The Social and Business World of the Thorntons (original) (raw)
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The Structure of Wealth-holding in Britain, 1809–39: a Preliminary Anatomy
Historical Research, 1992
I 809-39: a Preliminary Anatomy PREVIOUS STUDIES of the very wealthy in Britain researched by the present author have examined wealth-holders leaving ~500,000 or more between 1809 and 1939.' Ths article gives the results of part of a much more extensive research project, a detailed analysis of everyone leaving LIOO,OOO or more in Britain between 1809 and I 899, a group totalling about 6,000 persons? Here, information is provided on a number of the most salient characteristics of those 905 persons leaving LIOO,OOO or more during 1809-39, and inferences are drawn of a more wide-ranging nature about the British elite structure during this period? In particular, the occupation and business venues of the wealth-holders are analysed and something said of the status of women wealth-holders. A word should first be said about the nature of the valuation figures, the probate records which exist and have been consulted, and the methodology of the project. The estate of anyone deceased in Britain and leaving property was and is evaluated and given a global monetary figure by the executors both for taxation and probate purposes.' In the period 1809-39, this figure consisted of the gross value of the unsettled personalty of the deceased, and hence excluded land, any capital sum settled upon the deceased by others from which he or she benefited, and most property situated abroad: land (brought into the valuation figures by stages in 1898 and 1926) is the major omission. Apart from the omission of these categories there is no reason to suppose that the valuation figures are inaccurate in any way and they provide a remarkably fruitful way of examining Britain's elites (as well as others) in a systematic way, as historians have since realized? Prior to the formation of the Principal Probate Registry in January 1858, however, the probate records of England and Wales were scattcred among more than fifty ccclesiastical courts, ' W. D. Rubinstein, Men OfProperry: rhe Vplr Wealthy in Bn'tain since the Industrid Revolurios (I yR I), and most of the essays in idem, Elites and the Wealthy in Modern British Hisrory prighton, 1~87). This project was funded in 1987. 1988 and 1990 by the Australian Research Council and in 19x9 by Deakin University, to whom my deep gratitude is due. Carole Taylor has acted as my very able research assistant in the London archives throughout this period. One eventual aim of the project is to produce a biographical register of British wealth-holders, I $ 0~9 9 , providing information on a range of biographical topics for all 6.000 wealth-holders. ' This study begins with the somewhat curious year of 1809 because this is the first year that the Probate Act Books give a fairly precise value to estates over ~~m , o o o. Prior to 1x09, all estates ofA:roo,ooo or more were listed as 'upper value' without a more exact figure such as A~00,ooo or A300,000. Theoretically by going to rhe wills or other probate documents it might he possible to extend this research hack before 1809. ' More details in Rubinstein, Men cfPrroperq, pp, 9-26. It should be noted that death duties inBritain date from 1694, not from the Harcourt Duties of 1894 as is often supposed. ' See, e.g. H. Perkin, TheRise ofProfevionalSociery:Englandsince I 880 (19Ry). which makes extensive use of the probate statistics to examine elite social mobility and other questions.
2012
On the 7 th of April 1798 Lady Elizabeth Dryden (1753-1824), the widow of Sir John Turner Dryden (d.1797), heiress of her uncle and adoptive father, Sir John Dryden (d. 1770), and the owner of Canons Ashby House and estates, wrote to one of her creditors, Mr John Tritton Esq., of Lombard Street in London. In response to one of a number of requests for the settlement of her late husband"s debts with Mr Tritton, she explained that her finances were in "... the most dangerous and embarrassed state imaginable". 2 She continued by expressing her fears that the estate may soon enter chancery proceedings, that her rents may be "seized" and that, in the meantime, she had "... hardly a bare subsistence left for herself & a large young family". She evidenced this parlous state of her affairs as proof that Mr Tritton was acting under the "erroneous idea" that she was "... in possession of a large income ..." Furthermore, she attested that the debts owed to him were not hers at all, but her late husband"s. She had been instructed by her solicitor, Mr Brookes, that she should not sign anything with regards to his debts because she had "... acted entirely by Sir John"s absolute command and authority". The year following the death of Sir John Turner Dryden had been a tumultuous one in which Elizabeth had been forced to write a long series of letters such as this, pleading poverty and abjuring responsibility for her late husband"s debts. Sir John and Elizabeth had, in 1791, taken full possession of a healthy if small landed estate with a fine, if modest, country house. The former owner, Sir John Dryden, had lived a cautious lifestyle, never exceeding incomings with outgoings and augmenting the estate income through well considered purchases of land and other investments. This good work and careful management had 1 This research forms part of a larger project, "Consumption and the Country House, c.1730-1800" funded by he AHRC (AH/H008365/1). We are grateful to Michael Emmerson at Canons Ashby for making available his notes on the early eighteenth-century owners of the estate and for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
The financial strains of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had a significant impact on the Bank of England. In its position as banker to the state and manager of the state’s debt, it experienced a significant increase in workload and thus was forced rapidly to expand its workforce. From a complement of around 300 clerks in the mid 1780s, the number of clerks employed had increased to over 900 in 1815. Using a unique set of records preserved in the Bank’s archives, this article investigates the backgrounds and skills of the men recruited during the expansion of the early nineteenth century. It finds a significant gap between the skills required by the Bank and the skills possessed by its potential workforce.
John Peake of Lichfield (b.1798), Ironmonger, Furniture Broker and Bankrupt
2020
This is one of nearly 200 open access blogs relating to the provision of goods and services under the auspices of the old poor laws in England. The research has been conducted as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Small Bills and Petty Finance: Co-creating the History of the Old Poor Law'. You can download the blog by clicking on the 'download' button. All the project blogs can be found at https://thepoorlaw.org/ See also, Peter Collinge and Louise Falcini (eds), Providing for the Poor: the Old Poor Law, 1750 - 1834' (University of London/Royal Historical Society, 2022). Open access: https://humanities-digital-library.org/index.php/hdl/catalog/book/providing-for-the-poor
‘Domestic bubbling’: eighteenth‐century London merchants and individual investment in the Funds1
The Economic History Review, 1994
By DAVID HANCOCK ecent studies have shown the period 1688-1783 to be one of significant R economic and political development in Britain, marked (among other things) by a rise in personal well-being, and real innovation in governance and finance. Numerous analyses have documented the growth of urban communities, a rise in the standard of living, and an expansion in consumerism, as well as the spread of beliefs that the country was increasingly acquisitive and materialistic, and the society increasingly commercialized. Weatherill, for instance, has demonstrated that individuals in Britain bought a greater volume and variety of goods as the century wore on, and the bulk of the buying was done by middle-class professionals, merchants, and shopkeepers. At the same time:, other studies have argued that governmental affairs were increasingly influenced by urban, commercial, middle-class members of society-a group traditionally excluded from rule. Legislation concerning textile and spirits production in the first half of the century, for example, was moved largely by the concerns of local artisans, manufacturers, and merchants. And Brewer's 'fiscal-military state' succeeded because it drew heavily on the resources of urban commercial entrepreneurs, who in consequence were galvanized into political activism and achieved a not insignificant amount of political participation and control. Hand in hand with the enlarged state went financial innovation; indeed, the latter ushered in the former, for the series of changes in the late seventeenth century detailed by Dickson and dubbed the 'financial revolution' laid the foundation for the state's subsequent dramatic growth in size and reach. Chief among the innovations introduced by the 'financial revolution' was the development of a securities market, which enabled the state to abandon the forced loans of the early seventeenth century in favour of (ultimately cheaper) marketoriented voluntary subscription, while providing investors with an increased range and variety of liquid stores of value and speculative opportunities.' How did the new cadre of urban, commercial, middle-class investors respond to the changed investment landscape? The question of how enterprising individuals use financial institutions and invest their money ' I am grateful to