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To Mr Thomas Westgarth at the Riding in Alondale
Hond Master
According to Your Order, I have consulted with my Father about my going into Scotland, which he thinks will not do well, for he finds himself being but in an Indefferent State of Health, not able, with my Brother, to work about 2 tests (to wit, 6 or 7 Fothers) in the week - - - far Short of what you will have made here, wch in all likelyhood, (as I suppose you don’t intend the Lithurage Shall any more hinder the Ore-Smelting) will at least amount to 12, the Surplus of wch will Soon rise to a great Stock than I Suppose you will think fit to have unrefin’d here, and So you’ll be under a neccesity of having another Refiner – This consider’d, I must beg to be continu’d Here. – if You think otherwise, please let me know as Soon as you can, and you Shall not be more readily obey’d by any than by
Sir Your very humble Servant
Jas Mulcaster
undated. Thomas Westgarth of the Riding, Allendale, a senior mining agent of the London lead Company died in July 1748 (B.P.Wilkinson, ‘Leadmining families – the Westgarths and the Forsters’, in B.Chambers (ed) Out of the Pennines (1997), p. 21. This letter might predate Mulcaster’s time at Wanlockhead in June 1744 when perhaps only the eldest of his 3 brothers John (born abt 1722) , Peter (abt 1727) and Robert (abt 1733), all later employed in the lead industry, was perhaps old enough to assist his father –and a date that spring is assumed here. However this is not at all clear, and a later request from Westgarth for him to visit Scotland is equally possible.
