Fork handles? No, four candles...!

By Mike Rendell

My ancestor Richard  Hall, living in the second part of the Eighteenth Century, had access to four different forms of candle – beeswax, tallow, spermaceti and rush-light. At a time when the world was either dark or it was light, choosing the correct candle would have been very important. Candles formed a significant part of Richard’s budget since his accounts show that in 1797 he was spending £4.8.04 p.a. on candles (roughly equivalent to £250) as against more than double that amount for coal. (£10.17.00).

By far the best and most expensive candles were made from beeswax – they would burn with an even, sweet-smelling light but they were a luxury. As an aside, the prestigious  store of  Fortnum & Mason has its origins in the sale of beeswax candles. The Royal Family insisted on new candles being used every night, which meant that there was a constant supply of half-used candles which were left to the footman (one William Fortnum) to dispose of. William's landlord was Hugh Mason. Together they decided to go into partnership selling on these part-used candles along with general groceries. 300 years later the firm is still going strong!

Back in the Georgian era  tallow candles were made from suet (animal fat from beef or mutton usually) and these had the disadvantage of spitting and spluttering as well as smelling pretty foul. They had the added drawback of being soft, particularly in the heat of the summer, meaning that the stems would bend and become useless.

Spermaceti was certainly used by Richard in the 1790s because he specifically mentions it in his shopping order of 21^st January 1791 where he bought 2 ounces of the stuff (see penultimate line).

The purchase reflects the huge increase in whaling in the latter part of the 18^th Century. Whales meant far more than just meat and blubber, and in the case of the sperm-whale it was found that it contained an odourless, waxy substance which could be used to make candles. The spermaceti was extracted from the whale´s head (in a large whale there could be several tons of it). It could then be poured into a mould and allowed to crystallise. Spermaceti candles had the added advantage of being more or less odourless, and being a much harder substance they withstood the heat of summer. They also burned more brightly than tallow candles, and at a far more constant rate, and their light became a measure of brightness for scientists – one candela being the amount generated by a “standard candle”.

For Richard there was also a fourth alternative – rush-light candles. These would have been home made, and were probably used as lighting for dark corners rather than for reading. The inventory of Richard’s house in Bourton, made after his death, showed that there were various rush-light holders in use. Sometimes these were like pliers (with a spring-loaded clip which fastened around the rush-light) and a spike at the other end so it could be nailed into the wall.

Rushlight holder courtesy of Cerediggion Museum in Wales.

Other holders were more like a conventional table-mounted candle holder. Either way they would burn for perhaps 40 minutes before needing to be replaced.They would have given off a dim and often fluctuating light.

I still have Richard’s pen knife (literally, the knife used by him to make a quill pen out of a goose feather) and it is easy to imagine Richard going down to the River Windrush at Bourton, pulling out the knife, and cutting down several dozen rushes and taking them back across the meadows to his home. Here he would split each rush in four, peeling back the green outer layer to reveal a white pithy substance inside. These white strips would be placed in the sun to dry .

Whenever any spare fat was available, e.g. from cooking, the strips would be dipped in the fat and left to cool. They could then be clipped into the holder and lit – no good at all for reading or sewing but acceptable for residual background light.

One of Richard Hall's own paper cut-outs, showing the growing  rushes ready for cutting.

Mike has his 4xGreat Grandfather's letters, diaries and other written ephemera, and has written up his ancestor's life story as The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman.  He also blogs most days here on aspects of everyday life in the Georgian era.