Rehsif, Ablett & Co., outfitters

Tags

clothing

Street View: 86 and 18 Suppl.
Address: 37 Cornhill and 27 King William Street

Wiliam Henry Ablett, hosier, was made free of the City of London on 26 October, 1824, as “the fourteenth of fifty”, in other words: he had not gone through the usual 7-year apprenticeship, but became a freeman via the Company of Fanmakers by paying a fine of 46s 8d. Sun Fire insurance entries place his shop from 1824-1829 at 37 Fish Street Hill, but at some point before 1832 he moved the shop to 37 Cornhill. When son William Henry junior was baptised in May 1830, the family still lived at the Fish Street Hill address, but when the next son, Charles Grey, was baptised on the 1st of April 1832, the family had already moved to Cornhill.⁽¹⁾ A case of attempted theft from Ablett’s shop helps us to narrow down the removal period. John Wheeler, shopman to Ablett, caught a thief trying to put a silk handkerchief under his apron in June 1831.⁽²⁾ The shop was then still in Fish Street Hill. The move to Cornhill must therefore have taken place between June 1831 (the theft) and April 1832 (baptism Charles). In November 1832, Ablett was assisted by his nephew John Lee Ablett who apprehended another thief who had walked off with six handkerchiefs.⁽³⁾ At the Old Bailey, John Lee stated that William Henry was an outfitter and an advertisement in The Spectator of 1840 tells us that Ablett sold ladies chemises, night gowns, collars, and all kinds of shirts: made from calico or Irish linen, with linen collars, with plaited fronts, etc., and all cheaper if bought per dozen.

N. Whittock published a book in 1840 On the Construction and Decoration of the Shop Fronts of London and for plate 5 he chose Ablett’s outfitting warehouse in Cornhill, which shows lots of drapery in the windows, two swords as window decoration and something indefinable hanging over the counter. No evidence of any of the shirts Ablett advertised, however.

An advertisement in The Morning Chronicle of 22 April, 1845, tells us that Ablett had removed his business from 37 Cornhill to 27 King William Street, where he was to be trading as Rehsif & Ablett. According to the earlier set of Tallis Street Views, those premises had been in the occupation of Carpenter & Co., also outfitters. The shirts Ablett was celebrated for could still be ordered from the new establishment as all the patterns of W.H. Ablett had been preserved. An advertisement in The Times later that year, on 4 August, lists the shirts that could be bought. The range of items was the same as in the earlier advertisement, and all, as before, cheaper if bought by the dozen. But it was not to last. In October 1846, one H. Hurst, a publisher, occupied 27 King William Street, with no indication where Rehsif and/or Ablett have gone, although they may have shared the building for a while as Tallis’s Supplement was published in 1847 and he only lists Rehsif Ablett & Co. Who Rehsif was, where he came from and where he went is unclear, nor is clear what happened to Ablett. There is a suggestion that he and his family moved to South Africa and that he died there in 1876.⁽⁴⁾

But is this the Cornhill and King Willam Street outfitter? A William Henry Ablett did indeed die in South Africa in 1876, but the record that I saw transcribed his age as 22, although the original document is so mangled that it is hard to make out. If it says 82 instead of 22, then it is possibly our outfitter as he was born in ±1793. But, other records help us out. In 1880, Sarah Ablett, relict of William Henry Ablett, 80 years old, died of kidney failure in Durban. The informant who reported her death to the registrar is her son William Henry. Other Abletts who died in South Africa were Charles Grey in 1874 and James Potter in 1917. The latter died of pneumonia when he was 82 years old, but Charles Grey was only 42 years old and died in Pietermaritzburg of “suffocation caused by his falling into the watercourse in Boom Street when in an epileptic fit”. It would be extremely unlikely that another Ablett family existed with the same first names, so I think we may conclude that is was indeed the outfitter who went to Natal.

More on Ablett’s family history can be found in the Campbell Collection of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. They hold four files of manuscripts, typescripts, printed material, and photographs on the Ablett family. The first file consists of two accounts by James Potter of trading trips made from Lourenco Marques to Port Natal in 1871-1872, and to the Gold Fields, Eastern Transvaal, in c.1873. The other files contain biographical data and photographs. The record description given by the university tells us a bit more about the family’s journey to South Africa and their life in the new country.⁽⁵⁾

“William Henry Ablett came to Natal on the ‘Amazon’ in 1850 with 3 of his sons, William, James and Auther [mistake for Arthur]. His wife, Sarah, and another child, Charles, followed in January 1854 on the ‘Lady of the Lake’. The family farmed in various parts of Natal. James Potter Ablett was born in England on 31 December 1835 and came to Natal with his father in 1850. He was married to Rosario Winn on 10 March 1863 at Verulam. In 1867 he went bankrupt and had to sell his sugar estate ‘Kirkly Vale’. In the early 1870s he went on trading trips up the east coast from Durban and appears to have been based at Lourenco Marques for a time from July 1870. Later he went to Kimberley and Johannesburg where he worked as an auditor for several gold-mining companies. He returned to Durban in 1916 and died on 19 May 1917, two days after the death of his wife Rosario.”

The sons that came with their father to Natal were obviously the four sons born to William Henry and Sarah between 1830 and 1836 (see footnote 1). No mention is made of eldest daughter Sarah Ann, so she may have stayed in England, or perhaps she had died young as her sisters had, but I found no record of her death.

(1) William Henry married Sarah Potter in 1827. Their children were: Sarah Ann (1828), William Henry (1830), Charles Grey (1832), Arthur Wilson (1835), James Potter (1836), Emily (1837, she died in 1838), Isabella (1839, she died that same year) and Eliza Emmeline (1842, she died in 1852 at Park House asylum, Highgate).
(2) Old Bailey case t18310630-146.
(3) Old Bailey case t18321129-14.
(4) Suffolk Roots, v.17, 1991 via Family History Library Catalog online.
(5) University of KwaZulu-Natal, Campbell Collection, Ablett Family Papers (record online here)

Neighbours:

<– 36 Cornhill <– 28 King William Street

38 Cornhill –> 26 King William Street –>

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Thomas Milroy & Sons, saddlers and harness makers

Tags

transport

Street View: 86
Address: 72 Cornhill

The 1794 Directory for London, Westminster & the Borough of Southwark lists Thomas Milroy, patent saddler, at 12 Tottenham Court Road, which was an address that lay outside the City of London, so he need not have taken up the freedom of the City, but in 1795 he decided to do so anyway via the Company of Saddlers “by redemption”, paying 46s and 6d for the privilege. The – slightly mangled – document in the archives has a note in the margin telling us that Thomas was the son of William Milroy of Whithorn, Galloway. The membership of one of the Worshipful Companies allowed Milroy to trade within the City and we find that he had a good motive for joining as the 1796 tax records for Langbourn find him in George Yard, Lombard Street, that is, within the City. He was to remain there till 1827.

Horwood’s 1799 map of the Lombard Street area

Thomas had married Sarah Fry on 16 August 1788 at St. Mary’s, Marylebone Road. The marriage allegation gives him as 26 years old and of St. Giles in the Fields and Sarah as 21 years old and of St. Marylebone. They had at least three sons who went into the same business as their father: John (freedom of the City in 1812), Andrew Haigh (freedom 1816), and William Fry (freedom 1825). Another son, Alexander (freedom 1820), became an insurance broker, and later a (wine) merchant. When Thomas moved from George Yard to Cornhill in 1827, his new business premises were, according to the Land Tax records, a lot more expensive in rentals. As you can see from the elevation above this post, the Milroys occupied a very substantial building, which, in fact, consisted of numbers 71 and 72 together, and, as Horwood’s map shows, it ran a long way back, all the way to Merchant Taylors’ Hall. The rentals for the premises in George Yard had been 100, while the Cornhill premises were 191 of which 30 was to be paid by the Merchant Taylors, as they apparently still occupied part of number 72.

Horwood’s 1799 map showing 71 and 72 Cornhill

Thomas never saw Tallis come round to elicit information on the shop for his Street View as he died in January 1837, 79 years old according to the burial record, although that does not exactly corresponds with the age he gave at his marriage. Either he was not 26 years old in 1788, but only 22, or he was not yet 79 when he died, but 75 or thereabouts. Whatever his true age, he was buried in the old vault at St. Michael, Cornhill.

trade card for the Milroys which probably dates from the late 1810s or early 1820s (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

The 1835 Electoral Register lists the Milroys: Thomas was by then living at 4 Finsbury Square; John is given the address of 72 Cornhill; and Andrew Haigh, Alexander and William are all listed at Cornhill, without a house number. John died in September 1838 and was also buried in the old vault at St. Michael’s. The 1841 census shows William as the occupant of number 72, but the 1841 electoral register listed him at 7 Finsbury Square, where Alexander also lived. Andrew Haigh was listed at Highgate. The three men had a share in a copyhold house at Muswell Hill, most likely the house where Thomas lived the last couple of years of his life.

advertisement in the Morning Post, 3 Dec. 1842

The Rolt saddle in the advertisement above was invented by John Rolt, who described it as “a saddle, so constructed, as for the pommel to receive the handle of an umbrella, through which means an umbrella may be carried on horseback, without any fatigue to the rider”. Most convenient against the rain, but, according to Rolt, even better in hot climates as protection against the sun. The saddles were “for the present only to had only of Messrs. Milroy, saddlers, 72 Cornhill”. ⁽¹⁾ And one Charles Barter wrote in his 1852 book, The Dorp and the Veld, or Six Months in Natal, that saddles sent out from England were often “trash” and “the ruin of many a fine animal”, but that his was made by the Milroys “and was one of the best in the colony”.

The Milroys all seem to have lived at 72 Cornhill for some time during their adult life, as Alexander’s burial record – he died in June 1846 – gives that address for him, although he described himself in his will, dated 6 May 1846, as a merchant of 45 King William Street. He left all his possessions to his sister Mary Penelope.⁽²⁾ By then, the next generation of saddlers had joined the firm. In July 1847, Andrew Row McTaggart Milroy, the son of Andrew Haigh, was admitted into the Saddlers’ Company by patrimony. His address is then given as 22 Poultry and Kings Arms Yard, but in the 1851 census he is living with his uncle William in 4 Sun Court, Cornhill, which was just a few houses down from number 72. The 1855 electoral register still saw the saddlers at Sun Court and Andrew Haigh at Holly Terrace, Highgate.

advertisement in The London and China Telegraph, 1861

William died in June 1856 and Andrew Haigh in June 1877. By then he had already dissolved the partnership he had with his son Andrew Row (in 1874), but his probate record still mentions 4 Sun Court and 1 Holly Terrace, although the notice in The London Gazette about the end of the partnership just mentions business premises at 132 Leadenhall Street.⁽³⁾ The trade magazine Saddlery and Harness of 1899 tells us that the Dublin firm of “Messrs. Box & Co. have purchased the business of Messrs. T. Milroy & Son, carried on for such a long period in Sun Court, Cornhill, and more recently in Leadenhall Street, and have removed the same to Pall Mall”. This takeover had probably all to do with the death of Andrew Row who died 1 August of that year.⁽⁴⁾ In other words, the Milroy saddle business had lasted for more than a hundred years.

The Saddler from The book of English trades, 1818

(1) Rolt on moral command, 3rd ed., 1842.
(2) PROB 11/2037/342.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1877. The estate was valued at under £600.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1899. The estate was valued at just over £2360. Probate was granted to widow Eleanor Rainey Milroy.

Neighbours:

<– 73 Cornhill

70 Cornhill –>

Robert Dever, confectioner

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street Views: 21, 86 and 7 Suppl.
Address: 60 Cornhill

The large property where Robert Dever (or De-Ver) had his business as a cook and confectionary, was situated on the corner of Gracechurch Street and Cornhill and it was hence depicted in both Street Views. The elevation above this post is from Street View 21, that is the Gracechurch Street one, and shows the side of the building. The Cornhill front was a lot larger and was depicted in Street View 86. When Tallis produces his Supplements in 1847, the Cornhill front was once more depicted, but this time, the right-hand side of the building has acquired a new door and the number 58 above the building. I will come back to the numbering shortly.

elevation of the Cornhill front (1839)

elevation of the Cornhill front (1847)

And if three depictions of the shop was not enough, Dever also paid for a vignette showing his shop situated against the church of St. Peter at Cornhill. A map of the Cornhill Ward of October 1833 in the British Library, clearly shows how the building abutted the church. Number 60 is in the top right-hand corner.

Detail of the Cornhill Ward Survey, 1833 (Source: British Library)

As the vignette shows, the shop had once belonged to Angell & Son and we will start the story with them. William Angell was baptised at St. Peter at Cornhill on 7 October 1733 as the son of John and Elizabeth. Fortunately, the record of the church gives the father’s occupation, cook, but alas not the exact address. William marries in 1759 and in 1767, his son William Sandell Angell, who was to take over the business, is born. William Angell senior dies in 1814 and leaves his property at Cornhill to William Sandell. In William’s will it is described as “the leasehold messuages or tenements and premises numbered 58, 59 and 60 situated in Cornhill aforesaid and now in the occupation of myself and my said son William Sandell Angell [space] Wilkinson and [space] Sanders”. The Kent’s Directory for 1803 mentions one Robert Wilkinson, print seller, at number 58 and a William Sanders, fan-maker, at number 59, so large as the premises may look, it was not in the exclusive occupations of the Angell family, although it may have done so later.

1836 Land Tax entry

William Sandell’s son William Henry, receives his freedom of the Company of Cooks in 1823 and he presumably continued the family business. That is, until he died in 1834. Whether Robert Dever immediately took over the shop from Angell after the death of William Henry, or whether William Sandell himself, or perhaps one of the other Angell sons, continued the confectionary business is not entirely clear, but Dever certainly obtained his freedom of the Company of Cooks in 1834 by redemption. His name appears for the first time in the Land Tax register for Cornhill in 1836 with the name of Angell written behind his, perhaps to indicate a take-over halfway the tax period. Dever is listed for three properties, so I gather that numbers 58, 59 and 60 were then all three occupied by him and had for some time been by the Angells. Tallis, in his first set of Street Views, does not mention numbers 58 and 59, but he does do so in the 1847 Supplement. Above the building is written 58, although the index lists Hyams, a jeweller at number 59. Will try and find out more about Mr. Hyams for a later post.

What do we know about the food Angell and later Dever provided? The elevation in Street View 21, calls Dever “Confectioner Venison and Turtle Dealer”. The vignette just adds the word Cook, but nothing else. The Morning Post of 18 Januari 1842, tells us that Dever provided a banquet at Mansion House which was “most sumptious”. That does not help us much, but The Standard of the same day printed the whole menu and French names were obviously quite in vogue; gelée au citron sounds much better than lemon jelly, does it not?

In 1851, things went slightly pear-shaped for Robert and bankruptcy proceedings were filed against him. He seems, however, to have managed to survive and a certificate of the first class was issued by the Court of Bankruptcy. The Morning Chronicle not only reported on this fact, they also said that his debts were £7,000 and the assets already realised were £4,500. So, he could continue cooking and that is what he did. On 3 July 1856, the same paper mentioned him as the provider of “an elegant déjeuner” at the National Orphan Home. No menu provided by the paper this time, so no clue as to what the dignataries had on their plates.

While the 1851 census had shown Robert living above the shop at 60 Cornhill, the 1861 census shows him at 20 Oakley Villas, Hampstead as a “fundholder”. He dies three years later and his probate record makes no mention of the Cornhill address, so he seems to have given up the business somewhere between 1856 and 1861.⁽¹⁾ In later years, the building was occupied by the YMCA (photograph here) and it is still extant on the corner of Gracechurch and Cornhill, although it has changed its appearance. Apparently, in 1877, it received its new look at the hands of architect Benjamin Tabberer.⁽²⁾ The YMCA photo shows rather ornate columns on the outside that were not there when Tallis depicted his Street Views, nor did the top floor look quite like it does in the photograph. This top floor has now disappeared, but the columns are still there as the Google Street View picture shows.⁽³⁾

Henry Edward Tidmarsh (1855-1939), St. Peter at Cornhill with the YMCA building on the right (Source: allposters.co.uk)

Photograph from An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in London, volume 4 (1929), p. 63 (Source: british-history.ac.uk)

Google Street View

(1) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1864. Probate of the estate, valued at under £3,000, is granted to his widow Mary.
(2) Crossrail Bill, first special report, session 2006-07, Vol. 2, Oral evidence, 17 January to 23 March 2006.
(3) The building is now occupied by David Clulow, optician, who lists it as 59, Cornhill.