Susanna Whatman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Susanna Whatman
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Whatman by George Romney
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| Born | Susanna Bosanquet 23 January 1753 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | 29 November 1814 (aged 61) Baker Street, Westminster, London |
| Nationality | Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Notable works | Susanna Whatman: Her Housekeeping Book |
Susanna Whatman (born Susanna Bosanquet) was a British writer who lived from 1753 to 1814. She became famous about 200 years after she was born for her detailed writings on how to manage a large home. Her work gives us a peek into what life was like in big houses during the 1700s and early 1800s.
Contents
About Susanna Whatman
Susanna Bosanquet was born in 1753 in Hamburg, Germany. Her parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Bosanquet. Her father was a director of important trading companies, like the Levant Company and the East India Company. These companies were involved in trade with different parts of the world. Susanna's grandfather, David Bosanquet, was a Huguenot, which means he was a French Protestant who had to leave France in 1686 because of his religion.
Her Marriage and Family Life
On December 3, 1776, Susanna married James Whatman. James was the son of a famous papermaker, also named James Whatman. Together, the father and son had built a very successful and new paper business in Kent, England.
James Whatman had been married before, but his first wife, Sarah, had recently passed away. He had two children from that marriage. Susanna became a stepmother to these children and helped raise them in their family home.
Managing a Large Household
After marrying James, Susanna became the head of their home, called Turkey Court, near Maidstone. In her first year there, 1776, she started writing down very detailed instructions for her servants. These notes were about how to manage every part of a big house.
She kept adding to and improving these notes for the next 24 years. This included when they moved to a new, even larger home called "Vinters" in 1782. James had bought Vinters a few years earlier, and they spent a lot of money making it a grand home.
A famous painting by Paul Sandby from 1794 shows Vinters and the paper mills that provided the family's wealth. Susanna's husband, James, passed away in 1798. He had sold the paper mills a few years before his death.
Susanna's Legacy and Her Book
Susanna Whatman died in Baker Street, London, in 1814. Her detailed writings about household management were not widely known during her lifetime. However, in 1952, about 138 years after her death, her work was finally published as a book called Susanna Whatman: Her Housekeeping Book.
Her book shows how much Susanna knew about every part of her large homes. Even though her houses had many rooms, she understood each one very well. For example, she knew how sunlight entered a room and how it could damage carpets and decorations. She made sure to include instructions on how to protect items from the sun.
Vinters Today
Vinters remained a Whatman family home for many years. During the Second World War, it was used for war efforts. The house was later taken down sometime after 1956. Today, the land where Vinters once stood is a nature reserve that is open to the public.
