Courtesy of Coutts’ Bank archives.
The above bills of exchange show that Louis lent money to the proprietors of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1799. The story is in a previous blog called ‘Financing Sheridan’ at https://prinnystaylor.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/financing-sheridan/
I have only just found the actual images. It can be seen that these bills are signed by Sheridan himself.
Click on the above images to enlarge them.
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that’s a precious piece of theatre history
Yes! I have a friend who is in touch with the theatre and maybe they will have some records of this too, but I expect they would have burned in one of the fires. Thanks for commenting, Sarah!
Thank you for this, Charles. I’ve read about bills of exchange, but not seen one. Does the sum to be repaid include interest? And what are the words after Louis’s name? I thought they might be ‘or order’ or ‘on order’, but elsewhere ‘d’ is written quite differently.
Hello Charlotte, thanks for commenting. I think it is ‘or order’. In fact this bill has a very similar format to a cheque, and older cheques have ‘or order’ on them. It could also be called a promissory note I think. The theatre promises to repay the sum by the date at the top. Interest was about 5% monthly at the time I think but my maths (especially with L.S.D) is too shaky to work out what the principal is but probably 50l. ?