The true costs of pleasure: visiting Georgian Bath
3 December @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
The costs of the pleasures of visiting Bath in the Georgian period were not only the price of tickets to the balls, of tips for the Sedan chairmen and many other expenses, but also the external costs to the (often colonial) people and places, from where the wealth that paid the bills came from.
Between 1777 and 1808, the Franks family visited Bath at least eight times. What changes did they see in their amusements and how much did it cost them? What about the wider costs of how they acquired their wealth: through diamonds, land speculation, East Indiamen shipping, ownership of a Jamaican sugar plantation and their treatment of the enslaved? How key were such colonial revenues in Georgian Bath?
Bath became the centre of the Franks’ social networks and their story also involves divorce, lunacy, exile from America, and how as a converted Jewish family they dealt with the prejudices of the time.
Those watching the talk at Queen Square will be able to buy a copy of Colin Fisher’s fascinating book about the Franks family on the night.
Dr Colin Fisher studied Indian history, then had a career as a professor of management but returned to history and Bath on retirement. He is a Mayor’s Guide and has written books on Stefano Pieroni and his fountain and on the Royal Crescent, he has also been researching the Indian nabobs in Bath.
