Journal entry – John Grey – 13 Nov 1833

Wednesday 13th November 



Went to Haydon Bridge to receive the Rents, beginning in the morning with the Tenants from the distant district of Newlands, Whittonstall, some of whom were not well prepared  & to whom the allowance of £750 promised to be made last Spring provided the extended Roads through the Estates should be constructed in such manner as to cause them to be adopted in future as public roads, occasioned a considerable diminution in the receipt.  £300 of that sum has been expended in labor, for levelling the roads and breaking the Stones, making conduits, watercourses etc & the remainder in the hire of Carts for leading the materials, which having been done by the tenants in different proportions, must have been an advantage to them - care must now be taken to have a portion of statute work annually applied to these roads, to endeavour to maintain them in some tolerable sort of repair.  



It will be seen by the returns, that several of the tenants have left a part of their Rents unpaid, a good part of which however, they promise to pay by the close of the year, and on the whole I succeeded rather better than I had anticipated.  From some of the occupiers of poor farms which they have now relinquished, such as Teasdale, Thorburn and Maughan, I fear some loss must be looked for, & I must just watch the opportunity when the least loss is likely to be incurred, to get rid of them.  The former has got his Wheat sown, in a fashion, by the assistance of his neighbours, as I advised, and probably he may struggle on till May Day.  The two latter have given me orders upon Mr Beaumont’s Agent, to receive money due to them, as they say, for carriage of Ore, which if accepted, will bring them up a little.  Mr Coulson, an industrious tenant of a dear farm at Coastley, instead of reducing, has increased his Arrear, owing he says to the want of water for his most expensive Machine, on which account he has hardly been able to thrash any Corn since harvest, & now the market is so over-stocked that it is not saleable.  Mr Bell of Sillywray & West Deanraw, paid no Rent, but was very submissive on the score of his breach of Covenants, saying that it was not done with any view of quitting the Farm. However it was done & I told him that he need expect no payment of his gratutity until the farm being let, the entering tenant & he should settle by arbitration the damage sustained by his delinquency, so that the Hospital should not lose by the condition of the land in a new letting.  To this he acceded.  I expected to find Mr Snowball the Tenant of Fourstones very obstreperous on the long unsettled dispute about trespass with the Lessees of the Colliery, as he was reported to have behaved with great rudeness and coarseness to poor Mr Hooper in the Spring but I spoke to him smoothly & found him quite willing to listen to reason & justice, & obtained from him & the Colliery Lessees the appointment of two most respectable men to whom they agreed to refer all differences.