Account book : Accounts 1600-1602.

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clerkenwell (London, England).

Chenies (England).

Clifford, Anne.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:MS b.27

Anne Clifford would have been a child of ten when these accounts were begun on her behalf. They were designed to keep track of family finances but also to teach the young heiress prudence in financial dealing. Even her small gambling debts are recorded, along with agreements made with her mother regarding the purchase of small items such as gloves and ribbons and the giving of gifts. During the period covered by the accounts (1600-1602), Anne was most likely living with her mother Margaret, either in her father's house in Clerkenwell (given to Margaret and Anne for their use after the separation), or at Chenies, the Russell family home in Buckinghamshire, or North Hall, Hertfordshire, the seat of Anne's maternal aunt the Countess of Warwick. The accounts provide a glimpse of the education of a young woman of privilege. Care was given to teaching her to account for all income and expenses as a woman who would in future run not one but several aristocratic households, and although someone else kept the accounts the young Anne was made to sign them. She was tutored in this period by Anne Taylor and Samuel Daniel, whose hand appears among the polite mottos inscribe in the end of the accounts. The mottos suggest the importance of writing and appropriate reading in the education of a young woman, as much as the dancing master who, it is recorded here, was hired to teach Anne for one month.