Church of England clergy had a key role, but dissenting ministers were nowhere involved. The clerics took particular responsibility for the collection. As Revd. Thomas Noble of Belford reports, ‘What Riding, as well as Writing I have had on this Affair, it may not be material to communicate; but this I am confident in, That it alone wou'd have enabled a Gentle of the Law to have drawn up a £10 Bill’.
There are only a few human interest stories in the volume; follow this link for one of them, Edward Forster. Mostly, the papers deal with the financial consequences of the disaster, as seen by the local gentry who administered the fund. One of the most tragic stories was that of John Johnson, of Ovingham Boathouse, who lost eight members of his family; follow this link for Garrett’s description. Several people gave him immediate help, and this perhaps explains the churlish response of the Committee when deciding how much compensation they should pay the only other survivor from the family, his brother Matthew.
One recurring issue is a row between the Northumberland Committee and a group of subscribers to the relief fund from Newcastle, about how the money should be apportioned between Newcastle and the rest. It was an argument among the gentry, however; for instance, members of the Blackett family (still prominent in the area) were on both sides. The ‘sufferers’ themselves had no voice in the distribution.
A note about money
To get an idea of the sums being collected and distributed in terms of today’s money, multiply the figures by around 100. The final sum collected, just under £2,000, should therefore be considered as worth around £200,000 today. This may seem a large amount, but the gentry and merchants of Newcastle subscribed around 3 times that amount a year or so later for the building of the new Assembly Rooms in Westgate Road, where the central chandelier alone cost £650.