TWENTY

ELIOT, John (1735-1813). Two 18th-century manuscripts, comprising letter books and accounts [Circa 1780-88]. Folio and quarto volumes. Contemporary, green-stained vellum bindings.

[1]. [ELIOT, John]. Manuscript fair copies of “Letters from several friends to Philip Eliot” and a Collection of Journeys. [Circa 1780]. Folio (243 x 195 x 25 mm). Contents page and approximately 140 text pages (numbered to p.96), followed by 16 blank leaves.

Green vellum, initialled “J E III” in manuscript to front board. Written in the same neat, clear copper plate hand. Watermark: Fleur-de-lis above GR; countermark: C Taylor. (Haewood 1856, except countermark: I Taylor).

John Eliot’s manuscript fair copies of letters and accounts of journeys sent by Friends to his uncle, Philip Eliot between 1750 and 1779. Copies of 12 letters from correspondents including “James Gough”; “Claude Gay” (“While I was in France, I wrote to Friends of the Meeting for Sufferings, chiefly on Account of our few Friends in Jersey”); “Thos Whitehead”; and Accounts of journeys include those “to Friends in Holland. (The 7 of the 7th Month 1770)”

Portsmouth, Gosport & the Isle of Wight in 1779”

York Quarterly Meeting

[...] 22nd of 6th Mo: 1774”; and “to Thomas Whitehead at Reading. 16th of 3d Mo: 1771”

Also copied is “Some Account of Samuel Emlen & Tho Thornborough’s taking Shiping for America. 1772”

[2]. [ELIOT, John (1735-1813)]. Manuscript Letter Book and Accounts. [Circa 1784-89]. Quarto (208 x 164 x 30 mm). Text arranged dos-a-dos. Letter book: approximately 170 text pages; and approximately 60 pages of accounts (together 230pp, excluding a few blanks). Some pages excised at each end.

Green vellum, one clasp intact. Ruled in red for accounts. Probably a stationer’s book. Text and accounts written in the same neat, clear italic hand. Watermark: Pro Patria above GR. Manuscript inscription stuck in to paste-down: “Gulielma Briggins her book March 1734”. There are no other entries by her. The paper has a different watermark to the rest of the volume and has evidently been inserted, probably by Gulielma’s nephew and the compiler of this volume, John Eliot.

The manuscript compromises copies of over a hundred letters to and from John Eliot (correspondents are mainly Quakers, including Thomas Shipley, Ann Arch, John Trehawke, John Chamberlain, James Upjohn) between 1784 and 1789, together with his financial accounts for the years 1784 to 1788.

¶ 18th-century Quaker merchants stood in marked contrast to most of their peers. While so many of their fellow countrymen became rich through the slave trade, Quakers not only repudiated participation in the trade, but actively worked to achieve its abolition. Their development of ethical business practices, which grew out of their close connections, provided a model for English traders who preferred to see themselves as having ushered in the Industrial Revolution through sheer hard work and sound morals, rather than admit that the country had grown rich – directly and indirectly – through the trade in the lives of enslaved African men and women.

The characteristics which informed the Quakers’ sense of identity – morality, abolitionism, charity, and a pragmatic approach to business – are evidenced throughout these manuscripts. Indeed, the letters move easily from one theme to the next, as when John Eliot writes to Thomas Shipley (who appears to be managing his farming business) in February 1787 to confirm that “M. Birkbeck shall have the Sheep”, but “when the Sheep are in good Condition, or it may make a considerable Difference in the Price”, and in the next paragraph directing that “my Reason for refusing to pay Tithes in general may be shewn to the Justices, hoping thou will attend them on this Occasion” (Quakers rejected the authority of the Anglican Church and consequently refused to pay tithes).

Money frequently figures in Eliot’s deliberations, whether over his own finances (including rents from lands), gifts of money for poor people (such payments are sometimes recorded in the accounts section e.g. “Salkhill for poor’s rate”), and his sense of responsibility towards them (“Now there seems to me a Debt due to the Poor of these Places whence we derive our own Profits and Adavantages” [1789]). He can often be seen advocating for fairness in business dealings (“As to thy settling with thy undertenant […] & thy private dispute with him, it has no Relation to thy Engagement with Danl Stephenson who ought to be paid notwithstanding”), and it’s a rare letter that has no mention of sums of money; but he is equally concerned to pursue religious and domestic matters, and is keen to contribute to the establishment of new schools.

John Eliot was the son of John (1707-1735) and Mariabella Eliot (née Farmborough Briggins) (1708-1747). He married Mary Weston (1743-1812), and they had four children: Mary, Mariabella, Ann, and John 1. He was a Quaker minister, an underwriter at Lloyds of London, a landowner, and a merchant – a diverse portfolio that chimes nicely with the impression in the letters of a man practicing faith and finance with equal commitment.

This, in turn, reflects the way in which Quakers’ strong moral beliefs and their network of close family and social bonds created a community of Friends – trusted individuals with whom they could trade. Such relationships were crucial for successful Atlantic commerce, as Friends in Britain could rely on the honesty of their colleagues in America, notably Pennsylvania, which was founded by the English Quaker, William Penn (1644-1718).

Eliot is a key player in an international network that includes Friends in France, Holland, and – most importantly – America. He keeps track of the comings and goings of various American Friends, writing in one letter [to ?]: “I heard that Ann Jessop one of the last friends from America was in your Neighbourhood [...] I had a Letter from Saml Emlen by the same Ship”; and in another, “Five of the American Friends have taken their passage in a Vessel bound to Philadelphia to sil soonviz: W. Matthews, Z. Dicks, A Jessop, P. Brayton & R. Wright. Did I mention to thee John Storer and T. Colley were returned?”. His attention, naturally enough, is directed keenly towards Pennsylvania, of which he writes that “there is not an Acre of Liberty Land vacant, and that the most valuable City Lots are sold”. The concept of “Liberty Land” was an important aspect of the colonisation of Pennsylvania: “William Penn had made a gift of land in these sections to the first purchasers of lots in the city proper, the amount of “free” land given being in proportion to the amount of “town” land that was bought. The term, “City and Liberties of Philadelphia,” was commonly used in the early days of the province”. 2

Eliot’s zeal for abolitionism is strongly represented in the letters: he writes, in one dated “London 12/1 1788”: “Our Society intends to petition Parliament again to abolish the Slave Trade, and we are requesting our fr[ien]ds in the Country to apply to such members of Parliament with whom they may be acquainted for their support of such a Petition or of any motion that may be made in the house for an enquiry into the African Slave Trade”; and again, on “31 of 1 Mo 1788”: “the Committee appointed about Cranbourn Chase think to bring forward a Petition to Parliament [...] I expect Friends will very soon apply to Parliament on behalf of the Negroes”. The dates are significant, since this activity was part of a concerted campaign in 1778, when one hundred such petitions were presented to Parliament in the space of three months.

Eliot also busies himself with the important work of transmitting the Quaker message as effectively as possible, and not just in English: in a letter to “J de Marcillac”, he assesses the translation of Mary Brook’s (c.1726-1782) Reasons for the Necessity of Silent Waiting (1774) “into French by Claude Gay” as “not so well done” and consequently, “I send thee enclosed a Specimen thereof in French and English. If thou wilt please to try to render it into a better style [...] The intention of the Friends is to print a new Edition of this book”.

[GREEN COAT SCHOOL]

Archive of manuscripts relating to the London charity school. [Circa 1664-1800]. A small archive of 17th- and 18th-century manuscripts relating to the London charity school, St Margaret's Hospital, which was known as ‘The Green Coat School’ and is now part of Westminster City School.

Contents: [1]. Accounts book. [Circa 1775-80]. Quarto (324 x 245 x 20 mm). 56 text pages on 28 vellum leaves bound in reverse calf. [2]. Accounts. [Circa 1838]. Folio. Paper. 4 text pages on 7 leaves. [3]. ‘Tradesmen’s Bills’. [Circa 1838]. Quarto. Paper. 6 text pages on 6 leaves. [4]. Petition of Mary Blackbourne. [Circa 1730]. Folio. Paper. 1 text page, bifolium. Documents including: ‘Carpenters Worke’ [Circa 1671]; Obligation Bond Paper. 1 text page, single sheet; with a 17th century indenture and receipts.

¶ The question of whose responsibility it was to educate “Poore Children” modern period was answered by the establishment of local charity schools.

One such was St Margaret’s Hospital in Tothill Fields, Westminster, which was founded in 1624 and granted a Charter of Incorporation by Charles I in 1633. The Green Coat School, as it came to be known because of the colour of the boys’ clothes, took on “the poor fatherless children of St. Margaret’s” 1 – such as the son of “Mary Blackbourne”, whose entry petition, included here, states “That your Petr by several Losses and Misfortunes is reduced to very mean Circumstances whereby she is rendered uncapable of giving her said son Education”

The main item in the archive is a bound manuscript account book written on fine vellum sheets entitled “The Account of Abraham Acworth, Esqr, Treasurer of St. Margaret’s Hospital, Westminster” which covers the school’s accounts from 1775 to 1780. Acworth discharged his duties admirably, to judge by his bookkeeping: in these annual accounts, rendered in a scrupulously neat hand, he records the school’s income and expenditure under a set of headings including

Lands, Tenements, Tenants Names”, “Quarterly Payments to the Master and Matron”, Taxes, and other Out-goings”, and “Disbursements for Clothing and other Necessaries for the Boys”. This last heading for the 1779 accounts Mr More for Examining the Boys” (10 shillings) and Crapper, Master” for such items as “Roast Beef for the Boys on the (10 shillings) and “teaching the Boys Psalmody – one Year to

Accompanying this volume is a small number of documents incidental to the school’s operations: bills and receipts, entry petitions, birth certificates, and apprenticeship bonds for a few of the school’s pupils (“Waler Pritchard”, for instance, who is to live with “Anne Paine” to learn “some likely good “John Rowstone”, indentured to “John Gary, ?Lock

The workings of bureaucracy, dry as they may seem, can often provide us with the clearest traces of centuries-old lives and careers otherwise barely recorded. Documents such as these are a case in point, yielding not only names and financial details but glimpses of the everyday pleasures (“Roast Beef”) and routines (learning “Psalmody”) that characterised the lived experience of the “Poore Children” in a London charity school.

£2,750Ref: 8134

BERKELEY, George Charles Grantley FitzHardinge (1800-1881). A group of 20 illustrated letters.

[Circa 1833]. 20 handwritten letters, folded for posting.

¶ Among this humorous group of illustrated letters is a pen-and-ink selfportrait of Berkeley seated upon a display case. “Don’t you wish I may get a place for the Case at Mdm . Tussaud’s?!” he asks, and immediately answers his own question: “Oh yes!!!”.

In this and other letters in the collection, we see the lighter side of George Berkeley, a man renowned as an aristocratic snob with an argumentative and violent disposition. Berkeley was tried and found guilty of assaulting a bookseller who would not reveal the name of a reviewer who , in Fraser's Magazine; two days later he duelled with its editor, but after three shots the latter was only slightly injured.

This collection of correspondence, which comprises 20 letters, shows our scribe wielding only a pen, and indulging in flights of fancy, fits of lyricism and bouts of gentle ribbing. , possibly Mary Catherine Berkeley (née 1824) known as Lady Catherine. The few that lack a salutation have a similar tone, so were probably to her. There is a palpable fondness, when for example he “ever depend on my wish to see you perfect in everything”. The tone verges on the paternal at times, telling Catherine to “remember this as one of my , but it can also be characterised by a friendly, playful banter.

Adding to this puckish wit are a number of small motifs embedded in the writing itself, and larger, more detailed illustrations which provide further glimpses of our scribe’s personality and his fondness for gentle teasing. He indulges in little jeux d’esprit such as a cartoon apparently showing Catherine attempting to scale a vertically written word, , with the exclamatory sidenote: “Mr Berkley says there is no such and the caption “Helping a tardy scholar over a (presumably a reference to Catherine’s use of the word in a recent letter).

Other illustrations include a sketch of Catherine, (one assumes) at a writing desk, and a rendering of two ladies being blown off a hilltop in a blustery wind. Berkeley reflects on his impressions of the contrast between city and countryside: he rhapsodises in one letter “the birds on shore, sing as if heralding approaching summer”, then disparages “the smoky city”. An affection for nature is evident in his description of “the fields and on the beautiful Hills and Woods” of Bath which he seems to find restorative, feeling able to “muse and think of how much is left to man”; but he again deploys his acerbic side when describing the “old chaps” of Bath with their “gay wigs and white washed faces”, and he skewers the “old Male Dusts” who “don’t do any harm, but on the contrary often lead to laughter at them an undesirable expense”.

Berkeley’s personality – or at least, the aspects of it that he chose to present to Catherine – come through strongly in these letters and their light-hearted illustrations and offer an unexpected counterpoint to his pugnacious public image.

TWENTY-THREE

[SANDAU, Barnard von (1759-1848)]. Manuscript entitled ‘Memoirs relative to the Seminary for the Marine at Amsterdam. MDCCXCI. Translated by Barnard van Sandau’.

[Circa 1793 (dated in dedication)]. Quarto (text block: 235 x 182 x 30 mm). Text partly numbered in manuscript: [12, title and prelims], 153, [2], [31 (“Appendix No 1. General Accounts”], 141, [3, blanks]. Margins ruled in red. Written throughout in a clear italic hand.

Modern brown crushed morocco, gilt, title page browned in margins, otherwise clean and crisp. Watermark: Fleurs-de-lis above GR (similar to Haewood 1846, which he dates circa 1777).

¶

Popularising umbrellas is a more memorable action than a lifetime of philanthropy – at least that seems to have been the fate of the merchant and philanthropist, Jonas Hanway (1712-1786). Aside from being the first man in London to carry an umbrella (for which he was widely mocked) and his opposition to tea (for which he was mocked by Samuel Johnson), he plunged himself into numerous benevolent causes, among them smallpox inoculations, the working conditions of young apprentices of chimney sweeps, the fate of infant children in workhouses, and a charity for girls abandoned to prostitution (hence his enthusiastic support for the subsequent Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes). Among his most successful works was the Registers Bill (later dubbed ‘Hanway’s Act’), designed to improve the lives of workhouse children, which has been called “the only piece of eighteenth-century legislation dealing with the poor which was an unqualified success”, and the establishment, in 1756, of the Marine Society, the world’s oldest public maritime charity, which still exists today.

The Marine Society’s mission was to provide good education and employment to poor boys, which in turn supplied the British Navy with thousands of much-needed, well-trained seafarers (as this manuscript puts it: “the Distressful and general national Utility are so happily blended”). It created a model for other seafaring nations to follow. One such was Holland, which, although it had for centuries been sending highly skilled mariners out into the world, did not have a benevolent organisation to help achieve the combined goals of charitable education, employment, and workforce expansion.

This manuscript gives a remarkably comprehensive account of the early years of the “Seminary for the Marine at Amsterdam”, which was modelled on the Marine Society of London. According to the preface, “The Work here translated was put into my hands by a Member of your Committee [...] William Blizard” (i.e. the surgeon Sir William Blizard FRS FRSE PRCS FSA (17431835), who knew and worked with Hanway in setting up the Marine Society).

The scribe declares himself as “Barnard van Sandau” on the title page and at the end of the preface. Sandau is said to have been “born at Homburg in the dominions of his Prussian Majesty”. In 1797 he leased a shop on the North Side of the Royal Exchange (Threadneedle Street); it appears he also had premises in Winchester Street. 1. At the time that this manuscript was written, he was working at “Basinghall Street”.

In January 1789, Sandau became a member the Worshipful Company of Scriveners. He was granted a notarial faculty which would have allowed him to formally write letters to court and compose legal documents. He is known to have translated from ‘Vulgar Hebrew’ (Yiddish) to English 2, and, as this volume demonstrates, he could handle Dutch as well. This book’s 300-plus pages would nevertheless have made it a significant undertaking. Sandau does not say whether Blizard (or another member of the Marine Society) commissioned this translation, but given that it was such a specialist subject, and that the level of detail would be of great utility in keeping the Society abreast with developments in other seafaring nations (especially those who had copied their ideas), it seems very likely that Sandau was fulfilling a commission.

The work provides an in-depth account of the charity’s aims and accomplishments; it details the kind of education the “scholars” receive to equip them for the rigours of a life at sea. They learn the art and science of navigation, supplementary skills such as “Cannonading”, and the “Knowledge of the sort, the making, and the use of all Instruments required”. The organisation also acknowledges its responsibilities to “the behoof of Seamen wounded in the service of this country”, which includes the “widows of those who had the Misfortune of losing their Lives” and “the Children of Seamen”; and there are detailed accounts of monies paid to them.

The progress of individual students is carefully chronicled. Since “the Number of their Places in the Seminary” is deemed more appropriate than “Names of the Scholars”, the records track students by their assigned number. For example, in the “Second Class”, students “411”, “417”, “418”, and “416” are “learning to denominate the Decimal Fractions”; however, while all four are considered to have a capacity of “3” (the highest in any column is 6), their rate of “Diligence” is “0”. Happily, others are more conscientious: “385” and “408” are each considered to have a “Capacity” of “4”, but with “Diligence” pushed all the way to “6”, they now “Understand the Geometrical Proportion together wit the use of Logarithm, and ought to be promoted to a higher order”.

“232”, meanwhile, scores a 4 on both their abilities and their efforts, and now “Understands Steenstra’s Navigation to find the Longitude by the Tables of Douwes, without taking a meridian Altitude; and to calculate the Longitude at Sea by the distance of the Sun from the Moon, or a Star”. Here, the student is employing the method introduced by Cornelis Douwes (1712-1773) for calculating latitude, which became an international standard until the 19th century. The Pybo Steenstra (d.1788) mentioned here is a noteworthy figure in the history of navigation: he had a great impact on its teaching in Amsterdam and did much to transform the pedagogy from a purely practical instruction to one which combined hands-on learning with rigorous classroom teaching reinforced through textbooks (many of which he himself wrote).

This is richly informative text, which abounds with details of the evolution in 18th-century navigational education. It gives detailed insight into the rigorous requirements of a mariner’s education, and shows how the Marine Society were interested in promoting the influence and evolution of the ideas they had themselves set forth into the world.

£2,250 Ref: 8159

1. Edgar Roy Samuel. ‘Anglo-Jewish Notaries and Scriveners’. Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England), Vol. 17 (1951-52), pp. 145-146.

2. Ibid. Schott, Margaret E. Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800.