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Letter from Henry Tolcher of Plymouth to 'Most honble. Lord' [Peter King, Chief Justice of Common Pleas], 2 Sep 1720. Suggesting that 'unless a speedy method is taken to prevent the melting of the silver coin of this kingdom it is very likely that its scarcity so much of late complain'd of will be follow'd by a totall consumption of the same ... not less than fifty pounds sterling is to be gott by melting a thousand pounds of English silver coin which is easyly effectected [sic] and with security by almost any person in the space of an hour or two'.

Autograph, with signature.

Papers of John Urpeth Rastrick including memoranda, calculations and diagrams, including estimates for iron arch for Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Bridge; for a roof for William Foster; gasworks at Kidderminster; recipe for brass lacquer; lists of materials of six-horse Boulton and Watts engine, and of the contents of packing boxes, with diagrams of each item entered; notes, specifications and sketches for the Stratford and Moreton Railway; and detailed descriptions, statistics and sketches of bridges, railways and engines. Enclosing the following items: (i-ii) 2 sheets of rough calculations. (iii) Card bearing printed statistics of the Burnton and Shields Railway; annotated in MS and signed by Benjamin Thompson (23 January 1829). (iv) Printed wrapper sent from the Office of Ordnance to Messrs J Bradley and Co, [?at] Foster, Rastrick and Co Ironworks, Stourbridge; used for rough calculations and draft accounts in MS.

Papers of John Urpeth Rastrick, 1800-1855, comprising a miscellany of correspondence (including drafts of copies of outgoing letters), with notes, engineering drawings, etc. Many of the notes and calculations are written in Rastrick's private cipher. Major correspondents include the London shipping iron merchants Henckell and Du Buisson; the 2nd Earl of Powis; John (later Sir John) Gladstone [father of W E Gladstone]; the lawyer, estate manager and politician James Loch and [?his son] George Loch; and Rastrick's sons and employees. Topics covered include the canal and railway interests of Rastrick and the other correspondents, as well as the iron industry. Most of the letters were dispatched to or from London or the industrial areas of South Wales and the West Midlands.

Letter from Mordaunt Martin of 'Burnham' to Dr [John Coakley] Lettsom, Sambrook House, London, 8 Mar 1801. Stating that he has despatched to Lettsom a parcel of mangelwurzel seeds. Explaining that he was prevented from answering Lettsom's letter of 3 Jan by an attack of gallstones, since relieved by pills of soap and rhubarb. Discussing the 'Brown Bread Act' [probably 41 Geo.3.c.16] to which, he says, Lettsom was in some degree accessory; quoting Lettsom and Horne Tooke on the Act; Martin prefers brown bread for his breakfast, using his own wheat 'sifted in the coarsest hair sieve', but deprecates the 'indiscriminate use of it'. Attacking at length the Potato Premium Bill, which had just been rejected, according to 'the paper of this night'; claiming that such a bill would force by premiums an unnatural produce on land which the occupiers could use for more profitable crops. Adding that his and Lettsom's 'hearts will beat in unison' on reading pages 109-110 of the 2nd edition of [Robert] Fellowes's Christian Philosophy [1799].

Autograph, with signature.

(1) Letter from James Bridgnell to H W I Wood, 28 Apr 1857. Relating to the introduction of a gold currency into India. (2) Reply from H W I Wood to James Bridgnell, 4 Jun 1857. Both letters with signatures.

Letter from W Beresford of Elsfield House, Oxford to Messrs Birch, solicitors, Burton upon Trent, [Staffordshire], 21 Mar [1840]. Concerning a dispute over the sale of manure and hay. Autograph, with signature. Year taken from the postmark. Endorsed: 'Beresford Mr. His insolent letter respg the Manure and Hay'.