Description:The image above shows a page taken from the Chief Agent’s Cash Book dating from 1778-1785. Thomas Horwood, Earl Gower’s Chief Agent during this period was responsible for keeping this account of payments made by the Estate. The accounts provide an insight into the relationship between Trentham Hall and the wider estate.
The accounts for January 1778 include payments made to local charwomen who did work at the Hall and for hogsheads of cider. The accounts also record donations made to local people. On 12th January 1778 twenty pounds was paid to Edward Hewitt listed as ‘the Consideration Money which your Lordship was pleased to allow him for a Cottage built by him near the New Inn’. Payments are also listed to locksmiths and to local labourers for thrashing oats. On 21st January 1778 fifty pounds was donated to ‘ten poor widows of Stone half a years annuity due Christmas’.
The accounts reveal that the Leveson-Gower family at Trentham Hall played an integral role in the life of tenants and communities on the Trentham estate. Money was donated to local people and to support local communities, such as in March 1783 when fifty pounds was donated to ‘the Poor of Trentham Parish’. Local people were also employed to undertake work at Trentham Hall or on the family’s Estate.