On average, Sarah Mellish’s account book suggests that she usually spent between a quarter and a half of her yearly expenditure on clothing (Table 1). This expenditure fluctuated yearly, and according to how much she had spent in total. Purchases of mourning dress in 1710 and 1714 reflected an expensive investment, while unusually high expenditure in 1715 meant that just under a quarter of the total was spent on her wardrobe. Money spent on clothing therefore represented a consistently high proportion of her total expenditure, which, aside from the occasional big expense, remained fairly constant. For instance, she regularly spent money on buying ‘cures’, ‘drugs’, ingredients for various drinks, powder, sugar, tea, coffee, and letters. She also recorded the payment of her servants’ wages as well as for services rendered. Her expenditure is similar to that of the single Diana Eyre, whose account book dates from 1749 to 1777. Vickery argued that Eyre represented a ‘household within a larger household’ as she employed servants but devoted most of her expenditure to ‘personal treats’ rather than wider household contributions. 51 Though Sarah Mellish often moved from household to household, this suggests that as a single woman she was able, or obliged, to devote the bulk of her expenditure to her own needs. Aside from clothing, her second-largest expense was money ‘given’. Usually no more than a few shillings, and rarely more than £1, money was ‘given’ to the ‘music’, to friends and family, servants, charitable collections, widows, nurses, and a number of other recipients. In 1709, money ‘given’ amounted to around 20 per cent of her yearly expenditure, just below the third spent on her wardrobe. 52
In contrast, the account books of the widowed Dorothy Chambers suggest a much smaller proportion of yearly expenditure dedicated to the wardrobe. Dorothy Chambers (née Rolleston) of Watnall in Nottinghamshire married William Chambers of Derby in 1767, when she was in her early twenties. Her husband, almost twenty years her senior, died in 1777 leaving her with three children under the age of ten: William, Lancelot, and Rosamond. Dorothy Chambers died in 1809 aged around sixty-six, without seeing any of her children married. Two of her account books dating from 1799 to 1803 are drawn on in this chapter, the first beginning when she was in her mid-fifties and her children were aged between twenty-six and thirty-one. Her children’s initials frequently appear in her accounts, while Chambers referred to herself as ‘DC’ or ‘Mrs C’. 53 Yearly expenditure between 1799 and 1803 as recorded in her account books is much higher than that of Sarah Mellish, at an average of £1, 000, with a low of £775 in 1802 and a high of £2, 232 in 1800. Her account books share many of the same difficulties with calculating expenditure on clothing discussed above. Nevertheless, it is clear that the purchase and maintenance of clothing reflected only a relatively small proportion of her yearly expenditure. For example, in 1800 when she recorded spending over £2, 232, less than 5 per cent of this was spent on clothing. This year saw a number of unusually large expenses, including £222 spent on the ‘Purchase of a Lease House in Queens Square’ as well as £100 ‘Paid into the stocks’ for Rosamond Chambers, but expenditure on clothing remained low even in other years. Again, in 1802 less than 10 per cent of her yearly expenditure was dedicated to clothing. 54 Dorothy Chambers rarely recorded payments of more than £1 on clothing, except for the occasional purchase. In 1800, for example, Mrs Baker was paid £11 17s ‘for Gown, Corsets, Cap &c’, and in March that same year a ‘A long white Shawl’ costing £12 12s was purchased for ‘Mrs C’. Rosamond Chambers also received ‘a cambric Muslin printed Gown’ costing £2, and two further bills were paid to Mrs Baker for both ‘Mrs C and Miss C’ in June of the same year. 55 Her account books also record numerous payments for household provisions made to butchers and bakers, as well as payments made on the ‘House account’, which alone cost £171 in 1800. 56
The responsibilities of a widowed head of household meant that Dorothy Chambers’ accounts were very different to those of a single woman, as Sarah Mellish dedicated a much higher proportion of her expenditure to clothing. Indeed, the account book of Joan Mellish hints that accounting for a household was not the province of an unmarried woman. When Joan Mellish was nearing the end of her life, Sarah Mellish took over writing in the account book for her mother. Although written in Sarah Mellish’s hand, the accounts remained largely the same; the same things were purchased, and the same people were paid. These accounts record frequent payments for foodstuffs, suggesting that Sarah Mellish took on a role in provisioning the household, or at least in accounting for these provisions. In contrast, Sarah Mellish’s later personal accounts note only small purchases of consumables like sugar, tea, and raisins. After her mother’s death in January 1709, Sarah Mellish ceased to write in the account book, and it was subsequently taken over by a different hand later that same month. Again, the accounts remained very similar, and the fact that the new accountant continued to purchase the same things and pay the same people suggests that they had taken over the running of the household. Though the handwriting does not match that of Dorothy Mellish, it is possible that another sister-in-law of Sarah Mellish’s inherited these accounts as the new accountant recorded the purchase of clothing for her ‘mother’ as well as for the ‘master’. 57 This suggests that this book was tied to the household, rather than to the individual, as a number of different hands contributed to it. We might draw comparisons here with receipt books, a collaborative genre through which women applied collective authority. 58 This account book also demonstrates that accounts were not merely reflective of everyday life but played a role in constructing and representing units such as the household, as well as the relationships within them.