Folios 679-680. Letter from Edward Charles Willis, Pinxton, [Mansfield Poor Law Union],...

Folios 679-680. Letter from Edward Charles Willis, Pinxton, [Mansfield Poor Law Union], to the Poor Law Board, regarding the account of proceedings by the Mansfield board of guardians. Willis maintains that the true state of things have not been given by the guardians; he is as experienced as William Turner and Normanton is not, by several hundreds, the most populous in the district, he is one mile and Turner two miles from it and Willis has 6 clubs there, he is one mile from Pinxton, which is the centre of four fifths of the poor of the district and Turner more than three and a very bad road to it. He visits Blackwell and the entire district three times a week, is surgeon at the collieries, attending on average 330 accidents per year. He asserts that he would get nine tenths of the vote and as for postal arrangements Wilson knows Willis has horses and gig as well as Turner and devotes himself to the district whereas Turner has several to attend to.

Willis alleges that some of the guardians may have conducted the meeting illegally as Wilson had resigned his guardianship so that he could be appointed valuer of the district but re-instated himself and acted as chairman so that he could secure the election of his friend. No guardian was legally chosen for Blackwell yet Mr Betteridge acted as vice chairman and the guardians canvassed one another for Turner; Turner himself had been canvassing for more than 5 months for the appointment.

Willis intends to establish a surgery at either Blackwell or Newton so that the poor will only have about a mile to go for medicine and as he was induced by the Butterley Colliery and Pinxton Colliery companies to give up his practise at Alfreton and reside in Pinxton to enable him to attend the poor promptly when injured he asks the Board to give him the office. With respect to Tibshelf, Mr George Cooper and Mr Siddall, who have the majority of clubs there, have volunteered to help Willis.

Paper Number: 35908/1863.

Poor Law Union Number: 337.

Counties: Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.