The slackness of anything like police in those days is illustrated by a document in possession of Mr. John Bell, which is an agreement dated 1791 on the part of leading villagers to form a sort of Trades Defence Association to preserve their property from "the Depredation of Highwaymen, Robbers, Housebreakers and other Offenders." It is signed by Edward Jackson, Isaac Tubman, Geo. Bownas (the smith), James Robinson, George Dixon, John Gelderd, David Kirkby, John Dawson, and by Thomas Dixon for Mr. John Armstrong, each of whom subscribed eighteen pence to found the association, and resolves in strictly legal form to stand by his neighbours in all manner of eventualities. The smith's ledger, already quoted, gives also a number of farmer's names in 1770-74, which may be worth recording as a contribution to the history of Coniston folk. At Littlearrow lived John Fleming and Wm. Ion; at Spone How (Spoon Hall), Geo. Dixon; at Heathwaite, John Fleming; at Bowmanstead, T. Dixon and T. Parke; at Dixon Ground, John Ashburner; at Catbank, Roger Tyson; at Brow, T. Bainbridge; at Bove Beck, Wm. Dixon; at Far End, Wm. Parke; at Tarnhouse (Tarn Hows), John Johnson; at "Utree," Geo. Walker; at Oxenfell, Christopher Huertson; at Tilberthwaite, John Jackson; at Holme Ground, Wm. Jackson; at Lane End, Henry Dawson; at Waterhead, Anthony Sawrey; at Hollin Bank, John Suert; at Bank Ground, John Wilson; at Howhead, Eliz. Harrison; at Town End (Coniston Bank), Ed. Barrow and Wm. Edrington; at Lowsanparke (Lawson Park), Wm. Adinson. Other well-known names are Adam Bell (Black Bull), John Bell, John Geldart, T. Gasketh, G. Knott, David Kirkby, Matthew Spedding, T. and W. Towers. Many of these names are still represented in the neighbourhood, but the old 'statesman holdings have nearly all passed into alien hands. A list dated between 1830 and 1840 enumerates the acreage of fifty-three separate estates in Church Coniston, ranging from the Hall (Lady le Fleming's), over 397 acres, and Tilberthwaite (John Jackson's), over 135 acres, to Henry Braithwaite's plot of 15 perches. But of the whole number only twenty-five, or less than half, are smaller than ten acres. In 1841 the list of Parliamentary voters for Church Coniston gives twenty owners of house and land in their own occupation out of forty-six voters. In this list, James Garth Marshall of Leeds appears as owner of High Yewdale, occupied--no longer owned--by a Jackson; but there are very few non-resident landlords on the list. So late as 1849 the directory mentions as 'statesmen owning their farms in Monk Coniston and Skelwith, Matthew Wilson of Hollin Bank, John Creighton of Low Park, and William Burns of Hodge Close; in Church Coniston, William Barrow of Little Arrow, William Dixon of Dixon Ground, Benjamin Dixon of Spoonhall, James Sanders of Outhwaite, and William Wilson of Low Beck.