Doing the books

James Acland, the radical Hull publisher, took an interest in the Charterhouse, as we reported in a previous post.  At the end of a long article about it he published the full accounts for 1822.
Accounts are not everyone's idea of bedtime reading, but they can throw a great deal of light on what is going on.  We start with a list of the properties which were bringing in the funding of the hospital.  These were the lands gifted by the founder, Michael de la Pole, and his son, the 2nd Earl of Suffolk.

The Hessle lands were rented by just four people.  Mark Green had 63 acres, mainly of farmland, and paid £128 14s during the year.  Green also appears to have kept a public house.  Sarah Burn and Samuel Burstal had a few acres.  The only reference to the chalk quarry is the note that "The stone pit is in the lands rented by J.R. Pease, Esq. and J. Barkworth".  Pease had a total of more than 40 acres, part of which had been "converted into a ship-yard, but not found to answer, and, in consequence, reduced to its former state".  Pease paid more rent for his lucrative lands than Green did for his.
In Willerby, Richard Pickering paid £130 for more than 73 acres (c. 30 hectares) of "sundry fields", and about 140 acres in Cottingham were shared among four people.

The list of properties in Hull includes 5 public houses and a number of other shops and houses.  Thomas Temple ran a large pub chain, one of which he leased from the Charterhouse in Blue Bell Entry.  He died in 1822.  There were other lease-holders on the west side of High St, including builders George Jackson and Samuel Stubbs.  The Blue Bell Inn itself was part of this portfolio.  Charles Thompson was an Anlaby merchant who had a 20-year lease on a property on High St.  Thomas Wilson leased the De La Pole Arms public house on the corner of Charterhouse Lane and Wincolmlee, along with (in 1802) five houses and a malt kiln.

The accounts (or was it Acland himself?) then turn to an overview of the numbers of inmates since 1717 and the weekly allowances they received.

The numbers are not consistent but are mostly in the 20-30 range.  Until 1754 the weekly allowance was only 1s.4d. (around £7.74 in today's purchasing power), rising to 2s. (£10.25).  In 1780, with a new building, the allowance went up to 3s.6d, (£15) per week.  The number of inmates are recorded as no more than 42, although the new building had 44 rooms.  By 1803 the numbers had risen to 56 (in fact, the new wing was not finished until 1804) and by 1821 there were 57 inmates receiving 6s. (£17) per week.
A long list of the rents collected throughout the year follows.  Then we come to the "weekly disbursements".  There were, as we have seen, 57 "poor people" in the hospital, each receiving 6s. (c. £17) a week.  A sweeper (presumably a cleaner) got 5s. a week.  And then we read that £17.7s.0d was paid "extra on 19th July, by recommendation of the Bench".  This was in celebration of the wedding of King George IV; the residents had their allowances doubled for that week.

The £15 for "occasional relief" implies that additional small sums were sometimes paid out when needed.
All of this tells us little about daily life at the Charterhouse; but the next section, Incidental Charges, is more informative.  Thirty-one items are listed.  The largest single charge is for coals, at £121.13s.3d. (almost £7,000 in today's spending power).  In addition, turves cost £22.4s. (£1.275).  Together these two items were the fuel which formed a vital part of the inmates' weekly allowances.  Every room had a fireplace which provided the only means of cooking as well as heating, so fuel would have been necessary even in warm weather.  17s. was paid to a man called Neale for distributing the coals and turves.  Water also had to be bought in, at a cost of £10.10s, with another 15s. to Wilson for distributing it.
Some of the charges relate to building work, but it's not clear whether this is connected to work at the hospital or to properties elsewhere.  Two bricklayers were paid a total of £157 (c.£9,000) and a joiner and a painter also received their pay.  Sand cost £1.5s. - what was that for?  Nearly £8 was paid for work on the Cottingham and Hessle drains.  We can only guess what Webster the upholsterer did for his £8.15s.3d.  Perhaps Mr Miles, the whitesmith, got his 1/6d for repairing a kettle.  Mr Kay, the plumber, clearly did some substantial work, but what Mr Young did for his £51.2s. (nearly £3,000) is not stated.  The chimney sweeper got 12/-.  But who was "Bennison" (he doesn't merit even a "Mr") who got £1.4s.?
We have two favourite items; £1.5s. was paid for lamp-lighting; and then, last in the list, is 2/- for "surplice washing".  We know from other sources that in the first year of his tenure the Master, Kingsman Baskett, had his surplice laundered twice, at a cost of 4/-.  Thereafter, it was an annual event.
Under Constant Expences [sic] we have the Master's salary of £200.  That is the equivalent of about £11,500 in today's values, but he also got the house; and perhaps the £1 for water was also the Master's expense.  Other staff costs appear in the previous section; the clerk and the porter get £1.1s. each.  There is no matron at this stage in the hospital's life.  Curiously, £1.1s. is paid to the Town's-husband.  This was a term almost unique to Hull, an officer of the Bench or Corporation who looked after the town's money and kept the accounts, among other duties.  It's not clear what services he supplied to the Charterhouse.
Among the last items in the accounts, mainly details of arrears of rents, are Sundries Received.

 

The first two of these sundries defy explanation.  The third is easier.  Consols were government bonds; for some years the Charterhouse had invested income in these bonds, and clearly the interest was useful.

And finally, the summary of the audited accounts.