78 THE DIARY OF EDWARD BAGSHAW. 



originally ;£ioo, were actually dealt in for a day or two at 

 ;£ 1,000. Rumours, as to further monoplies secured from Spain, 

 etc., etc., exercised the most startling changes in the value of the 

 stock, leaping, on one occasion, within a few hours, from ^820 

 to ,£860, and then down to ^600. Aislabie, the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, and several prominent Members of Parliament, 

 were found to have been bribed to secure Government support, 

 and were expelled the House, and even royalty itself was 

 tarnished with more than a suspicion of complicity with these 

 wholesale plunderers. Every class of society, from Dukes to 

 petty tradesmen, and from Bishops down to parish beadles were 

 carried away by this delusion of a short road to fortune. We 

 know of no other excuse to give for Edward Bagshaw's 

 squandering of his capital, than this general foolishness of the 

 times ; and the same excuse must be made for his participation in 

 the State Lotteries, which were, from 1693 to 1826, a regular 

 source of income to the government. 



In August, 1723, as has been already stated, Mr. Bagshaw was 

 instituted to the vicarage of Castleton. The rectory of Castleton, 

 and the advowson of the vicarage, used to be in the hands of the 

 Abbey of Vale Royal, co. Chester. After the dissolution of the 

 monasteries, the impropriate tithes and the vicarage were trans- 

 ferred by Henry VIII. to the Bishopric of Chester. By recent 

 legislation the advowson has been transferred to the Bishop of 

 Lichfield, and the rectorial rights are in the hands of the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Parliamentary Survey of 

 livings, taken in 1650, valued the vicarage at ^40. But its value 

 greatly fluctuated according to the success or otherwise of the lead 

 mining within the limits of the parish. The tithes of lead were 

 not only very variable from the fluctuating success of the mines, 

 but they also differed in almost every parish in the county. They 

 differed in Wirksworth, Eyam, Matlock, Bonsall, and Castleton, 

 each parish being regulated both in the amount of tithe and the 

 person to whom it was due, according to old established custom. The 

 tithing of lead in Derbyshire led to innumerable costly law-suits, 

 and repeated, but futile, efforts were made in the 16th, 17th, and 



