1 54 Historic Notices of Haughton Castle. 



namely, that the then Prime Minister of England, Mr Pitt, 

 oaused a large amount of this French paper money to be fabri- 

 cated at this paper mill, some remains of which still exist below 

 the castle.* The then owner of Haughton, Mr Smith, carried 

 this scheme into effect through the agency of a son of the 

 foreman of his manufactory, who had at that time an 

 extensive business in London as a wholesale stationer. Knowing 

 that money forms the sinews of war, and acting, we may presume, 

 on the old adage, that "all stratagems are lawful in love and 

 war," Mr Pitt, after the declaration of war with the French 

 Republic, February 11th, 1793, appears to have chosen this 

 paper mill, in a little known and almost inaccessible neighbour- 

 hood, for the manufacture of the French assignats then already 

 largely depreciated, and to have sent them, as far as we can 

 ascertain, with the Duke of York's unsuccessful expedition to 

 Flanders in 1793-94. He did this in order, to some extent at 

 least, to meet the cost of the expedition, but still more perhaps 

 to put them into circulation, so as to increase and intensify 

 the serious financial difficulties of the national enemy. 



It seems hard to believe that such an incident was possible ; and 

 our general histories, and Earl Stanhope, in his " Life of the 

 Bight Honourable AVilliam Pitt," studiously ignore it. The 

 whole subject was discussed in " Notes and Queries," 1858 ; and 

 the correspondence is concluded by the late Sir Walter C. 

 Trevelyan, Bart., of Wallington, who simply asserts the fact as 

 within his cognizance. He says : " The paper for the assignats 

 was manufactured at Haughton Paper Mill (built in 1788), a few 

 miles from Hexham, in a very picturesque part of Northumber- 

 land. The transaction was managed for Mr Pitt by Mr (after- 

 wards Alderman) Magnay, whose family was and is connected 

 with that part of the county. One of the moulds in which the 

 paper was made is still in the possession of the proprietor of the 

 mill, in whose family some of the assignats were also long 

 preserved, but they have now been lost. The assignats were 



* It stands at a distance of about 400 yards north-east from the castle, on 

 the low-lying ground near the river. This paper-mill of four vats, built 

 by Mr Smith in 1788, was carried on by him for many years. It after- 

 wards passed into the hands of the Messrs Annandale, and in 1825 (not 

 long after which it was disused), it was occupied by Messrs Pearson and 

 Co. (MnokensiVs view of Xortlmmberland, 2nd Edit., vol. ii. p. 242). 



