NOTES AND UPDATES

We would be very pleased to hear of any additional information that could throw more light on the names and organisations which appear in Lewis Carroll's bank account, particularly of course those which we have not been able to trace up to now.
We will post new information, errata, and other useful comments below (credited of course).  We will try to have new comments up within a week of receipt. Please send your information or comments.

Date Note
11 Feb 2005 re: Forster, 1861. One financially quite active Forster in Oxford was William Forster, steward of Jesus College in the mid-19th century. He dealt with tradesmen's accounts, paying College servants and so on. I don't know of any links with Charles Dodgson but some might be found to exist if one pursues this further. - Brigid Allen
14 Feb 2005
 re: Lambton and Co. whom LC paid £30/4/2 on 24.08.82. Lambton and Co. could be the Bank that the family had that cornered Villiers Street and High Street, this building has recently been renovated opposite what was once the Bridge Hotel ...Also the Lambton Coal interests were in the town, Lambton drops (staiths) were immediately below the Lyceum theatre. They still operated in my younger days, I used to help with the ship stores during school hols ... Lambton House was opposite. - Michael Bute.
15 Feb 2005
 re: Lambton. Lambton  is a local name in Sunderland, the Lords of Lambton owning land, pits and business interests all around Durham in Victorian times, in fact the Lambtons were the Earls of Durham. The area Michael is talking about is directly above the wharf that housed the customs house where CLD's uncle William Wilcox was the collector of taxes. - Bryan Talbot.
23.Feb 2005
 re: Irish Rents. Each of the 11 Dodgson children inherited property in Dublin dating from an indenture of 1827, giving annual ground rents of £46.3s 0d, £10 and £2.15s 4d, and property in Tipperary  under an indenture of 1835,  giving rent of £93.4.8d. - E.M .
28 Feb 2005
 The "Brooks" referred to who pays £500 into the account 25.05.1898 and £189 18s.0d on 21.06.1898 was E. J Brooks,  Auctioneer, of 14/15 Magdalen Street, Oxford. These sums were proceeds from sale of CLD's possessions after his death.  - J.A.W.
4 March 2005
 re: the various entries for "Stamps".  I think these are revenue stamp duty charges in connection with the purchase or sale of stocks and shares. For example: on 2.8.69 is an entry for 2/- stamps, and a purchase and sale of stock on the 14.8.69 of 50 Metropole Stock....On 31.10.77  there is  an entry for 5/- stamps,  there is no entry on the bank statements that seems relevant but in his diary entry for 14.12.77 Dodgson says he signed a bill of declaration for shares in the "SS Tartassus".   Some other stamp entries can't be tied up to any particular stock movement, but I suspect they are for similar sorts of transactions. -  Roger Allen.
2 April 2005
 The "De Tivoli" who was mentioned in 1871 could have been V. de Tivoli, professor of Italian at Oxford in the 1870s. The payment is for 5 gns. which sounds as if it could have been a professional fee.  -  T. J. Wiseman.
5 April 2005
 Vitale de Tivoli, (1815-1883) was Teacher of Italian at the Taylor Institute
(not a professor) from 1861. He is not mentioned in the Diaries. Dodgson took up learning Italian and the payment is probably for teaching fees, though there is no specific evidence to support this, apart from the bank account entry. It is unlikely that the payment had anything to do with the translation of "Alice in Wonderland" into Italian. This was carried out by Teodorico Petrocola-Rossetti (a nephew of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's father) at Dodgson's invitation. - Edward Wakeling.
6 July 2005
 "Eyre & S" of  24/03/1900 (and perhaps also "Eyres") are surely "Eyre & Spottiswoode" the well known publishers. - N. Pashby.
30 October 2006
 You have not identified the "Chamberlain" who received £5 in June 1872. But on June 15 1882 CLD wrote in his diary about attending a Meeting of the Governing Body, and those present included "Chamberlain". So whoever "Chamberlain" was he must have been quite an established member of the college and was probably around in 1872.- hence.probably the recipient of the £5. - E. Enia
20 December 2006

 My guess, and that's all it is, is that this might be John Forster, Secretary of the Lunacy Commission, writer, friend of Charles Dickens and other literary figures. Apart from the obvious possibilities for contact conveyed in the previous sentence, this Forster was inevitably in very close contact with another of the small group of Lunacy Commissioners, Robert Lutwidge, Lewis Carroll's uncle, with whom he had a very close relationship, and who was murdered by a 'lunatic' in May 1873 -  Stephen Lee

12 June 2007
 Lambtons Bank was a family owned private bank that went out of business just before the second world war. My Grandfather Ralph Lambton ran the Paris office and I have been told that when the Bank went under, he paid all the liabilities off using his personal fortune which as a result was used up. - Rupert Boyd
23 February 2008
 The "John Lee" fund of 1884 may relate to St John Lee, Northumberland.  CLD's inlaws, the Donkins, came from there and were buried in the church there.   Possibly he was contributing towards upkeep of graves?  - E.M.
7 October 2008
Re the £200 payment to Coles and Carr. They were I believe  a firm of solicitors operating in Eastbourne in the 1880s.  - N.N.