25 Byron Street, Leeds | Sunday
The conclusion of No 13 is ready but not knowing the state of things with you I shall not send it till I hear from you. It is said that 32 men have been discharged in Preston. Here, 2 Surveyors discharged on the spot, 1 of 4 years the other 12 years standing. 3 reduced from being surveyors, to chainmen. 1 Surveyor reduced from 5/. to 3/6 – 1 do from 4/6 to 3/6 – 1 surveyor of 9 years, to be discharged on the end of the month. All chainmen reduced from 1/11 down to 1/6.
At Huddersfield 13, have been either reduced or discharged, perhaps partly both, the news of that is uncertain. None of the draftsmen have been touched, perhaps they will not, till Leeds is finished. Captain Tucker is reported to have said, that the detail survey was eating up all the funds, and leaving nothing for contouring4 or engraving, that the grant for the S.5 this year is less than last year by £29,000, that a great many will be discharged,6 and among the very first shall be those who left the Ordnance Survey and went to the Tithe7 – So, if this will be carried out, your humble servant must tramp in 2 months.8
None have been reduced or discharged in the office at York, up to the present time. The letter of Y9 shall be returned – Will you give the enclosed note to Mr Higgins10 should he not be discharged, if he has gone, then throw it in the fire.
Tis strange, none have been discharged solely on account of the general reduction, but some fault either past or present is brought to bear on their case!11
Write soon | Yours truly | B.12
RI MS JT 1/11/3780
Dr.: Dear.
X: the pseudonym Tyndall used to avoid detection.
No 1: the ‘Preface to The Ordnance Survey of Ireland’ enclosed in letter 0195.
contouring: see letter 0195, n. 49.
S.: Survey.
a great many will be discharged: see letter 0194, n. 15.
went to the Tithe: The higher pay received by civil assistants employed on the Tithe Survey by private contractors had prompted many surveyors trained on the Irish Ordnance Survey to resign and take jobs on the Tithe Survey during the so-called ‘tithe survey mania’ of the late 1830s (T. W. J. Connolly, The History of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, 2 vols (London: Longman, Brown, 1855), vol. 1, p. 321).
if this will be carried out, your humble servant must tramp in 2 months: McLachlan had resigned his position as a civil assistant in the A District of the Irish Survey in April 1838, before subsequently rejoining in February 1841 (NAI OS/1/15–18). It seems probable that during this period he was employed on the Tithe Survey in England.
The letter of Y: Y is William Ginty; see letters 0201 and 0226.
Mr Higgins: probably Martin Higgins, a civil assistant who had worked in the 1st Division, C District of the Irish Survey. He seems to have been transferred to the English Survey in autumn 1841 (NAI OS/1/17–18).
none have been discharged …bear on their case!: In the District Order issued on 9 May 1843 Captain Henry Tucker declared ‘I have received orders to make a large reduction by discharging the least efficient hands’. He demanded information of work rates from Division Officers, and urged: ‘officers are requested to be very particular in stating the efficiency and character of each man’ (RI MS JT 8/1/4b).
B: the pseudonym McLachlan used to avoid detection.
Please cite as “Tyndall0221,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0221