'THE GENERAL ACCOUNT BOOK OF RENTS &C in Bucks, Hants, Suffolk &c belonging to Wm Vigor'; with the letterbook and some accounts of his son William Edward Vigor.

[AUSTEN, Jane.] VIGOR, William.

Published by Basingstoke Hampshire -42 and 1865-92, 1835

About this Item

Manuscript in ink, folio (320 x 200mm), a ruled accounts book with approximately 75pp of entries, plus a good many blank leaves; bound in sturdy vellum, with marbled endpapers; title on upper cover 'Account Book Wm. Vigor Esq'. William Vigor appears to have been a property owner with land and houses in several counties, and among his assets was a house in Basingstoke, which he let to 'Mrs Lefroy'. This must be Jane Anna Elizabeth Austen (1793-1872), niece of the novelist, who came to live with her aunts Jane and Cassandra at Steventon when her mother died unexpectedly, and became a favourite with the family. She harboured ambitions to be a novelist herself, and began a story called Enthusiasm Jane wrote to her in 1814: ' I have made up my mind to like no Novels really, but Miss Edgeworth's, Yours & my own'. The same year, Anna (as she was always known) married Benjamin Lefroy, who had recently come down from Oxford and intended to take holy orders. Her husband succeeded his father in 1823 as Rector of Ashe, near Basingstoke, but she was widowed only six years later, in 1829, being left with a large family of small children. We know that she stayed in the area because letters from Anna Lefroy in the late 1830s and early 1840s, now at Princeton, are written from 'Westham, Basingstoke' (1837) and 'Church Oakley, Basingstoke' (1843) - both villages are very close to the town, and West Ham is effectively now part of the larger conurbation. Presumably the house referred to here was the one at West Ham, recorded on the opening page: 'House - Basingstoke / Mrs Lefroy Tenant @ £80 P[er] Ann'. Mrs Lefroy is referred to elsewhere twice more, in July 1837 (£30 for the use of fixtures), and December 1837 (£40 for half a year's rent). William Vigor's son William Edward was being educated at Oxford at exactly this time, going up to Worcester College in 1837, at the age of 18. He too became a clergyman, and was Rector of Botus Fleming, Cornwall, in 1851. He used this ledger as a letter book in the years 1865-76, and there are further accounting entries covering the 1880s and up to 1892; he died there in 1897 at the age of 78.

Seller Inventory # 21907

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 'THE GENERAL ACCOUNT BOOK OF RENTS &C in Bucks, Hants, Suffolk &c belonging to Wm Vigor'; with the letterbook and some accounts of his son William Edward Vigor.
• Publisher: Basingstoke Hampshire -42 and 1865-92
• Publication Date: 1835
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fiction