Billingsley appears to have been paid from about £1 10_s._ to £2 per week at the Derby China Works, and several of his accounts and receipts are in my possession. In one of these (September 23rd, 1793), the balance due to him being £34 7_s._ 2_d._, he asks for “a draft on London for £30 at twenty-one days’ date,” on account, as usual, and acknowledges to having “lost some little time, which in some degree differs from our agreement, but it has been a matter of necessity, not choice;” and states that as he shall “in the course of a fortnight quit the public business,”--he at this time, as I gather, being landlord of a public-house (the “Nottingham Arms” in Bridgegate, Derby)--he shall be able to make up the time so lost. Again, receipts in 1793–4–5, show that he was still at that time in Mr. Duesbury’s employ in Derby. It may be well, before proceeding further, to say that, from a curious draft of an order to the painters employed at the Derby China Works, in my own possession, William Billingsley’s number which he was supposed from that time (not long before he left) to mark on such pieces as he painted was 7. The document is so curious, and will be so interesting to collectors, that I give it entire. It is as follows, and is in the second William Duesbury’s own handwriting:-- “Every Painter to mark underneath each Article he may finish, the number corresponding to his name, and any other mark which may be required, in such manner as he may be directed (viz.):-- Thos. Soar 1 Jos. Stables 2 Wm. Cooper 3 Wm. Yates 4 Jno. Yates 5 6 William Billingsley 7 Wm. Longdon 8 Wm. Smith 9 Jno. Blood 10 Wm. Taylor (except on blue and white) 11 Jno. Duesbury 12 Jos. Dodd 13 The Painter in fine blue, and in laying grounds to use for his mark the like colours. Ditto, in other colours Orange-red. Ditto, in Gold Purple.