Hewetson Brothers, upholsterers & warehousemen

Tags

carpet, furniture

Street views 48 and 52
Addresses: 185 Oxford Street and 204 Tottenham Court Road

The Hewetson brothers, John William and Thomas, had two very similar shops, at least from the outside. They were listed in two of Tallis’s Street Views and in each of them they had a vignette of their property; in booklet 48 one for 185 Oxford Street and in booklet 52 one their shop at 204 Tottenham Court Road. The various descriptions they get in the indexes of the Street View booklets and the lettering on the elevations show that they dealt in a large variety of goods, all to do with furniture, bedding, carpets and even interior decorating. And if two vignettes and their names and occupations on the elevations were not enough, they also included an advertisement in the booklet for Tottenham Court Road.

advertisement in Street View 52

In 1840 they take out insurances with the Sun Fire Office, the one for the Oxford Street premises fairly simple with the property described as John’s dwelling house with offices, stables and loft, all communicating, of brick and timber, with no cabinet work done on the premises and with no pipe stove therein. It is insured for £1350 with an additional entry for the plate glass in the shop front, valued at £50. The total premium came to 2l. 3s. The Tottenham Court Road property is listed for Thomas and insured for £1100 (premium £1/8/6). However, a separate entry in the name of both brothers explains that the house is connected northwards via a covered walkway with a (ware)house and stables at the back in Alfred Mews, which is partly rented out to a shoemaker. They insure household fixtures in the house and in the house behind for £50; household goods, wearing apparel, printed books and plate for £200; stock, utensils and business fixtures for £1800; china, glass & lace for £150; and stock and utensils for £200, which included livestock in the stables and the cart house plus loft in Alfred Mews, for a total premium of 3l. 3s.⁽¹⁾

furniture label (Source: Grosvenor Prints)

But one property in Alfred Mews was not enough for the brothers and they gradually acquired more and more houses until they occupied almost the whole south side of the street. They also acquired more properties in Tottenham Court Road. Thomas Hewetson had partnered with Robert Thexton and the address given for them in 1871 is 200, 203 and 204 Tottenham Court Road.⁽²⁾ By then, the premises in Oxford Street had probably been given up and although the census finds an upholsterer there, Herbert J. Boutor, he is listed as employing 9 men and 2 boys, so probably working for himself rather than for the Hewetsons. The Hewetsons are slightly difficult to pin down as half the family was called John, John William, William John, or William, with none of these names used consistently. The 1861 census saw a William Hewetson at Oxford Street, but whether he was the John William of the 1840 insurance is not clear. When he died in 1864, probate was registered for his son John Hewetson, also an upholsterer.⁽³⁾ John Hewetson, the son of William or another John?, died in 1876 and Thomas of Tottenham Court Road in 1881⁽⁴⁾, but Thomas Hewetson junior carried on the business with Robert Thexton and later also with William Peart, who dropped out as partner in 1884.⁽⁵⁾ A year after that, Thomas Hewetson also left the partnership and it was just Robert Thexton who continued the furniture business until his death in 1889.⁽⁶⁾ In or just before 1889, one Milner must have joined the firm as partner as Goad’s insurance map of 1889 shows the name of the firm splashed across the crescent-shaped row of houses as Hewetson, Milner & Thexton.

The leases in the area were to expire in 1902 and the City of London Corporation Estate decided to do something about the crescents in Chenies and Store Street as they were considered “quite out of date”. Alfred Place was to be extended to Alfred Mews, going straight through the premises of Hewetson & Co. Hewetson, Milner & Thexton, by then a Limited Company, resisted the Estate’s attempts, but were eventually forced to move to premises at 209–212 Tottenham Court Road, going bankrupt a few years later. Not surprising if the notice of 1901 in The British Architect is correct; it said that Hewetson & Co were granted a new 80-years’ lease by the Court of Common Council at an annual rent of £3,000, which was an increase on their old rent of £2,300. A notice in The London Gazette of 19 March 1907 about the forced sale of their premises after the bankruptcy gives an indication of the extent of their business:

Leasehold premises, comprising shops and showrooms, numbers 209, 210, 211, and 212 Tottenham Court Road, numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, Chenies Street, numbers 15, 16, 17, and 18 Alfred Place, covering a ground area of upwards of eleven thousand square feet, and two dwelling houses and engineering works in the rear thereof, known as number 44, 46, and 44A, Whitfield Street, with a ground area of about three thousand four hundred square feet.

In November 1911, the Liquidators’ Report was ready to be shown to the members of the Company and that was, after some eighty years, the end of the flourishing furniture business started by two brothers. It is ironic, and rather sad really, that the so-called improvement of the extension of Alfred Place never took place and the crescents that were considered so out of date are still there. The Hewetson buildings in Alfred Mews have all been replaced and the street no longer shows the rounded front it had when the Hewetsons traded from there.

The Times, 20 December 1900

(1) London Metropolitan Archives, CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/575/1328805, CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/574/1328756 and 1328757.
(2) The London Gazette, 7 March 1871. They issued a debtor’s summons against a Miss Neville of Percy Villas, Teddington, who apparently failed to pay her bills.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1864. He left an estate worth £10,000, later resworn at £8,000.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1876, John left an estate worth £40,000; England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1881. Thomas left an estate worth £25,000, later resworn at £16,000.
(5) The London Gazette, 15 January 1884.
(6) The London Gazette, 24 February 1885. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1889. His estate was valued at over £20,000.

Neighbours:

<– 186 Oxford Street <– 203 Tottenham Court Road

184 Oxford Street –> 205 Tottenham Court Road –>

Thomas Treloar, cocoa nut fibre warehouse

Tags

carpet, furniture

Street View: 14 Suppl.
Address: 42 Ludgate Hill

The picture above of the front of Treloar’s shop has suffered slightly from being depicted in the fold of the original Street View sheet, but it will have to do. Treloar’s coconut fibre warehouse only appeared in the 1847 Supplement; in the earlier edition of 1839 number 42 was still the Irish linen shop of Brown & Co. More on them some other time, but for now we will concentrate on the carpet shop. Thomas Treloar originally came from Portished, Somerset, but when he obtained his freedom of the City of London in April 1847, he listed his father as William Treloar, late of Bristol, gent., deceased. It is not entirely clear when Thomas came to London, but in the 1841 census he, his wife Elizabeth, their young son Thomas, and 60-year old Ann Treloar (Thomas’s mother?) could be found at Princes Road, Lambeth. Thomas is described as a clerk and when his second son, William Purdie Treloar, was baptised in 1843, Thomas is given the occupation of bookkeeper. From 1846, however, we find him at 42 Ludgate Hill, selling brass and iron bedsteads, mattresses and bed furniture. In a booklet he published in 1852, The Prince of Palms (online here), he claimed, however, to have been at Ludgate Hill from 1842 as he “respectfully presented” the booklet to his “numerous customers … with grateful acknowledgement for ten years of their patronage”. An 1846 advertisement for his shop lists the virtues of coconut fibre, not just for mattresses, but also for carpets and mats.⁽¹⁾

Illustration from The Prince of Palms

It is unclear whether Treloar ever lived above his shop in Ludgate Hill, as already in 1851, the census finds him and his growing family at 3 Dartmouth Terrace, Lewisham. When Elizabeth died in 1859, the address is given as Pitmain Lodge, Granville Park, Lewisham. In 1861, the family is still at Pitmain Lodge with Thomas senior as coconut fibre manufacturer and all three sons, Thomas junior, William Purdie and Robert, as commercial travellers. That same year, Thomas senior married Isabella Purdie, no doubt a relation of his or his first wife, judging by the fact that her last name was used as son William’s second name. In 1862, Treloar entered some of his fibre products in the International Exhibition and from the catalogue we learn that he had already won prize medals in other exhibitions.

At the beginning of that same year, on 2 January 1862, Treloar was mentioned in The Standard as having provided the matting that was laid in St. Paul’s Cathedral “by the kindness and liberality of the dean and chapter” and which would, according to the paper, “most assuredly contribute to the comfort of the numerous auditory”. For sure, one’s feet on matting in stead of on cold marble during evening service was no doubt more comfortable. But Treloar did not just stick to coconut fibres for his floor coverings; an advertisement of 26 August in The Standard also mentions kamptulicon, India rubber and Cork cloth. And a report on the Royal Agricultural Society’s International Show in June of that year mentions Treloar’s netting for sheepfolds, coir yarn for thatching, and kamptulicon of extra thickness for paving stables and padding stalls of kicking horses.

Advertisement in Frasers Magazine for Town and Country, 1865

Some pieces of Treloar’s floor coverings have been preserved and the Stockholm Nordiska museet (Nordic Museum) has uploaded some images of their collection onto DigitalMuseum. I have chosen the sample you see here because it includes a label, but you can see more items here.

In 1865, the Treloar warehouse is briefly listed at number 10, but later at 69 (which before the renumbering used to be the neighbouring property at number 9 and was occupied in 1847 by Harvey, a linen draper), which was across the road from the original shop at number 42. They also had premises at numbers 68 and 70, which was not the renumbered original shop at number 42 as that ended up under the new railway bridge, but the old numbers 38 and 39. The new building at nos 68/70 was designed in 1871 by J.R. Meakin for land investor Robert Pettit (information from Terence Hodgson). There was a lot of building going on at Ludgate Hill since 1864 when it was decided to allow the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company to build a bridge across the street with the added ‘bonus’ of creating Ludgate Circus, all meant to improve traffic flow. In the twenty odd years following, property in Ludgate Hill itself was bought up to allow for the widening of the street. The houses were set back and the southern side was the first section (numbers 51-71) to be demolished. Terence Hodgson sent me an illustration from The Building News of 1873 showing Treloars new shop at number 69, for which my grateful thanks.

The improvement scheme of Ludgate Hill was more or less completed in 1889.⁽²⁾ See for the involvement of William Purdie himself his Ludgate Hill, Past and Present (2nd ed. 1892; online here), esp. pp. 134-141. You may remember from a previous post that Hooper’s printing business moved to 69 Ludgate Hill in 1874 or 1875. There is no clash with Treloar as the gentlemen shared the building. Treloar used the ground floor, which, by the way, extended all the way back to Pilgrim Street, and Hooper used one (or more?) of the upper floors. Goad’s insurance map of 1886 just lists the occupants as “carpet warehouse & others”, but the 1904 insurance map says “carpet warehouse, stationers’ warehouse & offices over”. The colours on the 1904 map are not terribly bright, but if you click on it to enlarge, I think you will see what I mean. In an advertisement, Treloar’s made full use of the fact that their two shops were on opposite sides of the street by paving the street between his shops with one of their Turkish carpets. The same advertisement claims that Treloar’s were floor covering specialist for over 90 years, which would date the start of the business in 1833 or before (see bottom of this post). Well, possibly, but not at number 42 as that did not house a carpet manufacturing business before Treloar moved in.

Thomas senior died in June 1876, 58 years old. In the probate record he is still described as coconut fibre matting manufacturer, so he presumably had not yet retired.⁽³⁾ In 1881, both William Purdie and Robert claim their Freedom of the City by patrimony and are described as of 69, Ludgate Hill, carpet factors. They continued the business under the name of Treloar & Sons until Robert died in 1898.⁽⁴⁾. William Purdie, by then Sir William Purdie, died in 1923⁽⁵⁾ and that is where my story ends. I will leave you with some advertisements for Treloar.

Advertisement in The Graphic, 23 April 1887

Advertisement in The Pall Mall Gazette, 14 April 1897

Advertisement in Punch, 3 October 1923

(1) The Examiner, 18 July 1846.
(2) The British Architect, vol. 32, 15 November 1889, p. 343.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1876. Estate valued at under £35,000. Sons Robert and William Purdie were the executors.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1898. Estate valued at roughly £16,500. Brother William Purdie is named as the executor.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1923. Estate valued at roughly £36,600.

Neighbours:

<– 43 Ludgate Hill

41 Ludgate Hill –>

James Muston, feather merchant and wholesale upholsterer

Tags

furniture

Street View: 33
Address: 81 Hatton Garden

James Muston started his career in Gough Square. We find him there in the 1799 tax records, but he had probably moved to 81 Hatton Garden by 1804. He was to remain the rest of his career at the Hatton Garden address. The births of his children were all registered at the Dr. Williams Library, as was usual for non-anglicans, while the baptisms themselves had taken place at the Fetter Lane Independent Chapel.⁽¹⁾ The records for the first three children indicate the Gough Street address, but from late 1803, the Mustons are recorded as of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn. Although this does not guarantee a Hatton Garden address, it was certainly in the neighbourhood. Only in 1812, when little Emily was buried at Bunhill Fields, is a Hatton Garden address specified. Directories for 1811 and 1819 give Muston at 80 Hatton Garden, but that seems to have been a result of renumbering, rather than a removal; the numbers in Horwood’s map of 1799 do not quite match those in Tallis’s Street View. In all later records, Muston is given as at number 81. At various times, Muston’s name appears in the documents regarding a lease for the Fetter Lane Chapel, indication that he was more than just attending the services in the chapel. In 1817, Muston’s name appears in the List of the Governors and Officers of the Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor.

portraits of James and his wife Mary Ann by Charles Foot Tayler (Source: Wigs on the Green)

A more personal note than just a name in the list of a charity, appears in the Brief Memorials of Mrs Innes by John Boutet Innes (1829). The reverend John Boutet wrote a memorial for his late wife, something between a funeral sermon and a personal memorial (online here), and in it he mentions his friends the Mustons:

On the day preceding that on which she was taken ill two friends from London, whom we had long known and much esteemed, who are indeed well known to the friends of missions, and of evangelical religion in the metropolis, (Mr. and Mrs. Muston of Hatton Garden) being in Norwich, spent the day with us, and having engaged apartments at the inn, would comply with our request only on condition that we passed the evening with them. This we did.

Mary Innes died about a week after the visit from the Mustons on 20 May 1829, so the Mustons must have been in Norwich around half May and they were in Chelmsford a week later when they heard of the tragedy. Mrs Muston wrote “Oh! how grieved and shocked I was, when the melancholy tidings reached us at Chelmford. I wept for hours”. Later that year, a more mundane event disturbed the peace at the Independent congregation at Fetter Lane. One Thomas Hopkins managed to open a window in the vestry from the outside. He was, however, seen taking two hats. One of the parishioners ran round to catch him in Fetter Lane and when the accused saw he was being followed, he dropped the hats, but was overtaken and given into custody. One of the hats belonged to James Muston and when he gave evidence, he described himself as a deacon of the church. The perpetrator claimed to be under the influence of alcohol, but the witnesses denied that, and Hopkins was sentenced to transportation for seven years, which seems rather harsh since the hats were returned to their owners and the window had not been broken open, but just lifted up.

advertisement in The Morning Chronicle, 20 January 1845

Muston continued his upholstery business at Hatton Garden without further mishaps and the 1841 census finds him there as a 70-year old. He prided himself on his long experience which gave him the edge over flightier competitors, or so he claimed in the advertisement shown above. His name has not appeared in The London Gazette as a bankrupt, so he must indeed have managed to do well enough. He died in 1849, 78 or 79 years old, depending on who you believe, and the notice about his death in The Baptist Reporter duly repeated the important facts about his life.

May 25, at his residence, 81, Hatton garden, Mr. James Muston, aged 78, deeply regretted by his family and friends, and beloved by all who knew him. He was for many years a deacon of the Independent church in Fetter-lane, London.

portraits of daughters Agnes and Matilda Lewis by Mary Millington (Source: Wigs on the Green)

James was buried at St Thomas Square Cemetery, Mare Street, Hackney, on the 31st of May. In his will, he described himself as ‘bedding and mattress manufacturer’, which accords with what he claimed in the 1845 advertisement. His estate is to go to his wife Mary Ann, or if she pre-deceases him, is to be converted into money to be invested for the benefit of his daughter Agnes. He also mentions a daughter Mary Ann who had married Thomas Cross of Islington, but I have not found much other evidence of her. Mary Ann is to get the income of the trust after her sister Agnes’s death.⁽²⁾ According to the England and Wales Marriage Registration Index she and Thomas were married in the 2nd quarter of 1840 at West London, but that is as far as I got. Her mother, Mary Ann senior and Agnes were to be found in Gosport in the 1851 census, so did not continue the upholstery business, but it apparently remained in the family for a little while as the 1851 Post Office Directory lists 81 Hatton Garden for Thomas Cross, bed and mattress maker, presumably Mary Ann junior’s husband. But not long afterwards, James Bass, a chemist, could be found at number 81. Tallis had already listed a James Bass, chemist, at Hatton Garden, albeit not at number 81, but at number 78. Whether it was the same James Bass or not will be sorted out in a forthcoming post, but for now, the story of 81 Hatton Garden is at an end.

—————-
(1) James Hoskins, 6 March 1800; Frederik Waters, 6 Sept 1801; Marianne, 15 Aug 1802; Elizabeth Sarah, 2 Dec 1803; Agnes, 25 Oct 1807; Lucilla, 30 April 1809; Emily, 24 April 1811; Matilda Lewis, 1812. No baptism record has been found for daughter Mary Ann, but she can perhaps be identified with the Marianne who was born in 1802.
(2) PROB 11/2095/44.

Neighbours:

<– 82 Hatton Garden

80 Hatton Garden –>

Henry Luke Cooper, plate glass factor and upholsterer

Tags

furniture, glazier

Street View: 30
Address: 93 Bishopsgate Street Within

In December 1789, Henry Luke, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Cooper was baptised at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate. In due course, Henry Luke is apprenticed to his father who was a member of the Scriveners Company, although he was in fact – as the indenture states – “a cabinet and looking glass manufacturer”. The indenture just vaguely described the place of business of Joseph as Bishopsgate, and the 1814 Post Office Directory has Cooper & Co. at 107 Bishopsgate Within. In 1820, however, an advertisement places Cooper, Elliott and Cooper at number 93.⁽¹⁾ In the following years, many advertisement were placed in the newspapers by the upholsterers, not just in the London papers, but also in The Derby Mercury, The Belfast News-Letter, The Caledonian Mercury and The Ipswich Journal, emphasising that their services were not just local, but that their goods could be delivered to any part of the country.

Receipt from Cooper & Son. Please note the illustration depicting the shop windows (Source: British Museum)

Sometime in 1821, Mr. Elliott disappears and Cooper and Son continue the business and if we are in any doubt that the Son mentioned is Henry Luke, we only have to turn to an Old Bailey case of 1824 where an employee of the Coopers was indicted for embezzlement, and where Henry Luke states that he is in partnership with Joseph.⁽²⁾ Other than learning of the embezzlement itself, the proceedings also tell us the names of various people involved in the business: Edward Scott Mann, the accused, who had been a clerk and warehouseman; Samuel Elcock, a clerk; Henry Mark, the cashier; and Henry Searle, the manager. A few years after this case, Joseph Cooper retired from the business and Henry Luke continues on his own and “apprise[s] the nobility and gentry, [that] he continues to manufacture upholstery, cabinet work, and looking glasses […] and every other article connected with furnishing in the first style of elegance”.⁽³⁾

Advertisement in The Derby Mercury, 26 August 1829

Subsequent advertisements show an ever increasing list of goods and services Cooper provided, from carving and gilding to paper hanging and painting, but also sales, appraisements and the collection of rents. The firm would even, if you wished, completely fit up your ship’s cabin “with elegance and despatch”.⁽⁴⁾ More and more advertisements appear in the paper where Cooper is asking for houses and in which he calls himself “estate agent, auctioneer and upholder”, in other words, Cooper not only furnished your house, he also provided the house itself. In 1830, he even opened another branch at 57, Conduit Street, especially to be able to extend the agency business and to cater for the customers in West London.⁽⁵⁾

1830 was not only the year in which Henry Luke extended his business, but it was also the year in which his wife Frances died. As far as I can work out, the couple only had two daughters, Sarah Ann and Frances, and Henry Luke must have been wondering what to do with the upholstery and the agency business when he retired, which he seems to have done in 1838 or thereabouts. While Cooper was still extending his business in the years before his retirement, however, one Thomas Fox, the son of a woollen draper, became the apprentice of James Toplis & Son whom we encounter as auctioneers in St. Paul’s Churchyard in another Tallis Street View. Toplis’s career was similar to Cooper’s in the sense that they also branched out from upholstery into appraising and surveying. Young Thomas Fox saw an opportunity to further his career and went to work for Cooper. When in 1837, Thomas married Jane Toplis, yes, indeed the daughter of his former boss, his address is already given as Bishopsgate Within and in 1838, we find advertisements for Fox as “successor to Henry L. Cooper”. The Conduit Street branch was probably sold to someone else, as Fox was only to be found at 93 Bishopsgate with the same range of goods as Cooper, that is, with any kind of furniture, upholstery or glass you could think of.

Thomas Fox variously advertised as the Bishopsgate Plate Glass Warehouse or the Upholstery Warehouse, but he remained at Bishopsgate and when he died in August 1892, his probate record still called him upholsterer of Bishopsgate Street. Various sons worked in the family business and as late as 1912, one of them, Cecil Toplis Fox, describes himself as partner in Thomas Fox & Co.

But I like to return to Henry Luke Cooper who was left a widower in 1830. The first census of 1841, shows him living at Trafalgar Square with two female servants, Mary and Ann Calton. Trafalgar Square was also the address given in 1838 for his two daughters Sarah Ann and Frances when they got married. Henry Luke is then described as “Gent.”, already suggesting retirement, although he is still listed as the proprietor in Tallis’s Street Views, which were published in ±1839, so either the Tallis booklets were produced earlier than we thought, or Tallis erroneously used the name of Cooper rather than of Fox. Henry Luke died in 1844 and in his will he says that he has provided his two daughters with a “liberal settlement” on their respective marriages, so he feels himself at liberty to dispose of his estate to others.⁽⁶⁾ After a few small bequests, he continues: "I give to my housekeeper Ann Calton for her long and faithful services all my household furniture plate linen china glass pictures books wine and liquors". Generous indeed.

If Ann Calton should die before Henry Luke, the same goods are to go to her son Henry Luke Calton. Aha, another Henry Luke. If we go back in time, we see a baptism record in 1834 at St. Botolph, Aldgate, for Henry Luke Calton, the son of Henry Luke & Ann. The occupation of Henry Luke sr. is upholsterer. Young Henry Luke had been born in 31 December 1831, so it took a while to get him baptised. Well, anything is possible of course, but I would guess that Ann Calton was more than a housekeeper to Henry Luke Cooper, especially as no Henry Luke Calton senior seems to have existed. But the household goods are not all that Ann gets, as the will continues with the provision that the executors are also to pay her the dividends of two lots of £833/9s/8d in bank annuities. On the death of Ann, the said dividends are to be used for the maintenance of her son Henry Luke. Well, well, modern-day tabloids would have a field day, but let’s just say that the former upholsterer provided generously for his housekeeper and her son. The will continues with pages and pages of directions to his executors, but I will spare you the legalese and leave you with two advertisements of Thomas Fox.

Advertisement in The Arcana of Science and Art, 1838

Advertisement in The Quarterly Review, 1841

(1) The Morning Chronicle, 12 December 1820.
(2) Old Bailey case t18240407-34.
(3) The London Gazette, 21 March 1826; and The Examiner, 2 July 1826.
(4) See for instance, The Derby Mercury, 27 February 1828.
(5) The Standard, 5 May 1830
(6) PROB 11/1994/262.

Neighbours:

<– 94 Bishopsgate

92 Bishopsgate –>

Wilcoxon & Co., looking glass manufacturers

Tags

furniture, glazier

Street View: 24
Address: 40 Fish Street Hill

The story of Wilcoxon & Co. starts at the end of the 18th century at 58 Lombard Street where Robert Stanton and Arthur Wilcoxon were in business as looking glass manufacturers, although the firm probably existed since around 1770 (see 1864 advertisement below). Robert Stanton died in 1818 and was buried in Bunhill Fields, pointing to a non-conformist background. Robert’s son Robert junior inherited his father’s stake in the business, but in 1821 he withdrew from the partnership⁽¹⁾ and the firm became known as Wilcoxon, Harding and Owen. William Harding was Stanton’s brother-in-law, married to his sister Frances. Arthur Wilcoxon bought himself the freedom of the Clothworkers Company in 1821, just before the partnership with Stanton was dissolved. I guess because Stanton had been the member of a City Company which was obligatory for any businessman working in the City and the only option Wilcoxon had was to either find a new partner who was a Company member or become one himself. He paid the usual fine of 46s 6d. A year later, his son, Arthur II (I will refer to him as Arthur II rather than junior, as a 3rd generation also has an Arthur), also bought himself into a Company, this time the Wheelwrights. Edward Owen left the business in 1824 and the remaining partners were Arthur I, Arthur II and William Harding.⁽²⁾

portrait of Arthur I kindly supplied by Sheila Holt (nee Wilcoxon)

The Wilcoxon family lived in Frodsham, Cheshire, from the earliest records of the 1500’s, but moved to Holt, near Wrexham in the 1770’s to farm at Cornish Hall (photo and information supplied by Sheila Holt)

The first time we hear about a Wilcoxon in the Fish Street area is in 1836, when Robert Wilcoxon insures premises at 1 Monument Yard with the Sun Fire Office as wholesale looking glass manufacturer. That same year, the tax records show “Wilcoxon & Harding” for a property at Fish Street Hill. The confusing thing about having the corner shop is that most of the time it was referred to as 1 Monument Yard (these days Monument Square), but occassionally, as Tallis did, it would be listed as 40 Fish Street Hill. As we can see from the 1799 Horwood map, it was quite a substantial building.

William Harding and Fredrick George Harding withdrew from the partnership in 1839, and the business was continued by Arthur I, Arthur II and Robert Wilcoxon.⁽³⁾ The only address given is that of Monument Yard. Arthur Wilcoxon I died in 1842 and was buried in Bunhill Fields, just as his former partner Stanton had been. In Arthur’s will, drawn up in February 1841, we read that he is “late of Lombard Street but now of Monument Yard”, confirming the move. He leaves three portraits, one of himself, one of his late wife, and one of his brother Jonathan, to his son Arthur II. Is the portrait he mentions of himself the same as the one depicted above? Robert Wilcoxon turned out to be the other son of Arthur and he and his brother Arthur II are to receive the remainder of the estate after various legacies have been paid to their four sisters and various small sums to more distant relations and some of the employees and servants. Arthur I bequeathed 10 pounds and a ring to the value of 2 guineas to each of his two clerks and his two ‘travellers’, by which he means travelling salesmen, which seems generous and unlike most other Tallis shopkeepers whose wills do not normally mention their personnel at all.⁽⁴⁾

top part of the 1855 indenture for Arthur III

Although the firm started out as looking glass manufacturers, they branched out into all kinds of goods that could broadly be described as house furnishings. In 1840, for instance, they registered a design for stained paper hangings.⁽⁵⁾ And on the indenture for the next generation, Arthur III, the son of Robert, Arthur II is described as upholsterer, cabinet-maker and plate glass manufacturer. And in 1857, Wilcoxon & Co. brought out a booklet with their designs for furniture. Unfortunately Google Books does not show the content, so I cannot give you any examples.

advertisement in Deane’s Illustrated Family Almanack (1864)

When Robert died in 1866, his sons Arthur and Charles were given as two of the executors, both with the address 1 Monument Yard and both with the job description “upholsterer cabinet and looking-glass manufacturer”. In 1868, a patent is given to James Watson, foreman to Messrs. A. & R. Wilcoxon, of Newington Causeway for the invention of “an improvement in the manufacture of wall papers, and in apparatus used in such manufacture”.⁽⁶⁾ The description does not tell us much about the invention, but it does tell us that the firm must have branched out across the Thames. And indeed, a notice in The London Gazette of 11 April 1876, tells us that the partnership existing between Arthur II, Arthur III, Charles Wilcoxon and Frederick George Wilkinson (the third executor of Robert’s will and described as accountant) of 1 Monument Yard and 17 Newington Causeway is to be dissolved by order of a decree of the High Court of Chancery in the case Wilcoxon v. Wilkinson. Well, well, the Wilcoxons seem to have fallen out with their accountant.

Arthur II died in 1878⁽⁷⁾ and the business seemed to have been split up after that. Arthur III moved the Monument Yard business to 153, 154 and 156 Queen Victoria Street, but went into liquidation in 1881.⁽⁸⁾ In The Truth, G.M. and H.J. Story announce that they have taken over “the old-established cabinet & upholstery business of A. and R. Wilcoxon, late of Monument-yard” and that they have removed the whole business from Queen Victoria Street to their premises at Coleman Street and London Wall. And that was the end of the Monument Yard branch. Charles and a new partner, Frank Robson, continued the paper staining business at 17 Newington Causeway, but the partnership was dissolved in 1886 with Robson to continue the business under the old name of Wilcoxon & Co.⁽⁹⁾ Not much more can be found on Robson, so I am afraid that was the end of the Newington Causeway branch as well.

The monument from Maitland’s History of London (1739) with Wilcoxon’s corner premises on the right, although it was not yet in their occupation then (Source: British Museum)

(1) The London Gazette, 29 May 1821. Things did not go well for Robert and he was at one point confined to the king’s bench and it is suggested that he died in a mad house (see here)
(2) The London Gazette, 6 April 1824.
(3) The London Gazette, 26 February 1839.
(4) One of the salesman, John Robert Cuffley, can be traced to Great Yarmouth where he stayed a few days in July 1847 in the Angel Inn. He later had to give evidence in a case of election fraud (see here). On 27 december 1849, Arthur and Robert Wilcoxon attended a anniversary dinner of the Commercial Travellers’ School. Had Cuffley been a pupil at that school?
(5) Board of Trade, registered design 467 (National Archives BT 42/15/467), dated 13 November 1840.
(6) The London Gazette, 23 October 1868.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1878.
(8) The London Gazette, 22 July 1881.
(9) The London Gazette, 22 June 1886.

Jeremiah Danks, carpet warehouse

Tags

furniture

Street View: 53
Address: 9 Tottenham Court Road

When Thomas Danks of Hatton Garden and Baldwin Gardens died in 1837, his two shops were divided between his sons. The property at 98 Hatton Garden was given to his sons Michael, Josiah and Andrew Sidesman (the latter the son of his second wife Elizabeth Scudemore). See for the story of that shop my other blog post here, but in this post we will concentrate on the other side of the family, that is, sons Thomas junior and Jeremiah who were given “all the stock in trade looms for manufacturing hearth rugs implements and fixtures and also all other effects whatsoever belonging to me which may be in or upon the said premises in Baldwins Gardens at the time of my decease”.⁽¹⁾ Jeremiah and Thomas formed a partnership as carpet dealers and hearth-rug manufacturers, but the co-operation did not last very long. Already on the 14th of June, 1838, they dissolved the partnership of “Danks Brothers” at 9, Tottenham Court Road and 41, Baldwin Gardens.⁽²⁾ Where Thomas went after the split is unclear [P.S.: look at the comments to this post], but Jeremiah was certainly in the carpet business at Tottenham Court Road when Tallis produced his Street Views around 1839.

vignette from Tallis’s Street View

Jeremiah splashed out in a major way on advertising space in Tallis’s booklet; no mention of Baldwin Gardens anymore, by the way; did that go to Thomas when they split up? Not only was the vignette in the booklet of Jeremiah’s property, he also claimed 2 of the 3 columns on one of the advertorial pages, giving us lots of information about the business, such as the names of his predeccessors at 9 Tottenham Court Road: G.H. Humphries and Thomas Little. The Sun Fire Office records do indeed have Thomas Little, carpet manufacturer, at number 9 in 1811 and he was still there until at least 1824 when he gave evidence in an Old Bailey case.⁽³⁾ According to the Sun Fire Office, George Hallen Humphreys can be found at number 9 in 1832 and presumably only left when the Danks brothers moved in.

The two columns for J. Danks in the Street View booklet

On the 11th of November, 1840, Jeremiah married Martha Berdoe, the daughter of Joseph and Susanna Berdoe, at St. Pancras Paris Chapel. Martha was the sister of Rebecca Berdoe who had married Jeremiah’s brother Josiah the previous year. Jeremiah and Martha had at least one child, Jeremiah Martin John (often simply called Martin), born in ±1847. In 1851, the family no longer lived at Tottenham Court Road but at Alfred Terrace, St. Leonard Shoreditch. Jeremiah is given the occupation of house agent and collector of rents, so the carpet business must have been abandoned somewhere between 1841 and 1851. Young Martin can be found as a pupil at Byron House School in Ealing in 1861, but where his parents are at that time remains a mystery. In 1871, Martin, by then an American bankers’ clerk, can be found at 15 Barossa Place, Chelsea (now South Parade), living with his widowed aunt Caroline Danks (the wife of Martin’s uncle Michael) and her children Flower, Elisabeth and Alfred.

Martin’s mother, Martha, can be found at the time of the 1871 census in Brighton with her widowed father. This might be construed as a family visit, but for the fact that, at the same time, her husband Jeremiah can be found as an inmate in the Essex County lunatic asylum. Oh dear! No sign of Jeremiah in 1881, but in 1891, he is a patient at Lea Hall lunatic asylum, Leyton, Essex. The Essex County asylum, Warley Hospital in Brentwood, had been opened in 1853, but quickly filled up, despite several extentions, and the “chronic and harmless” had to be housed elsewhere. In 1879, Lea Hall in Walthamstow was rented to house some of the inmates, one of them apparently Jeremiah. The lease on Lea Hall ran out in 1891 and yet another home was sought.⁽⁴⁾ Jeremiah died in 1897, 81 years old, and his place of death is given as Billericay.⁽⁵⁾ Jeremiah may have been moved when the lease ran out to Billaricay Workhouse (see here), although Warley Hospital itself was in the Billericay Registrar’s District, so he may just have been moved back to the main institution.

Warley Hospital (Source: homesandproperty.co.uk)

Martha, in the mean time, had moved to Holyhead Road, Coventry, where she can be found in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses. In 1881 she is visited by Elizabeth Danks, Michael and Caroline’s daughter, so the different branches of the family kept in touch despite the distance and adverse circumstances. Coventry may seem a strange choice for someone who was born in Clerkenwell, but she probably followed her son in his career change from banker’s clerk to watch jeweller. Son Martin married Anne Elizabeth Chadwick of Coventry in 1875 and can be found in that city in the 1881 census (he died in 1886). Anne’s father was a watch jeweller, so either Martin went to work for him and fell in love with the daughter, or the other way round, he fell in love with her, married her and went to work for his father-in-law. Never mind which. Martha died in 1907 and probate was granted to her grandson Martin William, also a watch jeweller.⁽⁶⁾

——————-
(1) The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1876.
(2) The London Gazette, 26 June 1838.
(3) Old Bailey, t18240407-89.
(4) For the history of the Essex County lunatic asylum see here.
(5) England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, April, May, June 1897.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1907.

You may also like to read the post on the other side of the family, Danks and son at 98-99 Hatton Garden.

Charles Houghton, ironmonger

Tags

furniture, ironmonger

Street View: 18

Address: 44 Farringdon Street

Charles Houghton ran the Britannia Nail Warehouse in Farringdon Street and according to the advertisement he had in Tallis’s Street View, you could also obtain from him, besides nails, cornice poles and ends, rings, brackets, curtain bands, and any kind of article that a builder, cabinet maker, upholsterer or box maker might require. But also, as he proudly had written on the vignette in the Street View, Patent Buffalo Horn Furniture.

The horns were not from buffaloes specifically killed for their horns, but from the cattle slaughtered in the abattoirs, or so The Furniture Gazette of 1884 wants us to believe. Not that it mattered for the buffalo; it died anyway, and probably not in a very pleasant way. Better not think about the details. I found an example of such furniture on Pinterest – hideous I think, but there is no accounting for taste.

late 19th century horn furniture (Source: pinterest.com, pin-342766221609778944)

Charles Houghton probably started his working life as an apprentice ironmonger, but whether that was in his native town or in London is unknown. On the 1851 census he is listed as coming from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. We know that he became a member of the London Bowyer Company as he is mentioned as such when he took an an apprentice of his own in March 1834, Thomas Mortin, the son of Thomas Mortin of 70, Red Lion Street, plumber and glazier. The link with the Mortin family became even closer when Charles married the daughter of Thomas senior, Mary, a few weeks later, on 19 April at St. Andrew Holborn. An 1834 advertisement (see below) mentions the 44 Farringdon Street address, but also the previous one: Skinner Street, Snowhill. The eldest son of the couple, Charles Solly Houghton, was baptised on 28 December 1835, and many more children were to follow⁽¹⁾, but from 1846, the family no longer lived at Farringdon Street. Thomas Mortin was not the only apprentice Houghton had. An Old Bailey case of March 1835 relates how another apprentice, Charles Woodward, got a consignment of nails together for one Henry Smith, purporting to be in the employ of John Brees, a customer of Houghton.⁽²⁾ Woodward states that he has been in the trade for three years, although he does not say that he was with Houghton these three years.

1834 advert (Source: gracesguide.co.uk)

Charles went bankrupt in mid-1846 and in the London Gazette notice of his problems, he is given the address of 58, Dudley Grove which is also from where his daughter Maud is baptised in late 1846. The 1851 census, sees the family living at 6, Arlington Square. Charles happens to be absent from home when the census is taken, but he can be found visiting one Mary Houghton in Bury St. Edmunds, possibly his sister. Charles is still described as ironmonger, but when in 1856, his daughter Isabel is baptised he is described as ‘gentlemen’ and living in Stoke Newington. The 1861 census sees the family living at Woodland Terrace, Islington and Charles is then ‘Collector to a brewery’. Charles dies on 25 August 1866 at 84, Newington Green Road and probate is granted to widow Mary the following May.⁽³⁾ The estate is valued as under £1,000. The following census of 1871 sees daughter Laura as the head of the household at Grange Road Terrace, Stoke Newington. She is described as a school mistress and with her are living her mother and four of her sisters: Gertrude, Fanny and Maude are described as governesses and Isabel as a scholar. And that is as far as I will take this story of the ironmonger’s family.

Avert from the Tallis Street View

(1) Laura Mortin (bapt. 13 Oct. 1837), John Rowland (bapt. 29 April 1840), Gertrude (bapt. 5 May 1842), Fanny (bapt. 14-01-1845), Maud (bapt. 30-12-1846), George (±1849), Mary Ann (bapt. 4 Jan. 1852), Arthur (±1854), and Isabel (bapt. 30-11-1856).

(2) Old Bailey case t18350302-842. Smith was found not guilty on the grounds of insanity.

(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1867.

Danks and Son’s carpet warehouse

Tags

carpet, furniture

Street View: 33
Address: 98-99 Hatton Garden

98-99 Hatton Garden

The carpet manufacturing firm of Danks and Son was spread over two properties, 98 and 99 Hatton Garden. Number 98 had been occupied by Thomas Danks who had died in 1837 and the business was continued after his death by his son Michael.⁽¹⁾ The 1841 census shows Michael living at number 98 with his wife Caroline Emblin whom he had married in September 1835. At the time of the census they had two children, Caroline Robson, aged 5 and Michael Henry, aged 2. Also living at number 98 were Josiah Danks (Michael’s younger brother) and his wife Rebecca Berdoe, both 20 years old.⁽²⁾ Michael and Josiah’s sister Ann married a near neighbour, John Jaques.

In the general information Tallis provided on Hatton Garden, he mentions Danks & Son as occupying the premises where once John Stanley (1712-1786), a blind musician had been living. In their shop, a very special carpet could be seen, which had once graced the altar of Kidderminster’s St. George’s Chapel. How the mutilated carpet came to be in the hands of Danks is not explained. The building of the “Bed, feather, blanket & floor cloth warehouse” looks quite substantial in Tallis’s Street View, but just to make sure you realise how grand their business is, Danks used a whole page of the Street View booklet to advertise his wares and to illustrate it with a view of the premises where it looks even larger and where elegant customers just happen to be arriving in their horse-drawn carriage.

98-99 Hatton Garden from Advert in Tallis’s Street View

To emphasise the solidity of the shop, the advertisement is headed by the phrase “Fashionable carpet manufactory, upon old-fashioned principles, the interest of customers and the proprietors”. Underneath the illustration, they explain that they have been “compelled” by the “unprecedented increase of their business” to enlarge the shop with the adjoining premises. They certainly splashed out in a major way in Tallis’s booklet, not only did they have their name on the building in the elevation and the page-long advertisement with illustration, they also had another advertisement on another page in the booklet. This one on a third of a page, smaller than the first advertisement, but still larger than the average advert of other shops and illustrating one of their carpet making devices.

Danks 1/3 advertisement in Street View

By combining the advertisements we learn that they supplied bed, feather, blanket and floor cloths, all sorts of carpets, Lapland wool rugs, damask Hollands, stair covers, painted baize for table covers, mats, doyleys, drugget, door mats, material for outside blinds and foot stools. And if that was not enough, they also specifically addressed carpet shoe makers to inform them that they had just introduced a new carpet for shoes, “very superior dyed jet black”. What are carpet shoes? I guess a kind of slipper with the uppers made from carpet material. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests as much for carpet slippers. Any thoughts anyone?

Things seemed to go smoothly for the Thomas Danks & Son business, but all was not well. The London Gazette of 3 December 1841 shows that bankruptcy proceedings had been filed against Michael Danks and in May 1845, 98 Hatton Garden had to be sold by order of the High Court of Chancery. Intriguingly, the case is referred to as “Danks versus Danks”. Can we assume that Michael’s brother(s) wanted a fair share of their father’s legacy? [see postscript]

Carpet making device

What is known is that Michael and Caroline moved to St. Leonards, Hastings for a while and that two of their children were born there, Elisabeth and Alfred. These two, together with two more children, Flower and John, were all baptised at St. Philip, Stepney, Tower Hamlets on 18 July 1855. The parents apparently liked to do this ritual in batches as the two eldest, Caroline and Michael, were both baptised on 18 June 1840 at St. Andrew Holborn.⁽³⁾ By the time of the 1851 census, Michael, Caroline and the children were back in London, this time living at 111 Whitechapel Road. Michael is now a “general agent”, but in 1861 he is a “tripe dresser”, this latter occupation most likely not involving the innards of animals, but mock velvet.

Michael died 25 December 1870 at 140 Pennington Street and probate was granted to his widow Caroline on 15 February 1871. His effects had the value of under £20. ⁽⁴⁾

98 Hatton Garden is now a jeweller’s shop and number 99 is occupied by Barclays Bank, but do not be tempted to have a look at the building, it is all post-war concrete on that side of the street.

Postscript: since writing this post, I have become aware of a second marriage that father Thomas entered into in 1832 with Elizabeth Scudemore. A son was born of that marriage, Andrew Sidesman Danks (baptised 1834), who was a lot younger than his half-siblings. In his will, Thomas divided up his properties in such a way that Michael, Josiah and Andrew Sidesman were to continue the Hatton Garden business. In 1839, however, on behalf of Andrew Sidesman (who was only 5 years old at the time) a case was started against the other heirs and although I have not yet seen the court papers themselves, a family feud seems to be in the making.

(1) Thomas was buried on 1 April 1837 at St. Andrew Holborn. Probate was granted on the 10th of April (PROB 11/1876/166). Michael is baptised on 18 June 1807 at St. Andrew Holborn.
(2) Both marriages took place at St. Andrew Holborn, 17 September 1835 and 31 May 1839 respectively.
(3) Caroline Robson was born 4 April 1837, Michael Henry 25 July 1839, Alfred 12 October 1847, Elizabeth Mary Ann 20 April 1846, Flower 29 December 1844 and John Early 24 June 1843. Their exact date of birth is given in the baptisms registers of St. Philip and St. Andrew.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1871, p. 23.

You may also like to read the post on the other side of the family, Jeremiah Danks of 9 Tottenham Court Road.

Neighbours:

<– 100 Hatton Garden

97 Hatton Garden –>