A Doctors Ledger

January 1896 to June 1899

I have recently aquired an Account Ledger that belonged to a Dr. L.E Towers of Hastings in which he lists in beautiful clear hand writing the amounts payable by upwards of 800 of his patients for his professional services, and, reading through the 205 pages, it really does illustrate the differential  class structures at the end of the 20th century, where if you had the ability to pay, the charges were adjusted according to your means with the upper class paying anything from 7/- per visit and the lower classes starting at 2/6d per visit; but even visits to the same house on the same day were charged differently if they were to treat staff rather than the Gentry.

NB.  For those not familiar with the old monetary values of £sd, there were 12 pennies (shown as a ‘d’ ) in one shilling, (shown as an ‘s’) and 20 shillings in 1 pound.   In today’s terms 1 shilling is 2½ new pence.   

Selected extracts from the Ledger  

Countess Violet Schlippenback residing at 21 West Hill in June 1897 paid 21/- to have her Ears Syringed, as did Captain Buttis of 106 Marina, whilst 13 visits to the Countess’s staff during the period December 1896 to March 1897 cost her 5/- per visit - the bill was sent to an address in Eaton Place, London, SW on 20th June 1897 but was not paid for nearly 3 years until Jan 15th 1900.

Some accounts it seems were never paid for one reason or another as in 1896 Mrs Hutchins of Bulverhythe Road received 4 visits at 2/6d each, plus a vaccination for a child at 2/6d and the bill sent in April was returned in September marked “O.H.M.S. - no address”, whilst Mrs Hardiman of Southwater Road has “Gone away” written over the ledger entry and Sister Eleanor of 145 Marina has “Refused Payment and B.D.” written over her account of £2-15s for 11 visits at 5/- per visit over a period of 3 months.

Confinements (6 or 8 visits) it seems were usually about 21/- if you lived in areas such as Caves Road, Alton Terrace or North Street, but Mrs Willard living on East Ascent was charged £2.2s in 1896, Mrs Webber of the Fountain Hotel paid £3.3s in 1887, Mrs Canning of 97 Marina was charged £5.5s in March 1998, but poor Mrs Taylor at No 19, West Hill was charged £10.10s, but she did have 18 visits in June and 10 visits in July 1896 and Mr Taylor himself had 4 visits in December of the same year at 10/6d per visit - the whole account being paid on January 11th 1897.

Anaesthetics were usually charged at 21/- and vaccinations ranged in price from 3/6d to 5/- whilst an ‘Ointment Introducer’ for a guest at the Victoria Hotel in 1896 cost 10/6d and a ‘Plaster of Paris Splint’ for Miss Nettleton of 63 Marina cost 10/6d.

Other interesting references include ‘Circumcision of Child’ £3.3s (Marina),  Minor Operation £2.2s (West Hill), Post Mortem Examination £2.2s, Administration of Gas  10/- (Marina), Toenail removal £3.3s (Kenilworth Road) and the Simmons Child of 14 Silverdale Road had its Tonsils removed at a cost of 21/-, whilst the Foreman child of Tower Road had a Tracheotomy at £2.2s and 19 visits at 2/6 - total £4.9.6d, whilst his mother also had 6 visits at 3/- and 2 visits at 5/- = £1.00,  making a total bill over 5 months of £5.9.6d, an amount that still appears to be owing.

Children from the poorer areas of town were always listed as Foreman Child or Simmonds Child whilst on the Marina, West Hill and other more upper class neighbourhoods they were listed as Master Foreman or Miss Simmons, and likewise, servants were very rarely given names, they were always referred to as Mrs So and So’s Housemaid, Butler, Porter, Ladies Maid, Cook etc. 

Poor Mr Lyons staying at Ebor School in Bexhill in June 1896 must have been very distressed to have been charged 21/- for the Doctors “Attendance following bicycle accident” and another entry for March 1896 simply reads “J W Oldinorff, (nurse) one visit (found dead) charge 21/-, but it also shows that the account was paid a few days later on March 18th.

Not everyone was charged for the doctors attendance as several entries have the word ‘Gratis’ written against them, and their locations varied greatly from the Marina - 1 visit, Victoria Dwellings - 3 visits, Norman Road - 1 visit, indicating that all classes of society were treated the same, but is it just coincedence that all recipients of these “Gratis” visits are entered as “Miss”.

Of the 800 plus different surnames occurring in the ledger, the one name repeated most is that of  Mrs Gwynne Griffiths and family of 145 Marina who between them clocked up 84 visits from the doctor between January 1896 and January 1897, plus 5 further visits for their cook in March 1896, plus they were also attended by a Dr Christopherson, running up an account of £23.13.6d, of which only £5.5s is recorded as being paid in May of 1998.

As more than 100 years have passed since the ledger was written, I believe that non of the listed patients could possibly be still alive so I have been feeding the information into a Database and propose publishing it on behalf of 1066 Genealogy, but, if in the meantime you wish to enquire as to any reference to your chosen research, please contact me through the internet., and I will copy out all occurrences of that name.   

G G Swarbrooke (Chris in 1066Land)