John Ashby, carver and gilder

Tags

art, glass

Street View: 70
Address: 14 Old Compton Street

The 1808 land tax records for St. Anne, Westminster simply list ‘Hedges’ in Compton Street, but in 1809 they have changed that to ‘Nehemiah Hedges’. In 1811, Killingworth Hedges takes over and the 1819 Post Office Directory duly lists K. Hedges, looking glass maker at the corner of Dean and Compton Streets. There is another change in 1818 when John Hedges takes over. He certainly pays tax until 1829, but at some point in the 1830s John Ashby takes over. Ashby dissolves a partnership with Henry Sutton as looking and plate glass manufacturers, carvers and gilders at 14 Old Compton Street at the end of 1837.⁽¹⁾

Ashby splashed out in the Tallis Street View, not only with an advertisement, but also with the depiction of his property in the vignette. The caption still mentions Mr. Hedges as the one Ashby succeeded; no doubt because it was a well-established and respected firm. The caption claims that Hedges had been in business since 1739. The advertisement lists the products that could be supplied, from plate glass for sashes to toilet glasses, and from wood frames to window cornices. The advertisement was not only entered in the booklet for Compton Street, but also repeated in the one for Trafalgar Square and the one for New Bridge Street.

The premises on the corner of Dean Street depicted in the vignette seemed rather large, apparently encompassing number 13 on the left as well, but that is not entirely true. The 1841 census only shows Ashby, his wife Frances Elizabeth, 3 children and one servant living above the shop and the Tallis directory shows E. Watson, ironmonger, at number 13. It looks as if Ashby just had the signboard on the facade lengthened with “14 PLATE GLASS” across the property next door. John died in November 1850 and in his very short will bequeathed everything to his wife. I think it was rather a rushed job as the will is dated the 18th of November and John was buried on the 25th.⁽²⁾ Frances Elizabeth died in late January 1852. And that would have been the end of the story, but for the fact that Frances appointed former business partner Henry Sutton as one of the executors.⁽³⁾ In 1860, that is, eight years after Frances’ death, a notice in The London Gazette mentions a decree of the High Court of Chancery in the case of Henry Sutton against John Ashby (that is, the son of the carver) and others.⁽⁴⁾

The Chemist and Druggist, 8 August 1954

The 1856 Post Office Directory lists Frederick Ellington, picture dealer, at 14 Old Compton Street, so John Ashby junior did not continue his father’s business. Various others occupied the premises after Ellington, but from 1893, it became the address for Percy Denny & Co’s hosier and outfitter. The street was renumbered in 1899 with the even numbers on one side and the uneven on the other, and number 14 became number 39. Denny’s continued at number 39 until 1997 when they moved across the street to 55a Dean Street. According to Soho & Theatreland Through Time the building on the corner of Old Compton Street had been there since the 1720s, but was replaced by another one in 1923. World War II bombs fell heavily in Soho, and on 11 May 1941 a high explosive bomb hit the buildings on the opposite side of Dean Street. Denny’s (these days without the apostrophe) were very proud that the clock they had on the building since 1935 survived the Blitz. You can see the clock in the second picture of the West End at War webpage, see here. The same photograph is also shown on Dennys own website, where you can find more information about their history.

Denny’s shop in c. 1908 (Source: Brian Girling, Soho & Theatreland Through Time, 2012)

(1) The London Gazette, 19 December 1837.
(2) PROB 11/2123/148.
(3) PROB 11/2155/397.
(4) The London Gazette, 10 February 1860.

Neighbours:

<– 13 Old Compton Street

15 Old Compton Street –>

Advertisement

Hetley & Co., glass shade warehouse

Tags

glass

Street View: 85
Address: 35 Soho Square

The 1841 census saw Richard Hetley, glass dealer, at 35, Soho Square, that is, on the west side of the Square. Living with him are James, Henry and Frederick, and although the census does not specify their relation to Richard, nor their occupations, we know that they were his sons. Pigot’s Directory of 1839 just gives him as glass shade manufacturer, but he also supplied plate glass and the 1843 Post Office Directory gives his business as “wholesale glass shade, sheet, crown & patent plate glass warehouse”, which must have been a standard formula used by Hetley, as the 1847 advertisement in a horticultural book (see below) uses exactly the same phrase, and so does the 1848 Post Office Directory. Richard had been at Soho Square since 1835, but before that, he could be found at 8 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, where he had a short-lived partnership in 1828 with Antoine Claudet, whom we have come across before. Richard could not be found in the tax records of Tavistock Place before 1828, so I turned to the baptism records of his children to see if they elicited any relevant information.

His eldest son James Hicks Hetley, named after his mother Mary Hicks, was baptised in August 1817 at St. James Piccadilly. Richard’s address is given as Coventry Street and his occupation as fishmonger, which is certainly a surprise. The baptism in 1819 for the next child, Henry, gives the same information, but unfortunately, the next three children were baptised years later, in 1835, when the family was already living at Soho Square, so no more information can be gleaned there. Sun Fire Office insurance records tell us a bit more, namely that Richard was already working as a fishmonger in Coventry Street in 1810 and that he continued to do so until at least 1820. Richard must then have changed his occupation from fishmonger to glass merchant between 1820 and 1828 According to legend he started his glass business in 1823, but I have not found any evidence for that date. However, later censuses tell us that son Frederick was born in 1822 in France, and I wonder whether Richard’s connection with Claudet had anything to do with the move to France and the change in occupation. What came first one wonders? In May 1835, glass dealer Richard insured 8 Tavistock Street, but in September of that year he insured 35 Soho Square, which gives us a definite year for the start of the Soho Square business.

advertisement in George Glenny, The standard of perfection for the properties of flowers and plants, 1847

Sometime after 1843, Richard must have entered into a partnership with his sons, as, from then on, the firm is called Hetley & Co. Richard is listed as retired in the 1851 census and living at Beaufoy Terrace. Son James is living at 35 Soho Square and Henry at 13 Wigmore Street. Frederick is still living at home, but had chosen a different career; he is listed as a surgeon. Richard died in December 1853 and was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green. In his will, dated March 1852 [mistake for 1853], he said that he felt his “health declining very seriously”. He left one third of his possessions to his wife Mary and the rest was to be divided between the children.⁽¹⁾ He makes no mention of the business, so whatever provisions had been made must have been made before his retirement. Despite the fact that sons James and Henry were both glass manufacturers, they ran separate establishments.

Henry at 13 Wigmore Street

advertisement for Henry Hetley, 13 Wigmore Street, in The Lancet of 1856

In a previous post, we saw that the front of number 12 Wigmore Street was covered in scaffolding and that the date for the building work was given as 1820 in Walford’s Old and New London (vol. IV, p. 438). That date, however, could not be right. Number 13, the house next to number 12, is clearly showing the name of Hetley, glass shade manufacturer, but in the Tallis Street View of 1839, number 13 was occupied jointly by Hopper, a sculptor and Daniell, a dentist. They were still there when the census was taken in 1841. Daniell could be found in Wigmore Street till 1843, and Hopper till his death in 1844. Only in the 1851 census do we see Henry Hetley appearing as the occupant of the premises, so he must have moved in sometime after 1844. We can date his appearance in Wigmore Street more precisely to later that decade as the Post Office Directory of 1848 does not yet list him. And from an Old Bailey case we learn that in September 1846, Henry still described himself as a glass merchant of Soho Square.⁽²⁾ Hetley and his family probably moved in between October 1848 and April 1850 as the address given in the baptism record of daughter Ellen May is 71 Great Portland Street, but for the next child, Elizabeth, it is 13 Wigmore Street.⁽³⁾ The Hetleys were certainly still there when daughter Kate was born in 1857, but by 1861, they were living in Islington.⁽⁴⁾

13 Wigmore Street. Part of an 1852 drawing by T.H. Shepherd (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

advertisement in Edward Walford, County Families of the United Kingdom, 1860

Just because Henry Hetley moved to Islington does not necessarily mean he gave up his business – the 1861 census still lists him as glass dealer (employing 3 men) – but by the end of the year, he dissolved a partnership with James Meers of Gravesend as sand merchant.⁽⁵⁾ And although sand and glass are certainly related, an advertisement in The Times of 18 May 1867 tells us that Henry’s business has been removed to Soho Square. What the exact circumstances were is unclear. Considering the remark at the end of an 1851 advertisement for James Hetley & Co, “their only establishment in London” (see below), it seemed unlikely that the brothers had some sort of partnership in the years that Henry traded from Wigmore Street. Did James gobble up his brother’s business in 1867, or had Henry wanted out anyway and found his brother willing to take over the content of his business? We may never know.

The next census (1871) tells us that Henry is living at Auckland Hill as a manufacturer of stationary. In October 1872, he collared the thief who tried to grab the two umbrellas he had with him when he went for a spot of lunch, and in the subsequent hearing of the case at Guildhall, Hetley described himself as a manufacturing stationer of 19, Finsbury Street.⁽⁶⁾ In 1881, he is living at Versailles Road as a printer and in 1891 as a wholesale stationer. He died in 1899 and his probate record has him as wholesale stationer at Versailles Road and 63 St. John's Square, Clerkenwell.⁽⁷⁾

James at 35 Soho Square

advertisement for James at Soho Square in Adams’s Pocket London Guide Book of 1851

Meanwhile, James continued to run the 35 Soho Square business and also branched out into stained window glass (see here for his involvement with stained-glass designer Charles Eamer Kempe). James’s business had always been the bigger of the two, and, already in 1851, we see him employing 6 men and a boy, while Henry only had 4 employees at that time. The Great Exhibition was an excellent opportunity to bring in more customers and James entered an advertisement in The Times of 14 January, 1851, informing “manufacturers and others who intend showing works requiring BLOWN SHADES or CASES, in either plate, patent plate, or sheet glass, that they are prepared to furnish them, either on sale or hire, of all shapes and dimensions”. And as proof of their experience in these matters, James mentions that all glass shades needed for the Society of Arts exhibitions were made by Hetley & Co.

The Times, 9 Oct. 1965

Subsequent censuses no longer tell us anything about the size of James’s business, but it certainly lasted a lot longer than his brother’s business and, in fact, it still exists, albeit lately as part of Pearsons Glass, following the collapse of T&W Ide with whom Hetley was previously associated, and no longer in Soho Square, but at Glasshouse Fields, Stepney. Because of the traffic situation, Hetley’s had already left Soho Square in the early 1950’s for Wembley, that is, after well over a century.

advertisement in The Church Builder, 1869

In 1882, John Menzies Salmond, the manager, became a partner in the business. A later member of the Salmond family, Christopher, is reported in the Soho Clarion (nr. 69, late 1989/early 1990) as saying that “his great grandfather was a founder partner in Soho Square in 1823”. If that is the case, there must be a family link between the Salmonds and the Hetleys, but I do not know which one. I have not found a marriage to support this claim and there must be many more generations between the managing director of 1990, who was a child in WW2, and the founder of 1823. What he probably meant was that his great grandfather became a partner in a firm that had been established in 1823. Yale Center for British Art has the original vellum Deed of Partnership between James Hetley and John Menzies Salmond as part of a small collection of Hetley records. They have a scrapbook and an account book, dating from the second half of the 19th century (see here for a full description). I have not seen them, but they may tell us a lot about the everyday activities of the firm in the 19th century. The Soho Clarion, by the way, has a very nice picture of some of the Hetley employees posing in front of the shop windows at 35 Soho Square (see here for their archive, look for number 69).

(1) PROB 11/2184/15.
(2) Old Bailey proceedings t18460921-1837. Hetley had his watch and chain stolen in Holborn baths.
(3) Ellen Mary was baptised on 27 October 1848 and Elizabeth on 5 April 1850, both at St. Marylebone.
(4) Kate was baptised on 6 May 1857 at St. Marylebone.
(5) The London Gazette, 10 December 1861.
(6) ‘Police Intelligence’ in The Observer, 27 October 1872.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1900. Probate is granted to his widow Cornelia and the estate is valued at over £2600.

Neighbours:

<– 34 Soho Square

36 Soho Square –>

Henry Luke Cooper, plate glass factor and upholsterer

Tags

furniture, glass

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 –>

Claudet & Houghton, glass dealers

Tags

glass, photography

Street View: 11
Address: 89 High Holborn

In 1821, Antoine Francois Jean Claudet married Julia Bourdelain at St. Mary Islington. In 1828, Antoine dissolves a partnership as glass warehouseman at Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, with Richard Hetley. A year later Claudet has moved to the Holborn area where Tallis was to find him. When, in October 1929, Claudet’s three children (Anne Mary, Justus Frederic and Henry) are all baptised at St. Andrew Holborn, the address for the Claudets is given as High Holborn, unfortunately without a number, so it is uncertain whether he already occupied number 89 where Tallis was to find him with another partner, George Houghton. Where the Claudets are at the time of the 1841 census is uncertain, but George Houghton and his family are definitely living above the shop at number 89, and they are still there in 1851. George is described as glass merchant in both censuses. Antoine Claudet and his family can be found at Park terrace, Islington in the 1851 census which shows the international background of the family. Antoine was born in France; his wife Julia in London; his mother-in-law, Ann Bourdelain, in Germany; his son (Justus) Frederick and his daughter (Anna) Maria both in France, but the younger son, Frank (Francis George), in London.

Advertisements in Tallis’s Street View

Advertisement in Bradshaw’s Illustrated Handbook to France, n.d

That Claudet and Houghton are not just average glass dealers, as one might assume, can be seen from their advertisements which not only list plate and shade glass, but also photographic materials. Claudet had acquired a licence to produce Daguerrotype photographs and he set up a studio at the Adelaide Gallery. Over the years, he introduced numerous improvements in the photographic process, such as a reduction in exposure time, painted backgrounds, the use of red light in the dark room, the photographometer, the focimeter, and many more.⁽¹⁾ In 1853, Claudet registered a patent as “photographic artist, for the invention of ‘improvements in stereoscopes'”.⁽²⁾ That same year, Claudet successfully applied for the fellowship of the Royal Society and his application form lists his accomplishments regarding photography.⁽³⁾ By then he had moved to Gloucester Road, Regent’s Park where he was to remain the rest of his life. He died in December 1867.⁽⁴⁾

Advertisement in The Times, 3 March 1840 (grateful thanks to Mike Robinson who sent me this advert)

Advertisement in The London Review of 3 August 1861

portrait of Claudet

Claudet was the author of a small brochure entitled ‘Du Stéréoscope et de ses applications à la Photographie’ (Paris, 1853; see the post on L.F. Colas) and of two Papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; one on the effect of the chlorides of bromine and iodine in the Daguerreotype process, and the second on the deposit of mercury on the silver plate. He also wrote many papers in various other magazines, all on various aspects of the photography process.

An interesting article on Claudet’s photographic career and his successive studios, where his son Henry started his career as a photographer, can be found here (PDF at bottom of page). Unfortunately, the author relegates Houghton to a single mention in a footnote, which is a shame as he, and later his son, ran the High Holborn side of the business for many years. George Houghton seems to have been the man in the background, the one who quietly but successfully managed the shop at 89 High Holborn while Claudet invented and developed the photographic improvements. In 1852, George junior joined the business which was henceforth called Claudet, Houghton and Son. George junior obtained his freedom from the City of London by redemption in 1877, probably coinciding with his father’s retirement as the 1881 census lists George senior at Hampstead as a retired glass merchant and George junior as a glass merchant employing 16 men and 2 boys. Although George happens to be at an address at Hastings on the day the census is taken, it does not mean he has left London completely, as ten years later, he can be found at Willesden and is then listed as photographic dealer. He died in 1913 and from his probate record we learn that more members of the family were involved in photography as the three sons listed in the probate are all connected with the business: George Edwin is listed as a photographer and Edgar William and Charles Edward as photographic apparatus manufacturers.⁽⁵⁾ More information on the further history of the Houghton business and (a very bad) picture of the shop can be found here. The shop itself was blitzed in 1940 and nothing now remains at Holborn to remind us of the photographic business.

Advertisement in Post Office Directory for Suffolk, 1875

Portraits done by Claudet can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery (here).

(1) Oxford Dictionary of Biography and Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.
(2) The London Gazette, 8 April 1853.
(3) The application form can be seen on the Royal Society website (here).
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1868. Probate went to his widow Julia and son Frederic. The estate was valued at under £6,000.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1913. The estate was valued at over £17,800.

Neighbours:

<– 90 High Holborn

88 High Holborn –>

George Farmiloe, window glass cutter

Tags

glass

Street View: 37
Address: 114 St. John Street

A tweet not so long ago alerted me to the imminent redevelopment of the Farmiloe premises in St. John Street. I had seen the empty building on a number of occasions and took some photographs to illustrate a future post on the Farmiloe shop for this blog, but the tweet made me dig out the information I had collected and start writing. So here goes:

Detail of map of parish of St. Sepulchre 1824 with number 114 next to the entrance to the Windmill Inn (Source: British Library)

When Tallis depicted the Farmiloe window glass business, it was still a modest affair; just number 114 was listed as their premises, but later their address was number 118 (empty when Tallis produced his booklet). Somewhere in the 1860s, the powers that be decided to renumber 118 as 34. Although the firm changed its address from 114 to 118, they kept possession of the plot at 114 and in fact, later in the century, extended their property to span from number 28 to number 36 (formerly 114-120, spanning both the yards of the Windmill Inn and the White Hart Inn), with 34-36 as the main building. The distinctive building you can see below in the photographs was erected in 1868 after a fire had destroyed the previous buildings. The Building News of 12 June 1868 tells us that the architect Lewis H. Isaacs had accepted the tender for rebuilding from Browne and Robinson for £12,915. It is now a Grade II listed building, so any redevelopment will have to take that into account.⁽¹⁾

Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper of 15 March 1868 reported on the fire which broke out on a Wednesday morning. The paper describes the building with one part of three floors and another of two floors. But as the building was interconnected, the fire spread rapidly “from store to store until the whole of the building was a mass of flames”. The firemen tried to prevent it spreading to neighbouring properties, esp. to the oil stores of Browning, but did not quite succeed. One unfortunate fireman was injured by a collapsing floor “and the falling upon him of a crate of glass” – ouch! The newspaper report, quoting the firemen’s captain, specified which properties were damaged and who they belonged to, which is a definite bonus from my point of view. I can now more easily reconstruct the proprietors in that part of the street:

– Number 26-28 J.W. and H. Browning and Co, oil merchants. Roofs of back sheds damaged by breakage
– Number 34, G. Farmiloe & Sons, back warehouses of two and three floors, 160 feet by 50 feet, all communicating, and contents nearly destroyed. The second and third floors of the front warehouse severely damaged and most of the roof gone. Lower part severely damaged by water.
– Number 36-38, Mr. Stenlake, tailor and Mr. T. Davis, printer. Back fronts seriously damaged by fire and contents by water.
– No number given, Mr. J. Sargeant, envelope orderer, and Mr. J. Wilkinson, lithographer, back fronts severely scorched.
– Numbers 40-42, unoccupied, similar damage.
– Number 5, Charterhouse Mews, Sweeting and Co’s stables, damaged by breakage.

So who were these Farmiloes that spread from just a small glazier business to such large premises on an extensive plot of land? George Farmiloe, the son of watchmaker William Farmiloe of Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, is taken on as an apprentice by John Roberts of the Cordwainers’ Company on the 6th of January 1813. It is not exactly clear when, but at some stage in the apprenticeship George is turned over to joiner Edward Chuck until he receives his freedom of the Cordwainers in February 1822. George’s address is then given as 3 Spital Square and his profession as plumber. We next hear of George in 1826 when he is described as a glass cutter of St. John’s Lane, West Smithfield, in a London Gazette notice regarding the assignment of the goods of a bankrupt colleague’s plumbing and glazier’s business to Farmiloe and one Benjamin Dover in order to dispose of them to pay off the bankrupt firm’s debts.⁽²⁾ In 1829, George takes out an insurance with the Sun Fire Office for 8 St. John’s Lane as “window glass cutter, lead merchant, and dealer in oil and turpentine”.

advertisement from The Gardeners’ Chronicle and Architectural Gazette, 1854

The 1841 census describes George as lead merchant with a wife Elizabeth Meakin (the daughter of another glass and lead merchant who will be discussed some other time) and seven sons Thomas (1824), George (1826), William (1827), Lewis (1833), Henry (1835), James (1838) and John (1839). Also living on the premises are two female servants and a warehouseman with his wife and son. Ten years later, as so many Victorian shopkeepers, George no longer lives where he works, but can be found at 16 Park Road, Islington. The same seven sons still live at home, but although George is classed as lead merchant, the three eldest sons, all unmarried, are given as lead and glass merchants. The younger ones still go to school. A notice in The London Gazette of 11 December 1860 tells us that Henry leaves the partnership he had with his brothers George junior and James at 118 St. John Street as lead and glass merchants. Although they had been trading as George Farmiloe and Son, George senior had no role in this particular partnership as he is not mentioned, although that does not mean he has retired as the 1861 census still lists him as lead merchant. William, Henry and John still live at home and are also listed as lead merchants. Lewis also lives in Park Road but he is described as fund holder and annuitant. The next bit of information comes from a notice in The London Gazette of 5 January 1869 which tells us that the partnership between George senior, George junior and James is dissolved.

An 1868 advertisement (source: Graces Guide)

In 1872, son Henry, still a bachelor, dies at Ramsgate and probate is granted to his father.⁽³⁾ In 1877, Lewis, who had been without a job description in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, applies for the freedom of the Glaziers’ Company by redemption and is then still described as “of no business or profession”, but in the 1881 census he is described as lead merchant while his father is then given as “independent”. Lewis and Thomas, both bachelors, still live with their father. Their address is, however, now given as Tillerye House, 45 Parkhurst Road, Holloway. The partnerships between the various family members did not just occur between the ones living with their father as a notice in The London Gazette of 13 May 1884 testifies. Thomas, John, William and George junior dissolve a partnership that they had as T. and W. Farmiloe, glass and lead merchants at Rochester-row, Westminster, and as George Farmiloe and Sons at 34 St. John Street, West Smithfield. The business at Rochester Row was to be continued by Thomas, William and John as T. and W. Farmiloe (see photo of the building here), and 34 St. John Street by George junior under the old name of George Farmiloe and Sons. I do not think there was a family feud as Cathy Ross suggests (see here), but giving all sons a responsible job may have been a bit of a stretch for the firm and a number of them just branched out on their own while apparently keeping close links with one another judging by the available evidence of the probate records where the brothers acted as executors for the estates of brothers from ‘the other’ branch.

Lewis dies 6 November 1890 at Tillerye house in Parkhurst Road, Holloway, and probate is granted to his brother William and one Charles Henry Nalder. George senior dies a few month later, on 21 January 1891, and probate is granted to son James as one of the executors.⁽⁴⁾ Thomas dies 11 February 1897 and William 18 July 1897.⁽⁵⁾ George junior dies 12 March 1906, John in 1917 and the last surviving brother, James, in 1921.⁽⁶⁾ Judging by the value of their estates (see footnotes), the Farmiloes did quite well out of the constant need of the London populace for window glass and lead.

We can add one bit of information to the history of the firm and that is of the ketch Frances that went missing in the North Sea. The Frances, a small ship based at Harwich, had been continuously chartered by the Farmiloes since 1893 to carry Belgian glass for them on her return journeys from Antwerp. The glass was delivered by the vessel at the Nine Elms wharf belonging to the Farmiloes. Since January 1896, the size of the glass was so large that the crates prevented the hatches to be closed, but the captain and part-owner, James Goddard, saw no problem and made at least eight voyages with open hatches. When difficulties about the insurance arose, Farmiloe took out an additional insurance with Lloyds with the clause “with leave for hatches not to be closed” and Goddard agreed to transporting the large glass in his vessel with the hatches open. On 4 December, Goddard left Flushing in a severe gale, so severe that that same night Brighton pier was swept away (see here), and nothing was heard of the ship or the three men on board (captain John Goddard, his son Maurice Goddard and Josiah Sherwood) ever again. Although Farmiloe was not responsible for the disaster, nor blamed by the Board of Trade investigators, he gave the widow of captain Goddard an allowance of £1 a week for five years.⁽⁷⁾ Although a newspaper report of the investigation does not specify which Farmiloe was involved, the official report of the investigation does and names John Farmiloe, so I assume it was the Rochester Row branch that had ordered the glass. You can read the whole report of the investigation by the Board of Trade here and if you want to read more about the subsequent history of the firm and their branching out into the manufacture of paint, sealants and sanitary appliances, I suggest you read this.

Site overview as given as one of the exhibition boards by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (the complete redevelopment plan can be found here)

(1) See here for the listing on the Historic England website and here for the redevelopment plans on the Creative Clerkenwell website.
(2) The London Gazette, 16 May 1826
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1872. The value of Henry’s estate is given as £100.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891. The value of George’s estate is given as £6,141 and that of Lewis as £11,973.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891. The value of Thomas’s estate is given as £133,714 and that of William’s as £141,706.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1906, 1917 and 1921. The value of George’s estate is given as £120,329; that of John’s estate as £84,649 and that of James’s as £27,602.
(7) The Western Mail, 23 April 1897.

Neighbours:

<– 115 St. John Street

113 St. John Street –>

Wilcoxon & Co., looking glass manufacturers

Tags

furniture, glass

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.

Neighbours:

<– 41 Fish Street Hill

39 Fish Street Hill –>

Thomas Alexander Millington, glazier

Tags

glass

Street View: 51
Address: 87 Bishopsgate Street Without

In an advertisement in J.R. Pearson’s Hints on the Construction and Management of Orchard-Houses (2nd ed., 1862), Thomas Millington of 87 Bishopsgate Street Without proudly states than the firm had been established in 1750. The Thomas of this 1862 advert was officially called Thomas Alexander and was baptised at St. Botolph church on 20 June 1812 as the son of Samuel II Millington and Caroline Mary Church. Samuel was baptised at St. Antholin Budge Row in c. 1781 as the son of Thomas Cartwright and Ann Millington. This Thomas Cartwright was baptised 22 October 1759 as the son of another Samuel Millington and Catherine Stockall. This latter Samuel was the son of yet another Samuel and his wife Sarah and was baptised 9 October 1729 at St. Mary Abchurch.

So, we have in chronological order:
Samuel I 1729-1789
Thomas Cartwright 1759-1819
Samuel II 1781-1852
Thomas Alexander 1812-1887

vignette from Tallis’s Street View

Assuming that the business was indeed handed down from father to son, the first Samuel must have been the one to start the business in 1750, although not necessarily at the Bishopsgate address. As far as I can gather from various records, the men were all glaziers. The Sun fire insurance records enable us to find an early entry (for 1794) where Thomas is paying the insurance on the 87 Bishopsgate property.⁽¹⁾ The next step is a notice in the London Gazette, stating that in March 1819, the partnership between Thomas Cartwright Millington and Samuel Millington is dissolved and that Samuel continued the business alone. Thomas was to die later that same year. The Sun insurance records tell us that Samuel II (plumber and glazier) paid the insurance on 87 Bishopsgate in the years 1827-1831, but Thomas Alexander (plumber, painter, glazier and dealer in oil) in 1836, so presumably he took over the business somewhere in the early 1830s.⁽²⁾

Adverts from the Florist and Pomologist

The ability to produce bigger sheets of glass at reasonable prices greatly encouraged the building of greenhouses and Thomas was keen to corner that segment of the market and advertised regularly in dedicated magazines, such as The Florist and Pomologist; a pictorial monthly magazine of flowers, fruits, and general horticulture of Robert Hogg. Pearson in his small booklet mentioned above, Hints on the Construction and Management of Orchard-Houses, explains how to build yourself a greenhouse for growing, for instance, peaches and nectarines. No surprise that the last pages of the book contained advertisements for related goods, such as other books and magazines on horticulture, hot water boilers, whole greenhouses, but also for sheets of glass. One page-long advertisement was put in the booklet by James Phillips & Co. of 180, Bishopsgate Without, and, not to be outdone, Thomas Millington also put in a page-length advert. Both companies offered sheet glass for greenhouses in various sizes and other related items. Phillips sold milk pans, propagating glasses and paint, but Millington is more detailed in his description of what else he has available: hand glasses, propagating glasses, milk pans, hyacinth glasses, hyacinth dishes, cucumber tubes – even then they preferred their cucumbers straight – crystal glass shades, lamp glasses and also paint and oil. Millington’s was certainly the older establishment in that street as number 180 is occupied in Tallis’s Street View by Sanford, an ironmonger. Horticultural glass items were also used in other trades. In 1853, Millington was mentioned as one of the addresses where high bell glasses, known as ‘propagating glasses’ could be bought to use as a cover for microscopes.⁽³⁾

Frontispiece from Pearson’s Hints

Advert from Pearson’s Hints

Thomas Alexander died 11 October 1887 at 11, Dalby Square at Margate. The probate record stated that he was “late of 26 Kingdon Road, West Hampstead” and that he was a widower.⁽⁴⁾ If we follow the census returns, we find Thomas in 1841 in Bishopsgate Street, apparently still a bachelor, as lead and glass merchant with a servant and an apprentice. But, in 1851, we find him on Howards Road, West Ham (now Newham), a widower with four children (Caroline 15 years old, William 13, Thomas 8 and George 4), so the assumption that he was still a bachelor in 1841 is not correct. Further research shows that the children’s mother was called Julia and that there was another child, named after her mother and baptised in May 1839. Ten years later, in 1861, we find Thomas on the Orford Road in Walthamstow with his second wife Mary, children from his first marriage Caroline, Julia, Thomas and George, and children from his second marriage Gertrude, Henry, Arthur and Herbert. Another ten years on, in 1871, some of the older children have left or possibly died, but George and Gertrude are still there with new additions to the family: Grace, Frederick and Albert. In 1881, daughter Julia and son Herbert, both unmarried, are back and share the house with Thomas, Mary, Gertrude, Arthur, Grace and Frederick. The move to Kingdon Road must have taken place between the time of the 1881 census and Thomas Alexander’s death.

In the census records, Thomas is always described as (glass and/or lead) merchant, never as retired and although the census returns are not always accurate, we may assume that, at least till, 1881, he took an active role in the business. The latest datable advertisement I have found is from 1868 in the Journal of Horticulture. He may have lived above the shop in 1841, but he certainly no longer did so from 1851 onwards. This was a general trend in London; people moved to the suburbs and used the greatly improved transport network to get to their business in the city centre. What became of the business after Thomas’s death is unclear.

(1) LMA, MS 11936/399/632677.
(2) LMA, MS 11936/529/1121977 and MS/11936/547/1222492.
(3) H. Schacht, The Microscope, in its special Application to vegetable Anatomy and Physiology (1853), p. 15.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1887, p. 287.

Neighbours:

<– 88 Bishopsgate Street

86 Bishopsgate Street –>