Christy & Co., hat manufacturers

Tags

hats

Street View: 24
Address: 35 Gracechurch Street

In 1773, Quaker Miller Christy, originally from Edinburgh, started his career in London as a hatter. In 1789, Miller Christy and his partner Joseph Storrs insured their property at 35 Gracechurch Street. In 1790, 1792 and 1796 respectively, Miller Christy took on his sons Thomas, William Miller and John as his apprentices and the indentures state that Christy was a member of the Feltmakers’ Company. A few years later, in October 1794, Storrs and Christy dissolved their partnership with Christy to continue the business.⁽¹⁾ The two generations of Christys continue as hatters in Gracechurch Street until November 1803 when they dissolve their partnership as regards father Miller; the sons are to carry on.⁽²⁾

Horwood’s map of 1799

The Christys are listed in the Sun Fire Office records as insuring property in Gracechurch Street, but also in Nag’s Head Court where they apparently had a warehouse. They also insured property in Bermondsey Street where one Charles Birt, a baker, is listed as the occupant. Thomas’s son, Thomas junior, is apprenticed to his father in 1815 and later becomes a partner. In 1830, one of the young porters employed by the Christys embezzled some funds. He went round to customers of Christy & Co. for the payment of bills owed, but he failed to hand in the money to his employers’ clerk. He was sentenced at the Old Bailey to fourteen years transportation and was shipped out to New South Wales.⁽³⁾ At the end of December 1830, Thomas Christy senior retired⁽⁴⁾ and the firm was henceforth usually referred to as Messrs Christy & Co.

In 1835, another Old Bailey case (t18350511-1289) tells us that the Bermondsey address is where the manufacture takes place with Gracechurch Street as the address for the shop. More and more Christys joined the firm and when William Miller retired in 1845, the other partners were listed as John, Thomas junior, Sam., Henry and Alfred Christy.⁽⁵⁾ Henry was definitely the son of William Miller, but I am not sure about Samuel and Alfred. Alfred was probably John’s son, but Samuel is slightly elusive. William Miller had done quite well for himself and when he died in 1858, his probate record values his estate at £60,000.⁽⁶⁾

Son Henry died in 1865 of inflammation of the lungs and his probate record lists Joseph Fell Christy of 35 Gracechurch Street as his brother and one of the executors.⁽⁷⁾ Although Henry had been a partner in the hat-making business, he is also credited with inventing the penny receipt stamp, and he was director of the London Joint-Stock Bank as well as an amateur ethnologist. His interest in primitive societies and his funding led, after his death, to the discovery of Cro-Magnon man. He also left a half-finished book, entitled Reliquiae Aquitanicae, being contributions to the Archaeology and Paleontology of Périgord and the adjacent provinces of Southern France, completed at the behest of Christy’s executors, first by Edouard Lartet and, after his death in 1870, by Thomas Rupert Jones. For more on Henry Christy, see here.

George Dodd, in his Days at the Factories (1843) tells us more about the Bermondsey manufacturing department. According to Dodd, it was reported to be the largest in the world and consisted of two “extensive ranges of buildings on opposite sides of Bermondsey Street”. The steam engine required a chimney of a hundred and sixty feet and the whole complex consisted of a great number of individual departments, such as one for trimmers, one for packers, one for the turners and even a blacksmith’s shop, not to mention the storerooms required. The different kinds of hats, be they silk or beaver, were made in different sections of the building and Dodd goes to great lengths to describe the various processes necessary in making hats, which I will not repeat as you can read the whole story here.

hat manufacturing at Bermondsey from G. Dodd, Days at the Factories

dyeing cauldron from G. Dodd, Days at the Factories

1893-5 Ordnance Survey map depicting the hat factory in Bermondsey Street

But hats were not the only item produced by Christy’s. While Henry was travelling in Istanbul, he noticed the looped pile cotton fabric we now know as terry-cloth. The company developed a machine to make the looped pile and the first efforts, still under the name of ‘Turkish bath towel’, were shown at the Great Exhibition. The towel production continues till this day and you can see the purple and green variety every year at the Wimbledon Championships (their website for the towel business www.christy.co.uk).

The Gracechurch and Bermondsey properties were let go in the 1950s, but Christy’s still produce stylish quality hats as well as the helmets for the Metropolitan Police force (their website for the hat business www.christys-hats.com). And should you be interested in researching the history of the business, you need to go to the John Rylands University Library in Manchester where they keep the papers of W.M. Christy & Sons (see here).

———————-
(1) The London Gazette, 25 October 1794
(2) The London Gazette, 9 October 1804.
(3) Old Bailey case t18300527-19.
(4) The London Gazette, 28 December 1830.
(5) The London Gazette, 18 July 1845.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1865. Value of the estate £60,000.

Neighbours:

<– 36 Gracechurch Street

34 Gracechurch Street –>

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Edward Mountcastle, hatter

Tags

hats

Street View: 1 and 18 Suppl.
Address: 41 King William Street

In 1825, Edward Mountcastle, the son of Montague Mountcastle of Bedford Court, Covent Garden, was apprenticed to William White of Cheapside, Citizen and Feltmaker. Edward obtained his freedom from the Feltmakers’ Company after the regular term of seven years in August 1832. His address is then given as 23 Gracechurch Street which was the address of his cousin Sidney Harman Mountcastle, also a hatter.⁽¹⁾ Only a couple of months later, Edward married Frances Harris Weeks, who was probably a relation of William White’s wife Susannah Weeks. We can follow the subsequent addresses of the couple from the baptism records of their children, although the story is not as straightforward as at first may appear:
1833, September – Gracechurch Street: Montague Edward baptised at All Hallows Lombard Street
1834, July – King William Street: Fanny baptised at St. Magnus the Martyr
1839, July – King William Street: Emma baptised at St. Magnus the Martyr
1845, October – St. George’s Street: Charles Edward, Alfred, Walter baptised at St. George, Camberwell
1848, June – Albany Road: Mary Ann baptised at St. George, Camberwell
1851, June – London Street, Greenwich: Frank baptised at St. Alphage, Greenwich

1831 plan for King William Street

For the purposes of this blog, the King William Street entries are the most relevant. A whole neighbourhood had been razed to the ground for the construction of the new approach road to London Bridge, named after King William IV. The plan above shows what happened. The darker area is the outline for the new King William Street and outlined in red is the property that became Mountcastle’s hat shop. If we look at the Land Tax records for 1833, the houses in the area are bracketed together and listed for the New London Bridge Committee. In 1836, however, Mountcastle’s name appears as one of the occupants of the “redeemed” properties. In one of their advertisements, Mountcastle’s neighbours, George and John Deane, ironmongers at number 46, display their new shop and say that their “present premises” were erected in 1833, so presumably that was also the year in which number 41 was erected as it is situated in the same block of houses.

In 1841, Edward and Frances are listed in the census with their 3-week-old baby Charles. Although the three children who were born after the 1841 census were all baptised together in 1845 in Camberwell, it does not necessarily mean that Mountcastle gave up his shop in King William Street. In the 1843, 1848 and 1851 Post Office Directories, 41 King William Street is still the address for the hat shop. And Tallis in his 1847 Supplement also still listed Mountcastle at number 41. Only in the 1856 Post Office Directory was he listed at 22 Cannon Street. And at some point, he even had a shop at 10 London Street, Greenwich. The census returns for 1851 shows the family living in Greenwich, while at King William Street we find William Haldin(?), a carpenter, which seems conclusive, but the tax records tell a different story. There, Mountcastle is only listed for King William Street till 1844. There is a gap in the records, so the next year available is 1847 and Mountcastle is no longer there, but one Robert Wass is paying the tax. However, in 1852, bankruptcy proceedings are started against Mountcastle and he is still described as of 41 King William Street and London Street, Greenwich. At some point in 1852, he signs over his leasehold properties for the benefit of his creditors. I am guessing that Mountcastle rented out (part of?) his 41 King William Street property and tried to raise money that way when things got tough in the 1840s.

The London Gazette, 21 May 1852

As we saw in the 1856 Post Office Directory, Edward could next be found in Cannon Street where, at the end of 1856, he dissolves a partnership with one William John Rushby. The gentlemen had been trading as hatters under the name of J. Jenkinson and Co.⁽²⁾ In the 1861 census, Edward, Frances and four of their children are found at 276 Albany Road. This may have been the same property as the one listed in the baptism record of Mary Ann, but as that does not give a house number, it may be a different house in the same street. At some point Mountcastle must have had a shop on the corner of King Street and Bedford Street, Covent Garden. It is, however, unclear when and for how long that was, but it was certainly after he had been at King William Street. Edward died in 1867 and the registration district is given as Strand, so he was possibly still living in Soho.

Source: fotolibra.com

I tried to find out what happened at 41 King William Street after Mountcastle left, but as the tax records do not provide house numbers, that it is not so easy. We saw that the 1851 census for the parish of St. Magnus the Martyr listed Harlin the carpenter, and in 1861, it is one Edward Hart, a hosier, who occupies the premises. Ten years later it is Alfred Hayward, a customs officer, who lives at number 41, and in 1881 one William Taylor, a tobacconist’s manager, but none of these people seem to appear in the Land Tax records, so presumably they were all renting. Goad’s insurance map of 1887 lists the property as a ‘studio’, and it still looks as small as when Mountcastle lived there. The northern end of the block, that is, number 46, was taken over in 1890 by the City and South London Railway Company for their King William Street Station, but it was not to last. The station was closed in 1900 (see here for more information) and Regis House was built on top of the station, not just obliterating the station entrance, but the whole block of houses from numbers 40 to 46. The Regis House you see today is a modern replacement from the 1990s, but they have retained the access to the platforms of the station which was used as an air-raid shelter in the war (more information and photos here).

Goad’s insurance map of 1887

(1) Sidney’s father William was the brother of Edward’s father Montague.
(2) The London Gazette, 2 January 1857.

Neighbours:

<– 42 King William Street

40 King William Street –>

Borradaile, Son & Ravenhill, merchants

Tags

hats, merchant

Street View: 74
Address: 34 Fenchurch Street

Tallis mistakenly lists the firm as Borradaili, but it should be Borradaile, nor does he give any indication what trade they were in. Admittedly, their profession is somewhat confusing as they were involved in all kinds of activities, but to keep it simple, I have given them the occupation of ‘merchants’. They were involved, however, in (fur) hatmaking, shipping, insurance, cotton mills, and probably much more that has not made it into easily accessible records.

top part of William’s indenture

William Borradaile (born 16 Dec. 1750, baptised 5 Jan. 1751), son of John Borradaile, a tanner of Wigdon, Cumberland, was apprenticed in 1765 to London Founder Edward Watson. In 1778, William’s younger brother Richardson followed him to London to be apprenticed to Draper Henry Wright. In Bailey’s Northern Directory for the year 1781, Edward Watson was listed as a merchant at 31 Cannon Street and in his will of 1788, Watson leaves “to the said William Borradaile all the rest residue and remainder of my personal estate”, in other words: everything that had not been left to others was to go to William.⁽¹⁾ By that time, William had already set up on his own and his name appears in the tax records for Fenchurch Street. That the relationship between his master Edward Watson and William Borradaile was close, can be seen in the name of Borradaile’s son, who was baptised on 2 April 1785 as John Watson Borradaile. In 1799, this son was apprenticed to his uncle Richardson, and so was his younger brother Abraham in 1803. Another brother, William, was apprenticed in 1807 to a Merchant Taylor, John Clark, but later became a man of the church.⁽²⁾

Pelts of beaver, fox, and other animals (Source: uniquelyminnesota.com)

To complicate matters, Richardson, who had entered into a partnership with his brother, also had a son William who was taken on as an apprentice in the Fenchurch business of furriers, hatters and merchants. In those days, the Borradailes were certainly involved in the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company archive shows them supplying hats to the North West Company at Grand Portage, Minnesota.⁽³⁾ See here and here for more information on the fur trade from Grand Portage. In the summer of 2017, the Grand Portage National Park Service plans to open a reconstruction of the inside of a 1799 hatters’ shop, which they will name ‘Borradaile and Atkinson’.

The Borradailes formed all sorts of – temporary – partnerships, sometimes more than one at any given time, and a particular example is given in The London Gazette of 1811 where several partnerships were dissolved.⁽⁴⁾ The first one mentioned was between William Borradaile, Richardson Borradaile and John Atkinson of Salford, Manchester, as merchants and manufacturers. They had been trading under the name of William and Richardson Borradaile and Co. in London and under the name of Borradailes, Atkinson and Co. in Salford. Another partnership between the Borradailes, Atkinson and John Clark was dissolved that same day. These partners had been trading under the name of Borradaile and Clark. Both partnerships were dissolved because Atkinson pulled out. Two more partnerships were dissolved that had involved Atkinson, although the entry in The London Gazette does not state whether they were dissolved because he withdrew. One of these partnerships was between the Borradaile brothers of Fenchurch Street, John Atkinson of Salford, Robert Owen⁽⁵⁾ of Manchester and Thomas Atkinson of Manchester, as cotton spinners under the name of the Chorlton Twist Company. And the last partnership had been between all of the above mentioned partners together with Henry and John Barton of Manchester as cotton spinners under the name of the New Lanark Cotton Mills. The Johnstone’s 1818 Directory shows that matters in London were also not quite as straightforward as one might think, especially not when the next generation got involved. Johnstone lists under the name Borradaile:
R. & C. & Co. , furriers, Great Suffolk Street, Borough
R. and Wm. jun. & Co., merchants, 14 St. Helen’s Place
W. & R. & Co., merchants, 14 St. Helen’s Place
W., Sons & Ravenhill, hat makers, 34 Fenchurch Street, manufactury Hatfield Street, Blackfriars Rd.

fur shop from Diderot’s Encyclopédie (Source: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

We will concentrate on the Fenchurch Street business here, which was run by the Borradaile brothers and George Ravenshill after Atkinson withdrew from the partnership. More on the business in a moment, but first a glimpse into the private life of William Borradaile. On the 4th of July, 1812, he wrote a letter to the churchwardens of St. Laurence Pountney,

Gentlemen,
From the parents of my wife (who is just deceased) having been many years inhabitants of the parish of St. Laurence Pountney, and being, as well as my own mother and several others of our family, interred in the burial ground of that parish, I feel desirous to possess a vault there. I therefore request the favour of you to call a vestry, in order to consider of a grant to be made me of ground for the purpose of building such vault near the foot of my late mother’s grave stone, of the following dimensions, viz.: 7 feet long by 4 feet 10 inches wide in the clear, and of such depths as you may judge proper.⁽⁶⁾

His request was granted and presumably the vault was built, but surprisingly, he does not mention it in his will.⁽⁷⁾ He was, however, buried at St. Mary Abchurch, which was the parish to which St. Laurence Pountney had been united after the Fire of London in 1666 as St Laurence’s was not rebuilt, although their graveyard continued in use until 1850. William’s gravestone, and those of other Borradailes, is listed for St. Laurence Pountney in The Churchyard Inscriptions of the City of London. But to return to the business: sons John Watson and Abraham continued the business under the name of Wm. Borradaile & Co., although the property at 34 Fenchurch Street was now listed in the tax records for John Watson alone as he had inherited the building itself. In 1832, these second-generation brothers, George Ravenhill and one William Thornborrow dissolve a partnership as insurance brokers; apparently a new sideline of the hatters.⁽⁸⁾ The 1841 census found John Watson, his wife Ann, their children and brother Abraham at 34 Fenchurch Street, but soon afterwards the business premises were shared with various other companies.

From 1843 onwards, various other businesses could be found trading from 34 Fenchurch Street, among them Ludd and William Fenner, who went bankrupt in late 1843.⁽⁹⁾, William Grant, tobacco broker who died in March 1853, and Marshall and Edridge, who ran the Australian line of packet ships. In 1851, John Watson and Abraham dissolved the partnership they had as “merchants and general commission agents”, because John Watson was retiring.⁽¹⁰⁾ He died in 1859. Abraham continued the business until his own death in June 1857. While sitting in his counting house “he was suddenly attacked by mortal sickness, and, although medical aid was promptly at hand, expired in a few minutes of the seizure”.⁽¹¹⁾ The notice about Abraham’s death listed the company as “Cape merchants” and said that he had married his cousin, the daughter of Richardson Borradaile, many years M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne. The entry for Richardson on the website of the Parliamentary history gives more information on the various merchant activities of the Borradailes (see here). The Borradaile name continued to be used by various family members and could be found as far away as Calcutta where Messrs Borradaile owned a steam boat, the “Pioneer” which did service on the Ganges; they were also heavily involved in the Indian railways. The Borradailes even acquired eternal fame by having an – albeit small – island near Antarctica named after them, Borradaile Island.

Strakers’ Annual Mercantile, Ship & Insurance Register of 1863, lists numerous businesses trading from 34 Fenchurch Street:
Merchants: Bartholomew Calway; Alexander L. Georgacopulo; Demetrio Georgiades; V.A. Van Hüffel & Co.; Charles Maltby; Michaelis, Boyd & Co; Henry William F. Niemann; W. Potter; Henry A. Preeston & Co.; W.S. Shuttleworth & Co.; John Hammond Winch; East India and Colonial Merchants: Lerosche and Co.; James Macdonald and Co.; Tea and Coffee Brokers: Charles Maltby; Timber Brokers: Grant, Hodgson & Co.
Many more names could be added to these over the years, but I will leave it at this and end with the note that the building as the Borradailes knew it no longer exists. The building as Tallis depicted it with the gate in front had already disappeared when Goad produced his insurance maps. In 1936 a much larger Plantation House was erected and even that has now been superseded by Plantation Place, an enormous glass and steel office development.

Goad’s insurance map, 1887

(1) PROB 11/1170/126.
(2) He became rector of Wandsworth, but killed himself in 1836 ‘in a fit of temporary derangement’ by jumping off Vauxhall Bridge.
(3) Public Archives of Canada Reel 5M5, Part F4/20, Invoice of sundries shipped by McTavish Fraser and Co. for the NWcCo. Reference kindly supplied by Karl Koster for which my thanks.
(4) The London Gazette, 28 September and 15 October 1811.
(5) A biographical sketch of Robert Owen appeared in The Poor Man’s Guardian, 28 November 1834.
(6) H.B. Wilson, A History of the Parish of St. Laurence Pountney, 1831, p. 177. William Borradaile had married Ann Delapierre in 1784; she was the daughter of Abraham and Mary Delapierre.
(7) PROB 11/1790/29.
(8) The London Gazette, 4 January 1833.
(9) The London Gazette, 22 December 1843.
(10) The London Gazette, 17 January 1851.
(11) The Morning Chronicle, 17 June 1857.

Neighbours:

<– 35 Fenchurch Street

33 Fenchurch Street –>

Charles Alabaster, bonnet maker

Tags

hats

Street View: 23
Address: 58 Piccadilly

The shop listed in Tallis’s Street View 23 for Charles Alabaster is an example of a business where the name of the original owner remained long after he had died. Charles Alabaster and his wife Mary had four children: Mary Ann Rebecca (born 1805), James Chaloner (1806), Henry (1811) and Katherine (1814), who were all still minors when Charles died in 1820.⁽¹⁾ In his will, written in 1817, he names his wife Mary sole executor and beneficiary, trusting her to do with his estate whatever will be best for “her own comfort and the bringing up of [his] dear children”.⁽²⁾ Mary continued the business under the name of C. Alabaster, straw and fancy hat maker. It is listed as such in the 1841 Post Office Directory, although by then it was no longer Mary who ran the business. She had died in 1838 and after various named bequests, had left the residue of her estate to son James Chaloner on condition that he would make a will “that after providing an interest in the above residue after his decease to his wife and sister in law Frances Alabaster during their lives bequeaths the remainder of the above residue to his children in such proportions as he may think advisable”.⁽³⁾

Straw bonnet (© Colchester and Ipswich Museums)

But James did not survive his mother for very long and died in May 1840, a few months after his wife Harriet (née Woodman; she was the daughter of James Woodman, hairdresser at 46 Piccadilly). He made a new will, dated the 21st of May 1840, in which he left all his property for the use of his three children Charles, Henry, and Chaloner, for whom he appointed his sister Mary Ann guardian. She, her husband Harry Criddle, and their sister-in-law Frances, the widow of their brother Henry, were to be joint trustees. James mentions the business at 58 Piccadilly, which, as long as the trustees thought it profitable, was to be continued by the three of them, but one fourth of the profits thereof was to go to Frances “as a repayment and compensation for her time and labor”. Another fourth part is to go to Mary Ann and her husband and the remaining two fourths are to go to the guardians in trust for the children. He would like one of his children to take over the business with the other two to receive their portions of the estate.⁽⁴⁾ James was buried in All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green (more on the family grave here).

photograph of Mary Ann Criddle (Source: National Portrait Gallery)

(© Trustees of the British Museum)

Mary Ann’s husband, Harry Criddle, was the son of Harry Holman Criddle, a hatter who had been in partnership with John Breach at 46 New Bond Street until February 1810 when they dissolved the partnership. Harry Holman continued the business on his own, later at 148 New Bond Street.
Mary Ann and Harry Criddle took the responsibility entrusted upon them by her brother seriously and, according to the 1841 census, Charles and Chaloner Alabaster are living with them in Sloane Street. Little Henry was not listed with them that year, but he is ten years later in the 1851 census. The 1841 census found sister-in-law Frances at 58 Piccadilly as straw bonnet maker, but two years later, she also died. She left her property to her father Charles Poppy and named Harry Criddle the executor of her will. The probate record states that, although Frances’ address was 58 Piccadilly, she had lately been staying at 64 Sloane Street, so with Mary Ann and Harry.⁽⁵⁾ The business continued to exist, but had a setback in 1847 when the shop caught fire. The fire had started in the bakery of David Simpson next door, but the fire crew could not prevent it spreading to the Alabaster premises. According to the newspaper report, the damage to the Alabaster shop from fire and water was very extensive, but no more details were given.⁽⁶⁾

photograph of Harry Criddle ±1855 (Source: virtualmuseum.ca)

The tax records show the names of Alabaster and Criddle for number 58 till 1850; the following year, the tax for the property is paid by Emma Gill and Ann Jeffries, fancy stationers, whom we also find at number 58 in the 1851 census. Harry and Mary Ann Criddle, with their son Percy and nephews Charles and Henry Alabaster are found at 115 Piccadilly. Harry is listed as ‘proprietor of houses and superintendent of trade in Leghorn bonnets’. Charles is listed as student of King’s College, London, and he was later to study at Lincoln College, Oxford. He became a priest, from 1859 onwards in Christchurch, New Zealand, and died there in 1865 of tuberculosis. His brothers Henry and Chaloner were both diplomatically involved in the Far East; more on them here and here. So none of the Alabaster children seemed to have had the inclination to continue their father’s straw bonnet shop, but that does not mean that the business was terminated when they went off to their various careers in foreign parts. The 1851 Post Office Directory still lists the business of Charles Alabaster, straw and fancy hat maker at number 58, but in the 1856 Post Office Directory number 58 is no longer mentioned, which accords well with the tax records. However, at number 115, the Post Office Directory lists the firm of Alabaster and Toovey, straw hat makers, certainly suggesting that Criddle continued to work in the straw hat industry. He died in 1857.⁽⁷⁾ Mary Ann retired to Addlestone, Chertsey, Surrey, where she died in late 1880.

The Artist’s Painting-Room by Mary Ann Criddle (© Art Gallery of Ontario)

No more is to be said about the straw bonnet business, but if we go back in time, another aspect of the Alabaster/Criddle family comes to light. The Transactions of the Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (1826) listed a prize, a silver palette, for a Miss Alabaster of 38 Piccadilly for a drawing in chalk from a bust. 38 was a mistake for 58 and Miss Alabaster was Mary Ann who continued to receive prizes for her art work, for instance in 1832 a gold medal from the same Society for a historical composition painted in oil. More on her artistic life here. From 1841 onwards, the census entries list her as ‘artist’, and this artistic talent was inherited by her grandson Norman (Percy’s son) who excelled in flower paintings. Percy emigrated to Canada in 1882 and the story of the Criddle family is depicted on the website of the Sipiweske Museum, Wawanesa, Manitoba (see here) Click the ‘thumbnail gallery’ to find more examples of Mary Ann’s and Norman’s art. The Canadian Criddle household was decidedly unusual as Percy not only shipped his wife and children there, but also his mistress and the children he had with her, supposedly as ‘help’ for his wife, later usually referred to as ‘family friend’. You can read more about that side of the story here and here.

flower painting by Norman Criddle (Source: virtualmuseum.ca)

(1) A lot of research has already been done by others on the Alabaster family and I have made grateful use of the information provided on the Alabaster Society website.
(2) PROB 11/1626/227.
(3) PROB 11/1896/183.
(4) PROB 11/1928/288.
(5) London Metropolitan Archives DL/C/518/143.
(6) The Northern Star, 10 April 1847.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858. Effects valued at under £3,000.

Neighbours:

<– 59 Piccadilly

57 Piccadilly –>

Charles Holwell, hatter

Tags

hats

Street Views: 69 and 80
Address: 100 Westminster Bridge Road

When Westminster Bridge was envisaged and built, land had to be bought on the Surrey side for the approach road. Between 1740 and 1746, the Commissioners of Westminster Bridge bought land from the Archbishop of Canterbury and, in Lambeth Marsh, from the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London. In later years, land on either side of the road was sold or leased for building purposes.⁽¹⁾ One of the houses built there became the hatter’s shop of Charles Holwell.

Canaletto, Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor’s Procession on the Thames, 1746 (Source: Google Art Project via Wikipedia). More pictures of the early bridge on the Wikipedia page.

Although Holwell is listed in the index of Street View booklet 69, the depiction of the houses only goes as far as number 99. To see the façade of number 100, we have to turn to booklet 80 where it is shown as part of Coade’s Row. The Sun Fire Office registration for 21 May 1831 does refer to the hatter’s shop as being at 3 Coade’s Row, although that is – in the Tallis booklet at least – a property on the other side of the road. Church records for baptisms of the children are just as erratic. When the youngest son Charles junior is baptised in 1830, Charles senior and his wife Mary do not yet live in Bridge Road, but in Isabella Street.⁽²⁾ With the next baptism in 1832 (John Bradford), they live on Westminster Bridge Road; in 1834 (Mary Ann) in Coades Row; and in 1837 (Thomas Bradford) and 1841 (Charlotte) on Bridge Road. None of the entries provides a house number, but let’s assume that Charles had his hat shop at 100 Westminster Bridge Road since at least 1832.

baptism record for Charles junior at Christ Church, Southwark

If we follow the census records, Charles sr. and Mary are at Bridge Street in 1841, but in 1851, Mary is listed as widow, ‘hat manufacturer’ with her son Charles as ‘hat maker’ (no idea if the difference between manufacturer and maker signified a difference in status, or whether it was just due to the vagaries of the census taker). Charles senior had died in June 1850 and was buried at Norwood Cemetery. Charles junior continued his father’s business and we see him as hatter in subsequent censuses. In 1853, he married Sophia Lemon and the couple had at least four children (Charles III, Sophia Margaret, James Thomas and Henry William), but as far as I can see, none of them became a hatter.

From 1861 onwards, the home and business addresses start to diverge as it did for so may Victorian shopkeepers. In the 1861 and 1871 censuses, we find the hatter and his family living at 6 Ouverture Terrace, Kennington; by 1881, they have moved to 74 Paradise Road. Nothing of spectacular interest happens to the hat shop, but in 1896, Charles’s claim to fame came about when he went into Westminster Hospital for an abscess in his neck. During the operation to open the abscess in order to remove whatever matter was inside, a rupture was discovered – or accidentally made? – in a vein causing profound bleeding. Fortunately, they managed to stop the bleeding and after a month in hospital, Charles was discharged. He lived to the ripe old age of 80, and only died in 1909. The operation was described in The Westminster Hospital Reports, ed. R.G. Hebb (1897), so medically-minded readers of this blog can read the whole procedure:

No advertisements for the hat shop nor any hats made by Holwell have turned up so far, so no nice illustration to go with this post, sorry about that. There is another Holwell listed in the Tallis Street Views, but since I have not found out who the parents of Charles senior the hatter are, nor where he was born (the 1841 census just says that he was not born in London), I cannot prove a link between the two families. There is a possibility that Charles is related to Edward, son of Edward Holwell, hat manufacturer of Exeter, who was apprenticed to George King, a vintner, in 1791, but genealogical proof is lacking so far.

A hat from the 1830s, nothing to do with Holwell, but since I have not found one with his name on, this anonymous one will have to do (Source: Victoria & Albert Museum Images)

————–

(1) Survey of London, Volume 23, Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall, ed. Howard Roberts and Walter H Godfrey (London, 1951), pp. 69-74 via British History Online (here).
(2) There is an earlier insurance record for 1826 in which Charles Holwell, hatter, is paying the premium for 46 Orchard Street.

Neighbours:

<– 101 Westminster Bridge Road

99 Westminster Bridge Road –>

Thomas Vyse, straw hat manufacturer

Tags

hats

Street View: 87
Address: 3 Cripplegate Buildings

In 1848, Thomas Vyse and his sons, Charles, Richard and Henry, end a partnership they had started in 1845 as “merchants and straw hat manufacturers, carrying on business at No. 3, Cripplegate-buildings, and No. 76 Wood-Street, Cheapside, both in the City of London; at Luton, in the county of Bedford; at New York, in the United States of America; and at Florence”.⁽¹⁾ Another document states that Charles had been in New York, but was now “on the Continent”.⁽²⁾ Thomas is said to be Charles’ attorney in a London Gazette notice, which has probably to do with the very imprecise “on the Continent” address.⁽³⁾ Didn’t they know where he was? The document in the LMA says that some money had been invested for Charles “for his own use but so that the said Charles Vyse shall not have power to deprive himself of the benefit of the said annual income or any part thereof by any sale mortgage or change or otherwise in the way of anticipation and so that his receipts in writing under his own hand given after the interest shall become due and payable and not before”. Hmmm, Charles seems to have been the black sheep of the family and not to be trusted with money. Various later notices in The London Gazette show that Richard concentrated on the Luton side of the business, Henry on Wood Street and two other sons, William, and after his death, Thomas Andrew, on the New York branch. Earlier, Thomas Andrew had looked after the Italian branch. Despite all these changes, Vyse and sons remained one large firm until 1864.

trade card ±1814 (Source: British Museum)

Thomas first traded from Holborn Hill, but later from 3 Cripplegate Buildings. For a map of the Cripplegate area and the later history of the buildings in the street see the post on neighbour Richard Finden. According to the Land Tax records, Vyse could be found at number 3 from 1830 to 1850. The family did not live above the Cripplegate shop for very long, if at all, as in the 1841 census, William Barnet, a straw hatter, and his family can be found at the property. In the 1851 census, Thomas and his wife Alice are found at The Abbey, Herne Hill, but they had apparenty already been there since the 1830s.⁽⁴⁾ By 1851, the Cripplegate shop had been taken over by Joseph Fisher who dealt in artificial flowers.

Frederick’s gravestone (Source: florin.ms)

As the partnership notice already indicated, there were branches of the firm in New York and Florence. Family members were sent out there to see to things, but some unfortunately also died there. In December 1843, son William died of apoplexy at New York⁽⁵⁾, but the firm continued to trade in New York and in 1864, Thomas Vyse jr. bought 126 West 18th Street. It is said that he lived at 20 West 17th Street.⁽⁶⁾ A few years before William died, in 1840, Frederick, another of Thomas’s sons, died in Florence, 23 years old. One website says that he was buried at the English cemetery in the same grave as his sister, Florence Ann, but that is incorrect. They have interpreted their own findings wrongly as they say that she died 21 October, 1829, just 16 months old. However, they also transcribe the entry in the churchyard records where she is named “Ann Wyse (Florence)”, which I interpret as Anna Vyse of Florence; she is just “quinze mois”, which is fifteen months, not sixteen; and “fille de Thomas Andrews Wyse et de Mary J. Fisher”.⁽⁷⁾ Thomas Andrew was the son of Thomas, and the little girl was hence Frederick’s niece. Never mind, languages can be difficult and it does show that the Vyses were in Italy at least since 1829. Colnaghi (see below) mentions 1827 as the year the Vyse business started trading in Italy.

Italy was a huge supplier of straw hats and the Vyses imported the broad-rimmed floppy straw hat, the Leghorn (example here), so named after the English name for the Livorno region, in large quantities, so it is not surprising that they set up a branch over there to control the trade.

“From the year 1826 the demand for the ‘fioretto’ hat [that is, the Leghorn hat] began gradually to fall off, and it was necessary to supply its place with another article. This was found in the eleven-end plait, one strip of which, in making up the hat, was sewn so as to overlap the other. The merit of introducing this plait was chiefly due to Messrs. Vyse, an English firm, first established at Florence about the year 1827. After some temporary changes, the factory was finally removed to Prato, about the year 1844, where the centre of the business has ever since remained.”⁽⁸⁾

Straw hats were not just produced in Italy, but also in England, and especially in Bedfordshire. Vyse set up a factory in Luton and the building, at least its reincarnation after a 1930 fire, can still be seen with the V for Vyse between the windows. For more information about the Luton factory, see here.

In 1843, Thomas had a disagreement with the customs officers at St. Katherine Docks and he applied to the House of Commons where a Special Committee investigated the matter and found the case for Thomas. The duty on straw hats was to be levied per quarter of a pound and not per ounce.⁽⁹⁾

Thomas died on 8 January 1861 and he was buried on the 16th at Norwood Cemetery. His probate entry said that he was of Herne Hill, Surrey and of Wood Street, Cheapside, and that his estate was valued at £180.000.⁽¹⁰⁾ Many more changes took place after Thomas’s death, but the firm continued until well into the 20th century.

advert in The Otago Witness, 10 December 1870

Thomas Vyse was most likely the brother of Charles Vyse, the subject of a previous post. A Thomas and a Charles Vyse were baptised as the children of Andrew and Jane Vyse (or Vize) in Birmingham in 1782 and 1785 respectively. This does tie in with the ages we know they had in later records. I have not found absolute proof, just circumstantial evidence for the relation between the two straw hat manufacturers, but for now, I will assume that they were indeed brothers. [UPDATE: yes, they were brothers, see the comment by Martyn Priestnall on yet another brother William who was convicted of receiving stolen goods. His wife and his two brothers Thomas and Charles petitioned for clemency] Thomas turned out to be a much better businessman than his brother Charles who went bankrupt at some point. You can read all about Charles and his unlucky son Valentine here.

——————
(1) The London Gazette, 1 August 1848.
(2) London Metropolitan Archives: CLC/B/227/Ms12057.
(3) The London Gazette, 20 September 1853 and 2 September 1859. In 1864, Thomas Andrew the younger split off the New York branch and continued on his own account. The rest of the family continued to trade as Vyse and sons (The London Gazette, 26 August 1864).
(4) Herne Hill Personalities, researched by G. Young et al. (2006). See also there for the later purchase of the property for Herne Hill railway station.
(5) The Times, 16 January 1844.
(6) Manhattan Landmarks Preservation Commission December 11, 1990 Designation List 230 LP-1815.
(7) Thomas Andrew Vyse (1802-1865) and Mary Jane Fisher were married on 2 March 1826 at St. Martin Ludgate.
(8) Consul-General Colnaghi, “Notes on the Florentine Straw Industry” in The Antiquary, September 1886, p. 123.
(9) Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, volume 52 (1843).
(10) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861

Neighbours:

<– 4 Cripplegate Buildings

2 Cripplegate Buildings –>

Charles Vyse, straw hat manufacturer

Tags

hats

Street Views: 6 and 15 Suppl.
Address: 30 Ludgate Street

Straw hats were quite a craze in Victorian England and Charles Vyse’s was one of the many shops where you could buy one. The straw suitable for making bonnets was mainly manufactured in Bedfordshire; the St. Albans, Dunstable and Luton areas are frequently named as sources of either the raw material or the finished product. The main disadvantage of growing the wheat for the straw in England was the climate. Although a single thunderstorm would not damage the wheat enough to prevent it from being milled into flour, damp could cause the straw to become rusted or spotted. Very dry weather would cause the straw to become very stiff or turn an undesirable reddish colour. If the conditions were favourable, however, and the farmer quickly got the dried straw tied into sheaves and stored or despatched to the straw pleaters, he could get from an acre of wheat “five to eight loads of wheat, of five bushels to the load, and from fifteen cwt. to a ton of cut straw, of the value of six to eight pounds stirling the ton, clear of all expenses”.⁽¹⁾ But straw bonnets were not just made in England; many were imported from Italy, specifically from the Leghorn area (Livorno, Tuscany) after which they were named Leghorn bonnets, or just Leghorns (examples here).

Leghorn bonnet c. 1830 (Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Advert in The Morning Post, 21 July 1829. Click to enlarge.

Charles Vyse can be found at 30, Ludgate Street from at least 1828 when an advertisement in the Morning Chronicle can be found for him, but he was already living in the street in 1823 when his daughter Emma was baptised, although no house number is given in the baptismal record. In a rather larger advert that appeared a year later (see illustration), Vyse lists all sorts of straw bonnets he had for sale and in it he also claims to have introduced British Leghorns in 1825, but I have found no other record of him to substantiate this claim. In 1829, his son Valentine is born who was eventually to take over the business.⁽²⁾ In 1847, bankruptcy proceeding were taken out against Charles, but he was given a certificate⁽³⁾ and continued to supply his straw bonnets from 30, Ludgate Street. In 1849, he advertised that he had just returned from Paris and could now supply an “entire new stock of Parisian and English millinery” and “trimmed bonnets” could be “sent into the country carriage free”. He could also supply mourning bonnets (fashionable ones of course) and milliners could obtain “first-rate pattern bonnets at really wholesale prices”.⁽⁴⁾

Advert in the Tallis Street View

Charles died in July 1850 at the age of 66 and left his entire business during her lifetime to his wife Mary and after her death to his children.⁽⁵⁾ There was however, one condition: his son Edward⁽⁶⁾ was not to be a partner, but was to receive a salary. Was Edward not trusted with the business? Not sure what happened to Edward, but at the time of the 1851 census, Mary is listed as the head of the household with son Augustus as manager.⁽⁷⁾ The 1851 census does not help very much with the whereabouts of Valentine, Augustus’s younger brother, as he is seen visiting a family in Lambeth, so where he actually lived remains unclear. His occupation is given as bankers’ clerk. Valentine marries Anne Cornish Saunders, the daughter of a chemist, on 5 January 1851 at St. Peter le Poer. Both their addresses are given as Old Broad Street. It is quite possible that any combination or all of the brothers Edward, Valentine and Augustus ran the business together for their mother as an advertisement in the 1851 Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition mentiones the firm as “Messrs. Vyse”. The Land Tax records list Mary Vyse for the Ludgate property up till 1858, after which Valentine takes over. Edward and Augustus disappear from the records and Valentine seems to take over the business on his own. And then disaster struck.

Around 7 June 1862, a short notice appears in various newspapers, reporting that Mrs Vyse of Ludgate Hill had been committed to Newgate on a charge of wilfully murdering her children. Other papers suggest that she remained in her own house in the charge of a hospital nurse. What happened? The reports in the newspapers vary in detail and chronology, but I will draw upon Reynolds’s Newspaper of 13 July 1862, which seems to have carried the most comprehensive (and reliable?) account of Anne Vyse’s trial.

Valentine and Anne had at the time of the murder five children, but Ann had only brought her two daughters, Alice and Annie, up to town to show them the Exhibition. It later transpired that another child had also been in town, but he was at school during the afternoon. On the 22nd of May, Mrs Vyse went to Keating’s, a chemist in St. Paul’s Churchyard, where, after buying some perfume, she asked for something to kill rats. When suggested some poisoned wheat, she said she had tried that, but to no avail. She was then shown Battle’s Vermin Powder of which she bought three packets. She was cautioned by the chemist’s assistent that it was dangerous stuff. In the afternoon, she sent the servant to get another packet of the same. The servant, returning with the purchase, went to her mistress’s room, but was told not to come in. Her suspicions were aroused and she called Mrs Sarah Saunders, Mrs Vyse’s sister, who forced open the door. They found Anne Vyse standing over the washstand, bleeding from the throat, with a razor in her hand. The children were found dead in their beds, fully clothed. An analyses of their stomachs found large quantities of strychnine. The defence at the trial was that Mrs Vyse was pregnant “and that was a circumstance and a time calculated to produce great depression of the brain”. She had also lost a child to diphteria in 1860 which much affected her. Also, in the past, a cousin had intended to commit suicide and another had been confined in a lunatic asylum. More witnesses were called and all could mention a (distant) relative of Anne who committed suicide, was insane or at best, excentric. In other words, Anne Vyse’s actions could only be explained by insanity. The defence lawyer realised that an insanity verdict would mean confinement for life, but he could not argue any other way. The jury agreed and Anne was found not guilty on the grounds of “insanity at the time of committing the act”. The prisoner was to be “confined as a criminal lunatic during the royal pleasure”.

Burial record of St. Paul’s, Hook, Surrey

Put away at Broadmoor for life one would assume, but not so. The 1871 census shows Anne living with Valentine and a growing family at Wimbledon. Also at the address is Sarah Saunders, the sister who kicked in the door in 1862. One of the children, Sidney, is 8 years old, so he was probably the child Anne was pregnant with when she committed the crime. In 1868, another child was born to the couple, Sallie Louise, and I do hope that a permanent eye was kept on Anne for the children’s sake, although nothing untowards seems to have happened after 1862. Anne died in 1889 and was laid to rest in the same grave as the two little girls she killed. Valentine himself died in 1918.

The shop with new large windows in the 1847 Tallis Street View Supplement

(1) A.J. Tansley, “On the straw plait trade” in The Journal of the Society of Arts, no. 422, vol. IX (1860), pp. 69-73.
(2) Baptised 4 April 1829 at St. Andrew’s Holborn as the son of Charles Vyse, Leghorn merchant, and his wife Mary.
(3) The London Gazette, 18 May and 13 August 1847.
(4) The Morning Post, 11 October 1849.
(5) He was buried at Norwood Cemetery on 11 July 1850.
(6) I have not found a baptism or burial record for Edward.
(7) Augustus was baptised 6 April 1827 at St. Andrew’s Holborn.

You may also like to read the post on Charles’s brother Thomas Vyse, another straw bonnet manufacturer.

Neighbours:

<– 32 Ludgate Street

29 Ludgate Street –>

Mrs Cubison, milliner and hatter

Tags

clothing, hats

Street Views: 34 and 36
Address: 89 Oxford Street

For no apparent reason, Oxford Street 88 and 89 are depicted in both the Street View booklets 34 and 36. Why there was a repeat in number 36 is not clear; the shops were shown quite clearly in number 34 (see the elevation above), while in number 36 they were drawn across the map that Tallis provided on the left-hand side of the page, which looks very messy and not at all how the rest of the booklets were produced. One reason could be that Cubison’s neighbour wanted his shop more prominently displayed in a vignette which could not be included in booklet 34 because someone else had arranged that spot before him, so his was depicted in number 36. Fortunately for us, that vignette also shows the Cubison shop, to the left of Barron’s.

shops at 88 and 89 Oxford Street overlapping the map in booklet 36

vignette in booklet 36

Mrs Elizabeth Cubison, a widow, depicted herself as a hatter in the Street View booklets, but in the 1841 census, she is listed as a milliner. In the census, she lives at Albion House, 89 Oxford Street, with her three daughters Jane, Lydia and Harriet, all milliners. In the 1841 Post Office London Directory, however, number 89 is listed to William Henry Cubison, a hatter, and, on the next line, but with the same address, we find Mrs E. James, leghorn, chip & hat manufacturer. William Henry is easily explained as the son of Elizabeth Cubison, but Mrs James is somewhat of a mystery. Further up the street, at number 95, we find one J. James, leghorn, straw, & bonnet manufacturer. Were they related? The census does not help as neither of the Jameses lived above the shop and the name is not an easy one to search for. In the 1845 Post Office London Directory there is just one entry for “James & Cubsion, milliners & straw bonnet makers” at number 89, suggesting a partnership. See below for a picture of a straw bonnet in the National Trust collection and they are as confused as anybody else about the James and Cubison partnership; they call the maker ‘Cubison, James’ as if it were his first name. We’ll come back to a member of the James family later on, but first the Cubison family.

Snowshill Wade Costume Collection, Gloucestershire (© National Trust)

Elizabeth Goldsmith married Richard Cubison on 25 November 1817 at St. Anne Soho. The couple had seven children: William Henry (born 1814), Jane (born 1816), Mary Ann (born 1817), Harriet (born 1820), Lydia (born ±1821), Frederick John (born 1823) and Richard Marsh (born 1824); the four eldest children were baptised at St. George’s, Bloomsbury and the two youngest at St. Anne Soho. The baptism record for Lydia has not been found yet, but judging by the other available records, she must have been born around 1820. Richard died intestate in October 1829 and administration was granted to Elizabeth. We know for certain that Richard had a straw hat manufacturing business in Oxford Street in October 1819 when Elizabeth testified in an Old Bailey case concerning dodgy money received from a customer⁽¹⁾, but he may also have been in the Navy. I will come back to this and Richard’s unsavoury character later.

After Richard’s death, Elizabeth continued the business, possibly in partnership with (Mrs E.?) James, but in her will (she died in March 1856), she leaves the business to her daughter Lydia and her daughter-in-law Charlotte Louisa, the wife of son Richard Marsh. The two ladies do indeed continue the shop, although it appears from some advertisements that the whole family was involved in the straw hat and millinery business. In 1852, for instance, the Post Office London Directory lists Frederick and Richard as lacemen at 89 Oxford Street, but also – separately – Mrs Elizabeth Cubison as milliner for James & Cubison. Advertisements in The Times of 10 January and The Observer of 14 January, 1855, name “Messrs. F. and R. Cubison” as the source of a stock of lace available at a large discount. Was the lace business of the brothers perhaps separate from their mother’s millinery shop which she had in partnership with James, but were both businesses run from the same address? It would appear so, as on 17 April 1856, a notice in The Times announces that James and Cubison have filled the shop “with the latest novelties from Paris by their French milliner” and that “the business will still be continued by Miss Cubison” in a way the customers were used to “for upwards of 35 years”.

Milliner from Tabart’s Book of Trades, volume 2 (1806)

The 1861 census sees Richard junior, his wife Charlotte Louisa, his sisters Lydia and Jane (by then widowed) and his children resident at 89 Oxford Street. He died in February 1864 and probate is granted to Charlotte Louisa and two other executors.⁽²⁾ From 1867, various directories seem to suggest that James & Cubison, milliners, also had a shop at 64, East Street, Brighton. [Postscript:They did! See Hats off to Hats for a straw hat with their label]. The 1871 census shows that Charlotte Louisa, Lydia and Jane could still be found in Oxford Street as milliners. Jane died in 1872 and on 31 December 1880, the partnership between Lydia and Charlotte Louisa was dissolved.⁽³⁾ Charlotte and family moved to 29 Jeffreys Road, Lambeth, where she was to remain at least till 1891. I have not found a census record for 1901, but in 1905 she died at St. Andrew’s vicarage in South Streatham where her son Walter Charles Goldsmith Cubison was the vicar.⁽⁴⁾

The dissolving of the partnership at the end of 1880 is no doubt linked to the fact that Lydia marries George Lodge Stockfisch, a widowed wine merchant, on 1 January 1881. The couple can be found in Bristol at the time of the 1881 census, living with George’s sister-in-law at Clarendon Villa. George dies in October 1887 and is then described as formerly of Clarendon Villa, Ashley Hill, Bristol, but lately of Westbury-upon-Trym.⁽⁵⁾ Lydia continues to live at Glenthorn, Henbury Road, Westbury on Trym. The 1901 census tells us that she had a visitor at that time, Emily Sarah James. Aha!; was she related to the James who were involved in the millinery business in London? Quite likely, but hard to prove. Lydia dies in May 1901 and probate is granted to Frederick Henry Marsh Cubison, the son of Charlotte Louisa.⁽⁶⁾

And now back to where it all began, Richard Cubison. He was born around 1788 and baptised in Aldington, Kent as the son of Stephen Cubison and Mary Ann Marsh. In 1823, Richard, hat manufacturer of 89 Oxford Street, is accused of assault by Bessy Pennythorne. Cubison stands bail.⁽⁷⁾ I have not seen the actual documents, so do not know the details, but it may not have been the first time that Richard was not able to control himself. In 1816, an inquest was held into the death of Sarah Rapps who committed suicide by hanging herself.⁽⁸⁾ At the inquest, a witness claimed that Cubison, Sarah’s brother-in-law, had frequently beaten and ill-treated Sarah and her sister, Cubison’s wife Elizabeth, but Cubison denied that. Mrs Cubison’s evidence, however, “was a material difference from that of her husband”. The verdict was “that deceased came to her death by hanging herself in a fit of lunacy” and no charges seem to have been brought against Cubison. Now, I cannot prove that we are talking about the same Cubison in these two assault cases. The first one involving Bessy Pennythorne definitely involved Cubison, the hatter, but the second case involving Sarah Rapps poses problems. Yes, Cubison is an unusual name and there are not many Richard Cubisons around at that time; yes, he had a wife Elizabeth, although they were not officially married until 1817, but they did already have children together. His wife’s last name was Goldsmith, not Rapps, but the women may have been half-sisters. Or is Elizabeth Goldsmith his second wife? The marriage registration of 1817 does not say whether either of them had been married before. So, questions remain, not only about the assault, but also about Richard’s work in the Navy.

On the marriage record for daughter Lydia, the father’s profession is given as R.N. and that was not the only instance. In the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1872 in which daughter Jane’s death is announced, she is described as “daughter of the late Captain Cubison, R.N.” and in 1864, the same magazine, announcing the death of son Richard Marsh, also called the father “Capt. Cubsison, R.N.” And the same happened in 1851 when the magazine announced Harriet’s marriage to John Mathers. This can no longer be a mistake. Richard senior must have been in the Navy while his wife conducted the millinery and hat-making business. Could it have been a part-time job? I do not know anything about the Navy and have no idea if one could combine a business in London with the work aboard a ship, or was it just a case of simply him being the official proprietor of the business while in fact his wife ran it? I have found a list of ship masters where Richard’s seniority is listed as 28 June 1809, but that does not help much.⁽⁹⁾ Can any of my readers help?

———–
(1) Old Bailey case t18191027-70.
(2) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1864. His estate is valued at under £450.
(3) London Gazette, 7 January 1881.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1905. Estate valued at just over £1027.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1887. Estate valued at just over £4974.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1901. Estate valued at just over £7422.
(7) LMA: MJ/R/P/004/178.
(8) The Examiner, 8 September 1816.
(9) A List of the Masters, medical Officers,and Pursers of His Majesty’s Fleet, 1827, p. 9.

Neighbours:

<– 90 Oxford Street

88 Oxford Street –>

John Perring, hat maker

Tags

hats

Street Views: 19 and 4 Suppl.
Address: 85 Strand and 251 Regent Street

The first advertisement I found for John Perring is one in the Morning Post of 20 April 1822, although in an 1832 advertisement, he claims to have been a hatter for 18 years.⁽¹⁾ In his 1822 advertisement, as indeed in all of his later advertisements, he offers silk and beaver hats; the silk hats with double covered edges, warranted water-proof for 17s and the fine light beaver hats from 18s to 21s, not to mention all sorts of other hats in various price ranges depending on quality. His address is given as 413 Strand, two doors from the Adelphi Theatre. Another advertisement of 11 April 1827 still finds him at that address, but a month later he has moved his business to 85 Strand, corner of Cecil Street.⁽²⁾ He later also refers to this address simply as Cecil House.

Advert from Tallis’s Street View

But Perring was not satisfied with just one shop and in 1830 he claims to have “four houses of business”. The April 1827 advertisement states that he has another shop at Hammersmith, although no exact address is given; an 1829 advertisement mentions the third shop at 124 Edgware Road. Although he already claims to have four shops in 1830, I could not find the fourth address, 251 Regent Street, until 1847 when the Supplements to Tallis’s Street Views came out. He was certainly not yet at Regent Street when the first lot of Street Views came out, as number 251 is then shared by Madame Lebas, a milliner and Thomas Day, a hatter.⁽³⁾ Perring may very well have taken over the latter’s business sometime between 1839 and 1847. The earliest Perring advertisement for the Regent Street address can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal of 29 March 1849 where he tells his customers that “Perring’s patent light ventilating hats, so universally worn, [are] sent carriage free to any part of England”. Or traders could export them even further away if they wished as they are “suitable for all climates and seasons”.

Advert from Alexander’s East India and Colonial Magazine, Volume 10 (1835)

Perring claims to have invented an improvement in the beaver hat to make it a lot lighter, but his competitors did not all agree and claimed the same. And there were of course the sharp ones who tried to sell their own inferior product under a false name. Perring frequently warned about such practices in his advertisements as in the The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction (vol. 18, 1831) where he states that “Since 1827, when Perring’s patent extra light beaver hats were first invented and introduced to public notice, hundreds in the trade have begun to talk about weight, professing the greatest absurdities, to the prejudice of the inventor”. In the 1832 advertisement mentioned in the first paragraph, he even speaks of copyists that “have sprung up like mushrooms”. Fakes were shipped abroad, so Perring “respectfully informs the nobility, gentry, and public generally, that none are of his make unless purchased at no. 85, Strand, with the name printed at the bottom of the lining”. How anyone abroad was to recognise a fake from a true Perring hat remains a mystery. A name in the lining can just as easily be faked as the whole hat. Information on how to make beaver hats can be found here.

Eight different styles of beaver hats from Horace T. Martin, Castorologia, or, The History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver. An Exhaustive Monograph (1892)

Advertising was vital if one wanted to draw the customers to one’s shop and Perring certainly used the usual strategies of advertising in newspapers and journals – even in poetry -, and he may very well have used men standing about or walking with placards, sandwiched or otherwise, but he also embarked on a novel, mobile, way of getting attention. He had a giant hat constructed which was driven round town every day and which he claimed had cost him sixty guineas. Thomas Carlyle writes disparagingly about it in his Past and Present:

Consider for example that great Hat seven-feet high, which now perambulates London Street; which my Friend Sauerteig regarded justly as one of our English notabilities; “the topmost point as yet,” said he, “would it were your culminating and returning point, to which English Puffery has been observed to reach!”- the Hatter in the Strand of London, instead of making better felt-hats than another, mounts a huge lath-and-plaster Hat, seven-feet high, upon wheels; sends a man to drive it trough the streets; hoping to be saved thereby. He has not attempted to make better hats, as he was appointed by the Universe to do, and as with this ingenuity of has he could very probably have done; but his whole industry is turned to persuade us that he has made such!

mobile advertisement. Source: London, edited by Charles Knight, vol. 5 (1843), p. 38

Perring’s hat on a cart did not convince everyone that that was the way advertising should go, but it certainly got him attention. His name appeared in the newspaper in quite a different way as well. In 1837, James Greenacre was sentenced to death for murdering Hannah Brown. Greenacre had promised to marry Mrs Brown, but just before the wedding he murdered her and cut her into bits; most of the body parts were found near the Edgware Road, but the head was fished out of Regent Canal. Greenacre’s mistress, Sarah Gale, turned out to have been Hannah’s niece and goddaughter; she was sentenced to transportation for helping him dispose of the body. You can read the whole court case with all the gory details here. You may well wonder what this story has to do with hatter Perring, but it turned out that Hannah Brown, before coming to live at Union Street where she was murdered, had been living for about two years at the Strand as Perring’s housekeeper and this fact was reported in the papers. Unfortunately, the first census of 1841 is too late to be of any use in establishing the truth about her employment at Perring’s, but he remained a bachelor all his life, so he probably had a housekeeper. The 1841 census for 85 Strand only shows George Haule, apprentice hat maker, Thomas Pennell, errand boy, and Ann Reeve, a 40-year old servant (presumably the housekeeper after Hannah Brown), resident there. Where Perring himself was is unclear. We do find him at home, however, in the next census of 1851. Also there are Samuel and Susan Date, husband and wife who serve as shopman and housekeeper, and a number of visitors. The census gives Hammersmith as the place of birth for Perring and his age as 50. In 1852, Perring is still listed in the Post Office Directory, but I have found no record of him after that year.

Plate IV in W. Newton The London Journal of Arts and Sciences (1843)

Perring was not satisfied with just being a hatter. In 1829, he paid ‘game duty’ for a certificate that allowed him to “use any dog, gun, net, or other engine, for the purpose of taking or killing any game whatever, or any woodcock, snipe, quail, or landrail, or any conies, in any part of Great Britain”.⁽⁴⁾ Whether he actually hunted has not come to light, but at least he had a licence to do so. In 1851, he took 200 shares in the Northern and Southern Connecting Railway⁽⁵⁾ and in 1842 a patent was given to “John Perring, of Cecil House, 85, Strand, in the city of Westminster, hat manufacturer, for improvements in wood paving, – partly communicated by a foreigner residing abroad”.⁽⁶⁾ The improvements were to do with the way the wood blocks were cut and pegged together with an elastic substance between the blocks. The text of the patent with the explanation of what these improvements involved can be read online here. I am sorry about the quality of the illustration above, but Google has not produced a better one.

But to return to the business of hat making and to conclude this post, a poem:

Advertisement poem on the back cover of Leigh Hunt’s London Journal, 2 July 1834

(1) Shown in J. Strachan, Advertising and Satirical Culture in the Romantic Period (2007), p. 37. Unfortunately, no source is given for the advertisement.
(2) Morning Chronicle, 11 April 1827. Observer, 8 July 1827.
(3) In the 1847 Supplement, Tallis accidentally writes the name of J. Leonard over number 251, but he occupied number 249.
(4) Act 48 Geo. 3. cap. 55 of 1 June 1808. Morning Post, 7 September 1829.
(5) Daily News, 27 June 1851.
(6) W. Newton The London Journal of Arts and Sciences, vol. 22 (1843), pp. 103-106.

Neighbours:

<– 86 Strand <– 249 Regent Street

84 Strand –> 253 Regent Street –>