The Francis Willughby Executorship Accounts, 1672--1682: An Early Double-Entry System in England.

Abstract ABSTRACT: For some ten years after the death of the great English naturalist Francis Willughby, F.R.S. (1635-1672), his executors and trustees kept the estate accounts by double entry, with increasing sophistication and accuracy. These accounts are probably the earliest surviving example in England of the use of this technique for noncommercial purposes. The principal trustee, Sir Henry Barnard, was responsible for installing the system in 1673, possibly on the model of the specimen accounts in Abraham Liset's Amphithalami, or, The Accomptants Closet (1660). In 1676, the bookkeeping was extensively remodeled and improved by an accountant named Thomas Godfrey in a manner calculated to strengthen financial control and administrative oversight by the trustees. After the death of Sir Henry Barnard in 1680 the estates came into the hands of Francis Willughby's widow, Emma, by then remarried to the immensely wealthy merchant Sir Josiah Child, and she abandoned the double-entry system after 1681.