Dyes and Dyestuffs

On page 372, the dyestuffs being sent from Kendal to Henry Nairn, caught up in the floods during an overnight stop at Chollerford, are listed. The very helpful notes below have been provided by dyer Ann Evans of Durham - many thanks to her;

• Plant material from several trees produces dye. I have used something called Logwood and also Brazilwood and I have read of something called Basswood. Both logwood and brazilwood are imported from S. America and basswood is from Eastern Canada.. They give red, purple or maroon. The parts used are bark and wood chips. It is a by-product of logging.
•  I have used Cutch a dyestuff from a tree in the Acacia family. It gives orange/yellow.
• Baxelle might be a form of bauxite. Aluminium is used as a mordant and is essential to dyers. The chemical is used for a soaking bath before dyeing or added to the dye bath. It provides a chemical bridge between the fabric and the dye. It can also be used as a colour modifier after dyeing. The form in which I use it is Alum – Aluminium Sulphate. Italy used to be the main source of Alum but, after the reformation, an English source was mined on the Yorkshire coast north of Scarborough.
• Maddr might be an abbreviated form of madder one of the most important red dyes. It grows best in Mediterranean countries and a form has been introduced into England. The dye stuff is in the roots. It was widely used by Italian painters as Rose Madder.
• Flagg is an alternative name for iris which is a dye plant. I have found a reference to annato as a dye plant producing red/orange.
•  “Indies” may be indigo, the only dye to produce a true blue. Indigo is present in a number of plants including woad but indigo-bearing plants in warmer climates produce a stronger colour. It was certainly grown in SW France, so could this be French Indigo?
• Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the dye plants on this list is that they are all imported. The quantities make sense expressed as volume; ie gallons quarts and pints, especially if they were shipped. Volume would be more important than weight.Although some of these plants could have been grown in England, it is likely that the imported dyestuffs would have been more efficient, and given stronger colours.

Books lost in the floods

Very few books are recorded as lost in the floods, though there are a few references to the Bible and prayer books. Pages 232-3, 294, 312, list several other texts;

• 'Dycher Spelling Books' and 'Futton's Mensuration' on p 232, and Golden Paradise on on p 312 have not been traced (suggestions about what they might be would be welcomed).
• 'Gorden's Compain' is probably Every young man's companion containing directions for spelling, reading, and writing English.... by W. Gordon, Teacher of Mathematics, first published in 1755 and going through several subsequent editions.
• Nelson's Devotions, presumably a Protestant devotional work, details not known
• Seven numbers of' North Britton' on p 232; The North Briton was a weekly newspaper edited by the radical John Wilkes, who had a considerable following in Newcastle at the time.
• The Whole Duty of Man is an English high church Protestant devotional work, first published in 1658.
• Tillotson's Sermons, John Tillotson was Archbishop of Canterbury 1691-1694, and his Sermons were published posthumously and remained in print, in various editions, throughout the eighteenth century.'
• 'William Halfpenny on Chinese pailing'; Halfpenny was an English architect and builder in the first half of the 18th century, and prolific author of builders' pattern books. Several of his later books are on architecture in the "Gothick" and "Chinese taste", as are several of the buildings attributed to him. The most likely book here, belonging to a joiner, is Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1750). (Information from Wikipedia).

Joseph Neal's business activities

Joseph Neal (also spelt Neale and Neil) was the head gardener to William Fenwick of Bywell Hall. He and his wife lost many of their  household goods, but also, according to the inventory;

				1000 cauliflower plants                                 
				2,500 Early Cabbage plants                                
				2000 late Cabbage plants 

This is not, however, Fenwick trying to pass off some of his own losses as someone else's. It was not unusual for someone in his own position to run a market gardening business alongside his employment, and to sell the products to the household. Indeed, given the fluctuations in the demands of a gentry household, it would have been an efficient way to organise, with products that were surplus to the owner's requirements at any one time being sold to the general public.