Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/213



By an instrument dated 9th of April, 1734, these last-mentioned gentlemen, together with Joseph Davis and William Parsons, of London, and ninety others, agree to raise a joint stock of £40,000, in four hundred shares of £100 each, for the purpose of carrying the act into execution; but, as more money was wanted, it was agreed by deed-poll, on the 17th of August, 1736, to advance ten per cent, on the original subscription, and in a little time afterwards twenty per cent; and it further appears, that the sum of £47,830 was expended in making a new channel for the Dee, and vesting £10,000 in South Sea Annuities, to answer any claim for damages in making the navigation.

The new channel was opened in April, 1737, and the whole of the works completed before the 25th of March, 1740; and on the 11th of December in the same year, it was agreed that the joint stock should be increased to £52,000, and that the company should be incorporated. Accordingly an act was obtained in the 14th George II. entitled,  'An Act for incorporating the Undertakers of the Navigation of the River Dee,'  by which they were incorporated by the name of "The Company of Proprietors of the Undertaking for recovering and preserving the Navigation of the River Dee," and empowered to do what Nathaniel Kinderley was authorized to do in the preceding act; but as the high rates granted under the 6th of George II. were injurious to the trade of Chester, it was again agreed to reduce them. An act was in consequence obtained in the 17th of George II. entitled,  'An Act for explaining and amending an Act passed in the Sixth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, entitled, An Act to recover and preserve the Navigation of the River Dee in the county palatine of Chester; and another Act passed in the Fourteenth Year of his present Majesty's Reign, entitled, An Act for incorporating the Undertakers of the Navigation of the River Dee; and for repealing the Tonnage Rates payable to the said Undertakers; and for granting to them other Tonnage or Keelage Rates in lieu thereof; and for other Purposes therein mentioned;'  by which the rates allowed in the former acts are repealed, and the following substituted.