1823 – 24 Westgate Street

At this point, the relationships between the persons mentioned in the documents and the property become increasingly confusing.  Hannah Sadler appeared back on the scene and on 12th February 1823, leased the property for a year to Charles Hough, son of the former John James Hough.  The following day, the property was released to him, for a peppercorn rent.

Charles was a stationer and printer like his father.  He was made a freeman of the city of Gloucester in July 1805.  John James Hough had died on 1st December 1821 leaving his estate to his youngest son, Arthur, according to the custom of Borough English.  But Arthur died on 12th January 1822 having left a will leaving his estate to his brother Charles Hough.  At some point in his career, Charles set up a partnership with Thomas Jew but this was dissolved in 1829. 

Around this time, Charles moved to Monmouth where he established a partnership with Reginald J Blewitt, and purchased the Monmouthshire Merlin Newspaper from T A Stinson, the first edition of which appeared in May 1829.

Charles Hough was presumably not a very good businessman as he was made bankrupt in 1831; the partnership with Blewitt did not survive Charles’ bankruptcy and he left the newspaper business.

Less than two weeks after the Westgate Street property was transferred to Charles Hough, on 25th February, a mortgage for securing £550 was issued on the premises between James Abell, gentleman, his mother Ann Abell  and his sisters, Ann, Maria and Caroline Abell.  Was the property sold off because of Charles’ bankruptcy? There is mention in the documents of Elizabeth Martin and Thomas, her son, who inherited the property in the will of Thomas Martin, senior, in 1812, but there is no mention of Charles Hough!

James Abell inherited the property from his father according to the custom of Borough English.  James believed that the house, etc., was intended for his mother and his sisters and was willing to fulfil his father’s wishes but his mother preferred to have an annuity of £27 10s and the sisters wished to share the sum of £550.

1805 – 24 Westgate Street

The ownership and occupancy of 24 Westgate Street becomes inceasingly confusing to follow.  Four years later, in 1805, the property was leased to George Martin, Esquire, of Wheatenhurst for a year and then released the following day, a legal arrangement to publicly declare the sale of a property.  Presumably he was the owner and John James Hough was still occupying the premises, as bookseller, stationer and printer. 

By 1812, George Martin had moved to Bristol with his family and died there that year.  He was buried at Bristol St James church.  In his brief will, he left all his estate to his wife, Elizabeth Martin. 

Elizabeth, then of Oxford Street in Westbury-on-Trym, held on to the property for another three years, when, in 1815, she transferred the property to one Thomas Abell, an innkeeper, and William Abell, a maltster, both of Gloucester.  At this stage, the document includes a plan of the house and grounds although the shop section is omitted.

Westgate Street runs across the bottom of the plan, with Maverdine Lane down the left-hand side.

1801 – 24 Westgate Street

The next names to appear in the documents were those of the Reverend Thomas Rudge, William Bishop, a Gloucester grocer, and Charles Evans, the latter’s trustee.   Thomas Rudge agreed to sell to William Bishop a piece of ground approximately one rood in area, for the sum of £42 15s,

“being the north-west corner of an inclosure of pasture ground belonging to the said Thomas Rudge as Rector as aforesaid situate within the parish of St Michael in the city of Gloucester and adjoining the highway leading from Barton Street towards the Regnum Stile … and is bounded on the north by land late belonging to the Reverend Ebenzer Cornell but now to James Jelf, Esquire, on the south and east by the land of the said Thomas Rudge as Rector, on the west by the said highway, together with all appurtenances”

Later that year, another document was signed, entitled ‘Exchange’. It began with the following statement.

“Soon after Mr Bishop purchased the within mentioned piece of land, he erected a messuage, stable, etc., thereon and one of much greater value than the messuage comprized in the indenture of 1st January 1801 and soon after Mr Bishop exchanged the same with Messrs Rudge, Bailey and Stock for the messuage comprized in the deed of 1st January 1801.”

The Reverend Thomas Rudge, clerk, was “rector of the rectory of St Mary de Grace” [the church itself was demolished in 1652 and the materials used to repair St Michael’s church]. William Bishop was a grocer of Gloucester and Charles Evans, a gentleman, from Highgrove.

By June of the same year, there was an exchange of properties. The messuage, brewhouse, kitchen garden and hereditaments in the parish of St Mary de Grace held by  the Reverends Thomas Rudge, Joseph Baylis and Thomas Stock were exchanged for the messuage, garden and hereditaments in the parish of St Michael vested in William Bishop and his trustee, Charles Evans.

1794 – 24 Westgate Street

John James Hough was named on the Westgate Street documents from 1794 until 1799, along with various others.  He was described then as a bookseller but later was also called a stationer and printer.  John James (always recorded with the double name) was born around 1758.  On 7th January 1774, he was apprenticed to Thomas Dunn, a book binder and stationer, for the sum of £20.

When his seven year apprenticeship ended, on 15th January 1781, John James Hough was made a freeman of the City of Gloucester.  Later that year, he married Sarah Pace, on 25th October 1781 at St Nicholas Church.  The couple produced eight children over the next 15 years:  Charles, Mary, John James junior, George, Henry, Helen, Arthur and Ellen.  Of these, Charles and Arthur followed their father into the book binding and stationery business;  John James junior went into the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant and George went off to Oxford where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree, becoming a clerk.

In 1796, the Mayor and Burgesses of the City of Gloucester re-leased their part of the property to John James Hough and, three years later, in 1799, the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral conveyed the other part to him.

When he died in 1821, John James Hough left a will, originally written in 1812.  The will, proved in London in 1822, was much edited, with deletions and insertions, both in the text and in the margins.  The widow, Sarah Hough, her son Charles Hough and sister in law Mary Hobbs all had to swear that the alterations were made in the hand of John James Hough with which they were very familiar.

John James Hough senior and his wife Sarah were both buried in the Chapelry of the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene.  The inscription on their tomb reads:

Underneath this stone are deposited the remains of

John James Hough of the City of Gloucester Bookseller

who departed this life Dec 1st 1821 aged 63 years

Also Arthur son of the above John James Hough

who died on the 12th Jany 1822 aged 27 years

Sarah relict of the above named John James Hough

who died May 5th 1825 aged 70 years.

1790 – 24 Westgate Street

Next to own the house and shop was a group of four people – two men and their wives; the Reverend Joseph White and Mary his wife and Mr James Sadler and Hannah his wife.  The couples were connected because Mary and Hannah were sisters, neé Turner.  It seems unlikely that either or both of the couples lived in the property, more likely that the purchase was an investment.

The Reverend Joseph White, born in Stroud in 1746, was a very well educated man.  He gained his BA and MA degrees from Wadham College, Oxford and, in 1787, he became a Doctor of Divinity.  He became Laudian Professor of Arabic from 1774, Bampton lecturer in 1781, Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christchurch, Oxford from 1802.  But from 1788 until 1802, Joseph was a Prebendary at Gloucester Cathedral.  He and Mary seem to have moved to Oxford in 1802 and stayed there until Mary died in 1811 and Joseph died in 1814.  The couple do not seem to have had any children.  The only two relatives mentioned by Joseph in his will are his two sisters, Hannah and Phoebe.

The second man involved in the transaction was James Sadler, seen above, described as an Esquire, of Gloucester.  Very little is known about James but he was obviously a fairly important person in the life of the city and, in 1789, he became Mayor of Gloucester.  In 1790, whilst living in the Precincts of Gloucester cathedral, he married Hannah Turner, sister of Mary Turner who was to marry Joseph White in Prestbury the following year.  As with her sister and her husband, Hannah and James seem not to have had any children – only brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces were mentioned in James’ will.  He was buried in Gloucester cathedral as befitted a man of his standing.

So, by the end of 1814, Hannah Sadler was the only one of the four still living.  She moved away from Gloucester, settling in a Dorset village called Child Okeford, to be close to where her niece and her husband lived.  Hannah died on 29th February 1828 and was buried in Gloucester Cathedral on 8th March 1828, presumably alongside her husband.

It appears that Charles Cooke continued to have an interest in the property until 1794 and, from then on, one John James Hough also was involved. I imagine they were the people who occupied the shop for their trade.

1790 – 24 Westgate Street

The next person to occupy the premises was one Charles Cooke.  On the documents, he was identified as a surgeon and apothecary so the shop returned to the trade it was used for in 1721 when Nicholas Lane first transferred it to his wife and children. 

Again, because he has a rather common name, details of Charles Cooke’s family are difficult to confirm but it seems that he married Catherine Smythe in St Mary de Crypt church in 1790 and they had six children over the next 18 years:  Thomas, Charles Turner, George, John Freeman, Albina and Henry George Pauncefoot Cooke.  Of these, Thomas became a clerk at Oxford University and Charles Turner followed in his father’s footsteps and became a surgeon.  Both became freemen of the city of Gloucester.

When he took over the house and shop in 1790, Charles senior took on an apprentice called William Jones so he was obviously setting himself up in the area and feeling the need to develop his business.  At the time, he called himself surgeon, apothecary and man midwife.  In 1809, he took on another apprentice, this time one Nathaniel Mills.  A year later, Charles’ wife, Catherine died at the age of 44 years and was buried in St Mary de Crypt churchyard.  It is not known when Charles Cooke died or where he is buried.

In the ‘Notes of Henry Yates Jones Taylor’, there is an interesting story relating to the son, Charles Turner Cooke.  It states: “He was a regular attendant at the Cathedral Sunday services. Very frequently in the middle of the services his servant or one of the vergers crept noiselessly and timidly along to his seat and tapped him on the shoulder when he immediately left and got into his carriage at the porch, and drove away to some case of emergency. This occurred so often that persons began to get doubtful or sceptical as to the genuineness of the calls upon his professional skill and attention. So a vigilance committee was extemporised. One Sunday the old performance was repeated with a great deal of fuss and ostentation. The carriage with the Doctor drove all round the town and returned, but it was noticed that he neither left his vehicle nor made a call. He resumed his seat and his pious devotions. The humbug was so effectually exposed that he did not repeat those tricks by which he had endeavoured to impose upon the religious fraternity and the general public to induce them to believe that his services were so important as to necessitate a perpetual interference with his devotional exercise.”  Apparently, Charles Turner Cooke  also wrote a book which made several editions on the efficacy of white mustard seed.  

1781 – 24 Westgate Street

Every time the property changed hands, it was described as being in two separate parts, one under the auspices of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral and the other under the auspices of the Mayor and Burgesses of the city of Gloucester.  By 1781, it was being described as one. 

“All that backward messuage or tenement court and brewhouse thereunto belonging with the appurtenances … and which said messuage or tenement is now thrown into one and intermixed with certain leasehold premises purchased of the said John Webb which make together one complete messuage or tenement and shop”

In November 1781, John Webb transferred the property to Meshach Charleton, a hatmaker.  In those days, the top hat was replacing the cocked hat as favourite headwear amongst the wealthier citizens of Gloucester.   Where Meshach learnt his trade is not recorded in the local apprenticeship records but it is assumed he did so with his father, also called Meshach, as the father, a feltmaker or feltmonger, is recorded as taking on a couple of apprentices. 

Meshach Charleton married Mary Washbourn in 1774 at St Mary de Crypt church.  On his marriage licence, he was described as being a 30 year old widower so this was obviously a second marriage. At that time, it was required that all marriages (except for those of Quakers and Jews) should take place in a Church of England church.  Whether the couple were at that stage practising nonconformists or not is unknown but both of their children, Shadrack, in 1776 and Elizabeth in 1779, were baptised in the Barton Street Independent Chapel.

With two small children, Meshach decided to expand his business and moved into 24 Westgate Street where he set up shop to sell his wares. He remained there for nine years before transferring the property. How well he prospered is unknown but when he died in 1801, his will left everything to his wife including two houses in Westgate Street and the interest on £500 which was in his son, Shadrach’s, hands.

1773 – 24 Westgate Street

John Webb was recorded as being one of the Aldermen of the city of Gloucester when he purchased the property at 24 Westgate Street.  No occupation or trade is given for him so it is assumed he was a ‘gentleman’. 

John purchased the property in 1773 after the death of Jane Punter.  Whether he lived in the property or just rented it out to others is not known.  In fact, very little is known of him at all – the name John Webb was quite a common one in Gloucestershire at that time so it is difficult to distinguish one from another.  When he sold the property again, in 1781, to Meshach Charleton, John Webb was said to be ‘of Wotton in the county of Gloucestershire’.  That could have been Wotton, an area on the outskirts of the city or it could have been Wotton under Edge – the former seems more likely.

Soon after he sold the property, John Webb died. From his will, proved in 1785, it would appear that he did not marry or have children, as only his three brothers, Thomas, Richard and the Reverend Benjamin Webb, and their offspring are mentioned. Interestingly, one of the witnesses to his will was Meshach Charleton.

1721 – 24 Westgate Street

When the earliest document was created, in 1721, the property was owned by Nicholas Lane who was an apothecary.  It was in two parts, one under the auspices of the Mayor and Burgesses of Gloucester, the other under the auspices of the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral.  The former was described as:

“All that stable, summerhouse and garden situate and being in the parish of Saint Mary de Grace in the city of Gloucester, then in the tenure of the said Nicholas Lane or his under-tenant, consisting of all that piece of ground extending from Grace Lane by the College wall to other the land of the Mayor and Burgesses then in possession of Richard Elly, gent, containing in length from Grace Lane aforesaid to a summerhouse newly built on the west nineteen yards and in breadth four yards.  And all that stable and building thereon erected next to Grace Lane aforesaid.  And after some part of the summerhouse or building standing at the west end of the same piece of ground  containing in building from east to west two yards and an half.  And also all that other piece of ground extending in length from the said summerhouse on the north to the lands of Mr Fletcher on the south fourteen yards and in breadth two yards and an half having land of the Dean and Chapter on the south and divided by a brick wall from other the lands of the said Mayor and Burgesses on the west.  Also all that part of a shop on Maverdine Lane side with the building over it wherein Mr John Palmer dwelleth containing in length from the street side to the north three yards and two foot and in breadth one yard and one inch having Maverdine Lane on the west  side and the other part of the shop being College land on the east together with a purpresture of half a yard broad the length of the shop next the land together with all ways, passages,  and appurtenances to the said premises or any part thereof belonging or in any wise appertaining.  “

The second part of the property was described thus:

“All that their shop with all the rooms thereupon built mentioned to be situate lying and being on the parish of Grace Lane in the city of Gloucester in a place there called the Mercerrow having the lands of the said Dean and Chapter mentioned to be then in the possession James Wood, mercer, on the east side, a lane or passage called Maudlin Lane on the west, the land of Nicholas Lane on the north and the Kings Highway on the south and containing on the forepart from east to west four yards and one foot and from north to south seven yards and then in the possession of John Palmer, bookseller;  And also all those their four stables now converted into three tenements with two courts or gardens to the same belonging situate, lying or being in the parish of Grace Lane in the city of Gloucester aforesaid having lands then of Thomas Lugg, gent, on the south, the lands of said Nicholas Lane on the north and west and the Kings Highway on the east which said tenements do contain from east to west nine yards and an half and from south to north next the Lane twelve yards and the courts or gardens do contain from east to west ten yards and a quarter and from north to south nine yards and a half and are mentioned to be in the possession of Robert Clarke, Thomas Haines and the said Nicholas Lane; “

Nicholas Lane was born c. 1672 and married Hester Rodway in the 1690s.  Over the next twenty years, the couple had eleven children: Mary, Nicholas, Elizabeth, Kendrick, Sarah, Hester, Lucina, Christianus, Charles, another Mary and Eustace.    Of these, Kendrick, Sarah, Christianus, Charles and both Marys died young.  Nicholas, junior, does not appear in any of the documents relating to 24 Westgate Street; it is presumed he, as an adult, was living a separate life from the rest of his family by the 1720s.  His sister, Elizabeth Lane, had married in 1714 to Richard Harding, a mercer from Tetbury, whose name is prominent in the early documents.

Over the years, at least from 1701 to 1717, Nicholas took on apprentices; Richard Yarnell, Thomas Hill, Thomas Peynard, Thomas Scott, George Wilcox and Joseph Colesbourne.  His oldest son, Nicholas junior, also became an apothecary.  But, by 1821, Nicholas was not doing well in trade and was in deeply in debt.  Fearful that he would be sent to the debtor’s gaol in Gloucester Castle, Nicholas transferred the property at 24 Westgate Street into the name of his wife and those children still living at home, Hester, Lucina and Eustace, so that they would still have a roof over their heads, should the worst occur.  The property was held in trust for them by two gentlemen; Richard Harding, his son-in-law and John Rodway.  John Rodway was also a mercer and, in 1723, became Mayor of Gloucester.  He was possibly a relative of Hester Lane, Nicholas’ wife who, before their marriage, was Hester Rodway.

The financial situation did not improve for Nicholas Lane.  In 1723, he took out a mortgage for £300 from Mary Clissold but, in 1728, he obviously had not paid all of the instalments on the mortgage, was arrested and put in gaol.  After a while, the money was raised to pay his debts and he was released but the experience damaged his health and, later in 1728, he died.  His wife, Hester, went to live with her daughter, Elizabeth Harding, in Tetbury, and died there in March 1732/3.

Filling the gaps

Placing your ancestors on the family tree, using births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials, along with the census records, is fairly straightforward.  Filling in the gaps between these vital events is not only more difficult, as little is online, but it is also much more interesting.

I did not have space in my books Discover Gloucestershire Ancestors, Volumes 1 & 2 to write about alehouse licences in any detail and it was only yesterday that I checked some of them out at Gloucestershire Archives. (Ref: GBR/GV/AV/1 – 5).  These records cover the period from 1674 to 1836 with a few gaps.

The records include the date of the application (made annually in September), the name of the person applying for the licence, the sign (name of the pub), the names of two people acting as sureties and the surety or fee that they put up on the publican’s behalf.  If the publican broke the rules of his licence, the surety would be lost.

I had known that my Gwinnett ancestors were frequently recorded as being victuallers but had no idea where they had carried out their trade.  Imagine my surprise to discover that Samuel Gwinnett, later his wife Ann and later still his brother Charles had all applied for a licence to run the prestigious 15th century New Inn!

The earliest inn known to be run by a Gwinnett was the Bolt Inn in Eastgate Street.  George Gwinnett, who died in 1739, left his inn to his sons, William and George.  William was recorded as being one of the sureties for Joseph Grazebrook in 1749 so presumably the Gwinnetts had given up the licence during the years from 1740 to 1749.  Earlier records are still to be checked.

Other inns run by the Gwinnett family in Gloucester included The Red Lyon, the Greyhound, the Golden Cock and the City Arms.