Letter

Samuel Wood (Trevalyn) to Sir John Trevor (Little St Bartholomew's, London): the brickman thinks he will be able to get enough clay to his liking and 'when he hath digged his clsy, seen the coals and sand and provided himself with labourers here and implements … then will he send for the four workmen down. In the meantime till more workmen come about him he desires he may lodge and diet here and then he had rather diet and lodge near his work than here or at the Lodge … I think him both a judicious and honest man of this profession. He is yet modest in desiring no more than will supply his workmen'; 'yesterday I viewed the purchase widow Joinson desires. It is a pretty thing. It is worth £4..10s in true estimation and 30s or 4 nobles of it is in jointure … the house is only a frame set up and thatched …widow Joinson thinks it too much to pay £4..10s for it and to finish the house and leave her own where she newly made some buildings and hope you will be merciful to her in this either to ease her of the rent here (if it be bought) or to give her some recompense for her charges at the Moors'; negotiations with Mr Lewis for his lands, comments on tenants bargaining for lower rents and his intention 'to make your lands hereabouts entire'; 'the measurer comes the day after candlemas day to measure the lands at the Moor and Llanlorvord …[to be bought from Nicholas Lloyd]; if the purchases and garden go ahead they will need money (up to £200) until some livestock can be sold and rents come in; has not yet been able to complete his accounts but hopes now to be more settled and able to do so as his wife and family have now joined him there; has warned John Trevalyn what will happen if he fails to pay his debts and hopes he can raise the money; 'your other orchard is almost cleared and the first quarter digged and fitted but I begin to doubt what to do with the quarter next the barns for the wall will come through both orchards and then those 2 quarters next the barns and garden will be mangled. I think these sides of them (leaving space enough to come about the wall) must be digged and a fence made between the new wall and the part that is to be sown. I beseech you send me word whether the wall must not come cross both trees and cross the east end of the court between the 2 orchards so that all the long aspens and ashes there must down and that broader end (next the new garden) be within the new garden. The pear trees shall not be stirred this year. I hope we shall think of another way for them …'; the miller is quitting and Whitoff would like them if they are put in a better state of repair but if they cannot agree terms with him the writer has a friend who would be willing to become a partner with him to take them 'but in truth the mills are grown old and call for good repairing and every day will need more for they are decaying...'

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