London Holiday 1702
John Trigg steward to Dame Alice Brownlow kept detailed expenditure records that allow us to reconstruct a 6-week London break that Alice and her daughters took in April 1702 at Holland House.
The first part below looks at travel & the maps available. The second part documents the luxuries partaken in London. The transcription spreadsheet for that period are pages 31 to 36. MeasuringWorth computed the relative value of £ Sterling across time.
Alice Brownlow animated
Resident at Belton were Alice Brownlow and her four daughters, Alice or Alicia, aged 17, Margaret aged 14, Jane aged 12 and Eleanor 11. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter had married John Cecil, Lord Burghley, later 6th Earl of Exeter in 1699 and lived at Burghley House.
During the one year of transcribed records starting from January 1701, only Alicia is unmentioned. In 1703 she was to marry Francis North, 2nd Baron Guilford, whose first wife had died in childbirth in 1699. Margaret & Jane are named in the London accounts, thus some or all of the girls travelled with Alice. Intimation that all 4 daughters journeyed is the purchase in London of a pare of gloves for the Young Ladys 4s. It is reasonable to ascribe a pair to each of the 4, because 9d was paid for pairs of gloves in the March 1703 accounts. This was to be a short break at Holland House, in 1703 the family would spend over 6 months away from Belton in that London rented apartment.
The preparations began in March. New clothing for the Young Ladys that included 2 pares of Shoos for Madam Jane and Madam Elianor 5s (£41), John Hutchins his bill for Shoos for the Young Ladys 6s (£50). Twelve money bags were purchased to carry cash, England's first bank note appeared only in 1729. A coachman had already been to London in advance where his leg was lamed by a horse, £2 (£332) for treatment paid by Alice..
The 11 or 12-year-old Eleanor Brownlow 1702 (birth date unknown). Note the south front of Belton House. Artist John Closterman, originally employed by Riley as a drapery painter. In 1702 Closterman painted Queen Anne in her coronation robes.
1702: the Mansion. Discernible are the cupola over the House. To the left is church moved westward for effect. This is similar to the artistic relocation of 1710. This is the earliest surviving painting of the house. Closterman lived in Covent Garden. Eleanor likely visited for her portrait during her London holiday 1702. Sitters would visit the artist and not vice versa. Portraitists would paint the face and leave assistants to fill in the blanks. Another example.
Reason for date of departure
Trigg made up his accounts each Friday. The last solely for Belton was the 17th of April and the next that included travel expenses was the 24th. Religion precluded Sunday travel, and so it's likely that Alice and her girls set off Monday 20th April 1702.
King William III who had visited Belton, died in March 1702. Feasibly, the trip intentionally coincided with celebrations for the coronation of Queen Anne at 4pm on Thursday April 23rd in Westminster Abbey. She and her husband, Prince George of Denmark lived at Kensington Palace less than 1 mile from Holland House, although returned to St Jame's Palace after the coronation. In all likelihood, son-in-law, the 6th Earl of Exeter and his Countess, Alice's daughter Elizabeth attended that coronation.
The weekly strikes (pre-1803 dry goods capacity) of wheat purchased by Belton dropped from a median of 8 (6 to 11) to just 3 strikes the departure week. Eight strikes of wheat home milled produces ~700 two pound loafs a week (disregarding the small amount lost by milling, <5%). An adult male's consumption of a two pound loaf a day implies around 50 resident servants in the Mansion and Stables (mansion servants documented at 31 in 1690s). The fall in the wheat order implies an entourage of 30 or so, indoor servants, coachmen and grooms. A large entourage was necessary to deter highway robbery.
Highwaymen were at their peak between 1669 and 1720. The most likely spots for robbery were on hills - hence the Gonerby Hill gibbet as a deterrence, far left. The original name for the hill was Hooclif.
Ogilby's marks it on his C17 map (outlined red), although he annotates an identical symbol in Newark with 'gallows'. The White Hart Inn in Newark advised travellers to stay the night should they be unable to “traverse the Gunnerbi hills by nightfall"
Though, John Nevison, an infamous 17th century highway robber had his headquarters at Newark.
We know that in November 1737, stored in the Stables were 10 swords, 6 carbines, 5 brace and an half of pistols. Two broken. A brave or foolhardy highwayman to take on that armament. A 1703 journey to Wroxton, Oxfordshire by Alice and her daughter Alicia necessitated 10 Horses, Coachmans and postillions. This suggests at least 2 coaches for two family members.
Margaret Brownlow in 1695 with her attendant. Was he or she among the family's entourage in 1702?
Not legally enslaved, the concept of slavery was not recognised in English law as confirmed by the Cartwright case from the reign of Elizabeth I. And not apparently wearing a silver 'slave' collar as was often the case. The pose is very similar to that of the black child portrayed by Hogarth's 1746 satirical print, A Taste in High Life. That pose was commonly used from the times of Charles II.
Pepys, the 17th century diarist, employed a 'blackmore' cook. A black community existed in St Giles parish, London where some of Alice's daughters were christened. Hogarth's Noon portrays St Giles in the Fields with a black person in the crowd. Support that the Brownlows employed black servants is Mericer's 1720s conversation piece. There a black youth pushes Eleanor in a wheelchair - clearly not a trope.
Lumbering along at 4 mph in a coach devoid of metal springs as was the case in the early C18, the first overnight stop was Burghley House 25 miles from Belton. A 6 hour journey. There Alice paid 5s (£42) to the stables.
The map to the left shows the locations mentioned in the accounts, click on icons for more information. Following the route on today's roads is 120 miles to Holland House. Perchance some servants could have taken a stage coach. An advert from 1698
All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London, or any other Place on that Road, let them repair to the Black Swan in Holbourn in London or the Black Swan in Coney-street in York.
It came with the proviso if God permits and a 5 am start. Winter travel took twice as long as Summer. Strings of 20 or 40 packhorses in a gang would force coaches off the road.
Arthur Young a C18 traveller reported, To Grimsthorpe; cross-road; very bad; at one part of it over a common, with roads pointing nineways at once, and no direction-post. To Colsterworth; most execrably vile; a narrow causeway, cut into ruts, that threaten to swallow us up.
For the Brownlow family a 3 night overstay journey seems doable as is implied by the return journey detailed further below. A likely route using Paterson's Itinerary would be from Burghley House to Buckden 28 miles, Buckden to Stevenage 29 1/2 miles, Stevenage to Holland House 35 miles. A Bill of Travelling Charges from Belton to London as of bills Appears came to £9 11s 11d (£1,606) for that one way journey.
The York coach above, charged £2 per person, but with the the Brownlows using their own transport, we presume the costs relate to two overnight stays after Burghley.
Once at a coaching inn, those of quality would rent chambers and ate alone with servants attending. The bill for the night might be five or six shillings a person for supper, bed, and breakfast. A solo traveller might pay two shillings.
The Berlin with leather suspension c1700. A possible coach travelled in by the Brownlows. See also the banner image, coaches c1713. By 1828, Grantham was the centre of an extensive coaching route network.
Alicia Brownlow in 1710. An infant portrait also suggests strabismus, or is it the artist? Strangely, no adult painting exists for Jane Brownlow on the Internet, though one is recorded by Kneller.
At his inn in St Martins Lane in London in 1695 Thomas Brockbank had ‘sack, mutton stakes and pigeons’ for his supper, and for breakfast ‘toast and ale.’ Horses fodder was charged eighteen pence in winter for oats, hay and the bedding straw. In summer horses would go to pasture for threepence. Alice's bill would adequately cover her family of 5 and accompanying servants for the 2 nights after Burghley.
Return Dates
Trigg records,
A bill of Travelling Charges from London to Belton the 4th 5th and 6th of June 1702 as from several bills appears £10 5s [£1,716]
The 4th of June was a Thursday (Julian calendar). If three overnight stays a return to Belton by Sunday. Trigg travelled separately,
My horse and Selfe from London to Belton 5s 6d
This fits with the estimated overnight costs quoted above. Image is a coach returning to Belton mid18th century.
John Ogilvy's scroll maps would have been available the route can be examined in more detail on those. The next section looks at London living for the Brownlow family.
Banner image: The View of the Charity Children in the Strand, upon the 7th of July, 1713, Being the Day Appointed by Her Late Majesty Queen Anne for a Publick Thanksgiving for the Peace. George Vertue (1684-1756)
