The Legend of Dr David Livingstone Pt. II

The Livingstone “Fortune”

As I explained last time digital images and a transcript of the three pages of Dr Livingstone’s inventory available free on the Scotland's People website identified that his total estate in Scotland was worth £1463 19s and 3d. So did this represent a “fortune” for David Livingstone? It is very hard to compare the worth of money in the past with the buying power of current income as past economies differed greatly especially, in terms of what was available to buy, distribution of wealth in society and objective interpretation of value.

My first step in trying to understand the value of my ancestor’s estates has always been the National Archives “Currency Converter” (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid). This conversion tool is no longer being updated however, it provides a quick indication of modern value (in 2005) for each decade between 1270 to 1970. The tool shows that in 1870, £1,463 19s 3d would have the same spending power in 2005 as £66,903.09. On that basis, each of Dr Livingstone’s children would have received an estate worth about £16750 in 2005 terms. This would not represent a “fortune” in today’s terms.

However there are other more comprehensive tools available on-line for measuring worth which provide a much more comprehensive view of relative value or buying power for our ancestors. The Measuring Worth website provides a number of different measures of relative worth. If you want to compare the value of a £1,463 19s 3d, in 1873 there are a number of choices. In 2011:

• the relative historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is £106,000, using the retail price index (an index that measures the cost in a given period of the goods and services purchased by a typical consumer in a base period),
• the relative labour value of a commodity is £695,200 using the average earnings,
• the relative economic status value of that income or wealth is £879,000 using the per capita Gross Domestic Product (an index of the economy's average output per person),
• The relative historic opportunity cost of a project is £133,100 using the Gross Domestic Product Deflator (an index number that represents the "average price" of all the goods and services produced in the economy) and
• the relative economic power value of that income or wealth is £1,724,000 using the share of Gross Domestic Product (a measure of the share of the market value of all goods and services produced in a year)

The historic standard of living value would suggest that Dr Livingstone’s four children would each receive about £26,500 in 2011 terms. In comparison the relative economic power value of that income would suggest each received about £431,000. In either case they would not be seen as instant paupers but hardly would they be newly rich.

I often find in researching family history that serendipity can often play a significant part in my quest for answers. With the bicentenary of David Livingstone's birth taking place on the 19 March 2013, the British Newspaper Archive decided to share some free archive stories about the man who became one of the world's most famous missionaries and explorers.

The first story they chose is an interesting description of his life and work that was published in an obituary in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph on Thursday 29 January 1874. Whilst Dr Livingstone died in May 1873 as news travelled more slowly in the nineteenth century, word of Livingstone's death did not reach England until late January 1874.

The second article published in the Manchester Times on Saturday 18 April 1874 reports on the arrival of Livingstone's body to England in April 1874, for burial at Westminster Abbey. This article is particular relevant to the question of Dr Livingstone’s “fortune”. At the end of the article the following is included:

“The following communication has been addressed to the London journals:-
Sir, - The mortal remains of one whose name will add glory to his country through ages are being borne to the shores of England.
As they are placed to rest in the great Machpelah [The Cave of the Patriarchs - Westminster Abbey] of our land, something of the spirit of old will hover over the sad burden; another patriarch has been carried up by tender hands out of the land of the Nile, that he may be entombed among the mighty of his own people.
How greatly he gave we know full well who have watched him for 30 years unfolding Africa to our gaze, and dashing desperately against her worst foes. But now that he has given, last of all, his life, we feel we must no longer withhold from this nation a trust which has fallen to it by his death.
David Livingstone supported two sisters far advanced in years; one of them is in very feeble health; but for our care they are henceforth without the necessaries of life. Two sons and two daughters survive the parents whom Africa’s cause has claimed; they too are left extremely badly off.
It is proposed to raise a fund for their benefit.
In appending our names to this announcement we may add that subscriptions will be received at Messrs. Coutts, Messrs. Ransome, Bouverie, and Co.’s and London and Westminster Banks to the credit of the Livingstone Memorial Fund, to be devoted to the sole use of the family as a committee shall subsequently arrange.
Burdett-Coutts
Kinnaird
H. B. E. Frere
Fowell Buxton
James Young, of Kelly
A. Kinnaird
W. F. Webb, of Newstead Abbey
Horace Waller
W. C. Oswell”

As can be seen a distinguished group are requesting donations for the support of Dr Livingstone’s family who “are left extremely badly off” which significantly suggests that contemporaneously there was no knowledge of a “fortune”.


Next time - Are we related?

The Legend of David Livingstone Pt. I

As a child of about seven or eight and long before I became interested in family history my father told me a story concerning the famous 19th century explorer and missionary, Dr David Livingstone. He informed me that a cousin from another branch of our family had been investigating their ancestry because they wanted to prove that they they were descended from Dr David Livingstone. I was told that they were doing this because there was a huge unclaimed Livingstone estate which if only they could prove descent would be theirs. However the “cousins” had terminated their research early on learning that the unclaimed estate did not come down to their branch of the family but ours! Sadly my grandfather could not afford the cost of the necessary research in Scotland and Africa and therefore we were unable to claim our fortune.

At this point in time I was completely unaware of the Hume branch of the family from Scotland and too young to question why we might be related to a Scottish missionary. However I did read a book about “The Great Europeans” which had a chapter on Dr David Livingstone and drew an image of this heroic explorer who spread Christianity, freed slaves and opened up the African continent for Europeans whilst taking great personal risks with disease and the local peoples.

So who was Dr David Livingstone?

Dr David Livingstone taken in his sisters' house in Hamilton in 1864 aged approximately 51 (Photographer Thomas Annan)

David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland on the 19th March 1813. He was the son of Neil Livingstone and Agnes Hunter. He married Mary Moffat daughter of another famous missionary Robert Moffat on 2nd January 1845 in Kuruman, Northern Cape, South Africa. They had six children three of whom married and had children. As such it seems highly unlikely that there would be an unclaimed “treasure”.

The Children of Dr David Livingstone and Mary Moffat

So in trying to find out more the first stop for my Scottish family is always Scotland's People and this is where I went looking for a will and probate for Dr David Livingstone. Searching on the wills page the following record was found:

No	Surname	Forename	Date	Description	Type	Court	Reference
5	LIVINGSTONE	DAVID	15/09/1874	LLD, DCL, REVD, AFRICAN TRAVELLER, DIED AT ULALA, CENTRAL AFRICA	I	GLASGOW SHERIFF COURT INVENTORIES	SC36/48/74 PAGES 705-7

Not knowing what the “I” stood for in type, I referred to the word abbreviations (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=551&433) and found this was an inventory. The website’s FAQs on record type (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/faqs/index.aspx?39) told me that:

“An inventory is a valuation of the moveable property belonging to a deceased person at the time of his or her death. It can include household furnishings, clothes, jewellery, books, papers, farm stock and crops, money in cash, bank accounts and investments, as well as money owed to creditors and money due from debtors.

Sometimes the inventory is very detailed, with the value of every item listed, but often it consists of a brief, overall valuation. Almost every document in the index contains an inventory of some kind, except where there are separate registers for wills.”

In addition to this helpful information it also told me to look at the Famous Scots section for the inventories of Rob Roy McGregor, David Livingstone, Adam Smith and others. In that section (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?1134) it was stated that:

“Livingstone left no will, and his testament consists of an inventory of the money in his British bank accounts. His chief executor, his eldest son Thomas Steele Livingstone, living in Hamilton, attests that he has no knowledge of the extent of his father's estate, if any, abroad. Mary Livingstone had died in 1862 in Africa, so the estate was divided equally among their children.”

In addition it provided digital images of the three pages of the actual document and a transcript which identified that Dr David Livingstone’s total estate in Scotland was worth £1463 19s and 3d.

Next time - The Livingstone fortune and are we related?