Description:The letter above was written by George Flemming at Trentham to the third Duke of Sutherland on the 13th December 1861. Flemming tells the Duke about sums of money which the second Duke of Sutherland had set aside to provide for ‘neighbouring towns’ in North Staffordshire in ‘times of distress’.
George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke, had donated money for distribution among the poor in Longton, Hanley, Burslem, Stoke and Newcastle. These towns were given between twenty and thirty pounds each year.
Flemming writes ‘I believe the distress at this time in Hanley, Burslem and Tunstall to be unprecedented’. However, he adds that in Longton, Newcastle and Stoke ‘the people are pretty well off’.
Flemming’s letter tells us about the lives of people living in these North Staffordshire communities in the middle of the nineteenth century. He writes that the Winter months January and February were ‘the most trying months to the very poor’, owing to the weather.
Flemming advises the Duke to give money to each town separately ‘as they apply’, but suggests donating one sum to the Hanley Committee for immediate distribution.
The letter provides an insight into the relationship between the Leveson-Gower family at Trentham Hall and their North Staffordshire estate during this period.