Hard marbled cover, containing maths exercises, by Francis Hood, Derby, about 1813

Hardback book with green leather spine and marbled paper cover. Handwritten list of figures on front cover. Inside, the first two pages state 'Francis Hoods Book', written in ink, and the name Francis Hood surrounded by arabesques.
The work in the book is divided into sections, each one with a decorated title and introduction. There are references to other pages and sections, perhaps from a text or reference book. Each section consists of a number of worked examples, written in black ink with faded red underlining. Throughout, the work is neat and unblotted, with no corrections or markings, suggesting that working out was done elsewhere and the neat solutions copied into this book. Some exercises are dated; it appears that one exercise was completed daily, perhaps four days per week.

[First section] Reduction

Weights and Measures
There are many exercises involving conversions between different units of measurement. The range of units includes:
Currencies: pounds, guineas, shillings, pence, moidores, pistoles, dollars, florins.
Distance: furlongs, poles, barley corns, miles
Area: acres, perches, roods, poles
Weight: ingots, pounds, grains
Volume: tierces, gallons, pints, hhds [hogsheads], quarts, tuns, puncheons, barrels
Cloth is measured in nails, yards, and English and Flemish ells
Corn is measured in bushels, pecks, gallons, quarters
Coal is measured in chaldrons and bushes
Time is measured in minutes, years, seconds, days, lunar months

[Second section] The Single Rule of Three

Involves ratios, working out the cost of a certain amount based on set prices.
The range of commodities that are mentioned in this section include tea, candles, gloves and stockings, cheese, Holland, serge, silk and shalloon, silver, Barbadoes sugar, wine, apples and pears, tobacco and bricks.
Also includes working out rates of pay, interest on investments, cost of travel.

[Third section] The Rule of Three Inverse

[Fourth section] Contractions in the Rule of Three

The final page is incribed in large writing 'Francis Hood book Derby'.

Given by Barbara Jones

This collection of books belonged to Derby tailor Francis Hood and his children.

Francis was born in Ashbourne, Derby, in 1800. In 1823 he married Susanna Wilson, and they had five children. All their names, apart from the youngest, Susanna, appear on the exercise and copy books. Francis was a successful tailor, and the enterprise grew to be a flourishing family business.

George (born 1827) was a tailor with his father by the age of 14. He died aged only 24.

Elizabeth (born 1830) became a milliner and dressmaker. She married Scottish draper John Train, but was soon widowed, and thereafter is listed is woollen goods trader as well as dressmaker.

Francis (born 1832) moved to Australia, possibly before his twentieth birthday, where he stayed the rest of his life.

Henry (born 1836) was an apprentice in 1851. Ten years later, at the age of 25, he inherited the family business, and by 1881 was employing 6 men and 2 boys. He was married to Elizabeth from Somerset, and they had six children. He was able to retire in his mid-sixties and move to a country house on the proceeds of the business. Soon after, Elizabeth died, but Henry remarried at the age of 72 to a woman 31 years his junior. His second son George (born 1868) continued the Hood dynasty from the 1890s, though the shop in St John Street, Ashbourne, remained ‘Henry Hood & Son’ in 1900.

Susanna (born 1838) never married, and lived with Elizabeth. She was also a dressmaker.

The books were passed down through Henry’s children to the donor’s husband.

The Hoods were a family of tailors based in Ashbourne and Derby, whose sons were taught accounting, measuring, letter-writing and numeration in preparation for the trade. At the age of 12, Francis Hood (b.1799) was executing complex calculations of length and area, interest and profit, with fine penmanship and ornamental flourishes.

The exercises in this book give a fascinating insight into the types of commodities that were being regularly encountered in market towns, the amount of trade that was happening between a range of parties, and the mind-boggling variety of units of measurement that had to be learned before embarking on a mercantile career.

B.278-2012