Country Life April 13th 1907

A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL.

At Ockenden House, near Cuckfield, in Sussex, lived, in the seventeenth century, a certain Timothy Burrell, a member of an old Sussex family that had settled in the county more than four hundred years ago. Probably this Timothy Burrell differed little from other country gentlemen of his date, but his claim to notice lies in the fact that during his lifetime he kept a “Journal and Account Book,” which was fortunately preserved until a few years ago, when it was destroyed in the fire which occurred at Knepp Castle, the seat of the present head of the family, Sir Merrik Burrell, Bart. Luckily, very full transcripts of this journal were printed some years back by the Sussex Archaeological Society, and they give us an insight into the life of the period which could ill have been spared.

The writer was born in 1643, a year before the battle of Marston Moor, and consequently was six years of age at the time of the execution of Charles I. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, afterwards being called to the Bar, which fact led to his being frequently consulted by his Sussex neighbours on matters pertaining to the law and to the title of “Counsellor Burrell” by which he was commonly known.

His journal commences when, at forty years of age, he was living a country life in the comfortable gabled house at Cuckfield. To commence with we find entries regarding the wages paid to servants, from which it appears that “Sarah Fuller darymayd” received “45s pr an.” The footman’s wages came to 30s. a year, “with coat, breaches, and hat,” while the coachman claimed £6 a year and a coat and breeches, added to which he received 2s 6d in addition “for catching moles”.  The cook’s wages were 50 shillings a year and the “chambermayd” was paid a similar sum. John, the coachman, was no example of sobriety, for his master on paying him his half years’ wage adds “to be spent in ale”, and on another occasion “to be fooled away in syder or lottery.” John, however, must have been a good man in the stable - or an expert mole catcher - for in spite of his lack of temperance he kept his place until his death, in 1712, which was caused by a fall from the box when driving to Glynde, in connection with which Mr Burrell records the payment of of “14s, 1d “for plasters, ointments, pectorals, purges, for John Lord’s

 head, eyes, wrist, knee, foot and lung.”  

In 1687 Timothy Burrell purchased two coach geldings for £35, and “gave the man who brought them from Maudlyn faire, near Winchester, 10s.” His chariot cost him £28, and two liveries for the men £5 4s. In 1694 he buys for the coach “a four year old bay gelding with a white spot on the wither and a small white spot on the forehead for £12". Six years later is entered the price of £34 for “two black geldings, 5 years old this spring, each fifteen hands high, with a small star in the forehead, and two white feet behind, all the rest of the body black.”

From these stable expenses it is curious to note that a pair of horses cost as much as six times the yearly wages of the coachman, while the footman’s wages only amounted to double the fee paid to “the horse rider for riding the chestnut colt,” who received 15s. There are many entries with regard to farm expenses. The “mowers” were paid 1s. 8d. an acre, and the payment for a man and boy “for haying” came to £1 3s. 6d. for twenty-three days, in the year 1689.

We find that the cellar at Ockenden House was well filled with home-brewed ale and beer—the weekly consumption of malt was thirty bushels—and port at 1s. a bottle and Canary at 1s. 8d. a bottle were laid down. Less attractive items are found in the payment of chimney and window taxes, and on the birth of a daughter, followed by the death of his wife, Timothy Burrell was called upon to pay £6 6s.—births, marriages and deaths alike being taxed in 1696. In later years, when the daughter had grown to be a young woman, her name is frequently mentioned in the journal. She ultimately married Lord Trevor; but in 1703 we find her learning to dance “at a guinea entrance, and a guinea a quarter.” The same year she receives a present of “a Te pot and porridge spoon”—tea is first mentioned in 1701, when the diarist generously gives away 4 oz. of it.

“My girle” is frequently referred to at a later period, and such purchases as the following are noted: “A pair of fine scarlet stockings,” “2 ells of cloth to make a smock,” “28 yards of pink flowered satin, at 9s. the yard, £12 12s.” There are not, on the whole, many references to family matters in the diary; but Timothy Burrell, here and there, alludes to such in Latin. Once he was “rather too impatient with his servant ‘for having put too much salt in my broth,’” and on another occasion “my sister was impatient to me, but I kept my temper pretty well.” Subsequently, Timothy Burrell quarrelled with the said sister, and admits being “somewhat, not to say too much, irritated with her.” At Christmas various neighbours kept the Ockenden larder well supplied with good fare, and year by year we find these presents recorded. They took the welcome form of venison, pigs, capons, pullets, trout, carp (one of which weighed 9 lb.), kegs of strugeon (from Sir John Shelley), pots of woodcock (regularly sent by a sister), cheese, chocolate, bottles of mead and many other delicacies.

Of Timothy Burrell’s amusements we do not hear much. He played cards, and entered the losings in his accounts. He read Gazettes, brought him by the carrier, and the first three numbers of the Flying Post are noticed. He paid occasional visits to London, on horseback no doubt, and possibly it was there that he amused himself most thoroughly, for he enters the sum of £54 3s. as “spent in London,” during a visit of not very long duration. For the rest, we may conclude that he hunted, and shot, and hawked, after the manner of other country gentlemen. In 1715, weary of housekeeping, the diarist handed over the reins of government to his son-in-law, the husband of “my girle,” and two years later Timothy Burrell died at the age of seventy-five.

He lies buried in the church of Cuckfield.