Series 5 > British Linen Company, 1745-1775

CRISIS AND RECOVERY, 1753-1763
135
, made the Company of want of money, or how Mr D. wishes to have the
! bleaching carried on? What way has been or is the cart and horses there to be
employed? Do such belong to the Staplery or the Leith Factory? On what
footing is this yam bleaching carried on ? What’s the rent of the grounds, to
j whom these belong? Are there any tacks and to whom granted, and for how
long? What are Smith’s wages and how long engaged? The bearer William
( Smith having again and again called on me for money to carry on his business
of bleaching yams, and as I cannot take any charge on me that belongs to
! another without his knowledge and consent; and at the same time it being
quite necessary that the Company’s affairs must be looked after and their work
people paid. I must beg you to furnish me with some answer to the above
queries by write or word of mouth, and shall be most suitable to your own
liking that so business may be carried on without prejudice to those who have
; put the trust of it in your hands. If not agreeable to you to do so, let me know
i' so much, and I shall have the business carried on as it should be.
To Buchanan & Simpson, Glasgow
6 August 1760
i With regard to the Garlix not being liked in the West Indies I should be glad
' to know the particular cause of not liking them. I know that till this year I have
laboured unsuccessfully to get these and other thin made goods taken up
l without being run in the bleach or as the English term is fraying. But now a
method is fallen upon of taking them up from the field as evenly and neat as
I the foreign. I have likewise got our Coleraine linens to be much finer threaded
for the money than formerly and would therefore beg your allowance for
sending a few pieces of each sort before you lay in any quantity that so if ours
! please you would be so good as to let this Company serve you with Scotch
instead of Irish cloth or foreign linens. Upon looking through our quantity of
Osnabriggs on hand I find there are only 500 yards of the best kinds can be
j sent you just now and if this does not suit you, I am sorry for it as I can not
otherwise serve your orders.
To Alex Gray, lapper at Salton Bleachfield
9 August 1760
| I had this day sent me in from one Mr Nisbet’s Bleachfield at Paisley a parcel
of clear lawns, the best taken up and the evenest of the thread that I ever saw
I in my fife and I think better then any foreign I have seen. I would therefore
| take as a favour if your father in law or any other of your friends about Glasgow
i could procure one or two hands practised in that trade as well skilled as those
| servants of Mr Nisbet’s to come to Saltonfield this season in order to show the
i method they have of doing up fine thin goods, because whatever is absolutely