ABSTRACT
There was always the risk that by a sudden death or carelessness or some climatic seasonal cataclysm the debt could become impossible to recover, so bringing disaster both to the lender and to the borrower. Hence, debts and debt collection could be problems in many inventories, which were often challenged on the grounds that items of debt were omitted, either deliberately or in error. There was also a debt of £11 due from Dorcas Matthews who ‘was so poor and necessitous during the lifetime of the deceased and he advanced from time to time so much money for her support and at the time of his father’s death Dorcas was indebted more than double her share of the said estate’. James Robbins hoped that the items for wine and cake for the funeral would be allowed. Many city aldermen were both borrowers and lenders, taking a great deal of financial risk which sometimes ended in financial disasters.
