Category: Staffordshire

INSKIPS OF DILHORNE.

By Malbedenk

Document Ref D5/A/PO/7 seen in Stafford Record Office is a book (think of a largish School exercise book) recording weekly and extra payments over the years 1813 and 1814 for the Parish of Dilhorne, Staffordshire. Unfortunately the first page is missing. What stood out immediately was the number of payments to members of the Inskip family totaling 32 over the 2 years span.

Of the 32 entries 25 of them appear to be relating to Richard Inskip, his wife or family.

Studying them further the conclusion is that they relate to more than one Richard Inskip as one records paying Richard Inskip for his horse and cart taking Sherratt’s family back. Two entries mention that they paid 4 shillings and 3 shillings to the wife of Richard Inskip Stone Mason. Probably as a Stone Mason he had a horse and cart and Richard Inskip 1763 – 1840 Wheelwright in his Will left a Blacksmith’s shop, house and a piece of land.

This leaves other payments to Richard Inskip’s wife and family totalling £20 4s 0d.  This was a large amount of money https://www.measuringworth.com calculates it could be as high as £84,000 in 2018 value.

It was rather complicated trying to find out who Richard Inskip was as Richard was a popular name in the Inskip Family. In the end it required traveling back 5 generations to Richard Inskip a Blacksmith living in Blythe Bridge, parish of Dilhorne (which is next to Forsbrook) and his descendants.  Most of these were straight forward as they had a Blacksmith’s shop in Forsbrook, parish of Dilhorne and also a Wheelwright’s. These descendants account for the odd payments to Richard (stone mason) Thomas and Ralph.

The payment on 16 Oct 1813 for “expences at Lane End, Mr Smith, Mr Smalie and John Whalley with Mary Inskip” is more problematic as I could not find any Mary Inskip other than Mary Ridge who married Richard Inskip on 21 Sept 1802 in Dilhorne. The problem was that I had one too few Richards as the ones I had found were married to other wives who were still alive in 1813 and 1814.

Researching for a Richard Inskip born before 1785 (ie old enough to marry in 1802) brought up a man who was transported in 1833/34 and was worth considering.

Registers of convicts in the hulk ‘Cumberland’, moored at Chatham, with gaoler’s reports, 1830-1833

“Richard Inskip aged 56 for stealing a quantity of cord. Convicted 28 Feb 1833 at Stafford. Of Bad character disposition and ordours? An old offender (595, 597.)  Lifetime in Prison convicted of uttering base coins. V.D.L. [Van Dieman’s Land?] per Moffatt [A Ship] 26 Nov 1833. Born Lane End, Black Hair, Heavy Eyes, Black Lashes. Short oval visage. Can read and write. 5 foot 7½ inches tall. Married with children. Pitted with Small Pox, high cheek bones. Severely scarred on left side.  Wife lives by the side of Edward Onions & Wm Field? Under Mrs Batkins, Lane End, Staffordshire”

Registers of convicts in the hulk ‘Dolphin’, moored at Chatham, with gaoler’s reports, 1829-1835 Is similar to the above but adds that he is sentenced to 7 years and he has 7 children

New South Wales And Tasmania: Settlers And Convicts 1787-1859 Richard Inskip assd. To Dr. Desailly

https://www.digitalpanopticon says he was freed in 1840.

The Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen’s Land Gazette 24 Jan 1840 THE GAZETTE. FRIDAY MORNING JANUARY 24, 1840. GOVERNMENT NOTICE, No. 11, Colonial Secretary’s Office, January 21. The period for which the under-mentioned persons were transported, expiring at the date placed after their respective names, certificates of their freedom may be obtained then, or at any subsequent period, upon application at the Muster Master’s Office, Hobart Town, or at that of a Police Magistrate in the interior: The list includes – Richard Inskip 28 Feb. [1840]

In 1812 /1813 Richard Inskip was accused of Felony. Lane End 27 May 1813. Richard Inskip was accused of stealing a horse. Reading the depositions of witnesses in Stafford Record Office (ref. Q/SB 1813 T/204-206) we learn that on the night of 4-5 June 1812 Thomas More of Penkhull and Robert Jones of Rhuabon lost a 4 year old Dark brown horse 15 hands high with white hind legs a blaze on the forehead and a brown muzzle.  No more was heard of the horse until the following August when acting on information they found him “working another team in Cresser” [possibly Creswell]. 

The horse was stolen around the time of Rugeley Fair in June 1812. Several people saw Richard Inskip with the horse in his stable in Forsbrook.  Richard Inskip associated with Wm. Roberts who told George Hurst he was William Smith. They were seen together at the Golden Lion at Lane End.[Now Longton]

27 May 1813 Richard Inskip’s evidence was that he left Rugeley about 4.0pm on 6th June with 4 men. He says he bought the horse for £14? 15s. He had left her with Copestick at Stallington and then fetched her and put her in his stable at Stone house, Forsbrook.

Joseph Copestick of Stallington says on 8th Richard Inskip brought a horse to him asking that it be laid in his land. Richard Inskip fetched the horse on the 28th and paid 20s for the said lay.

Joseph Gosling says that Robert Jones and Thomas More came and claimed the horse on his father’s farm and he took them to Richard Inskip of Forsbrook who had visited the horse in his father’s stable. Richard Inskip said it was his horse that he had bought on the 7th June when returning from Rugeley Fair. It was a stranger who sold it to him. It was suggested that they all go to the Wheat Sheaf at Stoke and send for the Farmer who was said to be present at the time. Richard Inskip ran away towards the place they got the horse from. The examinant ran after but could not catch him.

Hugh Davies, collier, says he was told by  Ann Smith of Hanley that Richard Jones of Hanley collier, advanced William Roberts thirty shillings upon a watch which was left in pawn to him, to be redeemed when Inskip and Roberts sold a horse. The watch was not redeemed

Joseph Heath a Blacksmith in Forsbrook said that Richard Inskip bought the brown horse at Rugeley Fair last June 1812 and Richard Inskip asked him [Joseph Heath] to cut 2-3 inches off the tail. He had not been cut before.

Ruth Neath says she has known Richard Inskip for near 2 years and has seen him with William Roberts who has stayed in his house.

Thomas Smith of Forsbrook said he had expected to meet Richard Inskip at Rugeley Fair on 5th June but did not see him. He saw him the next day and asked why he had not come and Richard Inskip gave some excuse he could not remember.

Case sent to the Assizes.

Staffordshire Summer Assizes 1821 Richard, Inskip for Uttering counterfeit money, at Cheddleton—6 Months and sureties for 12. (John Mare admitted evidence.)

The Quarter sessions case of 1813 and its connection to Lane End or as it became Longton and Forsbrook suggested a connection to the payment on 16 Oct 1813.

There was no baptism for a Richard Inskip in Dilhorne or Longton / Lane End but there was one in St. Peter Ad Vincula, Stoke on Trent on 27 Aug 1767 and he was the son of Edward and Mary Inskip. There was at least one older sister for Richard baptised at St. Peter’s and this was Hannah baptised 12 July 1761 the daughter of Edward and Jane Inscip of Lane End.

Edward was not such a common name in the Inskip family and his baptism was found back in Dilhorne on 12 Feb 1727 and he was the son of Thomas and Sarah Inskip who may have married in 1723 at St Alkmund’s, Derby, Derbyshire.  Thomas died 1737.

There is a problem with the Dilhorne Parish Records. Thomas must have been born before 1705 to have married in 1723 and there is something of a gap in the Parish Records. Browsing the Parish Register there are retrospective entries by either the new Vicar or Parish Clerk of items found after the previous Vicar had died.  Unfortunately Thomas Inskip is not included but there only appears to be one couple baptising children at the time so Thomas was probably the son of Richard Inskip, Blacksmith 1662-1708.

This gives a connection between the Inskips of Longton / Lane End and Dilhorne.  If Richard and Mary married in All Saints Dilhorne and baptised children there it suggests that they may have been living there for some time.

They appear to have had the following children

  1. George Ridge Inskip baptised 1803 in Stone, Staffordshire died 1815
  2. Ralph Inskip baptised 1805 in Dilhorne
  3. John Inskip born about 1808 in Dilhorne [name supplied by Inskip one name study]
  4. ??????
  5. James Inskip baptised 1815 in Longton
  6. Mary Inskip baptised 1816 in Longton
  7. George Inskip baptised 1818 in Longton
  8. Eliza Inskip baptised 1821 in Longton
  9. Joseph Inskip baptised 1825 in Longton.

The youngest child, Joseph, was baptised at the New Connextion Chapel, Longton which records “Joseph Inskip born 3 Nov 1825 and baptised 4 Dec 1825 the 9th child of Richard Inskip, Labourer of Lane End by Mary daughter of William Ridge, Potter of Lane End.”

The Dilhorne Overseers may have been supporting Richard’s wife Mary and his children until they managed to get them back to Longton.

The 1841 Census HO107/991 folio 6 shows Mary Inskip aged 60 living in Willow Street, Longton with her son Joseph aged 15 a collier and her son George appears to be married and living a few doors away.

Staffordshirebmd.org.uk has a death entry for Mary Inskip aged 75 registered in Burslem. No death certificate has been bought but Mary’s son John is living in Haywood Pl, Burslem in 1851 working as a Potters Fireman.

No death has been found for Richard Inskip but he was still alive in 1845 when the Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen’s Land Gazette reported on Sat 1 Feb 1845 “Case against Richard Inskip was dismissed. Inskip had challenged Turner to fight, and got the worst of it”

 

Ann Barnard (1805-1882), Gnossall

By Malbedenk

The collection of Poor Law Vouchers for the Parish of Gnosall in Stafford Record Office contain several bills from Stafford Lunatic Asylum. Two have notes added to them concerning Ann Barnard.

(D951/5/81/56) Bill from Stafford Lunatic Asylum 26 Dec 1821

Gentm. It is very much the wish of the Physician to this Institution to give A Barnards a trial out & we recommend that she should in the first instance be taken care of in the Workhouse. She will be given up any time after next Saturday. J.G. [John Garrett]

The next has a more curt note. ( D951/5/81/57) Bill from Stafford Lunatic Asylum 26 March 1822

Gentm. I am directed to request that you will remove Ann Barnard for the sake of giving her trial at home as it appears to us she may now be removed on trial with safety and probable advantage – I am further directed to call your attention to the [heavy?] amount of the arrears & to require that you will order their payment. I am Gntm. Your Obed. ———  John Garratt

NB A quarter’s maintenance was £4 17s 6d. However this probably was not paid as a further Bill appears (D951/5/81/63) dated Nov 1822 from Stafford Lunatic Asylum for £81 13s 1d (16 Nov £71 13s 1d and 23 Nov £10.)

Not all records for Stafford Lunatic Asylum have survived but fortunately a book for 1821-22 has and it contains a page transcribed below but is difficult to read as it has poor writing and several abbreviations which are in red and any suggestions as to what the abbreviations are would be welcomed and an extract is shown below. Ann obviously has Post Natal Depression.

D4585/6 Stafford Lunatic Asylum 1821-22

Feb 12. Ann Barnard

This is a pauper from Gnosall, who became deranged about a fortnight since, having been delivered of an illegitimate child three weeks before. She seemed disposed at first to destroy the infant and on Tuesday attempted suicide by making a slight incision under the chin with a shoemakers wife knife (sic) Her mother was insane for 3 months after childbirth. Takes food irregularly, is thirsty and confined in her bowels. Is very violent and obliged to be put under restraint. H Cath all? Auror? 21 Has been freely [purged?] and is more calm, says her own [wickedness?] has [induced?] her present malady. Her disease now appears the Melancholic form Can—- an– Cith[????] 29 Is still obliged to be kept under restraint owing to a propensity to commit suicide. Cant? March 15th [– Digit gn x1d -ugend dos?] 12 Is generally improving [Cant Uain Cith?] 27 Cost.[Costive?]

1 May a little better. 22 June the disease has [now expanded?] the violent form. [Uanst Cilt al—-?]

30 Oct Continues in the subacute form of disease expresses extreme anxiety to return to her friends. 18 Nov Has employed herself more than usual lately but expresses the same anxiety to return home. Discharged on trial Dec 2 1820 re-admitted Dec 7th Continued quiet for about 2 days and then became violent, undressing herself. Said the room was in flames etc. 14 Ʀ [sign for prescription?] Digitales gn x1[orN?]d. The [S?]iving to be used. Discharged on Trial April 3rd 1822 Readmitted April 13th 1822. Has attempted suicide by throwing herself into a well.

July 9 Continues in much the same state, is constantly requesting to be allowed to return home. Oct 14 no alteration.

Jan 13 1823 Has become emaciated from her anxiety to go home a trial recommended. Feb 22 discharged on trial.

Bearing in mind that Ann Barnard was admitted on Feb 12 the Gnosall PR was searched and the Baptism found in St. Lawrence, Gnosall 10 Jan 1820 for Richard son of Ann Barnard single woman.

A further search for an unmarried Ann Barnard of child bearing age brings up a probable baptism on 29 Dec 1805 at Gnosall and she was the daughter of Susannah Barnard. (no Father.)

Ann Barnard does not appear on the 1841 Census, nor is there any record of a burial in either Stafford or Gnosall between 1823 and 1841 but there is a probable marriage for Ann Barnard (signed X) in St. Lawrence, Gnosall on 27 Dec 1827 to William Richards. Witnesses Charlotte Halls X and Joseph Badger. (Gnosall, St. Lawrence PR have the burial on 21 June 1839 of Joseph Badger age 42 which indicate that he was the Parish Clerk)

Ann & William Richards can be found in the 1841i and the 1851ii Census across the county border in Shropshire, but are back in Gnosall in 1861iii and1871. Having started as an Ag. Lab William then becomes a Blacksmith before acquiring a small farm of 19 acres by 1881.

William and Ann Richards have 7 children listed in the Census

Thomas born 1831 in Shropshire

John born 1834 in Shropshire

William born 1837 in Shropshire

Mary born 1839 in Shropshire

George born 1839 in Shropshire

John born 1842 in Shropshire

Mary Ann born 1844 in Shropshire

It was a pleasure to find that Ann survived to a ripe old age – hopefully without a re-occurance of Post Natal Depression. Her burial is seen in St. Mary’s Moreton. 6 July 1882 Ann Richards of Moreton. Age 77. Her husband lived a little longer and a burial is seen in St. Mary’s Moreton. 7 Jan 1887 William Richards of Moreton age 83.   Moreton is part of Gnosall Parish.

In none of the census records has Ann’s son Richard Barnard been found. He did not die before 1830 as Staffordshire Apprentice Records have a record dated 15 May 1830 iv in which Richard Barnard Age 10 years, son of Ann of the parish of Gnosall is apprenticed to Joseph Bekcher a Farmer otp. Until 21 yrs [Probably Joseph Belcher]

After this there is no trace of Richard. He is not found on the 1841 census but no burial has been found. He could possibly have gone to America as one Richard Barnard is found travelling to America from Ireland. Or he could have gone into the Army as another is found in the Military Records and Greenwich Pensioners on Find My Past

Notes

i  1841 Census HO107/904 folio 22. Uckington, Atcham, Shropshire

ii1851 Census HO107/1987/folio 356 Burlington, Shiffnal, Shifnal, Shropshire,

iii1861 Census RG9/1904 folio 37 Lower Road, Gnosall, Newport, Staffordshire

iv      D951/5/94

Sources

Staffordshire Record Office

D951/5/81/56, Gnossall Overseers Voucher, Stafford Lunatic Asylum, 26 Dec 1821

D951/5/81/57, Gnossall Overseers Voucher, Stafford Lunatic Asylum, 26 March 1822

D951/5/81/63, Gnossall Overseers Voucher, Stafford Lunatic Asylum, Nov 1822

D4585/6, Stafford Lunatic Asylum, 1821-22

Young Parton’s Thigh

By Peter Collinge
D10/A/PO/25, Colton Parish Overseers’ Voucher, 19 February 1756.

A brief and partially faded voucher has turned up amongst those for Colton. It reads ‘19 Febry 1756 To reducing Young Partons Thigh 11s 6. Jany 21 1757 Rd of Mr Clark the contents above in full Gilbt Hordeane’.

This produced much speculation amongst the volunteers. Had Clark given Hordeane the reduced bit of Parton’s thigh? What had caused Parton to require the reduction of his thigh? What exactly is thigh reduction?

Currently, thigh reduction treatment involves surgery. The  removal of fat and skin from the thigh area is designed to recapture a more youthful figure; but surely this was not practiced in the mid-eighteenth century? Of course it was not. As usual volunteers on the project were able to provide the answer: ‘Thigh reduction’ refers to setting a fracture. It may refer to a displaced fracture where the two ends of the bone are out of alignment. Reduction and manipulation involves the stretching of the bone to pull them back into alignment.

Richard Bills (1777-1849), Ironmaster, Darlaston, Part Three

By Peter Collinge

As noted in the Richard Bills blog part one, his main connection with the Darlaston overseers’ came through the provision of grocery goods. A number of the bills were sent to Charles Green (see entry Charles Green (1778 –1856), Overseer, Darlaston).

Bills, however, was a gunlock-maker and ironmaster iron master. He also served as churchwarden for St. Lawrence’s, Darlaston, in 1815. Samuel Mills served in the same capacity in 1858 and between 1862 and 1864.

According to Pigot’s 1828-29 directory there were a number of gunlock-makers in and around Darlaston, including Richard Bills and Samuel Bills, and one woman, Elizabeth Bayley.

Richard Ashmore

Elizabeth Bayley

William Baylis

Richard Bills

Samuel Bills (is this a misprint in the directory; should it read Samuel Mills?)

William Golcher

Joseph Harper

William Howell

Philip Martin

William Partridge

Thomas Rubery

Charles Spittal

Thomas Stone

Charles Thornhill

Bagley Turner

John Griffiths Whitehead

Job Wilkes

William Wilkes

Thomas Worley

Samuel Mills was the son of a butcher, Thomas Fellows Mills and his wife Elizabeth. Thomas’ early death, in 1806, aged 23, however, occurred when Samuel was not yet one. In 1813 Thomas’ widow, Elizabeth, married Richard Bills.

Richard’s business was located in Furnace Lane, Lower Green. When he attained the age of 21, Samuel Mills was made a partner in his step-father’s business.

Aris’s Birmingham Gazette (15 June 1829) contained an advert for Bills and Mills at Darlaston Green Iron Works for a ‘steady man to undertake the management of a Mill for polishing shoe heel tips’.

In February 1849 the London Gazette carried the following announcement:

Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore existing between the undersigned, Richard Bills and Samuel Mills, carrying on trade at Darlaston, in the county of Stafford, as Iron Masters, Steel Manufacturers and Coal Masters, under the firm or style of Bills and Mills, was this day dissolved by mutual consent. All debts owing to or by the said partnership will be received and paid by the said Samuel Mills, by whom the trades will in future be carried on. Dated the 7th day of February 1849.

Richd Bills

Saml Mills

Richard Bills died soon afterwards. The business, however, prospered to become one of the largest iron company’s in the region, with around 2000 employees on a site covering 55 acres.

Richard’s connections with the iron industry, however, stretched beyond the immediate area of Darlaston. In April 1810 he loaned £500 to Hannah Lees (née Buckley, 1764–1831), the owner of Park Bridge Ironworks, a large concern near Manchester. It is not clear, at present, how Bills and Lees came to know each other. Perhaps it was through their shared business interests, or through family connections. Nevell believes that in all likelihood the loan was used to finance the building of new weir on the river Medlock and a water-powered building (purpose unclear) referred to in a lease April 1810.

The Park Bridge Ironworks had been established by Hannah’s husband Samuel Lees (1754-1804) in 1786. His death in 1804 left Hannah with their six surviving children (three others had died in 1800) aged between fifteen and two. The management of Samuel’s estate was conducted by his widow Hannah. Although the business was left in trust to Edward, in 1806 Hannah took over the lease of the site. Under her the ironworks expanded significantly.

Sources

Frederick Hackwood, A History of Darlaston (Wednesbury: Horton Bros., 1887)

London Gazette, 9 February 1849

Pigot and Co., National Commercial Directory for 1828-29, Cheshire, Cumberland [&c.] (London and Manchester: J. Pigot and Co., 1828)

This blog has benefited enormously from the information available from the following websites:

Mike Nevell, Salford University: https://archaeologyuos.wordpress.com/2018/02/06/hannah-lees-of-the-park-bridge-ironworks/ accessed 09/07/2018

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Samuel_Mills accessed 09/07/2018

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Darlaston/NotablePeople.htm accessed 09/07/2018

This is a work in progress, subject to change as new research is conducted.

 

 

Thomas Earp the elder (1766–1831) and Thomas Earp the younger (c.1799–1864) Cheesefactors and Brewers, Uttoxeter

By Peter Collinge

Cheesefactor and brewer Thomas Earp the elder married Mary Cockayne. They had a number of children including: Thomas (born in Derby, c.1799), Sarah (bap. 9 November 1800), Mary (bap. 3 November 1802), John (bap. 24 August 1809), Maria (bap. 17 October 1813), and Jane.

Parson’s and Bradshaw’s 1818 directory lists Earp and Lassetter as cheese factors with a business in High Street, and Thomas Earp as an ale and porter brewer, cheese factor and spirit merchant, also in High Street.

Upon Thomas the elder’s death in 1831, his probated estate amounted to £200. As the sole beneficiary and executor of his late-father’s estate, he was tasked with making appropriate provision for his mother and his siblings. In 1833 Thomas the younger was involved with a property transaction involving the Croft of the White Hart, Uttoxeter, with Michael Clewley (see separate biography).

On 21 November 1825 at Uttoxeter, Wesleyan Methodist Thomas the younger married Sarah Jane Salt (1804–1856) who was born in Liverpool. They had a large family: Thomas (b.1828), Jane (b.1830), Ann (b.1832), Mary (b.1834), Sarah (b.1836), Edwin (b.1839), William (b.1841), Maria (b.1843), Henry (b.1847), Charles  (b.1848), and Eliza (b.1849). For much of their married life Thomas, Sarah Jane and their family lived in High Street.

At the time of the 1851 Census Thomas employed eight men. Thomas and Sarah Jane were living with children Jane, Ann (a teacher), Mary, Sarah, Maria and Henry (the last three described as scholars at home), Charles and Eliza.

By 1861 Thomas Earp, now a widower, and his family had moved to Burton-upon-Trent. He is listed simply as an ‘agent’ with an address in Horninglow Street in White’s 1857 directory. The family unit now comprised Thomas, and his children Jane, Mary, Maria, Sarah and Eliza, his niece Louisa Ann (aged 13) and his nephew John B. Earp (aged six). Mary, Maria, and Sarah were all governesses, and although his niece Louisa had been born in Uttoxeter, his nephew John had been born in America. Also in the household were Mary A. Eddes (17), a teacher born in St Pancras, London, and Ann Calvert (31), a servant born in Uttoxeter. Louisa’s and John’s parents John, a brewer and Emma Brindley had married on 28 July 1846 at St Peter’s, Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Both Thomas Earps supplied the overseers of Uttoxeter with cheese, but not on a regular basis. This was probably because the workhouse was also in receipt of substantial amounts of milk from the likes of George Hartshorn, suggesting that the workhouse was also engaged in producing cheese.

In the late-1820s Thomas [the younger?] and Edward Saunders established the Uttoxeter Brewery Company. Thomas’ business was sufficiently prosperous for him to be able to invest in railways and to be a member of the Provisional Committees for the Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield and South Staffordshire, or Leeds, Wolverhampton and Dudley Direct Railway and the Tean and Dove Valley and Eastern and Western Junction Railway.

In May 1854 Thomas’ and Sarah Jane’s daughter Ann married George Jones. At some point they emigrated to Mossel Bay, South Africa. They had three children: Charles Earp Jones, Sarah Jane Jones, and George Alliebrooke Jones. George Jones died 23 May 1890, and his widow Ann on 27 November 1896 aged 62.

Sources

Bradshaw’s Railway Gazette vol. 1, (London: William James Adams; Manchester: Bradshaw and Blacklock, 1845)

Census 1841 HO107/1007/14

Census 1851 HO107/2010

Census 1861 R.G.9/1965

England and Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index 1837–1915

Herapath’s Railway Journal, 28 June 1845

http://www.lan.-opc.org.uk/Fleetwood/stpeter/marriages_1842-1874.html

Lichfield Record Office, BC11 Will of Thomas Earp, 26 October 1831

Parson, W. and Bradshaw, T., Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory presenting an Alphabetical Arrangement of the Names and Residences of the Nobility, Gentry, Merchants and Inhabitants in General (Manchester: 1818)

Poll Books and Electoral Registers 1538–1893

Francis Redfern History and Antiquities of the town and neighbourhood of Uttoxeter

RG4/2701 England and Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567–1970

SRO, D3891/6/36/8/11a–d, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, George Hartshorn, 31 July 1830

SRO, D3891/6/37/2/7, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Earp, 26 Mar 1831

SRO, D3891/6/37/4/3, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Earp, 23 July 1831

SRO, D4452/1/15/2/14 abstract of title of Thomas Earp to the White Hart Croft Uttoxeter 1833

SRO, D4452/1/15/2/15 Lease and release of part of White Hart Croft Uttoxeter 1833

White, William, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Staffordshire and of the City of Lichfield (Sheffield: 1834)

White, Francis, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derbyshire with the Town of Burton-upon-Trent (Sheffield: 1857)

www.southafricansettlers.com/?cat=9&paged=479

N.B. This  is a work in progress, subject to change as new research is conducted.

Cheese-Making in Uttoxeter

By Peter Collinge

Uttoxeter has a long tradition of cheese-making. By the mid-seventeenth century it was already established as a major centre of the trade in the Midlands, and in the 1690s there were weekly cheese markets and extensive storage facilities. These were used by Uttoxeter’s cheese factors who were engaged as agents by London cheesemongers. By the mid-eighteenth century Uttoxeter’s importance as a centre for cheese meant that some agents retained by London merchants spent more than £500 in a single day on butter and cheese.

Pigot’s directory of 1828–9 notes that ‘the trade in cheese is also of some consequence’ and lists Thomas Earp, James Lassetter, and Orton and Arnold as cheese factors alongside  maw dealers Edward Gent, James Stringer, John Vernon and Co., and Henry Wigley. Before the commercial availability of rennet, curdling milk for cheese involved drying and salting a calf’s stomach or maw, and then soaking pieces of it in water. The resulting liquid was added to milk to create the curd.

Supplementing the  weekly cheese markets, White’s 1834 directory notes that Uttoxeter held three cheese fairs a year in March, September and November and was known for its ‘considerable trade’ in ‘preparing calves maws, to be used in curdling milk’ for cheese. Under the heading of ‘Cheese Factors & Hop & Seed merchants’ the directory lists Thomas Earp, James Lassetter, and Orton and Arnold. Ellen Gent, James Stringer, John Vernon and Co., Elizabeth Wigley, and Frederick Wigley were cheese skin makers. In 1834 William West noted that Uttoxeter was ‘remarkable for instances of longevity of its inhabitants’ and for its ‘abundant supply of cheese, butter, hogs, corn and all kinds of provisions’. Perhaps the latter was the cause of the former.

Workhouses served their inmates with food and drink according to what were known as dietaries, or daily allowances, which stipulated provision across a week. If these are taken at face value, cheese formed a considerable part of the diets of the poor. Tomkins notes, however, that dietaries should be regarded as statements of intent rather than actual evidence of practice and need to be corroborated by other sources. Until a shortage of bread and flour in the 1790s, at St Mary’s Workhouse, Lichfield, the 41 inmates (making it directly comparable in size to Uttoxeter workhouse) were served puddings, and bread and cheese dinners three times a week. With the shortages, milk pottage was served up for breakfast. Dinner on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays consisted of meat and vegetables; alternating with Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays offerings of broth and cold meat. On Saturdays inmates were given bread and cheese.

In the 1820s the overseers of Uttoxeter purchased large quantities of cheese for the workhouse from a wide range  of suppliers including James and John Bamford, Ralph Bagshaw (see separate entry), Thomas Cope, Thomas Earp (see separate entry), Porter and Keates, John Rushton, William Summerland (see separate entry), Edwin and Josh Wibberley, and Sir T. Sheppard, bart. Amounts varied from the 120lb supplied by Mr Bamford in May 1821, through the 90lbs supplied by William Summerland in May 1825, to the 13.5lbs supplied by Ralph Bagshaw in September 1827.

By the 1830s, just as in the 1820s, cheese came from no single supplier. In September 1830 William Bennett supplied over 2cwt of cheese costing £5 10s 4d. Thomas Earp’s bill for cheese in March 1831 amounted to £4 9s 1d. Fifty-five cheeses weighing 4cwt were supplied by Thomas Gell at a cost of £12 4s 3d in April 1832. The variation in the amounts and the regularity of cheese supplied are probably because the workhouse was producing its own cheese. Between 24 April and 30 June 1830, for example, Thomas Hartshorn supplied the workhouse with 947 quarts of milk. This was far more than the population of 40 or so inmates could readily consume suggesting that the milk was being used to make cheese. Hartshorn also supplied 33 quarts in June 1832, followed by 180 quarts in July. The workhouse also had its own milk cart, a wheel of which was repaired and painted by Thomas Mellor in April 1829.

Sources

Julie Bunting, ‘Bygone Industries of the Peak, Cheese-Making’, The Peak Advertiser, 29 January 1996

Catherine Donnelly, The Oxford Companion to Cheese (Oxford, OUP, 2016), 153–4

London Gazette, part 2 (1836), 1369

Sir Frederick Morton Eden, The State of the Poor, A History of the Labouring Classes in England 3 vols (London: 1797), edited and abridged A. G. L. Rogers London: George Routledge and Sons, 1928), 307.

John E. C. Peters, The Development of Farm Buildings in Western Lowland Staffordshire up to 1800 (Manchester: MUP, 1969), 130

Pigot and Co., National Commercial Directory [Part 2: Nottinghamshire–Yorkshire and North Wales] for 1828–29 (London and Manchester: J. Pigot and Co., 1828), 741–2

SRO, D3891/6/8, Uttoxeter volume of parish bills, 1821–4

SRO, D3891/6/9, volume of parish bills, 1825–29

SRO, D3891/6/34/1/14, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Mellor, 3 April 1829

SRO, D3981/6/36/3/4, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, William Bennet, 11 September 1830

SRO, D3891/6/36/8/11a–d, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Hartshorn, 31 July 1830

SRO, D3891/6/37/2/7, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Earp, 26 Mar 1831

SRO, D3891/6/36/6/66, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Edwin Webberley, 23 December 1831

SRO, D3891/6/37/11/5, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, John Foster, 21 February 1832

SRO, D3891/6/39/2/26, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Gell, 20 March 1832

SRO, D3891/6/39/5/5, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Thomas Hartshorn, 10 June–15 July 1832

SRO, D3891/6/39/6/3, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, Joseph Durose, 8 November 1832

SRO, D3891/6/40/1/10, Uttoxeter Poor Law Vouchers, R. Keates, [1833?]

Joan Thirsk, Agrarian History of England and Wales, 1640–1750, part 1 (Cambridge: CUP, 1985), 133

H. D. Symonds, The Universal Magazine, vol. 23 (November 1758), 219

William West, Picturesque Views and a Description of Cities, Towns, Castles and Mansions and other Objects of Interesting Feature in Staffordshire from original designs, taken expressly for this work by Frederick Calvert engraved on steel by Mr T. Radclyffe (Birmingham: William Emans, 1834), 96

William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Staffordshire and of the City of Lichfield (Sheffield: 1834), 762

Uttoxeter Businesses and the Derby Mercury

By Peter Collinge

The details of details of goods, services, and prices contained in vouchers submitted to Uttoxeter’s overseers of the poor are shedding light on the daily workings of the Old Poor Law, but to what extent did these suppliers advertise in local or regional newspapers?

Between January 1831 and July 1832 a survey of the Derby Mercury reveals relatively few Uttoxeter business owners placing notices or adverts specifically to promote their enterprises. Even fewer of them can be linked directly to the poor law vouchers. Initially, this may seem surprising, but is readily explainable. The Derby Mercury was just one of a number of regional papers and perhaps it would be more likely that Uttoxeter’s traders would place notices in the Staffordshire Advertiser. A survey of the Advertiser, however, is revealing a similarly limited pattern of engagement. How can this be explained? In part it was due to the high cost of adverts charged by newspaper proprietors. In 1800 the Derby Mercury charged 3s 6d per advert on top of which duty of 1s 6d was also chargeable. It may also have been the result of local traders supplying very local markets, where the need to advertise beyond the immediate vicinity was considered unnecessary. This was particularly so if the goods were perishable such as meat, fruit and vegetables. There are other things to consider, however. Where the variety (as opposed to the quantity or quality) of stock changed little business owners may have seen little point in advertising the same things week in week out. Instead, they may have preferred to save their adverts for more important events such as changes in personnel, especially the appointment of new staff or business partners, or changes in business ownership or location. The only real exceptions to these were announcements of the arrival of new or fashionable stock, especially if they came from London.

Which of Uttoxeter’s business owners did place notices in the Derby Mercury, and what were they announcing?

Grocer William Lovatt’s marriage to Miss Elizabeth Bakewell of Marston Montgomery was announced in October 1831. On 6 April 1831 tobacconist Jane Smith, with shops in both Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, declared that she was continuing the business of her late husband James for the benefit of herself and her large family. When in February the White Lion, Bradley Street, with stabling for 20 horses, and ‘calculated for a common brewery’, was offered to let particulars could be had from Abel Ault, or John Ault, timber merchant, Derby.

Some Uttoxeter businesses, including those of Samuel Garle (see separate entry), Thomas Woolrich (see separate entry), and Tompkinson and Co., were acting as agents for patent products including Heeley’s rhadiographic pens, Perryian pens, John Leeming’s genuine horse medicines, Barclay’s asthmatic candy, and Dr Sibly’s Reanimating Solar Tincture for debility, consumption, nervous complaints, rheumatism, spasms, indigestion, and lowness of spirits. Chemist Thomas Woolrich (who so far has not turned up in the overseers’ vouchers) had a national business network. His claim to fame was ‘Woolrich’s improved diuretic horse balls’ available from ‘all respectable medicine vendors in most market towns in the kingdom’. In addition to Uttoxeter, they were also sold wholesale by London agents such as Messrs Barclay & Sons, 95 Fleet Market; Mr Edwards, 66 St Paul’s Church Yard; Sutton & Co., Bow Church Yard; and Butlers’, Cheapside. They could be bought at 73 Princess Street, Edinburgh, and at 54 Sackville Street, Dublin. Closer to home they were sold retail by Drewry & Son, Derby; Whitham,  Ashbourne; and Claughton, Chesterfield.

Some people probably wished that notices regarding their businesses had not appeared. The bankruptcy of surgeon George Alsop (see separate entry) was announced in November 1831, but at least it provided work for Uttoxeter solicitors Bedson and Rushton who notified debtors and creditors of meetings about Alsop’s plight at the Red Lion on 24 and 25 November, and on 23 December. Debts owing to Alsop were to be paid to his business partner Mr Chapman or to Bedson and Rushton. Similarly, in March 1831 Bell’s bank suspended payments owing to heavy debts. A meeting of creditors, however, concluded that James Bell’s assets and credits were sufficient to meet liabilities and leave a considerable surplus. The creditors were lucky. Dividends of 10s in the pound declared within 4 months. Bell avoided bankruptcy, but it did him little good. His death was reported at the end of November.

Sources

Derby Mercury

Uttoxeter Businesses and the Staffordshire Advertiser 1831

By Peter Collinge

Advertisements and notices in newspapers can help to put flesh on the bones of vouchers submitted to Uttoxeter’s overseers by providing additional information on people, their businesses, their networks, and their wider interests and concerns. Some names are already familiar; others have not yet appeared in the vouchers (and may never do).

In June 1831 Dr Herbert Taylor, glazier John Dumolo, William Lowndes, John Minors, H. Smith and Francis Cox all declared themselves supporters of the parliamentary reform bill. Alongside others, in July Clement Broughton, vicar of Uttoxeter, was calling for meeting of clergy to petition against the Beer Act.

In a highly unusual move, in January 1831 churchwardens Michael Clewley (see separate entry) and Mr Bladon wanted to borrow money in any amounts but not exceeding £1,000 for which annuities of any age would be granted and secured upon Uttoxeter’s church rates. Clewley cropped up again later in the year. In August he was offering houses to let in the Market Place, late in the occupation of Mrs E. Clewley deceased. With ‘sufficient buildings behind’, these were well adapted for a retailer, a leather cutter, or currier. An adjoining shop in the occupation of George Burton, clock and watchmaker was also being offered to let.

Land and property lettings and sales featured prominently in the paper. John French (son-in-law of William Summerland, see separate entry) was offering for sale the 14-acre Town Meadow, property of late Mr Botham, but now in the possession of French, the tenant. Further particulars could be had from solicitor Francis Blagg. In May 1831 enquiries regarding a shop measuring 20 x 15 feet in the Market Place with a cellar adapted for a ‘show shop in the upholstery line or as a market shop for any respectable trade’, for a rent moderate, could be made to ironmongers and grocers Porter and Keates. It is likely that these premises were those of the late John Jessop, cabinet maker and upholsterer of the Market Place. An auction of his modern household furniture, china, glass, and a well-built covered gig was conducted upon the premises by a Mr Brown in April. Perhaps of significant interest to the workhouse (which manufactured bricks) was that in March 1831 just over five acres of grassland ‘under great part whereof is brick clay, near the Heath, in occupation of James Walker, was being offered for sale; particulars from Mr Higgott, solicitor.

As was common for the time, a number of enterprising individuals had multiple income streams, often acting as agents for other businesses or suppliers. Chemist Thomas Woolrich was the agent for Heeley and Sons pens and for Sun Life insurance; William Smith for Phoenix insurance; Thomas Cross for Guardian Fire and Life Assurance; linen and woollen draper Joseph Norris for the Protector Fire Insurance Company; and Mr E. Hand for Atlas Insurance. Thomas Woolrich, draper; Samuel Garle (see separate entries); and bookseller, stationer, and printer Mr R. C. Tomkinson, were all stockists of Hayman’s original Maredant’s antiscorbutic drops and Blaine’s celebrated powder for distemper in dogs. Tomkinson also stocked Dr Wright’s Pearl Ointment, and Dr Boerhaave’s red pill no. 2 ‘famous for the cure of every stage and symptom of a certain complaint’, the cause of foul ulcerations and blotches which if led untreated would lead to a melancholy death. Aside from being a chemist Tomkinson appears to have operated an informal servants’ registry. On three occasions, in April, June and September 1831, adverts for servants wanted informed prospective employees to refer to Mr Tomkinson. In the first advertisement a good plain cook was required. In the second two cooks and other domestic servants were wanted in a respectable household near Uttoxeter; a good plain cook of middle aged was preferred. Housemaids and nursery maids seeking positions should enquire of Mr Woolrich, Uttoxeter or Mrs Horn and son, Cheadle. In the third notice a clergyman’s family in a country village wanted a plain cook with a good character reference from her last place. Further particulars could be had from Messrs Mort at the Advertiser Office, Stafford, or from Mr Woolrich.

Milliner and dressmaker Mrs Whittaker was the only trader in this survey of the Staffordshire Advertiser who specifically promoted the metropolitan nature of her goods. In May she announced her return from London with her selections including a fashionable assortment of stays (corsets). She also required two live-in apprentices.

A group of people whose names have not appeared in the poor law vouchers (and unless circumstances changed radically for them are unlikely to do so) were the proprietors of schools and academies. Popular times for these owners to advertise were just prior to the start of new terms. From their adverts it is clear that they were aiming at a middle-class market. Mr Doyle’s classical and commercial academy for gentlemen, for example, cost £25 per year for board, education and washing for those under 12, and £28 per year for those above. Doyle offered reading, elocution, arithmetic, bookkeeping, English grammar, geography, Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish. Day pupils were charged 2 guineas per quarter for the languages, and one guinea for the ‘minor branches of education’. Each gentleman boarder was to bring two pairs of sheets, six towels, a knife, fork and silver spoon. Girls had a range of educational establishments from which they could choose: the Misses Howes at Bank House; the Misses Sutton in Carter Street; and the Misses Godwin.

Some events were destined to bring trade to a halt. On 8 September 1831 Uttoxeter’s shops and businesses were closed for the coronation of William IV and queen Adelaide (see entry ‘Coronation Celebrations 1831). After William’s death Adelaide leased Sudbury Hall for three years between 1840 and 1843.

Source

Staffordshire Advertiser, 1831

Mr Blurton’s Swing Frame for Cheese: Winner of the Society of Arts Silver Medal for Invention

By Peter Collinge

Uttoxeter was well-know for the production of cheese. The following extract from The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum Register, Journal and Gazette, describes Mr Blurton’s new invention for producing cheese.

New cheese requires to be hardened considerably by gradually drying before it become fit for market. For this purpose the cheeses are spread in a single layer on the floor of the cheese room, and are turned by hand every day, in order to expose each surface alternately to the air. This, on a large dairy farm, is a slow and laborious operation, which, as it devolves on the female servants, sometimes prevents them, in the hurry of business, from paying proper attention to keeping every implement used in the dairy in that degree of order and absolute cleanliness so essential to the good quality of the produce. Another objection to the common method is, that the floor on which the new cheeses are laid soon becomes penetrated with moisture, so that the benefit that each surface of a cheese in succession gains by exposure to air, is in part lost by being placed the next day in contact with the damp floor.

A machine, of very simple construction, has been recently contrived by Mr Blurton, of Field Hall, near Uttoxeter, by which these objections are not only completely removed, but the process of drying amazingly accelerated. We extract our present account of it from the last part of the Transactions of the Society of Arts, who have conferred their large silver medal on Mr Blurton for the invention.

The machine consists of a dozen strong shelves framed together, and having bars nailed from top to bottom of one side, in order to prevent the cheeses from falling out while in the act of turning. The frame is suspended on two strong pivots, one of which is let into the wall of the room, and the other is supported by a strong post …By first filling the shelf immediately below the axis of the frame, and then placing the cheeses alternately on the two shelves above and below that which has already been filled, the preponderance of one side over the other can never be more than the weight of one cheese … The cheeses, in the act of turning, drop onto those shelves which, in the former position of the frame, were above them, and, having been exposed to a current of air for twenty-four hours previous have become perfectly dry.

Mr Blurton has had the machine in use for five or six years, and finds by the means of it, fifty-five cheeses are turned in the same time which is required for turning two  by hand.

Source

The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum Register, Journal and Gazette, vol. 18, 6 October 1832–31 March 1833 (London: M. Salmon, 1833), pp. 370, 372.

Thomas Parker of Uttoxeter: Notes on a Possible Scandal?

By Peter Collinge

From 1815 the law forbade officers of the Poor Law from profiting from their civic positions by awarding contracts to themselves for the supply of goods and services. Thomas Parker was master of Uttoxeter workhouse in the early 1830s, but the poor law vouchers show that he was also charging the parish for goods supplied to the workhouse from his grocery business. In themselves the majority of goods are typical of those supplied by other grocers, but one item caught our attention: copperas (ferrous sulphate). This was a favourite ingredient used to ‘revive’ used tea leaves by boiling the leaves with the copperas. This set me thinking about other ingredients that were used to adulterate food and drink. Many such as cocculus indicus (an extract of the South East Asian fish berry containing a poisonous picro-toxin related to curare), opium, and oil of vitriol (dilute sulphuric acid) were illegal and harmful. Others including liquorice, treacle, pepper and ginger were often used to add flavour to beer. Although not harmful, they were cheaper substitutes for ingredients such as malt and hops. Uttoxeter workhouse produced beer, bought malt, hops, and barm to brew (fermented froth produced during the malting process); there are frequent purchases of liquorice, treacle, pepper and ginger. Were the workhouse masters using such ingredients in a fraudulent capacity?

Sources

SRO, D3891/6/34/9/10a, settled bill to Thomas Parker, 4–29 October 1829

SRO, D3891/6/37/2/8, handwritten invoice, Michael Clewley, 31 May 1831

SRO D3891/6/37/3/10, handwritten invoice Bagshaw and Son, 9 April–28 May 1831

Nancy Cox, Retailing and the Language of Goods 1550–1820 (London: Routledge, 2016)

Peter Shears, ‘Food Fraud – A Current Issue but an Old Problem’, Plymouth Law Review (2008)

N.B. This is a work in progress, subject to change as new research is conducted.