Paid five shillings per total. N.B.--The 28th of April, 1736, Mrs. Bell came and earnestly intreated me to erase the Marriage out of the book, for that her husband had beat and abused her in a barbarous manner.... I made her believe I did so, for which I had half a guinea, and she, at the same time, delivered me up her certificate. No person present (according to her desire).
Perhaps, next to Dr. Gaynam, the bishop, no one did more business in Fleet Marriages than Walter Wyatt. We have already read some of his moral apothegms. He made a large income out of his Marriages, and, looking at the value of money, which was at least three times that of the present time, his profession was highly lucrative. Take one Month for instance. October, 1748--
Oct. y^e 1 at home 2 11 6 abroad nil. 2 " 5 13 6 " 11 6 3 " 2 15 6 " 16 0 4 " 12 3 " 10 0 5 " 1 5 6 " nil. 6 " 10 6 " 1 4 6 7 " 1 8 6 " nil. -------------------- Total... 17 19 3 From 8th to 15th " ... 17 6 6 " 15th " 21st " ... 10 0 6 " 21st " 27th " ... 6 17 0 " 28th " 31st " ... 5 9 6 ---------- £57 12 9 ==========
Or nearly £700 a year--equal to about £2,500 of our Currency. No wonder then, that when he died, March 13, 1750, he left a will behind him, which was duly proved; and by it he left his children in ward to his brother, and different legacies to his family--to his married daughter Mary, he bequeathed five pounds, and his estate at Oxford.
He describes himself, on the cover of one of the Registers, as "Mr. Wyatt, Minister of the Fleet, is removed from the Two Sawyers, the Corner of Fleet Lane (with all the Register Books), to the Hand and Pen near Holborn Bridge, where Marriages are solemnized without imposition." But there seem to have been other establishments which traded on Wyatt's sign, probably because he was so prosperous. Joshua Lilley kept the Hand and Pen near Fleet Bridge. Matthias Wilson's house of the same sign stood on the bank of the Fleet ditch; John Burnford had a similar name for his house at the foot of Ludgate Hill, and Mrs. Balls also had an establishment with the same title.
He seems to have attempted to invade Parson Keith's _peculiar_ in May Fair, or it may only be an Advertising ruse on the part of that exceedingly keen practitioner, in order to bring his name prominently before the public. At all events there is an Advertisement dated August 27, 1748. "The Fleet Parson (who very modestly calls himself Reverend), married at the Fleet, in Mr. L----yl's house, Mrs. C----k's, at the Naked Boy, and for Mr. W----yt, the Fleet Parson. And to shew that he is now only for Mr. W----yt, the Fleet Parson's deputy, the said W----yt told one in May Fair, that he intended to set up in opposition to Mr. Keith, and send goods to furnish the house, and maintains him and the men who ply some days at the Fleet, and at other times at May Fair. But not to speak of the men, if he himself was not a Fleet Parson, he could never stand in Piccadilly, and run after Coaches and foot people in so shameful a manner, and tell them Mr. Keith's house is shut up, and there is no Chapel but theirs; and to other people he says, their Fleet Chapel is Mr. Keith's Chapel, and this he hath said in the hearing of Mr. Keith's clerk, and it is known to most of the people about May Fair, and likewise Mr. Keith appeals to the generality of people about the Fleet and May Fair, for proof of Mr. Reverend's being only W----yts, the Fleet parson's deputy."