Letter – Henry Richmond to Walter Blackett – 8 Nov 1760

To Sir Wr Blackett Bt MP at his house in Pall Mall London           Newcastle 8th November 1760



Honrd Sir

    Ld Darlington Mr Verne Mr Shafto and Mr Halhead are of the same sentiments as yourself abt the Weardale Customary tenants, so that matter rests in Secrecy, and Mr Maughan promised to observe your directions minutely therein. 

    Mr Forster was not at Durham, but all matters preparatory to the poll were talked over and Mr Raper and Mr <Swainston> directed to put the same in execution. I think nothing material escaped their consideration. 

    Ld Darlington and MR Shafto both said they would write you last post about the writ of election.

    I had a conversation with Mr Halhead about the renewal of the lease for years; but it was very unsatisfactory. For his determination was that no renewal should ever take place <wth> his approbation, while in our computations we deduct the dues, & insist upon the Comon pastures belonging to the moor masters lease. As to the former we understood his Ldshp desired to know your profit by the lease for years only and therefore gave Mr Halhead the q[uanti]ty of ore got in that liberty for 30 years past with the charge thereof. But from that ore we thought it right to deduct 1/5  for the dues because you hold them under the composition you made with his Ldshp and the Rector and not under the lease for years so that any profit made by those dues is a profit arising from the composition and not from the lease. But Mr Halhead says you got the better of his Ldshp in the composition (tho it is the same that the 3 preceding Bshps had) and therefore he will agree to no other method than dividing that composition among all the ore got under both leases, (for years and lives) and the deducting only such part of the said composition from the profits by the lease for years as will be in proportion to the q[uanti]ty of ore got under the same. But this would certainly be charging you a second time for what you have already purchased by the composition and is a point wch I cannot think his Ldshp would not suffer to be insisted upon if he was acquainted with the nature of it. 

    As to the common pastures, he insists that all inclosures, whether held in severalty or in comon are within the lease for years i.e. Sandersons lease, unless you can prove them to have been made since the date of that lease. Another objection was that the computation was made for 30 years, I propose making it for 20 years only, but he said neither that nor 14 years w[oul]d be admitted. I then asked what term he chose should be made for, to wch he gave no answer, to the purpose, in short he kept from such a distance from any conclusion, that I cannot help apprehending, he chuses the lease should run out. I was surprised to find fm him, that he told his Ldshp, my father had acquiesced in not deducting the 1/5th but the proportional part of the composition above mentioned, in lieu thereof. But I told him as soon as he mentioned it that I remembered very well his saying (when here) that That was the only way the computation ought to have been made, but that my father and I both objected to it and indeed treated it as a thing we could not think him serious in proposing. I was sorry he had told his Ldshp so, because he said his Ldshp took it much amiss that my father had departed from this agreement, in the letter he has wrote since.

    John Nixon a freeholder who farms £103 a year of you and Sir Edward & gets a great deal of money by the lead carriage, had promised your agent to vote for Mr Shafto, and at the Genl Elecon for Mr Vane and Mr Shafto. he happens to have a farm also of Ld Widrington of only £22 a year yet Mr Marley his Ldshp’s steward has given him notice to quit at Mayday next in case he does not vote for Sir Thos. Nixon has told him he cannot depart from his promise to you but I find he is very uneasy abt losing this little farm. Probably this is Marleys own doing, whose <fa[the]r> is tenant to Sir Thos and his Ldshp may not approve of such violent measures. Sir Tho Haggerston was here to wait upon you, this week, and said it was the second time he had called. 

PS It would be proper if you please to write Mr Forster to know if he chuses to assist the council at one of the booths or the council in the committee room I am Etc H Richmond