Samuel Hunt, billiard rooms and cigar divan

Tags

games, tobacco

Street Views: 19 and 9 Suppl.
Address: 370-371 Strand

In the post for Edward Cahan, tailor, we saw that he occupied 371 Strand from ±1845 onwards and that he was listed by Tallis in the 1847 Street View Supplement. But in the main collection of Street Views (±1839-1840), Tallis listed S. Hunt & Co, tobacconists, at number 371. The elevation at the top of this post shows Hunt as a billiard table maker. Samuel Hunt combined both jobs, after all, what better place to sell your cigars than in a billiard room full of gentlemen? Although Cahan moved into number 371 at some point, Hunt continued to use most of the premises as his “billiard rooms and cigar divan”. According to London as it is today, cigar divans were “essentially coffee houses, but of a distingué character, expensive in their charges, and more studied, elegant, and luxurious in their appointments and conveniences”. Cahan probably just had the ground floor of number 371 and perhaps a few bedrooms upstairs. Various illustrations of the property before and after Cahan’s occupancy show the cigar divan on the ground floor of number 371 with the billiard rooms above. It looks as if Hunt rented out some space at number 371 to Cahan, while keeping the rest of the property for himself.

Illustrated London News, 1843, showing the Exeter Hall divan on the right and the billiard maker above.

The neighbouring property at 370 Strand had been in the occupation of one Bennett, pastry cook and confectioner in the early Street View; we will find out what happened to him in a later post, but for now we are concentrating on Hunt & Co. They, that is S. and C.J. Hunt [Samuel and ??], entered an advertisement in The Athenaeum of 1834 in which they warned their customers against inferior billiard tables that were advertised under “names of the most ridiculous nature – such as ‘Imperial Marmorean Stratification’ and ‘Petrosian Stratification Tables’ – made use of only to mislead the unwary, and to disguise the fact that they are made of COMMON WELSH SLATE”. As you can guess, the tables Hunt provided were anything but common, but made according to an improved principle, which needed no trumped-up names; the use of the word ‘slate’ was enough. The only thing to surpass the slate tables of Hunt were their metal tables. In the same advertisement, Hunt also advertised “A Scientific Treatise on Billards”. No author or proper title mentioned, but it was probably François Mingaud‘s The Noble Game of Billiards, a translation by John Thurston, rival billiard table maker, of the Noble Jeu de Billiard. Thurston, by the way, had an advertisement just above Hunt’s in The Athenaeum in which he advertised his ‘Imperial Petrosian Tables’ and also Migaud’s book. No love lost between the two rivals apparently.

advertisement in The Athenaeum, 1834

Hunt & Co. had probably taken over from David Farrow, who was described in The London Gazette of 1834 as “formerly of no. 370 Strand, Middlesex, gun-maker and gun-dealer, and also a billiard-table-keeper, … out of business”. From an 1836 Old Bailey case, we learn a little bit more about Hunt. One Henry Bell was indicted for stealing 3 ivory balls, the property of Samuel Hunt. Hunt’s son, Horatio, gave evidence and said, “I live with my father, Samuel Hunt, in the Quadrant; he has another house in the Strand; he is a billiard-table-keeper”. While Horatio was cleaning the billard room in the Strand, “which is on the first floor”, the accused came in and started to “knock the balls about on the table”. The minute Horatio turned his back, the accused left, taking the balls with him; they were later found at a pawnbroker’s.⁽¹⁾ The 1841 census shows Horatio, with occupation tobacconist, living at 370 Strand and Samuel Hunt, billiard-table-keeper, at 371 Strand. Also living at 370 Strand is William Preist, trunk maker, who was in the debtor’s prison later that year.⁽²⁾ In the bankruptcy notice, Preist is described as a foreman to a trunk maker and it is entirely possible that he was employed by Hunt in the making of the billiard tables. In Robson’s London Directory for 1842, Samuel Hunt & Co. are described as “trunk and camp equipage manfrs, tobacconists & billiard table makrs” and in the 1843 Post Office Directory as “metal & slate billiard table ma. tobacconists, & trunk makers, 370 & 371 Strand, & 105 Quadrant”. That same year, 1843, Samuel and Horatio Nelson, as he is officially named, dissolve the partnership they have at 370 Strand. No mention is made of the other addresses.⁽³⁾

c.1825 Hand-coloured etching and aquatint “Drawn by W.H.Pyne / Engraved by G.Hunt / Etched by Williams” and “Pubd by Pyall & Hunt, 18, Tavistock Strt, Covent Garden” (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

Samuel Hunt died in July 1845 of “disease of the lungs and debility”, just 48 years old. Horatio Nelson continued the business, at one point assisted by one John Drucquer, who had at one time had had his own tobacconist and billiard establishment at 334A Strand, but had fallen on hard times.⁽⁴⁾ By 1850, Horatio must have left the tobacco side of the business to William Henry and Charles Russell who dissolve their partnership as tobacco and snuff dealers at 370 Strand in February 1850.⁽⁵⁾ The billiard business was, however, still in Hunt’s hands and he is listed as billiard table keeper at number 370 in the 1851 census. At number 371, the census lists George Beckingham, also a billiard table keeper. What exactly the relationship was between Hunt and Beckingham is not clear, but it seems that Beckingham took over part of Hunt’s business as in 1859, The Building News of 15 July reported that 371 Strand, known as Beckenham’s Billiard-rooms, was sold for £1230. The Land Tax records still show Hunt at number 370 and Cahan at 371. The 1861 census shows Horatio and his family at number 370, but 371 is just occupied by a single lodger, so no great help in determining what happened. In the 1871 census, Horatio has moved to 2, Montague Place, and is described as billiard table maker, employing 5 men. He went bankrupt in 1878 and was then living at 11 Finborough Road, South Kensington.⁽⁶⁾ He got himself out of trouble and continued to work as a billiard table maker/keeper, in 1881 at 6 Tavistock Street. He retired sometime between 1881 and 1891 as the 1891 census finds him living on his own means. He died in 1898.

It is unclear what happened to 370 Strand just after Hunt left, but it came on the market in 1872 with an unexpired lease of 56 years.⁽⁷⁾ It became part of the Exeter Hall Hotel, often referred to as Haxell’s Hotel after its proprietor Edward Nelson Haxell, but at some point it also housed George Hammer & Co’s, school furnishers. In the 1920s Haxell’s Hotel became part of the very grand Strand Palace Hotel, but that is another story.

(1) Old Bailey case t18360919-2121.
(2) The London Gazette, 16 November 1841.
(3) The London Gazette, 29 September 1843.
(4) The London Gazette, 6 February 1846.
(5) The London Gazette, 5 February 1850.
(6) The London Gazette, 19 February 1878.
(7) The London Gazette, 3 September 1872.

Neighbours:

<– 372 Strand

370 Strand –> 369 Strand –>

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Solomon Barraclough, tobacconist

Tags

tobacco

Street Views: 6, Suppl. 14, and Suppl. 17
Addresses: 46 Ludgate Hill and 70 Cheapside

Solomon Barraclough was, according to Tallis, an importer of Cuban cigars. He no doubt imported cigars from Cuba, but he was in fact a general tobacconist where you could also get your daily dose of snuff, if you so wished. The first record I found of Solomon was his birth registration at Dr. Williams’s Library on 21 July 1807. Solomon’s parents were Samuel Barraclough of Postern Row, Liberty of the Tower, and his wife Anna Bere, the daughter of Barnaby Bere. Solomon’s date of birth was given as 30 March, 1796. His birth was registered at the same time as those of his brother Timothy (1792) and of his two sisters, Anna (1793) and Jemima (1798). Registering the birth at Dr. Williams’s Library showed a definite non-conformist tendency by Solomon’s parents, but he does not seem to have been too worried himself as his marriage to Mary Preston took place at Christ Church and the baptism of his son William Preston at St. Bride’s. According to the Land Tax records, Barraclough could be found at 46 Ludgate Hill from 1827 onwards.

In 1844, Thomas Prout of 229 Strand, a bush and comb maker, who also ran a patent medicine warehouse, advertised almost weekly in provincial newspapers, such as The Belfast News-Letter, with his pills against gout and rheumatism. As one of the satisfied customers appeared G.E. Smith, “Assistant to Mr. Barraclough, Snuff Manufacturer to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor”. My first instinct was to dismiss it as an advertising gimmick, but G.E. Smith most likely actually existed and is the same as the male servant listed in the 1841 census as living with the Barracloughs in Ludgate Hill (Geo. Smith, 30 years old). And in 1843, George Edward Smith testified in an Old Bailey case, where he said “I am in the employ of Solomon Barraclough, a tobacconist, in Ludgate Hill”.⁽¹⁾ Pigot’s Directory of 1839 still lists Barraclough at 46 Ludgate Hill, but by 1843 (Post Office Directory) he had extended his business to include the premises at 70 Cheapside, on the corner of Queen Street. He shared this latter address with William Garratt, an umbrella maker, who, at the time of the first series of Street Views (± 1839), had shared 70 Cheapside with Sanders & Co, hatters.

70 Cheapside

But, things did not go well for Solomon. Despite his apparent success in business, his personal life took a turn for the worse. His wife Mary died in August 1849 of cholera and this affected him so much that he committed suicide on the 1st of December. The inquest heard that on the morning of that fatal day, his son William heard strange noises coming from his father’s bedroom and when he went to investigate, his father was screaming and apparently trying to take hold of something in the air. His father got out of bed, but fell over and hurt his head. He was persuaded to go back to bed and his son left him to attend to the shop. His father said he would not go to the Cheapside shop as he normally did, but would stay in bed as he was not feeling well. Early in the afternoon, the bedroom door was found locked and when it was forced, they found Barraclough hanging from the bedstead rail. It was testified that Barraclough had not been himself after the death of his wife and would sit and cry for hours. A verdict of temporary insanity was returned.⁽²⁾ Barraclough was buried on the 7th at St. Bride’s, as his wife had been, at, as vicar Charles Marshall noted in the register, the “Coroner’s order / temporary insanity”, thereby avoiding the refusal to the suicide of a Christian burial.

In the 1851 census, we find William Preston Barraclough, tobacconist, at 46 Ludgate Hill and George Botterill, importer of cigars, at 70 Cheapside. Botterill was later to move to 33 Cheapside and in the 1861 census the property is listed as empty. William Preston is still at 46 Ludgate Hill in the 1856 Post Office Directory, and also in the 1861 census, but at some point he entered into a partnership with Henry Wilson Preedy at 129 Strand. That partnership was dissolved at the end of 1864 with Barraclough to continue on his own.⁽³⁾ The 1871 and 1881 censuses for Ludgate Hill no longer show number 46; they jump from 45 to 47 without any mention of 46. As we saw in the post on Thomas Treloar‘s carpet business, the area changed considerably because of the construction of the viaduct for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company, with houses set back, pulled down and rebuilt. The numbering was also changed and what were numbers 46 and 48 became one new property with number 78. The old Barraclough shop was probably pulled down in 1871 or 1872 as the Land Tax records for 1870 still record it for Solomon Barraclough – they apparently never updated it to his son’s name – but in the 1871 record his name has disappeared. The 1886 insurance map below shows were Barraclough’s shop used to be in relation to the new situation.

And William Preston Barraclough himself? No idea; he seems to have disappeared from London as I cannot find him in any of the usual places. Did he emigrate? If you have a suggestion, let me know.

(1) Old Bailey case t18430508-1408.
(2) Story amalgamated from various newspaper reports.
(3) The London Gazette, 10 January 1865.

advert in Street View booklet 6

Neighbours:

<– 47 Ludgate Hill <– 71 Cheapside

45 Ludgate Hill –> 69 Cheapside –>

Dolby’s Dining Rooms

Tags

book trade, catering, tobacco

Street View: 62
Address: 96 Wardour Street

In 1815, Ralph Rylance wrote in his Epicure’s Almanack that the York Chop-house could be found in Wardour Street, across from St. Anne’s Court. The proprietor at the time was a Mr. Clark, and, according to Rylance

the house is very neatly fitted up, and the handmaids are in general way neatly dressed, which circumstance, added to the goodness of the cheer, constitutes no small temptation to youth of sanguine temperament and vigorous digestive organs. The beef steaks and chops here are capitally cooked.⁽¹⁾

The chop-house has made it into online search results, not so much because of the neat dresses of the waitresses, but because some of its clientèle became famous; Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Robert Leslie all dined there. The editor of the modern edition of Rylance’s guide tells us helpfully that Mr. Clark was Christopher Clark, and that leads us to a notice in The London Gazette of 26 October 1827, in which Christopher Clark is described as formerly a captain in the Cumberland militia, but afterwards of 1 Short Street, Finsbury Square, then of 384 Oxford Street, then of 96 Wardour Street, eating house keeper, and lately of 34 Carmarthen Street, Fitzroy Square, out of business. In 1809, Charles Turner, a builder of Hampstead Road insures 96 Wardour Street with the Sun Fire Office. The actual occupant of number 96 is one Pitt, a print seller. In 1828, the executors of Charles Turner once again insure 96 Wardour Street, but this time the Sun Fire Office record states that the property is used by Dolby, coffee house keeper. This is Samuel Dolby who is listed as chop house keeper when the baptism of his son George is registered in 1830 at St. James’s, Piccadilly. But Samuel had not always been a caterer, as earlier records show.

A leg-of-beef shop from George Cruikshank’s Omnibus (1842). Cruikshank did not depict Dolby’s establishment, but the York chop-house may very well have looked much the same (© Trustees of the British Museum)

The baptism record for son George also gives the mother’s name, Charlotte, which helps to find the other children of the couple. The eldest child seems to have been Charlotte Helen who was born on 17 May 1821, and baptised a little later at St. Anne, Soho.⁽²⁾ The family’s address is given as St. Anne’s Court and Dolby’s occupation as ‘tobacconist’. This matches the entry in the 1820 Poll Book for St. Paul and St. Ann, which lists him at number 7 St. Anne’s Court. The Poll Book must have been slightly behind with the current state of affairs, as Samuel’s brother Thomas wrote in his Memoirs that during his own trial for seditious libel in the summer of 1821, Samuel “had only about a year and a half been settled in Wardour Street”, which makes it early 1820.⁽³⁾ An 1824 Old Bailey case tells us a lot more about Samuel’s shop, which, by the way, was then still at number 95 Wardour Street. One William Ramsden Robinson is indicted for stealing 20 printed books valued at 10s from Dolby. Dolby explained the situation in his shop to the magistrates, “I keep a tobacco shop which communicates with my stationer’s shop, by two glass doors. I can see in one shop what is going on in the other”. While Samuel Dolby was in the tobacco department, his wife Charlotte sorted out the issues required by the accused of “Dolby’s Acting Plays”, which had been published by Samuel’s brother Thomas, and put them on the counter in front of her customer.⁽⁴⁾ When her back was turned to find some additional numbers the prisoner said he also wanted, he grabbed the books that were on the counter and ran. Mr. and Mrs. Dolby were certain of their identification and, despite an alibi provided by the prisoner’s brother, the jury found him guilty.⁽⁵⁾

But when and why did Samuel Dolby turn from a tobacconist cum stationer to a chop house keeper? In Pigot’s Directory of 1825 he is still listed at number 95 as a tobacconist, but the 1826 Land Tax records for St. James, Westminster, show him between Harrison and Vidall. Although the tax records do not give any house numbers, Harrison is the first name under the heading of ‘Wardour Street’ in that particular section, indicating that his shop was on a corner, and Tallis has Harrison, pawnbroker, at number 95, and Vidall, carver & gilder, at number 97. This certainly seems to indicate that Dolby took over Clark’s chop-house when the latter ‘lately’ removed himself to Carmarthen Street as The London Gazette of 1827 tells us. Does this mean that Dolby gave up his other business? No, it does not, as as late as 1843, The Post Office Directory lists Charlotte, by then a widow, as both tobacconist at number 95 and keeper of the York chop-house at number 96. But the Dolbys seem to have given up on the stationary side of their business in the late 1820s and this may very well have been a case of collateral damage of his brother Thomas’s bankruptcy in 1825. Samuel may have been more an outlet for Thomas’s publications rather than an independent stationer and the bankruptcy would have cut off his access to cheap editions. See the post on The Printshop Window blog for lots more information on Thomas Dolby’s fortunes and misfortunes.

When Samuel died is a bit of a mystery, but a Samuel Dolby was buried at St. Mary’s, Greenwich, on the 5th of December, 1831, and he is described as of St. James, Westminster. No will has been found for him, so I am not absolutely sure it is him and I cannot explain why he should be buried at Greenwich, but by 1835, the tax records were listing Charlotte and not Samuel, so he must have died before 1835. Although I have not found a marriage registration for Samuel and Charlotte which might have given an indication where he came from or who his father was, we do know that he came from Northamptonshire. The only other snippet we know is that Charlotte came from Oxfordshire as she gives that as her place of birth in the 1851 census and we can surmise that her last name was Niven as daughters Rebecca and Sarah were baptised as Rebecca Niven and Sarah Amy Niven, but that is as far as I got with their origins.

Detail of Horwood’s 1799 map

Charlotte continued to run the two businesses, but seems to have sold the tobacconist’s section in or before 1851 as in the 1851 Post Office Directory she is only listed with the chop-house. She did not continue to live above the shop after her husband’s death, as in the 1841 census she could be found in Newman Street, Marylebone, with her daughters Charlotte, Rebecca and Sarah. In the 1851 census, she is living in Hinde Street with daughters Charlotte, Eliza, Jane and Sarah. She made at least one more move, probably to live with her daughter (see below), as her burial and probate records give 5 Wimpole Street as the address where she died in July 1866.⁽⁶⁾ Two of Samuel and Charlotte’s children made a name for themselves, each in their own way. Son George became the manager of Charles Dickens’s reading tour in America, and daughter Charlotte Helen became a celebrated singer.

George was appointed manager of Dickens’s readings tour in 1866. The men probably already knew each other as Dickens was a friend of Charlotte Helen. Dickens and Dolby became great friends and frequently dined together. These tours in England were so successful that Dolby was also appointed manager of the American tour (1867-1868).⁽⁷⁾ In 1885, he wrote Charles Dickens as I Knew Him: the Story of the Readings Tour in Great Britain and America (1866-1870), which he “affectionately inscribed” to his sister Charlotte. George at some point went into partnership with Richard D’Oyly Carte, but that partnership as “opera and concert agents” was dissolved in 1876.⁽⁸⁾ Dolby also arranged the English tour of Mark Twain to whom he wrote a short note on 4 January 1874 with directions to his house at “2 Devonshire Terrace, Hyde Park, at foot of Craven Hill, one shilling cab fare from the Langham Hotel”. The note said that the Dolbys dined at six o’clock and that they were looking forward to seeing Twain and his friend Stoddard.⁽⁹⁾ Despite all these grand acquaintances, Dolby fell on hard times, it is said because of his personal extravagance, and the 1891 census found him at the Cleveland Street Asylum. He died in 1900 as a pauper in Fulham infirmary.

carte-de-visite for Charlotte (© National Portrait Gallery)

Charlotte Helen was listed as “musical” in the 1851 census, but she was more than just a bit musical. In 1832, she entered the Royal Academy of Music and received a scholarship in 1837. In 1845, she sang in Leipzig under the auspices of Mendelssohn, which was such a success that he even dedicated his Opus 57 to her. She subsequently went on a tour through the Netherlands and France and in 1860 married Prosper Philippe Sainton, a French violonist who had been living in London since 1844. Charlotte became a celebrated contralto vocalist with her own academy which she opened in 1872 after her retirement from professional singing. Charlotte did a lot better than her brother and when she died in 1885, she left almost £1,600.⁽¹⁰⁾ The probate registration gives her as formerly of 5 Wimpole Street, but lately of 71 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park.⁽¹¹⁾

Advertisement for Charlotte’s music academy in the 1874 London Illustrated News

And the York chop-house? In the 1849 Land Tax records, Charlotte Dolby is listed between Harrison (the pawnbroker at number 95) and Vidall (carver & gilder at number 97) who were the same neighbours as we saw in the 1826 tax record, but from 1850 onwards, the Land Tax records suddenly list a Mrs Niven. Can we assume a relation of Charlotte? It is unlikely that Charlotte suddenly reverted to her maiden name, as in other records she is still known as Mrs Dolby. The name of Niven has disappeared again in the 1856 Post Office Directory and is replaced by that of dining room keeper Charles Alexander Halfhide. His name, however, disappeared a year later, and various other proprietors can be found in the following years, although it is unclear whether they continued the chop-house, and that is as far as I can take the story of the York chop-house.

—————————-
(1) Ralph Rylance, The Epicure’s Almanack. Eating and Drinking in Regency London. The Original 1815 Guidebook, ed. by Janet Ing Freeman (2012), p. 117.
(2) The other children were: Samuel (1823-), Eliza (1825-), Jane (1826-), Rebecca Niven (1828-), George (1830-1900), and Sarah Amy Niven (1833-).
(3) Thomas Dolby, Memoirs of T. D. late Printer and Publisher, of Catherine Street, Strand, written by himself (London, 1827), p. 131. Thanks go to Mathew Crowther for sending me this information.
(4) From 1823 to 1825 Thomas Dolby issued his series of plays in paper wrappers at sixpence per number. Thomas Dolby, publisher and printer, had his business in the Strand and at 34 Wardour Street. Read more on Thomas Dolby here.
(5) Old Bailey case t18240715-101.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1866. Probate is granted to son George and the effects are gives as under £100.
(7) The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. You can also read more about Dolby here.
(8) The London Gazette, 4 February 1876.
(9) Mark Twain’s Letters, vol. 6: 1874-1875 (2002).
(10) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1885. Probate is granted to her husband.
(11) More information on Charlotte and Prosper can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography.

Neighbours:

<– 95 Wardour Street

97 Wardour Street –>

Fribourg & Pontet, tobacconists

Tags

tobacco

Street Views: 76 and 77
Addresses: 60 Charing Cross and 124 Pall Mall

      

Farewell to Snuff, An Elegy
1.
Box, thou art clos’d – and Snuff is but a name!
It is decreed – my nose shall feast no more!
To me no more shall come – whence erst it came –
The precious pulvil from Hibernia’s shore!
2.
Virginia, barren be thy teeming soil –
Or may the swallowing earth-quake gulf thy fields!
Fribourg, and Pontet! cease your trading toil, –
Or bankruptcy be all the fruit it yields!

The stanzas above are the first two of twelve of James Beresford’s ‘Elegy’ which was published in 1807 in The Miseries of Human Life (online here).

As we saw in a previous post, the firm of Fribourg & Treyer added a small sentence to one of their advertisements, “To prevent mistakes, they find themselves under the necessity of giving this public notice, that they have no concern whatever with any other shop in London”. They seemed to be referring to their competitors at 134 (later 124) Pall Mall, Fribourg & Pontet. The feeling was apparently mutual as Fribourg & Pontet (Tallis calls him Puntet, but that is a mistake) added a sentence to their trade card, “no connection with any other shop”.

Trade card (Source: British Museum)

Frederick William Fairholt in his Tobacco: its history and associations: including an account of the plant and its manufacture; with its modes of use in all ages and countries of 1859 says that a bill of 1768 is headed “John Saullé and Pontet, successors to the late James Fribourg”, but the British Museum has one of 1774 headed “Fribourg & Saulle” with “& Pontet” added in handwriting, which seems to suggest a later take-over. Please note that the signature is for one C. Pontet, which is Claude Pontet. James Fribourg is mentioned in the Westminster ratebooks for St. James Piccadilly in the 1740s, but in the 1760s, the rates were paid by John Saulle.

1774 bill (Source: British Museum)

Claude Pontet had married Anne Hill at St. George’s, Hanover Square and their son Franciscus Josephus Maria was born on 24 February 1768 and baptised a week later at the Roman Catholic Church in Lincolns Inn Fields (Sardinian Chapel). Claude died in December 1800, and the business in Pall Mall was continued by his son Francis. We will call him Francis sr. from now on as his son Francis Claude also entered the snuff business. Francis sr. died in 1842, 74 years old. It is said that he had married the daughter of James Fribourg, but I have found no evidence for that. In his will, drawn up in 1824, he names his wife Mary as his executor. He had married Mary Toussaint in 1791 at St. James’s, Piccadilly.⁽¹⁾ Another suggestion is that it was Claude who married Fribourg’s daughter, but here we run into a similar problem; the only marriage I found for Claude is the 1757 one with Ann Hill.

The Fribourg that preceded Treyer was Peter Fribourg, but the one whose name was linked to Pontet’s was James Fribourg. Whether Peter and James Fribourg were related remains unclear, although it does seem likely as Fribourg was not a very common name in London. According to John Arlott they were father and son, but he gives nor references or sources, so I have no idea whether that is true.⁽²⁾ Arlott has James Fribourg working from the Haymarket before he moved to Pall Mall in ±1738, while Peter Fribourg took over the shop at 34 Haymarket. Arlott also says that James Fribourg moved to Pall Mall with his daughter and her French immigrant husband Pontet, but that cannot be Claude or Francis as they had either not been born yet or were not old enough. Was there an earlier generation of Pontets who married into the Fribourg family, but then why would Fribourg have a partnership with Saulle while the Pontet name was only added in the 1770s after Fribourg’s death? More questions than answers here I am afraid.

Portrait Francis sr. (Source: shorehambysea.com)

Over the years, the address for Fribourg and Pontet changed a number of times, and Francis junior had a different address altogether, so below an attempt to make sense of the various moves. The dates are just those that I could find in various resources and for the 1818 and 1819 entries, I do not know whether Francis sr. or jr. is meant. The list makes no pretence at completeness.

1740s	Fribourg	Pall Mall
1760s	Fribourg & Saulle	Pall Mall
1773-1783	Fribourg, Saulle & Pontet	Pall Mall
1791-1799	Claude Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	3 Pall Mall
1797	Francis Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	3 Vigo Lane
1799-1803	Francis Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	24 Cockspur Street (see here)
1806-1814	Francis Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	134 Pall Mall
1818	Francis Pontet	5 Cockspur Street
1819	Francis Pontet	30 Haymarket
1821-1842	Francis Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	124 Pall Mall
1843-1877	Edward Pontet (Fribourg & Pontet)	124 Pall Mall
1822-1826	Francis Pontet jr	59 Charing Cross
1827-1851	Francis Pontet jr	60 Charing Cross

The British Museum date this trade card to 1810, but it must be earlier as Pontet can already be found at 134 Pall Mall in 1806

It is always hard to know who the customers were of a particular shop, other than in the rare cases where the administration of a business is still extant, and even then, you will not find the customer who just came in off the street for a single purchase and paid in cash. But sometimes individual customers make their appearance, such as the Honourable Charles Howard to whom the 1774 bill shown above was addressed, and George F.M. Porter, MP for Shoreham, whose letters were read when Pontet’s portrait turned up (see here). Abbé Count Jenico de Preston, a member of an Irish aristocratic family, who was involved in erecting a Catholic chapel at Abergavenny, was also a customer. On 9 April 1798, he wrote a letter to James Peter Coghlan, a Catholic printer and bookseller at Grosvenor Square, in which he says, “I would be much obliged to you if you were so good to get for me from Fribourg Pontet No. 3 in Pall Mall, twelve pounds of his fine plain rappee snuff such as you sent me once last year, and as I used to get from him when I lived the year before last at No. 6 in Bulstrode Street, which I paid him at 5 shils per pound”.⁽³⁾

Snuff pot (Source: Etsy.com)

After the death of Francis senior, the Pall Mall shop was run by Edward Pontet, Francis’s brother, still under the name of Fribourg & Pontet. Edward died in February 1878 and in June of that year, his “collection of engravings, drawings, paintings, and a few books, miniatures, snuff-boxes, &c.” was auctioned by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge.⁽⁴⁾

Francis junior married Charlotte Hale in 1834 and the couple had five girls and three boys, none of whom seems to have gone into the snuff business. Francis jr died in 1863 and on his probate entry⁽⁵⁾, no mention is made of the shop at 60 Charing Cross and if we look back at the 1861 census, Francis is given as “retired tobacconist” at 32 Cambridge Terrace. The eldest son of Francis and Charlotte, Frank Fribourg, went into the Merchant Navy.⁽⁶⁾ According to the census records, the next son, Claude Hale, became a clerk at the Post Office Savings Bank, and the youngest son, Horace William George, is described as an unemployed purser in the 1871 census and his probate record tells us that he died in 1878 in Calcutta.⁽⁷⁾ The 1856 Post Office Directory names one Richard James Sherriff, snuff maker and importer, as the occupant of 60 Charing Cross, but I am afraid that he died on 29 December 1859.⁽⁸⁾ What happened to the shop after that is slightly unclear, but at some point the Sun Fire Office had their office at that address.⁽⁹⁾

Engraved plate for Fribourg & Pontet (Source: Pipemuseum.nl)

(1) They were married by licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury on 8 September 1791. Witnesses: James Toussaint and Claude Pontet. Many thanks to Kathryn (@kaffgregory) for sending me the information.
(2) John Arlott, The Snuff Shop (1974).
(3) The Correspondence of James Peter Coghlan (1731-1800), ed. F. Blom et al. (2007), p. 336.
(4) The Standard, 1 June 1878.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1863.
(6) Master’s Certificates, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, number 23.170 (1860, 2nd mate).
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1880.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1860.
(9) Advertisement in T.G. Austin, The Straw Plaitting and Straw Hat and Bonnet Trade (1871).

You may also like to read the post on Fribourg & Treyer, tobacconists, or Georgian Gentleman’s blog post on snuff here.

Neighbours:

<– 58 Charing Cross	61 Charing Cross –>
<– 13 Cockspur Street	123 Pall Mall –>

Fribourg and Treyer, tobacconists

Tags

tobacco

Street View: 22, 6 and 7 Supplement
Address: 34 Haymarket and 51 Cornhill

Fribourg & Treyer of 34 Haymarket sold snuff and the best quality at that. But, a partnership between a Mr. Fribourg and a Mr. Treyer had never existed. The firm was allegedly started in 1720 by P. Fribourg, although the earliest surviving ledger is dated 1764.⁽¹⁾ It is not clear whether the same P. Fribourg was in control of the shop all those years, or whether more generations had the same initial. According to Evans, the Fribourgs had originally come from Switzerland. From a tax assessment record of 1767 for the St. Martin in the Field parish, it is certain that a Peter Fribourg was paying taxes for a property in the Haymarket. He retired in 1780 and the shop was taken over by G.A. Treyer who linked the – no doubt well-known and highly esteemed – name of Fribourg to his own.

shop window pane for Fribourg & Treyer that can still be seen today

Fribourg retired to Epsom, but almost four years later, he considered it necessary to place the following notice in the paper:

Source: G. Evans, The Old Snuff House

Had he been pestered by former clients? He sounds fairly annoyed about the non-existing connection between him and Treyer. Gottlieb August Treyer, originally from Germany, had married Martha Evans the same year he took over the snuff shop and was granted naturalisation in 1793.⁽²⁾ The couple had no children and when they retired in 1803, the daily management was put into the hands of Price Evans, Martha’s brother, during the minority of the three sons of Richard Evans, one of Martha’s other brothers. By 1815, Martha and Gottlieb were both dead⁽³⁾ and the two nephews George (1786-1867) and Gottlieb August Treyer (1789-1869) were old enough to manage without their uncle. Later, they were joined by their younger brother Robert Lloyd (±1803-?). This partnership was dissolved in 1858 in favour of the next generation, Gottlieb August Treyer junior (1818-1899), the son of G.A.T. senior, George Arthur Carter (1833-1887), son of George, and Price James Evans (1815-1885), the son of James Evans, a cousin of G.A.T. senior and George.⁽⁴⁾ After the death of these three cousins, the firm was then managed by August (1843-1906), son of G.AT. junior, and George (1867-after 1920), the son of G.A.C. Evans. August died in 1906 and the firm became the responsibility of George and August’s son W. Bridgman (1876-after 1920). Lost track of all these Georges and Gottliebs? Perhaps this family tree will help.

click to enlarge

The shop itself with its distinctive bow windows, although no longer in the possession of the Treyers or Evanses, but a souvenir shop, still looks very much the way it had always been. George Evans in his 1920 book already remarked that “the greatest care has been taken to ensure its preservation and the structure is entirely in its original state”. He does, however, apologise for the need in the 1890s to replace the stone steps as they had “become so worn by continued use, and not unlikely to cause an accident to someone walking over them, it was necessary to replace them, this being the only serious renovation that has been made to the front”.

shop 1920 (Source: Evans)

shop screen detail

Inside, separating the original front shop from what Evans calls the “first inner room” is an Adam’s screen which can still be seen, although the glass panelled doors seem to have disappeared. The private entrance on the right of the shop was once the only way to get to the outbuildings at the back and the horse that the first G.A. Treyer kept, had to go through the house to the stable. The upper floors were sometimes let, but often used by one or another member of the family. In 1912, number 33 was acquired to accommodate the expanding business, but was quickly dismissed by Evans as not of the same historical value, it “has been much more altered for modern requirements, and contains now nothing of interest”.

shop screen 1920 (Source: Evans)

shop screen 2013

Although Fribourg is alleged to have started the business in the Haymarket in 1720, it cannot have been in the same building, as the Survey of London states that the “two houses [i.e. nrs. 33 and 34] appear to date from the middle of the 18th century, and it is probable that they were built by John Maidman, carpenter, who in 1741 obtained a 51 years lease of the houses (20 in all) on the site of Coventry House” The Survey says that Fribourg first appears in the ratebook in 1751, so one wonders if 1720 was really the correct date for the start of the snuff business.⁽⁵⁾

Floor plan from Survey of London via British History Online

Evans states that they opened what he called ‘The City Branch’ at 18 Cornhill in 1834, but it was probably slightly later as their name does not appear in Tallis’s Street View of 1839 when number 18 is still occupied by J. Viney, a tailor. They do appear in the 1847 Supplement, but by then they have moved to number 51. The City branch was to move again in 1869 when 51 and adjoining premises were bought by a bank and Treyer moved to 2 Leadenhall. In 1881, they moved once again when their block was pulled down to widen the street. They temporarily relocated to 70 Cornhill, but came back to Leadenhall Street (to number 3) in 1882. They were still there when Evans wrote his book. In the 20th century, the firm also opened branches in Oxford and Cambridge, but already in 1814, they used agents to sell their wares further afield than London. In an advertisement in Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser of 9 June, 1814, they announce that they have appointed Thomas Balle, 203 High Street to be their sole agent for Exeter and its vicinity. An N.B. at the bottom of the advert states that Balle supplies “teas and groceries of every description”.

Advert Morning Chronicle, 15 February 1802

What to make of the last sentence in the advert above “To prevent mistakes, they find themselves under the necessity of giving this public notice, that they have no concern whatever with any other shop in London”. Their City Branch had not been opened yet, so that cannot be the reason for the confusion, nor would the wording be quite the same if it had been one of their own branches. They are possibly referring to Fribourg & Pontet, snuff-makers at 134 Pall Mall who are listed in the 1808 Post Office Annual Directory and were still there (at number 124) when Tallis produced his Street Views. Evans mentions a J. Fribourg who traded in the colonnade of the Opera House, Haymarket, in the later 18th century. He sold snuff, but also opera tickets. Also in Tallis’s Street View we find ‘Fribourg Evans’ at 6 Regent Street, but whether the latter was perhaps an offspring of the Haymarket Evanses is not clear yet.

Trade Card 1781 ©British Museum

Tobacco was rasped by hand to produce snuff as the shop sign of “the rasp and crown” already indicates. Tobacco could be rasped to a varying degree of fineness, hence the expressions Fine, Denigros and Gros. Fribourg & Treyer sold a large number of snuffs, such as Dutch Carotte, Lundy Foot, Dunkirk, Brazil, Montagne and Marino de Leipsic. They even made up snuff mixtures according to special recipes for individual customers and kept the recipes in a special book for later reference. George Evans was proud of the distinguished customers the firm had over the years and says that “several of the Popes were supplied by Fribourg and Treyer, but indirectly, and, according to an old book, Napoleon, at St. Helena, was also supplied by the Firm in the same way”. Evans quotes from an old account ledger for the account of Beau Brummell “1 lb. Bureau and Canister, sent to the Prince of Wales 7s. 6d.” (3 Oct. 1799), but “it was very shortly after this that His Royal Highness dealt directly with the Firm”. Note the capital F in Firm. George IV was not the only Royal to get his supplies from 34 Haymarket; in 1809 Princess Charlotte started an account with F&T and in 1819 the King of France. In all, Evans lists five pages of customers whom he apparently considered worthy of mention, the majority of them styled Lord, Earl, Sir or Lady. The average guy in the street gets no mention.

Although snuff was the main commodity at F&T’s, they also sold cigars, small numbers to begin with, but from 1850 onwards in increasing quantities. You could buy your cigars in large quantities and have F&T look after them, just collecting a small number when you needed them. In this way, the correct conditions for keeping them could be guaranteed and your cigars would always be fresh. Some customers, especially at the City Branch, even kept their own open box of cigars on a special shelf in the shop and came in every day to smoke a cigar on the premises. Loose tobacco for use in pipes was also sold, but Evans does not have much to say about them “for the varieties were so few in use until fairly recent years”. Cigarettes were first mentioned in the accounts in 1852, but became more frequent from 1866 when the first Russian cigarettes were sold. In 1880 the Egyptian cigarette was introduced and with cigars, they slowly but surely took over from snuff and became the mainstay of the business.

Pipe handle with the name of Fribourg & Treyer ©Pijpenkabinet

——————-
(1) George Evans, The Old Snuff House of Fribourg & Treyer at the Sign of the Rasp & Crown no. 34, St. James’s Haymarket, London, S.W.1720-1920, [1920]. The ledger was apparently still available to Evans when he wrote the history of the firm. The present whereabouts are not known.
(2) Journal of the House of Lords, volume 39: 1790-1793, 18 Feb., 5 June, 11 June and 21 June 1793.
(3) They lived the last years of their lives in Brighton. Gottlieb’s will was proved 17 December 1812 (PROB 11/1539/365) and Martha’s 20 March 1815 (PROB 11/1566/298).
(4) London Gazette, 1 June 1858.

You may also like to read the post on Fribourg & Pontet, tobacconists, or at Georgian Gentleman’s blog post on snuff here.

Neighbours:

<– 35 Haymarket <– 52 Cornhill

33 Haymarket –> 50 Cornhill –>