3 June 1761 Went to Drury Lane to see Jane Shore. Mrs Yates Elisia Mrs Sibber Mr Shore Mr Havers Hastings Mr Garick Gloster Mr Davis wth Harlequin Ranger 2/3


I've found the text of the play here. It was written by Nicholas Rowe "in imitation of Shakespear's style", first performed at Drury Lane in 1714 and based on the life of a real woman, Jane Shore, a mistress of Edward IV.


Thomas saw Mrs Yates earlier in 1761 , has has heard Mrs Cibber sing as well as act...picture here.
Her part is properly "Alicia".

Mr Havers is difficult but I think this may be him

Harlequin Ranger is the short comic piece. It was written by Henry Woodward, a protege of Lun who was a famous Harlequin. Here is one of many portraits of him which survive.

1st June 1761 went to to Drury Lane to See King Lear.. Lear Garick Cordelia Mrs Sibber The King, Princess of Wales and the Rest of the Royal Family 2/3


Thomas has seen Garrick's Lear before and Mrs Cibber in another production but this must have been a very special event.

The King was the new George III. He was not yet married and his mother, Princess Augusta, the widow of his father, Frederick Prince of Wales, is the Princess of Wales mentioned.


The earliest portrait I can find of George III is by the Scottish artist, Allan Ramsay.


Here is his mother

Several other Princes and Princesses might be included in "the Rest of the Royal Family" but, of course, I don't know who was there.

29th May 1761 Bout of Mr Venables at the Sign of the Beaver Piccadilly a Fine Beaver Hatt 21/- A Hatt Turning ..18d
Paid him for it before young Wade of Retford his apprentice.

I've found mention of a Mr Venables of Piccadilly - he was a subscriber towards a 1795 edition of Pilgrim's Progress.

Beaver hats were made initially from European Beaver but by this time most seem to have been made from pelts imported from North America. More here.

This hat seems likely to have been a tricorn - Some eighteenth century men's fashion is displayed here.


Thomas seems almost always very concerned that it is clear that he has paid. I find it interesting that he buys from a hatter whose apprentice is from his own home town. So often we seem to think that people didn't move much in the past but Thomas has many contacts who are spread over the country.

23 May 1761
Paid Mr Ward watchmaker in Abchurch Lane for a new Silver watch in Exchange for my Old Pinch Back Watch five pounds as by his Receipt the No. of it is No.6923


Thomas has upgraded his watch, having swapped from silver to pinchbeck once before.

Pinchbeck is an alloy of copper and zinc which was used to imitate gold.

Abchurch Lane is still there in the City of London, running between King William Street & Cannon Street.

I need to do some more research about Mr Ward, but he may have been the master of the Clockmakers' Company in 1795 - a bit about that here.

18th May 1761
Went to see the paintings, modals, sculptures and drawings etc etc at the Society for Arts & Manufactures - Catalogue 6d


Thomas visited the second ever exhibition mounted by what is today called the RSA. It was founded as a result of a bright idea by William Shipley in 1754. There is more history here.

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.