Sharp & Son, tea dealers & grocers

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grocer

Street View: 56
Address: 56 Fenchurch Street

The vignette in the Tallis Street View booklet (see below) shows the grocery run by successive members of the family from – as they claim on their facade – 1725 onwards. The earliest Land Tax record I could find for a Sharpe, Thomas Sharpe that is, at the property on the corner of Fenchurch Street and Mark Lane, however, is 1731. In 1730 the property was still listed for Dorothy Pope, but that does not mean that the grocery shop had not been started in 1725, just not at number 56. In 1756, according to the indenture signed on the 13th of April that year, Lancelot Sharpe, son of Thomas Sharpe, Citizen of London and Grocer, “doth put himself apprentice to his father”. The indenture paper does not give father Thomas’s address, but son Lancelot is mentioned in The London Directory for 1772 as grocer and confectioner at 56 Gracechurch Street. The following year, Lancelot obtained a licence for his marriage to Sarah Till and they were married at St. Katherine Coleman on the 18th of November by the curate of St. Mary Woolnoth, John Till, Sarah’s brother. In 1827, the reverend John Till (1768-1827) of Hayes, Kent, mentions his sister Sarah Sharpe of Stoke Newington, widow, in his will, and also his nephew Lancelot Sharpe, rector of All Hallows Staining.⁽¹⁾ Lancelot, the son of grocer Lancelot, had been chaplain to the countess of Loudoun and was presented with the “perpetual curacy of All Hallows Staining, Mark Lane on the unanimous nomination of the Worshipful Company of Grocers”.⁽²⁾

List of products for sale at Sharpe’s (© Trustees of the British Museum)

But back to the grocer in Fenchurch Street. Lancelot and Sarah had two sons who went into the grocer’s business: Richard Scrafton (baptised 1777) and Thomas (baptised 1780). Richard Scrafton became his father’s apprentice in 1791 and Thomas in 1794, so a regular family business. The British Museum has a small leaflet of the grocery shop listing the items they had for sale, such as coffee and sugar, but also slightly more exotic products, such as cinnamon, dates and lemon peel, and even macaroni and pistachio nuts. Lancelot senior died in 1810 and in his will he mentions, besides Richard and Thomas, two daughters, Ann and Catherine, his son, the reverend Lancelot, and another son, Charles, who had gone into partnership with Vernon & Hood of the Poultry, publishers.⁽³⁾ Richard Scrafton and Thomas continued the grocery shop in Fenchurch Street under the name of L. Sharpe & Sons and are listed as such in The Post Office Directory of 1814. That the two men were in partnership is made clear in an Old Bailey case of 1822 where one Edmund Tucker, shopman, is tried for stealing 7 lbs. of coffee, valued at 14s. from his employers, the Sharpes. He had pretended to be making up a parcel with an order for a friend, while in fact, the woman receiving it was his wife, and the amount of coffee delivered was more than officially left the Sharpe shop and was paid for.⁽⁴⁾
Advertisements show that Lancelot, and later his sons Richard and Thomas, were proud of the imported exotic food they could supply.

The Morning Chronicle, 30 March 1814

The Morning Post, 22 December 1824

The Morning Post, 3 February 1827

In 1831, the partnership between the brothers came to an end and Thomas removed himself to 44 Bishopsgate Street Within.⁽⁵⁾ His story will be told in a later post, but for now, we will continue with the shop in Fenchurch Street. In 1840, Richard’s son Frederick obtained his freedom of the City by patrimony and joined the firm. An advertisement in the Tallis Street View booklet shows that Sharpe & Son had fallen in with the nineteenth century fashion of calling a grocery that also sold foreign food stuff an Italian warehouse, regardless of the fact that most of the products did not come from Italy at all, see, for instance, also Edward Brown of Wardour Street. In the 1851 census, Richard, by then a widower, is listed at number 56 as a grocer employing five men with Frederick also living there as his business partner. Two unmarried daughters, Caroline and Clara, are also living at home and described as grocer’s daughters, so presumably working in the business. Richard died the following year and left substantial sums of money to his children.⁽⁶⁾

advertisement in the Tallis Street View booklet

Frederick continued the business, but not at number 56, as the Land Tax record for 1853 noted that the house (and some of the neighbouring properties) had been pulled down. The record for 1854 says “rebuilding” and in 1855, the property is listed for a Mr. Brown. So, where did Frederick go? In the 1856 Post Office Directory, a Frederick Sharpe (late Henry Sharpe), grocer and dealer in British wines is listed at 44 Bishopsgate within and 4 Gracechurch Street. The Bishopsgate address is familiar as that is where his uncle Thomas went after the termination of the partnership with Frederick’s father, but is he the same Frederick? We will sort out the Bishopsgate address some other time, but 4 Gracechurch Street was certainly the address of a Frederick Sharpe till 1873. This Frederick did not live in Gracechurch Street and in the 1861 census, the property is listed for several people without an occupation, except for one John Gray, who is listed as a grocer’s assistant. In 1871, two of the women listed in 1861 are still there and this time with the occupations housekeeper and general servant, which still does not help us much. Grocer Frederick in the mean time was living at Stoke Newington (1861), Hampstead (1871) and Lee, Kent (1881). In this last census he is listed as “retired”. To prove that Frederick of 4 Gracechurch Street was the same as Frederick of 56 Fenchurch Street, I will make a detour to the land of literature, starting with the first lines of a poem:

In a snug little cot lived a fat little mouse,
Who enjoyed, unmolested, the range of the house;
With plain food content, she would breakfast on cheese,
She dined upon bacon, and supped on grey peas.

The lines are from the poem ‘The Country Mouse and the City Mouse’, written by Richard Scrafton Sharpe, yes indeed, our grocer. It was derived from one of Aesop’s Fables (see here) and was one of the poems in Sharpe’s collection of Old Friends in a New Dress which his son Frederick lists as being definitely written by his father. He mentions a few more titles in reply to a query in Notes and Queries by R. Inglis who wanted to know who had written Theodore and Matilda.⁽⁷⁾ Fortunately for this post, Frederick adds his address on the bottom of his reply, 4 Gracechurch Street, thereby not only confirming the authorship of his father, but also his own address after the shop in 56 Fenchurch Street was demolished. The family business therefore existed for some 125 years in Fenchurch Street and afterwards for roughly another 25 years in Gracechurch Street. Not bad!

(1) PROB 11/1723/23.
(2) The Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine, February 1802. The grandson of the reverend, Richard Bowdler Sharpe became a famous zoologist, see here.
(3) PROB 11/1517/14. Charles later went to Dublin and used 56 Fenchurch Street as the address where his catalogues could be obtained. For instance: advertisement in Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 23 August 1843.
(4) Old Bailey case t18220220-66.
(5) The London Gazette, 30 September 1831.
(6) PROB 11/2155/243.
(7) Notes and Queries, 4th Ser., v.5 (June 1870), p. 560; and Idem, 4th Ser., v.6 (July 1870), p. 16.

Neighbours:

<– 57 Fenchurch Street

55 Fenchurch Street –>

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Edward Brown, Oil & Italian Warehouse

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grocer

Street View: 62
Address: 118 Wardour Street

In the 1810s, Francis Fourdin could be found at 11 Wardour Street. Although the 1822 Land Tax records for the parish of St. Anne, Westminster, do not give any house numbers, they list Fourdin three houses away from Noah Goetze, a stationer, listed by Tallis at number 8. The names of the other near neighbours of Fourdin cannot be found in the vicinity of number 11 in Tallis, so are no help in identifying the exact location of Fourdin’s shop. So far, so good, but an insurance record of the Sun Fire Office for 11 October 1821 has Fourdin as oilman of 11 Wardour Street with the remark “other property or occupiers: 118 Wardour Street”. It seems that Fourdin’s business was doing well and he went into property. Another insurance record, of May 1820, has him still at number 11, but with “other property or occupiers: 12 Wardour Street (printseller); 5 and 6 Junction Place Paddington”. Already in 1810 we see Fourdin paying insurance on number 12, although that particular record does not tell us who the occupant of that shop is. Never mind, we will sort number 12 out some other time. For now, back to number 118, the subject of this post. In the 1810s, one James White occupied number 118 as a cheesemonger. He is still there in September 1821 when his name and address are used as the correspondence address for an advertisement.⁽¹⁾ But, the land tax record for 1823 tells us that Fourdin had supplanted James White, and that the building is a new one and that Fourdin had to pay more tax than White.

As we can see from the vignette in the Tallis booklet, the building was quite substantial and it is no wonder that Fourdin had to pay more in tax than White had done. We also see from the vignette that it is no longer Fourdin who had his business there, but Brown, late Fourdin. Already in April 1825, the insurance on the property is paid by Sprigg Homewood, oilman. If we look back at the insurance records, we see that in October 1822, Fourdin is described as “gent” and one can wonder whether he actually used the property himself, or whether he was just the landlord. Fourdin died in 1828 in Watford, Hertfordshire, and from his will we learn that he originally came from France where his two brothers and a sister still resided. He did not have any (surviving) children, but he leaves money to various relatives on his wife’s side, as agreed with his late wife. He also leaves various sums to friends and servants, among whom two shopkeepers we come across in Tallis: Charles Legg of Wardour Street, and Alexander Williams of Wigmore Street.⁽²⁾ All very clear, except for the fact that Fourdin had bought property before he had acquired his letter of denization in May 1822 and had, as such, bought some if his properties illegally and the Crown objected to the property being sold to benefit the heirs abroad. The case came before the High Court of Chancery in the Easter term of 1834 and as far as I can understand the legalese, Fourdin was indeed entitled to bequeath the properties because the letter of denization implied that right. If I have misunderstood the juridical terms, please put me right. You can read the full report on the case here.

So now back to Mr. Homewood who paid the insurance in 1825. His business was not to last for very long and although the insurance records do not tell us what happened next, the Land tax records do. One Moses Brown, who, in 1821, had occupied 10 Wardour Street, so next door to Fourdin at no. 11, could be found at no. 118 in 1828. It appeared that he did not own the property, as his will of 1837 only mentions no. 122 as his freehold “let on lease to Mr. William Webb”. And indeed, in the 1828 tax record, we clearly see that Moses Brown occupies no. 118 which is owned by (the heirs of) F. Fourdin and no. 122 is occupied by Webb.⁽³⁾ In an advertisement of 1834, the shop at no. 118 is described as “Brown and Son’s Oil and Italian Warehouse”.

After his father’s death Edward Brown takes sole responsibility for the shop and pays the insurance on the property on 17 May 1837. He died in 1844 without issue and he leaves his goods to his mother and sister.⁽⁴⁾ As we saw in the 1834 advertisement, and indeed on the façade of number 118, the Browns ran an Oil and Italian warehouse. We have a description of an oilman from N. Wittock’s Complete Book of Trades (1837), where it is said that such a tradesman

deals in an infinite variety of articles for domestic use, as well as the main one where he derives his commercial cognomen. The oils sold by him are of several sorts, as, first, train oil for lamps, and soft soap; second, linseed oil, for house-painters and medical applications; and the “sweet oils”, as, third, Florence, salad or nut oil, for the table; fourth, rape oil, which obtains the term “droppings”, and is used for oiling the stones on which carpenters and other workers in wood sharpen their tools … . This, and a fifth kind, from the palm tree, for soap-making, as well as the first mentioned (derived from fish), are chiefly vended at wholesale to the cloth manufacturers, soap boilers, and lamp-contractors.

Judging by the advertisement Brown had in the Tallis Street View booklet, he specialized in the third kind of oil, the ‘sweet’ oil for the table: Florence and Lucca oil, presumably olive oil. That is not to say that he did not have the other kinds of oil available, he may very well have stocked those as well, but in the advertisement his shop very much appears to have been what we would now call a deli or delicatessen retailer.

Fourdin had also been referred to as an Italian warehouseman, for instance in an 1826 advertisement for a butler who is looking for new employment. Letters could be directed to Mr. Fourdin’s Italian Warehouse.⁽⁵⁾ A year earlier, a cook, who was also looking for a new place, intriguingly, has letters addressed to “the late Mrs. Vollam’s, Italian Warehouse, 118 Wardour-street”.⁽⁶⁾ It turns out that Mrs. Fourdin’s last name before her marriage was Vollam (or Vollum) and that one Joseph Vollam, oilman, insured a building in Wardour Street, corner Hollen Street – so possibly number 118, although I would have said that was on the corner of Noel Street – with the Sun Fire Office in 1790 and 1792. The marriage registration (1810) for Francis Fourdin and Mary Vollum lists her as a widow. Was she Joseph’s widow? Yes, most likely. Joseph mentions his wife Mary in his will⁽⁷⁾, and although there may of course have been two Mary Vollams, widows, it seems most probable that Joseph’s widow married Francis Fourdin. So in stead of going forward in time with this story after Edward Brown died in 1844, we have taken a U-turn and have come back to Fourdin again, and after this full circle, I will leave you with a shot of the property from Google Street View (July 2014).

(1) The Morning Post, 3 September 1821.
(2) PROB 11/1744/345. Charles Legg (17, 18 Wardour Street, oil and colour man) gets 15 pounds and Alexander Williams (35 Wigmore Street, fishmonger) 25 pounds.
(3) PROB 11/1882/361.
(4) PROB 11/1996/177.
(5) The Morning Post, 11 July 1826.
(6) The Morning Post, 15 August 1825.
(7) PROB 11/1367/126.

Neighbours:

<– 117 Wardour Street

119 Wardour Street –>

How & Cheverton, tea dealers

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grocer

Street Views: 54 and 82
Address: 21 Charlotte/Goodge Street

The address of the tea dealers caused some confusion, because of the unusual circumstance that the corner shop has two addresses, both with house number 21, that is: 21 Charlotte Street and 21 Goodge Street. Not to mention the fact that the house next door to 21 Charlotte Street is another 21 Charlotte Street, occupied by surgeon Gibbs. We will talk about him in a later post, but here we are concerned with the tea dealers.

The elevation above this post shows the Goodge Street front and the one on the left the Charlotte Street front. Tallis has How and Cheverton as tea dealer in the Goodge Street index and as tea warehouse in the Charlotte Street index, but as you can see from the picture, they were also dealing in wine. Both sides of the building are 4 windows wide and a look at Google Street View shows that this is still the case; the house numbering has, however, changed and is now 44 Goodge Street and 44 Charlotte Street.

So, who were these tea (and wine) dealers?
Thomas Cheverton can be found at 21 Goodge Street in the 1841 census as ‘grocer’, but Thomas How is living at Turnham Green. With him are living a number of his children, but also a Louisa Cheverton and the one-year old John How Cheverton. Louisa Sarah, as she was officially baptised, was a daughter of Thomas How who had married John Orrill (or Orrall) Cheverton in 1838. We can assume a family link between this John Orrill and the Thomas who was in partnership with How, although I do not know which one exactly. The Chevertons and the Hows both had links to the Isle of Wight. Places of birth were not recorded in the 1841 census, but they were in the 1851 census and both Thomas How and Thomas Cheverton list the island as their birth place. But there was another link. Thomas Cheverton’s wife was one Mary Way, also from the Isle of Wight, and Thomas How dissolved a partnership in 1835 with one James Way, also from the Isle of Wight. James and Mary Way were most likely brother and sisters, the children of Henry Way, who died in 1839 on – you guessed – the Isle of Wight. One William Way and Thomas How had been trading as tea dealers and grocers at Great Newport Street until 1814 when they dissolved their partnership and James Way and Thomas How had been trading at 272 and 282 Oxford Street.⁽¹⁾ Tallis lists ‘Way & Co’ at number 272 and ‘How & Co’ at number 282. More on those businesses in another post, but first more on the grocery business in Goodge Street.

Advertisement in The Morning Chronicle, 15 June 1835

How and Cheverton were already listed in the 1829 tax records for Charlotte Street, so their partnership must have existed at least since then. However, the same day that Thomas How dissolved his partnership with James Way in May 1835, he also dissolved his partnership with Thomas Cheverton. Way and Cheverton were to continue the respective businesses. Cheverton apparently thought it a good idea to keep the name of How joined to his own for the business in Goodge Street, as Tallis still lists and depicts the firm as How & Cheverton in 1839, but it was nevertheless not to last. Cheverton was still listed at number 21 in the 1843 Post Office Directory, but in 1846, a notice in The London Gazette mentions him in the list of bankrupts. He is then described as of 107 Tottenham Court Road and late of 94 John Street, “out of business”.⁽²⁾ He must have temporarily picked himself up again as the 1851 census find him as tea dealer at 62 Charles Street, Southwark, but after that, no more is heard of him until 1862 when he died on 19 October at Osborne View Cottage, Elmsgrove, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight.⁽³⁾

Advertisement for Brocksopp in Hammond’s list of London and provincial newspapers, periodicals, &c., 1850

Thomas How, on the other hand, did quite well. At some point he entered into a partnership with the Brocksopps, grocers and tea dealers at 233 and 234 Borough High Street. Pigot’s Directory of 1839 lists William Brocksopp & Co. at 233 Borough High Street, but in 1842 they are declared bankrupt. Thomas How probably came to the rescue as the 1843 Post Office Directory lists the firm as Brocksopp, How & Co. At various times, “Thomas How, of 233 and 234 High Street, Southwark, tea dealer”, was named as one of the trustees in bankruptcy cases, as for instance in 1844 when he was to be one of the trustees of the estate and effects of William Sloan of Banbury.⁽⁴⁾ And again in 1847 for the estate and effects of John Bumpstead of 297 High Street, Chatham.⁽⁵⁾ The partnership with the Brocksopps probably ended in late 1850 as the advertisement above no longer shows his name, although the 1851 Post Office Directory still has Brocksopp, How & Co. for the Borough premises. Although I have not found an official notice of the end of partnership in The London Gazette, How’s name no longer appeared in the entry for the Brocksopps in the 1856 Post Office Directory.

Grandson John How Cheverton also went into tea and could be found in Hong Kong in 1865 for Johnson & Co. of Gough Street.⁽⁶⁾ In 1866, he was to become a partner in that firm.⁽⁷⁾ But he was not the only one of the family to go to China, as the address given for his uncle Edwin Henry How in the probate record of Thomas How was Foo Chow, China.⁽⁸⁾ Thomas had died in March 1866 at Gordon House, Turnham Green, where the censuses since 1841 had found him. Before that, or at least between 1814 and 1835, when his numerous children were baptised, his address had always been Great Newport Street.

21 Charlotte Street in the 1856 Post Office Directory

And what about 21 Goodge/Charlotte Street? As we saw, Thomas Cheverton moved out before 1847 and twenty years later, the property came on the market and was described as “a dwelling house, with double-fronted shop and premises […] an important situation, in the occupation of Mr. Anderson, chemist, on lease at £140 per annum”.⁽⁹⁾ In the twenty years between Cheverton’s move to John Street and Anderson’s occupation at the time of the sale, various occupants can be found for the premises. The 1851 Post Office Directory lists John Bainbridge, upholsterer, for 21 Goodge Street, but he made way in the 1856 Post Office Directory for Mrs Mary Ann Bott, who ran a straw bonnet manufactory. She can already be found there in the 1851 census, while John Bainbridge is not to be found in the census of either 21 Charlotte Street, nor in 21 Goodge Street.

On 8 July 1855, Reynolds’s Newspaper mentions the annual meeting of the Western Dispensary for Diseases of the Skin, which was held on the 26th of June “at the dispensary, 21, Charlotte Street”. The Post Office Directory entry for 21 Charlotte Street explains this seeming discrepancy. They have three occupants at number 21A Charlotte Street: the Western Dispensary, Mrs Bradley, dressmaker, and Adolphus Dubois, a dentist. For number 21 they have the coffee rooms of Thomas Eversfield. As they also indicate where the side streets are, we can work out that 21A is the building on the corner of Goodge Street and the coffee rooms must be further up Charlotte Street, the same premises as where we found surgeon Gibbs in the Tallis Street View. The 1871 census gives for 21 Goodge Street, “only a shop in which no one sleeps being part of house, corner of and numbered in Charlotte Street”. Charlotte Street had by then been renumbered from number 21 to number 44 with various families listed, among them one James Titley, a chemist. Did he take over from Anderson? Titley acquired some notoriety in 1880 for supplying drugs to induce an abortion, and I will leave you and this post with the newspaper report of the Old Bailey case.

Reynold’s Newspaper, 19 December 1880. Click to read the whole article.

(1) The London Gazette, 15 February 1814 and 6 October 1835.
(2) The London Gazette, 25 December 1846.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1862. Effects valued at under £450.
(4) The London Gazette, 6 December 1844.
(5) The London Gazette, 16 November 1847.
(6) The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan etc., 1865.
(7) The London and China Telegraph, 27 February 1866.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1866. Effects for Thomas How valued at under £60,000, but resworn in 1868 at under £30,000.
(9) The Daily News, 29 May 1867.

Neighbours:

<– 21 Charlotte Street

20 Goodge Street –>

Joseph Sterry & Son, Italian warehouse

Tags

grocer

Street View: 39
Address: 156 Borough High Street

The Sterry family had been trading in Southwark for a number of generations. In 1740, Benjamin Sterry (1704-1755) was described as a seedsman of the St. George the Martyr area, and his son Richard (1733-1786) was variously described as a salter, oilman or seedsman of the same area. The extraordinary diary of Thomas Turner, a shopkeeper of East Hoathley, Sussex, mentions Richard a few times. Apparently Turner and Sterry did business together, although what goods they traded exactly is not said, but the men were on good terms, corresponded, and visited each other. In 1758, for instance, Richard Sterry wrote to Turner and mentioned that someone had set fire to the temporary wooden bridge that had been erected because London Bridge was being demolished (see the blog post by the Georgian Gentleman for another recording of and more information on the event). Turner was greatly offended by “so black and horrid a crime”, but explained it as proof of “the predominancy of vice and wickedness in this irreligious age”. In March 1759, Turner went to London on business and “spent the eve and supped with Mr. Sterry, where I also lodged”. A few years later, the visit was reciprocated and Turner wrote, “Mr. Richard Sterry called on me and supped with me and also stayed all night. In the even we balanced our accounts”.⁽¹⁾

A trade card in the Lewis Walpole collection for Richard shows an olive tree which has been regarded as the Sterry shop sign (see here). The card already says that the shop was opposite St. George’s church, so although no house number is given, it probably was at number 156. Father Benjamin and son Richard were both buried in the Friends’ Burial Ground at Long Lane, Southwark, true to their Quaker beliefs. Richard’s son Anthony (1759-1826) was the next to continue the business and from him we have two documents telling us more. The first one is a receipt for a Mr. Granger who bought some oil in 1793, on which Sterry describes himself as oil and colourman. The receipt definitely places Sterry at 156 Borough High Street, opposite the church of St. George the Martyr, and, judging by the trade mark on the receipt, the shop sign was indeed ‘the olive tree’. A second document lists some of the goods Anthony had for sale in the shop. Not only oil, either for cooking, greasing or painting, but sand, soap, salt, and starch were among the useful articles that could be bought in Sterry’s shop, not to mention other groceries, such as caraway seeds, vinegar, pickles and dry peas. And if you were in need of mops, brooms, hemp, or gunpowder, Sterry was your man.

Receipt and trade card, late 18th century (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Anthony died in 1826, a bachelor, and was also buried at Long Lane. He received a memorial in the Annual Monitor (1827) in which it is said that he had a pleasant personality and that he had devoted a lot of time to “objects of public benevolence”. He suffered from gout and a few weeks before his death he had “a paralytic seizure, which shook his enfeebled frame”. But just as he was recovering, he had a second seizure and died two days later. In his will he described himself as “late of the High Street, but now of Newington Butts”, suggesting he had already retired from the business.⁽²⁾ He left various bequests to his brother Joseph, his nephews Joseph junior and Henry, and to lots of cousins and (former) servants, as well as to the Quaker Monthly Meeting. His brother Joseph (1777-1857) and nephew Joseph junior (1800-1875) are next mentioned in the Surrey tax records for the premises as Sterry & Son.

By 1831 that has changed to Sterry & Sons, as younger son Henry (1803-1869) also joined the business. In 1837, they insure 156 and 157 Borough High Street and 1, 2 and 3 Mint Street. Number 156 was situated on the corner of Mint Street, so it is not illogical that they acquired the neighbouring properties around the corner, although they may have rented out some of their space, as in the 1848 and 1851 Post Office Directories, 2 and 3 Mint Street are occupied by John Askew. 157 High Street, by the way, is not mentioned by Tallis. The next door neighbours are at number 158, although Horwood in his 1799 map still shows 156 and 157 as separate buildings. Tallis describes the shop as an Italian warehouse, which, in those days, meant a grocery shop that also sold some ‘foreign’ wares, such as dried pasta, dried fruits, and possibly tins of anchovies and such like, but the Sterrys also continued the sale of ‘ordinary’ goods, such as salt, soap and various kinds of oil.

In 1845, Joseph senior and his second wife Deborah transferred to the Hertford Monthly Meeting with a certificate from the Southwark Monthly Meeting, indicating that they were Friends of good standing.⁽³⁾ The move was probably connected to Joseph’s retirement as, also in 1845, Joseph, Joseph junior, and Henry dissolve their partnership at 156 High Street. The notice in The London Gazette says that all debts due or owing to or by the said partnership will be paid and received by Sterry, Sterry, and Co, no. 143 High Street.⁽⁴⁾ Does this mean they moved the whole business to number 143? No, it does not, as in 1851, an advertisement for the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society still mentions number 156 as the address for Joseph Sterry where tickets could be bought for the charity soiree that was to be organised by the society.⁽⁵⁾

In February 1857, Richard, Henry, Joseph, and Alfred Sterry dissolve the partnership they had as Sterry, Sterry, and Co. at 23 Cannon Street and as Joseph Sterry and Sons at 156 High Street.⁽⁶⁾ If I understand all this correctly, then the partnership that was dissolved in 1845 was due to Joseph senior’s retirement (in the 1851 census he is listed as ‘retired oilman’), and the 1857 split was a result of Alfred dropping out, although the death of Joseph senior earlier that year, may also have had something to do with it.⁽⁷⁾ In late 1858, the partnership between the three remaining Sterrys is dissolved.⁽⁸⁾ The Cannon Street address seems to have been a replacement for 143 High Street. Number 143, by the way, does not exist in the Tallis Street View; between numbers 143 and 144 is Layton’s Buildings which was the address for Richard and Alfred, second cousins of Joseph junior and Henry (Richard and Alfred’s grandfather Benjamin was the brother of Joseph and Henry’s grandfather Richard), as it had been at least since 1823 when their father Richard is mentioned at that address as wholesale oilman in Kent’s Directory. You can just see the letters ‘LAY’ of Layton in the top right-hand corner of Horwood’s map above between numbers 142 and 144.

Advertisement from The Observer, 4 April 1852

Henry Sterry died in 1869 and the 156 High Street and 23 Cannon Street addresses are given as former addresses in his probate entry.⁽⁹⁾ Joseph died in 1875 and is only described as of Peckham Rye Common with his two sons as gentlemen of the same address.⁽¹⁰⁾ Joseph Ashby Sterry, the son of Henry, also left the grocery business and became a journalist and writer. But that does not mean the Sterrys disappeared altogether from the High Street. The 1873 Post Office Directory has a firm still called Joseph Sterry & Sons, although the original Joseph and Sons were no longer in charge, as manufacturers of poor man’s plaisters and German paste at 2 Mint Street, and in the 1892 Post Office London Directory they are found at 2 Marshalsea Road, but that is just a name change for Mint Street.

Below are two pictures of the Sterry shop: the first one is from The Penny Magazine of 14 October 1837 and (just) shows the Sterry premises on the extreme left-hand side. The second picture is from 1826 and by William Knox. In that painting, the Sterry shop is the second on the left, next to Sheppard’s wine and spirit vaults. Knox depicted Mint Street (between Sheppard’s and Sterry’s) a lot narrower than it in fact was, but let’s call that artistic licence. Nothing is now left of the corner shop. Where once Suffolk Place, the grand Tudor town house of Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, stood, and where the Sterrys had their business for more than a century, a modern Brandon House was built in the 1970s. And even that has now been demolished to make way for yet another property developer’s scheme.

Embed from Getty Images

 

More, lots more, on the Sterry family can be found here.

(1) The Diary of Thomas Turner 1754-1765, ed. David Vaisey (1984).
(2) PROB 11/1712/199.
(2) Library of the Society of Friends, TEMP MSS 59/8/1-108. Thanks go to Tabitha Driver for sorting this out for me. In 1799, Joseph senior had married Ann Hicks of Bardfield/Saling, Essex; she died in 1811 and Joseph remarried in 1813 to Deborah Heming.
(4) The London Gazette, 1 August 1845.
(5) The Daily News, 14 May 1851.
(6) The London Gazette, 17 February 1857.
(7) He died 1 January and was buried 8 January at Hertford. PROB 11/2253/138.
(8) The London Gazette, 4 January 1859.
(9) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1869. Estate valued at under £30,000.
(10) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1875. Estate valued at under £30,000.

Neighbours:

<– 112 Blackman Street

158 Borough High Street –>

Becket & Young, tea dealers

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grocer

Street View: 83
Address: 3 High Street, Islington

Due to its proximity to the Angel Inn at number 1 High Street, the building occupied by Becket and Young has been depicted several times, so we can get a fair idea of what it looked like. The two pictures below are both from the 1820s and show the Angel Inn as the large building on the left, then a draper’s shop at number 2, called Pentonville House, and next, Becket & Young’s grocery business.

C.H. Matthews, c. 1820 (© Trustees of the British Museum)

illustration from Survey of London, Vol. 47 via British History Online

The Angel Inn used to have a larger front in the High Street, but when it was rebuilt in the early 1820s, the northern section was turned into two houses, that is, numbers 2 and 3 High Street. A ground plan exists of the 1822 situation of the Angel Inn and although the building does not look that big from the High Street, it comprised more than just the building at the corner of High Street and Pentonville Road. It ran a long way back in the north-western corner where the stables and outbuildings could be found. The plan below is orientated towards the west, so the north, that is, the direction of the High Street towards Upper Street, is found on the right-hand side of the plan, while the top of the plan points towards the west. It is the same orientation that Tallis used in his Street View of High Street.

1822 ground plan for the Angel Inn from Survey of London, Vol. 47 via British History Online

I have drawn the plot for number 3 in orange. It has the name of Mr. Evans written at the top of the plot, which is Edward Evans, a linen draper, who moved into the newly built shop, but did not last very long as in 1826, bankruptcy proceedings were taken out against him.⁽¹⁾ Whether Becket and Young moved in immediately after Evans’s bankruptcy is not clear. When Becket’s first wife died in 1832, she is said to be of High Street, but no house number is given, so perhaps not yet of number 3, but still of number 10 where Pigot’s Directory of 1825-6 had listed Becket. Becket & Young are definitely at number 3 in 1839 when the next Pigot’s Directory was published. When the street was renumbered later in the century, numbers 2 and 3 became 3 and 5 and were combined into one business when Lipton’s occupied the premises in the 1890’s. A new shop front was added in the 1930s and the combined building now houses a pub that appropriated the name of the original inn at number one, The Angel.

I have found no advertisements for Becket & Young’s grocery shop as such, so except for the tea and foreign fruits you could buy there according to the lettering on their building in the Street View, we do not know what was on offer. But, you could register your lost property with them and when doing so, you could of course also stock up on groceries.

advertisement in The Daily News, 26 September 1846

In May 1852, Charles Becket and John Young dissolved their partnership as tea dealers and grocers at 3 High Street, Islington, and 10 Sebbon’s Buildings, Upper Street, Islington.⁽²⁾ The 1851 census gives Becket, 56 years old, at 3 High Street with his (second) wife, 3 sons, 2 daughters, 2 shopmen and a servant. The occupation field lists Becket as grocer, employing 2 men and 1 apprentice. The 2 men will be the shopmen living on the premises and the apprentice is son Charles junior. Partner John Young, 45 years old can be found at 10 Sebbon’s Buildings as tea dealer, with his wife, 2 daughters, a son, 2 nieces and a nephew, 2 assistants and 2 servants. Becket died in 1854, but his estate, valued at £66, was left unadministered by his widow Sarah and probate was granted in 1883 to son Frank, an auctioneer. Probate for Sarah’s estate – she had died in 1881 – was also granted to Frank and valued at £98. He did, however, not sort it out and after his death in 1885, probate for Sarah’s estate was granted to daughter Sarah. The effects had by then dwindled to £23.⁽³⁾

John Young did rather better. From the 1861 census onwards, we find him at 240 Upper Street with son Herbert, also a grocer, and various family members, assistants and servants. John died in 1893 and probate was granted to son Herbert. The estate was valued at over £3,865, so decidedly more than what Charles Becket eventually left.⁽⁴⁾

Becket & Young’s shop in the vignette of Tallis Street View 83

(1) The London Gazette, 24 November 1826.
(2) The London Gazette, 11 May 1852.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1881, 1883, 1885.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1893.

Neighbours:

<– 2 High Street

4 High Street –>

John Pearson Teede, grocer

Tags

grocer

Street View: 51
Address: 85 Bishopsgate Street Without

In 1835, fruiterer Samuel Mart‘s eldest daughter Mary married John Pearson Teede, a grocer. John was the son of John Thomas Teede of New Windsor, gentleman⁽¹⁾, and obtained the freedom of the City in 1830 by redemption. The normal procedure would have been for John to obtain his freedom by servitude, but his master Alfred Roper had died in 1828, leaving John short of a year on his indenture agreements (normally an apprentice served for 7 years before becoming free), but he was nevertheless given the freedom of the Innholders by paying a small fine. The following year, he took on his brother Charles as an apprentice and on Charles’s indenture we read that John’s address was 86 Bishopsgate Street Without. Not many years later, number 85 was given as his address, but I do not know if he actually moved, or, as so often happened, the numbering changed. Charles and John became business partners as grocers and tea dealers. The partnership was dissolved on 3 November 1842, but apparently in good harmony as “all debts owing to the said late partnership firm may be paid to either of the said parties, and all demands upon them will be discharged in like manner”.⁽²⁾

Top part of a bill by Teede. Please note the figure on the left-hand side (Source: Grosvenor Prints)

portrait of John Pearson Teede (Source: ancestry.co.uk)

Charles received his freedom of the Innholders only in 1852, presumably he had no need of it before that time, and the dossier holds a statement by John that Charles had indeed served his apprenticeship with him for the full seven years. A later notice about dissolving a partnership with one George Lewis still has John at 85 Bishopsgate Street Without⁽³⁾ and he remained there for the rest of his life. He died on 4 May 1870 and probate was granted to his widow Mary.⁽⁴⁾

Advertisement in the Official Catalogue of the 1851 Exhibition

Similar advertisements in the French and German editions of the Official Catalogue of the 1851 Exhibition

John led a remarkable uneventful life, or at least, nothing much about him made it into the records, but we can say a few more things about his house and shop. In 1857, in the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Thomas Hugo described a walk into the city from the north along Bishopsgate Street commenting on a group of houses on the eastern side of the street, that is, numbers 81-85. He also supplied an engraving of the houses with his article, which shows Teede’s house on the left. Please note the figure of the seated Chinese on Teede’s shop, a sure sign that it was the shop of a grocer and tea dealer. You can still see similar figures on the front of Twinings in the Strand.

Engraving of 81-85 Bishopsgate from Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (1857)

“It consists of five houses, the gables of two of which are still entire; and the whole, with the exception of the three missing gables, remains pretty much the same as when first erected. I hardly need say that these edifices are constructed of wood, and indeed a forest of timber must have been used in their composition. […] The houses to which I am directing your attention are of three floors, the highest of which opens by a door, placed immediately in the centre of each gable, to a kind of gallery protected by a rail. They offer no internal peculiarities worthy of mention. I am informed that on the front of one of the group which has suffered the greatest mutulation the date of 1590 was formerly visible. The style of the edifices themselves is evidence of the correctness of this record”.

Unfortunately, the houses are long gone and even in 1905, when Philip Norman wrote his London vanished and vanishing, he had to say that “on the opposite side of the way [that is, from Paul Pindar’s house], there was, not very long ago, a group of four houses, numbered 81 to 85 Bishopsgate Street Without, which, although vulgarised and defaced, were evidently very old. They resembled each other more or less, and no. 82 still remains”. Norman refers to Hugo’s description and remarks on the 1590 date on one of the houses, “their wooden fronts, however, have markings in imitation of stone-work, called technically wooden rustications, which seem to suggest a later date”. It is always possible that the rustications had been added at a later date, so I do not see any problem with the description Hugo gave, but it is all academic as the houses are certainly no longer there. I do wonder, though, what happened to the Chinese figure that so proudly advertised the products Teede sold in his shop.

1886 view of 81-85 Bishopsgate by John Crowther (Source: Magnoliabox)

(1) Information from the indenture of 1822 when John Pearson became the apprentice of Alfred Roper, innholder.
(2) The London Gazette, 8 November 1842.
(3) The London Gazette, 14 May 1867.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1870. The estate was valued at under £4,000.

You may also like to read the post on Samuel Mart, Teede’s father-in-law.

Neighbours:

<– 86 Bishopsgate Street

84 Bishopsgate Street –>

Daniel Barrett, tea and coffee dealer

Tags

grocer

Street View: 8
Address: 147 Holborn Bars

Kindest of friends, I have done with my brooding,
Ever obliging to each and to all;
Happy and thankful – if not too intruding,
I’ll meet your good wishes whenever you call.

On 18 October 1807, Thomas and Daniel, sons of Paul and Elizabeth Barrett of Marylebone were registered at Spa Fields Chapel, at the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion [see for the history of the movement here]. The record also notes their date of birth: 17 January 1805 for Thomas and 29 December 1806 for Daniel. In 1821, Daniel obtained his freedom of the City of London via the Haberdashers by redemption, paying the fine of 46s 8d. He is listed as a tea dealer and from a notice in The London Gazette of 21 February 1826, we learn that Alfred Tulley and Daniel Barrett dissolve their partnership as tea dealers at Church Street, Hackney.

Soon after, Daniel must have entered into another partnership as on the 31st of December 1828, he and James Franks of Green Lettuce Lane, London, dissolve their partnership as wholesale coffee dealers. We next hear from Daniel when he is declared a bankrupt in 1837.⁽¹⁾ He is then described as grocer, dealer and chapman of Fetter Lane and Holborn Bars. Possibly related is an insurance entry of 5 March 1838 for one John Blissett “at Mr. Barretts, grocer, 147 Holborn Bars, gent”.⁽²⁾ It would make sense to rent out some space in your property if you are in need of money to pay off your creditors. One month later, however, Thomas and Daniel Barrett, “green grocers”, insure property at 24 Church Street, Bethnal Green.⁽³⁾ But, the Holborn Bars shop must have remained in Daniel possession, as Tallis clearly lists him at number 147 and the advertisement Daniel put in the Street View leaves nothing to the imagination. He tells us that he has given up the shop at 44 Fetter Lane and that from the Holborn address, he once again deals in tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate and sugar, and that he has also installed a tripartite mill, which, of course, makes all the difference to the quality of the produce. In the Tallis Street View index, he is listed as “Tea and Coffee Dealer, and Manufacturer of the Improved Coffee Roasting Machine”.

Advert in Street View 8

24 Church Street seems to have been the family residence, as from that address, on 9 May 1839, Mary Elizabeth Barrett, one of the daughters of Paul Barrett, grocer, and therefore Daniel and Thomas’s sister, marries one Edwin Loach, the son of Benjamin Loach, a gun maker. What is relevant, however, is that Edwin is also given the Church Street address. Was he perhaps an employee of the Barretts who fell in love with the daughter/sister, or was he simply a lodger? In 1841, Edwin and Mary, with their 11 month old baby Joseph, can be found in the census in George Street, Nether Hallam, Sheffield. Edwin is now said to be in the army. In 1851, the Loach family can be found at Fishergate, York St. Lawrence. Edwin is now a sergeant armourer and Joseph T(homas) has a younger brother Edwin B(arrett).

trade tokens (Source: abccoinsandtokens.com)

In the mean time, in an 1842 directory, Daniel is listed as a grocer and tea dealer at 95, Fetter Lane and in the 1851 census, he can be found at 24, Three Colt Street, Limehouse. He is not married and his sister Harriet is acting as his housekeeper. Ten years later, this household situation is the same, but at a different address, 7 St. John’s Villas, Upper Holloway, Islington. I have not found Daniel in the 1871 census, but he dies in 1880 and in his probate record he is still listed as of 7 St. John’s Villas and his nephew Joseph Thomas Loach is named as the executor.⁽⁴⁾ Joseph is described as a tea dealer of 193 Mile End Road, so instead of following in his father’s army footsteps, he took up his uncle’s grocery profession. In fact, when we look at the 1871 census for Mile End road, we see that Mary Elizabeth Loach, by now a widow, is listed as the head of the grocery business. Both sons, Joseph and Edwin, are also listed at that address as grocers. Joseph marries Victoria Jane Durstow on 22 October 1873 and their second son, who is born in 1879, is given the name of Daniel Barrett Loach. His elder brother is called Edwin Benjamin. The Mile End address remains the address for the grocery business, at least until 1897 when Joseph is listed in the electoral register as living at that address. When Joseph’s aunt Harriet dies in 1897, he is named as one of the executors. He is then still a tea dealer, but no address is given.

The brother of the Daniel of 147 Holborn Bars, Thomas, can be found at Albany Place, Stepney in the 1871 census record. He is described as tea dealer and grocer. He, like Daniel, is unmarried and another sister, Pauline, is his housekeeper. Thomas dies in early 1875 and probate is granted to Pauline as one of his residuary legatees. The estate is valued at less than £100, so he did not do as well as his brother, or perhaps he signed away his wealth before he died. The probate record gives his last address as the Gun Tea Warehouse, 599 Commercial Road.⁽⁵⁾

@Wellcome Library

In 1886, sister Harriet erects a drinking fountain in Commercial Road in memory of her brothers Thomas and Daniel. Once upon a time, the memorial also contained a cattle trough, but that is no longer there.⁽⁶⁾ Still, it is nice that the two tea dealing brothers have a lasting memorial, albeit not in the best of spots, on a very busy road under a railway bridge, but it is the thought that counts.

(1) The London Gazette, 26 September 1837.
(2) Sun Fire Office, LMA MS 11936/562/1271230.
(3) Sun Fire Office, LMA MS 11936/563/1273153.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1880.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1875.
(6) For more information on cattle troughs, see here.

Neighbours:

<– 148 Holborn Bars

146 Holborn Bars –>

Thomas Ridgway, a Baptist tea merchant

Tags

grocer, merchant

Street View: 1
Address: 4-5 King William Street

The London Gazette of 7 March, 1837 included a notice that William Dakin, Thomas Ridgway, Arthur Dakin and Robinson Bywater had dissolved their partnership of tea-dealers and grocers in Coventry by mutual consent. This in itself is not a very unusual notice, the newspapers frequently showed similar announcement, but in this case it gives us more information on the business dealings of Thomas Ridgway. The Ridgway company, which still exists, states on their website that Thomas opened his first shop in London in 1836. Wikipedia tells us that he had a shop in the Bull Ring, Birmingham before that, but that he went bankrupt and started again in London. He was certainly in Birmingham in 1830 when Daken [sic] and Ridgway are mentioned as the ones who were going to dispose of the stock in trade of the bankrupt Samuel Partridge, tea-dealer and grocer.⁽¹⁾ At the time of the Bull Ring Riots (1839), the Dakins still had a large shop in Birmingham at 28, High Street.⁽²⁾ How Dakin and Ridgway ended up in Coventry is not clear, but what is clear is that Ridgway set up in King William Street, London in the 1830s and the Dakins a bit later at 1 St. Paul’s Churchyard.⁽³⁾

Thomas Ridgway
Source: ridgwaystea.co.uk

Tallis’s Street View shows the lettering “Ridgeway Sidney & Co. Tea Importers” across the premises of numbers 4 and 5, but despite the grand shop and the lettering, Ridgway & Co did not put an advertisement in the Street View. Who Sidney was, I have no idea, and that name seems to have disappeared quite quickly from the business. Thomas Ridgway himself, however, makes a huge success of his London grocer’s business and in 1851, he was one of the coffee importers who met at the London Tavern in March 1851 to condemn the 1840 Treasury Minute which allowed for the adulteration of coffee with chicory and resulted in fraud and high prices. The meeting led to questions asked in Parliament.⁽⁴⁾

Tea caddy. Source: teacaddy.czi.cz

Eventually, Ridgway & Co. specialised in just tea, tracking down new varieties from all over the world to use in their high quality blends. In 1886 they received a request by Queen Victoria for a personal blend and they were later appointed tea merchants to King George VI. Ridgway’s became one of the first tea companies to sell their produce pre-packed against adulteration.

Baptist Chapel Towcester
Source: mkheritage.co.uk

 
Thomas was born in 1802 in Lymm, Cheshire according to the 1851 census which sees him living with his wife Lucretia, a butler, a cook, a housemaid, a laundry maid and a nurse at 27 Oxford Square, London. However, on 3 June 1855, the couple were both baptised in North End Baptist Chapel, Towcester, Northamptonshire. The chapel had been opened in October 1853 and was built on land belonging to Thomas.

His native town of Lymm also received the benefit of a Baptist Chapel from Ridgway. Here again it was built on land he owned. That chapel opened in 1850 and the first pastor was Isaac Ridgway, Thomas’s brother.⁽⁵⁾

Baptist Chapel Lymm
Source: lymmbaptistchurch.com

Thomas, by now classed as retired tea merchant, and his wife Lucretia lived at Elm Lodge, Towcester, where Lucretia died in October 1862. Before that, at the time of the 1861 census, they had a holiday in Wisbech where they stayed at the Rose and Crown Hotel, 23 Market Place, which still exists. Thomas remarried (at Liverpool) in 1864 to Cordelia Dawbarn who was also received into the Baptist Church. In 1871 and 1881, the census tells us that Thomas and Cordelia were living at Elm Lodge, Daventry Road with six servants. Thomas died at Elm Lodge on 20 August 1885 and was buried in Lymm, his place of birth. One Edward Parker preached a funeral sermon Christ living and dying: A memorial sermon for the late Thomas Ridgway, Esq., of Elm Lodge, Towcester : preached in the North End Baptist Chapel, Towcester, September 6th, 1885. When his estate was proved, Thomas was worth £58,523 8s. 3d.⁽⁶⁾ Cordelia apparently did not live up to the moral expectations of the Baptist community, as in 1887, she and four others came under “careful consideration” and were “no longer recognised as members”.⁽⁷⁾

(1) London Gazette3 September 1830.
(3) Eliezer Edwards, Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men (1877), unpaginated.
(3) Street View 15 and 16 of the 1847 Supplements.
(4) T. Baring, Adulteration of Coffee. A verbatim report of the proceedings of a public meeting held at the London Tavern on Monday, the 10th of March, 1851. London (1851); Hansard Commons Debate 5 June 1851 (vol 117 cc510-33).
(5) See here
(6) Baptist Chapel records from North End Church Book
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations ), 1885.

Neighbours:

<– 6 King William Street

3 King William Street –>