CD memorandum   14 February 1863

David Thomas Ansted was formerly professor of geology at King’s College, London (DNB). Ansted was co-owner, with Frederick Ransome, of the Patent Siliceous Stone Company, founded in 1848. CD purchased shares and provided several loans for the company, which had a troubled history, having to be reorganised and relaunched several times. The bond to which CD refers was returned to Ansted (see letter from D. T. Ansted, 23 April 1863). According to CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), CD lent Ransome £250 in November 1854 and this loan was transferred to Ansted in April 1855. See also n. 2, below.

The arrangements for cancelling the bond were not finally settled until April (see the letter to D. T. Ansted, 15 April 1863, and the letters from D. T. Ansted, 13 April 1863, 17 April 1863, and 23 April 1863). In CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), an entry concerning Ansted and the Patent Siliceous Stone Company is dated May 1863, and reiterates the settlement recorded in this document: ‘I have cancelled Ansted Bond on understanding that if he can ever sell the shares, he will repay me.’ Ransome’s new company, the Patent Concrete Stone Company, went into production at new premises in East Greenwich in 1867 (Engineering, 28 June 1867, pp. 671–2).