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Playford, Anne; eldest daughter of Thomas Baker, City Solicitor for Oxford, and Ann, dau. of John Skingley, Oxford ; Dame of a boarding house in Little Dean’s Yard (on the north side of Little Dean’s Yard, between the Head Master’s House and Ashburnham House, and demolished in 1841) by 5 Jun 1719, retaining it to death ; first of eighteen recorded boarders adm. Sep 1735, last recorded boarder adm. May 1742 ; she may have handed over management of the house to her niece, Mrs Anne Ludford (Dame, above), in the autumn of 1742, for the first five of Mrs Ludford’s boarders were admitted between Oct 1742 and Apr 1743 ; m. 20 Dec 1688 Henry Playford (d.c.1709), music publisher ; d. 29 Jun 1743, aged 72 (will proved PCC 14 Jul 1743). Buried North Cloister, Westminster Abbey. Sister of Mrs.Rachel Taylor (Dame, below), and mother-in-law of Thomas Fitzgerald (qv, also Usher). [What had been Mrs Playford’s house is shown on an undated manuscript plan postdating 1740 as “on lease to Bromfield & Dampier”].

Packharness, ---; succeeded Mrs.Glover as Dame of the Centre House on the Terrace (by 14 Jul 1808, when Lord William Pitt Lennox (qv) became a boarder there) ; listed there Boyle’s Court Guide 1814 ; last boarder admitted to boarding house when under her name was on 16 Jun 1819 ; succeeded by Mrs.Stelfox ; “Mrs Packharness and Miss [sic] Stelfox were both sort of half ladies and had been governesses” (according to reminiscences dictated by William Smythe (qv)). [Was this Mrs Packharness, widow of John Packharness, St.Ann’s, Jamaica, plantation owner, and mother of Eliza Mary Packharness (b.1785), wife of Charles Markham ?] [possibly = Mrs Packharness, proprietor of a ladies’ school in Lincoln at some date in or before 1811].

Ottey, Elizabeth; daughter of Nathaniel Fairclough, Stowmarket, Suffolk, and Mary Grimwood ; bapt. Whatfield, Suffolk 23 Sep 1734 ; Dame of the Centre House on the Terrace 1771 (succeeding Mrs Porten) until about Christmas 1785 (preceding Mrs Farren) (surname incorrectly given by Russell Barker and Stenning as Ottley) ; m. 12 Jun 1753 Rev.Thomas Ottey (died 1762), Curate of Hadleigh, Suffolk, Vicar of Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk 1754-5, also described as being of Great Horkesley, Essex) ; d. at Hadleigh, Suffolk 27 Aug 1799 (will proved PCC 6 Nov 1799, widow, Hadleigh, Suffolk), described in death notice in GM as “formerly of Deans Yard, Westminster”.

Morel, Philippia; dau. of --- Chancey ; of Chiswick, Middlesex, on marriage ; already keeping a boarding house for the School by 30 Sep 1728, when she received a payment for the boarding fees of Chamberlayne and Robert Dashwood (qvv) ; kept a boarding house in Cowley Street 1738-54 and at 1 Little Dean’s Yard from 1754 (succeeding Mrs.Watts there) ; first three of fifty-three recorded boarders in period for which boarding data is available adm. Apr 1738, last recorded boarder adm. Feb 1753, two further boarders recorded later ; her initial three boarders included Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham (qv), a future Prime Minister, and later boarders included Jeremy Bentham (qv) ; she bequeathed the remainder of the lease of “the house I now dwell in”, evidently 1 Little Dean’s Yard, to her son William Morel (qv) ; she also bequeathed to a grand-daughter “my diamond ring that was given me by His Grace the Duke of Leeds in memory of his son the late Marquis of Carmarthen deceased” (who will therefore have been one of her boarders) ; m. 1727 John Niccolo Morel (of St.James’s, Westminster, on marriage), Page of the Backstairs to Queen Caroline (occurs 1734-7) (his will proved PCC 5 Jan 1749, as of St.John the Evangelist, Westminster) ; d. 2 Feb 1768 (Public Advertiser 4 Feb 1768). Will dated 30 Apr 1765, proved PCC 3 Mar 1768, she of St.Margaret’s, Westminster, widow. [Receipted bill for school expenses of Sir Charles Hotham, Bart., quarter ending 23 Apr 1743, is signed “T.W.Morel” (transcription by A.M.W.Stirling, The Hothams, ii, 2, note), but “T.W,”is no doubt a misreading of “J.N.”]

Ludford, Ann; only daughter of Rev.Edward Taylor, Rector of Finningley, Notts., and Rachel (Mrs.Rachel Taylor, Dame), dau. of Thomas Baker, Oxford, and sister of Mrs. Ann Playford, Dame ; kept the boarding house in Little Dean’s Yard previously managed by her aunt Mrs Playford ; first of thirty-two recorded boarders adm. Oct 1742, last recorded boarder adm. Feb 1746/7 ; additional boarders inherited by her from Mrs Playford included the poet William Cowper (adm. Apr 1742, qv) ; her husband, Thomas Ludford, provided an account for “Masters Arthur and John Chichester” 10 Feb 1753, Shakespeare Birthday Trust archives, but the Chichester brothers had been entered up Grant’s, and it seems probable that Ludford had paid their boarding fees for Grant’s himself and was invoicing the Chichester family for repayment ; m.1st, in or before 1727, Thomas Bold, Thames Street, London, distiller ; m.2nd, 29 May 1731 Thomas Ludford (formerly Bracebridge) (d.1776) (will proved PCC 28 Jun 1776, as of Hayes, Middlesex) ; d. 15 May 1748, aged 50. Buried North Cloister, Westminster Abbey. Mother of Edward Taylor Ludford (qv).

Levett, ---; Dame of a boarding house in Smith Street, first of eighteen recorded boarders adm. May 1741, last recorded boarder adm. Jun 1751. [note will Elizabeth Levett, St.Margaret, Westminster, spinster, dated 1 July 1748, proved PCC 6 Jul 1748, leaving all her personal estate to her “dear and well beloved friend Mr George Davise”]

Langton, Edward; kept a boarding house in Little Smith Street 1768-84 (voter in Smith Street for parliamentary elections 1774 and 1780) ; evidently Edward Langton, St Stephens Court, New Palace Yard, Westminster, will dated 29 March 1792, proved PCC 13 Jul 1793 by his widow and executor Dorothy Langton ; his will shows that Joseph Auterac (qv) was his nephew. He can be identified as Edward Langton, a clerk in the office of the 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, one of the Tellers to the Exchequer, who was appointed Deputy and First Clerk to Lord Hardwicke as Teller of the Exchequer in Apr 1787.

Jones, Mary Ann; Dame of 2 Little Dean’s Yard 1837-47 ; known as “the Black Serjeant”.

Jones, John; kept a boarding house at 1 Dean’s Yard to 1778, when he was succeeded by Mrs.Clapham (George Colman, Random Recollections, 1830, i, 81) ; first of three recorded boarders adm.Jul 1751, last recorded boarder adm. Nov 1752, but the available boarding data only covers the period up to the beginning of 1753, and the boarding house may be assumed to have been in continuous existence until the 1770s. It should however be noted that in a contemporary list of “The names of the Noblemen at Westm. School in 1757”, Lord Norreys, to be identified as Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon (qv), is recorded as boarding “at Mr Jones’s”, while “Mr Devereux, son to Ld Hereford”, to be identified as Edward Devereux, 12th Viscount Hereford (qv), is recorded as boarding “at Mr Jones’ in College Street”, leaving as possibilities either that John Jones had kept a boarding house in College Street before moving to Dean’s Yard, or that two separate individuals with the surname Jones were managing boarding houses at this date. John Jones, Dean’s Yard, was a legatee under the will of Mrs Mary Salt, dated 29 Dec 1766, and was a voter in Dean’s Yard at parliamentary election in 1774 ; m.

Hutton, John; son of Joseph Hutton, Harefield, Middlesex ; bapt. Harefield, Middlesex 19 Aug 1676 ; ed. Eton, scholar 1689, and King’s Coll.Cambridge, adm.1694, matr. Easter 1695 ; BA 1698/9 ; MA 1702 (incorp.Oxford 30 Oct 1711) ; Fellow, King’s Coll. 1697 – Nov 1705 ; ordained deacon 18 Apr 1704, priest 19 May 1706 (both Lincoln) ; Curate, Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk ; Vicar of Stanford in the Vale, Berks., 9 May 1707 – Jun 1715, when resigned as being a non-juror ; “in the year 1716 he began to keep Boarders for Westminster School” (London Evening Post, 29 Dec 1750) ; first of thirty-one recorded pupils during the period for which admission data is available was adm. Nov 1735, last pupil adm. Mar 1749/50, although it is stated that his boarding house in College Street was kept on by his widow to her death in Jul 1752 (her will proved PCC 2 May 1753) ; m. 4 May 1704 Elizabeth Ayscough, Caythorpe, Lincs., “a cousin of Sir Isaac Newton” ; d. Dec 1750, aged 74 (will proved PCC 3 Jan 1751). Father of James Hutton (qv). [mother’s father perhaps William Ayscough]