1755 – 24 Westgate Street

The next owner of 24 Westgate Street was Richard Elly, described as a gentleman and an attorney.  He was also a Freeman of the city of Gloucester from 1722 and a Proctor of the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Gloucester.  He had a brother James, named after his father, and a sister Jane to whom he left a lifetime’s interest in the property in Saint Mary de Grace parish.  Among other legacies, he left £200 to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge – he would no doubt have been delighted to know that, as the bookshop S.P.C.K, the society occupied the building in the 20th century, from 1949 to 1970.

Richard does not appear to have married so, in his will of 1755, he left much of his property, to his sister, Jane, including Paygrove Farm and lands in Little Normans.  His executors were Thomas Branch, George Worrall (both at various times Aldermen of the city and Luke Hook, described as a writing master. Richard was buried in St Michael’s church.

Jane Elly married Joseph Punter, a mercer, in Gloucester Cathedral in 1736.  Like her brother before her, Jane does not appear to have had any children – she was, in fact, in her late forties when she married.  Her husband died in 1749 leaving Jane a widow for over twenty years.

In her will, in 1773, Jane left legacies amounting to over £1500 to friends and their children.  She also gave £500 to a charity helping Gloucester Infirmary and the residue of her estate went to the Mayor and Burgesses of the city of Gloucester to invest, the interest being used every year to pay for as many poor local boys to be apprenticed to a trade as the funds would permit.

By the time Jane died, so had one of the executors, George Worrall so the other two were left to sell off the property to the next owner, Alderman John Webb.

24 Westgate Street

In 2016, I was given access to 77 old documents relating to the building currently designated as 24 Westgate Street. Since then I have been transcribing these documents. They tell the story of those who lived and worked in the building. The documents date back to 1721 and refer to events that occurred in 1707.

This was 24 Westgate Street in 2016.
It is situated between
the Antiques Centre and MacDonalds.

Over the coming months, I hope to tell the story of the shop and those who lived and worked there.

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.

 

Victorian and Edwardian Prisoners

Are you missing an ancestor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?  Perhaps they were in Gloucester Gaol?  My book containing photographs and criminal records for prisoners held in Gloucester Gaol during 1870 and between 1883 and 1906 is now available. Entitled ‘Victorian Prisoners in Gloucester Gaol – A Rogues’ Gallery’ it costs £14.99 from all good bookshops.  Published by The History Press it has ISBN: 978-0-7524-5129-9.  It contains information and mugshots of men, women and children from all round the world, not just from Gloucester or Gloucestershire.  Perhaps your ancestor was there …..

 

House History

I attended a wonderful workshop session yesterday, run by Averil Kear for the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives on tracing the history of a house.We had a presentation showing us the sort of things we should be looking for and then we spent an hour looking at individual documents that had come from the archives. Averil had chosen a large house in the centre of Gloucester, sadly no longer in existence, but one which we could follow back a couple of centuries. There were maps, street and trade directories, electoral registers, deeds, wills and inventories, books of leases, solicitor’s letters, census records and a large collection of maps of the centre of Gloucester over the years. We were recommended certain books, including Nick Barratt’s ‘Tracing the History of your House’ which has a companion Starter Pack to help you with your research.

The session was concluded with Averil going through the items that we had been looking at,putting everything into chronological order to produce the complete history. Although I had done some house history work before, I learnt a great deal – and, as a bonus, found a few more Gwinnetts as well!