The volume contains accounts of private, household and estate income and expenditure of George Harry Grey (1765-1845), Lord Grey, later 6th Earl of Stamford. The volume was first used to record the allowance Lord Grey received from his parents, and to account to them for his personal expenditure. Later the accounts also record household and estate income and expenditure while Lord Grey resided at Atherstone Hall, Warwickshire.
The volume begins with a list of bills and sundries before Lord Grey received his regular allowance in 1784. For the years 1784-6 and 1789 receipts comprise payments of allowance by his parents. Disbursements are divided into separate accounts for clothing, college expenses [at Trinity College Cambridge], wine account, travelling expenses, servant's expenses, presents, small charities and sundries. Each item of expenditure is described in considerable detail. There is also a section for expenditure during Lord Grey's Grand Tour of Europe, 1786-8.
The accounts for 1790 and 1791 are both recorded on single pages, and from 1792 onwards each year's account is presented on one double-page opening. Disbursements and payments "from my own account" are listed on the left-hand page, receipts on the right. Disbursements consist of household and estate expenditure, and they are invariably recorded under the following heads: housekeeping, wine, ale and beer, coals, rent, garden and labourers, stables and horses, hay and corn, carriage of goods, servants' wages and board wages, servants' clothing, plate, furniture, militia (to 1797), taxes, repairs, sundries, cattle bought, and farming expenses. Payments on his own account consist of personal expenditure, and they are recorded as clothing, travelling expenses and carriages, presents, small charities, sundries, Lady [Henrietta Charlotte Elizabeth] Grey (1773-1838), children's clothing, children's schooling, and payments of interest to Messrs Goslings & Sharpe.
Receipts include lottery prizes, interest on bonds, income from estates, and income from sundry sales. There are two loose receipts enclosed within the volume.