Letters – John Erasmus Blackett to Thomas Richard Beaumont – 23 Mar 1798

Colonel Beaumont                                                               Newcastle    23d March 1798

MP    Portman square     London



Dear Sir	

      I am favoured with your letter of the 19th inst & by the last Post Mr Wilson’s letter to Mrs Beaumont;  I hope that it will be unnecessary for me to go thro’ a long detail to clear myself of the Aspersions this fellow has thought proper to load me with, I shall only say that his Charges against me I solemnly declare are false, & I very believe the like of those against Mr Straker Mr Emerson & his Son; if the Man is not disordered in his brain (which I rather incline to think he is) he is a most lieing impudent scoundril, & I beg leave to refer you to Mr Williamson & Mr Heron for their opinion of him, particularly the latter as to his Veracity in the transaction that he has had with him in this business;  I shall send you a Copy of his letter with my observations & answers to the several charges in case you think proper.  

Inclosed you have a copy of a letter that I received yesterday from Mr Emerson Junr from which you & Mrs Beaumont may judge how far Mr Wilson may be depended on when he alleges in his letter, “I also found that the Proprietors of the Mine had offered to suffer Coll Beaumont’s Agents to examine the Mine & that Mr Emerson or his Son were the persons fixed on.  in another part he says “I waited on Mr Blackett the day after he returned from Hexham to hear what Mr Dickinson said about coming;  He told me that Mr Dickinson said he could not conveniently come but Mr Blackett  would desire Mr Emerson of Newhouse or his Son to attend”.  In answer to this charge I spoke to both Mr Dickinson & Mr Crawhall when I was at Hexham about taking a View of Harehope Gill Mine with Mr Emerson Junr and after having Dial’d it giving their opinion of the workings etc but untill I knew whether Lord Burford’s Lessee’s would permit your Agents to take a View of the Mine, it would be to no purpose to them to go from their other Concerns on this business _ this I told Mr Wilson when he call’d on me, & on the 2d March at his request I wrote a letter to Geo Raw the Agent for that Mine to know if the Agents of Coll Beaumont would be allowed to take such View, an answer to which has been given to Mr Emerson, in short Mr Wilson is so troublesome a Man, and so dangerous to have any conversation with that I am determined to have nothing to say to him for the future except in the presence of the persons of the law employed by you or himself.

	My letter to you of the 18th ins would inform you of the bad prospect there is of the Lead trade, Mr Fishwick at length gave me Bills for about £6736-1-9 which was the sum & not £10,000  The purchase of the Land-tax by the Proprietors will not be relished by the landholders in this Country & will be looked on as a Prelude to an equal General Land-tax throughout the Kingdom; the present Land-tax on your Estate in the Manor of Hexham & Anick Grange is upon an average 11d per Pound.                          I am etc   J.E.B