File NLW MS 11018E. - Clayton letters,

Seventy-one holograph letters, 1658-1665, of William Rogers from Chepstow, Gloucester, etc., to Thomas Yates (Yattes), Lincolnes Inne Fields, John Morris in Corne Hill, Robert Clayton in Corne Hill, Sir Edward Heath, and Sir John Cutler in 'Gratiens' Street, London, relating to the production of mine and cinders in the Forest [of Dean] and the lading of vessels at Chepstow, Monmouth, Lidney Pill, etc., for Wexford and Eniscorthy. The writer refers to negotiations for favourable freight charges, shipwrecks at Wexford Bar and Milford Haven, attacks on ships by pirates, methods of weighing, complaints of the foulness of mine and cinders shipped to Ireland, the purchase of elms for belly-boards for the furnace and forge, the prices of barrel staves, etc., at Bristol, requests for advances of money for the payment of wages, the hiring of workmen for service in Ireland and payments to their wives, difficulties in employing finery men, a request for additional hammers and anvils (those 'that are made of our fforest mettle doth not hold'), timber trees in the Forest reserved for the Navy, the sale of the Kington estate for £850 to a schoolmaster in Worcestershire, the results of the parliamentary election of April, 1661, etc. Also included in the group are detailed accounts of receipts and disbursements, particulars of stock, etc., by William Rogers, 1656-1662; acquittances, 1657/8-1659, by William Rogers to Colonel John Nicholas, governor of Chepstow Castle, for sums of money to the recipient's use paid by Thomas Yates to Thomas Davies, Warwick Court, London; and an acquittance, 24 November, 1663, from William Rogers to John Morris for £25 for one year and a quarter's service since Mr. Morris 'entred on the Irish busines'.