Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850

Excerpt

SIR EDWARD DERING'S HOUSEHOLD BOOK, A.D. 1648-52.

About ten years since, I remember seeing, in the hands of a London bookseller, a curious MS. purporting to be the "Household Book of Receipts and Expences of Sir Edward Dering, Bart., of Surrenden Dering, Kent, from Lady-Day, 1648, to April, 1652." It was a think folio, in the original binding, entirely in the hand-writing of the distinguished baronet.

Sir Edward was the only son of Sir Edward Dering, the first baronet, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir John Ashburnham, of Ashburnham, Sussex, Knt. He succeeded to the baronetcy upon the death of his father, in 1644, and married Mary, daughter of Daniel Harvey, Esq., of Combe, Surrey, who was brother of the famous Dr. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulations of the blood.

The volume commences at Lady-day, 1648, with the gifts of his grandmother Cramond, and his uncles Dr. Harvey and Eliab Harvey. Nov. 8. 1648, is a memorandum of receipts of "the full remainder of the three thousand pounds he was to pay me on my marriage." The receipts close March 25. 1652, with "a note of what money I have received for rent, wood, &c.; in effect, what I have to live upon, for four years, 1413l. 8s." The expenses begin at the same period; and among the earliest is, "given my wife, in gold, 100l." Under the date Aug. 4. 1648, we read, "Item: paid Mr. Edward Gibbes, to the use, and by the appointment of my sister Dorothy, it being her portion, 1200l." Dorothy was probably Sir Edward's only sister, by the same mother, Sir Edward, the first baronet's second wife. Her sun of life soon set; for Feb. 21. 1650, a whole page is occupied with items of mourning "at the death of my deare and only sister, the Lady Darell."

Independently of the frequent notices of relatives, almost serving as a family history, there are entries of high interest to the general historian and the antiquary. The costs of every article of use and virtue are set down in full, and a few of the items (which I find in my Common-place Book) will serve as a specimen of the general contents:—

"1648. July 31. It. for seeing two plaies with my
wife, &c., coach hire, &c., 1l. 6s.
— Sept. 2. It. paid the upholsterer for a
counterpayne to the yellow
petuana bed 3l. 10s.
— Sept. 7. Paid Mr. Winne, for a tippet of
sables for my wife 14l.
— Nov. 23. For a copy of Marg. Dering's
office 9s.
— Dec. 23. It. paid Mr. Le Neve, in part for
my wife's picture 3l.
— Mar. 8. It. a velvet saddle furniture for
my wife, 13l. It. black sattin,
for a gown for her, 7l. It. two
diamond rings 13l.
"1649. April 16. It. given seeing Rechampton-House 6s.
— April 28. It. paid Mr. Le Neve, the remainder
due for my wife's picture,
3l. 4s. It. paid him for a
picture of the king. 2l. It. paid
him for a new frame to my
grandmother's — 6s.
"1649. May 9. Item, given at John Tradeskin's
[Tradescant] — 2s. 6d.
— June 1. Paid Mr. Lawes, a month's
teaching of my wife — 1l. 10s.
— Sept 1. It. spent at Tunbridge Welles, in
19 dayes stay — 26l, 8s.
"1650. April 8. It....