Showing 16 results

Letter from John Wood to Richard Oastler via the Post Office, Leeds, Yorkshire [redirected from Foxley Hall, Huddersfield], Nov 1830. 'I send you this as proof of the general disposition to meet the question. The signatures annexed include almost every Bradford Spinner ...'.

Autograph, with signature. Written on the dorse of a poster advertising a meeting of Bradford worsted spinners on 22 Nov 1830, with the aim of improving working conditions; the poster is folded in half, with the direction and postmarks on one leaf and the content of the letter on the other.

Forged letter pertaining to be from William Makepeace Thackery to an unknown recipient, [1850]. 'When I said that I could do no more for you for the present I meant it literally: I never once said it as a simple excuse... When I find that your views on hard work are different I may perhaps have something to say to you. Believe me a lazy life is a curse to any man.

Written and signed in an unknown hand, as if by Thackeray.

Manuscript volume containing a table giving particulars of the pay and stoppages for all ranks in the different ratings of the Royal Navy, [1800]. Includes a list of leap years from 1752 to 1762.

Letter from A Offley, c 1790. No address. To Mrs Walker. Supplies a character reference for a servant, Mrs Stent, who had among her recommendations that she 'stayd with ye dificall lady Manchester [Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Manchester] longer than most of her sarvents do but as to her [Mrs Stent's] temper it is warm and pashonat and she cant allways commande it ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Oastler of Fixby Hall, Huddersfield, [West Riding of Yorkshire] to John Foster, Esq of 1 Vincent Square, Westminster, 23 Jun 1833. Chiefly relating to the Ten Hours Bill. Lord Althorp had advocated 2 sets of 8 hours as the maximum for children under 14 to work. 'The news came just in time for your Hudd meeting - one hour before we began - & thus before 15,000 to 20,000 people I had the opportunity of blowing the whole scheme to rags' [referring to a speech Oastler made at a meeting on 18 Jun 1833. Urging the London section not to yield a single point: 'If they yield they disgrace themselves and give us another year's excitement and in my opinion hurry on a bloody revolution'.

Autograph, with signature. With Oastler's black seal, bearing the motto: 'The Altar, the Throne and the Cottage'.

Letter from William Longson of 2 Garnet Street, Hillgate, Stockport to [Joseph Hume], 9 Nov 1825. Congratulating him 'for not receiving the presents offered to you in Scotland', which will 'repress the ... enthusiastic impetuosity of several Bodies of Workmen'. Agreeing with the views of [John Ramsay] McCulloch on the influence of the use of machinery on workmen's wages and the price of the commodities produced. Proposing to publish supporting this view.

Autograph, with signature.

A collection of fifty testimonials collected by James Hudson, 1837, to support his application to be Clerk of the University of London.

(i) Letters to Sir Graham Eden Hamond and Lady Hamond, 1850-1865. Mainly concerning references and testimonials for domestic servants, either formerly employed in or potentially to be engaged by the Hamond household. Including 1 receipt for £6 wages and a letter mentioning the 1852 general election.

(ii) Letter from Charles Scovell of Bembridge, Isle of Wight, to Mr Escount, 16 Feb 1865. Relating to the business affairs of Sir Andrew Hamond [Sir Graham Hamond's son and successor as baronet].

Letter from William Ewart Gladstone of Hagley, [Worcestershire] to J Pennington, Esq, 21 Apr 1854. Asking for advice on the effect of the war payments on the Bank reserve. 'Can you direct me to any clear and trustworthy synoptical view of the laws applicable to the operations of the Bank since the date of its first Charter?'

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Sir Edward Codrington of Eaton Square, London to the Rt Hon J W Croker, 2 Jun 1830. Urging the claims to 'head money' of the officers, seamen and marines who fought in the Battle of Navarino (20 Oct1827) [the claims had been refused on the grounds that there had been no prior declaration of war]. An offer of £800 a year pension for life had been made to Admiral Codrington through the Duke of Wellington; 'Your Grace must excuse me ... I cannot receive such a thing while my poor fellows who fought under me at Navarino have had no head money'.

Autograph, with signature. The first sheet is endorsed: 'This copy is throughout in the handwriting of my father Admiral Sir Edward Codrington. W J Codrington, 110 Eaton Square.'

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Playford Hall [near Ipswich, Suffolk] to Henry Hope, 'at the Bank', Wells, Somerset, 9 Jan 1826. Printed circular letter, asking for support for the petition to Parliament to urge them to carry out a plan for the improvement of the condition of the slave population. An addition in MS asks Hope to promote petitions in Wells, Shepton Mallet, Bruton and neighbouring towns. A note in another hand has been added to the dorse of the second leaf. A newspaper cutting Extracts from the new Jamaica Slave Code accompanies the letter.

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Bury [St Edmunds, Suffolk] to Rev M Maurice, [1807-1816]. Urging him to restore the committee at Southampton to promote a petition to Parliament in favour of a plan for the improvement of the condition of the slave population.

Letter from Sir Edward Henry Busk of Sussex Place, Regent's Park, London to R A Rye, 9 May 1922. Expressing his regret on resigning from the Library Committee of the University of London.

Autograph, with signature.

Two items c 1892, by John Burnett of the Board of Trade concerning the reduction of wages and strikes in the mining, shipbuilding, metal and textile trades.

Letter from Robert Bald of Edinburgh to Joseph Hume MP, 27 Apr 1826. Excusing his silence 'but ... I have been uncommonly pressed with mineral surveying and reporting thereon arising in a great degree from the conflicting elements which arise betwixt master and servant. Coals rise in price to an exorbitant rate, and the great manufacturing interests of Glasgow & chief consumers of coal there agreed to have the districts surveyed as to the means of supplying the City with abundance of coal at a moderate rate, and to lay rail ways into the coals fields which were the best'. He encloses "two copies of the treatise I wrote regarding the coal trade of Scotland and the slavish system of bearing coals by women. I have been attacked and run down for doing so: this I care nothing about ...'. Autograph, with signature.

Manuscript volume containing a record of housekeeping expenses, 1766-1848. The account book contains annual expenses from 1766-1768, weekly expenses from Jan 1769-Aug 1787, mostly for food and washing clothes, and weekly household expenses from Aug 1837 to Nov 1847 with details of servants' wages from Nov 1837 to Nov 1848. The expenses for Aug 1837 are headed '10 Avenue Road, Regent's Park'. Includes a list headed 'Books in Library in Margaret's Room', dated 7 Sep 1837; the works are mainly religious. Some pages have been used for notes and jottings.