Letter – Nicholas Walton to William Corbett – 7 Mar 1736

To William Corbett Esqr

      Ravensworth Castle  March 7th 1735/6

Sr                                                                        

	Your Letter of the 19 February last, as also two of the 26 Febry we have before us & in answer thereto you have inclosed herein the form of one Generall Advertisement for letting the whole Lead Mines in Aldston moore in the manner we proposed & we observe the Minutes taken thereon the 18 February

	The Covenants which the Directors intend to incert in the Leases are very good Ones; but we think the forfeiture on hushing any Mine without Licence Should be (if they think proper) £10 instead of £3 per Week.  That instead of Four we propose Six Pickmen Shall be employed in each Vein or Mine & insteed of restraining the Lessee from lying idle for the Space of Twenty days in one year that they be obliged to work in each year eight Kalender Months, as is Pticularly expressed in the Coppy of the Lease of Hunstonworth Lead Mines Sent herewith.

	You will receive also herewith two Coppys of Leases which we had from Aldston moore, but we rather believe that of Hunstonwth better done & indeed we think it a very good one, & proper to be pursued as to the Covenants of Leases of Lead mines in Adston moore.

	Inclosed you have an Accot of what Mines may be lett on Lease and what upon Tack Note, but it will pretty much depend upon the Disposition of the Adventurer, as we can See very little difference if any at all to the Lessor, who is obliged by Tack Note to grant at Lease if demanded within 12 Months after such Tack Note is granted.

	As the Directors are determined to advertise Six Months before the letting of any Mines, we desire to know how we are to be governed in giving directions as to the present working Mines, so that this Six Months work may not be lost.  We think all people now in possession & continue to work in an orderly manner according to the direction of the Moor Master Should be so continued during the Six Months Notice, as they being now discontinued will not only be a Loss in the Dues to the Hospitall but to the whole Country of Aldston moore.  We have given the Moor Master directions to put a Stop to all hushing, with which the Tennants are well pleased & it will be a great advantage to the fair Adventurer.

	We observe the Minutes taken by the Board of Directors the 25 February and in Answer thereto relating the letting Scremerston Estate, it may be done as soon as the Dierectors think proper, but by the Minutes we have no directions to do it, you have Inclosed the Coppy of an Advertisemt which if the Directors approve of we desire their directions whether we are to Advertise that Estate immediately or not.  The present Tennants must continue on their farms till Mayday 1737 & the whole Estate must be advertised next Mayday to be lett against Mayday following, as it is Customary in this Country for Tennants to give up their farm at Marts & Supposing this Estate to be advertised at Mayday next it must be lett at or about Marts as it is that time of the year that all Tennants provide themselves with farms to be entered upon the Mayday following: & we think it unnecessary to advertise any part of the Estate till it may be done alltogether.

	We are preparing an Accot of all the Estate out of Lease.

	Mr Watson’s Accot of the Fee Farm Rents & outgoings is come to hand which Shall be examined & proper Remarks made upon it if any is necessary.

	We will take care to enquire into & thoroughly in form ourselves of the property of Sr John Webb & Chancellor Piggott in the Goods at Dilston & the Board Shall be acquainted before they are delivered to the Persons Claiming them.

	There is a large quantity of Oakes about Dilston the most of which are decaying & is most necessary to be Sold as the whole is now of more Value than it will be Some years after:  The Bark will be pretty valuable but there is none of the Timber that can be fitt for Wainscott, it may be of use in the Waggon Ways & the whole with Bark may Sell for £800 or £1000

	The Coppy of the Grant of the Tyths of Newton Grainge in the Parish of Hartburn is come to hand, but is not the Grant we wanted; the place now in dispute is called Needless Hall, East Thornton, or Temple Thornton & is only a part of the Tyths of Hartburn Rectory, yet it may be granted Seperate as well as Newton Grainge which is also a part of that Rectory.  Mr Wood is now desirous that Mr Moore Should be vigorously opposed in this Suite, but thinks it will fall heavy upon him Should he be defeated & therefore has desired to know what part of the Expence the Hospitall will bear, in which as we have no directions we desire to be directed.

	Mr Wood was with us yesterday complaining that Mr Ainesley had demanded the great Tyths of Needless Hall als East Thornton, as being Tennant of the Tyths of Hartburn Rectory for last year, & as we think the Directors have never determined whether Mr Ainesley was Legally possessed of ‘em or not, we thot proper to acquaint you with it; & also that Mr Wood Says upon his being acquainted by Mr Watson that Mr Ainesley had taken those Tyths, the said Mr Watson told him that it was not intended that Mr Wood Should pay any for his own Farm.

	We have reced a Coppy of Mr J Ainesleys Letter relating the dispute between Hall & Jopling, & observe the orders of the Directors relating a Reference if the matter in dispute, which we are of opinion they would Soon make an end off were not Hall Spirited up by Mr Ainesley for tho. we are Sencible that Jopling has been the greater Sufferer we do not doubt of his doing any reasonable thing we Should desire of him altho.’ he is represented an imperious unmannerly fellow:  We do not know that Jobling has practiced carrying his Hay of the premises at Newton Hall to Lord Oxfords Land & laying the Mannure all upon the Same, but it Shall be enquired into & remedied if we find it to be so.  We Scarce believe it to be fact as Jopling has Severall times told us that he believed his Farm was Coveted from the regular Course of Husbandry in which it was.

	We observe Mr Gellings Remark that there are Small dues of Hens and Coales amounting to 73 Hens & 10 Loads of Coales per Ann. payable out of Langley Barrony from Sundry Tennants, & he observes that we have not accounted for or taken notice of any reced for by us, in the Accots Sent by us to the Board, which must be a Mistake as you will find Sr by our Letter of the 23 December last & also by our Cash Accot then Sent, in which is Accounted for 16 Hens for wch we reced and Accoted £-8-d & these are all that have yett been paid for to us:  The Paragraph of our Letter the 23d December last was as follows.

	

‘By the old Leases of Langley Barrony you will observe there is an Acknowledgment of Hens to be paid to the Lord with the ‘Marts Rent and you will find we have brought what we have ‘reced for them to Accot.    And in our Letter of the 23 Decemr we wrote as follows.



 ‘We find Some Tennants by their Covenants are to Send Coales and other Hens to Dilston House but most of these Leases are out Severall indeed of the Long Leases in Langley Barrony are not:  You will observe Sr in our last that Six pence is reced for each Hen of those that paid their Marts Rents & we think that a Sufficient Satisfaction & propose that all Tennants Shall pay for Coales in the Same manner as they deserve etc.



	The other observations & orders given by the Directors at the before mentioned meeting at Salters Hall Shall be imediately putt in execution & executed by us with our utmost Care & ability.

	Inclosed you will receive a Letter from one Thos Cowper in answer to one we wrote him, desiring he wou’d make a State of his hardships which he complained of, by which it appears the Man has been a Sufferer according to his own Accot what he Seems to want is to be continued in that undertaking, but from the Conversations that we had with him he Seems an unfitt adventurer.  There is one Thornbrough who pretends to have had Some hardships in that Grove with Cowper, & he has tho’t fitt (tho’ we never Saw or had any conversation with the Man) to reflect upon and make very free with ours as well as the Moor Masters Character by calling us all repeatedly Rogues; a Character which we hope we have not merited, & we hope the Directors will not Suffer us or their Moor Master to be insulted in executing their Commands.

	We have lett the Slaggs at Woodhall Mill, to James Thompson Robert Spence & Edward Middleton, they paying or delivering to the Commissioners of the Hospitall, or to us for their use one Seventh of all Lead gott thereout delivered at Newcastle key Clear of all Charges & they to be at all manner of Expence of repairing the Mill & to Compleat the whole work & deliver the said Seventh part on or before Mayday 1737.

	Mr Thompson has been very much hindered in proceeding in the Survey of the Estates, the weather having been very unseasonable for that Sort of Work, but as he hopes now to have a better Season, will loose no Opportunity & that he may be forwarded in Mapping as well as Surveying we Send you inclos’d what we think proper to be incerted in the Title Page of the Vellum Book, which please Sr to lay before the Directors for their approbation.  It will be proper Sr to Send down the Map of Scremerston, so that it may be contracted and bound with the other parts of the Estate.

	We have a Demand made upon us for one years Interest upon £5900 at 6 per Cent due at Lady day next to Cuthbert Constable Esqr & also of half years Interest upon £20000 at 5 per Cent due at Michs last to Lord Petre & the half years Annuity of Lady Catherine Radcliff due also at Michs last;  The first of wch they are very pressing for & we are under promise to pay it Soon after due but the other Interest & Annuity we Shall not be able to pay till Marts last Rents come in, which will not be Sooner than May next, & we have wrote to Mr Mannock Strickland to that purpose.  Inclosed are Such Receipts as we think are proper to be taken for the said InP etc of wch we desire your approbation, & desire you’ll please to alter as you think proper & returne ‘em to us.

	Ra: Readhead the late Bayliff has not yet paid four Pounds of which he Stop’d off his Mayday Rent last on Acco’ of half a years Salary which the Directors orderd us not to pay but to acquaint him that he was to pay up his Rent which we have repeatedly done and he trifles with us in Such a manner as it is not to be bore with  He is a farmer of the Estate at Corbridge & is intending to lett a part thereof this Next year to a man that is likely to become Chargeable to the Parish of Corbridge of which the Township complaines & tho we have Wrote to him to discharge him from that as well as winning Stones within the Hospitalls farme for his own use & Some other irregularitys he will neither give us his Answer or desist from these Practices.  He Also makes it his busyness to infuse A Notion into the Tennants that they run a great hazard in paying their Rents as we are (Says he) to be discharged from our present employment in a Small time.  These things we desire Sr may be laid before the Directors as we find a great Inconvenience in doing our Duty; From Readheads practices who we are Sencible takes all possable means and opportunitys of frustrating our disignes, & his going unpunished is the Greatest of encouragement to Villain[ou]s practices.  There is Severall Sums owing for wood which he pretended on the Commission of enquiry were Sold for the Hospitalls use & we never had directions whether to make a demand for it or Not.

	Jos Pearson Bayliff at Keswick writes us that one of the Tennants there has Cutt down two Ash Trees in which he detected him, upon which we wrote to one Mr King at Keswick that it woud be doing good Service to the Hospitall that he as an Attorney would threaten him with a prosecution which having done the Tennant instead of making Submission gives very ill Language.  We are unwilling to Arrest any body, but we find it absolutely Necessary to make an Example of Some offenders, or it will be impossible to prevent abuses, we therefore Desire your Directions for proceeding against that Tennant and in whose Name the Action is to be brought.

	Inclosed you will receive our Cash Accots for last Month, by wch you will observe a Ballance to be in our hands at the End thereof and we have Since reced more, there is now near £250 in our hands, wch we keep as a provision for the payment of the Interest due next Ladyday, you will observe that we remitted to Mr Madox £366-11-7 the 19th <Fabridy> as appears by our Cash Accot   we are Sr  Yours etc

      Nichos Walton		Hugh Boag





			Form of an Advertizmt. for Letting Lead Mines



	Whereas by an Act made & passed in Parliament in the Eight year of the Reign of his Majesty King George the Second for the Application of the Rents & Profits of the Estates forfeited by the Attainders of James late Earl of Derwentwater & Charles Radcliffe it was Enacted amongst other things that the Commissioners or Governours of his Majestys Royall Hospitall at Greenwich were to give Six Months previous Notice in the London Gazette of the time & place when & where Such Estate were intended to be Lett.  Notice is therefore given by us the Commissioners above mentioned that from and after the 29th day of September next Ensueing the date hereof will be lett at Salters Hall any of the Lead Mines or Veins of Lead Oar within the Mannor of Aldston Moore till the whole is lett on Tack Notes for one year or on Lease for Twentyone Years.  And all Adventurers are desired to Send in their proposalls in Writing directed to Wm Corbett Esqr at the pay Office in Broadstreet London Shewing what Vein or Mines they or Each of them would take whether on Lease or Tack Note, & at what dues or Share to the Hospitall





			Title Page of the Survey Book

	A Book of Maps containing exact plans made from an accurate Survey of the Estates forfeited by the Attainder of James Late Earl of Derwentwater & Charles Radcliffe now appropriated & applyed by an Act of Parliament made in the Eight Year of the Reigne of his Majesty King George the Second to the Buildings, finishing & Support of the Royall Hospitall  at Greenwich, and for the better Maintenance of the Seamen of the Said Hospitall

	Survey’d and Map’d pursuant to the Order & Direction of the Commissioners and Governours of the Sd Hospitall by Isaac Thompson





		Form of an Advertizment for Letting Scremerston Estate



	Whereas by an Act made & pass’d in parliament in the Eight year of the Reign of his Majesty King George the Second for the Application of the Rents & profitts of the Estates forfeited by the Attainders of James late Earle of Derwentwater & Charles Radcliffe it was Enacted amongst other things that the Commissioners & Governours of his Majestys Royall Hospitall at Greenwich were to give Six Months previous Notice in the London Gazette of the time & place when & where Such were Intended to be Lett.  Notice is therefore given by us the Commissioners above mentioned that from and after the 29th day of September next Ensueing the date hereof will be lett, the Estate at Scremerston near Berwick upon Tweed on Leases for 21 Years, consisting of 2928 Acres of Arable Meadow and Pasture Ground having Coal & Limestone within it Selfe & capable of very Great Improvement.  All Persons who are willing to take said Estate are Desired to give in their proposalls in writing to Messrs Walton & Boag who are Impowered to let the Same, & Notice is hereby given that all Attendance will be given at the three Kings on the Keyside Newcastle upon Tyne on Thursday in every Weeke after the 29th September for letting the Sd Estates, & where All proposalls will be taken in every Thursday in the Meantime by the Sd Messrs Walton & Boag.



NB  Instead of Advertizing Scremerston Estate we rather would Advise one General Advertizment of the whole Estate together, as it will give us more time to lett, and if the Directors think it proper to do So we propose the following one



	Whereas by an Act made & Pass’d in Parliament in the Eighth year of the Reign of his Majesty King George the Second for the Application of the Rents & Profits of the Estates forfeited by the Attainders of James late Earl of Derwentwater & Charles Radcliffe it was Enacted amongst other things that the Commissioners or Governours of his Majestys Royall Hospitall at Greenwich were to give Six Months previous Notice in the London Gazette of the time & place when & where Such Estate were intended to be Lett.  Notice is therefore given by us the Commissioners above mentioned that from and after the 29th day of September next ensueing the date hereof will be Lett on Lease for 21 Years or on Tack Note for one Year at Salters Hall any of the Lead Mines or Veins of Lead Oar within the Mannor of Aldston Moore or Else where belonging to the Sd Estate till the whole is Lett .  And all Adventurers are Desired to Send in their proposalls in writing directed to William Corbett Esqr at the Pay Office in broad Street London or to Messrs Walton & Boag at Ravensworth Castle near Durham, Shewing what Vein or Mines they or each of them would take whether on Lease or Tack Note & at what due or Share to the Hospitall.  Also any Thursday from and after the Sd 29th day of September will be Lett on Lease for 21 Years at the three Kings on the Keyside Newcastle upon Tyne, all the other Estates late James Earl of Derwentwater (now vested in the Commissioners abovementioned) not on Lease by Messrs Walton & Boag who are Impowered to lett the Same & of whom may be had particulars of all or any part of the Sd Estates, on Thursday in every Weeke from the day of the dates hereof, & All Persons willing to take any part of the Sd Estates are desired to give in their proposalls in writing on Thursday in any Weeke from the day of the dates hereof to the Sd Messrs Walton & Boag at the three Kings aforesd or Directed to them at Ravensworth Castle near Durham

	NB  it will be proper to put this Advertisement into the Newcastle papers as well as the London Gazette





The following is Coppys of the Receipts we propose Should be taken for Intst etc



Reced the             of                  1736 of Messrs Walton & Boag Three Hundred and Fifty four Pounds for one Years Interest upon Five Thousand nine hundred Pounds at Six per Cent due from the Commissioners or Governours of his Majestys Royall Hospitall at Greenwich to Cuth Constable als Tonstall Esqr at Ladyday last on Mortgage of Spindleston & outchester Estates in the County of Northumberland.  I <Say> reced the Same for the Use and by the Legal direction of the Sd Cuth Constable als Tonstall Esqr



This is Demanded by Fra Weldon who is Impowered by Letter of Attorney from the Sd Constable to receive it





Reced then of Messrs Walton & Boag One Thousand Pounds for one Years Interest upon Twenty Thousand Pounds at five per Cent due to the right Honble Robert James Lord Petre at Ladyday last from the Commissioners or Governours of his Majestys Royall Hospitall at Greenwich by Settlement out of the Estates late James Earl of Derwentwater & reced Also one Hundred Pounds being one years Annuity due to Lady Catherine Radcliffe from the Sd Commissioners out of the Sd Estates at Ladyday last.  I <Say> reced the Sd £1100 for the Use and by the Legal direction of Lord Petre & the Lady Cath: Radcliff



This is Demanded by Mr Manock Strickland who must be Impowered by Letter of Attorney to receive it