Letters on 17th and 18th Century Welsh life to be digitised.

Three thousand rare letters written in the 17th and 18th centuries in Wales are to be digitised for people to read for generations to come.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-44779127

http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home

An 18th century Asian sword has been found on a Welsh riverbed!

© Provided by Independent Print Limited The sword features a distinctive wavy blade patterning that helped Mr Evans identify its origins (Gavin Evans)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/%E2%80%9818th-century%E2%80%99-asian-sword-discovered-on-welsh-riverbed-by-local-boatman/ar-BBAMWG2?li=BBoPWjQ

The Kris sword has a distinct ornate bird on its handle, which may be made of bone (Photo: Carmarthenshire County Museum)

More information here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mystery-surrounds-asian-sword-found-12981767;

2017 Forum Recruitment Drive for Living History UK.

This poster does rather infer that Living History UK is all about 20th century warfare, but I think you will find that their interests are across the historical board. Well worth checking them out, especially if you are living in the UK.

http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/

Research: Small Bar-Lead For Making Shot and Round Ball.

This research of mine is as usual ongoing, but this is what I have so far on this subject. It is undeniable that small bar lead was available in England and in the colonies. It was used in shot towers, it was for sale and trade. Small bar lead was undoubtedly carried in small quantities by woodsrunners and Indians, but I believe the major use of the ball mould carried in the shot pouch was for remoulding spent lead retrieved from shot game. 

18^th Century Small Bar-Lead For Making Round Ball.

To write down all the processes of producing bar lead from lead ore would take up a lot of room here, so I will keep it brief. The lead ore is mined from the ground, it is sorted from dead rock, and the rock with Galena in it is then crushed using a flat headed hammer called a “Bucker”. This work was carried out by children 10 years of age, and some elderly adults.

A Bucker was used to crush the pure Galena to uniform pea sized chunks. Photograph © 2006 Carol Haynes. http://www.mylearning.org/lead-mining-in-the-yorkshire-dales/p-414/;

The ore being washed. By David Allan

Crushing the rock and sorting. By David Allan.

After the ore was sorted and crushed it went into a furnace, where the lead was melted out and run out of the furnace into lead ingot moulds or pig moulds. These varied in shape and size depending on the individual mine and the country that mine was in.

Large 18th century lead pig.

From here these lead pigs or ingots were taken by pony to a smelter for further refining. Sometimes the made product was silver and the lead was a secondary product. At the smelter the moulten lead was again poured into moulds of a particular size, and again depending on the smelter there were a variety of shapes and sizes.

Lead Processing at Leadhills Smelting by David Allan

Lead Processing at Leadhills Weighing the Lead Bars By David Allan.

Although I can find no information regarding the production of “small bar-lead”, I believe that it was probably made as part of the process at the smelter. The large ingots and pigs were then sold, some going overseas. These large lead pigs were used as ship’s ballast to save on shipping expenses. NOTE: The terms ingot and pig also referred to bars of lead regardless of size
Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland wrecked at Stoura Stack December 1664. Carrying 100 lead pigs. http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hmpa-outskerries.pdf

Small bar-lead was used in the 17^th and 18^th  and 19^th century fur trade, it was also used by the military and on occasion issued to the soldiers.

, 30 bars of lead, 30 pounds of powder, 30 awls, 30 glasses, 30 tobacco boxes, 3 papersof beads, 44 pounds of red lead, 30 pair of hawks' bells, 6 drawing knives, 6 caps,
12 hoes: Do by these presents grant, bargain and sell, &c., all right, title and iinterest, http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/Penn/Penn_family_part_1.html

During the 1744 treaty conference, the British commissioners traded with the Iroquois goods they held to be worth 220 pounds sterling and 15 shillings, including 200 shirts, four duffle blankets, forty-seven guns, one pound of vermillion, 1000 flints, four dozen Jews Harps, 202 bars of lead, two quarters shot, and two half-barrels of gun powder.

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FFchp3.html

Small Bar Lead--@ 18\3 --

http://www.mohicanpress.com/trade_goods.html

Other equipment mentioned was ladles for transferring the smelted lead from the fore-hearth into the one "greate iron moulde" and the 12 "small mouldes".

https://www.rhydymwynvalleyhistory.co.uk/history/history-lead.htm

Bar lead sizes and Images.

 On average, the ingots measure 27.0-28.1cm long and are 1.9-2.1cm wide maximum.

http://www.shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPapers19-FinalX.pdf

Lead pigs 18^th century 25cm long.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057241403000797

On average, the ingots measure 27.0-28.1cm long and are 1.9-2.1cm wide maximum.

19thc. http://odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/products/Lead-Ingot.html;

Lead Pigs 18th century.

Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Pigs of lead.;
17^th century pigs of lead from shipwreck.

http://aww.pt/aww/2007_news_archive.asp?Language=EN;

The Archaeology of Lead Mining. 18^th century mining.

http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2010-6%20-%20The%20Comparative%20Archaeology%20of%20Tin%20and%20Lead.pdf

Lead mining in Cymru/Wales.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/personal-album-128/Mining-for-metals-in-Wales.pdf

Lead sinkers made from bar lead.

http://www.sha.org/CF_webservice/servePDFHTML.cfm?fileName=19-2-05.pdf

PDF: Composite lead & iron round ball.
http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/media/735.pdf

Fort Edward and Roger’s Island sites information.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=MVA05byHmKoC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=french+and+indian+war+lead+pigs+or+ingots&source=bl&ots=-LO71FgY6w&sig=XKMNFiLuTL8uuDMH2ed8_X0QvvI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A9R5UoKQFYPxiAee6ICoDg&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=french%20and%20indian%20war%20lead%20pigs%20or%20ingots&f=false

Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland wrecked at Stoura Stack December 1664. Carrying 100 lead pigs.

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hmpa-outskerries.pdf

Spanish lead pigs were rectangular, and French lead pigs were salmon shaped. English lead pigs had a boat-like structure.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RZna-xKapDIC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=online+american+museum+collections-lead+pigs+or+ingots&source=bl&ots=9ykUEGLIzj&sig=yLf2aqWbG3HQQiVMMfCt7yUU0zA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W2J5UseSMpGaiQeyvYGABg&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=online%20american%20museum%20collections-lead%20pigs%20or%20ingots&am
p;f=false

"pigs of lead to make shot" A Journal Kept byCaptain John Narbrough, &c. John Narbrough.

http://www.rockvillepress.com/tierra/texts/NARBROUGH.HTM

Bar-lead and Galena owned by the author. Image copyright Keith H. Burgess.

Galena or lead ore. Image and copyright: Keith H. Burgess.

Author’s goose shot mould.

Author’s ball mould and copy of an original copper lead ladle.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 12.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 11.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 10.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 9.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 8.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 7.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Episode 6.

Tales From Green Valley Farm Part 4.

Green Valley Farm Part 2.

Genes hold secret of shipwrecked Anglesey bone setter.

An interesting story that starts in the mid 18th century.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-15628885

Huzza for the Cymro! The Last French Invasion of Britain.

A little late nomally for my interest, but I wonder if any of my family were involved in this?! My thanks to Ralphus at Flintlock & Tomahawk for bringing this to my attention: http://flintlockandtomahawk.blogspot.com/2010/08/last-invasion.html