R3/3818

Letter mainly regarding Braithwaite, rentals, fires and broken glass, overseers, farmers, union of parishes, tradesmen and publicans, ill feeling among estate workers etc.

16 Oct 1834

From: 1834 To: 1834

Reads- Told Braithwaite Duke requires security for debt; he will play fast & loose as long as we allow him. Collection of cottage garden rents; few defaulters. At Steppingley Friday an old hovel belonging to overseer was set on fire; and some glass broken in the Reverend Green's house & in Cook's farmhouse. Overseers' stupidity; I got a meeting yesterday & hope they will go on better. I insist on overseers paying outdoor relief in open vestry at the church in midday, getting an attendance of farmers as well as the acting overseer; & next week I will myself attend at Steppingley, for the few farmers there are terrified. Flitwick has not done very well; they come under the Ampthill division, so are tinged with the Marston row; but now that our own immediate parishes go on so well I can look further out. You will be glad to know the Crawley - Ridgmont farmers enter into the spirit of the law. Correspondence with commissioners about union of parishes - no doubt they will be anxious to consult proprietors. The greatest opponents we meet with are little tradesmen & publicans; foolish gossipping persons who misunderstand & discuss in smoking & beer shops; so blind as not to see that the measures in progress are as much for the benefit of the rate receiver as rate payer. One of Duke's keepers, Thomas White of Steppingley, has taken conspicuous part; had impudence to tell overseers in presence of labourers that he was ruining the parish by taking off the head money. Crocker has spoken to him, but some further notice must be taken; enough to set a parish ablaze; ill-conditioned fellow & sore that men have not so much to spend in his father's beershop. Forbes must have a hint not to meddle; kind-hearted & well-meaning but knows nothing of the evils. Castle Mill new wall.

item

Braithwaite,
Duke of Bedford,
Green,
Cook,
White, Thomas,
Crocker, E.,
Forbes

debt, cottage, gardens, rentals, STEPPINGLEY, BUILDINGS & LAND USE, overseers of the poor, arson, FIRE, glazing, vandalism, HOUSING, vicars, farms, Vestry, CHURCH, estate wages, farmers, FLITWICK, AMPTHILL, Marston, parish, HUSBORNE CRAWLEY, RIDGMONT, legal process, commissioner, parish union, TRADE & INDUSTRY, publicans, smoking, beer, shops, rates, keeper, labourers, money, FAMILY, Castle Mill, building work