Letter from Samuel Holmes, New Jersey to Robert Young

My dear Bob,
I am enclosing some interesting letters the result of another xxxxxx dive into the letters preserved. I may yet get more & shall continue re-examination with this in view.
The Robert Stephenson & Co. letter to T.H. (1) June 5 1830 shows good feeling & the standing of TH in the work of Engine Building. He was of course Engineer and Gen. Mgr of S&DRy at this time.
The Edward Pease letter to T.H. dated 9 Mo 2 1828 is important. It speaks of the Liverpool & Manchester people intending to visit Shildon to see the Locomotives & how everything was put up to T.H.
The Joseph Pease letter to TH 11/6 1848 is very interesting showing the pleasant feeling existing between T.H. & JP (2) which I have always recognised & learned from our family. I am sorry the newspaper xxxxx is missing.
It is in Jos. Pease’s handwriting where he writes ‘the paragraph I have marked in the accompanying newspaper will I am sure give thee, as it has me, great concern’. It is evident this writing is

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not the extract referred to at top of paper as ‘Extract from Mr. Fallows Letter 23rd’ where it says ‘Give me some particulars of the most melancholy and interesting cases which have come under thine own observation’ shows this is Joseph Peases (sic) to Timothy Hackworth & the newspaper referred to would doubtless explain the extract reference. The Quaker thy is Joseph Pease as he always used the thy & thou & thee Quakerisms. The pleasant refer-ence to Thomas McNay who was Grandfather’s Clerk also to his clever daughter our aunts is like Jos. Pease as he was. The special interest of Joseph Pease’s confidence in Timothy Hackworth’s ability to write ‘a History and Dissertation Moral and Scientific for my Perusal’.
I have told you Grandfather and Grandmother spent three days in London as guests of Jos. Pease when he was Member of Parliament. He was the first Quaker member as Quakers were excluded xxxx before J.P. became member. This is interesting and you can doubtless find room for it in the personal chapters.
I also enclose a very important cutting from a newspaper being the advertisement of ‘Important Sale of Valuable Engine works & Freehold Property The Trustees of the late Timothy Hackworth Engineer

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have determined to Sell by private contract the whole of the extensive, valuable & commodious Engineering Establishment known as Soho Engine Works Shildon near Darlington in the County of Durham together with the business which has been established twenty two years.’ Dated Soho Cottage, Shildon, Darlington, Sept. 20th 1852.
This brings me to the part of your letter which seems to give you trouble viz Hackworth and Downing (3). I told you our family always considered uncle Thomas Hackworth (4) a hanger on & that is what he was. The works & property belonged to Timothy Hackworth. Yesterday I read over the Covenant ^Indenture^ or Mortgage for £500 ^‘this indenture made the 17th day of May 1833,^between Timothy Hackworth, Shildon, County of Durham Engineer of the first part & William Smith of Melsonby in the County of York Gentleman of the second part and John Coates of Darlington in the County of Durham Gentleman of the third part’. It then describes ‘an interest in all that piece or parcel of ground with Foundry, Workshops, Cottages or dwelling houses & other buildings thereon lately erected & built by the said Timothy Hackworth containing by admeasurement three Roods or thereabouts (be the same more or less) being part of a certain close or parcel of ground containing by admeasurement seven acres & twenty nine perches (be the same more or less called Far Broomhill) and situate, lying and being within the Township of Shildon in the

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Parish of St Andrew M………… in the County of Durham bounded on xxxx or towards the north by a piece or parcel of ground belonging to the said Timothy Hackworth’ etc etc etc
The Indenture or Mortgage was for 6 months & to end 17th day of November 1833.
It is endorsed on the back Received of Mr Timothy Hackworth the sum of Five hundred and twelve pounds, four shillings & six pence in full discharge of all principal money & interest due & owing in the within written Indenture and I hereby undertake at the request & expense of the said Timothy Hackworth that I and my Trustees shall and will reconvey (?) the within mentioned premises into the use of the said Timothy Hackworth his heirs and assigns or as he or they shall direct. Wm. Smith. Witness . Henry Hutchinson.
It is contained in three sheets of parchment 2’ 6” wide by 2 feet deep engrossed & a little difficult to read although the ink is perfectly legible but the engrossing letters make it difficult in some places.
Now from the advertisement date 1852 and the statement established 20 years makes it 1832. Timothy Hackworth leased the Railway & all connected with it in 1833 and from that time to 1840 he manufactured Locomotives and operated the Railway as his own property. Prior to 1833 he was a Companys employee as Engineer & Manager and thereafter his brother Thomas Hackworth had charge

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of Soho Works which the deeds would very likely show to have been brought from Sam Smithane ^about 1830^ whose property adjoined in the north & west see Plan of Property advertised for sale June 9 1853. The newspaper ad enclosed is dated Sept. 20/52 but it only announced the property was for sale expecting private negotiation. It says parties wishing to purchase are desired to make an application to J.W.H. (5) & Thomas Greener.
This newspaper advertisement should be in the book as it more definitely than anything else describes the ability of the works for instance there were 4 cupolas in the Foundry and there were 22 Smiths’ Fires ‘new and convenient Smiths & Boiler Smith Shop with Fan Blast’. We were up in the erecting shop in which 10 locomotives can be in course of erection at same time.
Soho Cottage is described as ‘Dwelling House containing on Ground Floor, 3 Sitting Rooms, Kitchen, Dairy, & Store Pantry over which are seven Bed Rooms and a Lobby’ also Five neat cottages. This should go in.
You will take notice the Covenant states the property referred to abutted on property already owned by Timothy Hackworth. I think there were two purchasers for it describes the boundaries of the Covenant as North by a piece or parcel already owned by Hackworth. South by a Railway lately made by Robert Surtees. East or towards the east partly by the Branch Railway from the Stockton & Darlington Ry called Black Boy West

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called Broomhill. I should think the records in Darlington or Bishop Auckland or Old Shildon all in County of Durham would have the purchase recorded. A letter to the town clerk would soon give the information. I would try one after the xxxxx other or any one could likely say where the record would be made . Don’t bother about Hackworth and Downing (3) they were of no account as they possessed nothing only occupied or acted as a head until Grandfather was liberated from his salaried position.
I don’t want your judicious, painstaking work to be spoiled by any interpretation against any body.Your straight story is much more principle than finding fault. If I write a Fore word (sic) I could incidentally refer to Samuel Smiles, Tomlinson etc. etc. as what they were writers for profit (profiteers) at any one’s expense. Timothy Hackworth by preference as he stood in the way. All however, shall be as you wish. ^………….. ………… my remarks.^ ( I will submit.
Don’t worry about the years 1840 to 1850. The Locomotive was established and during them your Grandfather was continually improving right up to Sanspareil No.2 which was the Engine he had for sale & was in London as was recorded in the letter to my ever dear Jane, xxx (our Grandmother). This is a good letter it tells of the general business hard times. xxxxxx which followed the panic of 1847.
The letter from Cabry of xxxx York and North Midland

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Railway. Engineers Office, York, also referred to Sanspareil No 2 & should be reproduced it shows the times. I should have called attention to Grandfather’s reference to this Engine ‘a good Engine will be better to sell than a bad one’ (‘after I had said I had an Engine for them the best in the world’).
This is a good letter & should be reproduced with the others.
Keep the letters in their envelopes.
I shall keep on searching.
Wishing you & yours and Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Yours Afft.
SAMUEL HOLMES
Grandmother was a Miss Golightly ,our Great Grandmother was a Miss Evans. This is where I got mixed between our Great Grandmother’s maiden name & our Grandmother’s maiden name.
SH.

(1) T.H. : Timothy Hackworth
(2) J.P. : Joseph Pease
(3) Hackworth & Downing – this was the company Timothy Hackworth set up with Nicholas Downing and into which Timothy put his brother, Thomas, as Manager in 1833. Timothy Hackworth continued to be Superintendent Engineer of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company until 1840, being overseer of both companies.
(4) Thomas Hackworth worked with his brother, Timothy, at Wylam, Walbottle and Shildon and set up his works, Fossick & Hackworth at Norton nr Stockton in 1840. He was a very successful engineer, possibly building more locos than his brother, Timothy Hackworth, and constructing engines for steam ships.
(5) J.W.H. : John Wesley Hackworth, Timothy Hackworth’s eldest son