NOTES AND UPDATES
Much of the information below has been included in the new edition of the book but it will remain here for the benefit of those with the old edition.
We would be very
pleased to hear of any additional information that could throw more
light on the names and organisations which appear in Lewis Carroll's
bank account, particularly of course those which we have not been able
to trace up to now.
We will post new information, errata, and other
useful comments below (credited of course). We will try to
have new comments up within a week of receipt.
Please send your information or comments.
| Date | Note |
| 11 Feb 2005 | Re: Forster, 1861. One financially quite active Forster in Oxford was William
Forster, steward of Jesus College in the mid-19th century. He dealt with
tradesmen's accounts, paying College servants and so on. I
don't know of any links with Charles Dodgson but some might be found to
exist if one pursues this further. - Brigid Allen |
| 14 Feb 2005 |
Re: Lambton and Co. whom LC paid £30/4/2 on 24.08.82. Lambton and Co.
could be the Bank that the family had that cornered Villiers Street and
High Street, this building has recently been renovated opposite
what was once the Bridge Hotel ...Also the Lambton Coal
interests were in the town, Lambton drops (staiths) were immediately
below the Lyceum theatre. They still operated in my younger days,
I used to help with the ship stores during school hols ... Lambton
House was opposite. - Michael Bute. |
| 15 Feb 2005 |
Re: Lambton. Lambton is a local name in
Sunderland, the Lords of Lambton owning land, pits and business
interests all around Durham in Victorian times, in fact the
Lambtons were the Earls of Durham. The area Michael is talking about is
directly above the wharf that housed the customs house where CLD's
uncle William Wilcox was the collector of taxes. - Bryan Talbot. |
| 23.Feb 2005 |
Re: Irish Rents. Each of the 11
Dodgson children inherited property in Dublin dating from
an indenture of 1827, giving annual ground rents of £46.3s 0d,
£10 and £2.15s 4d, and property in Tipperary under an
indenture of 1835, giving rent of £93.4.8d. - E.M . |
| 28 Feb 2005 |
The "Brooks" referred to who pays £500 into the account 25.05.1898 and
£189 18s.0d on 21.06.1898 was E. J Brooks, Auctioneer, of
14/15 Magdalen Street, Oxford. These sums were proceeds from sale of
CLD's possessions after his death. - J.A.W. |
| 4 March 2005 |
Re: the various entries for
"Stamps". I think these are revenue stamp duty charges in
connection with the purchase or sale of stocks and shares. For example:
on 2.8.69 is an entry for 2/- stamps, and a purchase and sale of stock
on the 14.8.69 of 50 Metropole Stock....On 31.10.77 there
is an entry for 5/- stamps, there is no entry on the bank
statements that seems relevant but in his diary entry for 14.12.77
Dodgson says he signed a bill of declaration for shares in the "SS
Tartassus". Some other stamp entries can't be tied up to any
particular stock movement, but I suspect they are for similar sorts
of transactions. - Roger Allen. |
| 2 April 2005 |
The "De Tivoli" who was
mentioned in 1871 could have been V. de Tivoli, professor of Italian at
Oxford in the 1870s. The payment is for 5 gns. which sounds as if it
could have been a professional fee. - T. J. Wiseman. |
| 5 April 2005 |
Vitale de Tivoli,
(1815-1883) was Teacher of Italian at the Taylor Institute (not a professor) from 1861. He is not mentioned in the Diaries. Dodgson took up learning Italian and the payment is probably for teaching fees, though there is no specific evidence to support this, apart from the bank account entry. It is unlikely that the payment had anything to do with the translation of "Alice in Wonderland" into Italian. This was carried out by Teodorico Petrocola-Rossetti (a nephew of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's father) at Dodgson's invitation. - Edward Wakeling. |
| 6 July 2005 |
"Eyre & S" of 24/03/1900 (and perhaps also "Eyres") are surely "Eyre &
Spottiswoode" the well known publishers. - N. Pashby. |
| 30 October 2006 |
You have not identified the "Chamberlain" who received £5 in June 1872.
But on June 15
1882 CLD wrote in his diary about attending a Meeting of the Governing
Body, and those present included "Chamberlain". So whoever
"Chamberlain" was he must have been quite an established member of the
college and was probably around in 1872.- hence.probably the recipient
of the £5. - E. Enia |
| 20 December 2006 |
My guess, and that's all it is,
is that this might be John Forster, Secretary of the Lunacy Commission,
writer, friend of Charles Dickens and other literary figures. Apart
from the obvious possibilities for contact conveyed in the previous
sentence, this Forster was inevitably in very close contact with
another of the small group of Lunacy Commissioners, Robert Lutwidge,
Lewis Carroll's uncle, with whom he had a very close relationship, and
who was murdered by a 'lunatic' in May 1873 - Stephen Lee |
12 June 2007 |
Lambtons Bank was a family owned
private bank that went out of business just before the second world
war. My Grandfather Ralph Lambton ran the Paris office and I have been
told that when the Bank went under, he paid all the liabilities
off using his personal fortune which as a result was used up. - Rupert Boyd |
| 23 February 2008 |
The "John Lee" fund of 1884 may
relate to St John Lee, Northumberland. CLD's inlaws, the Donkins,
came from there and were buried in the church there.
Possibly he was contributing towards upkeep of graves? - E.M. |
| 7 October 2008 |
Re the £200 payment to
Coles and Carr. They were I believe a firm of solicitors
operating in Eastbourne in the 1880s. - N.N. |
| 8 February 2010 |
In the account, I noticed
payments to the "National Society". On page 35, you say that it is not
known which National Society this is. If you have not already worked
out what this is, then my thoughts might be of interest . Over
the years, I have seen references to "The National Society" which was
(and probably still is) the usual name for the CofE's charity for
establishing Church schools. The full name is The National Society for
Promoting Religious Education. And, I have found the following
reference on the web: ttp://www.victorianlondon.org/charities/nationalsociety.htm - Mark Richards |
| 19 July 2014 |
"The Tartassus" in the account has been wrongly spelt either by CLD or the bank clerks. It refers to the SS "Tartessus" which was shipwrecked off Bilbao in 1881. The same owner also lost a ship in very similar circumstances in 1884 and was prosecuted for fraud. CLD lost money on this venture - Michel Drage |
| 24 July 2014 |
I see that you identified a payment of some GBP52 by CLD to WFDEM on 11 December, 1886, although this was some three months before CLD was to select a set of WFDEM's tiles on 4 March, 1887 - D Rogers [NB After investigation I have reassigned this payment to Alice Morgan, artist - JW.] |