[Robison, Reed & Shuttleworth, Georgian dry goods merchants.] General statement of the concern of Messrs. Robison Reed & Shuttleworth from June 1st., 1803 to December 1st., 1804.

This is a document which would certainly repay investigation. No record of this firm of merchants has been discovered, or even of where they traded. Robison is a Scottish name, and there is an undated reference to a ‘James Robison, merchant in Dumfries’; most Shuttleworth’s hail from the north-east of England, and there is mention of a John Shuttleworth in Manchester in 1820. Other clues in the document suggest a London location: in 1793 Napper and Co. were listed as ‘Dyers and Callico Printers, Old-street-square’; ‘Clayton & Scott’ were solicitors of Lincoln’s Inn; and in 1810 a John Serrell dissolved his partnership with Charles Lickfold, ‘as Carpenters and Builders, and Corn and Coal Dealers, at Camberwell in the County of Surrey’. On one side of a good piece of laid paper, 102 x 68 cm (i.e. three and a third feet by two). Folded six times into a 26 x 17 cm packet, on the front of which is written ‘James Robinson Esqre.’ In fair condition, with a number of closed tears along the folds (easily repairable, and with no loss of text whatever), and the reverse (the outside of the packet into which it is folded) rather grubby. The accountant William McRea has signed and dated the statement at bottom right. We at least know what the firm traded in: at bottom left are the details of the ‘Merchandise’: ‘Coffee / Spice &c / Hops / Tea / Sugar’. The firm was clearly a substantial concern: the balance to 30 December 1804 was £17, 176 10s 4d. The rest of the document consists of the cash book, with the customary double-entry arrangement of credits and debits, and a list of the accounts of the drawers: William Bennett, James Bradley, Clayton & Scott, Henry Clarke, [Three pr. Cents,] John Hall, [Merchandise,] James Robinson, John Serrell, Thomas Reed, [Sundry Accounts,] John Shuttleworth Private Account, Napper & Co., Elizabeth Reed, [Lease & Fixtures,] Robison & Reed Goods Account, John Shuttleworth Goods Account, Joseph Reed Private Account’.…