Item 01 - Account Book

'This volume records parish accounts for the early years of his rectorship of St Peter’s (1762-85), before resuming in 1770 with daily receipts and expenses while Head Master at Westminster (1764-88).

As one might hope from a Cambridge don and schoolmaster, the accounts contain several entries for books, generally of a classical, theological, or educational nature, purchased from the likes of ‘Mr [Thomas] Payne’ and ‘Mr [William] Ginger’. Examples include Graevius’s edition of Cicero’s De Officiis, Thomas Newton’s Dissertations on the prophecies, and, fresh off the press, a copy of Proposals for an amendment of school-instruction (London, 1772). Smith subscribed to books too, including Lawrence Holden’s A paraphrase on the Book of Isaiah, and Thomas Francklin’s translation of Lucian. He purchases prayerbooks from a Mrs Cole, ‘two spelling books for my children’, ‘a Virgil … which belonged to Ld Derehurst’, and makes regular payments to the newsman. In addition to his bibliophilic tendencies, the accounts also demonstrate Smith’s interest in art and music, as he visits exhibitions, buys picture frames, and pays the ‘Bp of Peterborough for a landscape by [Adam] Pynaker’, as well as taking his wife to see ‘Il Cid opera’ and Handel’s oratorio Alexander Balus.
There are very practical payments (to a glazier for mending the chancel windows, to a ‘chimney doctor’, and for the clearing of sewers and gutters), as well as charitable contributions (subscriptions to the Westminster Infirmary and Grey Coat Hospital, gifts to the poor, Christmas boxes for the dustman, &c), but also occasional treats (oysters for his children, lobsters, Dublin beer, a backgammon table, and money won and lost at cards). In June 1770 Smith pays ‘Mr Small for inoculating two of my children’. The entries for income reveal that Smith received, for example, money from India and City bonds, from school fees, and from selling his father’s furniture via ‘Mr Christie’.

The front pastedown bears a list of the impressive stocks of alcoholic beverages under Smith’s care in 1772 and 1773, including ’76 bottles of Port at home’, and supplies of Hock, Burgundy, Cherry Brandy, and ‘Dehany’s Rum’ in the ‘cellar in cloisters’ and ‘the room over the gate’ (presumably at Westminster).' - Bernard Quaritch Catalogue