Journal Entry – William Hooper – 23 Mar 1833

Saturday March 23rd 1833



Received applications from Messrs. Jonathan & Jacob Walton, and from Messrs. Elstob & Co. for grants of Mining Leases, but praying they might not be put to the heavy expense of Leases, referred to the Moormaster for his report as to the extent of ground, and the number of Men to be employed, before submitting it to the Board.  Mr Taylor, one of the partners of the Gallygill Syke Company, applied to me requesting I would not grant leave of trial on some ground which had been applied for by that company’s Agent, on the ground that it was connected with the matter in dispute between them and the Hudgill Company.  This dispute in now in the Court of Chancery, and the decision of that Court will settle it, but if the allegation in the Bill be true, that the Ore abstracted from the Ground under Lease to the Hudgill Burn Company, is neither from the Gallygill Syke North Vein, nor from a branch or string of that vein, nor from any vein connected with it, but from a distinct vein discovered in the Hudgill Burn ground, and connected by fictitious workings, then there would appear to me to have been an extraordinary combination of fraud and negligence in the whole transaction, but I am prejudging the case.



Mr Hodgson, who has taken the House at Lowbyer, discovers there is great want of a convenient privy, and proposes to lead the materials if the Hospital will build, or to the undertake the whole if I will allow him £4 from his first year’s rent, but I wrote to him to remind him that I had frankly told him that my reasons for accepting him as tenant at so low a rent was the expectation that he would improve the House and make it more convenient; and that upon the face of an agreement that the rent should be free of all expenses, I could not comply with his request without injustice to my employers.  Mr Dickenson of Love-lady-shield who seems determined to maintain his claim to interest upon the purchase-money of his land on which the Receiving House is built, wrote me another long letter in justification of his claim; but as it is important to get this matter settled, I wrote to Mr Dickenson the Moormaster, to send me the Instructions and orders he received respecting these purchases, the reports he had made, and when, how, and by whom the agreements for purchase were concluded; for there is great neglect somewhere, and I will not consent to pay a shilling of this claim until I trace it out.



Mr Dickenson informs me that the Select Vestry of Alston have expressed their willingness to undertake the management of the Crow-Coal Collieries in the way I proposed, and that they are of opinion it will prove beneficial to the Parish, and in supplying the poor with Coals.