Nat Gould

Pilsbury Grange Letter 12

Letter 12 of the Letters from Pilsbury Grange is dated 18 January 1847, and was written by John Gould of Ludwell to Richard Goodwin Gould and his brother Nathaniel Gould.

[[The letter is on a single sheet folded in two. The left hand portion of the first side is the cover which bears a penny red imperforate stamp, an Alstonefield postmark and an illegible date stamp, and is backstamped 21 January 1847 on arrival in London.
It is addressed to:-]

Mr R Gould
113 Messrs Cooper & Bachelor
New Bond Street
London


[[The right hand portion of the first side reads:-]

Ludwell Janry 18th/47

To Messrs R. & N. Gould

In not acknowedge-ing you kind present sooner I beg you will not for a moment suppose I had forgotten it or appreciate its value, I can assure you they were delicious We have been very busy this Xmas in changing Servants & I have been head Pig man and as we have 10 to serve 3 times a day beside attending to a few Xmas Cream Steens you will percieve I have been fully employed

[[next side]

Old Abbott & James Gould of Longnor have gone to spend the new Year in another World You will be sorry to hear that Miss Jane Taylor is also dead she died on Nov 6th Gill & I discused a few pipes last night they are all very well at Pilsbury he has been out of Repair a few days but is now quite convalesent I hope I have our friend Pa Kettle is quite well by this time we shall all be glad to see him if he comes in the Country All friends at Hartington are much as usual Mr Prince continues the same and now as I have exausted my budget I must conclude with our united best wishes to you both and remain

Your sincere friend
John Gould

John Gould was the neighbour of the Goulds of Pilsbury Grange, Ludwell being the next farm, about a mile down the Dove valley. The nature of the present he received is unstated, but clearly it was edible. A steen was a large covered container kept scrupulously clean, often used for storing drinking water. Cream in the Ludwell steens was probably for use in making butter.

Of the people mentioned in the letter, Old Abbott was Luke Abbott who farmed at Cotesfield, just over the hill from Pilsbury Grange. He was buried at Hartington on 20 January 1847 aged 81. James Gould of Longnor was aged 60 at the time of the 1841 Census and therefore born in about 1781.

Miss Jane Taylor was perhaps the sister of the attorney John Taylor of Matlock Street in Bakewell. This family is probably the Taylors of Bakewell who were friends of the Goulds of Pilsbury Grange. John Taylor was born in 1826 in Bakewell and became the foremost attorney in the town. His wife Catherine was born in the same year at Aughton in Yorkshire. They had about ten children. He retired to Ilkley in Yorkshire, and by 1901 was living as a widower in Harrogate in the same county.

The identity of Pa Kettle is unknown. Mr Prince was Robert Prince, an agricultural labourer born in 1789. He was still alive at the date of the letter, but died later that year. He was buried at Hartington on 12 December 1847. The 1841 Census Return unfortunately does not give the location of his employment. However he is listed there under George Bagshaw, who farmed at High Needham, only a few miles from Pilsbury Grange on the Bakewell to Longnor road. William Gould, the brother of Richard Goodwin Gould and Nathaniel Gould, also seems to have worked there as a farm hand aged 20, before going to work in Birmingham, where he was employed when he wrote Letter 11.