Susanna Whatman (born Susanna Bosanquet) (23 January 1753 – 29 November 1814) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

writer on household management who came to notice about 200 years after her birth.

Life

Susannah was born in 1753 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. She was the daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Bosanquet. Her father was a director of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired ...

and the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

. Her grandfather David Bosanquet was a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

who had left France in 1686. Jacob Bosanquet was a sibling. She married James Whatman (1741-1798) on 3 December 1776. He was the son of James Whatman (1702-1759), with whom he had created an innovative paper business in Kent. Her husband had been married before to Sarah (born Stanley) who had just died. He had two children from that marriage, Camilla, who married Sir Charles Style, Bart. and Letitia, who married Susanna's cousin, Samuel Bosanquet of Dingestow Court, son of the Governor of The Bank of England. Susannah became the head of the household at their home near

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

called Turkey Court. In her first year, 1776, there she wrote down a detailed set of instructions for their servants in household management. She would add to and improve these notes over the next 24 years including when they moved to "Vinters" in 1782. Her husband had bought the house, at

Boxley Boxley is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It lies below the slope of the North Downs approximately northeast of the centre of Maidstone town. The civil parish has a population of 7,144 (2001 census), inc ...

in Kent, a few years before and £5,000 was spent on the house when they moved in. There is a painting by

Paul Sandby Paul Sandby (1731 – 7 November 1809) was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life and work Sandby wa ...

which shows Vinters in 1794 and the paper mills that had created the family's income. Her husband died in 1798 having sold the mills years before when he had a stroke. Whatman's son James married in 1811 and she gave up the job of running the big house of Vinters.

Death and legacy

Whatman died in

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

in 1814. Her writings received no notice until 1952 when ''Susanna Whatman: Her Housekeeping Book'' was published. Her writing shows that although her houses had many rooms, Whatman demonstrates that she had an intimate knowledge of each room and its contents. She knew how the sun would enter a room and she appreciated the damage it could inflict on carpets and decorations if the sun was not kept from the room. Vinters, was a Whatman family home for many years. It was requisitioned for work during the second world war and it was demolished some time after 1956. The grounds are now (2020) a nature reserve and open to the public.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whatman, Susanna 1753 births 1814 deaths People from Hamburg British women non-fiction writers People from Boxley 18th-century British non-fiction writers 18th-century British women writers Bosanquet family