigion, Wales, both of which are illustrated on the fronts and backs, with the same image on the back: The Iron Suspension Bridge, completed and opened on Monday, Januaray 30th, 1826, over the Menai Strait from Carnarvonshire into Anglesey. The fronts include the advertisements for the individual business but also include other natural wonders of the area: Cataracts and Aber Glaslyb Bridge, the Salmon Leap and the Pass in Snowden.

  • Title: Collection of 20 British inn bills, [circa 1780]-1841.

Catalog Record 

LWL Mss File 147 & LWL Mss File 148

Acquired June 2019

 

 

 

Sir Christopher Musgrave receipts for personal goods

receipts

A collection of receipts and bills, in a variety of hands and mostly signed by the tradespeople, related to Sir Christopher Musgrave’s expenses during the years 1708-1718, with the bulk of the detailed receipts covering the years 1716-1718.

  • Author: Musgrave, Christopher, Sir, 1688-1736.
  • Title: Sir Christopher Musgrave receipts for personal goods and household expenses, 1708-1718 (bulk 1716-1718).

Catalog Record 

LWL Mss 31

Acquired November 2018

Collection eighteenth century trade cards and bills, between 1737 and 1756

Album of 43 trade cards, of various formats, which have been used as receipts or invoices by the traders and have stab holes resulting from the pin they where put on by an accountant or secretary. A few trade cards are repeated, four are typographically printed, and the rest are engraved or etched. All trade cards and bills are addressed to Mrs. Forth and give a good idea of the expenses and needs of a fashionable household in mid 18th-century London.

  • CreatorForth, Mrs.
  • TitleCollection eighteenth century trade cards and bills, between 1737 and 1756.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss Vol. 230

Acquired March 2017

An inventory of the household furniture, linen and china, in Bloomsbury Square

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Sir William Lee, 1688-1754. An inventory of Sir William’s Bloomsbury residence (taken 24 years after his death in 1788), is a remarkable document recording every item in all 30 rooms from the bed chambers to the coachman’s room, the servant’s hall and the kitchen. Every table, clock, candlestick, painting, pillow, bed, pot, pan, knife and fork are recorded with an additional list of linen, china and glass. The inventory ends with a 43 page listing of books located in ‘the front room’ and other rooms within the house. The collection, of approximately 1450 books, covers a broad spectrum of works including philosophy (Locke, Hobbes, &c.), politics, classics, lexicography, law, and literature (Fielding, Swift, Johnson, &c.). There are an additional eight manuscript receipts relating to Sir William senior. One is a remarkably dense 6pp receipt from Phillmore & Co. for building work ‘done at his.

  • TitleAn inventory of the household furniture, linen and china, in Bloomsbury Square, the house of William Lee Esq., deceased; together with an archive of manuscript invoices, receipts and quotations for building work carried out on behalf of the Lee family, 1734-1799.

Catalog Record

LWL MSS 18

Acquired April 2016

An inventory of the household furniture, linen and china, in Bloomsbury Square…

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A collection of 24 items including 11 letters from the coal merchant Frederick Miller invoicing Sir William for coal, five orders of ale from James Musgrave, and a beautiful printed receipt (completed in manuscript) for the use of one four-wheel carriage. Also included is an estimate by H. Gurney, dated December 8th, 1798 for ‘a roof to a new house at Hartwell’. Illustrated with a plan, the proposed cost was £122.6.0. Sir William died in 1799 and it is unknown whether the roof was ever constructed. A superb and rare archive providing both an invaluable record of the construction trade in Georgian England and, in the inventory of Sir William Lee’s London residence, a detailed picture of how an eighteenth century home was furnished room by room.

  • TitleAn inventory of the household furniture, linen and china, in Bloomsbury Square, the house of William Lee Esq., deceased; together with an archive of manuscript invoices, receipts and quotations for building work carried out on behalf of the Lee family, 1734-1799.

Catalog Record

LWL MSS 18

Acquired April 2016

Invoices from the Lemon-Tree Tavern and Hotel

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Three printed bills with manuscript completions, issued by the Aberdeen inn, the Lemon Tree and later the Lemon Tree Tavern and Hotel, and dated 1802, 1806, and 1811. The billhead includes a woodcut of a lemon tree and identifies the proprietor as George Ronald. The three bills display typographic differences in the setting of the headings as well as variation in the extensive list of drinks, foodstuffs, and services on offer, and the printer’s devices used to create the columns for prices in pounds, shillings, and pence vary. A note on the 1802 bill records the details of a game of whist including the names of the participants. The 1806 invoice also includes a note about the guests and their travel details.

  • TitleInvoices from the Lemon-Tree Tavern and Hotel : Aberdeen, to various, 1802 June 11, 1806 April 2, and 1811 April 19.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss File 132

Acquired July 2015