Series GFA11 - Mining and quarrying letters

A large body of correspondence mainly to the Gogerddan agents, relating to the silver-lead and copper mines, and the stone quarries in north Cardiganshire, often with copies of the replies and forwarded third party letters, 1697-1920. Letters of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, mainly to Thomas Pryse, Lewis Pryse and Edward Loveden Loveden, include a single letter from Lewis Morris, 1742, and several from Chauncy Townsend, 1757-1765. The majority, however, are dated mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century, and the principal recipients are Capt. Edward Lewis Pryse, John Graham Williams, Col. George Griffiths Williams, Sir Pryse Pryse, Pryse Pryse Pryse, William Lloyd and George R. Pryse, or their agents. The correspondents include the Taylor family, the Garland family of Cymsymlog and Goginan, the Francis family of Goginan, Jonathan and George Pell, John and James Paull of Goginan, Michael Barbery, George Green of Aberystwyth, James McIlquham of Aberystwyth, Robert Girdwood of Edinburgh, David Williams of Glandyfi, John Mitchell of Goginan, Joseph Fell of London and John Henry Murchison of Austin Friars, London, whose letters draw interesting comparisons between the mining in Wales and in Cornwall. Common to most files are letters from Hughes and Sons, Atwood and Hughes, A.J. Hughes, and Roberts and Evans, all solicitors of Aberystwyth, Boys and Tweedie of Lincolns Inn Fields, and various other solicitors representing the mining companies. The letters elucidate the history of the mines in north Cardiganshire and the fluctuating fortunes of the lead mining industry. They describe the methods of mineral extraction, water supplies to the mines, the mine buildings and roads, the transport and sale of ore, trespasses and breaches of covenant by the mining companies, boundary disputes, relations with the Gogerddan estate agents and farmers, the granting of tack notes (take notes) and mineral leases, the capital outlay and financial investments, the payment of rents and royalties, the formation of the mining companies, their management and eventual liquidation. Official notices from the mining inspectors mention the dangerous state of the abandoned works. Many letters refer to the rights and title of the Pryse family as lords of the manor of Genau’r-glyn. Some letters discuss other, more general aspects of the Gogerddan estate administration. The content of the series is similar throughout, so no further detail is given in the file level descriptions.