James Watt & Co. Financial Records

MS 3147/17

James Watt & Co. Financial Records

1803-1841

As noted above, the survival of James Watt & Co.’s financial records is extremely poor. There are no records from the early years of the firm, indeed there are no 18th century records at all. Only three ledgers, a journal and a file of press copies of accounts survive – there are no examples of day books or lower level records such as cash books or wages books. However one of the Soh Manufactory cash books (MS 3147/3/64) contains an incomplete cash account for James Watt & Co. from 20 August 1821 to 2 October 1826. Some information about James Watt & Co.’s cash account in the 1790s and early 1800s will also be found in the bundle of papers concerning the case of Robert Hodges, the James Watt & Co. clerk who absconded in 1805 (MS 3147/2/66).
Ledgers.
Impersonal Sales Ledger.
This ledger is divided into accounts for the different types of copying machine and accessories such as paper and ink. Within each account, the items ‘in hand’ are accounted for on the left, while items sold are accounted for on the right. No names of customers are recorded – all the sales are cross-referred to a Sales Book which is now missing. This ledger was presumably part of a much larger series.
Ledgers.
Two personal ledgers, mainly containing the accounts of external customers of the firm. However the accounts merely record the sums of money involved ‘To Trade’ and ‘By Trade,’ and do not detail what the customers actually bought. Entries in the first volume were posted from the Journal described below. The second volume dates from the period when the separate firm of James Watt & Co. had become the Copying Department of Boulton Watt & Co., the steam engine business. Its corresponding journal is now missing. Both these ledgers are indexed.
Journal.
The Journal posts its entries to the Ledger described above. This journal is the sole survivor of a much larger series.
Copies of Accounts.
This bundle contains press copies of accounts of various Soho firms with James Watt & Co. from 1815 to 189, as well as a small number of papers ‘found scattered about in Ledger after William D. Brown’s death, when too late to paste them in the order of their dates in Letter Book.’ Which ledger these were found in is not clear, but the bundle contains accounts of Chance & Son and James Miller with James Watt & Co.

The Financial Records are arranged as follows:
Ledgers
Journal
Press copies of accounts

More detailed information on each series is given in the Description field, while reference numbers and covering dates of the actual records, and a list of the old reference numbers will be found in the pdf of the full series list attached. Item level lists are available in the searchroom of Birmingham Archives and Heritage.

4 volumes, 1 file

There are no restrictions on access to or use of the James Watt & Co. Financial Records. However fragile items or those in a poor state of repair may not be served at the discretion of the Duty Archivist.

The records listed here are the surviving financial records of James Watt & Co., the copying machine manufacturing business based at Soho Manufactory. The accounting records of James Watt & Co. appear to have been kept by the clerks at Soho Manufactory. Who kept the books when the firm was established in 1780 is not clear, but in 1781 the cashier John Buchanan revised the books. The journals and ledgers were later kept by Matthew Boulton?s cashier William D. Brown, and then by William Burdon, the chief cashier and bookeeper. There was one clerk employed exclusively by James Watt & Co., who handled matters such as petty cash transactions, but books such as sales and wages were kept by the head clerk in the Boulton & Watt counting house, part of whose salary was paid by James Watt & Co. Therefore the copying machine business?s financial records were kept alongside those of the engine firm. The two sets of records became even more closely intergrated when James Watt & Co. was discontinued as a separate firm and became the ?Copying Department? of Boulton Watt & Co. in 1840, following Matthew Robinson Boulton?s severance of his partnerships with James Watt Jr.