Records of Halbeath Colliery and Saltworks, Halbeath, Fife, Scotland

• Minute letter and account books 1785-1792
• Letterbook 1787-1792
• Bill book 1798-1806
• Miscellaneous correspondence, legal and financial records 1792-1803

The Halbeath Colliery was located in Fife, Scotland, four miles north of the Firth of Forth, with a single line railway, put down in c1781  by Cornelius Lloyd, jnr, and Sampson Coysgame Lloyd, linking it to Inverkeithing, Fife. The Lloyds were merchants of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who in the 1770s  acquired or had tacks to all the coal-bearing lands of the estate of Halbeath and 1780s  . In 1785  they sold Halbeath Colliery and Saltworks to John Morrison of Whitehouse, John Campbell, a writer to His Majesty's Signet in Scotland, and Richard Fishwick, white lead maker of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, for £1,800. Articles of co-partnership were then drawn up between these three men, who traded as Campbell, Morrison & Co . Later John Boyes, a merchant from Kingston upon Hull, England, joined the partnership. During 1787  and 1788  difficulties were experienced with flooding and an expensive new pumping engine was installed. As the other partners could not afford it, John Campbell provided most of the capital for these improvements and this led to increasing disagreements between him and the Morrisons (John Morrison's son had been appointed colliery manager). Eventually, in around 1789  , the Morrisons sold out and the firm became known as John Campbell & Co , a title it retained until the 1820s  .

Payne, Peter L, 'The Halbeath Colliery and Saltworks, 1785-1791', Aldcroft, Derek H and Slaven, A (eds.),Business, Banking and Urban History: Essays in honour of S G Checkland ( Edinburgh , John Donald Publishers Ltd  , 1982  )

The arrangement of this material reflects the original order in which it was received

Open

Permanent Loan : Thomson, Dickson & Shaw and J A Campbell & Lamond, solicitors, Edinburgh : prior to 1966

Digital file level list available in searchroom

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Records deposited with Economic History Department, Glasgow University, prior to 1966. Management of the collection transferred to Glasgow University Archives in 1975.

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Material in other repositories: no material associated by provenance

Payne, Peter L, 'The Halbeath Colliery and Saltworks, 1785-1791'Aldcroft, Derek H and Slaven, A (eds.),Business, Banking and Urban History: Essays in honour of S G Checkland ( Edinburgh , John Donald Publishers Ltd  , 1982  )

This material is original

Revised by David Powell, Hub Project Archivist, 15 May 2002