Nat Gould

Pilsbury Grange Letter 11

Letter 11 of the Letters from Pilsbury Grange is dated 13 December 1846, and was written by William Gould to his brother Richard Goodwin Gould.

[[The cover is postmarked Birmingham dated 13 December 1846 and addressed to:]

Mr Gould
Messrs Cooper & Batchelor
New Bond Street
London

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Birmingham Dec 13/46

Dear Dick

I don’t know whether it is your turn or mine to write but it seems a long time since either of us did write. It is special weather here. I have had a good time at Skating this morning I dare say there as been a few on the Serpentine to day. I intend spending my Xmas at Chester with my old friend Mr Grace I shall go either upon the Thursday night or over the Friday morning and return on the Monday morning following The Drapers here

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are trying to get to close the shops the Saturday after Xmas day & I think it is very likely they will succeed but if they do not it will not pre-vent me going. I have had the gun[?] new stocked and made a Capital job off in fact it is better now than it was when new as the old stock had always a crack in it Mary tells me that Mr John has beene very busy spreading it about the County that it was our Visitors conduct & drunken parties when we were at home in the Summer that caused poor Ned to be so bad to say the least of it it is a very shabby trick of him even if we were the cause of Ned’s illness

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he is the last man that should talk about it he was the only drunken man I saw all the while I was at home. I suppose we will be ? ? although not on Xmas day as usual I think he usually fixes then a pretty good fill on that day I expect you will most likely spend the day with them I believe they have convinced[?] ?? held an auction[?] late ?? in fact they expect to have it open by next Summer it will be very late ? for us when it is open to ?? I should have gone down home this Xmas instead of going to Chester only for the time it takes in going & coming it would spoil a day and half out of the three days I can go

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down to Chester in about three hours I shall expect to hear from you in the course of the week Remember me to all friends tell Nat not to forget the ?
I remain Your Affectionate Brother
William
I shall now go down & ??

William Gould was evidently working in Birmingham in 1846, possibly employed there by a draper. By then his mother Margaret Gould had been dead for two years. The old home at Pilsbury Grange was being farmed by the writer's younger brother Gilbert Gould 1821-1891.

Of the people mentioned in the letter, Mary was the writer's sister Mary Gould 1826-1873. Mr John was John Gould at Ludwell neighbouring Pilsbury Grange.

Mr Grace was Charles Grace 1772-1837. William Gould married his daughter Harriett Grace 1821-1888 on 3 October 1850 at Bruera in Cheshire. She was born in about 1825 at nearby Saighton. The wedding notice in the Derby Mercury newspaper dated 9 October 1850 reads: "At Churton Heath, near Chester, on Thursday, Oct. 3rd, by the Rev. J. Harrison, William, second son of the late Mr. Edmund Gould, of Pilsbury Grange, Derbyshire, to Harriet, only surviving daughter of the late Mr. Charles Grace, of Stamford Heath, near the above city."

William Gould 1819-1876 and his bride emigrated to Australia, sailing from Liverpool on 20 December 1850, and Richard would never see his brother again.