Amongst the Wigton Overseers’ vouchers many are signed by Isaac Lightfoot. One, dated 7 May 1771, was an acknowledgement from Daniel Steel overseer for Wigton Quarter that he has received the remaining cash from Isaac Lightfoot late overseer of Wigton parish.

On 24 March 1789 the London Gazette announced that a commission of bankruptcy had been brought against Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton. Described as a money-scrivener, dealer and chapman, and a prisoner in Carlisle Gaol, he was required to surrender himself to the Commissioners at the Guildhall, London, on 4 and 11 April at 10 o’clock in the morning and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon on 9 May. On these occasions he was to make a full disclosure of his estate and effects. His creditors were also to come to the ‘guildhall to prove their debts’. At the second meeting the creditors were to appoint the assignees (those responsible for gathering in as much of Lightfoot’s estate as they could). At the third meeting Lightfoot was required to finish his examination whereupon the creditors would be required to assent or dissent from the allowance of his certificate. (Granting a bankrupt a certificate would allow him to continue trading in the hope that it would result in the creditors being repaid more of what they were owed). All persons indebted to Lightfoot, or any who were in possession of his effects, were not to pay or deliver them to Lightfoot but to those persons appointed by the Commissioners appoint and to inform Mr Mounsey of Castle-street, Holborn, London.

On 11 April 1789 the Gazette announced that the commissioners were to meet on 21 April following an adjournment on 11.

On 8 September 1789 the Gazette desired that the creditors who had proved their debts should meet Lightfoot’s assignees on 25 September at 3 o’clock at Mr Carlisle’s, at the Half Moon inn, Wigton, in order to assent to or dissent from the assignees commencing, prosecuting or defending any law suits relating to Lightfoot’s estate or effects, including submitting to arbitration, or any other matter relating to the bankruptcy.

More than a year later, in October 1790 Lightfoot was still in Carlisle gaol. The bankruptcy commissioners called a meeting for 16 November to be held once again at the Guildhall, London, (following an adjournment on 27 July 1789) to make a dividend to Lightfoot’s creditors. Any creditors who had not yet come forward to prove their debts were requested to do so, or they would be excluded the benefit of the dividend. All claims not then proved would be disallowed.

The Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser announced that those creditors who had proved their debts under the commission of bankruptcy against Lightfoot should attend the assignees at the Half Moon on Tuesday 7 December 1790 at one o’clock to receive the second dividend from the bankrupt’s estate and to consult on some special matters which would be laid before them. A final dividend was made in November 1791.

In April 1793, more than four years after Lightfoot had been declared bankrupt, the commissioners certified to the Right Hon. Alexander, Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, that Isaac Lightfoot ‘hath in all Things conformed himself according to the Directions of the several Acts of Parliament made concerning Bankrupts’. They gave notice that Lightfoot would be granted his Certificate of Discharge on or before the 25 May. From that time onwards he would be free of his bankruptcy.

It is perfectly possible that Lightfoot’s bankruptcy had been occasioned by his activities as a money scrivener, a person who Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined as ‘a person who raises money for others’, and who also invests money on behalf of others in return for a payment of interest. Indeed, the survival of a small number of documents relating to Dubmill Mills shows that Lightfoot was owed money.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/2/46, 7 May 1771 Acknowledgement from Daniel Steel overseer for Wigton Quarter

Cumbria Archives, PR 122/439, Copy of documents relating to Dubmill Mills, (Sale, 1778; repairs 1783; bankruptcy, 1789) (names not stated), on back of copy of declaration by Robert Sibson of Old Mawbray, concerning the money due to Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton, Joseph Osmotherley of Allonby, Richard Barns of Dryholm, and Jeremy Barwise of Nook from the £1867 paid him by “Margery Jackson of London”

Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser, 01 December 1790, p.3

This is a work in progress, subject to change as more research is conducted.