Charitable donations by Mary, Viscountess Palmerston, 1797–1805
Account book listing charitable donations by Mary, Viscountess Palmerston, wife of the second Viscount. Charitable gifts in August 1799 amounted to £66 15s., including a weekly allowance for the poor, sacrament money for the poor (4 guineas), and the lying-in charity. Items donated in November 1799 included 4 children’s bed gowns, 4 women’s bed gowns, 2 flannel bed gowns, 8 little shirts and caps, 4 sets of napkins and 2 pairs of blankets. The scale of this philanthropy and its domestic connections was impressive: landownership implied social responsibility, an interest in moral and physical well-being.
