John Plaxton to Francis Foljambe at Aldwark; hardship of poor tenant when goods distrained...

John Plaxton to Francis Foljambe at Aldwark; hardship of poor tenant when goods distrained "... Laurence Hill ... has your receipt for Lady day 1718. That his mother died poor and he and his brother were at the expence of her funeral. That Mr. John Gascoigne distrained on her hay and her muck soon after she died, and never appraised it to this day. That after it was distrained, which is now near four years agoe, it was laid open to the Common, and the Common Cattle have destroyed it, and that the muck which she had laid to rot upon the Common likewise mouldered away, and the value of both these was about £20. He ought to have appraised these things and to have sold them, and returned them the overplus of the money ..."; complaint re impositions incurred by making Derwent navigable etc.