Accountancy Exercise Book

I have just acquired an Exercise Book from David Mitchell of Scarthin Books in Cromford, Derbyshire. It was acquired from a family in Worksop, Nottinghamshire and is inscribed Master Warburton, Crowle, October 26th 1838.

The book contains about 130 pages of notes and exercises related to bookkeeping or accountancy, all written in a very neat copper plate hand with some artistic flourishes.

The identity of Master Warburton is not known. There was no known Warburton family living in Crowle, Lincolnshire at the time, but the 1851 census describes a small school with schoolmaster William Hemingbrough and his family, and 8 boarders, mainly aged between 13 and 15 years. The schoolmaster would only have been 24 in 1838, and I can’t find the school in the 1841 census, but it seems likely Master Warburton was enrolled in such a school.

The fact the book came from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, which features frequently in Nottinghamshire Clan of Warburtons suggests he may be from that clan. He would have been born around 1823 to be in his mid-teens in 1838. Whilst I can identify 2 or 3 individuals of an appropriate age, none of them seems to have a subsequent occupation that would exploit his education.

Below are a number of photos of pages from the book. The writing is rather spidery so I have tried to enhance the photos as much as possible. The book has several subject headings and I have included photos of all these. The rest of the pages are covered in exercises and calculations. I have include just 4 samples of these, plus an end page which contains the letters F I R I S or F J R J S. I assume this is an acronym but have failed to find a suitable translation.