Account book of John Webb: chiefly payments of wages to workmen and tenants where...

Account book of John Webb: chiefly payments of wages to workmen and tenants where the account is made separately with each individual and often covering long periods; the reckoning is usually made on a Saturday night and paid at various rates - for one month by the day at 1s. comes to £1. 8s, one week at 10d. per day, 5s.; there is a suggestion of commuted boon works about some of the entries and the work is not confined to one craft or paid at a uniform rate - reaping 156 thraves of wheat at 3½d. per thrave, £2. 5s. 6d. (31 Aug. 1751); jobs include most tasks of the farming cycle, shearing sheep, mowing, plucking flax, etc.; set against the payments of wages are rents, cheese, bacon, etc. received between reckonings, small loans such as 2s. for Stratford Fair etc. Large deliveries of grain - wheat, barley, oats, maslin, drage - are delivered to a variety of people including millers - delivered to Mr. Farrs mill 16 bags of wheat from Woolston by the Woolston team at 13s. 9d. per bag, £11, (18 Dec. 1755); large deliveries and sales of white, blue and yellow flax are made to Mr. Hands at Warwick - 23½ stones of white flax at 6s. per stone. etc.; payments are made for watering 14 ricks of flax at 3s. per rick, £2. 2s, and later the women spread the ricks for the same payment. John Webb also acted for the parish and it is not always easy to ascertain in which capacity he is engaged - estate owner, agent or parish official; he paid £9. 14s. for clover seed for the parish (27 Feb. 1762) and he also purchased grass seed, etc.; payment is also made for gravel for the parish, sinking the mouths of the pits in Cophill Field. At the front of the volume there are memos. re. sowing Chilltorn corn, & new turnip seed; weaving 39 ells of harden at 2d. per ell, weaving, winding, warping; 51 yards of sacking at 2½d. per yard; purchase of nails, hinges, latches, etc. A number of entries refer to work on the turnpike - for scouring 513½ perch at 4d. per perch for the Turnpike Road, 24 days at the Turnpike at 10d. per day; turnpike payments are also noticed - turnpike at Hinckley 4d., turnpike at Coventry 2s., turnpikes with Miss Edge 2s. There are various payments and agreements with Wilson, the brickmaker, - 41,500 bricks at 6s. per 1,000, £12. 9s.; 7,500 tiles, £2. 16s.; 17 dozen kiln tiles £2. 2s. 6d. (5 Nov. 1753). Manure appears to have been collected from inns or public houses (probably a farm was run in association with the inn) - 15 loads of muck from the Red Horse, 10 from the New Inn, 6 from the Pack Horse, 2 from the wheelwrights. Payments are made for cow keeping, crow keeping in Sherborne Field, and mole catching. Webb is able to allow some credit - sold Mr. Fairfax 60 stones of flax at 6s. 6d. per stone which he is to pay for at Lady Day 1760, £17. 10s. Large sales of beef, mutton and pork are made to the butcher - 900 1bs. of beef and 23 1bs. of veal; ¼ of the bull weighed 206 1bs. at 2d. per pound (16 Oct. 1756). Difficult to identify place - Warwick, Sherborne area. With related papers. Detailed.