University of Virginia Library

APPENDIX 5

Final Rear Free Endpaper, Recto and Verso

Introduction

Astell records a financial record (see figure 1) for Sutton's Hospital, also
known as King James's Hospital, but better known then (and generally known
now) as the Charterhouse, a charitable institution created and supported by a
bequest in the will of Thomas Sutton (1532-1611). The "Brothers" to whom the
record refers speak to the Hospital's mission as a pensioners' home for elderly
men, many of them sailors who, to borrow a phrase from Gerald Davies, "had
served England well in the hours of her need and were now left high and dry to


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beg their bread in their old age" (223). The references to "Scholars" underscore
its other function as a school for promising boys of upstanding, but financially
limited, families. Not only Richard Steele, but Joseph Addison, John Wesley, and,
in the nineteenth century, William Thackeray would benefit from Sutton's gift.

The similarity between Sutton's dual-purpose foundation and Astell's Chel-
sea school for girls, itself an outgrowth of the Royal Hospital for elderly veterans,
would not have been lost on her. Along with 80 brothers, Sutton's will made pro-
visions for 40 scholars; Astell's Chelsea school, according to Perry, "was meant
to handle thirty poor girls" (238).

Astell's source for this account is almost certainly Samuel Herne's Domus Car-
thusiana
(1677), which, on 145-153, transcribes in pounds, shillings, and pence the
Establishment for the Dyets, Liveries, Stipends, Wages, and other Charges and Expences […]
at the humble Petition, and only costs and charges of
Thomas Sutton, Esquire […].
Astell's handwriting here is particularly inscrutable; I devoted an embarrass-
ing number of months to discovering "Fuller's Hospital," another contemporary
almshouse near London (as it turns out), only to ascertain its utter incompatibility
with the numbers Astell recorded. I deciphered many of her other references only
by consulting Herne.

Astell records many of the specific entries she found in Herne, though she
does at times combine several entries into a single category or ignore single
entries entirely; she also renders Herne's roman numerals as arabic. Interlaced
through several of the entries in smaller print are Astell's attempts to arrive at
a "per person" figure, something Herne does only on occasion—a point of dif-
ference tracked, along with particularly archaic references, in the endnotes (ren-
dered as arabic to avoid, as much as possible, confusion). The money system in
Astell's day and for nearly three centuries beyond, it should be noted, consisted
of 12 pennies to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound.

Text

Suttons Hospital

         
£s d 
8 At ye Masters Table weekly for Bread, 10[1]   4. 0. 0 
Beer, Diet, Detriments[2]  
80[3] at ye Brothers for etc.
?at 1s 7 a head (-10) 
7. 13. 4 
42 at ye Scholars  6. 18. 3½ 

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at 3s
4½ 
10 at ye Manciples[4]
4s 5d  
2. 4. 2[5]  
2 of ye Kitchen & one Porter
4s 5d  
13. 0 
5 Attendts at ye ?Masters Table for
?76 Bread and Beer 9/14 
5. 10 

Weekly Beavors[6]

               
8 at ye Masters
1s 2d [7]  
9. 4 
Five Attendts
1s.2d  
5. 10 
40 Schol one Butlr one Groom
16½ + 2½[8]  
16. 4 
80 Brothers in Money
a head 1.9 
7. 0. 0 
10 at ye Mancip 2 Kite One Por
ter in money
4.7½+ ½ 
3. 0. 0 
Dyet & Beav. Weekly
Yearly 
33. 6. 1.½
1731. 18. 6½ 
Exceeding days[9]   44. 9. 4 
1776. 7. 10½[10]  

Liverys[11]

   
80 Brothers 40s a piece  160. 0. 0 
40 Schol. 36s. 2d Gowns  72. 6. 8 

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their Summer suits 29s. 6  69. 0. 0[14]  
Winter suits 17s. 10d a piece  35. 13. 4 
Shoes & Stockings etc.  56. 0. 0[15]  
Books Paper - -  14. 0. 0 
Gowns for Organist etc.[12]
at 40s a ?piece 
8. 0. 0 
16 Grooms etc.[13]   16. 0. 0  
431. 0. 0 
Wages & Fees[16]   1066. 6. 0 

Ordinary Allowances

             
Masters Fuel  10. 0. 0 
Preachers  5. 0. 0 
Fuel for ye Hospital  152. 0. 0 
Renewing ye Housold stuff  50. 0. 0 
Candles  45. 0. 0 
Washing etc. in all[17]   432. 16. 0 
Ye Whole 3706 £ . 9s. 10½[18]  
 
[1]

At 10 shillings per person, the total does indeed come to 4 pounds.

[2]

OED, s.v. detriment: "4. pl. The name of certain small charges made by colleges and
similar societies upon their members. The 'detriments' at Cambridge corresponded to the
'decrements' at Oxford, and appear to have been originally deductions from the stipends of
foundation members on account of small extras for the table, etc., not included in their statu-
tory or customary commons; the charge was afterwards extended to all members and students
of die colleges. See Fowler Hist. C.C.C. (O.H.S.) 354."

[3]

Herne has "fourscore."

[4]

0ED, s.v. manciple: "1. An officer or servant who purchases provisions for a college, an
inn of court, a monastery, etc."

[5]

Astell properly converts Herne's 44 shillings, two pence.

[6]

It was in Davies that I learned "a 'hunk' of bread" was "called a bevor," and that the
word was "still in use in Suffolk in 1863 … amongst labourers for the ten or eleven o'clock
snack in the harvest-field" (256 and note). Cf. OED, s.v. bever: "3. A small repast between
meals; a 'snack,' nuncheon, or lunch; esp. one in the afternoon between mid-day dinner and
supper. Chiefly dial."

[7]

Astell correctly converts Herne's "xiiii d. a man."

[8]

I am unsure what these figures are meant to indicate.

[9]

I.e., holidays. Herne identifies "Twenty three Exceeding days," including Christmas,
New years, Kings-day, Michaelmas, and All Saints.

[10]

Astell provides the yearly total for, as Herne puts it, "all Dyets, Beavors, and exceed-
ing days" (147).

[11]

The per-person charges in this section are included in Herne.

[14]

Astell corrects an error in Herne, who has "ix" instead of "lxix."

[15]

Astell combines two of Herne's categories. The first comprises such items as "Shoos,"
"Stockings" and "Garters" at £44, the second "Shirts" and "fix Bands" at £22.

[12]

Herne includes "the Chappel-Clerk, Organist, Manciple and Matron" in his list
(148).

[13]

Cf. Herne: "Sixteen Gowns for Sixteen Grooms and other inferior Officers at xx s. a
man" (148).

[16]

Astell elides three pages of specific charges included in Herne—from the "Preacher"
(£40), to the "Gardner" (£20), to the "Clock keeper" (£2)—and instead provides only the
final total.

[17]

I.e, the total for "Ordinary Allowances." Note that Astell's final total reflects specific
categories not included in her list, hence the apparent discrepancy—the Manciple's fuel allow-
ance, for instance, was £2, while £10 was set aside for "Burials." "Washing" is indeed one of
the specific charges included in Herne's list.

[18]

Cf. Herne: "Sum total of the yearly Expence of the Hospital for Dyets, Liveries, Wages,
and other ordinary allowances" (152).