Ralph Wilcoxon, boot maker

Tags

footwear

Street Views: 1 and 18 Suppl.
Address: 60 King William Street

Ralph Wilcoxon of 60 King William Street was a rather enterprising shoemaker. Going through the Tallis index elicits a number of Wilcoxons as either shoe or boot maker, but as they are frequently listed without a first name, or even an initial, it is unclear whether they were the same shoemaker as the one of King William Street. However, a number of Old Bailey cases help us out. In 1835, John Green testifies that he is “foreman to Ralph Wilcoxon—he is a shoemaker, and lives in King william-street”.⁽¹⁾ A few years later, in another case, Ralph himself testifies and says, “I have seven shops, one in Howland-street, another in Tottenham-court-road, two in Oxford-street, one in Regent-street, one in Walker’s-court, Berwick-street, Soho, and one in King William-street, London-bridge—I live in Tottenham-court-road”. The total turnover of the shops was considerable. Wilcoxon states, “I have now a stock of 40,000 for my different shops”.⁽²⁾

Statue of William IV who is reported as looking towards London Bridge, which would mean that Wilcoxon’s shop is the darker property to the right of the statue. The statue was later moved, see here. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

Wilcoxon may have lived at Tottenham Court at the time of the 1840 Old Bailey case, but in the 1841 census he is listed at Claremont Place, Clapham. Over the years he seems to have moved a number of times. With the help of more Old Bailey cases, the 1841 Post Office Directory, some insurance records and Tallis’s Street Views we will try and pinpoint the Wilcoxon shops a bit more precisely as he does not give any house numbers in the Old Bailey report mentioned above:
-1 Howland-street (not mentioned in the 1841 Post Office Directory, but mentioned in an insurance record for 1833, and in Pigot’s Directory, 1839)
-60 King William Street (Street Views 1 and 18 Suppl.)
-289 Oxford Street (Street View 48)
-303 Oxford Street (Street View 41, but mentioned by Tallis for Bellenger, wine and spirit merchant)
-99 Regent Street (Quadrant) (Street Views 12 and 2 Suppl.)
-93 Tottenham Court Road (Street View 49)
-5 Walker’s Court, Berwick Street, Soho (1828 and 1829 Old Bailey cases (t18281204-230 and t18290115-25), Wilcoxon testified “I live in Walker’s-court, St. James'”; last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1851 Post Office Directory.
The first and the last shops in this list were not mentioned by Tallis as he did not produce Views for those streets, so we will leave those for the moment.

Below pictures of the elevations of the Wilcoxon shop as represented in the Tallis Street Views. More information on the shops other than the one in King William Street will be given in later posts on the individual premises:

60 King William Street

289 Oxford Street

First mentioned for Wilcoxon in a Sun Fire insurance record of 1829. Wilcoxon testified in an 1828 Old Bailey case (t18281204-22), “I am a shoemaker, and live in Oxford-street”. He does not say at what house number, but the claim seems to contradict another Old Bailey report of the same day where Wilcoxon said he lived in Walker’s Court. Last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1848 Post Office Directory.

303 Oxford Street

First mentioned for Wilcoxon in a Sun Fire insurance record of 1829.
In an 1834 Old Bailey case (t18341205-311) the shopman, George Samsome, said “I am shopman to Mr. Ralph Wilcoxon, who is a shoemaker, and lives at No. 303, Oxford-street” and “I have possession of the house all day, and two boys sleep there at night—Mr. Wilcoxon does not sleep or take his meals there”. One shop-boy, Dennis Crowley testified, “I am shop-boy to Mr. Wilcoxon, who lives in Tottenham-court-road”. Philip Jewell, the other shopboy said “I then went to No. 289, Oxford-street, to acquaint Mrs. Wilcoxon—I left the policeman at the door—I came back—Mr. Wilcoxon was not at home”. Three different addresses for Wilcoxon mentioned in one court case; something must have gone wrong in the transcription of the answers each of the shop servants had given. For one, it seems unlikely that they did not know where their master lived. And another peculiarity is the fact that Crowley said that there was only one shop window that was fastened with a catch on the inside and had shutters on the outside. Judging by the elevations in the Street View, this was far more likely to be number 289 than 303. So, was the shop robbed at number 289 and did Wilcoxon live at the far larger property at number 303? Most likely. The property is last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1848 Post Office Directory.

99 Regent Street

First mentioned for Wilcoxon in a Sun Fire insurance record of 1834, but an 1826 insurance record for 99 Regent Street mentions “other occupier: shoemaker” without giving a name. Last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1848 Post Office Directory.

93 Tottenham Court Road

First mentioned for Wilcoxon in a Sun Fire insurance record of 1830 ; last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1851 Post Office Directory.

Other shops mentioned for Wilcoxon
-3 Peter’s Street, Soho (Pigot’s Directory, 1825)
-102 Berwick Street (Wilcoxon in an 1825 Old Bailey case t18250407-126 “I live at No. 102, Berwick-street”; insurance 1826)
-38 Princes Street, Soho (insurance 1829)
-11 High Street, Islington. Tallis’s Street View lists no less than three numbers 11, occupied respectively by a hosier, a hatter and a shoemaker. It is tempting to promote the last one to Wilcoxon’s predecessor, but a decisive identification must await further research. First mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1845 Post Office Directory; last mentioned for Wilcoxon in the 1848 Post Office Directory.

Ralph Wilcoxon died unexpectedly in 1846; the coroner’s investigation into his death was reported in the newspapers:

On Sunday the deceased was in excellent health, attended divine service, and dined with his family. About nine in the evening he suddenly complained of shortness of breath, and went to the window for air, but feeling no relief, he proceeded down stairs, with the view of getting into the garden, but he got no further than the hall, when he fell on his knees, and died.⁽³⁾

Sounds like a heart attack to me. He left his wife Hannah the “goodwill and stock in trade of the business carried on by me in King William Street”. He does not separately mention the other shops, but I gather they were considered to be part of the King William Street business as Mrs Hannah Wilcoxon is listed as the proprietor of all the shops in later directories. His wife also gets the interest in Claremont Cottage, Wandsworth Road, and his mother the interest in the Paragon, Blackheath. He does mention lots of other houses and leaseholds in his possession which he distributes among his four children, Arthur (officially Arthur Samuel), Ralph, Hannah and Catherine. His executors are to take care of all these properties until the children reached the age of twenty-five when their inheritance was to be turned over to them.⁽⁴⁾ Because he died so suddenly, his two youngest daughters were not mentioned in his will. He had no doubt planned to make a new will, but had not yet got round to it, so Hannah remedied the omission in her will, “I am especially desirous of making a provision for my two youngest children Eliza Wilcoxon and Emily Wilcoxon who from the circumstance of their being born after the execution of the will of their late father have by the disposition which he therein made of his property been excluded from any part of portion in his estate”.⁽⁵⁾ She leaves the two girls all her personal estate, with the exception of an annuity for her sister.

After the death of her husband, Hannah continued the shoe shops and the 1848 Post Office Directory gives the following addresses after her name: 60 King William Street, 289 and 303 Oxford Street, 99 Regent Street (Quadrant), 93 Tottenham Court Road, 5 Walker’s Court and 11 High Street, Islington. By 1851, however, that is after her death – she died in 1849 – only 60 King William Street, 93 Tottenham Court Road and 5 Walker’s Court were listed after her name. The emporium was reduced even more after that and the 1856 Post Office Directory just lists Arthur Wilcoxon at 60 King William Street. He had probably been running that shop with his brother Ralph who had died in November 1850, just 31 years old.

advertisement in The Times, 11 November 1858

60 King William Street seems to have been the headquarters of the Wilcoxon shoe shop imperium, but until which year it continued is difficult to establish. According to the 1856 Post Office Directory, it was certainly still there in that year, and in November 1858, an advertisement lists the shop as one of the addresses where patent India rubber shoes could be had, but after that, no trace has been found of the shoe shop. Arthur himself married in 1859 and later lived for a time on the Isle of Wight, in Petersfield, Hants, and lastly in Frensham, Surrey, where he died in 1886.⁽⁶⁾

———–
(1) Old Bailey case t18351214-255.
(2) Old Bailey case t18400406-1281.
(3) Daily News, 16 September 1846.
(4) PROB 11/2044/78.
(5) PROB 11/2103/352.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1886. The executors were his brothers-in-law, George Martin Hughes (husband of Catherine) and James Reynold Williams (husband of Hannah). The estate was valued at over £11,000, but later resworn at just over £10,000.

Neighbours:

<– 61 King William Street (across)

59 King William Street –>

Ruddick and Heenan, importers of cigars

Tags

tobacco

Street Views: 1, 1 Suppl. and 18 Suppl.
Addresses: 24 King William Street and 30 Regent Street

Although the title of this post⁽¹⁾ suggests there was a firm called ‘Ruddick and Heenen’, that is not the case, although the names are linked. From about 1834, Ruddick & Co. were trading as a snuff warehouse from 24 King William Street and one directory (Pigot’s) lists them as “Ruddick Ellen & Co, tobacconists”. By then, however, Ellen Ruddick was already married to James Heenan and another section of the same directory lists the shop for James Heenan. Another directory (Robson’s) and Tallis (Street View of 1839) persist in calling the business Ruddick & Co. But who was Ellen Ruddick and was she running the tobacco shop on her own before Heenan came along?

Ellen Ruddick’s father, John Ruddick, had died in 1826 and seems to have favoured his daughter Ellen over his four sons as she is to have 800 pounds while the sons only get £200 each. She is also to get the household goods and the rest of his estate after the death of her mother Hannah.⁽²⁾ Perhaps the sons had already been provided for in other ways. Ellen was only 15 years old when her father died, so too young to set up a business of her own, but she, probably together with her mother, grabbed the opportunity to set up shop in the new development of King William Street, which was built in the early 1830s to ‘improve’ the northern approach to the new London Bridge. Their property was only small, but no doubt large enough for a tobacco shop.

1831 plan of the proposed King William Street with Ruddick’s shop outlined in red

an 1886 insurance map showing the corner shop at number 24. By then it was no longer a tobacco shop

How Ellen came to meet James Heenan is unclear, but on 18 October 1838 they were married at St. Mary, Islington. The marriage registration lists James as of Prince’s Row, Kennington⁽³⁾ and Ellen as of Palmer Terrace, so she did not live above the shop. The tax records for 24 King William Street up to 1838 give Ruddick & Co, but from 1840, the property is listed for Heenan & Co. I am guessing that the ‘& Co.’ part of the name had something to do with the fact that mother Hannah was still alive and Ellen did not yet have the full rights to her inheritance. Hannah was living with Ellen and James at number 24 at the time of the 1841 census, and so was little Ellen Mary who was born, or at least baptised, in September 1840. The little girl unfortunately died in early November 1847. James and Ellen had one other child, son William Henry (born June 1842) who survived his parents and was still alive at the time of the 1911 census. He is probably the William H. Heenan who died in the last quarter of 1913.

advertisement in The Morning Post, 20 April 1843

So, the Heenans ran the small shop in King William Street, but in 1843, an advertisement tells us that they have opened a branch in Regent Street. The advertisement mentions a batch of cigars that have been purchased from Lopez and M’Kinnell. These gentlemen were wine merchants in Fenchurch Street, but apparently also dealt in Lopez cigars. The partnership between Lopez and M’Kinnell was dissolved later in 1843 and they may already have been offloading some surplus stock. In January, 1843, another tobacconist, J. Hudson of 132 Oxford Street, claimed to have taken over the complete stock of Lopez and M’Kinnell and his was therefore the only place in London where the real Lopez cigars could be obtained.⁽⁴⁾ But, judging by the advertisement of Heenan, the Lopez cigars were not as exclusively available as Mr. Hudson would have wanted.

Another advertisement was entered by Heenan in April, 1843, in which he announced his desire to let the upper part of 30 Regent Street, consisting of eight rooms, including kitchen. It is therefore no wonder that the Tallis Supplement has both Heenan and the London and Windsor Railway Company at number 30. They probably rented part of the building for their office. It is quite possible that Heenan entered into a partnership to be able to afford a second shop, although it is uncertain when the partnership with Philip Hargrave Curtis started. It certainly ended on 18 May 1850 with Heenan to continue on his own.⁽⁵⁾ The 1851 census lists two ‘assistants’ living above the shop in Regent Street, presumably shopmen in the tobacconist’s, and, separately, two brothers, Thomas and Joseph Hensley, leather merchants, with a servant and an apprentice. By that time, Heenan was no longer living in King William Street, but in The Cottage, Englands Lane, Hampstead. The shop in King William Street was minded for Heenan by Thomas Penn.

This Lopez cigar firm was apparently set up in 1876, so not the same Lopez cigars as the ones Heenan sold

In 1861 and 1871, the censuses showed more or less the same situation; servants were living above the two shops and the Heenans were living at Hampstead. But things were about to change. In 1872, Henry Brett and Co. of Old Furnival’s Distillery, Holborn, took over the premises at 30 Regent Street, and Heenan just concentrated on 24 King William Street. He may even have retired altogether, but that is not quite clear. James died in 1874 and his probate entry still mentions him as of Hampstead and King William Street.⁽⁶⁾ Ellen died in 1889; she was then living with her son in Devon.⁽⁷⁾

advertisement in The Era, 17 September 1843

The two shop elevations are shown at the top of this post: 24 King William Street on the left and 30 Regent Street on the right. Click on the picture to enlarge.

————-

(1) Research for this post started with a query by one of my readers who is involved in the one name study on the surname Heenan, see here. Some of the biographical information has been supplied by her, for which my thanks.
(2) PROB 11/1711/51.
(3) James Heenan, Gent., insured 39 Princes Road, Kennington, on 13 July 1840. Although it is fairly unlikely that a tobacconist who has just started a business is called ‘gent’, it probably does refer to the tobacconist. The record also refers to a Benjamin Heenan. The 1851 census lists a John Emanuel Heenan at 38 Princes Road and Benjamin Heenan at 39 Princes Road. Premises in Princes Road were mentioned in the will of John Heenan, tailor, who died in 1813 (PROB 11/1542/326). James, Benjamin and John Emanuel may have been brothers.
(4) The Standard, 10 January 1843. A repeat advertisement appeared in The Era, 2 July 1843.
(5) The London Gazette, 14 June 1850. The relation with the Curtis family remained cordial and James Heenan was one of the executors of one Francis Edward Hargrave Curtis who died in 1862.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1874. Probate of the estate, worth under £12,000, was granted to widow Ellen. She apparently left it unadministered and a second probate was granted to son William Henry in 1902. The value had by then dwindled to £144.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891. William Henry was the executor and her personal estate was valued at £40.

Neighbours:

<– 25 King William Street <– 32 Regent Street

23 King William Street –> 28 Regent Street –>

Edward Mountcastle, hatter

Tags

hats

Street View: 1 and 18 Suppl.
Address: 41 King William Street

In 1825, Edward Mountcastle, the son of Montague Mountcastle of Bedford Court, Covent Garden, was apprenticed to William White of Cheapside, Citizen and Feltmaker. Edward obtained his freedom from the Feltmakers’ Company after the regular term of seven years in August 1832. His address is then given as 23 Gracechurch Street which was the address of his cousin Sidney Harman Mountcastle, also a hatter.⁽¹⁾ Only a couple of months later, Edward married Frances Harris Weeks, who was probably a relation of William White’s wife Susannah Weeks. We can follow the subsequent addresses of the couple from the baptism records of their children, although the story is not as straightforward as at first may appear:
1833, September – Gracechurch Street: Montague Edward baptised at All Hallows Lombard Street
1834, July – King William Street: Fanny baptised at St. Magnus the Martyr
1839, July – King William Street: Emma baptised at St. Magnus the Martyr
1845, October – St. George’s Street: Charles Edward, Alfred, Walter baptised at St. George, Camberwell
1848, June – Albany Road: Mary Ann baptised at St. George, Camberwell
1851, June – London Street, Greenwich: Frank baptised at St. Alphage, Greenwich

1831 plan for King William Street

For the purposes of this blog, the King William Street entries are the most relevant. A whole neighbourhood had been razed to the ground for the construction of the new approach road to London Bridge, named after King William IV. The plan above shows what happened. The darker area is the outline for the new King William Street and outlined in red is the property that became Mountcastle’s hat shop. If we look at the Land Tax records for 1833, the houses in the area are bracketed together and listed for the New London Bridge Committee. In 1836, however, Mountcastle’s name appears as one of the occupants of the “redeemed” properties. In one of their advertisements, Mountcastle’s neighbours, George and John Deane, ironmongers at number 46, display their new shop and say that their “present premises” were erected in 1833, so presumably that was also the year in which number 41 was erected as it is situated in the same block of houses.

In 1841, Edward and Frances are listed in the census with their 3-week-old baby Charles. Although the three children who were born after the 1841 census were all baptised together in 1845 in Camberwell, it does not necessarily mean that Mountcastle gave up his shop in King William Street. In the 1843, 1848 and 1851 Post Office Directories, 41 King William Street is still the address for the hat shop. And Tallis in his 1847 Supplement also still listed Mountcastle at number 41. Only in the 1856 Post Office Directory was he listed at 22 Cannon Street. And at some point, he even had a shop at 10 London Street, Greenwich. The census returns for 1851 shows the family living in Greenwich, while at King William Street we find William Haldin(?), a carpenter, which seems conclusive, but the tax records tell a different story. There, Mountcastle is only listed for King William Street till 1844. There is a gap in the records, so the next year available is 1847 and Mountcastle is no longer there, but one Robert Wass is paying the tax. However, in 1852, bankruptcy proceedings are started against Mountcastle and he is still described as of 41 King William Street and London Street, Greenwich. At some point in 1852, he signs over his leasehold properties for the benefit of his creditors. I am guessing that Mountcastle rented out (part of?) his 41 King William Street property and tried to raise money that way when things got tough in the 1840s.

The London Gazette, 21 May 1852

As we saw in the 1856 Post Office Directory, Edward could next be found in Cannon Street where, at the end of 1856, he dissolves a partnership with one William John Rushby. The gentlemen had been trading as hatters under the name of J. Jenkinson and Co.⁽²⁾ In the 1861 census, Edward, Frances and four of their children are found at 276 Albany Road. This may have been the same property as the one listed in the baptism record of Mary Ann, but as that does not give a house number, it may be a different house in the same street. At some point Mountcastle must have had a shop on the corner of King Street and Bedford Street, Covent Garden. It is, however, unclear when and for how long that was, but it was certainly after he had been at King William Street. Edward died in 1867 and the registration district is given as Strand, so he was possibly still living in Soho.

Source: fotolibra.com

I tried to find out what happened at 41 King William Street after Mountcastle left, but as the tax records do not provide house numbers, that it is not so easy. We saw that the 1851 census for the parish of St. Magnus the Martyr listed Harlin the carpenter, and in 1861, it is one Edward Hart, a hosier, who occupies the premises. Ten years later it is Alfred Hayward, a customs officer, who lives at number 41, and in 1881 one William Taylor, a tobacconist’s manager, but none of these people seem to appear in the Land Tax records, so presumably they were all renting. Goad’s insurance map of 1887 lists the property as a ‘studio’, and it still looks as small as when Mountcastle lived there. The northern end of the block, that is, number 46, was taken over in 1890 by the City and South London Railway Company for their King William Street Station, but it was not to last. The station was closed in 1900 (see here for more information) and Regis House was built on top of the station, not just obliterating the station entrance, but the whole block of houses from numbers 40 to 46. The Regis House you see today is a modern replacement from the 1990s, but they have retained the access to the platforms of the station which was used as an air-raid shelter in the war (more information and photos here).

Goad’s insurance map of 1887

(1) Sidney’s father William was the brother of Edward’s father Montague.
(2) The London Gazette, 2 January 1857.

Neighbours:

<– 42 King William Street

40 King William Street –>

Waring & Moline, Consignees of Guinness & Co’s Stout

Tags

food and drink, merchant

Street View: 1
Address: 5 Adelaide Place

Adelaide Place was the broad section between King William Street and the north foot of London Bridge. It was named after Adelaide, the wife of William IV. On the west side, Fishmongers’ Hall can be found; on the east side a large building was constructed in c.1835 which was divided up into several offices. Number 5 Adelaide Place, where Waring and Moline had their office as agents for Guinness, was, according to Tallis, also occupied by a Mr. Field (first floor) and a Mr. Chadwick (second floor). Although these two gentlemen were not given an occupation by Tallis in the first lot of Street Views (±1839), they were still there in 1847 when the second batch of Street Views was published and although Chadwick still does not have an occupation, at least he is given the first name William (was he the architect John Belcher was apprenticed to?). Mr. Field is James Field, architect & surveyor. In 1847, we also find John Belcher, architect, at number 5, but Moline has disappeared from the Tallis Supplement list. Not so in reality, however, as he was certainly there until his death in 1865.

In the early 1830s, Samuel Waring, a merchant from Bristol, had the London agency for the Irish beer with his partners Tuckett and Foster at 79 Lower Thames Street. By 1834, Tuckett and Foster had been replaced by the Quaker Sparks Moline (1811-1865), at first from the Lower Thames Street address, but from 1837 at Adelaide Place.⁽¹⁾ Moline and Waring were related, Sparks’ grandmother on his mother’s side was a Waring and his sister was given the name of Mary Waring Moline. The partnership between the relatives did, however, not last very long. The London Gazette announced the end of the partnership as per 18 July 1838 with Moline to continue the business alone. Waring had got into financial difficulties and only narrowly avoided bankruptcy. The Guinness firm appears to have helped Waring with a mortgage on his house and disaster was averted, but the London agency was separated from the Bristol enterprise.⁽²⁾

The years from 1836 to 1840 were turbulent years for Moline. In November 1836, his father John Sparks Moline died. He was buried at the Quaker burial site at Winchmore Hill, Enfield, and the burial record gives Adelaide Place as his address and “porter merchant” as his occupation. Father and son may have been in partnership together with Waring, although the records do not make that clear. A few months later, on 2 February 1837, Sparks received the freedom of the Company of Curriers by patrimony.

Next comes the end of the partnership with Waring and later that same year, on 8 November 1838, Sparks marries Isabella Prideaux at Kingsbridge, Devon. She unfortunately dies on 4 October 1840, just two weeks after their daughter Isabella Prideaux Moline is born. She is also buried at Winchmore Hill. The 1841 census lists Sparks in Llandygai, Caernarvonshire. Not sure what he was doing there, but with him is a Mary Moline, one year younger than Sparks, so she may very well have been his sister Mary Waring who was born in 1812.

In 1855, Sparks’ younger brother, David (1814-1864) had taken out a patent “for the manufacture of metallic window frames and skylights”.⁽³⁾ In 1856, David obtained his freedom of the City (by redemption) and is then classed as “porter merchant” of 5 Adelaide Place, suggesting a partnership with Sparks. How is that for a career-change? When the partnership between the brothers was officially entered into is unclear, but it was dissolved on the 31st of December 1861.⁽⁴⁾ Somewhere in the early 1840s, David had married an Austrian wife and they lived in “Laybach, in the empire of Austria” as his probate record would have it. David died there in 1864 of typhoid fever.⁽⁵⁾ Laybach, by the way, is usually spelled Laibach and is better known as Ljubljana, these days the capital of Slovenia, but then part of the Austrian Empire. A train service between Ljubljana and Vienna had been established in 1849, so not too far an outpost to be living in.

Moline & Co. continued to act as the sole agent for Guinness, a privilege they frequently had to defend when others tried to encroach on their territory. In 1846, an injunction was taken out by Guinness and Purser against Hill and Coulson, to stop them “selling or otherwise disposing of any stout, porter, or other malt liquor in bottles with labels in imitation of the labels furnished to the plaintiff’s agents by Sparks Moline, or differing only colourably therefrom”.⁽⁶⁾ And in 1853, it was Richard Sutton of Wood Street who fell foul of Moline’s monopoly.

Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 25 June 1853

The agents and bottlers Guinness used were allowed to put their own trademark on the bottles and Moline’s was a monkey. The “monkey brand” was advertised as far away as New Zealand where Arthur H. Nathan advertised the beer bottled by Moline in The New Zealand Herald of 16 August 1889. At some point, Moline & Co. moved the business from Adelaide Place to Monument Buildings and from just acting as the London Guinness agent, the firm also became an exporter of their ‘own’ bottled Guinness.

Sparks Moline died 28 November 1865 at Church Row, Stoke Newington, and, although he had been a Quaker all his life, he was privately baptised at St. Mary’s a few days before he died. He was nevertheless buried at Winchmore Hill. And he was not the only one who seems to have had a change of heart. His daughter Isabella Prideaux was baptised on 26 June 1861, also at St. Mary’s, and so were Sparks’ sisters, Lydia and Mary Waring, both on 16 January 1866. The unmarried sisters, their mother and their unmarried niece continued to live at Stoke Newington.⁽⁷⁾ Despite sister Lydia’s baptism at St. Mary’s, she was buried in 1891 at Winchmore Hill, the Quaker burial site, so I am not sure what was going on, but perhaps it was another example of what the Friends mention on the Winchmore Hill website, that is that “The nineteenth century saw the defection of most of the more prominent business families, as the delicate balancing act between Quaker ethics and the demands of hard-nosed capitalism became increasingly difficult”.

Postscript: Tabitha Driver of the excellent Friends’ library sent me the following information, for which many thanks:
You may notice that Quaker registers do include non-members (there’s a “N.M.” column in the 19th century Digester registers), and you will as in this case find non-members in Quaker burial grounds. Two common reasons for these non-member entries is in the case of disownment (as happened to bankrupts, for instance), or when children did not have “birthright” membership because only one of their parents were in membership – yet the individual or family maintained a close association with the meeting. In the case of close family ties one can see how easily the continuing association could lead to an entry in a burial register after a death in particular.

I’m glad to be able to quote the excellent guide, Milligan and Thomas, My ancestors were Quakers (Society of Genealogists, 1999):

Regulations adopted by yearly meeting 1774 provided that ‘when any person, not a member of the society, is permitted to be buried in friends burying-ground, it is to be noted in the margin of the register’. The book of discipline adopted in 1833 made more explicit provision for ‘one or more proper person’ to be appointed by the monthly meeting, without whose authority ‘no burial is to take place’: as far as the burial of non-members was concerned, discipline stated that ‘Friends are to exercise discretion in complying with any application’.

In the case of Sparks Moline, his entry in the post-1837 Digest registers clearly states that Sparks Moline, Commission Agent, of 6 Church Road, Stoke Newington, died 28.11.1865, aged 64, and was buried at Winchmore Hill, 5.12.1865 – and that he was N.M. (not in membership of the Society of Friends).

——–
(1) David Hughes, “A Bottle of Guinness Please”: The Colourful History of Guinness (2006). Hughes also mentions Sparks Moline at Billiter Street, but that may have been the grandfather of Sparks who was also called Sparks. The grandfather applied for the job of bridge master in 1824 and asked for the support of his fellow liverymen in an advertisement in The Times, sponsored by Samuel Gurney and William Fry, both Quakers.
(2) Patrick Lynch and John Vaizey, Guinness’s Brewery in the Irish Economy 1759-1876 (2011), p. 132-134.
(3) The Repertory of Patent Inventions (1855). For a description of the window frames, see here.
(4) The London Gazette, 24 January 1862.
(5) Illustrated London News, 15 October 1864.
(6) Rolls’ Court, The Times, 26 March 1846.
(7) More on the family and their Quaker ancestors can be found here.

Neighbours:

<– 4 Adelaide Place

6 Adelaide Place –>

Henry Tolkien, music publisher

Tags

music

Street Views: 1 and 18 Suppl.
Address: 28 King William Street

Henry Tolkien was baptised on the 26th of September, 1814, at St. John’s Clerkenwell as the son of George Tolkien and his wife Eliza Lydia Murrell. Father George is described as a glass seller, living in White Lion Street. On the 23rd of September, 1840, Henry marries Amelia Sophia Barber at St. Olave’s, Southwark and three years later, he applies for his freedom of the City of London by redemption (that is: by paying a fine of £5.3.6) through the Company of the Loriners. But he must have been established at 28 King William Street before his official freedom, as we find his name in the Tallis Street Views which were published in 1839. Number 28 is situated in the section of King William Street between Crooked Lane and Arthur Street and where, coming from London Bridge, King William Street bends to the left and Gracechurch Street begins. As Tallis explains in his booklet, King William Street formed the new access from the foot of New London Bridge to the Bank of England. According to Tallis, it “consists entirely of large houses, appropriated to Insurance Company’s, or shops” and “it will rival any of the new improvements in London, for its great architectural beauty”. See the post on Henry Blenkinsop for a shop that had to be demolished for the new approach to the bridge.

Map from the Street View booklet with Tolkien’s shop marked in red

The earliest newspaper advertisement I found for Henry Tolkien is in The Morning Chronicle of 18 May, 1841, from which we learn that he not only sold and published music as the index to the Street Views stated, but also musical instruments. The advertisement mentions pianos, such as the “much admired piccolos in mahogany and rosewood cases” for 28 guineas, or if you preferred them in zebra wood, they were 31 guineas. Still not enough luxury for your taste? Well, why not buy a cottage piano “with double columns” and “lion scrolled legs” for 36 guineas.

Selection of sheet music available from Henry Tolkien

In September 1854, a number of music publishers were summoned to appear at Guildhall to answer complaints from Antonio Panizzi, the keeper of printed books and manuscripts at the British Museum⁽¹⁾, for not delivering copies of certain works of music to the library within one month after publication as they were required to do according to the Legal Deposit rules. The library section of the Museum is now the separate British Library, but the same deposit rules still apply (see here). Tolkien was the only publisher to appear at Guildhall and the charge against him was that he had neglected to send the library a copy of “The Guardsman’s Farewell” (price 2s 6d). To begin with, Tolkien said that he thought the Museum was rather sharp as the music had only been published a few weeks before and the omission to send a copy was entirely accidental. The Museum denied being sharp and in any case, Tolkien “had not delivered any work for years”. Tolkien then changed his excuse for non-delivery by claiming that he was not aware that he was required to send a copy as all the works he published were reprinted and out-of-copyright foreign productions. And the same productions were published by every other London bookseller and the Museum would have a hundred copies of each piece of music if all these reprints had to be submitted. Alderman Farebrother said that music sellers were not required to send in music imported from abroad, but if they reprinted the music in England, they must send a copy to the British Museum. Tolkien said that as soon he had been made aware of that rule, he had sent a copy to the library, but they had refused it. The library replied that it had been refused because the summons to Guildhall had already been issued. Oh dear. To cut a long story short, Tolkien had to pay a 10s fine, the cost of the case (4s) and he was to send the disputed copy to the library.⁽²⁾ Where, by the way, it still resides under shelfmark H.1756.(12.).

The Bruce Polka by H. Oakey (Source: Royal Academy of Music)

Unfortunately, in November 1850, Henry’s wife Amelia had died and in the 1851 census, 28 King William Street was occupied by Henry, his brother William Murrell (born 1810), his sister Anne (born ±1827) and a servant. Henry is given as music publisher and dealer in musical instruments. William is given the same job description and Anne is acting as housekeeper. Five years later, Henry marries his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte Wright. The 1861 census does not list any occupants for 27-30 King William Street and I have not found Henry anywhere else, so there is a gap in the timeline, but we know that he extended the business to include number 27, concentrating more and more on the manufacture of pianofortes. In 1857, he registered “improvements in pianofortes” together with one Joseph Middleton of Finsbury, but what those improvements were is unclear.⁽³⁾

Source: Ebay

Somewhere in the second half of 1876, the business relocated to 51 King William Street, although the family no longer lived above the shop. In the 1871 census, Henry, and his extending family, can be found at 69 Brook Green, Hammersmith. Henry is listed as piano manufacturer, employing 20 men and 4 boys. Ten years later, the family is found at 6 William Terrace, High Road, Chiswick. Henry is still listed as piano manufacturer but the number of employees is not given. Son Charles (23 years old) is listed as manager for his father. Two other sons, William Brindley (21 years old) and George (19 years old) are “pianoforte employees”, presumably in their father’s business, although that is not stated. Henry died 29 December 1885 and probate was granted to the widow and two of the sons (Henry Monteith and Charles Constantine). The estate was valued at just over £5,304.⁽⁴⁾

And yes, in case you were wondering, Henry and J.R.R. are related. J.R.R. was the grandson of John Benjamin Tolkien who was Henry’s elder brother (see more on the Tolkien family in general here and on John Benjamin in particular here.) And for a portrait of music publisher Henry see here.

(1) Update 15 September 2015: post on Panizzi on the Untold Lives blog of the British Library. See here.
(2) The Morning Post, 6 September 1854.
(3) London Gazette, 29 May 1857.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1886.

Neighbours:

<– 29 King William Street

27 King William Street –>

Thomas Ridgway, a Baptist tea merchant

Tags

grocer, merchant

Street View: 1
Address: 4-5 King William Street

The London Gazette of 7 March, 1837 included a notice that William Dakin, Thomas Ridgway, Arthur Dakin and Robinson Bywater had dissolved their partnership of tea-dealers and grocers in Coventry by mutual consent. This in itself is not a very unusual notice, the newspapers frequently showed similar announcement, but in this case it gives us more information on the business dealings of Thomas Ridgway. The Ridgway company, which still exists, states on their website that Thomas opened his first shop in London in 1836. Wikipedia tells us that he had a shop in the Bull Ring, Birmingham before that, but that he went bankrupt and started again in London. He was certainly in Birmingham in 1830 when Daken [sic] and Ridgway are mentioned as the ones who were going to dispose of the stock in trade of the bankrupt Samuel Partridge, tea-dealer and grocer.⁽¹⁾ At the time of the Bull Ring Riots (1839), the Dakins still had a large shop in Birmingham at 28, High Street.⁽²⁾ How Dakin and Ridgway ended up in Coventry is not clear, but what is clear is that Ridgway set up in King William Street, London in the 1830s and the Dakins a bit later at 1 St. Paul’s Churchyard.⁽³⁾

Thomas Ridgway
Source: ridgwaystea.co.uk

Tallis’s Street View shows the lettering “Ridgeway Sidney & Co. Tea Importers” across the premises of numbers 4 and 5, but despite the grand shop and the lettering, Ridgway & Co did not put an advertisement in the Street View. Who Sidney was, I have no idea, and that name seems to have disappeared quite quickly from the business. Thomas Ridgway himself, however, makes a huge success of his London grocer’s business and in 1851, he was one of the coffee importers who met at the London Tavern in March 1851 to condemn the 1840 Treasury Minute which allowed for the adulteration of coffee with chicory and resulted in fraud and high prices. The meeting led to questions asked in Parliament.⁽⁴⁾

Tea caddy. Source: teacaddy.czi.cz

Eventually, Ridgway & Co. specialised in just tea, tracking down new varieties from all over the world to use in their high quality blends. In 1886 they received a request by Queen Victoria for a personal blend and they were later appointed tea merchants to King George VI. Ridgway’s became one of the first tea companies to sell their produce pre-packed against adulteration.

Baptist Chapel Towcester
Source: mkheritage.co.uk

 
Thomas was born in 1802 in Lymm, Cheshire according to the 1851 census which sees him living with his wife Lucretia, a butler, a cook, a housemaid, a laundry maid and a nurse at 27 Oxford Square, London. However, on 3 June 1855, the couple were both baptised in North End Baptist Chapel, Towcester, Northamptonshire. The chapel had been opened in October 1853 and was built on land belonging to Thomas.

His native town of Lymm also received the benefit of a Baptist Chapel from Ridgway. Here again it was built on land he owned. That chapel opened in 1850 and the first pastor was Isaac Ridgway, Thomas’s brother.⁽⁵⁾

Baptist Chapel Lymm
Source: lymmbaptistchurch.com

Thomas, by now classed as retired tea merchant, and his wife Lucretia lived at Elm Lodge, Towcester, where Lucretia died in October 1862. Before that, at the time of the 1861 census, they had a holiday in Wisbech where they stayed at the Rose and Crown Hotel, 23 Market Place, which still exists. Thomas remarried (at Liverpool) in 1864 to Cordelia Dawbarn who was also received into the Baptist Church. In 1871 and 1881, the census tells us that Thomas and Cordelia were living at Elm Lodge, Daventry Road with six servants. Thomas died at Elm Lodge on 20 August 1885 and was buried in Lymm, his place of birth. One Edward Parker preached a funeral sermon Christ living and dying: A memorial sermon for the late Thomas Ridgway, Esq., of Elm Lodge, Towcester : preached in the North End Baptist Chapel, Towcester, September 6th, 1885. When his estate was proved, Thomas was worth £58,523 8s. 3d.⁽⁶⁾ Cordelia apparently did not live up to the moral expectations of the Baptist community, as in 1887, she and four others came under “careful consideration” and were “no longer recognised as members”.⁽⁷⁾

(1) London Gazette3 September 1830.
(3) Eliezer Edwards, Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men (1877), unpaginated.
(3) Street View 15 and 16 of the 1847 Supplements.
(4) T. Baring, Adulteration of Coffee. A verbatim report of the proceedings of a public meeting held at the London Tavern on Monday, the 10th of March, 1851. London (1851); Hansard Commons Debate 5 June 1851 (vol 117 cc510-33).
(5) See here
(6) Baptist Chapel records from North End Church Book
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations ), 1885.

Neighbours:

<– 6 King William Street

3 King William Street –>