PERSONAL MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNT BOOK, recording income and expenditure.1. INCOME. Regular payments from Webster & Crompton, both the Mills and the Birmingham Office. Exchequer bills, drawings on Barclay & Co. Shares in a Fire Office, and Birmingham Life Office. Dividends from Warwick Canal and 'Navigation'. Some small rents.2. FAMILY FINANCE. Under the terms of the settlement, he has to pay his mother an annuity and make payments to his unmarried sister Mary Ann. In 1809, he pays her 'on my own note with interest £1000' fulfilling their father's legacy. 'Woodhouse Crompton executor to be secured in Penns & Plants estate ££2920'.3. PENNS ESTATE. Penns apart from being a residence also had a home farm, so there are expenses for hay, oats, pigs, bark peeling, seeds, salt and lime. Payments to carpenters, painters, glazers, farriers, gardners and vets. Household expenditure for food: biscuits, bacon, cheese, butcher's meat. 'Butt of sherry £99'. Housekeeping Richard's wine £89.3.6'. After his marriage, there is m by JOSEPH WEBSTER III [1783-1856] of Penns, Staffordshire

200pp, in ink, on pages with 25 ruled lines, most entries have a numeral by them, perhaps referring to another ledger; some leaves have been torn out and16 pages have been scribbled on by a child. 4to (9.25 x 8in) contemp. ruled velllum, some marking, This account book gives a picture of a leading Midlands industralist who was involved in local society and charities. Joseph Webster III [1783-1856] took control of the family business in 1801 when his mother Phoebe sold him the estate for 5s and a peppercorn rent. His father had died in a hunting accident in 1788, after which Phoebe was forced to oversee the firm. The business was begun by John Webster [1687-1757] who produced iron bar ar Perry Barr and after 1720 turned to wire production. When Joseph Webster III took over, the production was based north-east of Birmingham near Sutton Coldfield, with wire mills at Perry Barr and Penns, and steel was made at Plants Brook forge in Minworth. In Birmingham there was an office, stockroom and a warehouse to supply the public and manufacturers. In the period covered by this account book the firm was known as Webster & Crompton, as Joseph was in partnership with his sister Martha's husband, John William Crompton.On Joseph's marriage in 1811 to Maria Mary Payne [1792-1848] his mother left the family home at Penns in favour of the newly weds. The Napoleonic wars had disrupted the firm's exports, and for the period covered by the account book the profits were small, and indeed in 1818 there was a large loss. It is evident that the money for Joseph's expenditure must have come from family money, and specifically after his marriage to Maria Payne, whose family's fortune derived from the West Indies, his wife. For instance, in 1808, the firm's profit was £21 but in one day in November he bought a gig from Kitchinman of Newark for £57 and a mare for £63. For the year, 1813 Joseph calculated in this account book his expenditure for the year under different heads and it totalled over £3,000. Apart from this personal account, he was also spending large sums improving and expanding his industrial sites.In the mid nineteenth century the firm merged with another wire manufacturer James Horsfall, and the business continues to this day as Webster and Horsfall.See, HORSFALL, J.H.C. 'The Iron Masters of Penns', 1971.