In 1774, in a letter to Mr. Charles Best, Mr. Wilson writes: “We have already two large Brewhouses Employ’d, and are about to use a third, the whole of which will take all the money I can raise with convenience to myself, beyond which I do not choose to go.” In a letter dated Oct. 23, 1775, from Messrs. B. Wilson & Co. to Messrs. J. D. Newman & Co., St. Petersburg, occur the following interesting passages:—“To people who have the Credit of their own Manufacture and y inseparable Interest of their Friends at Heart, we cannot but feel an accumulated Satisfaction at every additional instance of our Ale proving fine and distinguishing itself, wch, in Justice to its Character, we have y^e {337} happiness to say our Friends have universally confirmed. To y^e several Queries of y^r Letter, we beg leave to acquaint you that tho’ many Merchants from St. Petersburg are supplied with Burton Ale from our House, yet there are many we are not intimately connected with, their orders being transmitted through y^e Houses of Hull and London . . . . . The Price of Ale last year at Burton from y^e extravagant Price of Grain sold for 17^d per Gallon.” In the order book for 1770 are many entries which appear curious enough to modern readers. Some of the customers order their casks to be cased, _i.e._, enclosed in a larger cask—a process necessary to prevent the “Gainsboro’ Captains,” as the bargees were called, from “sucking the monkey.” One customer writes: “Send me 24-gallon casks strong ale and let y^e casks be iron-hooped at the head.” Another wants “two 14-gallon casks of strong ale by _sea_” to London, and another “a hogshead by _land_” also to London, the carriage of which must have been very extensive. There may possibly be persons still living who recollect an old fellow named Dyche, who was full of information regarding the early history of the Burton Ale trade. He remembered John Wilson well, and described him as a kind, hearty, portly, well-favoured old gentleman, somewhat peppery withal, but never angry without a cause. Dyche’s father worked for Mr. Wilson during forty years as a sawyer, his business being to cut up into staves for the coopers, the timber brought from the Baltic in exchange for ale. At fourteen years of age the younger Dyche was apprenticed to the cooper at the brewery. The commonest ale was then, according to Dyche, as strong as the strongest ale now brewed. Dyche used to tell how old Benjamin Wilson had two sons, and a daughter renowned far and wide for her beauty. This Miss Wilson became the wife of Mr. James Allsopp, and her son Samuel was father of the Mr. Henry Allsopp, now Lord Hindlip of Hindlip, who for many years was head of the firm.