Letter – Diana Beaumont to John Erasmus Blackett – 17 Sep 1803

							Portman Square  Sep[tembe]r 17th 1803

Dear Sir

      As Col. Beaumont & I have seen Mr Burdon I think it right to inform you what we have been able to collect from his Conversation on Thursday, he call’d when I was out, & sat an Hour with Col. B- & left him the Statement of the Bank Acct signed by Black, for us to look over, & return to him when he w[oul]d call the Next Day at Eleven, w[hic]h he did, & we had much Conversation on the Subject, what I say to you is in confidence & you will draw your own Conclusions from it, Mr Burdon appears completely puzzled, very easy ab[ou]t the inconvenience arising to us, & the other Creditors, & not by any means prepared to give an answer to anything, Col. B. requested he w[oul]d send him a Copy of Blacks Account, & if you have not seen it we will send it to you, we enquired of him explanations of different things in the Account, & on asking what was meant by the following 



Viz by Suspended Acct Messrs Salvin & Co: Old Acct  46,306 10 8

Manchester Concerns with Salvin Co                  21,702  6 5

Salvins Brother <....> £41,237-1s-8d abt            26,537  1 8

                                                   £94,545 18-9



Mr Burdon answer’d the above Acct was the only part he was blamable for, their Mother being Sister to his Mother he had been Engaged with them in a Manufactory, & there was no chance of any part of that Sum being ever recover’d, he spoke of the enormous Sum of Ninety Four Thousand with as much coolness as I should Ninety Pound, I merely mention this to give you some Idea of what we are to expect, & he don’t appear to me to have an Idea of disposing of his Estates or raising money on them, he said he wished I would assist him in Selling his House in Grosvenor Sq- & I wrote to a Gentleman Yesterday who is in want of a House, & his Brother has just left him 200,000£, he said there were 3 applications for it, & named he should dispose of outlaying Property to satisfy Government Extents, such as his House in Town & the Fishery, but not one word of his Estates for other Creditors, Col: B. then told him that Money we must have by our next great Pay, & as soon as the Committee were ready to lay their Proposals before the Creditors, Mr Bown would come down to Assist you, & we must then see what could be done, but something decisive must, the Bank had rec’d our Money, our Estates were Entail’d, our Miners could not Starve, & Money we were determin’d to have, this appear’d to startle him & rouse him a little, he said he did not know how it was possible they could get in any of their debts by that time, but he w[oul]d name it to the Committee, & even talked of 3 years before we could be paid, we said it was useless naming 3 years to us, & asked when their own Notes w[oul]d be paid, he said they intended receiv[in]g them from those that were in their debt, we answer’d it must be general when they did for we should expect the Notes we had in our possession to be paid at the same time, & we were not in their debt; he again talked of us being so much obliged to the Halls for raising the price of Lead, & that he knew from themselves they were selling at 33 <per> Fod: & 34 – we then told Mr Burdon our opinion fully of the Halls, & were sorry he suffer’d himself to be so deceived by them who had shewn themselves so devoid of every principle of Honour & honesty, that we knew what they then assured him was false, & we requested never to hear their names mention’d, he said the Halls objected to our Mine Agents being of the Committee to examine their Mines, as they knew their mines were carried on in so superior a Manner to ours, & they should continue to be of use to the Trade by keep[in]g up the Price of Lead, we assured him of the contrary, & were certain they had brought it into the uncertain state it was in, & the greatest benefit to the Trade w[oul]d be to unite & Sweep the Halls from the Market, he hoped not, as the only expectation he had of being paid by the Surtees’s was, the flourishing State of those Mines after their Creditors were paid in 21 Months, & also the Iron Foundery, & I think they also expect the Bank Creditors to wait those Events also – I hope the Committee will be prepared to offer something more satisfactory when they come forward, otherwise surely the best method will be to make them Bankrupts; we told Mr Burdon the Accounts we then saw were very different from his positive assurances in his Letters etc – Col: Beaumont unites with me in best comp[limen]ts – I am Dear Sir

very Sincerely Yours

D Beaumont



I purchased a Lottery Ticket a few Days since & think we have nearly as good a chance of 20,000£ by that as by Mr Burdon, if I may judge from himself -