COLLIERY

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Edw Walford Esq M.A’ and signed ‘George Smith’. The handwriting is somewhat opaque, rendering the following transcription tentative. He begins by thanking him for sending a cutting ‘from the “Gossip of the Clubs” ’, before continuing: ‘In consequence of the opposition there is still against me in the Brick & tile trade, the amount of time & Correspondence [it takes?] is [?] with the [?] of the act, I find it anything but [?] to get along.

One page, 12mo, edges sunned and stained, text slightly obscured but readable. "I regret I was confined to the House yesterday (in fact since Saturday so could not attend the meeting at the [?] Hall in the sad Oaks Colliery affair [worst ever English mining disaster] [.] My two partners were also from Home. Will you add the name of my Company 'John Brown & Co." without LImited for £100[.] If our Directors will not pay the same I will."

128pp., 16mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in shiny yellow printed wraps with slight staining at head of front cover. The twelve-page 'Biographical Sketch' covers pp.3-16. It quotes the Rev. Baptist W. Noel as saying that Weaver 'has been preaching at Sheffield, and other towns, to multitudes of working men [...] he was, at one time, addicted to prize-fighting, and that he was never beaten in his life.

The 'Abstract' and 'Bye-Laws' total 45pp., 12mo, attached in one unbound pamphlet. Complete, but aged and dusty: an item that certainly saw duty in its colliery. The 'Abstract' is 41pp., 12mo, paginated 1-40; with a single page headed 'Timbering in Mines. | Special Rules' on a leaf tipped in after p.38. The title-page is headed 'Published under the direction of the Committee for Yorkshire.', and the full title includes: '[...] General Rules and Special Rules to be observed by the Owners, Agents, Managers, Under-Managers, Under-Viewers, Enginewrights, Deputies, and Work-people of Messrs.