Returns to London

Summary

Many come to me … to leave money with me to have it in London.

Robert Herrick, Leicester tradesman, 1616

though you'll travel all over Cheshire and Shropshire I must one way or other have bills for these £364 … or else I am undone, for I can no longer keep my credit here without it. Therefore I do expect without any frivolous or nonsensical excuses that without any further delay you get bills for this money, for in short I must be forced else to change hands … I desire that you would once take it for granted that I am in earnest, else I must be forced to convince you by way much … against my nature.

Lord Cholmondeley to William Adams, 1701

In the eyes of his master few duties of the steward assumed a greater significance than that of transmitting to him the fruits of his estate. In the eyes of the steward few duties can have seemed more onerous. In an era before the development of country-wide banking institutions, with credittransfer arrangements still unsophisticated and restricted, and with the roads, especially those radiating from London, infested with highwaymen, securely transferring substantial sums from provincial estates to Londonbased landlords or their goldsmiths presented very real problems.