© Anne Litchfield Dec 2024

A peek into the life and lifestyle of Jacob Bancks 1704-1738 through his goods and assets as outlined in the inventory attached to probate documents in The National Archives.

When he died in 1738 aged 34 Jacob Bancks, the youngest son of Sir Jacob Bancks and Mary Tregonwell, had assets totalling nearly £2500. In today’s money this equates to a value of between £553,000 (Office of National Statistics) and £956,000 (Dept of English, University of Wyoming), depending on which source is used. In any case I think it is fair to say that he died a wealthy man in goods and chattels if not in coin.

But first a little background history.

When Jacob Bancks, senior, married the widowed Mary Luttrell she was the heir to, and born into “a position of wealth and influence” *. Her first husband was also wealthy and “was to treat his wife to a life of abnormal luxury” * However, the extravagance of their lifestyle (Mary was said to own a fortune in jewels including one piece worth £800 alone) plus the formation and maintenance of two regiments of soldiers to fight in various campaigns, soon brought the Luttrells into debt. On her husband’s death Mary moved into the London town house, closing the country properties, in order to reduce her expenditure, in which it appears she was successful. It was in London that she met Jacob Bancks (later knighted), when he supposedly rescued her from the fire which destroyed her townhouse. Sir Jacob outlived his wife by 21 years (she died following the birth of her second son in 1704) and died in 1724 followed just 3 months later by his eldest son John. This left the estates and fortune in the hands of his second son aged just 21. Jacob’s intestate death in 1738 left us with the inventory we are now examining. 

So – the inventory. I have picked out for the purposes of this blog a few items which I think illustrate my contention in paragraph 2 above, that Jacob Bancks died a wealthy man with a lifestyle to match. The inventory lists 13 bedrooms in the main house, plus 3 in the garret which could have been household servants’ rooms as they also contained items of luggage presumably for storage. In the other 13 bedrooms listed there are 14 beds in total, so plenty of room for guests. I’s also worth noting at this point that other beds can be found in the stables so presumably the grooms slept where they worked! The furnishings of the beds in the main house were of high quality and value. For example the bedding was of worsted (good quality woollen fabric) or camblet (a woven fabric made of goat or camel hair mixed with silk). The garret rooms by contrast had lindsay cloth, a coarse mixture of linen and wool. A couple of the main bedrooms also had tapestry hangings though there is no description of their design and are valued at only £1 or so each. The inventory of household linens lists “11 pair of fine sheets”, “24 pair of servants sheets” and “2 dozen of fine pillowbeers (pillowcases) with an extraordinary value of £38! Turning now to evidence of Jacob’s potential entertainment of guests, whether daytime or overnight, we find a reckoning of his stocks of alcoholic beverages, which would not put a modern publican o shame! At his death Jacob could take his pick from:

2520 gallons of beer (in barrels)
42 gallons of wine (in butts)
216 bottles of port
12 bottles of white wine
36 bottles of claret
18 bottles of sack – a type of fortified wine imported from Spain (sack from French sec or dry)
24 bottles of brandy
168 bottles of rum
12 bottles of arrack – similar to rum made from fermented sugar cane
300 bottles of cider
936 bottles of beer
63 gallons of home-made cider

Quite a party!

We also have a comprehensive list of Jacob’s personal apparel and belongings. These are from his lodgings in Pall Mall, London. “A black paduasoy waistcoat” – paduasoy is a smooth, strong and rich silk from Padua. “A flowered silk banyan” – a type of robe an essential garment for a gentleman of the time and worn indoors, similar to a dressing gown today. “Seventeen ruffled holland shirts” – made from fine bleached linen. “Four India dimity (silk or wool fabric) white waistcoats” amongst many other items totally around £140 in value. He also owned 7 wigs, several pistols, 2 gold watched with chains, cornelian seals set in gold (presumably to mark letters sealed with wax), a picture set with 28 diamonds, a pair of silver spurs, a sliver hilted sword and a gold headed cane. All of which add up to a picture of a gentleman of means and leisure. It seems a shame somehow though that he lived only to the age of 34 to enjoy it all. As the saying goes “shrouds have no pockets”!