This letter has a vast amount of links for such a short letter.  It was written by Charles Stuart Cochrane to his solicitor in London and provided an update on his business activities.  The letter however goes on to name a well known Glasgow merchant of the time and to speak of the political climate of 1831.  As there are so many interesting references in this letter I have highlighted these in red for ease of reference.

The letter reads as follows.

To:                 F. B. Robinson, 26 Fleet Street, London

From:            Charles Stuart Cochrane, Glasgow

Dated:            8th February 1831

My Dear Robinson.

I have two letters before me of the 30th and 3rd - and thank you for what you have done.  I have written to Paris on the subjects.  With respect to the Rail and Coal business I certainly understood that all acceptances by Usborne Benson & Co. were to be included.  In fact that I and the Admiral were to be free from any claims respecting the Rail and Coal business.  If they do not consent to this I think the mortgage in your hands should not be put in their possession.  In Manchester I could do nothing.  Mr Houldsworth best made me an offer, and then drew back fearing a movement in the country.  I am now meeting with new parties here and expect to do some good business.  I get much better terms here than in Manchester.  Mr Houldsworth has written for the Cashmere wool from Paris - so that within a month we shall be commencing spinning.  Many thanks for your good wishes.  I shall weather the storm yet.

Your sincere friend,

Charles Stuart Cochrane.

PS.  Lots of Dragoons, troops and cannon have arrived in Glasgow.  The people do not intend to rise at present.  But if the King refuses to make sufficient Peers to carry the Bill, and Lord Grey resigns, then there will be a general move, most likely 50,000 disciplined men will march on London. 

Yours Radical.”

Charles Stuart Cochrane - born.1796. Also known as ‘Senior Jean de Vega, a Spanish minstrel’ the second son of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane was born on HMS Thetis, a ship that had five Cochranes in its compliment at the time. After fighting the Napoleonic wars he left the navy and adventure up the Magdalena River into Columbia with copper mining in mind. The venture proved unfruitful and after travelling Europe he landed back in Britain in 1828.

He spent that year and the next wandering the country with a guitar, claiming to be a Spanish troubadour.  In Edinburgh where he finally revealed himself he was described as ‘a little cracked’.

In 1830 he proved himself to be perfectly able minded when he took out a patent in France on a machine for spinning Cashmere, a wool new to the western world. In Glasgow he built a mill for his machines to meet the demand in spun Tibetan goats beard.

He published his adventures in ‘Journal of a Tour Made by Senor Jean de Vega, a Spanish Minstrel of 1828-29 Through Great Britain and Ireland’.

Robinson - refers to Francis Barlow Robinson who with Edmund Barlow practiced from 26 Essex Street, Strand.

Usborne Benson & Co. - Between 1811 and 1839 Usborne, Benson & Co (merchants) had offices at 2 & 4. Broad St. London.  Henry was in partnership with Thomas Starling Benson. (Brother Thomas Usborne (b.1770) left the partnership in 1825). 

In 1778, 300 navy ships had their hulls first clad with copper sheathing. This prevented the growth of weed below the water-line and was particularly effective against Toredo worm (a menace in tropical waters). Up to 2,700 rectangular sheets of thin copper were needed, attached to the hull with copper nails. This also improved the speed of ships. Ships had to be re-coppered every 3-5 years.  Nicholas Troughton, and ex-naval leutenant, developed a business at Forest Works on the Banks of the river Tawe near Swansea, South Wales recovering copper from old slag and rolling it into sheets instead of the more usual stamping process.  In 1830 Usborne Benson & Co bought the firm. They installed a new rolling engine, leased two farms for mining coal and planned a tram-way connecting the mine to the copper works. This later became the Swansea Vale Railway.

Admiral. - This, I believe, is reference to his father (Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane) who belonged to a family of which the naval service is justly proud, being the 9th son of Thomas, 8th Earl of Dundonald, and , better known by the name of Lord Cochrane.

Alexander Cochrane was born on the 23^rd of April, 1758.   He was appointed to the command of the fleet on coast of North America, and on assuming office, he shut up and watched the ports of the United States with a most vigilant and effectual blockade. Soon after this the universal peace ensued, which has only of late been terminated, and in 1815 Sir Alexander Cochrane returned to England.

He was raised to the rank of full admiral in 1819, and held the office of commander-in-chief at Plymouth from 1821 to 1824.   His death occured at Paris on 26th January 1832.

Mr Houldsworth. - Henry Houldsworth, a Nottingham man, was brought to Glasgow by William Gillespie, of Woodside and Anderston, to manage a small cotton mill which then stood on the Kelvin, a little below the Great Western Road Bridge. Houldsworth must soon have got this mill into his own hands, for in the Directory of 1801 William Gillespie & Co. are described simply as calico printers in Anderston, and Henry Houldsworth & Co. appear as cotton spinners at Woodside. This business he afterwards removed to Cheapside Street, Anderston, where he carried it on in partnership with his two sons, William and John, under the firm of Henry Houldsworth & Sons. Cotton spinning was then the great Glasgow industry, but with the insight of true business genius the Houldsworths saw that iron was to be the mainstay of Glasgow, and accordingly the Anderston Foundry and Machine Works was started also in Cheapside Street. This work, it is understood, was begun for the purpose of making and repairing machinery for their mill. Gradually Glasgow fell out of the cotton machinery trade, and that branch of the business was given up, but the foundry business, now carried on by the well-known Anderston Foundry Company, grew apace.  Henry Houldsworth died in 1853.

movement in the country. RETURN HERE.

Cashmere wool from Paris. - (From the New Statistical Account for Scotland 1845 GLASGOW) - Cashmere Yarn. In 1830, the weaving of Cashmere shawls in this country   country had become so important a branch of trade, as to induce the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures in Scotland to offer a premium of L. 300 Sterling to the first person who should establish the spinning of Cashmere wool upon the French principle in this country. Up to that time the French had exclusively enjoyed the advantages of that trade and all cashmere yarns used in the country in the manufacture of shawls had to be imported from France.  The offer of this handsome premium, together with the other advantages which the carrying on of the trade held out, induced Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane, of the Royal Navy, to attempt, whilst in Paris, to find out the secret of this manufacture, which, after many difficulties and much delay, he at last accomplished; and, in 1831, he took out patents for the introduction of this kind of spinning to the three kingdoms. In the autumn of that year, he prevailed on Messrs Henry Houldsworth and Sons, of Glasgow, to purchase his patents, and they accordingly commenced the spinning of Cashmere yarn.   

 After many difficulties, they succeeded, in 1832, in making better yarn than the French, and in the following year received from the Board of Trustees the L. 300 Sterling as the premium due for the establishing of the spinning of Cashmere yarn in this country. Since then, the manufacture has gone on but slowly, though gradually increasing in extent, and the day is not far distant when it may be hoped that the beauty of the goods made from Cashmere yarn will be duly appreciated by our ladies. One thing is gratifying, that, notwithstanding the cheapness of labour in France, and the long experience the French have had in this manufacture, we are quite capable at this moment of successfully competing with them in the market, although the French yarns can be admitted free of duty.

Establishment of Merino Yarn Spinning in Scotland.  At the same time that the late Captain C. S. Cochrane was engaged in Paris in finding out the manufacture of Cashmere yarn, his attention was attracted by the superiority of French merino dresses over those made in this country ; and on inquiry he found that the peculiar manner in which the French spun the merino yarn was the principal cause of this difference. Captain Cochrane, accordingly, got all the information he could possibly Obtain respecting this manufacture, and in 1333 established in Glasgow this peculiar mode of spinning merino yarn on the French principle. The Board of Trustees offered a premium of L. 300 Sterling to the introducer and establisher of this manufacture; which premium Captain Cochrane accordingly received in 1834, his merino yarn being pronounced equal, if not superior, to the best French yarns. After this satisfactory result, the business was extended to meet the demand of the trade ; but, unfortunately for the spirited introducer, death cut him short before his plans were fully brought to a profitable result. The business is in the meantime carried on by Messrs Henry Houldsworth and Sons, for the benefit of Captain Cochrane's partner ; and from the soft and beautiful goods which can be made from this yarn, almost rivalling the Cashmere itself, there seems little doubt but that in a short time, when it becomes well known, the merinos of this country will successfully compete with those of the French.

Dragoons, troops and cannon

King refuses to make sufficient Peers to carry the Bill, and Lord Grey resigns