A throw in the dark

[Cap'n Jack]

I'm interested in this chap:

'Insured: Thomas Wedgwood 40 Dorset Street Spital Fields dealer in china glass and earthenware. [no title] MS 11936/523/1109203 10 June 1830.'

Is he related to the Wedgwoods?

[John Bennett]

I'm interested in this chap:

'Insured: Thomas Wedgwood 40 Dorset Street Spital Fields dealer in china glass and earthenware. [no title] MS 11936/523/1109203 10 June 1830.'

Is he related to the Wedgwoods?

Yep, he certainly was. He left the area.in the mid 1840s.

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks John
I was interested because of the Wedgwood's family expertise in early photography, assisted by their loyal adopted family in the early art, the Chisholms.

[Graham]

Wedgwood's of Etruria, near Stoke-on-Trent, was always an up-market firm, and it's surprising that they had an outlet in Spitalfields. I'd have thought somewhere further west would've been more appropriate to the market they were aiming at.

Graham

[Sam Flynn]

Wedgwood's of Etruria, near Stoke-on-Trent, was always an up-market firm, and it's surprising that they had an outlet in Spitalfields.

...indeed, it wasn't a particularly salubrious neighbourhood, even in 1830 when the insurance registration found by AP was made. Certainly, the 1841 census paints the same crowded picture of Dorset Street, replete with largely working-class tenants with distinctly unglamorous occupations, as it would later in the century. Perhaps the insurance was for a store-room or warehouse, rather than a "boutique".

Interestingly, if the layout of the street hadn't radically changed in the intervening 58 years, then Wedgwood's premises (40, Dorset Street) would seem to have later become the "Horn of Plenty" public-house. There was no #40 in 1888, as far as I can tell, but the "H of P" was next door to #39, at the corner of Dorset Street itself - so perhaps this same building was designated 40, Dorset Street in the 1830s.

[The Grave Maurice]

Fiona Rule touches on this in her recent book, The Worst Street in London. At pp. 44-45 she says: "In the early 1820s, Thomas Wedgwood opened a showroom for his family's world famous china at number 40 Dorset Street...[he] left the Dorset Street property in the mid-1840s, no doubt realising the area was in slow but unstoppable decline."

[Sam Flynn]

Fiona Rule touches on this in her recent book, The Worst Street in London. At pp. 44-45 she says: "In the early 1820s, Thomas Wedgwood opened a showroom for his family's world famous china at number 40 Dorset Street...[he] left the Dorset Street property in the mid-1840s, no doubt realising the area was in slow but unstoppable decline."

Interestingly, on examining the 1841 census for the whole of Dorset Street, I found no indication of Wedgwood's showroom being there at all - although a publican and his wife were registered towards one end of the street, perhaps close to wherever #40 might have been at that time. Perhaps commercial premises weren't recorded in that particular census; certainly, no premise numbers were listed.

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks folks
it appears that Wedgwood had moved to Crispin street, Spitalfields, by 1846, but it does also seem that he actually manufactured earthenware in Dorset street... it also appears that Wedgwood was quite happy to indulge in skullduggery himself, as this handbill from 1846 demonstrates:

The libel was here read as follows.—"Diabolical outrage! Cowardly attempt at murder! Handsome reward! Whereas, on the evening of Monday last, between nine and ten o'clock, Jesse Phillips, manager to Edward Wedgwood Phillips, Esq., earthenware manufacturer, from Longport in Staffordshire potteries, No. 75, Bishopsgate-street without, was grossly and cowardly attempted to be murdered, on the premises of Thomas Wedgwoouj Crispin-street, Spitalfields, by James Richardson, Thomas Wedgwood, and others; this is to give notice, that a handsome reward will be give to all and

See original
every person who witnessed the same, coming forward to give their evidence before the Grand Jury. Apply to M. Jacobs, Esq., solicitor, Berwick-street, Soho. May 21st, 1846."

The defendant Phillips, in along and unconnected defence, stated, that from the time Edward Wedgwood Phillips opened his shop, there had been a constant endeavour to injure them in their business, and that his life was in continual danger: he had indicted some of the parties, and had merely printed the placards in question to obtain witnesses to support his charge, there having been a large number of persons opposite Mr. Wedgwood's shop, crying, "Murder and shame!"at the time when he was kicked and knocked about io A most cruel manner.

[DarkPassenger]

In a mere 8 posts we've gone from a name to a family history.

How come you guys haven't found the Ripper yet?

[Sam Flynn]

In a mere 8 posts we've gone from a name to a family history. How come you guys haven't found the Ripper yet?

There's much more to enjoy in "ripperology" than just "Hunt-the-Ripper". As time goes by, many people find more interest in historical London than in hysterical Londoners

[Robert]

The PO directory for 1841 lists him at Crispin St - no sign of him in Dorset St.

[Sam Flynn]

Hello Rob,

The Horn of Plenty was later designated as being in Crispin Street, I believe, even though it formed the northwestern corner of Dorset Street and adjoined #39. Perhaps in 1830 the future Horn of Plenty was indeed Wedgwood's showroom, then being counted as 40 Dorset Street, but gerrymandered into Crispin Street and re-numbered by 1841.

[Cap'n Jack]

Well, Robert, he was certainly there in 1834, so the move to Crispin must 'ave been prior to 1841?

'THOMAS WEDGWOOD . I live in Dorset-street, Spitalfields, and sell earthenware. On the 29th of March, Charles Taylor, the witness, called on me - I received from him, on the 31st of March, 90l. in gold - he drew 20l. the week following, and 10l. a fortnight after that - the remaining 60l. is in my hands.'

[Cap'n Jack]

Yes, Sam, the 'Horn of Plenty'.
Funny name for a pub in an area where most had nothing.
From the OB it appears that the pub only came into being in 1847, and is most often described as on Crispin street, but sometimes as on Dorset.
Once established it was a very violent place indeed, as this one encounter shows... it seems to have started over a dispute between two unfortunates, which probably indicates that they were pimps.
I certainly wouldn't have liked to have met these two chaps on a dark night after they were released 18 months later in 1886, especially if I were an unfortunate who hadn't paid her 'rent'.

'EMMA GILES . I am single—on 22nd December, at 7 p.m., I was at my door, which is right opposite the Horn of Plenty public-house, and saw a disturbance between the prisoner Butler and Russell—they were both strangers to me—I saw Russell knock Butler down—Butler had his coat off—he got up—they did not fight again; Russell walked away—Russell knocked Butler down twice in the course of the fight—I afterwards heard Butler say, "We will belt the beast"—Whitwell was with Butler—they both took their belts off, bound them round their wrists, and with that they went into the poor man Russell, and both hit him with the buckle ends of their belts—Russell had no hat on—he fell down when he was struck—I saw Whitwell hit him on the head with the belt, and kick him when he was down, saying "I will kick his b——brains out"—I saw blood all over Russell's head—I saw Butler with an open knife, and he said he would cut his b——throat—the belts were very broad, with very large buckles, larger than this one (produced).'

[Cap'n Jack]

And then buggar me, and 'xcuse me, but what does the very same William Butler do a year after his release in early 1888?
Attempts to kill his own mother that's what.
One wonders what he was about in 1888?

'JOHN ROBERT SAMUEL HAYWARD , M. D. I live at 150, Rotherhithe Street—on 26th January, about five, I was called to Canning Street, where I saw Mrs. Butler lying half on the kerb and half in the road in front of her house—I had her carried indoors and laid on a bed, and examined her—her throat was cut in two places and bleeding—the wound on the left side was two inches long by one and a half deep, the other was on the right side of "the throat, two inches long by three-quarters deep; there was also a wound on the back of the right wrist two inches long by half an inch deep—I dressed the wounds, and had her immediately removed to Guy's Hospital.'