John Hooper & Sons, confectioners and lozenge manufacturers

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 8
Address: 26-27 High Holborn

Hooper’s shop only accidentally made it into a drawing by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, and that only partially, as he depicted the two neighbouring properties, numbers 28 and 30. One half of Hooper’s premises can be seen on the right-hand side of Shepherd’s picture. The same cluster of houses was also depicted in volume 4 of Walford’s Old and New London. In both pictures the names of the shopkeepers are different from the ones in Tallis’s Street View; we will come back to that in the posts on the other buildings, but for now, we are just concerned with Hooper’s shop.

T.H. Shepherd, 27-31 High Holborn (© Trustees of the British Museum)

E. Walford, Old and New London, vol. 4

Hooper was first found at 27 High Holborn in an 1802 insurance policy with the Sun Alliance. He and Silvester Norton, confectioners, insure the property on the 1st of November of that year. They may have been at the address in earlier years, but I have not found any evidence for that. In November 1806 Silvester Norton married Elizabeth Hooper at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and in September of 1807, John Hooper married Elizabeth Norton at St. Pancras Old Church. Both marriages were by licence and the entries in the church registers do not include the names of the parents, which is a pity, as that would have confirmed the double link between the Hooper and Norton siblings. As it is, they may be relatives, such as cousins or nieces rather than siblings, but that the two confectioners forged a double family bond is clear. Silvester’s will of 1826, however, helps as he describes John Hooper as his business partner and brother-in-law, so Elizabeth Norton, John Hooper’s wife, was most likely Silvester’s sister.⁽¹⁾ Anyway, after the death of Elizabeth, John married Sarah, the daughter of his neighbour Richard Swift, a perfumer at 28 High Holborn.

Tallis lists the Hoopers as ‘confectioners and lozenge manufacturers’. Lozenges were, according to The Guide to Trade: The Confectioner (1842) “composed of loaf-sugar in fine powder, and other substances, either liquid or in powder, which are mixed together and made into a paste with dissolved gum, rolled out into thin sheets, and formed with tin cutters into little cakes, either oval, square, or round, and dried”. I am slightly worried about the “other substances”, but the Guide starts the list with fairly innocuous additions to give the lozenges their taste, such as peppermint, cinnamon, lavender, or ginger. They then go on to sulpher, ipecacuanha, yellow pectoral (made with orris-root), and magnesium lozenges, among others. Yuk.

The Great Lozenge Maker, cartoon by John Leech, first published in Punch, 1858. Mind, I am not suggesting that Hooper resorted to putting poison in his lozenges.

John Hooper's sons from his first marriage, John, William and Frederick, all entered into the business as wholesale confectioners. In the 1841 census, John senior is still found at 27 Holborn, but his occupation is listed as 'independent', so presumably retired. John junior and Frederick are found at the same address as 'confectioners'. At number 26 we find Charles Norton, Elizabeth Norton, and Thomas Norton. Charles (48 years old) is listed as 'independent' and after Elizabeth's name it says 'friends on a visit', but that is later crossed out. Thomas is 18 years old and 'shopman'. Thomas was most likely the son of Silvester, as he had a son John who was born in 1824, so definitely the right age, but what the exact link between the Hoopers and Charles and Elizabeth is, is uncertain. Thomas Norton is still at 26-27 High Holborn as a shopman in the next census of 1851. John Hooper senior is now listed as 'landed proprietor of houses' and although there is another John Hooper listed, it is not son John, but a 'nephew', working as 'warehouseman'. Another ten years on and the 1861 census lists John senior as 'gentleman' and son Frederick as the 'confectioner'.

John Hooper by John Linnell 1837 (Temple Newsam House, Leeds Museums and Galleries via BBC Your Paintings)

Various directories show us the changes in the name of the business and address:
1811 London and County Directory: Hooper & Norton, wholesale confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1814 Post Office Directory: Hooper & Norton, wholesale confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1819 Post Office Directory: Hooper & Norton, wholesale confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1823 Kent’s Hooper & Norton, confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1825 Pigot’s Hooper & Norton, wholesale confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1839 Pigot’s John Hooper & Sons, wholesale confectioners, 27 High Holborn
1843 Post Office Directory: John Hooper & Sons, wholesale confectioners, 26-27 High Holborn
1848 Post Office Directory: John Hooper & Son, wholesale confectioners & lozenge manufacturers, 26-27 High Holborn
1851 Post Office Directory: J. Hooper & Son, wholesale confectioners, 26-27 High Holborn
1856 Post Office Directory: J. Hooper & Son, wholesale confectioners, 26-27 High Holborn

It is logical that Norton’s name disappeared after Silvester’s death in 1825, but the explanation for the expansion into number 26 is not so easy to link to a specific occasion. Did the neighbouring shop owner die, move away, go bankrupt and did Hooper take the opportunity to expand? Or was there another reason to take over number 26? Whatever the reason, the confectioners continued to make their lozenges from the combined address for many years to come.

John senior died in November 1865 and his executors were sons John and William, both listed as wholesale confectioners of 27 High Holborn.⁽²⁾ At some point between 1866 and 1873, the sons must have sold the business as in the last instalment of The Building News of 1873, the rebuilding of 26-27 High Holborn was described as for Henry Brett & Co, whom we will encounter in a later post at 139 Holborn Bars as the proprietors of Furnival’s Inn, coffee house and hotel. The Building News gives details about the changes (see below), one of them the covering of the open courtyard with a timber roof with a lantern “the length of the store”. This lantern can clearly be seen on Goad’s insurance map of 1887. The WHSE you see in the picture just means ‘warehouse’. Brett informed his customers in an advertisement in the Daily News of 15 May 1874 that the distillery had been removed from Holborn Bars to their new building at 26-27 High Holborn. And with this, we have come to the end of our story for 26-27 Holborn.

(1) Silvester had died in July 1825 and was buried at St. Andrew’s on the 30th of that month. PROB 11/1710/11.
(2) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1866. His estate was valued at under £25,000.

Neighbours:

<– 28 High Holborn

25 High Holborn –>

Whisson & Collis, wine merchants

Tags

food and drink

Street Views: 63 and 70
Addresses: 27 Old Compton Street / 27 Princes Street

The establishment of Whisson and Collis(s), the Two Ships, was situated on the corner of Princes Street and Old Compton Street and as both streets were depicted by Tallis, the pub was favoured by an appearance in two of Tallis’s booklets. The elevation on the left is the one in Princes Street and the one on the right in Compton Street. The property was later known as 54 Wardour Street. John Colliss had been running the Old George at 29 Oxford Street together with James Whisson, at least since 1834 when that address is mentioned on the baptism record of his daughter Susan (All Soul’s, Langham, Westminster). Before that, the Colliss family had lived at South Bersted, Sussex and it was there that John Colliss was married in 1822 to Martha Catchlove. One of the witnesses of that marriage was James Whisson, presumably the same James Whisson who later became Colliss’s partner in London. At least six Colliss children were baptised at South Bersted, two were to follow at Langham, two at St. Anne Soho when John ran the pub in Princes/Compton Street and two more afterwards when he had moved to Newington Causeway.⁽¹⁾

Pigot’s Directory for 1839 lists Colliss with James Whisson at the Old George in Oxford Street, but also with Whisson (no first name given) at the Two Ships. Colliss had, however, already moved from Oxford Street to Old Compton Street sometime between July 1836, when Charlotte was baptised at All Souls, and early 1838 when his daughter Mary was baptised at St. Anne Soho. The 1841 census found John and Martha Colliss and three of their children at 27 Old Compton Street. In 1851, the couple, and eight of their children, are found at 59 Newington Causeway and this was the address of the World’s End, the pub we have already come across in Tallis’s Street View as ran by Marc Elphick who went bankrupt in 1841. A picture of the World’s End can be found in the post on Elphick. The 1843 Post Office Directory does not list Colliss, but as his youngest son was baptised at Holy Trinity, Newington Causeway in May 1844 (born August 1843), we can assume that Colliss was already running the World’s End by then. It certainly means that he did not stay very long at the Two Ships; he arrived there in ±1837 and left ±1842/3 (Colliss and Whisson are still mentioned as the proprietors of the Two Ships in Robson’s 1842 Directory). Whisson was likewise just passing through.

1886 Goad’s insurance map with 54 Wardour Street indicated by P.H. (public house)

Although it seems logical that the Whisson who ran the Two Ships with Colliss was James Whisson, as they had ran the Old George in Oxford Street together, it may just as well have been Nathaniel Whisson, who was probably a relation of James. Nathaniel is also listed as a victualler, and at more or less the same time as Colliss co-ran the Two Ships, James Whisson ran the One Tun in Goodge Street and Nathaniel the Crown & Anchor at Judd Place, so that does not help much. So far, I have unfortunately not found any records that mention the first name of the one who co-ran The Two Ships with Colliss.

In 1862, so well after Whisson and Colliss were there, The Two Ships figured in an Old Bailey case, because a wrestling match (or pub brawl if you prefer) that had started in the pub was continued outside with the result that one person died. The victim, John Radford, and the accused, William Davis, were fighting in the street and witnesses described the victim as at some point having fallen against the window of Peppin’s chemist shop. That fall did not kill him, but a later one against a kerb stone did. No one was sentenced for the death of the man; it was just a fight without intent to kill that went tragically wrong.⁽²⁾ What surprised me, though, is that no mention is made of anyone from the chemist’s coming to the aid of the victim. A doctor from Dean Street testified that his assistant had seen to the victim and he himself had only seen the body two days after death, but apparently no immediate aid was given to the victim, or if it had, it did not make it into the statements of the witnesses.

After the Whisson/Colliss years, many more landlords ran the pub. From various resources,⁽³⁾ I found the following:
1848 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1851 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1851 John Renshaw, census gives him as “manager of a public house”
1856 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1861 William Dawson, census
1869 James Frederick Phillips, Post Office Directories
1871 Frederick Phillips, census
1881 John Wakely, census
1882 John Wakely, Post Office Directory
1884 John Wakely, Post Office Directory
1889 John Weston, bankrupt
1891 Michael Hart, census
1891 Michael Hart, The London 1891 Public House & Publican Directory
1894 Michael Hart, bankrupt
1895 Arthur Lee, Post Office Directory
1899 Jon Jas Wm Wood, Post Office Directory and The London 1899 Public House & Publican Directory
1901 Albert Kagi, census
1911 Albert Kagi, census (he died in 1914, but was probably retired by then)
1915 Louis Cantor, Post Office Directory
1921 Louis Cantor, Post Office Directory

May 2014, Google Street View

If you look at Google Street View (their latest picture is from July 2016) for 27 Princes/Compton (which is now 54 Wardour Street) you can see a lot of scaffolding, but if you went back, for instance to May 2014, you can see how small 54 Wardour Street had become after 1913 when the building had been diminished by the widening of the street at the corner. The number 76 you see next door used to be 28 Old Compton Street and another property altogether. But big plans are afoot and Westminster Council has published documents to go with an application to enlarge the ground floor space at number 54 from 24 to 38 square metres by combining number 54 with 76 Old Compton Street. The whole plan is more complicated than this, but the picture below will explain what will happen at ground floor level. Wonder how it will look when the scaffolding is taken down again.

plan taken from the website of Westminster Council (see all the documents online here)

(1) South Bersted: Sarah (1823), Elizabeth (1825), William (1827), John (1829), Martha (1830), Ann (1832); Oxford Street: Susan (1834), Charlotte (1836); Old Compton Street: Mary (1838), James (1841); Newington Causeway: George (1844), and Hannah (1845).
(2) Old Bailey case t18620922-956.
(3) Among them the website of pubshistory.com.

Neighbours:

<– 26 Princes Street

25 Princes Street –> 28 Old Compton Street –>

Crosse and Blackwell, Fish Sauce Warehouse

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 85
Address: 21 Soho Square

Thanks to the archaeological excavations that have taken place in areas where the gigantic undertaking of the Crossrail tunnel made it possible, that is, mainly where the bore holes for the stations were made, we now know at lot more about Crosse and Blackwell than we knew before. The archaeological dig at the Crossrail Tottenham Court area brought an unexpected hoard of pots, glasses and jars to light. They appear to have been used to infill a disused kiln or cistern and provide a rare glimpse into the range of packing material used for the great variety of wares produced by Crosse and Blackwell, and no, they did not just produce fish sauce, although that is how it all started. The photographs of the Crosse and Blackwell ‘hoard’, if I may use that term (bottom of this post), were taken at the exhibition on Crossrail at the Docklands Museum of London, and I am indebted to the MOLA book on the Crossrail excavation for some of the information below, especially that relating to the dig. But before we go into the various pots and glasses and the goods they contained, first something about the two gentleman, Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell, who started the company in 1830 by taking over the firm of West and Wyatt at 11 King Street. Crosse and Blackwell had both been apprenticed in 1819 to William Wyatt, Salter, working as an ‘oilman’, and when he retired in 1830 (Richard West had died in 1824), the two friends took over the business and moved to 21 Soho Square in 1839, so not long before Tallis produced his booklet.

an early Crosse and Blackwell jar (Source: the-saleroom.com)

watercolour by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, 1854, showing 20 and 21 Soho Square (© Trustees of the British Museum)

advertising plaque 1850 showing the corner of Soho Square and Sutton Street (Source: The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent )

Edmund Crosse was the son of William Crosse of York Place, Chelsea, deceased, and five pounds of his apprentice fee of £210 was put up by Christ’s Hospital and the rest by “the friends of the said apprentice”. Thomas Blackwell ‘only’ had to pay £150 but no indication is given on his indenture who paid it, presumably his father Charles Blackwell of Harrow Weald Common. The 1841 census saw Thomas living in Harrow on the Hill with his wife Ann and two young children. Edmund was living above the business at 21 Soho Square. The 1851 census for Edmund, still at 21 Soho Square, tells us that it is a firm of 2 men, employing 50 men, 56 women and 14 boys. Ten years later, the census for Thomas, still at Harrow, gives us a sense of the expansion, as he is given as employing 102 men, 10 boys and 84 women. By 1861, Edmund had moved to Cambridge Terrace, Paddington, where he was to die a year later.⁽¹⁾ Thomas was not going anywhere and could be found at Harrow till his death in 1879.⁽²⁾ Various Crosses and Blackwells continued to run the family business until it became a limited company in 1892.

memorials on the graves of Edmund Crosse (on the left) and Thomas Blackwell (on the right) at All Saints Churchyard, Harrow Weald (Source: findagrave.com)

The advertisement Crosse and Blackwell had in several of Tallis’s booklets still puts the emphasis on their fish sauce, but over the years, they expanded the range of food preserves produced into all kinds of pickles, sauces, jams, potted meats, candied fruits, chutneys, soups and bottled fruit. For some products Crosse and Blackwell acted as distributors, such as for Lea & Perrin’s Worchester Sauce, but others were made by licence for other companies, such as Keiler’s marmalade, until Crosse and Blackwell bought that firm in 1919 (see here). Their business premises in Soho expanded accordingly. 20 Soho Square, which had been the premises of D’Almaine, pianoforte makers, was added to number 21 in 1858, and by then, they had also established stables in Dean Street, which were later removed to 111 Charing Cross Road. A building at the back of 20-22 Soho Square, in Sutton Place, was acquired which was to be connected to yet another building in Falconberg Place by an iron footbridge. In a second phase of expansion, 18 Soho Square was added to the complex and also buildings on the corner of Sutton Street (111-155 Charing Cross Road), which were redeveloped between 1877 and 1885. On the vacant plot that can be seen on Goad’s insurance map below, another warehouse, known as 157 Charing Cross Road, completely covering the block, was built in 1893. However, London became busier and busier and the smells from the various manufacturing processes cannot have been too pleasant, and by 1921, Crosse and Blackwell had moved their production line away from London to Branston in Staffordshire. And yes, that is why we now have Branston pickle. Most London buildings were sold off, except for some office space in Soho Square. This is a potted history of the expansion of the Crosse and Blackwell business, leaving out numerous details, such as buildings in other London locations. Much more detailed information can be read in chapter 2 of the Mola book.

Goad’s 1889 insurance map with the Cross and Blackwell properties outlined in red

The excavations at the Crossrail site found a surprising amount (13,000! items) of pottery and glass that could all be linked to Crosse and Blackwell (see here). The pots and jars had apparently been used as waste material to backfill a cistern, which had once provided clean water. The James Keiler marmelade jars found mention the prizes that company received in 1862, 1869 and 1872, so the infill can be dated to after 1872. The cistern had probably been closed off prior to the work at 151-155 Charing Cross Road in 1877. The Museum of London Docklands has exhibited some of the finds, and below you will find some photographs that I took of the display.

If you want more information on the excavation or on the history of Crosse and Blackwell, I suggest you get hold of a copy of the Mola book by N. Jeffries, L. Blackmore and D. Sorapure, Crosse and Blackwell 1830-1921: A British Food Manufacturer in London’s West End, 2016.

(1) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 186279. Estate valued at under £140,000.
(2) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1879. Estate valued at under £160,000.

Neighbours:

<– 20 Soho Square

20 (21a) Soho Square –>

Henry Finch, victualler

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street View: 8
Address: 13 Middle Row, Holborn

Although Tallis shows The George, the pub on the corner of Middle Row, Holborn, in his Street View, he does not list the proprietor in the index of booklet 8. A mistake? Possibly, because there is also another shop with the number 13, occupied by William Blissett, a hatter. The house numbering in Middle Row was rather confusing at times, but at least the pub on the corner was always at number 13. We will come back to Blissett in another post, but first the pub.

Anonymous print showing the top of Middle Row with houses numbered 1 (on the left Marshall), 2 (centre, no name) and 13 on the right with the name of Joseph Frith, so dating from somewhere between 1800 and 1830 (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Joseph Frith was the proprietor in 1806 (and possible before that) and after his death, his son William took over. Unfortunately, William died, just 29 years old, in 1838 and a year later, his widow Mary Ann married widower Henry Finch of Grays Inn Lane.⁽¹⁾ The 1841 census saw Henry living at number 13 with young daughter Sarah from his first marriage. Mary Ann is visiting her parents in Bedale, Yorkshire, with two children from her first marriage and a baby boy, Henry junior, from her marriage with Finch. Alas, Mary Ann died a year later and in 1851, Henry is assisted in the pub by Charles Smith of Bedale, most likely Mary Ann’s brother. Something has gone wrong in the census registration for that year as Henry is listed twice; not only at 13 Middle Row, but also as tavern keeper at 20-21 Albert Terrace where we also find his daughter Sarah, his stepdaughter Jane Firth and, as housekeeper, Elizabeth Smith from Bedale, most likely Mary Ann’s sister. Besides various servants for the pub, we also find another Henry Finch on the premises as cellarman. Judging by his age, 17, he cannot be Henry and Mary Ann’s son, as the son would only have been 10 or 11 years old. Perhaps another relative?

Ten years later, Henry has made another move and is now to be found as hotel keeper at the Holly Bush Hotel in Norwood. He died there in December 1862 and probate is granted to his son William, one of the executors.⁽²⁾ William is described as wine dealer of 2 Middle Row Place, which was just to the west of Middle Row itself.

The Morning Chronicle, 30 October 1810

But back to The George at number 13. According to the Post Office Directory of 1851, Henry had extended the business to include number 12, which was not next to number 13, but on the south side of Holborn itself. An explanation may be found in an 1810 advertisement for the extensive vaults and cellars under number 12. Perhaps that was what attracted Finch? In the early 1850s, number 2, which is next door to Finch, was occupied by a carver and gilder, first by Alexander Marshall and then by James Piper. A drawing by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd in the British Museum shows Middle Row head on and, although it is not terribly clear, the names of Finch (green fascia) and J. Piper (yellow fascia) can be made out. The shop on the left of the Row is number 1, but I cannot make out the name of the shopkeeper [Postscript: His name was Robert Cole (see comment by David Wilson]. The drawing by Shepherd is dated 1857, but in a later picture of 1867, you can see that Finch had extended his pub to include number 2 with a matching front. Whether he held on to number 12 after he acquired number 2 is unclear. I only found evidence for number 12 in the 1851 and 1856 Post Office Directories.

T.H. Shepherd, Middle Row, 1857 (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Embed from Getty Images

– 1867 print by E.H. Dixon

In July 1862, that is half a year before his death, Henry requested that his licence as a victualler for number 13 be transferred to his son Henry junior.⁽³⁾ Whether it was Henry senior who extended the business to include number 2, or whether it was his son is unclear, but the effort involved did not bring any long-term advantages, as in 1867, Middle Row disappeared completely. At various times in the nineteenth century, plans had been put forward to remove the Middle Row houses as they were impeding the flow of traffic in Holborn⁽⁴⁾, but nothing had come of those plans until 1867 when the Board of Works made a start with the removal.⁽⁵⁾ Henry, as did the other owners of properties in the Middle Row block that was to be demolished, received compensation from the City. The total plus interest for him came to well over £10.500. For unfathomable reasons, the Board of Works referred to The George as being at numbers 11 and 12. Perhaps there had been a recent renumbering of the houses? The pub certainly did not move.

Part of a picture from The Illustrated London News of 28 September 1867 showing numbers 1,2 and 13 with posters in the windows and on the facade to announce that the houses were to be demolished

After the demolition of Middle Row, Finch removed his pub to 333 High Holborn, which used to be 8 and 9 Middle Row, that is: on the south side of Holborn itself, so not in the part of Middle Row that was removed. Goad’s insurance map of 1886 shows number 333 between the alleys leading to Staple Inn Buildings and Tennis Court. It also shows that Finch had extended the business backwards into Staple Inn Buildings. In July 1867, he asked for his licence to be transferred to the new premises, which was granted.

I have not found any decent pictures of the part of Middle Row that was hidden by the block of houses in the road and later became 328-336 High Holborn, but there is a photograph of a small part of Finch’s pub at number 333, which, after the move from Middle Row, he called ‘the Old Holborn Bars’. The photograph was taken in c. 1910 to show the rather grand Birckbeck (later Westminster) Bank next door and by chance the pub managed to get into the picture. I have cut off the bank as that is not what this post is about and although it is not a very good photograph, at least it shows that Finch’s still existed in those days and I think it even survived until World War II. For the original photograph with the bank see here.

bar jug (Source: invaluables.com)

============================
(1) William Firth and Mary Ann Smith were married on 4 August, 1834, at St. Luke’s Chelsea. Mary Ann was still a minor and her “natural and lawful father” George Smith had to give his consent. Mary Ann and Henry Finch were married on 15 August, 1839.
(2) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1863. Estate valued at under £14,000.
(3) The Era, 13 July 1862.
(4) For instance in 1846 when the commissioners for paving in the parishes of St. Andrew and St. George the Martyr unsuccessfully presented a petition to the House of Commons for such removal (see Daily News, 15 August 1846.
(5) Minutes of Proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works, 1867.

Neighbours:

<– 2 Middle Row

13 Middle Row –>

George and Alfred Pill, pastry cooks and confectioners

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street Views: 42 and 17 Suppl
Address: 51 Cheapside

We came across Mr. Pill in the post on James Pimm who had his business further up the street. Pimm’s establishment was compared to that of Alfred Pill with the latter’s considered too small to receive a licence to sell alcohol. There was a bit of wrangling going on between the aldermen whether pastrycooks and confectioners should be allowed a licence and if so, whether the licence should be granted with an endorsement that the premises were not to be used as a gin shop. In the case of Pimm, the licence was eventually granted, but it is not made clear whether Pill received the required licence. At the time of this application, 51 Cheapside was just run by Alfred Pill, but in 1839, when the first batch of Street Views came out, his brother George was a partner in the business.

The brothers had no doubt learned their trade from their father George who ran a confectionery in Mile End, Stepney, but the two boys were also apprenticed to London freemen, which, after seven years, enabled them to become freemen themselves and run a business in the City. George was apprenticed in 1815 to George Ponton, a cook and confectioner of Fore Street, Cripplegate, and Alfred in 1820 to John Coombes, a member of the Cooper Company, but his true occupation and address are not known. The brothers seem to have started at Mile End Road, no doubt the establishment run by their father until his death in 1825, but by 1829, they were to be found at 86 Newgate Street, and by 1835 at 51 Cheapside. A partnership between one Harriott Pill and Alfred Pill was dissolved in 1838 with Alfred remaining at 51 Cheapside, but how this Harriott was related to George and Alfred remains unclear. What is clear, is that Alfred remained the proprietor of 51 Cheapside, which was the fifth house west of St. Mary le Bow church. The building was slightly lower than the neighbouring houses. Alfred shared the premises with various other businesses; in the 1839 Street View with Mellor, Mountain & Co, a lace warehouse, and in the 1847 Supplement with Thomas McClure, a Manchester agent, and William Donne & Sons, engravers. No information is available as to how the premises were divided up.

Cheapside with number 51 on the right from Thomas Malton’s Picturesque Tour of 1792 (Source: British Museum Collection)

There is one customer who has written down what could be had at Pill’s. Charles George Harper, reminiscing about the London of the past wrote Queer Things about London in 1924 and said,

Then there was Alfred Pill, who, on the south side of Cheapside, between St. Mary-le-Bow and Old Change, sold the most exquisite and alluring jellies. You might have had a bun with Deputy Webber, consumed a jelly (Ah!) at Mr. Pill’s, and then, passing, let us say, through St. Paul’s Churchyard, have found on Ludgate Hill another bun shop …

Harper explains that Deputy Webber had his bun shop in Lombard Street, but he does not give any indication when he might have come across Webber or Pill. Tallis does not deal with Lombard Street, but the Post Office Directory of 1843 has a Thomas Webber as bread and biscuit baker at 81 Lombard Street. The jellies must have been quite famous, but other than this one tantalising glimpse of the food on offer at Pill’s, I have not found any more mention of the food available at the establishment, although the place itself must have developed over time from just a confectionery into a ‘proper’ restaurant. It is labelled as such on Goad’s insurance map of 1886 and in the German Baedeker’s guide to London of 1875 it is listed in the section of Coffee Shops, Pastry Cooks and Oyster Shops in the City, together with such places as Peel’s in Fleet Street and Holt’s in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Baedeker finishes the paragraph with the comment that, in most coffee houses, soup, chops and steaks were also available, but whether Pill actually had those on the menu is not made clear.

In the 1841 census, Alfred was living on his own at Cheapside with just a housekeeper, one Mary Wood. But she was or became more than a housekeeper and in 1847 Mary Cooper Wood and Alfred Pill got married at St. Lawrence Jewry. They had two daughters, Mary Susanna and Elizabeth, and one son Alfred Arthur. All three children are described as confectioner’s assistants in the 1871 census and Alfred must have counted on his son, Alfred Arthur to take over the business, but unfortunately, the young man died in 1875, just 20 years old.⁽¹⁾ This must have been roughly at the same time as Alfred retired as he is still listed in the Land Tax records for 1874, but in 1875 the names of Simpson & Bowser are given for 51 Cheapside. In 1881, Alfred, by then a widower, and his unmarried daughter Mary Susanna, are living at The Knowle, Manor Road, Wallington.

The Penny Illustrated Paper, 5 November 1881 (Digital Library@Villanova University)

Murder!
Pill’s quiet retirement was, however, rudely interrupted in 1881 when a man was brutally murdered on the railway from London to Brighton. It turns out that Frederick Isaac Gold, who had married Alfred Pill’s wife’s sister, Lydia Matilda Wood⁽²⁾, was travelling back from town to Preston, Brighton, on a Monday and somewhere along the line he was shot by Percy Lefroy Mapleton. Gold had put up a good fight, but lost his life and was thrown from the carriage in Balcombe tunnel where his body was later found. Mapleton pretended to have been attacked by two man, hence the blood on his clothes, and the police at first let him go, but as more information came in, they knew he must have been the killer and he was apprehended, charged, convicted and later hanged. Mapleton had been staying at a boarding house in Wallington and daughter Mary Susanna had to give evidence at the inquest that Mr. Gold had not come to visit them on that particular Monday and that they knew nothing about Mapleton. More on the notorious case can be read here and here.⁽³⁾

Two weeks before this shocking event, Alfred Pill had attended the forty-fourth anniversary dinner of the London Coffee and Eating-House Keepers’ Association; he is listed as one of the members of the Common Council present.⁽⁴⁾ But Pill’s health must have deteriorated after that, as in 1886, the Court of Aldermen decided to disqualify him “by reason of his not having attended any meetings of the Court in the last six months, owing, it was stated, to ill-health”. Pill had represented Bread Ward since 1860, but it was now time to elect a new representative.⁽⁵⁾ The 1891 census still saw Pill living at The Knowle with his daughter Mary Susanna, but he died in August of that year.⁽⁶⁾ Mary Susanna was one of the executors and remained living at The Knowle until her own death in 1942.⁽⁷⁾

—————————-
(1) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1875. Effects valued at under £200.
(2) Lydia Mathilda Wood had married Fredrick Isaac Gold on 13 April 1845 at Holy Trinity Church, Mile End Old Town, Stepney. Her father's name is given as Samuel Wood, gentleman. Alfred Pill's and Mary Cooper Wood's marriage registration also names her father as Samuel Wood, gentleman, so I think we can conclude that most of the papers were wrong in reporting Gold's sister as having married Pill; it was his wife's sister.
(3) At the time, the case was extensively reported in the newspapers, see for instance, The Morning Post and The Standard of 30 June 1881. The Penny Illustrated Paper devoted considerable space in several issues to the case which included graphic pictures. See for links to the magazine the bottom of the Wikipedia page on Mapleton here.
(4) The Era, 18 June 1881.
(5) Daily News, 13 October 1886.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891. Estate valued at over £45,400.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1842. Estate valued at over £23,400.

Neighbours:

<– 50 Cheapside

52 Cheapside –>

Henry Edward Morey, fishmonger

Tags

food and drink, footwear

Street View: 67
Address: 201 Bishopsgate Street Without

In a previous post on James Pimm, we saw that Pimm’s successor at 3 Poultry was one Samuel D. Morey who, according to his 1877 probate listing, could also be found at 201 Bishopsgate. We have to go back to the end of the eighteenth century to sort out the Moreys at Bishopsgate. In 1796, Harry (or Henry) Edward, the son of Harry (or Henry) Morey became apprenticed to Samuel Dance, a Butcher, that is, a member of the Company of Butchers, but, as we shall see, not necessarily a butcher in the sense of someone dealing in meat. An insurance record of 1788 saw Samuel Dance at 194 White Cross Street, but by 1793, he had moved to 189 Bishopsgate. Harry Morey is described as a patten-maker of White Cross Street, so young Henry Edward went to work with a former neighbour. A patten-maker, by the way, is someone who made wooden overshoes that protected the wearer’s shoes from the mud on the streets. For pictures of people wearing pattens see this blog post by the Georgian Gentleman.

early 19th century pattens. Museum of Fine Art, Boston (sourced from the very interesting blog post on pattens of Jane Austen’s World)

Somewhere between 1803 and 1806, Harry Morey also moved to Bishopsgate, but not yet to number 201. The 1806 tax records find him in a house between Bottle Alley (renamed Britannia Place) and One Swan Yard, number 183 or 184.⁽¹⁾ Morey hung on to his property in White Cross Street, although in his will of 1818, he describes himself as of Bishopsgate Street, so presumably that became his main residence.⁽²⁾ His widow Susanna remained at number 183 and even after her death in 1824, the tax records still list her name, suggesting that the property remained in the hands of the family. Only in 1840 do the records list a new proprietor.

Susanna was the sole executrix and beneficiary of Harry’s will, but had left the estate of her husband unadministered and when she died in 1824, her son Harry Edward had to sort it out. In the documents, he is described as the only child of the deceased and of 96 White Cross Street. He moved his business to 201 Bishopsgate Street sometime before 1829 as he is then listed at that address in the Sun Fire Office records as dealer in pattens and shell fish. Perhaps an unlikely combination, but patten-making had been the trade of his father and he was himself listed as such in the baptism records of his children, but fishmongering became his occupation in Bishopsgate, specialising in shell fish as the elevation in Tallis’s Street View testified where the business is described on the front as ‘Barrel’d oyster warehouse’. Number 201 was situated between The White Hart tavern and St. Botolph Bishopsgate Church.

Embed from Getty Images

The White Hart tavern in 1825 with Morey’s shop on the left under the awning (click to enlarge)

Another picture of the tavern in The Mirror of 1830 (see the post on The White Hart) shows Morey’s name on the left-hand side of the inn building, but that must be a mistake by the draughtsman, as there is no evidence to suggest that Morey occupied part of the White Hart building. In the 1825 picture above the name of Kempster can be seen on that part of the building and as other pictures also show Kempster’s name, and so do the tax records, that name must be correct. Morey had always occupied the building next to the White Hart, number 201, and we see him there in the 1841 census as a fishmonger. Also living there is son Samuel with the same occupation as his father and another son Robert who is a butcher.

Henry Edward died in 1855 and left his estate to his four sons, Henry Trott, Samuel Dance, David Edmund and Robert Borkwood. Judging by Samuel’s second name, I think we can assume that the former master of Henry Edward was his godfather. When Samuel Dance, Morey’s master that is, wrote his will in 1813, Henry Edward was one of the witnesses and one William Trott the other.⁽³⁾ Did he become Henry Edward’s eldest son’s godfather? Possibly. I have not found a marriage for Henry Edward, so we do not know more than a first name, Catherine, for his wife, and can hence say nothing about her last name; it may have been Trott. According to the records of the Sun Fire Office, Henry Trott could be found at 418 Oxford Street in 1831 as a fishmonger. He was the first of the brothers to die, in 1868, at St. Agnes Terrace.⁽⁴⁾ The Sun Fire Office records also tell us that Robert Borkwood became a butcher and insured a property at 4 Hatton Wall, Hatton Garden in 1839. David Edmund took over the running of the 201 Bishopsgate shop and Samuel Dance, as we saw in the post on James Pimm, became the proprietor of 3 Poultry and may or may not have had something to do with the invention of Pimm’s No. 1 Cup, although the fact that it was his property that continued the Pimm’s name for the establishment rather that of James Pimm himself is perhaps telling.

Samuel Dance Morey died in 1877 and is described in his probate record as formerly of 201 Bishopsgate and 3 Poultry, but late of 11 Northampton Park, Canonbury, gentleman.⁽⁵⁾ He may have retired in 1865, or just concentrated on the Bishopsgate shop as in that year the licence for Pimm’s in the Poultry was transferred to Frederick Sawyer of the Green Man, Bucklersbury.⁽⁶⁾ The premises were extended to include numbers 4 and 5 Poultry and at the back also numbers 5 and 6 Bucklersbury. It is hard to say without further research whether Morey had already set this extension in motion, or whether Sawyer was solely responsible, but it was Sawyer who negotiated a new lease in 1870 and who commissioned an architect to build a new restaurant at 4-5 Poultry (see the postscript to Pimm’s post for more information and a picture). It is a fact that the 1886 Goad insurance map shows the 5 houses as one large ‘restaurant’.

Very faint pencil drawing of 201 Bishopsgate Street c. 1850 (©Corporation of London via Collage)

But this post is about 201 Bishopsgate, so we will continue the story with David Edmund. I am not sure where David is at the time of the 1851 census, certainly not at 201 Bishopsgate Street, but he is listed in the 1857 tax record, so he must have taken over the fishmonger’s fairly soon after his father’s death. He remained the bachelor occupant of the building till at least 1881. He died in 1889 and is described in his probate record as a gentleman of 6 Petherton Road, so he must have retired somewhere between 1881 and 1889.⁽⁷⁾ The tax record help to date his retirement to somewhere between 1886 and 1887. In 1886 the property at 201 Bishopsgate is still listed for David, but in 1887 one Samuel Jacobs has taken over. All those years from 1861 onwards, David’s housekeeper was Elizabeth Castle and in 1861, 1871, and 1881 a visitor happens to be staying with them, a Selina Castle. We are left to wonder what the relationship between Elizabeth and Selina is until 1891, after the death of David, when Elizabeth and Selina, this time acknowledged as her daughter, are living at 143 Petherton Road. They have two boarders, Robert Morey, 73, and Robert H. Morey, 40, both living “on their own means”. Robert is no doubt Robert Borkwood, the brother of David, and Robert H. is Robert Henry, the son of Robert Borkwood. Robert Borkwood, the last of the Morey brothers, died at 143 Petherton Road in 1892.⁽⁸⁾

——————-
(1) Horwood gives the property number 183, but Tallis has the same property as number 184. In his Street View, number 183 does not exist.
(2) PROB 11/1605/217.
(3) PROB 11/1553/260.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1868. Effects valued at under £4,000.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1877. Effects valued at under £80,000.
(6) The Era, 8 January 1865.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1889. Effects valued at well over £28,000. His brother Robert Borkwood of 8 Chart Street, Hoxton, is named the executor.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1892. Effects valued at over £11,000.

Neighbours:

<– 202 Bishopsgate

198-199 Bishopsgate –>

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 –>

John Whitfield & Son, cheese and bacon factors

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 32
Address: 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street

16 Lamb’s Conduit Street was situated opposite East Street. Number 16 is now number 34 and East Street has been renamed into Dombey Street, but the former numbers 16 and 17 are still recognisable as twins with the drainpipe providing a visual division. The rounded arches around the windows on the first floor are not visible in the drawing by Tallis, so either he forgot to depict them or the frontage of the house is not as old as it appears and has had some alterations done to it since the time John Whitfield, cheesemonger, had his business at number 16.

A large part of Bloomsbury was in private hands and 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street was part of the Bedford Charity, also known as the Harpur Trust or Harpur Estate. It was founded in the sixteenth century by Sir William Harpur for the benefit of a school he had helped to found in Bedford. In a list of accounts for the years 1865 and 1866, 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street is listed for J. Whitfield (per William Todd) as part of the Bedford Charity.⁽¹⁾ A year’s rent to midsummer 1866 for the property was £94.10.0. The lease had started in 1843 (no doubt as a continuation of a previous term) and was to expire in 1873. The infamous developer Nicholas Barbon built many of the houses in the area, but whether he was responsible for this particular property is not known.

Google Street View of numbers 34 and 36 (formerly 16 and 17)

William Whitfield, butterman of 44 Old Bond Street was John Whitfield’s half-brother. They had the same father (John), but John’s mother was Margaret Ord who died in 1781, and William’s mother was his father’s second wife Elizabeth Pinckney. William worked in partnership with his half-brother for a number of years and, before he moved to 44 Old Bond Street, lived in East Street. The 1819 Post Office Directory does not yet mention John and/or William, but Kent’s Directory for 1823 does, so it is likely that they started the business in or just after 1820. Pigot’s Directory for 1825-6 also lists John and William at 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street. No official announcement of the end of the partnership between the brothers has been found, but William can with certainty be found in Old Bond Street in 1831. John continued the business in Lamb’s Conduit Street and in the Tallis Street View, we find the shop described as run by John Whitfield & Son. Tallis also has them as selling more than just cheese; they apparently also dealt in bacon, although the 1843 Post Office Directory just lists them as cheesemongers.

1799 Richard Horwood’s map

As so many cheesemongers in London, the Whitfields came from the Teesdale area, Durham, and the families frequently intermarried. See, for instance, the post on Todd & Procter. John Whitfield had married Hannah Benson, the daughter of James Benson and Hannah Nicholson. Hannah’s youngest brother Nicholas (or Nicholson) Benson of Myddleton Square, Clerkenwell, also a cheesemonger, in turn, had married Elizabeth Whitfield, a half-sister of John the cheesemonger of Lamb’s Conduit Street. Nicholas had a daughter Hannah whom he described in his will as “my daughter Hannah Benson whose mothers name was Hall”, in other words, she was illegitimate but acknowledged.⁽²⁾ John Whitfield and Hannah Benson, that is, the daughter of James Benson, had at least three sons and four daughters; these seven were mentioned in John’s will⁽³⁾ (he died in 1843): John jr., William Benson, George James, Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary Anne and Hannah. William Benson became a surgeon at 64 Lamb’s Conduit Street, that is, almost opposite his father’s shop, and has been given his own blog post. Sons John jr. and George James continued the cheese and bacon business and are listed at 16 & 46 Lamb’s Conduit Street in the 1848 Post Office Directory.

At number 46 Lamb’s Conduit Street, Tallis lists a poulterer by the name of Wragg, but in the 1851 census George James lives there with a housekeeper. Part of the house is occupied by Edward King, a bookseller and stationer. John junior is living above the shop at number 16. Also living there are two clerks, a servant, and one William Millwood, a poulterer. But things were not to last and in June of that same year, a petition is awarded to declare the brothers bankrupt. In the notice in The London Gazette of 20 June about the bankruptcy, the Whitfields are described as cheesemongers, poulterers and porkmen, hence presumably the presence of Millwood. Number 46, by the way, is no longer mentioned. In 1853, another notice in The London Gazette describes John as of 37 Lamb’s Conduit Street, “cheesemonger, pork butcher and poulterer and lodging house keeper, next and late of same place, assistant to cheesemonger”.⁽⁴⁾

Painting by Floris Claesz. van Dijck, c. 1615 (Source: Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam)

In 1856, a change of hands becomes apparent. William and James Todd are listed at number 16 in the Post Office Directory and they also appear in a list of people with a game certificate⁽⁵⁾. A notice about the end of a partnership in 1854 tells us more. On 24 June 1854, William Todd, the elder, William Todd, the younger, and James Todd dissolve their partnership as cheesemongers at 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street. The business would in future be continued by the younger generation.⁽⁶⁾ Did the Todds take over from the Whitfields when they went bankrupt? It seems likely. In the 1861 census, both William (30 years old) and James (28) are living above the shop, but ten years later they are both living as farmers at Barningham, Yorkshire. In 1874, a William Todd of Lamb’s Conduit Street and of Barningham dies and William and James Todd of Barningham, gentlemen, and Anthony Todd of 34 Lamb’s Conduit Street, provision merchant, are named as executors. They were Wiliam Todd (the elder)’s nephews. The 1881 census of Barningham gives us a clue to who the parents of these three nephews were. James is listed as James junior, while two houses away, another James Todd is listed with his wife Hannah, a son John, and a daughter Jane. Combined with the fact that William and James mentioned Kennington as their place of birth in the 1871 census, we can work backwards and place the whole cheesemongering family at Somerset Place, Kennington, from at least 1831 (baptism William) to 1856, or possibly a bit later (Post Office Directory).⁽⁷⁾ By 1861 James, Hannah and two daughters can be found in Galgate Street, Barnard Castle, but ten years later, they too can be found in Barningham. James senior died in 1891, James junior in 1910.⁽⁸⁾ The probate records name their houses in Barningham: Hill View and Fair View. I found a photo of the latter, that is, if the same building still has the same name today, and I will end this post with that picture.

Fair View from the website of Barningham village

You may also like to read about Todd & Procter, cheesemongers, who also came from the Barnard Castle / Barningham area, although I admit that I do not know how exactly they were related to the Todds of this post.

———————-
(1) Schools Inquiry Commission III (1866), online here.
(2) Information supplied by Catherine Ryan and Nicky Carter, for which grateful thanks. PROB 11/2007/69. Nicolas Benson’s will has been transcribed and can be found here.
(3) PROB 11/1985/56. The will has been transcribed and can be found here. An interesting aspect of the will is John’s involvement in carpet manufacturing. More on that in the forthcoming post on his son William Benson.
(4) The London Gazette, 2 December 1853.
(5) The Economist, 27 September 1856.
(6) The London Gazette, 30 June 1854.
(7) The application for a marriage licence (5 August 1829) showed that Hannah’s maiden name was also Todd. Eight children of James and Hannah Todd were baptised at St. Mary’s, Kennington, Surrey. Where an address is supplied, it is always Somerset Place. William (Joseph) 25 Feb. 1831, James 12 Jan. 1834, Joseph 12 Apr. 1835, Anthony 3 Jan. 1838, Thomas 29 July 1838, Margaret 28 Nov. 1841, John 31 March 1844, and Jane 18 Jan. 1846.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891. The estate was valued at over £7,100; England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1910. The estate was valued at over £26,000 (resworn at almost £27,000).

Neighbours:

<– 17 Lamb’s Conduit Street

15 Lamb’s Conduit Street –>

William Whitfield, butterman

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 7
Address: 44 Old Bond Street

In 1810, the partnership between Stephen and George Cullum was dissolved. The notice about it in The London Gazette does not mention their trade, but it does give the address of Clare Market.⁽¹⁾ A newspaper advertisement of a few weeks later tells us the rest of the story. “George Cullum, from Clare-market, Butterman and Cheesemonger … informs [his customers] that he has removed to No. 44 Old Bond-street (late Mr. Hance)”⁽²⁾

trade card (Source: British Museum Collection)

The Cullums had already been buttermen in London for quite some time. In 1775, John Cullum obtained the freedom of the City by redemption, suggesting he came from outside the City of London and had not gone through the usual 7-year apprenticeship. In 1787 and 1789 respectively, he takes on his own sons Stephen and George as apprentices. Their address is then given as Clare Market where the family worked together, but in 1810, George decides to go it alone in Old Bond Street. Later that same year, he writes his will, leaving everything to his wife Mary Ann.⁽³⁾ He died in early April 1814 and his burial record gives him as of Devonshire, late of Bond Street, although he was buried at Heston, Hounslow.

trade card (Source: British Museum Collection)

The next instalment in the Cullum occupation of the cheesemonger’s shop in Old Bond Street can be deduced from another trade card and the Land Tax records. The business was continued after the death of George by Samuel Cullum, most likely George and Stephen’s brother who – I think – may also have had a shop in Newgate Street, although there were more Samuels in the family. Please note that besides the butter and cheese George sold, Sam is also advertising eggs, bacon and ham. I think Samuel retired in the early 1830s, although there is a suggestion that he, with a Charles Whitfield, was involved in the Paxton & Whitfield business, now in Jermyn Street, but the information that firm gives on its website does not quite match the information I have, as they have Sam as the son of a Stephen (an earlier generation than John’s son Stephen). I will come back to that puzzle when I have worked it out. Sam Cullum is still mentioned for 44 Old Bond Street in Kent’s 1823 Directory, and is listed in the Land Tax records for 1830, but in 1831 William Whitfield is paying the tax. An 1834 insurance record also mentions William Whitfield, although Cullum and Whitfield probably traded together in the early 1830s, as their servant, William Holmes, described both Cullum and Whitfield as his employers when he gave evidence in 1831 in a case of stolen butter.⁽⁴⁾. William had already been a cheesemonger before he took over from Cullum as he is mentioned as such in the baptism records for his children (the oldest was born in 1821). The Whitfield family lived in East Street while William worked in partnership with his half-brother John at 16 Lamb’s Conduit Street (Kent’s Directory of 1823), before moving to Old Bond Street to work for Cullum and then taking over the business.

William Whitfield was born in 1786 in Startforth, Teesdale as the son of John Whitfield and Elizabeth Pinckney. In April 1819, he married Jane Barbara Benning, daughter of Jane and James Benning, surgeon, at Staindrop, Durham.⁽⁵⁾ Jane Barbara was the sister of William Benning the bookseller at 43 Fleet Street who married Alice Whitfield, William Whitfield’s sister and John Whitfield’s half-sister.⁽⁶⁾ Two of William and Jane Barbara’s sons were given the additional first name Benning: William Benning Whitfield (1821-1841), and James Benning Whitfield (1825-1881). The couple were to have eight sons, six of whom survived into adulthood.⁽⁷⁾ By 1831, when son Septimus was baptised, the Whitfields had moved to 44 Old Bond Street. Only three children are listed in the 1841 census: George, James and Octavius; perhaps the others were at school or visiting somewhere. The 1851 census also shows three children: James Benning, a solicitor, John, a clerk and Octavius who was still at school. The 1851 Post Office Directory, however, lists the business as William Whitfield & Son, so at least one of the absent sons must have been involved in the cheese and butter business.

William Whitfield died in 1859, 73 years old, and was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green, on 7 September 1859. In the probate entry his address is given as 18 Hereford Square, Brompton, and Old Bond Street, although he seems to have died in Drummond Street, Euston Square. His widow Jane Barbara was the sole executor.⁽⁸⁾ Jane died in February 1861 and the executors of her estate were sons George of 167 New Bond Street, and James Benning of 1 Mitre Court Temple.⁽⁹⁾ Two other sons, Septimus, silk merchant, and Octavius, solicitor, both unmarried, were living in Great Portland Street at the time of the 1861 census, but the cheese business at 44 Old Bond Street remained in the family, as in 1862, John Whitfield of Messrs. Whitfield gave evidence in a court case where the basket of Whitfield’s porter had been emptied of a roll of butter when the basket had been temporarily left on the railings of a house.⁽¹⁰⁾ Who the other half of Messrs. Whitfield was, remained unsaid, but it was most likely George.

The returns of Westminster Polling District of 1862 and 1863, show that four sons, Charles, James Benning, Octavius and Septimus, had an interest in the freehold of 44 Old Bond Street. Contrary to the 1861 addresses, this time James Benning and Octavius are shown to be living at 1 Mitre Court, Charles is living at 8 Jermyn Street (strengthening the case for his Paxton involvement?) and Septimus can be found at New Bond Street. No house number is given for Septimus’ abode, but he was to die in 1868 and from his probate record we learn that he lived at number 142.⁽¹¹⁾ John and George are not mentioned as having an interest in the freehold, but we know that they lived and worked as buttermen and cheesemongers in Old Bond Street. Although I have not seen the will of father William, we can surmise that he left the business to John and George and the freehold of the building to the other four sons. John died in September 1865.⁽¹²⁾

On 2 February 1873, a small notice in Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper spoke of a “destructive fire” that had occurred on Sunday morning on the premises of W. Whitfield, 44 Old Bond Street. No more information is given, but at least it tells us that the Whitfield shop was still in business. A year later, the Westminster Polling District records show that it were just Charles and Octavius that were still having an interest in the freehold. James Benning’s name has been struck out and Septimus was dead by then. I am afraid that from now on, we will see the brothers dying one by one, resulting in a long list of probate records. In 1878, the probate records tell us that it was indeed George who had been the other partner in the business at number 44, as he is listed as having been a cheesemonger at that address, although he lived at 28 Nottingham Place.⁽¹³⁾ The next brother to die was James Benning who lived at 97 London Road, St. Leonard’s, Sussex. He died in August 1881.⁽¹⁴⁾ Probate was granted to his brother Charles, “the surviving executor”. Charles was then living at 18 Jermyn Street, the same address as the Paxton & Whitfield shop at that time, so I think we can conclude that it was indeed Charles who was involved in the Paxton & Whitfield business, although he cannot have been the Charles who entered the business in 1790 as he was not even born then. That, with the inconsistency in the Cullum partner, means there is more work to be done to solve the Paxton puzzle. Charles died in 1882 and turned out to have been the best businessman as he left the largest estate.⁽¹⁵⁾ And to round off the list of probates, the last one is for Octavius who died in November 1885 in Italy.⁽¹⁶⁾.

And the shop itself? George was the last of the Whitfield brothers to actually work in the cheese and butter business in Old Bond Street and I have not found any more cheesemongers there, so I think the shop was sold outside the family. In 1906 a new building was erected for Glyn & Co, hatters, and a recent owner decided to paint it a horrible pink and the Whitfields would certainly no longer recognise the building, so best to leave the story with the death of the last Whitfield brother and forget about the later history of the premises.

(1) The London Gazette, 24 April 1810.
(2) The Morning Chronicle, 4 May 1810.
(3) PROB 11/1554/335.
(4) Old Bailey case t18310908-211. Butter was stolen from the servant’s basket when he had left the basket when he went into a property to deliver goods.
(5) The will of James Benning is transcribed on the Will Transcriptions Website here.
(6) Information supplied by Catherine Ryan and Nicky Carter, for which grateful thanks.
(7) I found the following baptisms: William Benning 29 July 1821, died Jan 1841; George 12 Sep 1823; James Benning 9 Feb 1825; Charles 22 Sep 1826; John 18 Sep 1829; Henry 5 May 1830, died Sep 1833; Septimus Augustus 2 December 1831; Octavius 1838?
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1859. The estate was valued at under £25,000.
(9) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861. The estate was valued at under £16,000.
(10) The Daily News, 10 January 1862. In fact, a similar offence to that of 1831, see footnote 4.
(11) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1868. The estate was valued at under £20,000 and probate was granted to his brother Octavius.
(12) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1866. The estate was valued at under £3,000 and probate was granted to his widow Jane Rebecca.
(13) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1878. The estate was valued at under £16,000 and probate was granted to his widow Hester.
(14) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1881. The estate was valued at over £2,200.
(15) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1881. The estate was valued at over £155,000 (resworn in 1883 at £163,445) and probate was granted to his nephew William Henry, solicitor.
(16) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1885. The estate was valued at over £60,000 and probate was granted to his nephew William Henry as the sole executor.

Neighbours:

<– 45 Old Bond Street

43 Old Bond Street –>

Alexander Thorn, Oil and Italian Warehouse

Tags

food and drink

Street View: 20
Address: 223 High Holborn

The earliest reference I found to Alexander Thorn’s shop is 1827 when the shopman, Henry Ottley, gives evidence in a case of a stolen neat’s tongue (value 5s). He says he lives with Thorn who keeps an oil and Italian warehouse in Holborn.⁽¹⁾ No house number is given, but in 1835, an advertisement in Alexander’s East India and Colonial Magazine mentions number 223. The advertisement is for two items: Thorn’s Tally Ho! Sauce and Thorn’s Potted Yarmouth Bloaters. I have not found any advertisements in which other goods are mentioned, so the extent of the produce sold by Thorn is unknown, but it was probably similar to what other Italian delis sold, that is, basic stock such as Italian olive oil and dried pasta, sauces, anchovies and raisins. The elevation in Tallis does show “British wines” on the front of the building, so presumably Thorn sold those as well.

Advertisement in Tallis’s Street View 43

The Tally Ho! sauce and the potted bloaters also figure in advertisements that Thorn entered in some of Tallis’s Street View booklets. The one in number 43 can be seen above, but the same one also appeared in booklets 35 and 42. In the 1835 advertisement, Thorn claims that the “finest Yarmouth bloaters [were] cured especially and in a peculiar manner after the proprietor’s instructions” and were “particularly recommended as being free from the rancid, oily, salt flavour, so generally complained of”. And the only genuine ones were – of course – the ones signed by Thorn himself. In later advertisement, for instance in the Street View one and in the 1840 one shown below, Thorn warns his customers that “spurious compositions” are offered as potted bloaters, but only the real ones have the signature A. Thorn on the side of the pot. I saw a picture of one such pot on Pinterest which does indeed have the name of Thorn on the side (see here).

Postcard, origin unknown, c.1922? (Source: The Foods of England website)

Bloaters are whole cold-smoked salted herrings, particularly associated with Great Yarmouth. For the difference between bloaters and kippers, see here. The bloaters were so called because they swelled up a bit during the smoking process. The potted variety was made by removing the skin, head, tail and bones of the smoked herring, stewing the fish in spiced butter, rubbing the resulting mess through a coarse sieve and putting the paste in small pots covered with clarified butter. And ready was your fish paste to be spread on biscuits or sandwiches.

Precious little is known about Alexander Thorn himself. He was probably the son of Peter and Mary Thorn, born 29 January 1798 and baptised a few month later on 21 March at St. Mary’s, Ealing. In 1824, he married Elizabeth Hierons at the same church. In 1840, Thorn was the defendant in a case of adultery. The son of a Mr. Morgan, when still a minor, had married the young daughter of the postmistress of Ealing without the knowledge or consent of either parent and in 1840 Morgan tried to get a divorce for his son.⁽²⁾ What does transpire from the case is that Thorn was living in Little Queen Street, but as the shop was on the corner of Holborn and Little Queen Street, that does not mean much. The building probably had an entrance to Thorn’s private apartment in Little Queen Street while the shop’s entrance was in Holborn. Having said that, I have not found Thorn in the 1841 census at the Holborn address, nor anywhere else. There is a fishmonger listed at number 223, but his name is rather unclear on the form; it looks like Rett Sybon, but could be Rch (Richard?) Syben.

Advertisement in The Musical World, 1840

In 1846, it was almost over for our Italian deli proprietor. A bankruptcy charge was filed against him, dated 19 May, and he was to disclose his finances to prove that he could meet the demands of his creditors.⁽³⁾ He seems to have been able to satisfy the commissioner as in April 1847 he was given a certificate.⁽⁴⁾ The 1851 census, just as that of 1841, fails to find Alexander anywhere, but 223 Holborn is in the occupation of one Henry Brown, cheesemonger, so despite the bankruptcy certificate, Thorn must have terminated or relocated his business sometime between 1847 and 1851. He died in 1854 and was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green on the 13th of October. His address is then given as 52 York Road, Lambeth. And that was the end of the Tally Ho! sauce and the potted Yarmouth bloaters from Holborn.

Still Life with Bloaters and Garlic by Vincent van Gogh, 1887 (Source: WikiArt)

(1) Old Bailey case t18271206-64.
(2) Morgan started with a case at the Queen’s Bench against Thorn for damages as a first step towards a divorce (see here). You can read the – incomplete – second reading of the so-called Morgan Divorce Bill in the House of Lords here. The whole case seems to have been trumped up by father Morgan in order to obtain a divorce for his son, although real evidence seems to have been scarce.
(3) The London Gazette, 22 May 1846.
(3) The London Gazette, 6 April 1847.

Neighbours:

<– 224 High Holborn

221 High Holborn –>