SRO, LD20/6/6/400, Overseers’ Vouchers, Lichfield St Mary, William Gillard, 31 March 1832
William Gillard’s bill for ‘sundries as particularized in book’, is not very revealing about the goods he supplied to St Mary’s Lichfield. From the printed billhead, however, we learn that he was a grocer, tea dealer, fruiterer and poulterer who also sold pickles, vinegars, sauces and Stilton cheese. The illustration of a shop interior shows the products he sold, how they were stored and displayed on shelves, in nests of drawers, in bottles, canisters, jars, boxes and chests. The use of a printed billhead also reveals that Gillard aimed to supply not just the poor but also those further up the social scale and indicated the sort of service they could expect.
William Gillard, baptised on 14 August 1785, was the son of Thomas Gillard of Lichfield.[1]
At the time of the Census in 1851, Gillard was living in St John Street with his wife Mary.[2] He was described as Crier of the Court of the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace. Pigot’s directory of 1828–9, listed him as grocer, tea dealer and keeper of a register office for masters and servants with premises in Boar Street.[3] Mary was born in Morpeth, Northumberland.
William Gillard’s will (giving his address as St John’s Cottage), made ample provision for his wife, provided that she did not remarry after her husband’s death.[4] Part of his personal estate was to be sold and the money invested in stocks and securities to provide her with an annual income. The trustees of William’s estate, his son Charles and Richard Walthow were to permitted to sell part of his estate only with the written consent of his widow. Mary was given a lifetime interest in William’s household goods, plate, china, linen, pictures, books, and chattels.
William and Mary’s children received the following:
Mary Ann, the wife of William Mander, £250.
William Taylor Gillard, £60.
Elizabeth, the wife of Alfred Eggington, £250.
Charles Gillard, £60.
Maria, the wife of Thomas Pear, £250.
Jane, the wife of John William Proffit, £250.
Henry, £80.
The bequests to William’s daughters were independent of their husbands.
Following the death of their mother, any moneys, stocks and securities were to be divided equally among the children.
Gillard died aged sixty-eight and was buried in St Michael’s on 17 January 1854.[5]
[1] SRO, D20/1/3, Lichfield St Mary baptisms and burials.
Poorhouses were not only in need of supplies but also maintenance. William Coulston was one of the traders helping to keep Kirkby Lonsdale poorhouse running.
Coulston’s business was situated in the old Market Square of Kirkby Lonsdale, well-positioned to take advantage of trading opportunities. He supplied the poorhouse with various cutlery items, milk cans ‘chocolate’ paint and a brush. His receipted bills totalled 14s in August 1811 and £1 17s 9d in April 1814. [1]
Presumably this paint was destined for use outside owing to its durable properties. The British manufactory Company of London supplied different colours of paint, expounding their cheapness, durability and readiness to be thinned with prepared oils. [2]
Around this time other bills were sent to Thomas Parkinson who was the governor of the poorhouse, which was built in 1811 for the use of the townships of Kirkby Lonsdale.[3]
William Coulston was baptised 16 July 1766 in Kirkby Londsdale, as were his siblings . His older brother Thomas (baptised 29 October 1758) was also a glazier while his sister Margaret (baptised 14 June 1761) married a soldier, John Dunn in 1782. [4] Coulston married Sarah Baines on 1 December 1798 in Kirkby Lonsdale where all their children were born. William, born in 1798, didn’t survive long. Another son also named William and daughter Margaret followed in 1801 and 1802. In 1804 when Elizabeth was born Christopher Ellershaw began his apprenticehip as a tinplate worker with Coulston.[5] The Coulstons had another two daughters Sarah (b.1805) and Jane (b.1807). Tragedy struck the family in 1817 when only son William, aged sixteen, drowned while swimming in the River Lune. [6]
Coulston appears to have continued in business for a number of years appearing in the 1829 trade directory. [7] He died 10 May 1835 around the time the poorhouse was closed. [8]
Thomas Parkinson had been the Governor of the poorhouse until its closure. Parkinson and his wife Mary Gill were then employed as master and mistress of the workhouse East Ward, Kirkby Stephen, in 1836 remaining there for the next nine years. [9]
By 1841 William’s widow and her unmarried daughter Margaret were living with daughter Sarah and her husband at Horse Market in the town. Both were of ‘independent means’.[10]. Sarah had married Isaac Dalkin, a currier, on 14 February 1831 in Kirkby Lonsdale. The Coulstons’ youngest daughter, Jane, married John Carter, a tinman, in Liverpool. [11]. When Sarah Coulston the elder died on 21 January 1843 the local newspaper referred to her having been ill for some time. She was buried at Kirkby Lonsdale alongside her husband and son William. [12]
Margaret Coulston perhaps finding herself in reduced circumstances set up in business in the busy area of Mill Brow in the town and can be fond in the trade directories in subsequent years. An Elizabeth Coulston is listed as a tea dealer in the same directory and location as Margaret in 1851 but their relationship is unknown. [13] As Margaret’s sister Elizabeth had married James Atkinson, a saddler, on 20 September 1823 it assumed it is not her. [14]. Margaret continued in business for at least the next 10 years. She died on 9 April 1868.[15]
sources
[1] Cumbria Archives, Kirkby Lonsdale Overseers’ vouchers, WPR19/7/1/5/3/13, 31 August 1811, WPR19/7/1/5/5/4, 4 March 1814
[2] Cumberland Pacquet and Whitehaven Ware’s Advertiser, 7 March 1815
[3] Cumbria Archives, Kirkby Lonsdale Overseers’ voucher, WPR19/7/1/5/3/61/6, 4 November 1811. .www.thepoorlaw.org, Peter Collinge, The Kirkby Lonsdale Digester, 1 June 2020
[4] Lancashire Archives, Marriage Bonds, APR 11, Thomas Coulston, glazier and Sarah Hudson, 18 November 1780, John Dunn, soldier, and Margaret Coulston, 15 April 1782
[5] The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Collection: Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books: Series IR 1; Class: IR 1; Piece: 71, UK Register of Duties Paid for Apprenticeship Indentures,1710-1811 [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk]
[6] Lancaster Gazette, 28 June 1817, p. 3, col. d.
[7 ] Principal Inhabitants of Cumberland and Westmorland 1829, Parson and White’s Directory compiled by R Gregg
[8] Kendal Mercury, 16 May 1835, p. 3, col. e
[9] Kendal Mercury 21 December 1850, p. 3, col. g
[10] TNA, 1841 Census HO107; Piece: 1161; Book: 9; Civil Parish: Kirkby Lonsdale; County: Westmorland; Enumeration District: 15; Folio: 39; Page: 15; Line: 18; GSU roll: 464191
[11] Lancaster Gazette 13 April 1833 p2 col e
[12] Kendal Mercury, 28 January 1843 p3 col f www.findagrave.org
[13] Mannex and Co., History & Directory and Topography of Westmorland (1851) [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk]
[14] Lancashire Archives, Marriage Bonds, APR 11, Elizabeth Coulston, James Atkinson, saddler, 19 September 1823
[15] Kendal Mercury, 25 April 1868, p. 3, col. g
William Coulston’s will, plumber and glazier, is held at Lancashire Archives, WRW/L/R640, 29 August 1835
Currier Joseph Collins was born in Claydon, Oxfordshire, in 1795.[1] He was the son of Quakers William and Elizabeth Collins. His father was a farmer.
He married twice. First in 1817 to Elizabeth Vaughton, at St Michael’s, Lichfield; and second, to Elizabeth Langley of Rugeley in 1823.[2] The second marriage took place at St Martin’s, Birmingham, on 22 September 1823.[3]
In 1851 Joseph and Elizabeth Collins, were living in Tamworth Street, with their children, Charles, 23, also a currier; and Emma, 19, an organist; and servant, Mary Beech, 20.[4]
Joseph was not listed in the 1818 trade directory, although gardener and seedsman John Collins was listed with an address in St John Street, and an Edward Collins, of the Fountain Inn, Beacon Street.[5] Two curriers and leather dealers were listed: John Langley in Tamworth Street, and Thomas Langley in Bore Street.[6]
By 1828 Joseph Collins of Tamworth Street had replaced John Langley. Thomas Langley continued to operate from Sandford Street.[7] By 1834 Collins was still in business in Tamworth Street, Thomas Langley had disappeared, and the only other currier listed was William Hughes of Dam Street.[8]
A currier’s job was to process tanned hides which involved a number of processes: cleaning, scraping, stretching and finishing with oils, wax or polish.[9] Collins was also a tea dealer and wine merchant.
SRO, LD20/6/6, Lichfield, St Mary’s Overseers’ Voucher, Joseph Collins, 22 July 1829
Joseph Collins supplied the overseers of St Mary’s with leather. His bills are elaborately headed with three distinct images.[10] The first shows the armorial bearings of the Worshipful Company of Curriers with its motto ‘Spes Nostra Deus’ (God is our hope). At the top, arms hold up a currier’s shave, and on the shield are four more pairs of shaves.[11]
In the middle is a classic representation of the tea trade: ‘Chinamen’, tea chests, water and a distant ship.[12] Above this are the printed words ‘Agent to the London Genuine Tea Company, 23 Ludgate Hill’. In 1843, the London Genuine Tea Company placed a notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser.[13] Two circumstances had prompted the announcement: growing concern over the adulteration of tea, which they described as ‘disgraceful transactions’; and the ‘peace recently concluded with the Chinese’. The latter had enabled the Company to increase its stock of the finest teas. Eager to promote its ‘pure and unadulterated teas’, it listed its provincial agents, including Joseph Collins of Lichfield.
The third image shows a woman in a classically-inspired dress standing next to a barrel adorned with vines, and grapes. In her hand and she holds up a wine glass. On top of the barrel is a wine bottle and surrounding the barrel are casks, bottles and a bottle carrier. In the background is a three-masted ship. This image reflects the third strand of Collins’ business, that of ‘Agent to the Wine and Spirit Compy, 141 Fleet Street, London’.
In 1835 elections were held in Lichfield. The results created ‘dissatisfaction’ and the episode was reported widely in the press.[14]
The Staffordshire Advertiser reported that the ‘natural quietude’ of Lichfield ‘has not been proof against the excitement of electioneering ardour … Scarcely has the exercise of the parliamentary franchise ever produced so strong a sensation … Squibs, manifestoes, exhortations, and denunciations have succeeded each other with a rapidity unexampled in the annals of the borough-city’. It continued: ‘Two chief parties divided the town. The Elective Franchise Society … held their meetings at the George Inn. A second and mixed party then met at the Old Crown Inn … [who on polling day] made no public display, and indeed many of them declined voting altogether’.[15]
The Sun commented that the Elective Franchise Society, established soon after the last election, ‘has worked wonders … considering how the city had been confined by the Tories previously thereto. The Tories ‘using all the influence that they were possessed of, as well as using their threats of turning several people out of the official situations which they held, if they did not vote according as they were wished’, failed to get the result they hoped for. The Elective Franchise Society proposed 18 reformers; 17 were elected. One of those newly-elected was currier, Joseph Collins. Other suppliers to the overseers of St Mary’s were also elected: Stephen Brassington, John Meacham, and Nicholas Willday. The one remaining place went to a Tory ‘who had ‘the least number of votes’.
The Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser noted that ‘The result of the election has created dissatisfaction and the opponents of the liberals now blame themselves for not having made vigorous opposition’.[16]
[1] TNA, RG 6/34, England and Wales, Society of Friends, Birth 1578-1841, Berkshire and Oxfordshire: Monthly Meeting of Banbury.
[2] SRO, D27/1/18, Lichfield, St Michael, Marriages, 13 April 1817.
[3]Staffordshire Advertiser, 13 December 1823, p.4/3.
[12] Peter Collinge, ‘Chinese Tea, Turkish Coffee and Scottish Tobacco: Image and Meaning in Uttoxeter’s Poor Law Vouchers’, Transactions of the Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, XLIX (June 2017), pp. 80–9.
[13]Staffordshire Advertiser, 25 March 1843, p. 1/3.
[14]Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 December 1835, p.2/6.
[15]Staffordshire Advertiser, 2 January 1836, p.3/4.
[16]Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 December 1835, p.2/6.
