Rufford Abbey household and estate account book; receipts and payments (debtor and...

DD/SR/235/1

1837-1845

Rufford Abbey household and estate account book; receipts and payments (debtor and creditor accounts), arranged under specific headings including -- House expenses Rufford which amounted to £1, 416. 5s. 5½d. in 1837 and £786. 19s. 5d. in 1838 but could fluctuate between £495. 2s. 4½d. in 1839 and £2,038. 12s. 9d. in 1843. Entries in this section include wages paid fortnightly, purchase and carriage of hops, barley, wheat, rye, malt and coal; leading furniture from Nottingham to Sandbeck; £100. to Mrs. Cane (housekeeper) for expenses of the house; J. Coke for year's coal £148.; iron goods for the Hall £45. 6s. and £57. 10s. 3d.; R. Widdison a marble mortar for still room £2. 3s.; carriage of hamper of grouse from Mansfield 3s.; expences and toll driving bullocks and sheep to Sandbeck 3s.; W. Cocking burning charcoal £8. 18s.; tanning skins; Skegby toll bar for waggons and carts fetching boon coals £2. 14s. 4½d.; James Cartledge 7½ cwt. straw for mattresses at 3s. per cwt. £1. 2s. 6d.; S. Wilkinson for ropes for the Abbey clock 7s. 6d.; J. Brooks and J. Bell getting ice for the Ice House 4 days at 2s., 8s. (12 Jan. 1838); driving ice carts 3s. 4d.; allowance to 28 men filling Ice House 2 days 1s. each £1. 8s.; Messrs. Deacon and Co. carriage of wine from London to Rufford £13. 5s.; R. Farley Gainsbro freight for goods, furniture cases etc. £37. 7s. 11d.; Messrs. Ward and Cox surgeons' bill for 1835 for Mrs. Cane etc. and servants £3. 16s. (paid in 1839); iron work for mangle £8. 7s.; Edward Cox surgeon's bill 1836-9 and part of 1840 £197. 11s. 1d.; Joseph Lister's bill for malt for Rufford and Sandbeck 36 qrs. at 72s. per qr., £129. 12s.; J. Huddlestone furniture wood £66. 15s. 10d.; J. Barker of Clown (Db.) burning charcoal 84 qrs. at 2s. per qr., £8. 8s.; repairing 2 weather glasses £1. 10s.; Edward Cox surgeon's bill for house for 1840 £109. 0s. 4d. (paid in 1841) and for various people on estate £59. 13s. 11d.; J. Kemp carriage of picture £1. 12s. 6d. (5 March 1842); Farm wool £142. 19s. (30 July 1842); hops kept for use valued at £122. 2s.; surgeon's bill for 1841 £216.9s.; Mrs. Cane's house expenses in 1843 £600; oil for lamps £16. 6s. in 1846 and £90. 15s. in 1844. Repairs for Rufford Hall. Howard Colvin in his A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 2nd edition (1978) refers to Anthony Salvin's work on internal alterations to Rufford Abbey for the 8th earl of Scarborough in 1839-42; from the evidence of these accounts the period of Salvin's involvement with Rufford can with certainty at least be extended from 1837-1843. Total expenditure under this heading was £5,599. 16s. 4d. in 1837, £4,553. 5s.5d. in 1838, £3,510. 16s. 3¼d. in 1839, £4,409. 13s. 3½d. in 1840, £3,533. 16s. 5d. in 1841, £3,059. 18s. 1d. in 1842, £1,399. 6s. 2d. in 1843, £916. 13s. in 1844 and £746. 1s. 5d. in 1845. In 1837 R.S. Wilkinson received various sums paid at intervals throughout the year as per Mr. Salvins certificate - work approved by the architect and passed for payment; the total Wilkinson received in that year was £2,359. 13s. 7½d.

Robert Sugars Wilkinson, Clerk of Works, Rufford Abbey is noted in White's Nottinghamshire Directory 1844. Mr. Salvin is also recorded as receiving £396. 16s. 6d. for sundry bills. In 1838 Wilkinson received £3,202. 16s. 1½d. as per Salvin's certificates. An entry under 30 Jan. 1838 suggests that Wilkinson and Salvin may have taken over the work at Rufford from others ---- R. Marshall for wages of joiners to last January when Taylor was Clerk of Works, Mr. Hurst architect, £78. 10s. In 1839 Wilkinson received £2,273 12s. 1d. passed by Salvin, in 1840 £2,500., in 1841 £1,730. (James Drabble also received payment of £140. for upholstery), in 1842 £1,380., in 1843, £820., in 1844 £710. and in 1845 £515. The payments made to Wilkinson in 1844 and 1845 do not specify that they are made per Salvin's certificate. Entries in this section include ---- F. White for freight of timber £44. 11s. 2d.; Mr. Lindley for stone £301; Mr. Haslam for coppers and whitesmith's work £98; Messrs. Barkwith and Spalding for timber £761; carriage of stone from Dunham £8. 13s. 9d.; J.C. Huddlestones of Newark for timber £363; Wm. Wilson plumber's work to Xmas last per his book £206. 7s.; Messrs. G. & J. Earles for cement £56. 6s. 5d.; freight of cement etc. from Hull £11; in 1838 (19 June) Wm. Wilson was paid £200. on account of plumber's and glazier's work during repair of the Hall; in 1839 (26 June) John Wolstenholme's bill for carving in the Brick Hall amounted to £138. 12s. 6d.; in 1840 expenditure on timber was £423. 3s. 4d. (Messrs. Huddlestone), stone £212. 13s. 11d. (J. Earnshaw), painting £88. 11s. 2d. (C. Thomson), mouldings £45. 15s. (Hasleden and Co.), plasterer £154. 18s. 9d. (Rob. Armstrong), a new metal water wheel etc. £150. 8s. 6d. (W. Frost); in 1841 on the 21 Aug. the duke of Newcastle received payment of £228. 14s. 5d. for flooring, boards, stairs, slates, glass windows etc. from Worksop Manor; on 28 Dec. Wm. Frost of Derby received £111. 4s. 1d. for a circular saw etc.; in 1842 expenditure was still high but from 1843-1845 there was not such intense activity in the alterations at Rufford Abbey and expenditure declined rapidly.

Rufford Farm Mixed economy. Entries in 1837 include wheat and livestock sales - 30 bullocks sold at Lincoln Fair to Mr. Queensbrough by Mr. Campbell at £10. 10s. each, £315. Deacon and Co. were paid 18s. for carriage of a draining plough. Payments were made for mowing clover and grass and to the women for hay making. James Davis received £36. 8s. for bones, 8 tons. 2 cwts. at 90s. per ton. Receipts in 1837 included £107. 13s. 6d. from John Wilthorpe of Bradford by payment of W.C. Otley for 59 tod of wool at 36/6; also £14. 7s. 6d. from James Hind for skins from sheep killed etc. E. Hallam was paid £4. for a turnip cutter. G. Lyons received £190. for 20 bullocks Scotch at £9. 10s. each. Improvement appears with the payments to the Rev. G.F. Holcombe of Brinkley (Ca.) for tupping South Down ewes -- 1 score at 32s., £32.; 1 score at 40s. 6d., £40. 10s. and 3 score £95. 10s. John Outram's expences taking sheep to Nottingham Fair came to 4s. 2d. Mr. Barber paid £225. for 20 bullocks at £11. 5s. each sold at Bawtry Fair.

There are a number of entries relating to the steam engine, mason's work, bricks and brick laying, making a well for the steam engine. Receipts from Rufford Farm in 1837 totalled £1,768. 7s. 2½d., expenditure totalled £1,592. 3s. 2½d. Entries in 1838 include £60 to Mr. Joseph White on account of machinery for the steam engine. J. Wall also received £120. on account of the steam engine. Compensation or sick money was paid -- J. Whitworth 6 days ill at 1s. having received a cut in the leg. £25. was paid to the Rev. G.F. Holcombe for the use of 2 rams (South Downs) for the South Down ewes on the 19 June. £164. 9s. from sale of wool.

Receipts in 1838 totalled £829. 15s. 4d. while expenditure totalled £1,818 4s. 10½d. Entries in 1839 include £131. from sale of wool; on 30 Sept. £350. was paid for beasts bought at Brough Hill Fair -- 25 at £4. each and 50 at £5. each. Women are paid for weeding, cocking barley, harvesting potatoes etc., boys and girls for cleaning turnips etc. Receipts in 1839 totalled £741. 10s. 5d., expenditure £1,946. 14s. 9d. In 1840 the system of keeping accounts was simplified and the wages bill - paid fortnightly - is grouped together; this appears to relate to the regular labour force employed and totalled £616. 16s. 5d., odd items such as women cleaning turnips were still kept separate.

Receipts this year totalled £782. 12s. 1½d., expenditure £2,096. 3s. 3d. In 1841 receipts totalled £421. 12s. 8½d., expenditure £1,782. 15s. 6½d.

Estate General -- this section overlaps to some extent with the farm and house; a regular feature is a fortnights payment to men employed on sundry improvements £25. 3s. 4d. or similar figure. Mr. Simpson for valuing farms for rental at Rufford and Wellow and farming stock of the farm etc. £12. 1s. 6d. R. Widdison on account of mason work at Flowers Barn, Boughton, £100. Brooks and Bell getting stone for Rufford Mill weir 24 days at 2s. £2. 8s. There are refreshments for the tenants at Ollerton, Eakring and Egmanton on rent days -- the rent days at Ollerton in June and December cost £25. on each occasion.

Garden expences, Rufford -- chiefly wages, baskets, skeps, rods, lines, seeds, string, garden pots, hampers for packing fruit, bricklaying, breaking stone for walks, sweeping flues in hot houses, making frames, powdershot etc. Crisp Shooter was the gardener at Rufford and received a salary of £78. 10s. until 1841 when Thomas Challis is described as the gardener with a salary of £90. per annum. £505. 1s. 8½d. was expended on the gardens in 1837, £560. 1s. 2½d. in 1838, £427. 17s. 4½d. in 1839, £424. 6s. in 1840, £592. 3s. 8½d. in 1841, £679. 13s. 9d. in 1842 £562. 13s. 7d. in 1843, £612. 12s. 11d. in 1844 and £552. 17s. 6d. in 1845.

In 1844 £45. 4s. 8d. was paid for stone for the pleasure ground steps.

Woods and plantations -- chiefly sales of timber, bark, hop poles etc. Trade in hop poles was particularly brisk -- £327. 11s. 4d. in 1837 and£329. 7s. 6d. in 1838. Receipts in this section were £1,013. 16s. 10d. in 1837 and £1,479. 5s. 5½d. in 1838.

Charities - included £37. paid to G. Brockmer for instructing 31 boys at Ollerton School for year; £16 18s. to E.W. Wilmot for a fat beast to give to the poor at Christmas weighing 52 stone at 6s. 6d. per stone; £2. 10s. to Mrs. Boot of Ollerton for use of room and nurse for 10 days and nights attending poor woman who got hurt (Lord Scarborough's order); Ann Reynolds £5. for instructing 15 girls at Ollerton for ½ year; subscription to Eakring (£2. 2s.), Egmanton (£2.) and Laxton (£4.) Sunday Schools; £10. towards Ollerton church organ; £10. towards repair of Eakring church chancel; £20. to Rufford clothing club, etc.

Expences of preserving game -- repairing nets, malt culms for deer, killing vermin, traps, powder and shot, keepers' wages etc. Poaching was common and there are a number of entries concerned with the problem -- Charles Eyre, constable's charges taking and keeping poachers £3. 3s.; James Brook expences relative to prosecuting poachers at Nottingham Assizes £11. 7s. 6d. Considerable sums of money were paid out each year to men watching the game - usually over £600. per annum.

Stable expences - wages of stable boy, groom, etc.; oats, straw, hay for horses; veterinary attention etc. The cost for 1837 was £591. 5s. 1d. but varied considerably over the period.

Hop ground Rufford -on the 27 Sept. 1837 women and others pulled 3,410½ baskets of hops at 5d. per basket, £71. 1s. 0½d. In 1839 Messrs. Russell and Co. paid £223. 16s. for hops grown in 1839 and sold at Retford Fair and in 1841 Messrs. Wigan and Co., 4 Duke Street and London Bridge paid £544. 3s. 6d. for 63 cwt. 1qr. 3 lbs. of hops at £8. 12s. per qr.

Miscellaneous receipts and payments -- Decimus Godson on account of surveying Rufford parish £50; on 24 June 1839 J. Roberts was paid £2. for 20 gallons of ale on the coronation day of the Queen last year for the men at their dinners; £116. 15s. was allowed for old lead from Rufford and £21. 10s. 7d. for old lead from Wellow House; £331. 6s. 6d. was received from the Sun and Exchange Fire Offices for damages done by the late fire. On 26 June 1841 Messrs. Mee and Bigsby were paid £8. 7s. 6d. law charges for various prosecutions, £67. 15s. 4d. similarly chiefly relative to the new road and £7. 5s. for printing circulars for Lord Lumley's election in 1835. Decimus Godson received balance of £343. 6s. 4d. for surveying Rufford Liberty - the total cost was £393. 6s. 4d. but £50. cash had been received from Mr. Wilmot. 16 Aug. 1841 Godfrey Tallents was paid £99. 10s. ½d. for costs of Lord Scarborough's share of Wellow enclosure. Captain Williams received £250. as master of the Rufford Fox Hounds - the same payment is elsewhere described as Lord Scarborough's subscription to Rufford Fox Hounds. Entered under receipts in 1844 was £50. Abbott's portion towards repairs of Ollerton tan yard and bark mill etc. 4 Jan. 1845 John Clutton was paid £169. 15s. 7d. for apportioning tithes of Ollerton and Edwinstowe under the commutation act and on 17 Feb. George Sanderson (the cartographer) received £3. 3s. for a map re. Earl of Scarborough's election in 1832. £10. was paid as Lord Scarborough's donation to Wellow Hospital.

Brick yard at Rufford -- bricks, tiles pan tiles, ridges. In 1837 Lady Scarborough was charged £49. 12s. for 41,350 bricks at 24s. per thousand.

In the same year J. Coke received £145. 5. for 332 tons of coal at 8s. 9d. per ton. Wm. Lucas received £268. in 1840 and £279. in 1841 for brick making. Cash paid on account of works in hand -- this section is related to other sections and was probably created to control current expenditure.

Taxes and poor rates -- land tax, poor rates, highway composition, church rate, game certificates, window tax etc. The poor rate on the Estate Farm at 9d. in £1. on £1,176. 4s. was £44. 2s. 2d. Places include Rufford, Ollerton, Eakring, Boughton, Walesby, Wellow Park, Bilsthorpe, Babworth and Egmanton. After the reform of the accounting system all the rates and taxes for Rufford were given as one figure (without detail) - ½ year payment in 1843 was £108. 17s. 1d.

Annual payments include - £6. 18s. 6½d. paid to S. Bell, Gough Square, London, for ½ year's fee farm rent for Rufford Priory due to C.S. Murray, Esq., the actual fee farm rent was £8. 13s. ½d. but land tax of £1. 14s. 6d. was deducted Chief rents were paid to the duke of Newcastle for premises in Bothomsall, Elkesley and Ollerton water mill.

Lord Scarborough's yearly subscription to Nottinghamshire Agricultural Society was £5. The Rev. John Twells received £6. 13s. 4d. for 1 year's payment in lieu of Morton Grange tithes and the Rev. James Cox £40. for his year's salary for doing duty at Rufford Abbey chapel. The premium for a year's insurance in the Royal Exchange Office of Rufford Hall was £15. 6s. and James Haywood was paid £2. per annum for attending to the fire engine. Messrs. Rigley and Johnson also received £15. 6s. premium for insurance in the Sun Fire Office on Rufford £6,800. and duty. Chief rents were paid to Earl Manvers for Kneesall and Laxton property. Pew rents for the year in Ollerton church amounted to £12. 2s. 6d. Joseph Lister was paid £2. 2s. treating hop pole buyers on sale day and £5. 5s. for the hop pole pay day dinner. A recurring item is the payment of a reserved rent to the Chapter of Southwell - £32. 3s. 1½d. at Lady Day and £36. 14s. 1½d. at Michaelmas. Boughton Hop Yard includes £186. 14s. received in 1837 for 44 cwts. 1 qr. 23 lbs. of hops at 84s. per cwt. sold to a London customer Mr. G. Russell.

Salaries -- include £500. per annum to Joseph Andrew Brackenbury, agent to the earl of Scarborough. On 29 June 1839 he was paid £278. 16s. 9d. salary from 10 Dec. 1838-30 June 1839 - this was probably when he took over from E.W. Wilmot who received £500. in 1838; Brackenbury lived at Wellow House. Leafe Townsend got £60. in 1838 and £70. in 1839 as clerk.

Rental -- includes property at Bilsthorpe, Fiskerton, Morton Grange, Ollerton, Edwinstowe, Eakring, Inkersall, Laxton, Egmanton, Wellow and Boughton. The total rental in 1837 was £9,386. 16s. 4d. and £11,288. 10s. 7d. in 1839 most of which issued from the Ollerton rent days; other years the rental brought in over £11,000. per annum.

Tithes -- names and amount paid chiefly in Ollerton and Boughton.

Pensions -- there are various rates of 10s., 6s., 4s. and 2s. provided for the workers on the estate when pensioned off. John Wells received 10s. per week and Wm. Woodhouse 6s. per week; Widow Turtle 2s. per week; Widow Bloom had 6s. per week - her husband was killed by an oak tree falling on him on 2 May 1840. Woodhouse appears to have died in 1840 because his widow continued to receive the same rate of 6s. per week as he from 8 Jan. 1841.

New road near Vexation Lane -- pulling ling, getting gravel from old road (152 tons), stone breaking (16 tons), leading gravel etc. S. Smith was paid £42. 6s. for cutting the new road; a cryptic entry suggests he may have received a further £33. The work was done in 1841, expenditure appears to have been £97. 16s. 5d.

Ley Fields House enlarging -- sawing wood, slating, iron goods, plumbing, lime, chimney pieces, painting, whitesmith's work; plumber's work was £118. 2s. 3d. in 1840.

Rufford water meadow -- Sam. Smith received £130. 12s. 8d. in 1838 for forming and making water meadow.

Wellow House -- stone work, bricklaying, painting, tiles from Ilkeston (Db.), stone from Mansfield and Wellow, 17 chimneys scraping, calico for temporary windows, wheeling soil and levelling garden, plumbing etc.

Total spent in 1838 was £503. 14s. 2d. and £575. 4s. 6d. in 1839.

Coldwell draining -- S. Smith boring and draining for water at Coldwell to bring down to Rufford Lake £45. 12s. 2d.; payments made in 1838-9.

Bilsthorpe tithes -- £386. 13s. 4d. per annum.

Carriage and freight etc. -- includes hampers by coach, trees from London, wine, parcels by coach, cement, house and stable goods.

Timber sales -- £1,008. 18s. 6d. in 1845.

Wellow Field Enclosure -- John Highfield and Co. planting 32 acres of quick at 2s. 3d. per acre, £3. 12s.; similar entries, total £62. 1s. 5d.

Income tax -- relates to Edwinstowe, Boughton, Wellow, Ollerton, Egmanton, Rufford, Eakring, Bilsthorpe, Walesby, Kirton, Laxton, Morton, Ompton, Tuxford.

Various headings or sections break off and are resumed further on in the volume with an occasional cross reference.

Cash -- in 1837 £5,400. was received (?) from Messrs. Coutts and Co., London; £1,000. cash was remitted to Messrs. Ransome and Co. and £186. 14s. (hop money). In 1838 £4,211 10s. 2¼d. was received of the earl of Scarborough and Messrs. Coutts and Co.; £2, 191. 15s. 11½d. was paid out - £1,000. to Mr. Brackenbury's account Worksop, £339. 15s. 11½d. payment of bills, £500. to Worksop Bank and £352. to Mr. Brackenbury. In 1843 cash received from the earl of Scarborough totalled £7,000. At the rear of the volume are Abstracts of accounts for 1837 and 1838 which enable total expenditure under a particular heading to be identified with the minimum of trouble, page references are supplied. There are only abstracts for 1837 and 1838 when expenditure stood at over £17,000. annually. There are various small sections relating to chief rents, stationery, corn bought for feed, nursery (gardens), malting, and maintenance and repairs to specific buildings - Morton Grange, Minitts buildings and various barns, farm buildings and structures on the estate. An inscription at the front of the volume indicates that it was presented by A.J. Warner, Midland Bank, Workshop, 9 June 1939, presumably to Worksop Library. Kelly's Nottinghamshire Directory 1936 gives Arthur John Warner as manager of the Midland Bank, Worksop, at that date.

Vol. Detailed.

English