A Queen Anne Pocket-Book29
(By Alice Pollard)
Some forty years ago there was picked up in the cellar of a large private bank in Lombard Street a little pocket-book, which must have lain there for at least a century. Its parchment covers were yellow and time-stained, and the brown ribbon which fastened them together had become ragged and moth-eaten, but despite its somewhat faded brown ink the crabbed handwriting remained as legible as ever. After its removal from the Lombard Street cellar the queer little book lay for another forty years in the musk-scented drawer of a Chippendale secretaire, which formed for it a not unfitting resting-place. Thence it has to-day been unearthed, and is now to be made to tell its old-world story. This, in truth, is but a simple one, as the book contains chiefly a very carefully kept memorandum of the moneys spent by its owner during his youth and early manhood; but running through these accounts we can trace something of his family history, of his employments, tastes, and habits, and so, I think, gain a very fair idea of the writer’s individuality. Now and then, as if to help us, he uses a page as a diary, and by means of such entries as births, deaths, and marriages, we can piece our story together.
‘John Payne, 1699,’ that is the first information which our book gives us, and we turn from the fly-leaf, where it is boldly written, to inquire who this John Payne was, and what was his business and rank in life. We start with a predisposition to believe that he was a banker, because it was in a bank which still bears his name that his pocket-book was picked up; but the pocket-book itself has nothing to say about banking, while it is very profuse on the subjects of ‘Linsayes, dyapers, Westfalia linen,’ etc., and informs us that its owner was frequently sending home house linen and dress stuffs to his mother, sisters, and friends. Somewhat reluctantly, therefore, we conclude that our hero began life as a draper, and it is with satisfaction (for we would fain have him cut a figure) that we note sundry entries of a Sir James and my Lady, a Sir Stephen, and a Lady Langham in a connection which shows them to have been either relations or old family friends. There are not wanting other indications that our young draper came of a well-to-do stock, and we may, therefore, conclude that in coming to London to serve a seven years’ apprenticeship, he was only acting on the excellent rule that to win success as a merchant (or anything else) you must begin at the beginning. As has been already said, the date inside the pocket-book is 1699, but the accounts begin on January 10, 1696, so that those of the first three years have evidently been copied in from some earlier notes. This ascertained, we become excited to find the entry of the purchase of the book itself, and are rewarded after a little search by the information that, together with some paper and quills, it only cost one shilling and fourpence, certainly no excessive outlay for a book constantly in use for over a quarter of a century. In copying his back accounts into his new purchase, John divided his book into two halves, keeping the first for ‘what I have layd out since I came to London on my Father’s charge,’ and the second for his disbursements from ‘the money that I did bring up to town at the first coming up (4l 8s.), and sent me since and given me by freinds.’ In looking over his accounts for him we will follow the order of his own choosing, and begin with his expenditure for what he considered the necessaries he might fairly charge to his father.
On his first arrival in town the youthful John evidently found himself somewhat behind the times in the cut of his clothes and the fashion of his hair, for on the first page of the book we have distinct suggestions of visits to his tailor and the barber, who between them arrayed his outer man for a first entry into town life, and managed to do so at the moderate cost of £5, 3s. 6d. Here are the items:
| Layed out between ye 10th of January & ye 20th of February 1695/6. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | |
| A paire of Gloves | 00 | 01 | 02 |
| A box & hatband | 00 | 02 | 06 |
| A pennknife | 00 | 00 | 08 |
| A Queer of paper | 00 | 00 | 06 |
| A Coppy Booke | 00 | 00 | 08 |
| A Porter & letter | 00 | 00 | 06 |
| The Barber | 00 | 00 | 03 |
| Sugar Candy | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Damask 4 yds | 00 | 14 | 06 |
| 2 yds ¾ of Bd Cloth | 01 | 13 | 00 |
| 5 yds of Shaloone | 00 | 11 | 00 |
| Buttons & fustin | 00 | 10 | 11 |
| Buckrum & Canvis | 00 | 01 | 03 |
| Glazd Lin: | 00 | 00 | 05 |
| The Taylors Bill | 01 | 06 | 00 |
| 05 | 03 | 06 |
Tailors were evidently more modest in their charges in those days. It is difficult at first to see under what pretext John could have set down twopennyworth of sugar candy under the head of ‘Thinges layd out on my Father’s charge,’ but we soon find a further entry of ‘Things for my cold,’ and doubtless the sugar candy might also have come under that head; indeed, the London fogs seem not to have agreed with the Huntingdonshire lad, for more than once in each year we find references to colds which mostly appear to have been treated by blood-letting.
After the first month of 1695/6 the father could have had no cause to complain of his son’s extravagance, for his whole expenses for the next quarter come to seventeen shillings and fourpence, even including ‘Sister Betty’s fringe,’ for which he paid eightpence, a tip of sixpence given to ‘Ye Maide,’ and ‘Close mending from Top to Toe,’ which cost him four shillings and threepence! During the next year and a half he has a fair number of new clothes and makes some wonderful bargains, obtaining ‘A Comb: Sisers: Blade & Buttons’ for one shilling and ninepence. His barber is still an expensive item, for his ‘Peruke’ needs constant attention; his cold also requires ‘sugar candy and other things,’ but he executes a great piece of economy by having ‘Wastcoate turned to Breeches’ at a cost of only 2s. 1d. In 1699 his ‘wigg’ again proves costly; it appears to have been thoroughly done up and trimmed to the latest fashion previous to a visit to his home, for we find two entries following each other:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| My Wigg & its Mending | 01 | 04 | 00 |
| My place ith’ Coach & charge on the Roade | 01 | 00 | 00 |
The remaining accounts which he sends in to his father from time to time have no particular interest, being more or less repetitions of those which have gone before, but on the last page of the book he sums up the whole seven years as follows: ‘Spent on father’s acct in ye whole 7 years of Apprenticeship, 64l. 19s. 11d. Spent on my own acct on Self and freinds, 19l. 15s. 9d. Spent less than I had saved before and given me after I came to towne in ye 7 years, 3l. 13s. 5d.’ The seven years’ private accounts start as follows:
The Money that I did bring up to town att y^e first coming up was 4l. 8s. 0d.
Lent me since yt & given me by freinds:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| By father | 0 | 17 | 0 |
| By Mother | 0 | 13 | 6 |
| By Grandmother | 1 | 19 | 6 |
| By Sr James and my Lady | 2 | 18 | 0 |
| By Cousen Betty | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| By Sr Stephen | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| By Brother | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| By Uncle & Aunt | 0 | 03 | 0 |
| By Sisters | 0 | 13 | 6 |
| Hog Money & old Coate | 0 | 06 | 0 |
| By several | 0 | 04 | 6 |
| By ye Box Money of ye first ½ of my time | 0 | 18 | 6 |
| By ye King’s Entry | 0 | 03 | 0 |
| By Aunt Wikes | 0 | 02 | 6 |
| By father more | 0 | 09 | 0 |
| By my Lady more | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| 16 | 01 | 0 |
7s. 6d. I had given me more not sett down because layd out againe In Tokens.
The private accounts are only entered in detail for one half the time of his apprenticeship, and with one or two additions may be all summed up under the following heads:—‘Fruit: Necessarys: Lost in wagers and other wayes: on ye Poore: Spent with kindred and acquaintance: Tokens: & given.’
The regularity with which the accounts are kept is only equalled by the remarkable steadiness of his expenditure; the first and third years showing an outlay of exactly £1, 2s. each, whilst the second and fourth each run to precisely £2. Perhaps it will be most interesting to examine the four years side by side.
| 1st | Year. | 2nd | Year. | 3rd | Year. | 4th | Year. | |
| s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | |
| In fruit | 6 | 10½ | 8 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
| Necessarys | 1 | 1½ | 2 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 6 |
| Lost in wagers & other wayes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 11 | |
| On Ye Poore | 1 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 |
| Spent with Kindred & acquaintance | 4 | 1½ | 6 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 15 | 0 |
| Tokens | — | — | 13 | 8 | — | — | 11 | 6 |
| Given | — | — | 1 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
The additional expenses are unnoteworthy with the exception of ‘A Key to a Pen,’ which certainly arouses curiosity; the price of the key was one shilling, but its size, shape, and use remain a mystery to us.
The next page or two are filled with desultory memoranda of small sums received in the form of ‘tips,’ and ending up with these two statements:
This being Septr ye 29th 1699 I find I have spent this first half of my time on my own charges 06l. 4s. 00d..
Spent on my own acct in ye 7 years 19l. 15s. 9d.
One is tempted to speculate as to what form his greater extravagance during the second half of his time took, but on this point the book is silent.
The apprenticeship ended in the early part of 1703, but John apparently stayed on in the same business for several years afterwards at a weekly wage of £5. That this did not constitute his entire income is clear from a page of his diary, which records: ‘Father recd of Jos. Atkins for my rent Dew at Lady Day 1701, 16l. 13s. 00d. taxes being Deducted’; and again, after more references to Jos. Atkins: ‘Recd of my tenant in all 64l. 17s. being 2 years rent due att Michaelmas 1703.’
We do not find any references either in the diary or the accounts to the time when the young man began to think of taking to himself a wife, but his income at the high value of money in those days would now be quite sufficiently large to enable him to do so, and some time within the next three years he wooed and won his bride. Of the nature of that wooing one would gladly learn a little more, for even with the help of a decided love-letter written to his mistress within six months of their marriage we cannot divine much. How this letter (probably only one amongst many of a like nature) ever fell again into the hands of its original writer, to be placed by him in the pocket of the little account-book, we are unable to say; but there it is, yellow and stained with age, and worn with much folding and refolding. It is written on the thin, rough, large square note-paper of the period, sealed with a monogram and elaborately addressed on the back:
For Mrs. Lydia Durrant att
Mr. Henry Woodgate’s in
Goudhurst
Kent
By Stone Crouch Bag
The letter is so short and so quaint that I transcribe the whole.
I gladly embrace ys first opportunity to tell you dearest Mdm yt I arrived Safe in towne ys evening with a great deal of ease both to my horse & self; The Roads I found much better than by way of Tunbridge & Weather Thanks be to God pretty favourable, My greatest trouble was to think ye nearer I was to my journeys End, yt I was still ye farther from yr Dear Self. Do me so much Justice Mdm as to believe yt it is impossible for me to have any interest or concern nearer my heart then you & I am sorry so great a truth and pure cannot be expressed in other Words then such as sometimes are forced to serve ye profane use of Complements. I wish it were any way in my power & I hope it will ’ere long, to shew ye true affection I have for you & I value myself upon ye opportunity I promise myself of shortly kissing yr hand. I have not mett with father as yett but trust I shall tomorrow morning. Yr letters to Hackney shall be delivered with care and speed. I beg Mrs Woodgate’s acceptance of ye oranges designed her ys week by Caryer, I shall rejoice to hear ye little one is come safe to towne & Aunt in a way of recovery but above all to hear of yr good health wch will be an infinite joy. If you did believe or could Imagine how great a refreshment a letter from you would afford me at this melancholy distance you would not faile to write by the first post, & ye hopes I conceive you will do so support me under ye misfortune of yr absence. It is late so adding my humble service to Unkle’s & Mr Paris’s family with a thousand thanks shall extend this no farther than ye subscribing myself with a most sincere and hearty affection
Mdm yr most humble admirer
John Payne.
March 12th 1705/6 Fetter Lane.
‘My greatest trouble was to think the nearer I was to my journeys End, that I was still the farther from your Dear Self’—that is a very prettily turned sentence, and yet with a ring about it which sounds straight from the heart. Throughout the whole letter, indeed, there is a delightful simplicity and homeliness which even the stilted phraseology of the period cannot quite spoil, and which tempts us to think that when the ‘melancholy distance’ (of some thirty miles) no longer kept the lovers apart, John may possibly have greeted his lady just a little more warmly than with that respectful touch of her hand which was all that epistolary conventions allowed him to propose to himself. At any rate his suit prospered, for in the middle of his pocket-book we come across two pages of diary pure and simple which show us that just five months after his letter the wished-for opportunity of showing his ‘true affection’ was granted by his marriage with Mistress Lydia Durrant in September of the same year. Immediately following this record of his entrance ‘into ye holy state of Matrimony, Sept. 4, 1706,’ we have the beginning of his household accounts. On the credit side they run as follows:
| Recd Sept. 27th, 1706— | £ | s. | d. |
| 4 weeks money from Shop | 20 | 00 | 0 |
| 5 weeks do. Nov. 2d | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Recd Fa[ther] pr. Bror Woodford | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Recd Brother Woodford more than layed out | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| Nov. 16. 2 weeks’ money | 10 | 00 | 0 |
| — 23. 1 week’s money | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec. 7. 2 weeks’ money | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan. 18. 6 weeks’ money | 30 | 00 | 0 |
| Jan. 25. 1 week’s money | 5 | 00 | 0 |
| 127 | 11 | 0 |
The debit side is evidently headed by expenses in connection with the wedding, and it would appear that, when John had brought his wife to town, the young couple finished the furnishing of their house together.
| Septr 29, 1706. | £ | s. | d. |
| Pd for hatt | 1 | 11 | 00 |
| Other small things | 0 | 10 | 00 |
| Mantle pr. glass | 2 | 10 | 00 |
| Wife | 2 | 10 | — |
| Charges of journey | 6 | 9 | 00 |
| Pd Father for house | 6 | 15 | 00 |
| Pd for Chaires | 4 | 8 | 00 |
| 2 Kills Beere | 0 | 10 | 00 |
| Wife for house | 2 | 6 | 00 |
| Self for Pockett | 1 | 00 | 00 |
| Glasses 12s. 6d., Table 8s. | 1 | 00 | 06 |
| Chest of Drawers & Do. | 3 | 16 | 00 |
| Nov. 18th. | |||
| Wife for house | 2 | 00 | 00 |
| Linen | 5 | 6 | 00 |
| Shoes 9s., house 2l. | 2 | 9 | 00 |
| Knives 30s. | 1 | 10 | 00 |
| Months Rent, Board, & Servts wages to Michms | 9 | 17 | 6 |
| Pd wife for house | 2 | 00 | 00 |
| Linen for Ditto | 3 | 00 | 6 |
| Buttr, Cheese, & Bacon | 1 | 12 | 6 |
| W. Clark, Upholster | 10 | 12 | 6 |
| W. Litchfeilds Bill | 5 | 2 | 00 |
| House 6 weeks | 12 | 00 | 00 |
| Pd for Plate & Spoons | 12 | 5 | 6 |
| Pd Cheesemonger, St Martins | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| House 2l., Handk. & Muz. 31s. | 3 | 11 | 00 |
| 106 | 12 | 00 |
On the next page we have a reference to Sarah’s wages, which were £2, 3s., but as no dates are given we are unable to decide whether this represents three or six months’ hire.
We now begin to notice that besides ‘wife for house,’ there is another entry of ‘wife for self,’ which occurs pretty often, ‘wife’ receiving from two to three pounds at once, and finally she receives five pounds for her ‘occassions,’ a mysterious allusion which is perhaps explained by a reference later on to ‘Parson and Clark, 13s. 3d.,’ and ‘Cradle and Baskitt, 11s. 6d.’ Turning to the ‘Diary,’ we have the simple record of the birth, and sad to say the death, of his first child:
My Dear first child was born y^e 23^{rd} of June, 1707, about 10 in ye forenoon.
Christened by ye name of Eliz. ye 25 of ye same month, & dyed ye 19th of July following about 11 at night, & lyes in ye vault in St Voster’s, Londn.
With the birth of the child the household expenses increase, and we find in addition to ‘House 2l.’ further expenses, which are noted down as ‘extraordinary,’ but soon cease to be looked upon as anything but ordinary.
The household seems to have been kept up on a fairly large scale, for we have mention of a ‘Kate’ and a ‘Betsy’ who also receive wages as well as ‘Sarah’; but it is evident from the other side of the page that the wife’s father lived with the young people and kept his own manservant, paying them for board two sums of £47, 10s. within the twelve months. Items for wine and beer are very common, one brewer’s bill for six months being ten pounds! It is difficult to guess what became of the money allowed for ‘House,’ since the master paid servants’ wages, and bills for wine, beer, coals, groceries, house-linen, butcher, butter-man, and taxes! His wife’s allowance also was very liberal, and at various times he pays for the following items besides: ‘For Wife’s Scarf, 2l. 10s. 0d.; Wife’s Callico, 1l. 7s.; Wife’s Silk, 6l. 10s. 00d.; Wife, for tippet, 4l. 6s. 00d.’; in fact, according to his own showing, he appears to have given his wife ample means of providing both for the house and herself, and then to have paid all her bills as well!
Under date October 1708, we come across evidence of the arrival of another child to replace the one too soon lost. This time ‘Parson and Clark’ head the list, receiving 13s. 3d.; ‘Gossiping money’ comes to £1. 2s. 6d.; ‘Coates for child, 1l. 1s. 6d.’; ‘Midwife and Nurse, 3l. 4s. 6d.,’ and the Diary says:
My second child John was born Octr 13th, 1708, & was baptised ye Sabbath Day following by W. Benjn. Ibbatt.
There is still another record of the birth of a daughter, who, like the first, lived but a few days.
My daughter Ann was born Novr ye 12th, 1709, & Dyed ye 19th Ditto.
After this the regular accounts stop, as does also the Diary, but from stray notes scattered through the book there would appear to have been born yet another daughter who survived infancy, but whose health must have given cause for anxiety. Thus in February 1716, we read: ‘Pd Nurse Patch fifteen Pounds twelve shillings in full for nursing and boarding my Daughter to the 20th of this Instant February.’ And again, in February 1720, the child and nurse were evidently sent on a long visit to Huntingdon to Grandmother Payne: ‘Pd Mother Febry ye 16th, 1720/1, Thirty seaven Pounds fourteen shillings & 6d. in full for Butter, Interest, Child, and Maide’s board and wages and all accts.’
After November 1709 there are no more regular house-accounts, and the little book is used principally for jotting down moneys received and larger sums paid out to his mother and sisters. The shop also ceases to be mentioned, and we have numerous entries of rents paid by tenants in Huntingdon;—indeed it would seem that soon after the death of his wife’s father, which occurred in June 1709, John Payne left London and went down to manage his estates in Huntingdon, where he seems to have been in possession of about £1000 per annum in landed property, chiefly consisting of small farms let to tenants at from £20 to £50 per annum. Out of this property, however, he has to pay quarterly dividends to his mother and sister Anna, though their income, like that of most widows and unmarried daughters of the time, was very small and could form no great burden on the estate. At what period John Payne again left his country house to mix once more in London business life, whether he was personally connected with the bank or only lent his money and his name, or whether indeed he ever was one of the founders or left that honour to his son John, is all a matter of conjecture; yet one closes the quaint little old book with feelings of regret, and would fain follow its owner a little further. The last date is 1726, when he must still have been a comparatively young man.
The publication of this little article had the pleasant result of enabling the writer to restore the Pocket-Book to a descendant of the original owner. Further notes on some of the persons mentioned will be found in a ‘Sequel’ contributed by Mr. John Orlebar Payne to the next number (that for April 1889) of ‘Longman’s Magazine.’