I’m writing a book that includes a chapter on a man called Michael McCarthy Kean (1800-1873). He was the son of an Irish artist called Michael Kean and Elizabeth née Edwards, the widow of William Duesbury II. Duesbury II was the son of William Duesbury I, the founder of the firm that became Royal Crown Derby. Duesbury II’s eldest son (also William and therefore called Duesbury III) set up the paintworks in Via Gellia in 1816.
Michael Kean senior ran the Derby pottery from 1796-1811. Michael Kean junior joined the Royal Navy in 1814. When he left in about 1818 he moved to Bonsall. It seems very likely that he worked for his half-brother, Duesbury III, at his paintworks. Why else would he move 20 miles north from his hometown of Derby to Bonsall? In 1824 Kean junior married Grace Henstock, youngest daughter of Thomas Henstock (1755-1826). The Henstock’s lived at Slaley Hall half a mile north of Via Gellia. Lead, of course, was an essential constituent of the sort of paint that Duesbury III was producing.
It seems likely that the Henstock mine in Via Gellia was owned by Thomas, that it was the source of the lead that Duesbury III used in his paint and that it was through that connection that Kean junior met Grace Henstock.
My question is: was the Thomas Henstock who lived at Slaley Hall the owner of the Henstock lead mine in Via Gellia? Any help would be appreciated.

I wrote an article back in the 1970s about mines in the Via
Gellia, including Henstock's Level. I will have a look at the barmaster's entries about this and get back to you in due course. Henstock was quite a common name locally and it may not be clear which member of the family owned it.

Thanks. The Slaley Hall Henstocks are probably the closest to the mine in Via Gellia. It would neatly explain how Kean met Grace Henstock.
The marriage didn't last long. Grace left Michael. Michael's subsequent life was quite interesting. If you email me I'll send you the chapter when it's complete. Just one strange part of it was that, having married a Grace who was a daughter of a Grace, a year after she died, he married another Grace who was the daughter of a Grace. The second marriage lasted until Michael's death.
Regards, Robert Cutts

Sorry for the delay – I use the local library for internet access but all my data is at home, not the most convenient arrangement.


Henstock’s Sough in Middleton-by-Wirksworth Liberty was a very unimportant level. The gift on page 31 of Book 53 for Middleton-by-Wirksworth Liberty is dated 4 August 1809, being to Thomas Bateman. It was of an old title in Middleton Wood called Cityfolds that had previously belonged to ---- Thompson. It included a vein running through “the late Mr Edward Henstock’s Sough tail”.
There were only a few Henstocks in Middleton-by-Wirksworth (see the transcript of Wirksworth Parish Registers on the Wirksworth website of John Palmer) and no Edward who therefore may well have resided in Bonsall.

I can find no reference to Michael Kean in the various barmaster’s books and my newspaper indexes. It seems unlikely that he was involved in lead mining to any real extent.

The 1841 Bonsall census on John Palmer’s website mentions:
---Slaley---[Bonsall]----------
Bn174a Elizabeth HENSTOCK 50 f Y Farmer
Bn174b Mary HENSTOCK 45 f Y
Bn174c Grace KEAN 42 f Y
Bn174d Elizabeth KEAN 16 f Y

And 1851:
#014---Slaley Hall---[Bonsall]---
Bn014a Elizabeth HENSTOCK Head U 62 F Farmer 6 acres Bonsall Of land
Bn014b Mary HENSTOCK Sister U 56 F Employed at home Bonsall
Bn014c Grace KEAN Sister M 53 F Gentlewom annuitant Bonsall
Bn014d Thomas HENSTOCK Visitor M 70 M Retired currier Bonsall

In the Bonsall barmaster’s books, there are mentions of about eleven members of the Henstock family. The Thomas Henstock of Slaley Hall does seem to have dabbled in lead mining at Bonsall. There were so many Henstock families in Bonsall Parish that it is difficult to be certain whether all mentions of Thomas would refer to him.

There were about 500 or more recorded mine names (including several named after the Henstock family) in each liberty in this area.

Hope this is of some assistance.

No need to apologise. I thought your response was pretty quick.
I should have told you more about Michael Kean. It’s quite complicated. William Duesbury I founded the firm that eventually became Royal Crown Derby in the 1750s. His son William Duesbury II married Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of a Derby solicitor. When Duesbury I died in 1786, Duesbury II took over the firm. In 1795 he recruited Michael Kean I, a Dublin-born artist, to help him. They became partners in the pottery. Duesbury II died of a mysterious illness in 1796 and Kean I married his widow, Elizabeth, in 1798. Michael McCarthy Kean (Kean II), born 1800, was the 1st of their two children. He joined the Royal Navy in 1814 but returned to Derbyshire in about 1818 and moved to Bonsall where he either owned or rented a house. Meanwhile Duesbury II’s eldest son William (Duesbury III), rather than take over the pottery, set up a colour-making enterprise in Via Gellia. I think it must be the one near Slaley at map reference 278573. I strongly suspect that Kean II worked at his half-brother’s firm. The Edward Henstock you mention is probably Thomas Henstock’s father. At least Stuart Flint says so in the March 2011 issue of Mutterings at www.bonsallvillage.org.uk/Images/Documents/3952-Mutterings%2091.pdf . Stuart says that Edward lived at Slaley Hall and we know that Thomas lived there. It seems that there were Henstocks in Slaley Hall from about 1750 to at least 1900.
http://calmview.derbyshire.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog  . I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth ordering any of the copies. Then might just possibly be proof that Kean II worked there.
Grace left Kean II in 1828 as indicated by this notice in a Derby Mercury of 11/03/1828:
“Whereas my Wife GRACE KEAN, has lately left my house and protection without any just cause for so doing. I therefore discharge all persons from trusting, or giving their credit on my account from this day, and further give Notice, that I will not from henceforth be accountable for any debt which she may contract. M. M. KEAN, Bonsall, 11th March, 1828.”
Grace had almost certainly gone back home although her father, Thomas, had died by then. As the censuses you mention indicate, she was at Slaley Hall with her sister Elizabeth in 1841 and 1851.
I’m pretty sure that Kean II subsequently became Philip Gell’s estate manager at Hopton. I have two Derby Mercury extracts which suggest it but, if you can prove that I would be most grateful. In 1837 he went to sea again this time as a captain in the merchant navy. For a short period (it happened to coincide with the 1841 census) he was living with his half-sister Ann Elizabeth Jessopp née Duesbury in Wardwick House in Derby (the relevant entries are split over two consecutive census returns). Half of the house is still there. It’s now called The Haus (you can see it at www.flickr.com/photos/elesicon/192924507/ ). Later Kean captained two ships in succession both of which were the largest in the world at the time he commanded them. You can read about that at www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol15/tnm_15_3_53-71.pdf . Later still he became a coal agent in Ayr where, a year after his 1st wife died, he married another Grace – Grace Baird. Incredibly the mothers of both the Graces were also called Grace!
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101601033  shows several shafts just south of the paintworks and two or three in Slaley itself. Also shown, south of the paintworks, are Joseph’s Dream Mine and Bowlpit Mine. Your website mentions Bowlpit, but not Joseph’s Dream Mine.
All this research is in connection with the book I’m writing about William Schaw Lindsay. You can read about him at www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol20/tnm_20_283-311.pdf . That’s the most detailed biography he’s got so far. Coincidentally, however, I’m a great-grandson of Thomas Roberts (1801-1866) a Winster deputy barmaster.
Regards, Robert

Given the small size of the Henstock's Mine in the Via Gellia I doubt that its output would have been sufficient to have supplied a paint works operation of any appreciable size. The paint works in the Via Gellia shown on the 1884 OS map at grid ref approximately 278573 was in fact a lead smelter until the late 1870s and could not therefore have been William Duesbury III's works which were operating in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Hope that these comments are helpful.

The following advert appeared in the Derby Mercury on 6 June 1827:

"VIA GELLIA AND BONSALL COLOUR WORKS,
In the County of Derby.
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION,
By Mr. EYRE,
(FREE FROM AUCTION DUTY,)
By order of the Assignee; of Messrs. Chawner and Duesbury.
At the Colour Works,. Via Gellia and Bonsa11, on Saturday
9th of June, 1827, sale to commence at 10 o'clock.
AT this Sale will be offered a Variety of COLOURS, viz. Mineral and Spruce Ochres, Devonshire Browns, Chocolate, English Umber, Unbleached Barytes, two Hogsheads of Lamp Black, two Hogsheads of Logwood, Casks of Quincitron Bark, Lamp Black, Charcoal, Cast Iron Wheels, Upright Rollers, Levigating Pans, &c. Also a capital Draught Horse, Cart, Gearing, &c. &c.
Catalogues will be ready five days prior to the Sale, and may be had on the premises, and of the Auctioneer, Full Street, Derby.
At the same time will be offered for sale, the unexpired Lease of three years and a half, in the Cromford Colour Works, and thirteen year, and a half in the Via Gellia Works. – Full particulars may be known at the Office of Messrs. BALGUY, PORTER, and BARBER, Solicitors, Derby; or of Mr. EYRE. Auctioneer."

It seems like the colour-making works was somewhere in Via Gellia but, as can be seen at least the stock was sold in 1827, a year after the firm folded. Could not the works have become a lead smelter at that time? I'm sure that the colour-making works got some of their lead from Henstock, they got some from Philip Gell as well. I think he was the landlord of the works.

Yes, Gell was the owner of the Via Gellia smelt mill, built by him around 1810, at least until the 1830s. I do have a copy of the 1827 auction notice and I have tended to think that it referred to the Bonsal Dale cupolas rather than the Via Gellia smelter. There is an earlier notice in the Derbyshire Mercury for 15th August 1816 which gives a good description of the mill “… a large Cupola with a newly-built Smelting Furnace, Calcining Furnace, Slag Hearth with Slag Mill and Blowing Cylinder worked by a powerful Water Wheel, a Furnace for making Litharge in complete repair."

For more detail on the Bonsall Dale mills see Lynn Willies' paper in Vol 4 Part 1 of the Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society (1969). I can send you a copy of the relevant part if you have difficulty in finding a copy.

Thank you. You've been most helpful.
Perhaps I should visit the area again. It's been a while since my last visit to Winster – and I've never been to Bonsall let alone Via Gellia.

Me again.
If you go to www.francisfrith.com/locations/bonsall/maps you'll see what they say is an 1840 map of Bonsall. Of course it's deliberately blurred, but if you look hard at the works in Via Gellia it's not hard to convince yourself that it says "Paint Works". Francis Frith are pain in the neck. If I could download the map for a reasonable price I'd do so, but I don't think you can and if you want buy it, its in a fancy framed edition for £59!

Thanks for the Frith link. It is impossible to see anything clearly, as you say. There is some wording that could be "paint works" but it is on the opposite side of the road to the smelter. There was a paper mill situated there and so it could equally well say "paper mill"! I would be very dubious about the Frith claim that the map represents the area in the 1840s. I may be wrong but I don't think that the OS did any surveying in enough detail in that part if Derbyshire to produce such a map that early. I have a photographic copy of the part of the 1843 Tithe Apportionment map for that area of the Via Gellia and the footprint of the buildings at that time does not seem to match the Frith map, although it is hard to be definite given the poor quality of the latter.

Good look with your research - I would be very interested in the details should you turn up anything definite on the early use of the Via Gellia smelter as a paint works.

The Frith reproduction is of the 1st ed County Series 6 inch map surveyed in this area 1877-79 and published 1884: see the National Library of Scotland maps webpages for ultra-sharp digital scans with free access. Because the OS 6 inch began in the 1840s, Frith seem to have misleadingly assigned the date of 'around 1840' to the entire series.

The label just north of Hillside House says "Via Gellia Mill (Paint)", and the label opposite the Via Gellia Inn says "Paint Mill"; just east of this is the label "Via Gellia Mill (Cotton)"; east of that is the label "Dunsley Mill (Paper)". At Bonsall Wood there is another label "Paint Works". Sorting out this group of paint works looks challenging!

The OS around the 1830s/40s and earlier made 2 inch to a mile field sketches for the Old Series 1 inch to a mile maps:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw  has reasonable (though not completely sharp) reproductions of the 2 inch field sketches. A peruse of these might also be useful?

The 1898 25" shows a paint and colour works at the site of the old smelter, plus the flue extending up the hillside, and another paint works opposite the former Pig o' Lead pub. It doesn't name the mine immediately above the old smelter, which is properly named Jacob's Dream, not Joseph's, so I wonder if an OS surveyor made a mistake when drawing up the 6"?

🔗Personal-Album-431-Image-96358[linkphoto]Personal-Album-431-Image-96358[/linkphoto][/link]

The paint works could have been utilising a number of pigment sources, as well as red and white lead they could have been using barytes to produce white paint or various iron or manganese minerals to produce a range of reds, yellows and browns. It's known that iron minerals and iron-stained limestone were being worked for pigments at the other end of the A5012 around Newhaven, so they were possibly being carted down?

---

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101601033  and convinced myself that it's identical. So you're probably right – Frith are guilty of misrepresentation in suggesting that their map dates from 1840. You also right about the Mill (Paint) just north of Hillside House. That could well have been the Duesbury-colour making works.
It doesn't look as if the British Library Ordnance Survey drawings have put a relevant map on-line yet, but I've submitted a question about the name of the buildings to them.
There's something about the Paint Works that are in Via Gellia at www.wirksworth.org.uk/X366.HTM but the date is about 80 years later than a period I'm interested in.
http://biblio.co.uk/book/burdetts-map-derbyshire-1791/d/716574271 .

Burdetts does show a water mill at the bottom of Bonsall Dale.

---

Sounds like you've alread got Burdett's.

lok on the www.peakdistrictmines.co.uk

The link didn't work for me.
Have a look at
http://genforum.genealogy.com/wigley/messages/535.html  where it says that Edward Henstock, Mary's father, "owned lead mines over Bonsall Moor and out towards Brightgates". He was, of course, Thomas Henstock's father too.

my name is josephine copley, my father was thomas henstock and so was his father my fathers wife was called grace and not sure but believe his fathers wife was called grace too, they came from derbyshire and was wondering if there was any conection

ive just done a reply if there is any connection my email is [email protected]