31st December, 1747, and before the 29th September, 1748, and also to pay to us on the 31st December, 1746, two thousand pounds; and on the 31st December, 1747, the like sum of two thousand pounds, being 10 per cent. on our capital for each of these two ensuing years, in lieu of profits and all interest therein. In consideration thereof, we do hereby assign, sell, transfer, and make over our several and joint interests in the Copper and Lead Trade, with all our works and mills for carrying on the same, and also all debts and effects whatsover of which our said net capital of twenty thousand is now composed and consists in, unto the said Richard Lockwood, Edward Elliston, John Lockwood, Robert Morris, and Hester Gibbon, their executors, administrators, and assigns, who are likewise to take upon themselves all debts, engagements, incumbrances whatsoever which our said copartnership now stands liable to and obliged for, and for ever to exonerate and discharge us and our respective heirs, executors, and administrators therefrom." "The List of Debts referred to in the foregoing Preamble. If we may rely on the statement made by Mr. S. C. Hall, the business of Lockwood, Morris and Co., was moved from the Llangavelach Works up to THE FOREST-COPPER WORKS, situate some half-mile further north on the Swansea river, in the year 1727. The greater facility of getting in Coal at that point was possibly the reason for this removal, and it has been suggested that the question of "the Copper smoke" had begun to prove troublesome in the previously used local centres. If it is difficult to fix with anything like precision the date of the opening of the various Works, to ascertain the period of their change or closing is still more so-is indeed, rather to be gathered incidentally than positively; thus, in a previous page I ventured to indicate that the Llangavelach Works were not in operation in 1761, and the balance-sheet of 1768, which will presently be laid before the reader, goes to prove the fact, that the words "old Copper Works on the estateplan of Mr. Popkins," mentioned further back, may simply mean that they had been there a comparatively long time. The view of the Forest Works taken in 1794, which I have had revived by photography, gives an excellent idea of the arrangement of the furnaces surrounded and connected by a circular wall, which was covered over by one roof, a plan doubtless adopted for the convenience of working (as well as by the porch to the doors for the privacy which was thereby ensured), and which in the early times of the Trade we have seen was forced on the workmen by the administration of Oaths specially authorized by the Crown Charters! In one of the many obliging and interesting letters for which I am indebted to Mr. Wm. Edmond, of Clase, he says:-"In 1747, an assay office was built at Forest, and is still in existence there, and an underground canal, over which was brought the necessary coal direct into the works. The accounts of 1743 shew that they had rollingmills and hammer-mills ('Battery' Works) on the site now [1867] occupied by the Beaufort Iron-plate Co., built convenient to their Smelting Works at the Forest, and if the Llangavelach Works' mean those of Landore, it must have been very inconvenient thus to haul so heavy an article as all their Copper from Landore to Forest. The Forest, or Llangavelach Works are not those now existing at Forest, for in 1834 I was asked to be present at the removal of the last of the old buildings. They were formed of four large circular structures; the whole arranged so that the fire-places being on the outside of the circular walls, they were so placed within them, as to conceal all that was going on in the manufactory. In the centre of these four circular houses stood the 'Refinery' which is still there, and octagonal in its shape. The public road anciently went under an arch at the Refinery, and crossed the river at the Hen Bont, or old bridge a little above the late Mr. Hallam's 'Tin-plate Works at Forest.'" * When, precisely, the first firm of Lockwoods† and Morris ceased to be connected with those Works, has not yet been ascertained, but the Rev. J. Evans, in his "Tours in South Wales," of 1803, mentions "Mr. Morris of Clasemont" as one of the then existing eight Copper Smelting firms in the The Forest Works were bought in 1867, by Mr. H. H. Vivian, M.P., and converted into a Zinc manufactory and so remain to this day.-G. G. F. † Mr. Lockwood raised a Corps of Rifle Volunteers during the French war, which wore a dark green uniform, mounted in silver lace.—D. R、 * Swansea District. In times more within our immediate ken, it is not difficult to remember "Forest" in the hands of Mr Troughton, a gentleman of some chemical and mechanical skill, who, formerly a Lieut. in the Navy, turned his abilities under a patent, to the more ancient and ill-smelted slags, in the crushing, mixing, and remelting of which he found ample occupation, if not profit. The next firm which seated themselves there were Messrs. Usborne, Benson, and Co., which shortly mutated into Benson, Logan,‡ and Co., from whom they passed, under a new lease for 21 years, in March, 1845, to the English Copper Company, but the latter having more Works on hand than proved convenient or profitable, they surrendered their lease up to the Duke of Beaufort, as ground landlord, in 18-, and have, I believe, ever since remained idle To those engaged in Copper Smelting and its details, it would scarcely be possible to supply more interesting matter for comparison than the balance-sheets of the two Works, not merely on account of the particulars which they contain, but as both notice "the Swansea Copper Works," and that in 1768 the Forest Works and Mills accounts were still unclosed, and therefore most probably not at that time completed. As in the previous sheet, so in these following, the names of the partners, with their respective profits, are distinctly set forth. * Lt. N. Troughton died in 1844, and lies buried with his father and mother, on the N. side of Oystermouth churchyard. + The crushing down of the old slags for metalliferous purposes caused them to be left in the state of a fine silicious sand; with it and Aberthaw lime, a valuable Cement was formed and largely used, I well remember, in the Thames Tunnel. I am not aware that it was, however, brought into very general use, for with the failure of the crushing, its supply of sand fell off. Sir W. E. Logan, F.R.S., the eminent geologist in So. Wales and Director of the Government Geological Surveys in Canada.-G. G. F. Gabriel Powell Partners in Copper Mines at Inverniel "DR. FOREST-COPPER WORKS, Swansea. To Copper Works, remaining as per inventory Coppersmiths' warehouse, old account ,, Copper ore remaining, p. 2353t. 17c. 2q., in Cornwall... ,, J. and J. Grey Swansea Copper Works 198 19 4 1344 19 3 511 12 I 1531 15 7 430 Goods in hands of J. Laroche, p. 3t. 11c. 1q. 10lbs. *Rods, and 2t. Oc. 2q. 1lb. Manillas*. David Morgan 617 6 4 82 10 6 ,, Goldney & Co. The Peace' Sloop 59 3 3 430 O ,, Battery Mills Works Account Battered Copper in London p. 8t. 19c. 2q. 19lbs. at £122 1095 17 1189 10 3 32 15 7 4 I 9070 0 3 345 4 4 ,, Consignment to Vaughan & Co., p. 2t. 1c. 3q. 24lbs. *Rods, and 4t. 12c. 0q. 13lbs. Manillas* ,, Joseph Tealing, Account Current Fine Copper in London, p. Bowles 12t. 15c. 3q. 8lbs. ; This was a special production of Ist quality Copper from Sweden, much prized and imitated by English manufacturers; particularly noted in the 1744 drawing of the White-Rock' Wks. as a special Department, and there figured 15. Manillas, in fact, were specially provided for the then Slave Trade of Africa, and consisted of 'Rods' and Manillas,' the former being short pieces of Copper Wire 24 to 30 in. long, while the others were cast in Bronze, not unlike small horse-shoes, weighing 2 or 3 oz. each. They were exported in large quantities and much used on the Coast as money or by way of barter. I |