Peart & Dossetor, hosiery warehouse

Tags

clothing

Street View: 38
Address: 12-13 Poultry

In 1788, Joseph Peart, son of John Peart of Stanhope, Durham, acquired the freedom of the City of London through the Needle-makers’ Company, and from 1790 onwards, we find his name in the Land Tax records for 13 Poultry and from 1792 onwards, also for number 12. In 1790, his younger brother Cuthbert is apprenticed to him and at some point, the brothers are in partnership as “hosiers, traders and dealers” in Friday Street, but that partnership was dissolved in April 1819.⁽¹⁾ The business with his brother seems to have been in addition to the shop in the Poultry, as that continues to be listed for him in the various records. In 1805, Joseph took on another apprentice, Thomas Dossetor (also Dosseter), the son of Daniel, a Dagenham farmer. This Thomas takes over the hosiery business in ±1820. The tax records for the Cheap Ward of 1820 still show Peart’s name for the two properties at 12 and 13 Poultry, but from 1821 onwards, it is Thomas Dossetor who pays the tax, although the business continued to be called ‘Peart & Dossetor’.

top part of the oath of the Needlemakers

entry for Peart & Dossetor in the 1851 Exhibition

Thomas Dossetor and Harriet Richolls marry in December 1819 and their son Thomas Peart Dossetor is born in December 1821, or at least, he is baptised that month. The Bishop’s copy of the parish record does not give a date of birth. The 1841 census does not show the Dossetor family at the Poultry, just a number of shopmen, porters, apprentices and other servants, but in 1851, Thomas and his son Thomas Peart are to be found living above the shop. Ten years later, Thomas is still there, but Thomas Peart is lodging in Queens’ Road, Marylebone. He is still listed as a hosier, but without an indication where he is working. Still in the family business? Probably. He is certainly listed at the family address in 1863 in the probate record for his father⁽²⁾, and also in 1864, when he takes out the freedom of the City.

advertisement in Tallis’s Street View

But Thomas Peart’s real interest did not lie in hosiery as we shall see in a moment and in 1869, a notice in The London Gazette states that Thomas has granted by indenture to Joseph Solly and Thomas Bayley all his copyhold and freehold estate, and all and every stock in trade for the benefit of his creditors.⁽³⁾ Not that Solly and Bayley were to take over the business; they just dealt with the transfer to a new owner. The tax records for 1869 still show Dossetor’s name, but in 1870, the property is listed as “late T.P. Dossetor” and in 1871 its is Charles Sadler who pays the tax. Sadler was to remain at the Poultry until his death in 1888. More on him in a moment, but first the rest of the story for Thomas Peart Dossetor.

The 1871 census does not seem to list Dossetor, but in 1881, he can be found in Norwich as a lodger with occupation entomologist & wood carver. Well, that is certainly different than hosiery, and far less profitable. When he died in 1886, he left an estate of only £25 15s, to be administered by Henry Ralph Nevill, archdeacon of Norfolk.⁽⁴⁾ Thomas Peart had been a member of the Entomological Society since 1851 and in their Annuals his interests are listed as British Coleoptera and Lepidoptera (beetles and butterflies to you and me). In 1859, E.W. Janson, the secretary of the Society, wrote in the Entomologist’s Annual about newly reported insects and mentioned Thomas as having, “with his wonted liberality”, presented Janson with a specimen of Hydrochus, which he had found in Holme Fen.

illustration of the new building from The Building News, 4 February 1876

In the mean time, Charles Sadler had grand plans with 12-13 Poultry and in 1876, The Building News of 4 February reported on a new building, designed by architect Frederick Chancellor, to replace the former which “had become much dilapidated”. The new premises were “erected in red brick, with mullioned windows on each floor, executed in red Dumfries stone, but the principal features are 4 large panels in terra-cotta between each floor, representing scenes which have been enacted in the street below”. The panels were sculpted by Joseph C. Kremer. The Art Journal also reported on the new building and called it a “lofty edifice of four storeys, and dormers”. They describe the bas-relief panels in some detail:

The lowermost panel shows the procession of Queen Victoria at the opening of the Royal Exchange; the next above it, represents a presumed incident which occurred on the site of the newly-erected house on the occasion of Charles II making his public entry into London on the 29th of May, 1662, when his majesty saluted the landlady of the house of that date, which was then an inn: the good woman, though suffering much from illness, insisted on welcoming the monarch. Looking still higher up, the next panel shows the procession of Queen Elizabeth entering London in state, on the 28th of November, 1551: and above this, is the uppermost panel, representing Edward VI passing from the Tower to Westminster to be crowned, on February, 1546.

Despite the Grade II listing, the 1875 Sadler building fell victim to the re-development plans for the Mappin and Webb building at 1 Poultry, which had stood on the corner of Poultry and Queen Victoria Street for more than a hundred years. There was a lot of opposition to the plan, but it happened anyway and yet another part of London’s history disappeared. The new development at 1 Poultry, designed by Stirling and Wilford, is in itself now a Grade II listed building and all that is left of the original Mappin and Webb building is the clock. And all that is left of 12-13 Poultry are the terracotta panels which have been incorporated in the new building above Bucklersbury Passage. You can read more about the panels on the websites of London Remembers (here) or Ornamental Passions (here)

panels above Bucklersbury Passage (Google Street View)

The 1875 building is sometimes given as the property of Alfred Hawes, hosier, but that is not correct. According to the tax records, Charles Sadler occupied the building from ±1870 when Dossetor left to 1888 when Sadler died.⁽⁵⁾ It is true that Hawes is listed at 12-13 in The London Gazette in an 1880 bankruptcy notice, but before that he was listed at 40-41 Poultry (1873) and at 33 Poultry (1872). Tallis lists Hawes & Ottley at Nos 40-41. Hawes may just have rented some space in the Sadler building near the time of his bankruptcy. I will see if I can find out when I do some more research on him for the post on 40-41 Poultry. Also notice that the name of Sadler is on the building in the illustration in The Building News.

Advertisement in London: a Complete Guide to the Leading Hotels, 1872

(1) The London Gazette, 27 April 1819.
(2) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1864. Estate valued at under £7,000.
(3) The London Gazette, 2 March 1869.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1887.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1888. Estate valued at over £7,600.

Neighbours:

<– 14 Poultry

11 Poultry –>

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James Pimm, fishmonger and confectioner

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street Views: 38 and 17 Suppl.
Addresses: 3 Poultry and 77 Cheapside

In the 1839 Street View, Tallis lists James Pimm at 3 Poultry (top elevation above) and in the 1847 Supplement at 77 Cheapside (lower elevation). The Poultry did not figure in the Tallis Supplements, so it is impossible from that source to determine whether Pimm hung on to that establishment, but the tax records for the Cheap Ward can help us out. Pimm was still mentioned in the tax records of 1846 as the proprietor of 3 Poultry, but in 1847 the line for that address is left empty, while in 1850 (no records seem to exist for 1848 and 1849) it is filled with the name of Samuel D. Morey. The premises listed in the Supplement for Pimm, 77 Cheapside, were still occupied by George Miner in 1839, although the Tallis plan mistakenly shows the name of a T. Carter, tailor and draper, on the elevation. I will get back to this discrepancy in a forthcoming post on Miner, but here we are concerned with the later occupation by Pimm.

An engraving of a drawing by T.H. Shepherd shows the two premises of Pimm’s, albeit only just. Looking from St. Paul’s towards the Poultry, Cheapside bends slightly to the right into Bucklersbury, which means that numbers 78, 79 and 80 are not visible in the engraving and Pimm’s at number 77 only just (pink arrow). You can recognise the building by the molding above the window on the first floor (pink circle). Number 3 Poultry is indicated by the green arrow. The Shepherd drawing gives the illusion that the two establishments were closer together than they actually were, but Tallis flattened the street in his View, giving a better idea of the situation.

Engraving from Shepherd & Elmes, London and its Environs in the Nineteenth Century, 1831

Street section from Tallis Street View 38

1799 Horwood map

In June 1822, James Pimm acquired the freedom of the City through the Company of Loriners by redemption, that is, by paying a fine for not following the usual route of a 7-year apprenticeship or by patrimony. On the admission paper it is already stated that he was a fishmonger. That same year he married Mary Southerden Mallery at St. Mary Woolnoth, and he started his career in nearby Lombard Street. From the baptisms of the couple’s children, we can work out the subsequent addresses of the family between 1823 and 1841. From 1823 to 1826, they lived in Lombard Street; from 1827 to June 1830 in George Street; from November 1830 to 1834 at 2 Poultry and from 1836 onwards at 3 Poultry.⁽¹⁾ In 1837, Pimm decorated his house with “a crown in variegated lamps” as part of the illuminations for Queen Victoria’s procession to Guildhall on 9 November (see for a painting of the procession here).⁽²⁾ The 1841 census finds the Pimm family at 3 Poultry, but by 1851 they have moved to 77 Cheapside.

In most of the baptism entries for his children, James Pimm is listed as an oyster dealer, the 1841 baptism lists him as a shell fismonger and the 1841 census simply as fishmonger. But the 1851 census shows his business extending the range of goods on offer as he is then described as “confectioner and fish factor, master, employing 4 persons (not very clear, could be ‘personnel’). Daughter Mary and son Henry are both listed as confectioner’s assistants, Frances does not get a job description, William is an apprentice to a fish factor (not necessarily his father) and Ann is still a scholar. Also living on the premises is a female servant, also described as confectioner’s assistant. In 1854, son Henry Mallery acquires the freedom of the City by patrimony, not from the Loriners as his father had done, but perhaps more logically, from the Vintners. The documentation says that he does so “for particular reasons”, but no details about these reasons are given. In 1859, Henry Mallery takes out a General Game Certificate for which he had to pay 4l. 0s. 10d. with an additional duty of 10 per cent.⁽³⁾ This certificate allowed him to shoot game where he wants, subject to the Law of trespass. For an example see here.

portrait of James Pimm, uploaded by kcarmichael43 on ancestry.co.uk

In 1861, according to the census, Henry Mallery and his brother William were living at 7 Billingsgate as fish factors, although the land tax on the property is listed for James. Father James, his wife Mary and daughters Frances and Ann were then still living and working at 77 Cheapside. James is said to be a fish factor employing two men, but he was soon to retire. On his death certificate – he died the 6th of August 1866 – he is said to be living at East Peckham. The cause of death is given as liver and heart failure. His probate record gives him as “formerly a fish factor” and “formerly of Cheapside but late of Billingsgate and of Bush-place East Peckham”. Henry Mallery and William are named as the executors of the estate.⁽⁴⁾ When exactly the Cheapside establishment was transferred to others is unclear, but sons Henry and William seem to have remained at Billingsgate. In 1860, a list of householders of the Cheap Ward supporting the election of John Bennett as councilman lists a George Bradshaw at 77 Cheapside, but unfortunately without mentioning his occupation.⁽⁵⁾ In 1862, James Pimm is still listed for the Cheapside address in the Land Tax records, but in 1864 George Bradshaw’s name has replaced his.

Pimm’s O’Clock?
From the above information, you might gather that all Pimm did was sell fish, oysters in particular, but his name has gone down in history for a very different reason, namely the invention of Pimm’s No. 1 Cup. According to legend, Pimm started offering refreshing drinks with his oysters to aid digestion. It is uncertain when exactly he started with his famous drink, but the year 1840 is usually mentioned, and the bottles proudly show that year, but there is no direct evidence for that. It is certain that he applied for a licence to sell alcohol for 77 Cheapside in 1850, but that was refused. The application was opposed, not surprisingly, by sixteen licensed victuallers of the area; one of the reasons given was that the seating area at number 77 was even smaller than that of 51 Cheapside, whose owner, Mr. Pill, had been refused a licence for not having sufficient accommodation. The report on the hearing does not show the authorities in a very favourable light; they were arguing amongst themselves about the procedure and the meeting had to be adjourned for a while so that the magistrates could rethink their position in the case. In the end, the licence was refused.⁽⁶⁾

A year later, Pimm tried again, and this time he had the backing of 120 inhabitants of the ward, although the licensed victuallers of the area were once again opposed, one of them Pimm’s neighbour, Mr. Innes of the Queen’s Arms Tavern, along with 100 other inhabitants. Pimm was asked whether he planned to live at the premises and he answered, “I do […] the house which I ask to be licensed is my only home; and I have not the slightest intention of leaving it, so long as I can keep it”. The magistrates decided that a licence should be granted as “the shop was an old established and respectable place, well-known in the City of London, possessing every convenience for refreshment”. Interesting to see how they changed their tune from the year before when the accommodation was considered inadequate. But there was a warning: the premises were not to be converted into a gin shop or public house, or the licence might be revoked.⁽⁷⁶⁾

Borage (Borago officinalis) is used to flavour Pimm’s

Pimm’s No. 1 Cup was the first, and still the most popular, variety of Pimm’s beverage, but other varieties were introduced later on (see the Wikipedia page for its later history). It is also suggested that Samuel Morey, a former apprentice of Pimm’s, invented the drink. He was certainly Pimm’s successor at 3 Poultry, but he was not his apprentice. Morey only acquired the freedom of the City in 1854 and he did so by patrimony (his father was a Butcher), so had no need to become anyone’s apprentice. He may, of course, have been Pimm’s assistant before taking over the business at 3 Poultry, but I have found no evidence of that. On the contrary, Tallis already lists a Morey, fishmonger, at 201 Bishopsgate Without, that is, in 1839, and that address and 3 Poultry are both given on the probate record of Samuel Morey in 1877. More on the Morey family here, but for now, cheers, enjoy your Pimm’s.

Postscript: Terence Hodgson kindly sent me information and a picture of the architect’s drawings for 4 and 5 Poultry (see his comment), so many thanks to him. In 1870, restaurateur Frederick Sawyer, who took over from the Moreys, took an 80 year lease from the landowners, the Merchant Tailors’ Guild, and built a new Pimms restaurant at 4 and 5 Poultry. The architect for the new Pimms was a R H Moore, whose best still standing work is probably the Hop Exchange in Southwark. The building had the unusual conflans stone for its sheathing. In the new building, all floors were used for various types of grills and restaurants, and like many such buildings, the top floor, despite all the pretty arcading, was actually used for the kitchens and live-in staff quarters.

—————–
(1) Baptism dates: James 4 May 1823; James Henry 5 Sep 1824; Mary Mallery 12 Feb 1826; Henry Mallery 2 Dec 1827; James Norris, named after his grandfather, 28 June 1829; Francis Elizabeth 21 Nov 1830; William 12 Aug 1832; Ellen 18 May 1834; Ellen 17 Jan 1836; Ann 10 Sep 1837; George 14 July 1839; and Ann 1 Aug 1841. All but the last child, Ann, were baptised at St. Mary Woolnoth, but in 1841 St. Mildred Poultry was chosen.
(2) The Morning Chronicle, 10 November 1837.
(3) The Spectator, 8 October 1859.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1866. Effects valued at under £10,000.
(5) Daily News, 26 November 1860.
(6) The Era, 31 March 1850.
(7) The Era, 30 March 1851.

Neighbours:

<– 4 Poultry	2 Poultry –>
<– 78 Cheapside	76 Cheapside –>

Eddels and Kerby, hosiers and glovers

Tags

clothing

Street View: 38 and 17 Suppl.
Address: 64 Cheapside

You may remember that some posts ago I wrote about Benjamin Poulson, a tailor at 94 Regent Street. Before he started out on his own, Benjamin’s employer had been John Eddels and, in February 1827, Benjamin worked in Eddels’s shop in the Strand. Quite soon after, Eddels must have given up the shop in the Strand, as on 17 October of that same year, he has his will drawn up and only mentions two premises, one at 2 Coventry Street and one at 64 Cheapside. Eddels had meant the Coventry Street property to be sold with the proceeds to go to his daughter and the Cheapside shop to be retained for the use of his widow, but the family decided otherwise and John’s brother James Eddels of 34 Piccadilly, one of the executors of John’s will, took over the Coventry Street shop. John’s widow Mary, with her young daughter, also Mary, did, however, continue the hosiery business at Cheapside.

John and Mary had been married at St. George’s, Hanover Square, on 28 February, 1813, but their daughter Mary was baptised on 31 March, 1816, at St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, suggesting the family already lived in Cheapside, although John may not yet have been the proprietor of the shop. I found an 1805 advertisement for “the cheapest hosiery and glove warehouse in the world” at number 64, but no name is given. And it is only in 1817 that John obtained the freedom of the Company of Framework Knitters by redemption, paying the fine of 46s 8d, suggesting that only then had he become the actual proprietor and needed to be a freeman of one of the City Companies. The following year, a son James is baptised at St. Mary’s, but he probably died young as he is not mentioned in John’s will.

Advert in The Morning Chronicle, 17 January 1805

Fast forward to 1835, when a burglar managed to steal a piece of silk from the shop through a broken window. Evidence is given by John Kerby who states that he is shopman to Mrs Mary Eddels.⁽¹⁾ The theft is not very spectacular, but it gives us the name of Kerby. Interestingly enough, in the 1841 census, the name of Edmund Kerby is listed at 64 Cheapside. This Edmund married daughter Mary Eddels the following year (12 November 1842 at St. Mary-le-Bow) and on the marriage registration his father’s name is given as John with the occupation hatter. Did the father work for Eddels first and did his son take over? Quite possibly. Edmund obtains the freedom of the Spectaclemakers in 1850, also by redemption, paying the usual fine.

elevation in the 1847 Tallis Supplement Street View

The business seemed to have been doing well and nothing much happened for quite some years, but on the 9th of March, 1857, Mary Kerby, aged just 41, dies, leaving her husband and her mother to manage the shop. A year later, Mary senior also dies (on 4 October 1858) and Edmund is left on his own. Both Mary junior and Mary senior left their property to Edmund, but there was a bit of contention as Mrs Laing, the sister of Mary senior, alleged that Mary senior’s new will, the one she had drawn up after her daughter’s death, had not been signed properly in front of witnesses. It was shown that it was just a case of forgetfulness on the part of one of the witnesses and nothing untowards had happened and probate was duly granted to Edmund Kerby on 5 March 1859.⁽²⁾

Soon after, on 28 July, he remarried Charlotte Pardoe, a widow. Edmund’s address is given as Hampstead and his occupation as ‘gentleman’, suggesting he had given up the shop. The 1861 census confirms this as he is then given as “retired hosier” at Lanark Villas. Quite by chance, we know what happened to the shop at 64 Cheapside as the neigbour at number 65 was John Bennett, clock and watchmaker. Bennett had an advertisement put in The Daily News of 10 December 1859 in which he annouces the enlargement of his premises. “J. Bennett, finding that the whole of his present premises are required for his watch and clock business, has secured the adjoining house, 64 Cheapside, for the jewellery department of his establishment, which will be opened as soon as the fittings are completed”.

64 Cheapside had been built over the entrance to Crown Court. In the 1839 elevation (top of this post), Crown Court is clearly written in the gap on the left-hand side of the building, but in the 1847 elevation, the entrance hole is no longer given a name. If you look at the vignette which Bennett had in the 1847 Street View booklet, you will see the black hole of the Crown Court entrance with the windows of the Eddels/Kerby property above it on the right-hand side of the picture, just behind the wheels of the carriage.

vignette for Bennett in Tallis’s Supplement 17 Street View

View of Cheapside with number 64 behind the omnibus (Source: British Museum)

On 23 October 1867, ten years after the death of the Eddels women, a notice from the Bank of England appeared in The Daily News announcing the release in three months time of annuities “in the names of Mary Eddels, of Cheapside, widow, and Mary Eddels of Cheapside, spinster, since wife of Edmund Kerby” to the latter “unless some other claimant shall sooner appear and make out his claim thereto”. No more is heard of it, so I assume Edmund received the money. Edmund married a third time in 1871 to Eliza Kirkes and died in 1879. His personal estate was then valued at under £3,000 and the executors were Thomas Henry Neal, solicitor, and Edward Hemming, a hosier of Cannon Street.⁽³⁾ And here we come almost full circle, as the Hemmings figure prominently in the will of Nathaniel Keen Eddels, John Eddels’s brother. For Nathaniel’s will, see the post on Poulson.

—————-
(1) Old Bailey case t18350921-1933.
(2) The Morning Chronicle, 16 February 1859, Court of Probate report.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1879.

Neighbours:

<– 65 Cheapside (1839)	63 Cheapside –>
<– 65 Cheapside (1847)	63 Cheapside –>

Thomas Tegg, bookseller

Tags

book trade

Street View: 38 and 17 Suppl.
Address: 73 Cheapside

Thomas Tegg became an important bookseller, known for publishing reprints and remainders, but he also published original work and, in his early years, acted as auctioneer. He left a handwritten autobiography, now lost, of which sections were published by his son in 1870. The small booklet does not seem to be available online, but Henry Curwen had access to it and provides most of the information about Tegg’s early life in his A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New (1873). Curwen’s chapter on Tegg is available online here, so I will only repeat the bare essentials.

Tegg was born in 1776, his father died when he was 5 years old and his mother when he was 9. He was sent to a boarding school in Scotland and from there to an apprenticeship with a bookseller. Unfortunately, that bookseller was often drunk and abusive, so Tegg ran away. After many jobs in many places, he managed to reach London in 1796 where he found work in the bookshop of the Quakers John and Arthur Arch. When he received a legacy of £200, he decided to set up on his own, at first in partnership with J. Dalton Dewick at 6, West Moreland Buildings, Aldersgate Street, but that partnership was quickly dissolved.⁽¹⁾ Dewick stayed at Aldersgate Street and Thomas set up shop in St. John’s Street with one Castleman as his partner. They called their shop The Eccentric Book Warehouse, but apparently Castleman had a predilection for alcohol rather than for business, so that partnership did not last very long either.

The shop in St. John Street (Source: Bodleian Library)

Tegg proceeded to tour the country as an auctioneer, buying up stock and selling it on at a profit until he had raised enough money to come back to London and start all over again for himself. This time, he found a shop in Cheapside, number 111, from which he established himself well enough to be able to move in 1824 to a much larger shop at number 73. Number 73 had been built after a design by Christopher Wren for Sir William Turner who served as Lord Mayor in 1668-9. It became known as Old Mansion House.

111 Cheapside (Source: British Museum)

A advertorial poem listing books that could be bought at Tegg’s (Source: British Museum)

73 Cheapside (Source: W. Thornbury, Old and New London, vol. 1, p. 343)

Thomas Tegg married Mary Holland on 20 April 1800 at St. Bride’s and the couple were to have many children. At least five of the boys became booksellers; James and Samuel in Australia; Thomas junior and Henry in Dublin with Henry later going to Cape Town; and William who was to succeed his father in the Cheapside shop, but later removing the business to 12 Pancras Lane. It was a very clever move to send family members abroad to obtain a foothold in far-away places, thereby assuring an outlet for the relatively cheap reprints and remainders Tegg specialised in. Tegg had cornered the market nicely in 1825 when a financial crisis forced many publishers and booksellers who had overreached themselves to panic and sell left-over stock. Tegg swept it all up at hugely advantageous prices, such as, for instance, some of Walter Scott’s novels, which he later sold at a nice profit.⁽²⁾ He wrote in his autobiography, “I was the broom that swept the booksellers’ warehouses”.

Thomas senior died in 1846, according to Curwen, “after a long and painful illness, brought on by over-exertion, mental and physical” and was buried at St. Mary’s, Wimbledon on 28 April. His youngest son Alfred Byron, a student at Pembroke College, Oxford, was buried on the same day; it is said that he was so overcome by his father’s death, that he died almost instantly after receiving the message.

73 Cheapside can be seen on the right-hand side of this illustration from Shepherd & Elmes’ London Environs (Source: British Museum)

Below two advertisements and some title-pages of random publications by Thomas Tegg. If you like to know more about Tegg’s publications and have access to JSTOR, I suggest you read: James J. Barnes and Patience P. Barnes, “Reassessing the Reputation of Thomas Tegg, London Publisher, 1776-1846” in Book History, Vol. 3 (2000), pp. 45-60.

The Hull Packet and Original Weekly Commercial, Literary and General Advertiser, 30 August 1800

Morning Chronicle, 2 June 1824

Source: British Museum

Source: British Museum

[Postscript: Jenny Bakken, whose husband was the 3 x great grandson of Thomas Tegg, sent me two photographs of the Cheapside façade, which now resides in a Kent park. The building that housed Tegg’s bookshop was demolished in the 1920s, but the façade was saved in order to erect it somewhere else in London. That did not happen and in the end it ended up as a garden feature in Pines Garden, St. Margaret’s Bay, Kent. Thanks go to Jenny for letting me post the photographs and for making me realise that a tangible piece of 73 Cheapside still exist (see also the comment by John Crellin)]

Google satellite view of Pines Garden with the façade clearly visible (see here)

—————-
(1) The London Gazette, 15 March 1800.
(2) F.A. Munby, Publishing and Bookselling (1930, reissued 1934), p. 269-271.

Neighbours:

<– 74 Cheapside

72 Cheapside –>

Flanagan & Nutting, seedsmen

Tags

horticulture

Street View: 38
Address: 9 Mansion House Street

Tallis Street View booklet number 38 contains a small advertisement for the firm of Flanagan & Nutting, seedsman and florists. They plied their business from 9, Mansion House Street, which was situated opposite Mansion House (where the NatWest building is now). Flanagan is William Flanagan who obtained his freedom of the Company of Playing Card Makers by redemption in January 1829. On the freedom document, he is listed as ‘seedsman’. His partner was William James Nutting who obtained his freedom half a year later from the Company of Joiners by patrimony. In 1827, William James Nutting had married William’s sister Priscilla at St. Stephen Walbrook and another marriage in 1827 led to a three-way family partnership. Robert Randall Chubb married Sarah Nutting at St. Sepulchre’s, Holborn and also obtained his freedom from the Company of Playing Card Makers by redemption. He too is then listed as ‘seedsman and florist’. When the partnership between the brothers-in-law started is not exactly known, but in 1833, Chubb withdrew from the partnership.⁽¹⁾

advertisement in Tallis’s Street View

Drawing by George Sharp, 1833, showing the shops across from Mansion House (Source: British Museum). Red arrow pointing towards Flanagan and Nutting’s shop

So far, so good. An ordinary chain of events. Marriages leading to or perhaps the result of a business partnership and one of the partners moving away for whatever reason. It happened all the time, but this case was not as amicable as the facts suggest. The first sign appeared in The Morning Post of 26 November, 1833, where Nutting and Flanagan feel it necessary to enter a notice in which they “return thanks for the support they have so liberally received” and they “beg to contradict a report of their being about to remove from their premises” and that they “have no connection with any other house”. What is the matter here? More is revealed in the report of the case ‘Chubb v. Flanagan and another’ at the Court of Common Pleas.⁽²⁾ Chubb sued his former partners for an alleged libel in the Horticultural Journal and Florists’ Register in which Flanagan and Nutting “deem it necessary to caution their friends against a fraudulent representation that any part of their business has been removed” and that they “never had the most remote connection with the shop recently opened in another part of the town, under circumstances grossly misrepresented and highly discreditable, with a view of defrauding them of a part of their business”. Although I have not seen the original copy of the Horticultural Journal in which this ‘libel’ appeared and am going with the Common Pleas report, it seems to contain substantially the same message as in The Morning Post advert, albeit not in the same wording.

From the Court proceedings, we learn a bit more about the gentlemen involved. Chubb had been a linen-draper before he entered into a partnership with Flanagan and Nutting, but after the dissolving of the partnership set up shop as a seedsman in 70-71 Newgate Street. He had issued printed bills, notifying the public that “the seed and florist’s business”, previously carried on in Mansion House Street, “will be carried on in all its departments, under the firm of R.R. Chubb & Co.”, certainly suggesting that the whole business had been removed. He also had the following inscription put over the door of his new abode “Chubb & Co, Seedsmen & Florists, removed from opposite the Mansion House”. Flanagan and Nutting took exception to this statement and retaliated by inserting the alleged libel in the Horticultural Journal. They also state in the notice that their firm had fifty years of experience, so the firm must have started around 1784, obviously not with the defendants of the court case, but with an earlier generation; Nutting and Flanagan were both born around 1806. The Court case would probably have fizzled out if this had been all, but in the same issue of The Horticultural Journal an article headed “Chit Chat” was included which mentioned that Flanagan & Nutting’s dahlias would be ready for delivery in May and

“by the way, one of the most impudent attempt to draw off part of the connexion [sic] of this highly respectable firm has been ineffectually made, by a fellow, the very sight of whom, to say nothing of his conversation, would convince a man that anything above a linendraper’s porter was beyond his capacities, though he possesses all the low cunning of an experienced imposter. The character is, however, written upon his brazen face in such legible terms that he could hardly take in an idiot.”

Charming! Although it could not be proven that Flanagan and Nutting had anything to do with the authorship of the Chit Chat piece, they had sold copies of the journal and were on that ground liable to pay damages. In the end, the Jury found for the plaintiff and he was awarded 50l damages. Chubb also proceeded against the publisher and the printer of the Horticultural Journal and was awarded 40s. in both cases.

Drawing of a Hyacinth grown from a bulb imported from Holland by Flanagan & Nutting (Source: The Florists’s Guide and Cultivator’s Directory, 1827)

Chubb
What happened next? In 1837, a partnership between Chubb and one James Hine Miller is dissolved⁽³⁾ and at the end of 1838 he is declared bankrupt⁽⁴⁾. We know from the Tallis Street View of Newgate Street that in 1839 Chubb was no longer at the address where he had his business and where the electoral registers lists him in the years 1834-1837, that is, at 71 Newgate Street. By the time the 1841 census was taken, he lived in Southampton with his wife Sarah and two children, James and Julia. He is listed as ‘Ind.’ suggesting he no longer had to earn his living. Ten years later, he and his family have moved back to London, living at 3 Montague Place, Islington as “landed proprietor and fundholder”. Spin forward another ten years and the money seems to have run out. Robert and Sarah are now living in a boarding house in Paddington and although Sarah is still described as ‘fundholder’, Robert is a commercial traveller. In 1871, they have managed to acquire a house again, this time at 2 Roseland Villas, Millbrook, Southampton, but Robert is still a commercial traveller. He dies 24 January 1873 and probate is granted to his son James.⁽⁵⁾

Flanagan
In the mean time, in April 1841, Flanagan and Nutting dissolve their partnership.⁽⁶⁾ The notice in the newspaper about it tells us that they were still at 9 Mansion House Street, but that they also had premises at Dowgate Wharf, Upper Thames Street, presumably a warehouse. William Flanagan is to continue the business, but not long after the break-up he moves to 46, Cheapside; in the Tallis Street View of 1839 still the property of J. Brown, perfumer.⁽⁷⁾ And from here on, things become murky and William Flanagan disappears from view. However, in 1850, one Cornelius Octavius Flanagan (who was most likely Williams (half-) brother of Mansion House Street, seedsman, signs over all his assets to George Charlwood of Covent Garden and William James Nutting of Cheapside, both seedsmen, “for the equal benefit of all his creditors”.⁽⁸⁾ It sounds as if Cornelius took over the Mansion House Street property when William removed to Cheapside, but things went wrong and Cornelius had to hand over to his competitors, one of whom had been the business partner of his brother. But this latter bit is just conjecture. I have not found any records to substantiate it. The advertisement shown below may be from a completely different Flanagan, but maybe not. Your guess is as good as mine.

advert from Gardeners’ Chronicle, 12 Jan. 1878

Flanagan & Nutting were one of the first firms to offer Penstemon seed; they offered nine species in their 1835 catalogue (Source: Wikipedia Commons and shef3d.com/i/Penstemon)

Nutting
After the end of the partnership with Flanagan, Nutting finds himself a warehouse at Lyon’s Wharf, Queenhithe, from where he plies his seed trade until he can find more suitable premises.⁽⁹⁾ The first we hear of him again is in the 1851 census when he lives at 1 Bread Street with his wife Priscilla and sons William James junior and Henry Cornelius. All three men are called ‘seedsman’. From an 1866 notice in the London Gazette, we learn that they are in partnership, in 1866 at 60, Barbican, but that William James the elder has retired in April 1863.⁽¹⁰⁾ Why it took three years to enter the notice in the paper is not made clear, or was it a mistake by the paper and should the year have been 1866? William James senior may have retired, but he was still living above the shop in 1871. He died in October 1877 at 12 Royal Crescent, Margate.⁽¹¹⁾ The business, however, was continued by the sons and they must have done well, because when probate was granted in 1910 for the estate of William James junior, the effects were valued at over £53,500.⁽¹²⁾

Advert in The Garderners’ Chronicle, 1882

———————
(1) London Gazette, 26 April 1833.
(2) Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts of Common Law, ed. by T. Sergeant, vol. 25 (1835), sittings in London after Trinity Term, p. 472-475.
(3) London Gazette, 30 June 1837.
(4) London Gazette, 28 December 1838.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1873. The estate is valued as under £450.
(6) London Gazette, 30 April 1841.
(7) The Athenaeum, 2 October 1841.
(8) London Gazette, 7 June 1850.
(9) The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1 May 1841.
(10) London Gazette, 8 June 1866.
(11) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1898. The estate is valued as just over £69.
(12) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1910. Probate granted to Whitpaine and Henry William Walter Nutting, seed merchants.

G. & A. Greenland, booksellers

Tags

bank, book trade

Street View: 38
Address: 38 Poultry

The index to Street View 38 lists G. and H. Greenland, booksellers at 38 Poultry, but the Street view itself has G. & A. Greenland and that is correct. The gentlemen were George and Alfred Greenland, the sons of Edward Greenland who had a bookshop at 2, later 3 Finsbury Place. George, the eldest, was baptised in 1794 at St. Luke’s, Finsbury and Alfred in 1800 at St. Leonard Shoreditch. In 1816, Alfred is apprenticed to one Thomas Greenland, presumably a relative, who was a member of the Innholders’ Company. Father Edward died at Ipswich in 1818 “where he went for the recovery of his health”.⁽¹⁾ A “body stone” with the text “In memory of Edward Greenland, of Finsbury Place, London, who departed this life the 21st of November 1818, in the 44 year of his age” was placed on the north side of St. Matthew’s Church, Ipswich.

Advert in The Morning Post, 8 November 1823

After the death of his father, George took over the shop at Finsbury Place, but as late as 1822, a notice appeared in The London Gazette that anyone with a claim on the estate should come forward. By 1828, Alfred had joined his brother and the bookshop had been relocated to 38 Poultry. The first advertisement I found for the brothers together is in The Edinburgh Review where they advertise the 6th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as well as “an extensive stock of new and second-hand books”. And should you happen to have a spare library, they were quite willing to buy it or take it in exchange. And the year after they have “cheap books on sale” and in particular the Annals of Sporting of which they have “bought the few remaining copies of the assignees of the publishers” and are therefore able to offer the 78 numbers of the periodical at the “very reduced price of 4l. 14s. 6d.”. In other words, they dealt in remainders.

Advert in The Foreign Review, January 1829

In 1842, the partnership between the brothers was dissolved.⁽²⁾ The notice in the Gazette does not say that George will continue the shop in the Poultry, but that is what happened and he also diverged into auctions. In June 1842, he announces the sale of “a collection of books, consisting of 7000 volumes – 162 copperplates of the Contemporary Portraits, 2 vols, folio – 4120 engravings of the Churches of London – 280 vols of County History, by Lysons, Ec, &c.”. He also announces in the advert that he will do “valuations for the legacy duty”.⁽³⁾ The following year he auctions Bibliotheca illustrata et splendisissima … choice and valuable books … from the library of an eminent collector.⁽⁴⁾ But he no longer just deals with books; in 1844 he auctions “all the excellent modern household furniture” and “the lease of the house twenty years un-expired Lady-day last” of the property at 16, Norton Street, Portland Place, which had a gallery with “one of the finest lights in London for an artist”.⁽⁵⁾ By 1851, George has retired and is living at 4 Laddiges Building in Hackney. He subsequently moves to Somerset where he dies 21 November, 1863. Probate is granted to his daughter Emma.⁽⁶⁾

Satirical print by George Cruikshank ©British Museum

Alfred in the mean time started his own shop after the break-up of the partnership as book and print seller at 4, Old Broad Street, Royal Exchange. But he only kept the shop till 1849 when the sale of his stock of “books, pictures, drawings and prints” was announced, because Alfred was “relinquishing the business”.⁽⁷⁾ From the 1851 census, we learn that Alfred and his family have moved to Chapel Allerton in Yorkshire where he has become a “stock and share broker”. Ten years later, he can be found in Leeds where he is listed as the manager of the Leeds Banking Company, but he must already have combined that post with his bookselling business as in the 1843 Post Office Directory we find him listed as the bank manager at Leeds. The bank collapses, mainly due to Alfred’s poor management, and he was tried for falsifying the returns made to the Inland Revenue of the amount of the notes issued by the Bank. It turns out that of the 234 returns sent in between January 1860 and June 1864, only five were correct; the rest had been fiddled with. After submitting three sureties of £1,600 each, Alfred was granted bail, but was eventually convicted in October 1866 and sentenced to 15 months in prison with hard labour.⁽⁸⁾ But he did not have to serve his whole sentence. After three months in the hospital prison he was granted a free pardon, much to the disgust of those who lost their money when the Leeds Banking Company folded.⁽⁹⁾ The 1871 census shows Alfred and his family living at 9 Royal Crescent, Scarborough, Yorkshire, as a “retired stockbroker”. He died there in 1877, two years after his wife. Probate was granted to his son and daughters.⁽¹⁰⁾

Source: Bonhams.com

(1) Bury and Norwich Post, 2 December 1818. Probate was granted 5 December 1818 (National Archives, Kew: Prob 11/1611/62)
(2) London Gazette, 18 March 1842.
(3) The Athenaeum, 4 June 1842.
(4) British Library: 11902.d.31.
(5) The Morning Post, 9 December 1844.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1863. The estate is valued under £5,000.
(7) The Athenaeum, 10 March 1849.
(8) Hull Packet and East Riding Times, 15 June 1866. A full account of the trial can be found in The Leeds Mercury, 26 October 1866.
(9) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1867/aug/05/motion-for-an-address
(10) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1877. The estate is valued under £4,000.

George Hebert, librarian and bookseller

Tags

book trade, library

Street View: 38
Address: 88 Cheapside

This story starts when George Hebert, a weaver, and Ann Peltrau get married in St. Leonard Shoreditch Church on 16 April 1772. They were both of French Huguenot descend and their children were baptised in the French Protestant Church in Artillery Street. Two of the children, George David and Guillaume (later more often called William) were to set up a bookshop and circulating library.⁽¹⁾ On 1 April, 1794, William Lane, Citizen and Stationer of London takes on apprentice George (David) Hebert at a premium of £100. This premium was paid by David Descarrieres who, according to the indenture, was George’s guardian. George acquires his freedom after the regular 7 years. His brother William was apprenticed in 1799 to Richard Lekeux, Citizen and Fishmonger, which does not sound likely in view of William’s later career, but although Lekeux (or Le Keux) happened to be a member of the Fishmongers’ Company, his profession was mathematical instrument maker. Still not quite the same as bookseller, but at least not as far removed as fishmonger and the brothers were to specialise in mechanical and scientific books. Lekeux received a premium of £63, but the indenture does not state who paid it. William was made free in May 1806.⁽²⁾

Whether the brothers set up shop immediately after the end of their apprenticeship or whether they first worked for someone else is unclear. The earliest mention I found of the brothers’ bookshop and library is in the 1814 Post Office Directory where the address is given as 36 Poultry. The joint enterprise did not last very long, as in February 1815, a notice in the London Gazette announces the end of the partnership; George is to continue the “Circulating Library and the Bookselling and Stationary Business” at 36 Poultry. Where William next went is unclear, but when his son William Theodosius was apprenticed in 1838 to a chaser, William was described as a bookseller of Liverpool.⁽³⁾

Mercer’s Hall, Cheapside, with Hebert’s bookshop visible on the left (Source: Shepherd & Elmes, London Environs)

In November 1811, George had married Elizabeth Woodburne at St. Mildred Poultry and the couple were to have (at least) three children: Elizabeth, baptised 16 August 1814, and two boys who were to follow their father in the book trade: George junior, born 22 April 1817, baptised at St. Mildred’s 24 January 1819 and Roger Woodburne, born 25 December 1818 and baptised on the same day as his brother. The address of the parents is given as Cheapside, so George senior must have moved the shop somewhere between 23 November 1816 when he advertises in The Morning Post with the 36 Poultry address and early 1819. The baptism record does not give a house number, but an advertisement in The Morning Chronicle of 11 March does; the shop could be found at number 88. We know almost nothing about the circulating library, apart from the mention of its existence in directories and advertisements, but by chance, one book (Owen Felltham’s Resolves, Divine, Moral and Political, 1806) with the label of the library was offered for sale recently and the seller very kindly sent me a photograph to illustrate this post.

Library label (with grateful thanks to Peter Spain of http://www.westgrovebindery.com)

George junior is apprenticed to his father in 1832 and made free in 1839. The indenture gives no indication of what happened after the death of George senior in 1837.⁽⁴⁾ Normally, on the death of his master, an apprentice is turned over to another master to serve out his time and that is usually recorded on the papers, but not here, so presumably the Company did not see the continuation of the business by the widow as a change. Roger acquires the freedom of the City through the Stationers’ Company by patrimony in December 1840. In his will, George senior had named his wife Elizabeth as the sole executrix and he leaves her “all my estate and effects … absolutely for ever feeling perfectly satisfied … that my dear and good wife will do the best for our most dear sons”.⁽⁵⁾ From the 1841 Post Office Directory we can see that Elizabeth continued to lead the bookshop and library and even the 1851 census still lists her as Circulating Library Keeper with the two unmarried sons still living at the same address. However, the family no longer lives above the shop in Cheapside, but at 17 Queens Place, Lambeth. Advertisements in the 1840s suggest that while Elizabeth ran the library, George took care of the bookselling and publishing side of the business with Roger joining him later.

George junior married Mary Ann Nesbit in 1854, but the marriage did not last very long as in the 1861 census he is listed as a widower. I have not discovered when he died, but since I have not found any advertisements for the bookshop after 1861, I assume he died or retired soon after. Roger marries Elizabeth Redman in 1864 and, according to the censuses, the couple seems to have had one daughter, Elizabeth. Roger dies 5 May 1894, but is by then long retired (at least since 1871, but possibly as early as 1861) and living in Somerset.

1860 one of the last Hebert publications

(1) George David, born 21 April 1776, baptised 17 May 1776; Guillaume born 23 November 1783, baptised 23 December 1784.
(2) London Metropolitan Archives, Freedom admissions papers, COL/CHD/FR/02.
(3) At the time of William Theodosius’ baptism in 1824, William and his wife Mary Ann were living in Gee Street, Clerkenwell.
(4) He dies at Margate and is buried at Bunhill Fields on 20 July 1837.
(5) The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Register, PROB 11/1881/347.

Neighbours:

<– 89 Cheapside

86 Cheapside –>