5 May 1761
Went to See Mr John Payne at Merton in Surry. 10 miles from London
First Place Clapham Balam Tutin uper Tutin then Merton


I think Thomas must be living west of the City this time (he hasn't told us where he is, just the name of his landlord, Thomas Hall). If he walked this journey from the City it would be 15 miles. From Chelsea it is 11 miles. He has the route wrong as he would have reached Upper Tooting before Tooting.


Gentleman Seats at Tutin Scott Esqr Santiloes Esqr Salvidores Jews Hammon Esqr at Merton Alderman Chitty Esqr Medcalfs Esqr & the Abbey where they Print Cottons & Linnes and Bleach em after one man pays 1500 pounds a month Duty


I wish Thomas used more punctuation!

"Salvidores" should read "Salvador". The family were leaders in the Sephardic community in London and Francis Salvador was the first Jew elected to office in what is now the United States. After a crash in his family's fortunes, caused by the Lisbon earthquake (1755) and Francis left Europe to seek his fortune in South Carolina, where, in 1774, he was elected to the South Carolina Revolutionary Provincial Congress.


John Payne appears to have been buried in Merton Churchyard ... see here

Alderman Chitty was involved in the case of Elizabeth Canning, a famous 18th Century mystery


"The Abbey where they Print Cottons & Linne" is Merton Priory Calico Works. William Morris owned it for a time and Liberty & Co bought part of it in 1904 and the part owned by Morris in 1940.

A Concert with a Sermon

27th April 1761 Went to St Andrews Church Holborn to hear the Musik 36 Musitioner 16 Vocal for the benifitt of the Small Pox Hospital
Sermon Preacht by the Bishop Oxford gave 2/-
Text 12 Hebrew 21 vs


St Andrew's Holborn has a history of charitable connections. It was intimately connected with the Coram Foundation and the Royal Free Hospital was founded because William Marsden found a woman dying on the church steps but that was in the 19th century.

St Andrew's is a Wren Church. It was not completely destroyed in the Great Fire but was modernised in the 17th century to Wren plans
Here it is today



And here is a picture showing it in the 18th century.


It seems to have lost a lot of churchyard!

The London Smallpox hospital was in Windmill Street, off Tottenham Court Road (not to be confused with Great Windmill Street famous for the Windmill Theatre). It was founded in 1746 and is claimed to be the first specialist smallpox hospital in Europe. More about this here. Sometime between then and 1769, it was moved to a new building at Battle Bridge, where King's Cross Station now stands. It was in fields, well away from the possibility of infecting neighbours. The building looked like this:-




The Bishop of Oxford was John Hume who was also Dean of St Paul's (Shades of Anthony Trollope!). He went on to be Bishop of Salisbury.

The text reads

"And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:"

This refers to Moses's direct encounter with God.

I have found nothing about the concert which is a shame. I'll keep looking.