Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Co Ltd, 1874

This is rather hard to read! (The triple dots mark the point where I have given up for the moment.)  But I can't think that much can have survived from this company, which was wound up a couple of years later, so I think it is worth posting here.  Here is my (partial) transcription:

Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Company Ltd

7 Sept 1874 

to JR Stubbs Esq Middlesbro 

Dear Sir
At a meeting of the Directors of the above company the following minute was entered
"That Mr Stubbs & Mr Macfarlane draw up a report to present to shareholders, and that the report be embodied under the following heading" viz.
"That proper machinery in first instance having been obtained, consequently the house to be taken down and suitable machinery erected in its place, thereby entailing extra cost - The dullness arising from recent strike, and the great difficulty in obtaining lathes, saws &c owing to the disturbed state of the trade [...] and the want of system in keeping the accounts and separating them under their proper headings"
"The Books have now been remodelled and all the proper machinery processed and the Directors hope to be able to write off this loss by next year"
I may add that the meeting of shareholders was fixed for Saturday September 19th at Boosbeck at 3 pm.  You will however receive due notice of this shortly.  The above resolution was proposed by Mr Walker & seconded by Mr Anderson
I am yours faithfully [...]

John Richard Stubbs was Official Receiver in Bankruptcy.

Joseph Beresford Shields 1879-1918

I don't know how these papers came to survive in a Deed Box from Meek, Stubbs & Barnley, solicitors, Middlesbrough.

A small envelope contains a letter from Joe Shields to his mother, his birth certificate and a letter from his mother to Mrs (or Miss) Wilson, his friend.  Joe's letter is dated 17 August 1916 and is sent from B Company, 9th Bedfordshire Regiment, stationed at Sittingbourne, and it's about the food he is looking forward to enjoying on a short leave:

His mother was Emily Julia Shields, née Mullen, and Joe was born in Stockton:

In July 1918 Mrs Shields wrote to a Mrs (or Miss, the title is altered in pencil) Wilson at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.  The letter was forwarded to the Victoria Naval Hospital, Southend:

Joe has been reported missing, although his mother is still hoping for good news.  Her letter shows no address but one has been written in pencil on the reverse:

Sadly, there was to be no good news.  Joseph was killed in action on 24 May 1918; his grave is at Pozieres Memorial Cemetery.

It seems likely that the Mrs or Miss Wilson to whom Mrs Shields wrote this touching letter is the Miss Elizabeth Ann Wilson named as an executor of his Will.  She kept the boarding house in which he lived in Leigh-on-Sea.

His last address as a civilian (and the address given in the National Probate Calendar) was 19 Southend Southsea Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea.  He was living there at the time of the 1911 Census, which shows that the boardinghouse keeper was Mrs Elizabeth Ann Wilson, aged 46 and born in Boosbeck, Cleveland, and that Joseph was then 31 years old, unmarried and a draughtsman at the Marine Engine Works.

So it seems probable that Mrs Shields is addressing this Elizabeth Ann Wilson when she writes

I always felt my Dear Son had a good friend in you which I can assure you has taken a load off my mind.  I shall always count you as one of my dearest friends always write to me dear it will be such a consolation to me 

If there are any members of Joe's family out there who would like this letter, do please contact me ...