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River, Canal and Coastal Carriers in the East Midlands c.1660–1840 Philip Riden River, Canal and Coastal Carriers in the East Midlands c.1660–1850 Philip Riden Department of History University of Nottingham, UK [email protected] 2013 FOREWORD This short piece of work is a by-product of projected larger study of ‘Transport and Trade in the East Midlands, 1660–1840’, on which I have been engaged for several years and hope shortly to complete with the support of a grant from the British Academy. As part of this work, I have assembled outline biographies of individuals and partnerships who carried goods on the rivers and later the canals of the region (defined fairly loosely as Derbyshire (less the High Peak), Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland), and coastwise to and from the ports of Lincolnshire, as a means of better understanding how transport services by water developed over the period in question. I have also prepared a similar biographical dictionary of ‘StageWaggon Carriers in the East Midlands, c.1660–1840’, which I hope shortly to make available in the same form as this booklet. I am circulating these notes in draft in the belief that they may be of interest to others working in the same field, and in the hope that by doing so I may elicit corrections and additions that can be incorporated in a later version. Accordingly, I would be delighted if anyone who comes across this work and feels they can add or correct anything would get in touch. Equally, I would be grateful if this work was not cited elsewhere without my first being consulted. Philip Riden Department of History University of Nottingham September 2013 email: [email protected] 3 4 RIVER, CANAL AND COASTAL CARRIERS J.G. Ames & Company and cabinetmaker in the 1790s.7 Samuel himself was John Green Ames was a member of the Inland married at Newark in 1827 to Eliza Newton and Waterway Association for Apprehending and Prose- between 1828 and 1839 the couple had one daughter cuting Felons in 1804, although he appears not to and five sons, two of whom died in infancy.8 Nothing have been a founder member in 1802.1 In 1818–21 has been discovered of his career until 1842, when he J.G. Ames & Co. were operating services from was recorded as a wharfinger on Millgate in Newark Cockpit Hill Wharf in Derby through Burton and the (but unlike most Newark wharfingers was not also a Staffs. & Worcs. Canal to Bath, Bristol and else- dealer or merchant).9 He does not occur as a where.2 At the end of the decade their services on the wharfinger in any earlier or later directory. He ap- same route consisted of a boat to Stourport, Glouces- pears later to have retired from business and in 1857 ter and Bristol on Tuesday and Friday; another to was described as a ‘gentleman’, still of Millgate, Worcester, Kidderminster, Cheltenham, Bath and the when he was obliged to convey his estate to two West of England three times a week; and a slow boat Newark drapers in trust for them and his other credi- to Bristol every day.3 tors.10 Samuel died in 1875,11 still living on Millgate, when he left all his estate to his wife Eliza.12 J. Bache The Barnsdalls of Newark were presumably In the early 1820s a carrier named J. Bache of related to the Miss Barnsdall & Co. (qv) who were Measham mills was offering a carrying service on the wharfingers at Nottingham in the 1820s, although the Ashby Canal to Stockport and Manchester, and also exact connection has not been established. Bolton, Bury, Runcorn and Warrington; to Hudders- field and Leeds; and to Meriden near Coventry.4 Miss Barnsdall & Company Some of these destinations were perhaps served by In 1822 a firm of this name were wharfingers on forwarding, unless Bache’s business was on a bigger Canal Street in Nottingham and were also running a scale than a general lack of evidence for his activities carrying service every week to Newark and Gains- suggests. He appears to have ceased trading by the borough.13 In 1811 and 1828 what was simply called late 1820s.5 Barnsdall & Co. were listed as wharfingers at the same address, but not as carriers.14 The business has Samuel Barnsdall not been traced before the former date or after the Samuel Barnsdall was born at Newark in 1807, the latter. It appears to be identical with ‘Barnsdale & son of Joseph Barnsdall and his wife Hannah (Fidler), Hooton’ of Nottingham, which was one of the firms who were married at St Peter’s, Nottingham, the year associated with Robert Flower & Son of Gains- before.6 His father may have been the Joseph Barns- borough in their scheme of 1824 to offer low through dall of Pilcher Gate, Nottingham, active as a joiner rates for wool from the East Midlands to Leeds and Wakefield.15 1 Derby Mercury, 14 Oct. and 11 Nov. 1802; 21 June 1804. If ‘Miss Barnsdall’ was single, rather than a 2 Riden (ed.) 2006, 161–2, 208. widow, she may have been Sarah, the daughter of 3 Glover 1829, 38–41, where the company is called ‘J. & G. Nathaniel Barnsdall and his wife Sarah (Clarkson), Ames’. The form used above is base on the assumption that John who was born in 1803 and baptised at Parliament Green Ames’s name is printed correctly in the subscription list to the Felons Association. Street (formerly Hockley) Methodist church in 4 Pigot 1822–3, 210, in which ‘Mereden’ can apparently only mean Meriden, and a destination named ‘Killingworth’ has defeated me (it is presumably not the place near Longbenton in 7 UBD, IV, 50; he also appears in Holden 1811, II, sn. Northumberland). Nottingham, which by rights is after Samuel’s parents had moved 5 There is no entry for Ashby de la Zouch in Pigot 1828–9, but to Newark. This may be an anachronistic entry copied from the neither Bache nor Measham mills appears in Glover 1829, 85–6. 1805 edn of Holden, when Joseph would still be in Nottingham. 6 Family Search. Samuel was bapt. 17 March 1807; his 8 Family Search. parents’ marriage was registered both at St Peter’s on 27 Sept. 9 Pigot 1842, 17. 1806 and at Newark on 6 Nov. 1806; the second entry was 10 London Gazette, 14 Aug. 1857, p. 2812. perhaps in the nature of a service of blessing. I can find no other 11 Newark RD, Dec. quarter. children baptised to Joseph and Hannah in Family Search, which 12 Notts. Archives, DD/H/172/20. suggests that she may have died young, but nor can I find a burial 13 Pigot 1822, 340–1. entry for her. On 18 Jan. 1829 Joseph Barnsdall married Rhoda 14 Holden 1811, II, sn. Nottingham; Pigot 1828, 656–7. Frost at St Nicholas, Nottingham: given the rarity of the surname 15 Leeds Intelligencer, 24 July 1824; below, Robert Flower & this could be the remarriage of Samuel’s father. Son. 5 RIVER, CANAL AND COASTAL CARRIERS Nottingham, as was her elder brother Nathaniel, born ter and parts of Cheshire; Newark and Gainsborough; the previous year.1 Their parents were married at and parts of the West of England.10 In 1842 either the Mansfield in 1801.2 An argument against this identifi- same or another Richard Barrows was once again cation is that Sarah would have been only 19 in 1822 recorded as a wharfinger at Leenside, and ‘Richard and should not by rights have been in business on her Burrows’, also of Leenside, was running a carrying own account; two arguments in favour are that her service three times a week to ‘Manchester, Liverpool business had the same address as her father’s and no &c.’. It is difficult to decide whether these entries all other ‘Miss Barnsdall’ is identifiable in Nottingham refer to the same family. in this period. The family were presumably related (although exactly how has not been established) to Berriff and Thorpe families Joseph Barnsdall, joiner and cabinetmaker of Pilcher In the early 1790s a firm named Berriff & Thorpe Gate, who was married at Nottingham in 1806 and were in business as maltsters and coal merchants at then moved to Newark, where his son Samuel (qv) Newark.11 In 1805 the members of the firm are was later a wharfinger. They may also have been identified as Ann Berriff and James Thorpe and their connected with Robert Barnsdall, a boatbuilder of address as Millgate.12 In December that year the Sawley (Derb.), who was made bankrupt in 1810.3 partnership was dissolved and James Thorpe an- In 1811 Nathaniel Barnsdall (Sarah and Nathan- nounced that he would be continuing the business iel’s father) was a raff merchant and boatbuilder with alone.13 Mrs Berriff died in 1819, when she appointed premises on Canal Street.4 In 1822 and 1828 he Robert Capes of Gray’s Inn (probably a member of described as a timber merchant.5 In the latter year he the family to which Gamaliel Capes, a Gainsborough was an assignee on behalf of the creditors, including wharfinger, also belonged) and Thomas Middlebrook, himself, of the estate of Michael Anderson, a Notting- a Newark coal merchant, as her executors and trust- ham builder.6 Nathaniel died in 1834, when he was a ees. She divided her personal estate equally between senior councilman of the corporation.7 His son, nine nephews and nieces. The nephews and the Nathaniel Barnsdall junior, served as one of the unmarried nieces were named Lang, Free or Weight- corporation’s two sheriffs for the year commencing man.14 This may imply that Ann, who was then a Michaelmas 1828.8 The firm was still in business in widow, had no children living, although since the will 1842 as Nathaniel Barnsdall & Co., timber merchants makes no reference to her real estate, she may have and dealers and linseed crushers of Canal Street.