| Notes |
- The following was found in a book called 'Swaledale - Its Mines and Smelt Mills' Mike Gill, Landmark Publishing, 2nd Ed 2004, Ashbourne, Derbyshire. ISBN 1-84306-131-7'. I believe the smelter named Ralph Warde is one and the same as this Ralph Warde, born about 1618.
"The site of a second mill is revealed in a sale of land at Orgate to Robert Willance in 1614. It is not clear who built that mill, but for convenience Tyson called it Willance's Mill. When Willance died in 1616, his estates including the mill, passed to his nephew, Brian Willance. The latter's daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, married Doctor John Bathurst in 1635. He worked at the Arkengarthdale Mines, first under the Commonwealth (1649 - 1653) and then under a lease from the Citizens of London from 1654. Ore was carried from shafts, chiefly around Windegg, via Gun Nest to Willance's Mill. Here two smelters, (Ralph Warde and John Taylor) were paid 10s 6d for each fother of lead they produced plus 2d for weighing it… .´´
A John Taylor close to Ralph's age in the area was one John Taylor b. in Forcett, 01 Jan 1620, son of William of Ovington.
Another quote taken from http://sometimes-interesting.com/2015/03/22/orewinners-and-deadmen-lead-mining-in-swaledale/:
"The smelters were the highest paid men in the mining operation as it required considerable experience to be able to produce good quality lead.
The men doing it may not have been aware of the chemical terms for what they were doing, but it was quite sophisticated chemistry that they were performing, first turning the ore into lead oxide, and then adding carbon to remove the oxygen to produce the finished metal. They controlled everything: lighting the furnace, choosing the type and amount of fuel to use, and the casting of the lead pigs at the end of the process."
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Ralph Warde is also mentioned in the book 'A Dales Heritage' by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby, in chapter 2 'Two Seventeenth-Century Lead-Mine Proprietors' describing the entries in the business account books, in 1657, of Dr.John Bathurst, manorial lord, and the owner of Clints mine:
``The accounts are complicated by the borrowing which prevailed. Almost everyone, including the smelters, was in debt. For instance, although the partners at the White Gang had raised 247 ½ loads of ore, they were only paid for 225 ½ . The twenty-two loads deducted cancelled out previous debts, and 'Clear' is now written at the bottom of their column of figures. A further list of individual miners record debts ranging from shillings to £ 2 8s. 8d., and one of the smelters, Ralph Warde, owing £ 3, had paid off part leaving him still owing £ 1 15s... The rate for the smelters was 10s. 6d. For smelting a fother and 2d. a fother for weighing. Between them they received £ 39 16s. 3d. During the year. Ralph Warde also chopped wood and the other smelter, John Taylor, built up 'Orgait house in Clints ground which was burnt' for £ 1 2s. 6d.``
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Other entries re baptising and burial of Ralph's children are, unfortunately, illegible.
Here is another quote from a book that may apply to Ralph's widow:
"The restoration of the monarchy brought in the 'Hearth Tax' - (two shillings on every hearth in order to provide Charles II with some revenue. The only apparent extant record for the area is 1672. It shows that the Widow Warde was exempt."
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He was still alive in 1665 ... "It is known that Marske has suffered in 1665 when stringent measures were enforced to keep George Mason and his family in quarantine for forty days. (NR Yorks Qtr Sessions Records Vol VI). Under the direction of the constable six men maintained a day and night watch at Mason's home because he had "…lately come from the city of London". Some of the watchers were Hutton Harrison, Matthew Smith, Ralph Ward..."He is also mentioned in the Inventory statement on the will of Thomas Horseman Hollings, Marske on the 7th Mar 1664 as owing him 10s 2d. On this document his name is spelled 'Raiph'
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Abt 1618 - Aft 1665 (> 48 years)
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