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The collection contains a memoranda book covering the years 1783 to 1785, with additions and annotations. The contents include notes of orders, bills, advertisements, names of customers, tables showing different qualities of worsteds and a 'black list' of employees.

A signed holograph proposal, 1739, for preventing the illicit practice of wool, tea and brandy smuggling, submitted to both Houses of Parliament.

Manuscript volume containing a contemporary copy of the charter of the British Linen Company, dated 5 Jul 1746.

Manuscript volume, originally used as a stock book for haberdashery, belonging to John Clark [of Bridgewater, Somerset], containing lists of hosiery, thread, pins, ribbons, laces, tapes, bobbins, blankets, flannel and other cloths, furs, tippets, muffs, capes, silk cloaks, cambric handkerchiefs, pasteboard, paper and umbrellas, 1832-1837. Many pages have had pasted on to them newspaper cuttings and illustrations from popular magazines, [1838-1852], including plans for the new parish church of Paddington, 1840. From folio 18, the volume has interspersed on previously blank pages a draft continuation by Clark of Byron's Don Juan (i.e. cantos xvii-xxiv), described by the author as 'rough copy - incorrect' (each leaf being cancelled presumably as the fair copy was made) and signed by himself as 'completed 1842 September 1, at X a.m. clk. struck, & flute playing in the street'.. There are also some notes on Byron's original poem, his life and literary style accompanying the continuation, which date from later in the 1840s. The vellum cover is inscribed 'John Clark's first copy of his poem'.

Minutes of evidence of the Committee to consider the state of the linen trade in Great Britain and Ireland, given at twelve sessions held between 1 March and 12 May 1774.

Letter from J Cross of London to [Mr Oriel], 14 Apr 1794. 'I laid your proposal respecting the mill at Quemerford [near Calne, Wiltshire] before my Lord Lansdown [i.e. the Marquess of Lansdowne], in answer to which he had directed me to give you, in his own words, his opinion of the use of machinery in the cloathing manufacture - vizt "Nothing can be more mistaken than the prejudice conceived against machinery, nor could be more unfortunate for the country if suffer'd to prevail - for the consequence must be, the transfer of the manufacture either to the North of England, where the prejudice has been got the better of, and where they experience the advantage, or else to foreign countrys - or part to one and part to the other. Calne is calculated to be the seat of it, much better than either Chippenham or Devizes, or any town which I can immediately recollect, and independent of the great increase of trade, it would create a number of mechanists, and promote in consequence every sort of ingenuity, which would make up abundantly the loss sustain'd by the spinners; besides the navigations which are proposed [i.e. the Wilts and Berks Canal] will furnish a great deal of work; but rather than attempt any thing so arbitrary & absurd as to stop the progress of the machinery, I am very clear it would be better to come to a general rise of wage, especially if every person was compell'd at the same time to belong to some amicable society ...".'

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Peter Stephen DuPonceau of Phildelphia, [Pennsylvania] to J Vaughan, Esq, 19 Nov 1831. Asking him 'to send the enclosed [a copy of An Historical Review of the ... Silk Culture, Manufacture and Trade, etc (1831)] to your excellent nephew'.

Autograph, with signature.

Account books, 1807-1827, of John Ferguson's textile manufacturing company, Robert Ferguson & Son.

Manuscript volume containing information relating to the finances of France, [1757]-1766, namely a report on the actual state of affairs concerning the finances of the kingdom of France, 1766, including the revenues and expenditure of the king, the extraordinary transactions in France from 1755 to 1763 due to the war against the English, and annual transactions made in the kingdom in favour of the Court of Rome, bishops, dukes, counts and peers; a report giving particulars of the general and specific financial schemes of France, with political observations, 1766; a report on the actual state of the secret and general finances of France and of the organisation of those finances, [1757]; a printed pamphlet by John Holker, being an instructive memoir on the fabric and other woollen goods of England, published in Paris, 1764.

Manuscript account book of Jones and Co, London cloth merchants, giving details of cloth sold from 18 Feb 1760-6 Mar 1775, and details of buyers. Most entries contain a sample of the cloth involved.

Letter from William Henry Leatham of 45 St James Place, St James's, London to the Rt Hon Sir Stafford H Northcote, Bart, MP, HM Secretary of State for India, 9 Jul 1868. Stating that he will forward the offer of a collection of plates (for a price of £100) illustrating the textile manufactures of India, to the Industral and Fine Art Institution (and museum), at Wakefield; giving the names of three officials in Wakefield who might be concerned with the offer.

Autograph, with signature.

Manuscript volume containing a copy of a letter dated 9 Jun 1744 from Elizabeth Forbes of the School of Sprinning, Jedburgh, [Roxburgh], to David Flint, Trustees Office, Parliament Close, Edinburgh, complaining of her summons by the baillies of Jedburgh for contravening the 'Acts in the Trades Seal of Cause' by ordering equipment from Kelso.

Manuscript letter appointing Louis Casimir Brown Inspector of Manufactures in Caen producing cloth or materials used in its treatment, 15 Sep 1780. With the signature of Jacques Necker, Director General of Finances, the signature of the Intendant of Caen, and a note dated 27 Feb 1783 of registration by the greffiers of the bailliage of Caen.

Memorial signed by Thomas Wroe of Hollinwood near Manchester, cotton manufacturer, addressed to the Rt Hon Spencer Perceval and the Lords of the Treasury, seeking compensation for the loss of his steam-powered cotton mill at West Houghton, which was destroyed by a 'riotous mob', dated 24th April, 1812. Endorsed to the effect that there does not appear to be any means of indemnifying Mr Wroe.

Manuscript orders made by the Hamburg Company, 26 Jan 1668, to prevent 'employing unfreemen to buy and shipp off woolen' .

Letter from Robert Owen of Braxfield, [Lanarkshire] to 'the London Partners in the firm of Robert Owen and Co', 24 Oct 1814. Sending monthly accounts [missing]. Attributing poor trading in cotton to political instability in Europe; explains that unprofitable sales in Russia must continue until the market improves so that the mills [at New Lanark] can be kept working.

Letters and accounts, mostly concerned with the cloth and clothing trade, between 1755 and 1763. The material was created by both Benjamin Wilson and Jonathan Dickinson, who appear to have been business partners.