Nat Gould

Pilsbury Grange Letter 6

Letter 6 of the Letters from Pilsbury Grange is dated 16 August 1843, and was written by J.H. Gilbert to his friend Richard Goodwin Gould.

[[The address on the cover is :]

Mr. R.G. Gould
Messrs. Batchelor & Co.
113 Bond Street
London

[[Page 1]

Manchester August 16th. 1843

My dear Dick

I was at Bakewell when your letter reached [[Bucklow deleted] me. I wrote you a long letter about 3 weeks ago, it must have miscarried, I am not such a particular chap as to wait until you had answered my letter, I did not go the Top of the Hill, but I saw Miss Maria & I gave her your letter I suppose she was (hang this steel pen) the right person, she was evidently pleased with the message. – I have been to Bakewell twice about some shares in a Mine belonging to my Grandfather Gilbert & which were not willed, consequently they will be mine I believe, if it turns out right I will let you know, I should not have gone to B. if it had not been for this. – I saw your brother William on Saturday he said they were all quite well at home, he left on Tuesday I believe. – Shall you come over at Christmas.- I expect Mr. Wilson tomorrow passing through on his way from Crosby, Mrs. Taylor Jane, Ann, George, & Willey are there, John is going tomorrow, they are in the old way at the Shop,

[[Page 2]

I believe the Spire of Bakewell Church will be finished next Saturday it is beautiful & the workmanship is excellent the clock was to go to Liverpool on Monday to be put to right.- Major Carlill is dead, I wrote some of the Mourning Cards for I & N on Saturday night they were very busy, my stay at B. [[Bakewell] was short both time, I expect I shall not have to go again at present

Mr. Gauntley had a Son last week, but it was not alive. – Old price was on the Spree.

When we have anything Londonified I will send you patts [[patterns?], those Muslin patts slipt my memory from time to time until it was too late.

Write a long letter soon & remember you are now in debt, & ever regard me as an old and affectionate Friend

[[signed] J H Gilbert

In my letter 3 weeks or a month ago I made lots of apologies for my negligence

The writer signed himself as J.H. Gilbert. He was John H. Gilbert, as Letter 7 proves.

This letter is interesting both from a general historic point of view and from that of the Gould family history. Evidently the sender was still not completely familiar with the revolutionary new prepaid penny post introduced in 1840. Although bearing one of the famous imperforate Penny Red adhesive stamps, the letter is still wrapped in an eighteenth century type of wax-sealed cover and (quite unnecessarily) marked "paid" and "Accept", as though the recipient would otherwise have to pay for the letter when delivered. It bears a Maltese Cross cancellation and is backstamped Manchester 18th August, and has a London arrival backstamp dated the following day.

Bakewell Church

It is interesting that the writer was having trouble in 1834 with the steel pen nib. The steel nib had been invented in 1803 by Brian Donkin at Chesterfield in Derbyshire. But it was not until 1830 that a really useful steel nib (with a hole for an ink reservoir) was put on sale. Steel nibs were still a novelty in 1834.

Bakewell church, with its beautiful octagonal tower and spire, was built in the 1200s but was extensively restored from 1834.

The mine that John H. Gilbert had inherited from his grandfather Gilbert, requiring his visits to Bakewell, may have been a coal mine, but was more likely a lead or copper mine. In 1753 Thomas Gilbert 1720-1798 and his brother John Gilbert 1724-1795 had leased the Burgoyne copper mine at Ecton in the Manifold valley in Staffordshire, where the Duke of Devonshire also had extensive mining interests.

These Gilbert brothers were related to the Goulds of Pilsbury Grange in that one of their sisters Elizabeth Gilbert 1717-1776 had married Richard Gould 1711-1762 and another sister Ellen Gilbert 1722-1792 had married Richard's brother Joseph Gould 1715-1777.
So if the writer was a grandson of one of the Gilbert brothers, then he was a cousin of Richard Goodwin Gould’s late father.