Introduction

It is not that uncommon to find surviving Indenture documents, but it was very special to come across one, dating from 1812, which referred to two individuals, later closely involved in the creation of the Aire and Calder Navigation Company’s (A&CNC) Knottingley to Goole Canal and the port and town of Goole. The Indenture found was the legal contract between experienced master land surveyor George Leather of Bradford, Yorkshire and his new apprentice land surveyor,  fifteen year old Thomas Hamond Bartholomew. also of Bradford. 

George Leather

In 1818, the A&CNC, published their outline plans for the Knottingley to Goole Canal based on work done by celebrated canal engineer John Rennie. The following year they felt they were ready to prepare a Bill to put before Parliament in London but for that they needed a detailed survey of the proposed route. That job was given to 33 year old civil engineer, George Leather. One can imagine that he was assisted in this work by his young protege, twenty two year old Thomas Hamond Bartholomew who had completed his apprenticeship just over a year earlier but still had much to learn.

The Bill proceeded through the Committee stages, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, finally being granted Royal Assent by King George IV, becoming an Act, so law, on 30 June, 1820. Following a widely advertised invitation to tender, on 21 June, 1821 the award of the contract for the first part of the new canal near Knottingley went to contractors Joliffe and Banks of London. They had previously worked under John Rennie on the Lancaster and Ulverston canals. Sadly, John Rennie passed away after a short illness in October that year, resulting in the appointment of George Leather as “engineer in charge” to see the project to fruition. Thus George Leather was going to be heavily involved in designing and creating the port and town of Goole which opened for business five years later.

Thomas Hamond Bartholomew

 This soon to be apprentice was the son of Methodist Connexion Minister, Thomas Bartholomew of Bradford, who also features on the Indenture. It was his father who would be paying for his son’s apprenticeship and was also obliged to “provide for his said son Thomas Hamond Bartholomew sufficient and enough of all sorts of Wearing Apparel and keep the same in repair and also pay for the washing of the same”.

Thomas Hamond Bartholomew was born on 27th December, 1796 at Nottingham.  

 On the recommendation of George Leather, Thomas was appointed to the role of engineer for the Aire and Calder Navigation Company. His son William Hamond Bartholomew was born in 1831 and upon Thomas’s early death in 1852, the twenty one year old replaced is father as engineer to the A&CNC. 

 Source of the Photograph

This photograph of the Indenture and an accompanying receipt was taken at the now defunct Yorkshire Waterways Museum by museum volunteer David Scrimgeour in 2018. There is no surviving record of how the Indenture had become part of the Museum’s collection. 

The Indenture caught David’s eye among a collection of other documents because of the bright red wax seals. Sadly, following the YWM going into administration in 2019, the actual Indenture disappeared along with a large portion of the collection which was not moved to the East Riding Archives in Beverley. 

Many thanks are due to Pippa Stainton of Goole for tidying up David’s image for presentation on this site. This photograph is the only known surviving example  although others may exist.