Friday, January 23, 1835

1835

January

Friday 23

7 50/..

11

No kiss.

Thaw – Great deal of the snow gone – Fine morning – Fa 38 1/2 at 9 5/.. a.m. – Breakfast at 9 10/.. to 10 – Ann and I off to Halifax at 10 35/.. – Down the new bank –

Left Ann at Whitley’s and went for 10 minutes to Mr. Parker’s office.  Mr. P- gave me a letter of apology he had received on my account from the Editor of the Guardian – Quite enough – Said we (Ann and I) were quite satisfied –

Young Mr. Sutcliffe begged me to wait his father’s answer about Northgate till tonight – Explained to Mr. P- the approach of William Oates and left at the office the agreement (I had written just before setting off to Halifax) to be signed by William Oates at Mr. Parker’s office at 11 1/2 a.m. –

Messers Alexander promise to have the administration accounts and release business ready in 2 or 3 days –

Went back to Whitley's for Ann.   Ordered King’s Interest tables, price a guinea, and Rennell’s Catechism of Geology and bought Essay on the Church by a Layman, and 2 little shilling things on the preservation of the sight and hearing –

Then to the post-office – Mrs. Bagnold not well – Begged the young man I should be much obliged to him to take care that I had my newspapers regularly – That of the 16th instante mense did not come till I wrote to London for a paper of that day to be sent and complained of the irregularity to which I had just received an assurance that the irregularity did not arise in London –

Then to Roper’s – said he should have my iron-mongery custom if he would take care to serve me as well and reasonably as anyone else could me at ready money prices –

Then to Nicholson’s, and very civilly complained of the want of civility to Ann yesterday – Nicholson very civil and obliged and said that what I said should not be lost upon him or his young man –

Home at 12 1/2.  Sat with Ann reading Geological notes till out with John at 1 25/.. –

Went with him and Pickles to look at the drains in the land let to Mr. Carr – Then had his servant Joseph Booth (John brother’s) to look at the drains –Told him how I had ordered them to be done and he seemed satisfied – Said I was sorry to find Mr. Carr become so unaccommodating – Joseph Booth owned that the manure put on the 1/2 DW for which Carr charged £7 ! and for which Washington actually paid him £3.10.0 was not worth more than £2. –

Pearson (Henry) of the Stump Cross Inn then came to me in the field to say he would give up the house any time I liked – In 3 weeks if I liked, and behaved very well and civilly – For which I thanked him and we parted very good friends –

Then some time with John, and with Charles Howarth – The latter had furnished the drift-drivers within the last 3 or 4 days with sleepers enough – To begin this afternoon or tomorrow sawing up the 12 foot pine planks into 1/2 inch boards for vent-boards –

Then to John Oates’s and sat talking to him above an hour – He shewed me his little book of expenses of driving the drift through the Wellroyde holmes – Understood to be for Messers Oates and Green for getting the coal leased to them by my Uncle James Lister and for the Spiggs Company to get all the coal in the Spiggs land – He said £100 had really been paid to my Uncle Joseph – But the memorandum of this payment is only noted without date – not noted by whom or in what instalments paid, at the end of the book in a summing up of the whole cost of the drift amounting to £507.16.5 +£2.15.3 paid in little expenses after the expenditure of the larger sum –

Said I had confidence in his (John Oates’s) word; but really nothing of this sort appeared in my uncle’s books – It was very odd – but I only wished to do what was fair – Said I had said I must have £10 per acre for the remainder of the Spiggs coal; and it must be so, but they had better trust me and agree or I should stop the Loose, and try the matter at York if they put me to it – I must certainly have enough to pay expenses.  For instance, I should want the works measuring twice a year and could this be done for 30/.? Yes! – Said John Oates, ‘if they were to loose any other than Spiggs coal we (that is,  John Oates and Hinscliffe’s son who bought Jack Green’s share) should stop them whether you did or not’ – Ah! said I, by what right?

John Oates explained – By the deed granted by Joseph Wilkinson of the drift as far as it goes through his land, forever – Then, said I, I think as I have bought Joseph Wilkinson’s coal, I ought to buy up this deed –And I ended by telling John Oates to consider about this and set me a price –

Asked his advice what to do about the Spiggs Loose – I thought and he agreed that I had best ask the Spiggs Company to let me send someone into their works to measure what coal they had left to get and then determine about the agreement – Very well – Said I would try this first –

Thinks Wilson may not last out above another year – He has too many fancies – Cares too little about money, and had thrown too many hundred away – 

Thinks I can stop the Spiggs Colliery and still bottom Walker pit, though it is on the lower level –

Seemed to think Hinscliffe had  trespassed more than Rawsons – Said I had nothing against Hinscliffe – That was long since – I did not mind small birds when there were large ––

          Home from John Oates’s about 4, and found Holt had been waiting for me he said about 1/2 hour – He is to meet Mr. Walker Priestley at one tomorrow to article sign agreement about the coal – To pay £75 per acre for each bed and to pay for one acre of one bed per annum, 1st payment to be due next midsummer 12 month –

Rawsons have 70 yards to pump (to pump the water into the level that empties into the dam, not itself far from Thief Bridge), and their present new engine is of 4 horse power – Holt can almost directly give them water enough to require an engine of 6 horse power – So that there must be the expense of another new Engine –

Holt having agreed for Walker Priestley’s coal, if I get Mrs. Machin’s, Rawson’s colliery his own coal and Mr. Hall’s too, will be done in 14 or 15 years – then all the works at Halifax will be of no use to anybody but myself – Stocks would not bid against me – Could be of no use to him –

Would be worth my while to give £600 for the landing place at the bottom of Southowram bank and for the Galloway gate driven into the hill – The walling and arching cost £300 or £400 – and Rawson gave Mrs. Prescott £1000 for the loose and bit of ground he bought of her – But he has sold a good deal of the surface for building ground –

The Walker Pit colliery as good as Rawson’s or better for this end of the town – The coal will always be worth 8d a load or corve at the pit for one horse would take down 10 loads into the town, with ease –

My having Mrs. Machin’s coal (about 11 DW) will prevent Rawson’s loosing Dove house coal – but I can loose it at Dumbmill bridge – the 4-score yards band comes out in Mr. John Priestley’s little wood opposite Lower Place – That I should have about 70 yards to pump –

Rawson’s 4 horse power engine had cost him between £3,000 and £4,000 –His steward (Cooper?) says the colliery is in debt, but Jerry R- [Jeremiah Rawson] does not care what he lays out, as he or his children are to have the colliery on Christopher Rawson’s death –

Holt does not tell Mr. Holmes much, though his partner, for he (Holmes) when he gets with Christopher Rawson tells him all he (Holmes) knows –

I §§cannot throw water on Rawson’s engine for long to come –Not till he has got a good deal of Hall’s coal – He paid Hall £100 down and is to pay the rest of  the £1,000 by instalments of £50 per annum a mere acknowledgment – Nothing signed but the articles of agreement; but they (the Rawsons) mean to act on this, having got the paper stamped – 

[Transcriber's note:  The indented portion below was actually written in the entry for January 24, 1835, but is linked back to this entry on January 23, 1835.]

§§ Told him what John Oates had said about the expense of the drift through the Wellroyde holmes – and that I had begged him and Hinscliffe junior to set a price upon the deed granted as I understood, to them forever (H- Hinscliffe junior having bought Jack Green’s share) –

Asked Holt what he thought it worth – He said £100 was a very fair price for it – I answered that was exactly what I had set it at in my own mind – But, said H- Holt, I think the Spiggs Company have the same right in it as Oates and Hinscliffe junior – Well! said I, if that be the case, perhaps we can more easily come to a settlement – Let the deed be produced and let us see what we can do – I think I am the person to buy it for without me, it can be of no use to anybody –

Holt said he should see William Keighley tonight – Well! then, said I, tell him you have seen me and tell him what I have said – This will put the thing on a new footing; and without something new, I must keep to what I have said and have my price; and I have set £10 per acre for all the beds included – I only want to do what is fair – but though I believe John Oates to be an honest man, and his word has got weight with me, yet his loose, undated little account can have no weight in a court and I really cannot understand the finding nothing corroborative of it in my uncle’s books –

Holt thinks Keighleys will be sure to agree and as soon too as possible, as they are driving a drift, night and day at 18/. a yard that will be all lost if I stop the Loose – Told Holt I meant now to propose asking Keighleys and Company to let me send into the works to measure what they have still to get of Spiggs coal – Holt says says they have 6 DW. loose and 14 DW. under water, which the drift is to loose – John Oates said he thought they must have 20 DW. still to get –  

Holt staid till 5 50/.. –

Dinner at 6 1/4.  Waited for Ann, who sent off parcel of drawings to Mr. Brown, York – Coffee – Sat talking – And then with my father and Marian till 8 1/2 –

Wrote journal of today all that is on the last page and last page but one –

20 minutes with my aunt till 10 –

Fine day – Softish – F 41 1/2° at 10 p.m. –

Ann gave me the 2nd handkerchief she has nicely knitted for me –

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/17/0151 and SH:7/ML/E/17/0152