Nat Gould

Pilsbury Grange Letter 7

Letter 7 of the Letters from Pilsbury Grange is dated 16 November 1843, and was written by John H. Gilbert to his friend Richard Goodwin Gould.

[[The address on the cover is:-]

Mr. R.G. Gould
Messrs. Cooper & Batchelors
113 New Bond St.
London

[[The envelope is marked “prepaid”. The adhesive stamp is missing – part of the letter has been torn away. The letter was posted in Manchester on 16 November 1843 and arrived in London backstamped on 17 November 1843.]

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Manchester Novr. 16th 1843

My dear Friend

I recd. your welcome letter this morn. I am exceedingly glad to hear you are so comfortable & satisfied in your situation. how time rolls away it will soon be a year since you went up to London & I have been here more than that time. I have always a feeling of regret about past time. I feel as if I had not spent it so profitably as I might (right is out of the question) have done. I need not tell you what a pleasure it will be to once more have the joy [[illegible] from you that instant [[?] spring forth; if possible I will continue to be at home when you make your visit.

It was only yesterday morning that I recd. a news-paper from Chas. Smith, he is at Woollright & Chidson’s Liverpool, one of, if not the first shop in the town I have not heard from him since he was at Canterbury.

My prejudice against crossed letters has left me & although I generally continue to get all I have to say on three pages yet you may depend upon my not throwing letters into the fire instead of reading, writing & receiving [[doubly underlined] letters [[“were of” deleted] [[“were amongst my” inserted] my chief pleasures. If you saw me in my own sitting room every night you would very

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likely call me a misanthropist I have no companion except what you may call Warehouse companions, I have some that I associate or visit with now that I can take a walk with & make my confidant [[doubly underlined]. I frequently spend Sundays with my Uncles indeed it is seldom that I sleep at my lodgings on Sunday night. I never had more than three that I could rely upon & treat as friends & these were Mr. Wilson yourself & Sam Mason, but I am as happy as possible & if I had a Piano I should be set up – Another trial is coming on about my Mining affair next Wednesday. I do not yet know whether I shall be required to go again & whether success attend me or not & I will let you know; you know if I have a desire for wealth what it mainly springs from I should like to place my Mother above every want, she is like your own. - I frequently have small orders from T & N & I hope with great attention that I shall make them good customers – You once told me that if we had any good prints you thought you could do business with us, now I do not think that our print stock generally is of that class to suit you, but I have about 30 pc. [[pieces]of printed Cashmeres for which I will quote a low price 15 yd[[yards] if you think they will

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suit you write & tell me & I will send larger patt[[erns] to your Employers. Our stock of Nt. Calicoe is very skillfully managed if you think there is the least opening I will send a whole set. – Fustians & heavy goods I suppose you do not touch. – I thought I was right in my conjecture about Miss N. Your sending your love in [[piece torn away]
when I was at B. [[Bakewell?] was I thought sufficient [[piece torn away]
young men have to look out for themselves [[piece torn away]
are forgotten. - Remember me kindly to y- [[piece torn away]
you do not say where he is. - I wish [[piece torn away]
you in your tour to the different churches [[piece torn away]

Trusting that I shall soon hear again from you
believe me your affectionate Friend

Jno. H. Gilbert

Excuse the scrawl my hands are so cold –

The writer and his friend Richard Goodwin Gould were clearly both employed in the cloth trade or drapery business. The writer’s friend Charles Smith was similarly engaged. Woollright & Chidson were silk merchants in Liverpool. Although still in business together in 1843 when the letter was written, their partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 1845. A notice in the London Gazette in that year reads as follows :-

“NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, John Woollright, William Drury Chidson, Thomas Wait, and John Lindsay, under the firm of Woollright, Chidson, and Company, at Liverpool, as Silk Mercers, &c. was, on the 14th day of February last, dissolved by mutual consent
As witness our hands this 10th day of March 1845. John Woollright. Wm. Drury Chidson. Thomas Wait. Jno. Lindsay.” (1).

William Drury Chidson was an East Yorkshire man who moved to Liverpool in about 1818, and settled there. Descendants of his family still live in England, although branches are now resident in Australia and in Canada (2).

The letter is written in terms then entirely typical of affectionate friendships between young men that would be totally misunderstood today.

John Gilbert was still worrying about the mining property inherited from his grandfather (3). He comes over as being altogether rather an anxious young man. Richard Goodwin Gould however is clearly thoroughly enjoying himself in London. We now learn from this letter that he went there in 1842. He was then aged 20.

Bond Street in London runs between Piccadilly to the south and Oxford Street to the north. It is one of the most prestigious shopping streets in Europe. Old Bond Street is the southern portion, continued as New Bond Street further north. (“New” in the 1700s.) Most of the buildings are still the eighteenth century and earlier originals, although the ground floors are modernised. However 113 New Bond Street is now part of a postwar block.

(1) www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/20452/pages/782/page.pdf
(2) www.genealogy.com/genealogy/users/p/o/n/Alexandra-A.../index.html
(3) See Pilsbury Grange Letter 6.