Journal entry – John Grey – 12 Jul 1834

Saturday 12th July



Settled the Accounts for peeling Bark on the different Estates with Mr Parkin. The people employed complain that the price paid per Ton, is below what they can make Wages of, but I can afford them no more, as the price of Bark is also so low, that it leaves little after paying the expenses.  Communicated with the Lessees of Langley Mills the Quarters Account for Ore, according to Messers Parker & Crawhalls Award of the price, & transacted other Office business, but have no particular occurrence to record. 



‘John Benson’s Letter applying for reduction of Rent’



I presume that Mr Benson’s statement is correct as to the length of time that he has farmed the Hospitals land, & know it to be so, and to the high rent he continues to pay.



His father & afterwards himself, farmed Coastley in the times when farm produce sold at the highest prices, and made a good deal of money,  he afterwards took Dilston Haugh & pasture farms finding them, I am told, in good condition.  He had continued to pay his rents regularly up to that time, & I am quite certain would have done so latterly, to a considerable extent out of his capital, because although the rent is too high for the present times, under any circumstances it is rendered doubly so by the exhausted state to which he has reduced his land, by a severe course of cropping, in some cases in direct violation of his covenants, as well as of all the rules of good husbandry.  I had requested Mr Hunt a few days ago to make out, as far as he could could do so, a list of the cases in which he had broken through the covenants of his lease, to the palpable injury of his farms, thinking it my duty to submit his conduct to the consideration of the Board.   One glaring instance against which I remonstrated with him without effect, occurred last autumn in his persisting to sow a field, poor, foul and most unfit with Wheat, after having grown already two white crops, whereas two even ought not to have been grown in succession.   He meets my remonstrances by the argument that such things were not heretofore found fault with, & that it is justifiable in a tenant in the present times to use every means of making his rents.  Solely intent upon getting over his work in the cheapest & most expeditious manner it is often done very improperly & inefficiently.  And as to his fences he is totally regardless of them & they have suffered sadly from mismanagement.  Having paid high rents punctually gives him some claim to consideration, but certainly he is not the tenant to whom I would give a preference; as the ocupier [sic] of land entitled to the best cultivation, whereas it receives the worst.  



‘John Leadbitter’s letter’



Leadbitter is the Son in law of John Benson & unfortunately too much resembles him in the management of his farm.  It is decidedly very high rented, but then more might be made of it than he makes by better cultivation.



It is true too, that he must have incurred considerable expense in leading materials for building a Barn &c, though not to the amount stated by him.  And of the  threshing machine he derived little benefit from the want of water, till seeing the loss & inconvenience attending it, I applied myself last Autumn to remedy the deficiency & at a cost of 10£ obtained a supply which has not failed once in the present drought.  When Leadbitter was allowed to become the tenant of the small adjoining farm of Dilston Hall last May he engaged to manage it according to a different course, but he is taking no pains to clear his fallows, which are miserably foul, he has sown the land to grass that I can see, & when he comes to sow his next years crop I foresee that he can only get it by sowing over again land already so worn out as not to pay the expense of cultivation upon which he & I shall be likely to quarrel. So pertinacesous are they in growing corn, & so ignorant of any improved mode of cultivation.   Anticipating the relinquishment of Dilston south farm, which is also ill managed, besides the tenant being in arrear of rent, I should be inclined to submit to the Board what I consider a much better & more convenient arrangement of that at Leadbitters farm, than the present, giving a part of the Hall farm to each of the other & also laying some fields of the South to the North farm.



This could only be done in case of all three being at liberty at the same time, & is the change which Leadbitter alludes to. Should an opportunity offer of accomplishing it, I shall point it out upon the plan & explain my reasons for recommending it.  With respect to Benson & Leadbitter, I must ask how desirable it would be to have tenants in such farms who would set a better example & do the land more justice.  Were they the property of an individual, I would even advise a sacrifice to be made to obtain such.  Their present condition being daily under my eye, is a source of daily vexation to me.   Whether better managers could be found in this neighbourhood, or whether they might be induced to come from any other, I cannot pretend to say but certainly there is nothing about those in question to induce the Board to break through the rule they have adopted of requiring a relinquishment of the present Leases, before entering upon new agreements.

       John Grey



[annotation below in pencil:] In both these Cases - we should allow them to resign their Leases paying up their rent - and then encourage good tenants to take them at a fair rent, able & willing to do justice to the Land. 

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