Newport Past
The Letter Book of William Witham
Newport Solicitor
1813 - 1814
This section of the website is still under construction. We’ve chosen to make it live as we build it in the hope that readers may be able to help fill in the gaps or correct any errors.
Have you ever considered how challenging it was to run a business before the age of computers, typewriters, and photocopiers?
Every outgoing letter had to be copied by hand into a letter book — the only practical way to keep records at the time.
A few years ago, I came into possession of the original handwritten letter book of Newport Solicitor William Witham, covering 1813–1814. More recently, Dave Woolven generously undertook the task of transcribing its contents. He described the book in these terms:
"This Letter Book contains William Witham’s rough (very rough) notes on letters that he (or some poor clerk) intends to write in a readable hand. There are many strikings-out but he writes the 'corrections' through the striking-out. In some cases he crams in two lines of 'corrections' where one line will not go – thus making a totally unreadable mess. He strikes out but where he 'continues' the text doesn’t join up with what was before the striking-out. Many words I could only decipher by the context of the adjoining words. It may be that he puts the addressee at the foot of the letter."
Despite these challenges, Dave took on the transcription — all 270 pages of it — working at the steady pace of two pages a night. The result is remarkable: what once seemed an “unreadable mess” has become a window into real lives and events of the early 19th century.
Within these pages we glimpse the sale of the Henley Brewery; the financial fall of William Powell Lorymer of Perthir; dealings with the notorious Thomas Prothero; the issue of numerous threats of arrest for unpaid debts; and William Witham’s spirited response to the Diocese of Llandaff, which accused him of libel and of failing to pay his 'Easter offerings' — a tithe of tenpence owed to the vicar of St Woolos.
If you enjoy a challenge, you might like to try filling in some of the words that even Dave could not decipher. If so, please get in touch via the link at the foot of this page.