Henry Broughton, button maker

Tags

cutler

Street View: 74
Address: 135 Fenchurch Street

To tell you something about the history of 135 Fenchurch Street, we have to go back to the mid-eighteenth century and to another part of London. According to John D. Davis in his Pewter at Colonial Williamsburg (2003), John Townsend, the son of another John, a Berkshire yeoman, started his business as a pewterer in 1748, which would have been soon after he obtained the freedom of the City. He had started his apprenticeship with Samuel Jeffery, pewterer, on 10 November 1740, which would give him his freedom after the usual 7-year period in late 1747. He started his professional life at 47 Prescott Street, Goodmans Field, but could later be found in Booth Street, Spitalfields. In 1752 he married Sarah Hogge and that same year, he took on as an apprentice, Thomas Giffin, son of Thomas, another pewterer. In 1770 the Land Tax records for the St. Gabriel Fenchurch precinct record Thomas Giffin for the first time at the property where Tallis was to find Henry Broughton, that is, on the corner of Cullum Street and Fenchurch Street. John D. Davis mentions a partnership Townsend contracted with one Reynolds between 1767 and 1771, but from 1771 he was in business with his former apprentice Giffin. From 1778, the company was known as John Townsend & Co., which included Giffin and Townsend’s son-in-law Thomas Compton.

touch marks Giffin (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 23.80.53)

Compton had been Townsend’s apprentice since 1763 and had married Townsend’s daughter Mary in 1775. Townsend and Compton had their pewter and tin-foil factory in Booth Street, Spitalfields, and in 1790, they took on one John Gray from Brentford as their apprentice. Thanks to him, we know a lot about Townsend and Compton as in 1839 the Memoir of the Life and Character of John Gray, a Member of the Society of Friends was published by Theodore Compton. Later editions included short biographies of Gray’s masters Townsend and Compton. The Quaker Townsend travelled widely in England and in America on “religious services and missions”. Apparently, his brother had settled in Canada and from there Townsend went to New York and Pennsylvania, among other places. From time to time members of the family went to America on business and lots of their pewter, “immense quantities” according to Davis, ended up in America.

touch mark Townsend and Compton (Source: Wayne & Hilt)

But to return to 135 Fenchurch Street. Thomas Giffin took the corner property in 1770, but the tax records usually listed the property for Townsend & Giffin and from 1780 onwards for Townsend & Co. until 1803 when only Thomas Compton is listed. Thomas died in 1817 and the property is then listed for T. & G. (or T. & H.) Compton until 1831 when Henry Broughton takes over. Henry Compton later traded from 37 Fenchurch Street. We will leave the Townsend/Compton business for what it was and concentrate on Broughton. He called himself a hardware and button warehouseman in the 1831 Sun Fire Office entry where he is stated as having insured the property, “in which no manufactury takes place”, for £1300. In 1834, he also insures his stock and utensils for £500. From 1836, he shared the property with Jonathan White junior who insured his household goods for £100, later increased to £150. By the time Tallis produced his booklet, Broughton shared the property with Gordon & Leith. Tallis does not give these gentlemen an occupation, but they were merchants, trading in the Caribbean, with just an office in Fenchurch Street. In the 1851 Post Office Directory they have been replaced by Charles Avery, colonial broker. More on these men in a later post.

Goad’s insurance map, 1887

Henry Broughton did not trade just from Fenchurch Street, but also from Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, although by the time his will was proved in 1849, he was said to be “late of Bouverie Street and now of Fenchurch Street”, so the Bouverie Street property was given up at some point. According to the list of military button manufacturers that Peter Nayler compiled, Henry Broughton had been in partnership with Thomas Nortzell at 21 Bouverie Street from 1820 until 1831⁽¹⁾, so up to the time of his move to Fenchurch Street. It is unclear whether he remained in Bouverie Street after the partnership with Nortzell was dissolved in 1831, possibly just with a warehouse, but it seems likely, because why would he otherwise still refer to that address in his will? After Broughton’s death, the Fenchurch property was listed in the tax records under the name of Broughton & Son till 1854 when one Edmund Jones took over.

advertisement for Broughton in the Tallis Street View booklet

Although the premises at number 135 were listed in the tax records for Broughton, or rather, for his son, until 1854, an advertisement in the newspapers of late 1852 suggests an earlier change of hands. The property is advertised as a haberdasher’s shop, but Broughton always called himself a hardwareman or button maker, so it seems that Jones took over earlier than the tax records suggest. The 1856 Post Office Directory lists Jones as hosier and shirt maker, sharing the property with Thomas Thompson, solicitor. More on later occupants of 135 Fenchurch Street in the forthcoming post on Gordon & Leith, but for now, this is where this post stops.

advertisement in The Morning Chronicle, 28 October 1852

(1) Partnership dissolved 30 June 1831. Source: The London Gazette, 12 July 1831.

Neighbours:

<– 136 Fenchurch Street

134 Fenchurch Street –>

Borradaile, Son & Ravenhill, merchants

Tags

hats, merchant

Street View: 74
Address: 34 Fenchurch Street

Tallis mistakenly lists the firm as Borradaili, but it should be Borradaile, nor does he give any indication what trade they were in. Admittedly, their profession is somewhat confusing as they were involved in all kinds of activities, but to keep it simple, I have given them the occupation of ‘merchants’. They were involved, however, in (fur) hatmaking, shipping, insurance, cotton mills, and probably much more that has not made it into easily accessible records.

top part of William’s indenture

William Borradaile (born 16 Dec. 1750, baptised 5 Jan. 1751), son of John Borradaile, a tanner of Wigdon, Cumberland, was apprenticed in 1765 to London Founder Edward Watson. In 1778, William’s younger brother Richardson followed him to London to be apprenticed to Draper Henry Wright. In Bailey’s Northern Directory for the year 1781, Edward Watson was listed as a merchant at 31 Cannon Street and in his will of 1788, Watson leaves “to the said William Borradaile all the rest residue and remainder of my personal estate”, in other words: everything that had not been left to others was to go to William.⁽¹⁾ By that time, William had already set up on his own and his name appears in the tax records for Fenchurch Street. That the relationship between his master Edward Watson and William Borradaile was close, can be seen in the name of Borradaile’s son, who was baptised on 2 April 1785 as John Watson Borradaile. In 1799, this son was apprenticed to his uncle Richardson, and so was his younger brother Abraham in 1803. Another brother, William, was apprenticed in 1807 to a Merchant Taylor, John Clark, but later became a man of the church.⁽²⁾

Pelts of beaver, fox, and other animals (Source: uniquelyminnesota.com)

To complicate matters, Richardson, who had entered into a partnership with his brother, also had a son William who was taken on as an apprentice in the Fenchurch business of furriers, hatters and merchants. In those days, the Borradailes were certainly involved in the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company archive shows them supplying hats to the North West Company at Grand Portage, Minnesota.⁽³⁾ See here and here for more information on the fur trade from Grand Portage. In the summer of 2017, the Grand Portage National Park Service plans to open a reconstruction of the inside of a 1799 hatters’ shop, which they will name ‘Borradaile and Atkinson’.

The Borradailes formed all sorts of – temporary – partnerships, sometimes more than one at any given time, and a particular example is given in The London Gazette of 1811 where several partnerships were dissolved.⁽⁴⁾ The first one mentioned was between William Borradaile, Richardson Borradaile and John Atkinson of Salford, Manchester, as merchants and manufacturers. They had been trading under the name of William and Richardson Borradaile and Co. in London and under the name of Borradailes, Atkinson and Co. in Salford. Another partnership between the Borradailes, Atkinson and John Clark was dissolved that same day. These partners had been trading under the name of Borradaile and Clark. Both partnerships were dissolved because Atkinson pulled out. Two more partnerships were dissolved that had involved Atkinson, although the entry in The London Gazette does not state whether they were dissolved because he withdrew. One of these partnerships was between the Borradaile brothers of Fenchurch Street, John Atkinson of Salford, Robert Owen⁽⁵⁾ of Manchester and Thomas Atkinson of Manchester, as cotton spinners under the name of the Chorlton Twist Company. And the last partnership had been between all of the above mentioned partners together with Henry and John Barton of Manchester as cotton spinners under the name of the New Lanark Cotton Mills. The Johnstone’s 1818 Directory shows that matters in London were also not quite as straightforward as one might think, especially not when the next generation got involved. Johnstone lists under the name Borradaile:
R. & C. & Co. , furriers, Great Suffolk Street, Borough
R. and Wm. jun. & Co., merchants, 14 St. Helen’s Place
W. & R. & Co., merchants, 14 St. Helen’s Place
W., Sons & Ravenhill, hat makers, 34 Fenchurch Street, manufactury Hatfield Street, Blackfriars Rd.

fur shop from Diderot’s Encyclopédie (Source: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

We will concentrate on the Fenchurch Street business here, which was run by the Borradaile brothers and George Ravenshill after Atkinson withdrew from the partnership. More on the business in a moment, but first a glimpse into the private life of William Borradaile. On the 4th of July, 1812, he wrote a letter to the churchwardens of St. Laurence Pountney,

Gentlemen,
From the parents of my wife (who is just deceased) having been many years inhabitants of the parish of St. Laurence Pountney, and being, as well as my own mother and several others of our family, interred in the burial ground of that parish, I feel desirous to possess a vault there. I therefore request the favour of you to call a vestry, in order to consider of a grant to be made me of ground for the purpose of building such vault near the foot of my late mother’s grave stone, of the following dimensions, viz.: 7 feet long by 4 feet 10 inches wide in the clear, and of such depths as you may judge proper.⁽⁶⁾

His request was granted and presumably the vault was built, but surprisingly, he does not mention it in his will.⁽⁷⁾ He was, however, buried at St. Mary Abchurch, which was the parish to which St. Laurence Pountney had been united after the Fire of London in 1666 as St Laurence’s was not rebuilt, although their graveyard continued in use until 1850. William’s gravestone, and those of other Borradailes, is listed for St. Laurence Pountney in The Churchyard Inscriptions of the City of London. But to return to the business: sons John Watson and Abraham continued the business under the name of Wm. Borradaile & Co., although the property at 34 Fenchurch Street was now listed in the tax records for John Watson alone as he had inherited the building itself. In 1832, these second-generation brothers, George Ravenhill and one William Thornborrow dissolve a partnership as insurance brokers; apparently a new sideline of the hatters.⁽⁸⁾ The 1841 census found John Watson, his wife Ann, their children and brother Abraham at 34 Fenchurch Street, but soon afterwards the business premises were shared with various other companies.

From 1843 onwards, various other businesses could be found trading from 34 Fenchurch Street, among them Ludd and William Fenner, who went bankrupt in late 1843.⁽⁹⁾, William Grant, tobacco broker who died in March 1853, and Marshall and Edridge, who ran the Australian line of packet ships. In 1851, John Watson and Abraham dissolved the partnership they had as “merchants and general commission agents”, because John Watson was retiring.⁽¹⁰⁾ He died in 1859. Abraham continued the business until his own death in June 1857. While sitting in his counting house “he was suddenly attacked by mortal sickness, and, although medical aid was promptly at hand, expired in a few minutes of the seizure”.⁽¹¹⁾ The notice about Abraham’s death listed the company as “Cape merchants” and said that he had married his cousin, the daughter of Richardson Borradaile, many years M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne. The entry for Richardson on the website of the Parliamentary history gives more information on the various merchant activities of the Borradailes (see here). The Borradaile name continued to be used by various family members and could be found as far away as Calcutta where Messrs Borradaile owned a steam boat, the “Pioneer” which did service on the Ganges; they were also heavily involved in the Indian railways. The Borradailes even acquired eternal fame by having an – albeit small – island near Antarctica named after them, Borradaile Island.

Strakers’ Annual Mercantile, Ship & Insurance Register of 1863, lists numerous businesses trading from 34 Fenchurch Street:
Merchants: Bartholomew Calway; Alexander L. Georgacopulo; Demetrio Georgiades; V.A. Van Hüffel & Co.; Charles Maltby; Michaelis, Boyd & Co; Henry William F. Niemann; W. Potter; Henry A. Preeston & Co.; W.S. Shuttleworth & Co.; John Hammond Winch; East India and Colonial Merchants: Lerosche and Co.; James Macdonald and Co.; Tea and Coffee Brokers: Charles Maltby; Timber Brokers: Grant, Hodgson & Co.
Many more names could be added to these over the years, but I will leave it at this and end with the note that the building as the Borradailes knew it no longer exists. The building as Tallis depicted it with the gate in front had already disappeared when Goad produced his insurance maps. In 1936 a much larger Plantation House was erected and even that has now been superseded by Plantation Place, an enormous glass and steel office development.

Goad’s insurance map, 1887

(1) PROB 11/1170/126.
(2) He became rector of Wandsworth, but killed himself in 1836 ‘in a fit of temporary derangement’ by jumping off Vauxhall Bridge.
(3) Public Archives of Canada Reel 5M5, Part F4/20, Invoice of sundries shipped by McTavish Fraser and Co. for the NWcCo. Reference kindly supplied by Karl Koster for which my thanks.
(4) The London Gazette, 28 September and 15 October 1811.
(5) A biographical sketch of Robert Owen appeared in The Poor Man’s Guardian, 28 November 1834.
(6) H.B. Wilson, A History of the Parish of St. Laurence Pountney, 1831, p. 177. William Borradaile had married Ann Delapierre in 1784; she was the daughter of Abraham and Mary Delapierre.
(7) PROB 11/1790/29.
(8) The London Gazette, 4 January 1833.
(9) The London Gazette, 22 December 1843.
(10) The London Gazette, 17 January 1851.
(11) The Morning Chronicle, 17 June 1857.

Neighbours:

<– 35 Fenchurch Street

33 Fenchurch Street –>

Suter & Voysey, architects

Tags

architecture

Street View: 74
Address: 35 Fenchurch Street

Unfortunately, the depiction of number 35 Fenchurch Street suffers badly in my facsimile copy of the Street Views from finding itself in the crease between the two halves of the booklet, so apologies for the imperfect elevation at the top of this post.

Richard Suter & Annesley Voysey, architects, had their office at number 35 Fenchurch Street, but they did not have it all to themselves as they shared the premises with W.C. Franks, a tea broker, who will get a separate post some other time. The earliest mention I found of Richard Suter in Fenchurch Street is in 1832 when he is listed at that address in a list of contributing members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It says that he had been a member since 1829, but that does not mean he was already at 35 Fenchurch Street in that year.⁽¹⁾ In fact, that seems unlikely as the Sun Fire Office records give Messrs. Short and Co., merchants, as paying the insurance premium on the premises in May 1830. The Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 give the year 1827, but I do not know on what evidence. When Suter and Voysey became partners is also uncertain, but they had known each other since at least 1825 as Suter is named as one of the executors of Voysey’s will which was dated 22 July, 1825. The address given for Suter in the will is Suffolk Street, Southwark. Voysey then lives at Conway Street, Fitzroy Square.

In 1837, Voysey travelled to Jamaica where he was to design and build a church for Port Antonio. How he got involved in this project is not clear, but it may well have had something to do with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to which he was also contributing. Unfortunately, on 5 August 1839, before the work on the church was completed, Voysey died of fever, just 45 years old.⁽²⁾ There is a copyrighted image of the memorial tablet for Voysey in the Jamaican church which you can see here.

Christ Church, the Port Antonio church that Annesley Voysey designed (Source: Port Antonio website)[update: web address no longer valid, but more photos here]

It took a little while for the message of Voysey’s death to reach London, so no wonder that the firm is still called Suter & Voysey in the Tallis Street View. Voysey’s will was proved almost a year after his death in London.⁽³⁾ Richard Suter had to continue the business on his own after the death of his partner. In 1841, Suter, his wife Ruth Ann, their two sons, Richard George and Andrew B., nephew Edward Dyer Suter, a clerk and two female servants could be found in Fenchurch Street, but ten years later, the family has moved to 3 Upper Woburn Place. Forward ten more years and Richard, by now a widower, is living at Castle Hill, Cookham. He remarries in 1862 to Elizabeth Ann Pocock. They remain living in Cookham and that is where Richard dies on 1 March 1883. One of the executors was Edward Dyer Suter, the nephew who had been living with the family in 1841 and who ran the Infant Book Depository at 19 Cheapside.⁽⁴⁾

And what about the Fenchurch business? The 1843 Post Office Directory gives Suter at 28 (in stead of the earlier no. 35) Fenchurch Street and he certainly still had his office there in 1863 when he confirms that he has surveyed the Vicarage of Winslow, Buckinghamshire.⁽⁵⁾ The Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 gives yet another number, 23, for the year 1868 and they do the same for son Richard George in 1869, so whether the architects’ office moved once again, or whether it was just the numbering that changed is unclear. In 1849, the Gentleman’s Magazine wrote that the first stone was laid on 23 June for the new almshouses of the Fishmongers’ Company in Wandsworth. They were to replace the old ones at Newington Butts and were to be built at East Hill. “The almshouses, forty-two in number, will form three sides of a quadrangle, each side about 320 feet long, and one of which will, with the chapel and school in the centre, look upon the river. They will be built in the Elizabethan style from the design of Mr. Richard Suter, architect of Fenchurch-street”.

The Hospital of St. Peter, Wandsworth: bird’s-eye view. Wood engraving by C. D. Laing, 1850, after T. S. Boys, 1849. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

But Annesley Voysey and Richard Suter were not the only ones in their families to become architects. The son of Richard Suter, Richard George Suter, followed in his footsteps before emigrating to Australia and becoming a minister of the Catholic Apostolic Church there.⁽⁶⁾ Voysey’s son, Henry Annesley, also became an architect, but he unfortunately died even younger than his father, just 29 years old. The next generation also produced an architect, grandson Charles Francis Annesley, son of Annesley’s religiously wayward son Charles. Charles Francis Annesley became the most famous of the lot, not just for the designs of his buildings, but also for his applied art, such as furniture, wallpaper etc., very much in the style of the Arts & Crafts movement (biography here). But who knows to what architectural heights grandfather Annesley might have soared had he not died in his prime in Jamaica.

———————–
(1) A Sermon Preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts … Together with the Report of the Society (1832).
(2) Fever given as cause of death in The Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1839.
(3) The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; PROB 11/1931/357.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1883.
(5) Oxford Diocesan Papers c 1670\1, letter by Suter dated 7 October 1863 (see here).
(6) Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, p. 736.
(7) There was also a George Voysey, architect, but he does not seem to be related to the Annesley Voyseys, see here.

Neighbours:

<– 36 Fenchurch Street

34 Fenchurch Street –>

George Moffatt, tea broker

Tags

merchant

Street View: 74
Address: 28 Fenchurch Street

The index to Tallis’s Street View 74 lists George Moffatt erroneously as a baker, but he was in fact a tea broker. The first time he, as Messrs. Moffatt and Co., appears in the records for 28 Fenchurch Street is in 1836 when he takes out an insurance for the property. The 1838/9 Glasgow Post Office Directory describes the firm as “tea & colonial agents, 41 Virginia Street, and 28 Fenchurch-street, London”. If the numbering has not changed, the Glasgow building is still there, see here. 28 Fenchurch Street, however, no longer exists, at least not in the form Moffatt knew. There were also Moffatts dealing in tea in Mincing Lane, but sources are in two minds whether that address belonged to Moffatt and Co. of Fenchurch Street or not, so I will leave them out of this post. Moffatt, by the way, was not the only occupant of number 28. Tallis also lists the Grand Collier Dock Company and H. Powell (no occupation given) at the address.

tea plant from M.A. Burnett’s Plantae Utiliores (1842-1850) to which Moffatt subscribed

The 28 Fenchurch Street property belonged to the Skinners’ Company; to be precise, to their Thomas Hunt Charity. Thomas Hunt bequeathed upon the Skinners the remainder of his estate with the proviso that the rents were to be used to help deserving young man with a loan. The neighbouring house, number 27, at the time of the Tallis Street Views in use by the jewellers W. and J. Marriott, was also “let to George Moffatt for 21 years, from Christmas 1856” for £150. In 1864, the following statement was entered: “the trustees of the charity, granted a new lease of the site of the buildings above described, and Nos. 26 and 27, Fenchurch Street, to Mr. George Moffatt for a term of 77 years, from Lady Day 1864, at an annual rent of 415l., the lessee covenanting to expend a sum of 4,000l. upon buildings upon the demised property.” An 1880 account for the Charity lists Moffatt at number 26 paying £442, 12s as rent for one year to Lady Day 1882. Whether they moved from 27-28 to 26-27 or whether the numbering changed is unclear.⁽¹⁾ The Horwood map of 1799 shows number 28 next to a passageway, but by 1839, the building had been extented to go over the passage, see the elevation at the top of this post where the passage can clearly be seen on the left-hand side of the building.

detail of Horwood’s 1799 map

Glasgow Herald, 8 July 1869

Moffatt and Co. did very well, but as in all businesses, there was the occassional set-back. An example is an absconding bankrupt who was chased across the Channel. See the article in the Glasgow Herald on the left. Unfortunately, I have not found out what happened in the end. Did they apprehend Lamb or his property?

George Moffatt was the son of William and Alice who had set up the tea agent and broker’s business at 4 Fenchurch Buildings. George started his career in his father’s business, but whether the 28 Fenchurch Street company is a continuation of his father’s business, or one he set up for himself is unclear. George cannot be found in the 1841 census, but apparently, he travelled extensively in the 1840s on business.⁽²⁾ In 1851, he lived at 103 Eaton Square as an unmarried merchant and MP with seven[!] servants. He had unsuccessfully contested the seats of Ipswich in 1842 and Dartmouth in 1844, but he won the latter in a by-election in 1845. According to Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (vol. 15, 1847), Moffatt was “an advocate of free-trade principles, and opposed to all taxation not strictly applicable to the exigencies of the State; opposed to church rates and in favour of the ballot”. In 1856, he married Lucy Morrison, the daughter of James Morrison, another MP and one-time London draper.

In 1861, George, his wife Lucy, their children Alice (3), Harold Charles (1) and Ethel (2 months), and a whole army of servants, can be found at St. Leonard’s House, Clewer, Berkshire. George’s occupation is given as MP, but in 1871, when the family is back at Eaton Square, he is listed as a retired merchant. The latest addition to the family is daughter Hilda (born ±1863). 1871 is also the year in which Moffatt buys Goodrich Court, near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire where he settles down as a country squire. He died in February 1878 at Torquay. His son Harold Charles did not follow his father in the tea business, but became a boat builder and a collector of English furniture.⁽³⁾ The tea business in London was, however, continued as a 1902 notice in the Edinburgh Gazette of 1 August announces the bankruptcy of Robert Henry Salmon the elder, Robert Henry Salmon the younger, and Stanley Richard Salmon who were trading as Moffatt & Co. at 28 Fenchurch Street. How these gentlemen were related to George Moffatt, if at all, is unclear. Perhaps they just took over the business on Moffatt’s retirement and kept the name as being that of a good and reliable firm.

Goodrich Court (Source: rosscivic.org.uk)

—————–
(1) City of London Livery Companies Commission. Report, Volume 4, Charitable accounts of the Skinners’ Company. Originally published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1884 via British History Online.
(2) Thomas Bean, “Moffatt, George (1806-1678)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography where more information on Moffatt’s political career can be found.
(3) John Martin, A History of Landford in Wiltshire. Part 11: Hamptworth Lodge (online here). Harold inherited Goodridge Court from his father and Hamptworth Lodge from his aunt, Barbara Jane Morrison. He published a catalogue of his collection: Illustrated Description of Some of the Furniture at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire and Hamptworth Lodge, Wiltshire (1928).

Neighbours:

<– 29 Fenchurch Street

27 Fenchurch Street –>

Thomas Snelling, oilman

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 74
Address: 30 Fenchurch Street

From his job description in the index to the Street View booklet, you might gather that Thomas Snelling supplied oil for lamps and perhaps paraffin and candles, and he may very well have done that, but the Post Office Directory of 1843 tells us that he ran an oil and Italian warehouse. That was the description for a shop we would now call a deli in the English sense of the word where all sorts of specialised food stuff could be bought.⁽¹⁾ As “oil and Italian warehouse” suggests, the first shops so designated in the 18th century were run by Italian immigrants who realised there was a market for food from their home country. At first, they targetted the upper classes who had perhaps been to Italy on their Grand Tour where they not only acquired a taste for Italian art and culture, but also for Italian food. Quite quickly, the middle classes embraced the new food and Italian warehouses sprang up all over the place, not necessarily run by Italians.⁽²⁾ The basic stock in all these shops was Italian olive oil and food, such as dried pasta, sauce, anchovies and raisins, but more and more delicacies from other countries were supplied and as we shall see, even home-grown produce made it onto the shelves.

We have no list of what Snelling sold in his shop, but that he sold more than just oil and Italian wares can be seen in the advertisements some suppliers put in the newspapers. For instance, in an 1839 advertisement in which Thomas Kirby of New Bond Street promotes Kirby’s Queen’s Own Sauce, Snelling is listed as one of the addresses where the sauce could be had.⁽³⁾ In 1844, two more suppliers list Snellling as one of their outlets. Scholefield for his Original Concentrated Jerry and Blanc Mange⁽⁴⁾ and Wollaston for his Patent Gelatine.⁽⁵⁾ An advertisement by Snelling himself for his produce has not been found, but in April 1844, he advertises for a “young man who understands the […] trade in oil, Italian, pickle and fish sauce” and “likewise the manufacturing of marmalade, jams, bottled fruits &c.”⁽⁶⁾ This seems to suggest that Snelling not just sold groceries, but also produced them himself.

From a report by A.H. Hassall on Food and its Adulterations (1855), we know that Snelling sold square bottles of anchovies for 1s. Hassall found the “fish, as well as the brine, highly coloured with a large quantity of red earth”. And another sample of potted bloaters (no price given) was “of a very deep and unnatural red; contains very much bole Armenian. And the anchovy paste (also 1s) was “of a deep and earthy red colour; contains an immense quantity of bole Armenian“. This red earth, containing iron oxide, added to enhance the colour, was, according to Hassall, not dangerous in itself, but the earth could accidentally also be contaminated with lead, which is poisonous, although he had not found any example of that in this survey. To single out Snelling, as I have just done, is unfair to him, as Hassall showed that almost all the samples he obtained from the London oilmen were adulterated with red earth, even those of Fortnum & Mason.

T. Rowlandson, Sauce shop (Source: British Museum)

But it was not only food that Snelling sold as in 1844, an advertisement for Doudney’s Patent Mould Candles lists him as one of the London agents for their candles.⁽⁷⁾ In 1843, George Ebenezer and Edward Phillips Doudney⁽⁸⁾ of Portsea, candle manufacturers, received a patent “for improvements in the manufacture of dip and mould candles”. Apparently, they developed a superior kind of wick which needed less snuffing.⁽⁹⁾ Always useful in a time when most lighting still came from candles. A year later, Snelling is mentioned as one of the wholesale suppliers of G. & G.W. Foyle & Co’s Polishing Powders, Pastes, and Liquids.⁽¹⁰⁾

In the 1851 census, we find one James Lilley, 44 years old, listed as the shopman at 30 Fenchurch Street, but whether he was the one taken on because of the 1844 advertisement is not known. What is clear, however, is that James Lilley became a trusted servant and in the 1861 and 1871 census, when the Snelling family are living south of the river, we find that James and his family live above the shop. We learn a bit more about the Snelling business from an Old Bailey case where Hannah Ward and Margaret Chapman are accused of stealing from their employer. Evidence is given by James Lilley who says that the two women were employed at Snelling’s warehouse. They were accused of having stolen some pots of pickles, capers, cayenne and damsons, besides some empty pots. According to Lilley, the pots were never sold empty and were specially made for Snelling. The ladies were found guilty and sentenced to three months.⁽¹¹⁾ Unfortunately, I have not found any Snelling pots or bottles, so below a picture of some others.

Victorian bottles (Source: forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk)

The 1851 census tells us that Thomas Snelling was born in St. Mary Cray, Kent and working backwards, we find his baptism as the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Snelling on 8 May 1811 at St. Mary Cray. Thomas married Mary Taylor on 2 February 1836, probably at St. Margaret Pattens. The records say that he married her at St. Gabriel Fenchurch, but that church had been destroyed in the great Fire of 1666 and was never rebuilt. The parish amalgamated with St. Margaret Pattens, so presumably that was the church used. That same year, the property at 30 Fenchurch is insured with the Sun Fire Office, at which time Thomas is called an “oil and colourman”. Logically, the 1841 census should have found Thomas and his family at 30 Fenchurch Street, but they were away and the property is only inhabited by an apprentice, a shopman, a warehouseman and a female servant. Thomas, Mary and their three young children can be found in Gravesend where they are visiting John and Mary Ann Burt. The information the census gives is so minimal, that it is not clear what the relation between the Burts and the Snellings is. Anyway, the Snellings continue to live above the shop until sometime between 1851 and 1861 when they move to Cray Lodge, Lower Tulse Hill, Surrey, although Thomas remains the proprietor of the Fenchurch shop. As late as 1863, we see him listed with that address as one of the signees of a petition regarding the amalgamation of the City and the Metropolitan Police Forces.⁽¹²⁾ I have not found the Snellings in the 1871 census, but in 1881 Thomas, now a widower and retired, can be found with three unmarried daughters at 13 Warrior Square, Hastings. In 1886, however, he is back at Lower Tulse Hill where he dies on 4 February.⁽¹³⁾

The 30 Fenchurch Street property was owned by the Merchant Taylors’ Company to whom it was left in the will of Hugh Candish in 1640. The stipulation of the bequest was that part of the income from the property should be given to St. Martin Outwich and the remainder could be used by the Company. However, in the London Livery Companies Commission Report, volume 4, on the charities of the Merchant Taylors’ Company (1884), it was stated that despite the fact that the Company could use the proceeds for themselves, they had always applied the residue to charitable purposes. The same report states that 30 Fenchurch Street extends back 64 feet and “is let to Thomas Snelling, oilman, for a term of 21 years from Lady-day 1847, at a rent of 170l“. We know that he was at the property before that, at least since 1836, so the 1847 agreement must have been an extension of a previous one.

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(1) See Wikipedia for the different meanings of deli or delicatessen in the different countries
(2) Giorgio Riello, “A Taste of Italy: Italian Businesses and the Culinary Delicacies of Georgian London” in The London Journal, November 2006, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 201-222.
(3) The Morning Post, 6 February 1839.
(4) The Morning Chronicle, 19 March 1845 and 9 September 1845.
(5) The Morning Chronicle, 21 March 1845.
(6) The Times, 13 April 1844
(7) The Times, 17 February 1844.
(8) Most likely related to George David Doudney of Fleet Street whose father was also called Edward Phillips.
(9) Repertory of Patent Inventions and other Discoveries, volume 2, 1843.
(10) Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 16 October 1845.
(11) Old Bailey, 6 January 1851, ref. nr. t18510106-375.
(12) The Standard, 28 April 1863.
(13) Probate is granted 25 March 1886 and the estate is valued at over £58,600.

Neighbours:

<– 31 Fenchurch Street

29 Fenchurch Street –>

Monnery, glover and outfitter

Tags

clothing

Street Views: 45 and 74
Addresses: 53 Borough High Street and 165 Fenchurch Street

In June 1792, the partnership between Josiah Monnery and his sons, Josiah junior and William, of the Borough of Southwark, was dissolved by mutual consent.⁽¹⁾ The Monnerys were leather-sellers and glovers and received their leather from all over the country. In 1804, a newspaper reported on a case tried at the assizes of York where one Mr. Smith had sued the Aire and Calder Navigation Company because his goods had not been delivered to Monnery. Apparently, Smith had delivered a bale of leather to the warehouse of the Navigation Company at Leeds from where it had duly been taken to Selby where it was transferred to another ship bound for London. Aire and Calder defended themselves by claiming to be carriers from Leeds to Selby and that they had only been paid for bringing the parcel to Selby. They did not think they could be held accountable for the actions of another carrier who took the goods further on its route. The judge agreed with the defendants and did not see why the first carrier should be accountable for a parcel that might be brought halfway round the globe by various carriers. The case was not brought before a jury but dismissed as “non-suited”.⁽²⁾ What happened to the parcel and whether Monnery ever received the leather from Leeds remains untold.

In 1824, William’s son Edward Josiah is apprenticed to William Willmott, a painter-stainer. Why a painter-stainer? Possibly because the leather for the gloves needed to be dyed in various colours? Whatever the reason for this choice, Edward Josiah is taken into his father’s business after his apprenticeship. In February 1830, the insurance on the business is still in Josiah and William’s name, but by August 1832, it is listed under JW and EJ Monnery; that is: John William (born ±1802) and Edward Josiah (born ±1810), the two sons of William. William himself takes out an insurance on 9 Trinity Dover Road, but confusingly, another entry of the Sun Fire Office for the same date lists William, John William, Edward Josiah and one Francis Child as the occupants of 53 Borough High Street. The 1836 entry just lists them as Messrs. Monnery, so that is no help, but in 1837, the brothers have apparently branched out with John William still at Borough and Edward Josiah at 165 Fenchurch Street. Well …, not quite, as two other entries for 1837 give both JW and EJ at 53 Borough and at 165 Fenchurch Street. The apparent confusion is probably caused by separate insurance policies for the business and the living quarters, but unfortunately the online catalogue of the National Archives does not give such details. What is clear, is that JW and EJ are still in business together as in an 1838 advertisement where “J. and E. Monnery beg to call the attention of the public to their outfitting warehouses, 165, Fenchurch-street, and 53, High-street, Borough, where a large assortment of every article requisite for a voyage to … the Indies and Colonies is kept ready for immediate use”.⁽³⁾ Please note the change from leather-sellers and glovers to outfitters. Not that they gave up their former occupation as they are still called “hosiers, glovers and out-fitters” by their shopman who gave evidence against a thief who stole some handkerchiefs from the Fenchurch shop.⁽⁴⁾ EJ is also called to give evidence in that trial and from him we learn that he does indeed live above the shop and that he is in partnership with his brother who does, however, not live there.

In 1842, the partnership between the brothers is dissolved and each goes his own way.⁽⁵⁾ John William at Borough High Street does not appear very often in the newspaper and dies 13 February 1874.⁽⁶⁾ Edward Josiah, however, manages to get his business noticed with large advertisements in various papers, for instance in 1861 when he had a 2-page advert in Henry Jordan’s Queensland: Emigration to the New Colony of Australia with the shop front prominently depicted. As can be seen in the picture above, Monnery did not just supply clothing for the prospective emigrants, but everything else as well, from pots and pans to pillow cases and water bottles. And if necessary, they could also fit your cabin for you. The shop must have had a make-over since the Tallis Street Views were produced, as the entrance to 165 Fenchurch Street in the advertisement is in the middle of the shop while it used to be on the left (see the elevation at the top of this post). Nine years later, a similar advertisement appeared, this time for the emigrants to the other side of the world, in E. Graham Alston’s Handbook to British Columbia and Vancouver Island. This time Monnery has included his son in the company name. That will probably be Edward John (born 1839) who received his freedom of the City in 1862 by patrimony. Another son, Walter (born 1845) received his freedom in November 1870, although he had already been working in the shop since at least 1862 when he reported on the theft of his watch.⁽⁷⁾

One of the Monnerys had a serious accident on Ben Nevis, but which one is unfortunately not revealed in the newspaper that reported on the accident. The party left Fort William early in the morning to climb the mountain which was successfully accomplished with the reward of breath-taking views on the top. But 400 yards into the descend, Monnery was walking a little behind the others and when the guide happened to be looking round, he saw Monnery fall and dash his head against a large stone. They brought him to a small stream where they washed the wound and dressed it with a handkerchief. They managed to carry him halfway down where a mountain pony could take over the rescue. He was brought to the Queens’s Hotel where the doctor stitched up the wound and pronounced his skull not fractured. Although Monnery had intended to go on to Inverness, that was not possible and he had to stay behind in Fort William.⁽⁸⁾ What happened afterwards with the unfortunate Monnery did not get reported, but I assume he eventually made his way back to London.

In 1883 the business removed to 50 Fenchurch Street and in 1893 old Edward Josiah died. Edward John and Walter, with James Gibbs, a wholesale woollen draper, were the executors. From the probate record, we also learn why the firm never became Monnery & sons (plural); Walter has become an iron merchant, rather than join his brother in the outfitting firm.⁽⁹⁾ Edward John died in 1904 with probate granted to the executors Emma Dower Monnery, the widow and – presumably the same – James Gibbs.⁽¹⁰⁾ But that was not the end of the business. The Bedforshire and Luton Archives hold the papers of James E. Bridges, a naval officer and the second son of captain Sir Ernest Arthur Bridges and among them is a bill from Monnery Ltd of London and Liverpool for clothing.⁽¹¹⁾ How Monnery Ltd is related to the Monnerys of Fenchurch Church is unclear, but as it is not a very common name and they appear to be in the same business, I assume there must be a link.

(1) London Gazette, 5 February 1793.
(2) Hampshire Chronicle, 13 August 1804.
(3) the Morning Chronicle, 5 April 1838.
(4) Old Bailey, case against Robert Smith, 1 January 1838.
(5) London Gazette, 16 August 1842.
(6) Probate 13 March 1874. Executors are his brother Edward Josiah and Alfred George Roper, surgeon.
(7) Old Bailey, case against William Fisher, 22 September 1862.
(8) The Dundee Courier, 12 September 1864.
(9) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 22 August 1893.
(10) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) , 29 April 1904.
(11) Z160/533.

Neighbours:

<– 44 Borough High Street <– 166 Fenchurch Street

46 Borough High Street –> 164 Fenchurch Street –>