This is a very small, half-sheet of paper with just the papermaker’s name STOWFORD MILL, with no year of manufacture.
The three postmarks are the Old Brompton 1d PAID name stamp which was applied at the Twopenny post but the catalogue shows this type was in use in 1847, and this letter is clearly 1843.
Then the London General Post tombstone date stamp was the type in use in 1843 from January to December sans serif ID letters A to G morning duty, the date both sides of the month for 8 JY 8 1843 and finally an incomplete receiving stamp for DERBY JY 9 1843.
The letter is very legible and I find it interesting. It begins with reference to a Show at Derby, which sounds as if it is a big local occasion.
My dear son
As there are no instructions here that I am aware of relative to Ivemy & Fagge going to Derby I am afraid that the great bustle of the present time at Derby has led you to have forgotten that part of the arrangement.
I have directed Ivemy to transmit to you a letter received this morning from Abbott regarding Carrot Seed he wants – hope you both are well in health – here we are much as we were when I last written.
We join in love to you both
I have learnt this morning that Mr and Mrs Bergne will not be able to be at Derby at the times of the Show as important business at the For. Office will prevent him.
Your loving Father
Thos. Gibbs
Old Brompton
Saturd: July 8th 1843
He then adds a post script confirming what he has already written.
P.S. Your Mother has just told me Mr and Mrs Bergne will not be able to be at Derby next Week.
The queries this letter raised for me were :-
When was the Derby Show in 1843 and what type of Show was it?
An internet search revealed that it was the Royal Agricultural Show, but I could find no date available. However, from the comments in the letter, it had to have been later than the 8th July 1843.
Who was John Collison of Litchurch Farm near Derby?
I can find no information or record of this man or his farm.
Humphrey Gibbs, at the farm near Derby in 1843?
I could find no direct record of him, but in another item on the internet I found a reference in a letter written to his father, Thomas Gibbs,Seeds Merchant of Half-moon street London,which mentioned his son Humphrey. This firm was very well known, and I found an image of the seal used for his business.
He had a younger brother Thomas Brandreth Gibbs who became very famous, and there is much information about him.
Mr Bergne Foreign Office London 1843?
No record of the individuals, only the office itself.
The Foreign Office was created in 1782 and became the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1968. It was the government department responsible for the conduct of British relations with nearly all foreign states between those dates (British colonies and dominions were dealt with by separate departments).
This information was from Wikipedia but there was no citation but this was on the National Archives website.
The paper maker STOWFORD MILL,
an internet search now using Artificial intelligence produced this information
History:
The mill was originally a corn mill, converted to a paper mill by William Dunsterville in the late 18th century.
It was later owned by Portals, and then Arjo Wiggins, who transferred operations to Stoneywood Mill in Aberdeen in 2014.
The mill was Grade II listed.
At one time Stowford Mill employed three hundred people and until the 1920s produced all the paper for postage stamps and after that for the old white five-pound notes.
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