Breast is…a bet?

This week I’m away on a research trip to the East Sussex Record Office in Brighton (it scores 10/10 for scenic jogging routes and nice dinner options!). I’m mainly looking at the Frewen family collection, and particularly a series of intergenerational account books which were used by successive family members. 

Along the way, I came across what looks to be a wager between one John Frewen and his father, with the money riding, not on horses or cards, but on his wife’s breastfeeding habits. It reads:

‘August 28 1657 

Memd: My Father is to pay me 5l if my wife doe <solely> nurse the child wherew[i]th she now goeth if not then I am to pay him soe much…’. 

Does this represent John’s support for maternal breastfeeding, as opposed to the use of animal milk or wet nursing? Or his father’s scepticism at his daughter-in-law’s proposed feeding practice? It’s the kind of idiosyncratic, intriguing snippet that resides in so many family archives, and attests to the fact that account books could be so much more than just records of money spent and owed. I’m currently working on a chapter on intergenerational account books, so watch this space for more unexpected accounting activities!