The Beaumonts and the Ironworks (1)

There will probably be several things to say about this.

The first is that it dawned on me many years ago that George Beaumont (d.1736) must have been involved in the ironworks somehow, because of the cast iron memorials in Darton and Sandal churches.

It transpires that cast iron funerary memorials are inherently quite rare. In the words of Joseph Hunter:

The memorials to the [Beaumonts - in Darton church] are on two large plates of cast iron, the letters in relief. This, if any thing, will ensure perpetuity. Marble or monumental brass cannot, in this point, compare with it. There are a few other instances in the churches of this district; but it is wonderful that, in a country abounding with iron-works, recourse has not been had more frequently to this mode of perpetuation.

(Hunter, Joseph, South Yorkshire, vol. ii p.372).

Moreover it is practically speaking unheard of to find them commemorating people who were not connected with the industry (please post a comment about that, especially if you think what I say is wrong).

Now, the internal evidence of the dating of the two Darton slabs (by that, I mean what can be deduced just from looking at them - please trust me on this for now) is that they were both made at the same time, no earlier than 1713. In that year George Beaumont was 17 and of course, he died early in 1736. I think that his uncle and he were instrumental in having the slabs made, soon after 1713.

The second point for today, after which I will stop, is that there is documentary evidence of George being involved in financing the Wortley Ironworks at exactly this period.

The main proof that I have seen comes in a schedule of securities** listing amounts owing to his estate in 1740. Some of the documents evidencing these debts had George himself  as a party and were dated when he was alive, and others had the executors as parties and later dates. These (I suppose) were transactions "rolled over" from George's lifetime, but they could have been new loans, we have no way to know.

Amongst those owing money were Matthew Wilson, James Oats, and William Murgatroyd, the bonds in question being dated from 1737 onwards. All three of these were partners in the forge. The total amount owing to George's estate from these three borrowers was considerable, over £700.

It has been stated that James Oats died in 1738 and that shortly after this Matthew Wilson declined to carry on the management following a crisis involving Murgatroyd (who was later arrested) carrying on a venture of his own (see Miss R.Meredith, writing in C.Reginald Andrews, The Story of Wortley Ironworks, 3rd edition, 1975, at p.95).  But in the 1740 schedule Oats is not referred to as deceased.

The Rev. Mr Cockshutt, through his own family and his relatives the Spencers of Cannon Hall, was well acquainted with the partners of the Wortley Forge and it would be fascinating to know whether his handling of these affairs was, shall we say, as helpful to his own friends as it was to the Beaumont children, and indeed whether the debts were ever collected.

** This schedule is now in the Yorkshire Arch. Soc., part of its DD70 collection, probably in DD70/93. They supplied me with a copy of it, but unfortunately its exact reference is not noted. They have given me permission to reproduce a copy of it, which I shall do another day. It is a list of securities delivered to William Wrightson after Mr. Cockshutt died (see post dated 31 January).

Miss Meredith was the archivist at Sheffield, The source for what she states may perhaps be the Spencer-Stanhope archives from Cannon Hall. If you are familiar with these papers please post a comment.

Uncle Tom's World Tour

In the archive (1/083) is a letter to George Beaumont at East Bridgford from his younger brother Thomas, sent from Melbourne in March 1871.

Uncle Tom, as he was known even to my father, was the youngest child of George Beaumont senior.

He was staying at the Port Philip Club Hotel..... a very nice place and a first rate Hotel with a jolly back yard and garden at the back for smokers, there is a veranda covered with (festooned) passion flowers magnolia trees and an artificial roof covering the whole yard, made of grapes & vines, secure on straight wires, a rock work and fountain is in the centre, altogether it is very jolly. Notwithstanding mosquito curtains I have been bitten slightly by these fierce insects which find you out anywhere and raise very sore red spots. There are some very fine streets here all of which are set out at right angles to each other.

His passage, on the "Superb," had taken no less than thirteen weeks. He says:

I got through the voyage very well but towards the end it got awfully stale – we ran out of champagne claret potatoes &c &c meat (sans vegetables) for six weeks is very stale work.

He had sent some things home:

I have consigned to you a box of furs and Indian goods – and I hope to enclose you a receipt for the goods I send, when the goods reach you please pay carriage and tell the parties who write to you that "you expect Yr. Brother T.E.B. home in a week or two and he will give a receipt as soon as he comes" – Unpack the furs &c and see that they do not get moths &c in them. I hope to reach home before the goods but I tell you this by way of precaution.

It appears that he made the trip for his health:

You may however report that my health generally is better than when I left and though I am rather short of wind yet I am decidedly better and I trust shall be mended before I reach home – I was never sick on board for a day – I had slight and fashionable sore throats but never worse than that – I have received your and Annie’s letters for which I am obliged. It is of no use recapitulating the news they convey or can I at this distance express any opinions on it. It is strange but not I trust stranger than true. I hear by the last mail of Paris having fallen and peace being proclaimed. Bravo

I wonder what this news was, that his brother and sister had told him in their letters.

He intends to leave Melbourne shortly, and then:

I expect to stay at Sydney till 8^th April. I then embark on the Wanga Wonga for Fiji, Honolulu, & San Francisco...........I hope to see in crossing America – Salt Lake perhaps Denver & Colorado City, Chicago then by Detroit to Niagara Falls, then to St.Lawrence and down the River Hudson to New York. I hope to be there early in June. It is six days from Sydney to Auckland NZ where I call for any letters, 18 days Auckland to Honolulu where change steamers and 10 days to San Francisco. I wish my outward voyage had been shorter but it cannot be helped now.

The family's Tory leaning is revealed by the mention of someone's despicable friend Gladstone

and nothing really changes does it:

Such politicians serve old England badly and simply render [her the] object of the derisive pity of her rising and progressive dependencies which they leave in their infancy to fight their own battles after their mismanagement has fanned the flame of a war of extermination.

Uncle Tom did get home. He went to Sheffield where he married a rich widow and lived in an enormous house, now a hotel.

More cooking and food things

More old recipe books from Box 1.031.

A Bill of Fare for Every Month
This is an extract from something else (lost), late 18th century I would say.

Fairburn
Fairburn's Town & Country Cookery has lost its cover but I think it dates from the early nineteenth century. I don't think it is complete.

Mary Ingleman's Receipt Books

The book from Mary Ingleman is most likely to have come from the Becher family, since they lived in Southwell long before we did.

Francis Ingleman married Mary Bousfield at Southwell in 1768 and children were christened there. I don't know if this is the right people but I suppose it is likely.

The book, handwritten and referring to her as deceased by 1845, is presumably a copy taken from Mary's own book. Though it says "Vol.1st" it is all we have of this.

They are all in a folder
here

Happy cooking!