Friday 23rd January 1835

Up ¼ to 8 – breakfasted 9.10 prepared for going to Halifax bought at Whitley’s Essay’s on the Church, Curtis on the preservation of Hearing & sight – dearest went to Mr. Parker to meet person to sign the agreement about putting some soil in Northgate House land – Mr. Sutcliffe to consider till tomorrow about taking Northgate House – Letter from the editor of the Halifax Guardian with an apology for inserting paragraph – went to Duncan’s, post office, Worm[s]leys. for yarn & Lamb’s wool, Nicholson’s to speak about incivility to me yesterday – home at 1.10, finished my drawing had luncheon – took front section of Armoire, lent Miss Marian Lodge’s Portraits – wrote notes to Mr. Browne – read Curtis on Preservation of sight – mended newspaper – went to Aunty – Holt came – despatched parcel to Mr. Browne  – dinner – went into parlour to wish good night – read newspaper – to bed at 10.23 –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/38

[up at] 7 50/..

[to bed at] 11

no kiss Thaw – great deal of the snow gone – fine morning – Fahrenheit 38 1/2° at 9 5/.. a.m. – breakfast at 9 10/.. to 10 – Adney and I off to Halifax at 10 35/.. – down the new bank – left Adney at Whitley’s and went for 10 minutes to Mr. Parker’s office – Mr. Parker gave me the letter of apology he had received on my account from the Editor of the Guardian – quite enough – said we Adney and I were quite satisfied – Young Mr. Sutcliffe begged me to wait his father’s answer about Northgate till tonight – Explained to Mr. Parker the affair 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. – Messrs. Alexander promise to have the administration accounts and release business ready in 2 or 3 days – went back to Whitley’s for Adney – ordered King’s Interest tables price a guinea and Rennell’s catechism of Geology and bought Essays 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 instant 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 any one else could me at ready money  prices – then to Nicholson’s and very civilly complained of the want of civility to Adney yesterday – Nicholson very civil and obliged and said that what I said should not be lost upon him or his young men – home at 12 1/2 sat with Adney reading Geological notes till out with John at 1 25/.. – went with him and Pickells to look at the drains in the land let to Mr. Carr – then had his servant Joseph Booth (John brother’s /John’s brother/) 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 day’s work 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 thro’ the Wellroyde holmes – understood to be for Messrs. 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 head 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 most 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 nor 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 thro’ his land, for ever – 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 the 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 had too many fancies – cares too little about money and has thrown too many hundreds away – thinks I can stop the Spiggs Colliery and still bottom Walker pit tho’ 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 12month – Rawsons have 70 yards to pump (to pump their water into the level that empties itself into the dam not 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 day’s work) 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 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, tho his partner, for he (Holmes) when he gets with Christopher Rawson tells him all the (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 acknowledgement – nothing signed but the articles of agreement; but they (the Rawsons) mean to act on this having got the paper stamped – Holt staid till 5 50/.. – dinner at 6 1/4 waited for Adney 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 – Fahrenheit 41 1/2°at 10 p.m. – Adney gave me the 2nd handkerchief she has nicely knitted for me – 

^§§Told him what John Oates had said about the expense of the drift thro’ 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 for ever (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 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 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 tho’ I believe John Oates to be an honest man, and his word has great 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 they have 6 dayworks loose and 14 dayworks under water which the drift is to loose – John Oates said he thought they must have 20 dayworks still to get –

[In margin:]

See John Oates. Expense of drift to loose Spiggs etc.

Offer to buy John Oates’s and Hinscliffe’s junior right in drift thro’ Wilkinsons land

Walker pit on the lower level

Holts agreement about Mr. Walker Priestley’s coal.

worth of Rawson’s Loose to me – probable duration of his colliery – 

worth of Walker pit coal

Dumb mill Loose.

Observations on Rawson’s colliery

Holt’s valuation of Wilkinson’s grant of loose

quantity of Spiggs coal still to get –

Holt’s valuation of Wilkinson’s grant of loose

quantity of Spiggs coal still to get –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0151 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0152