Joseph Brasbridge and Richard Crossley A.K.A 'Charcoal Dick'

[dognose]

Hi,

I’ve just finished reading “The Fruits of Experience” the memoirs of Joseph Brasbridge, it offers some interesting insights into the silver trade at that time.



Joseph Brasbridge (1743-1832) was one of the most important retail silversmiths in London during the late Georgian period. His shop was situated at 98, and later 100, Fleet Street. He started his business in partnership with his brother-in-Law, a Mr Slade in 1770. This association was dissolved in 1779 and Brasbridge continued on his own, soon building up a clientele from the nobility. His fondness for gambling and failure to keep an eye on his staff ultimately led to his bankruptcy. Through the help of his loyal customers he was soon back in business and working out of the shop next door to his former premises. He retired to Herne Hill in the early 1820’s and died on the 28th February 1832 at Highgate.

These are some of his observations on his contemporaries,

Of Matthew Boulton “His advice had indeed, at all times, the greatest weight with me, for as he was one of the best, so also was he one of the wisest men I ever knew.”

Of John Delafons (Grimwade 1798) he states “I must not in this place omit my tribute of respect to Messrs. Delafons and Sons, who succeeded Mr. Gray in Sackville-street, and did business with all the principal shops in the city: never were men more deserving of confidence and esteem. To me they were invariably considerate and kind, and they trusted me as willingly for large sums, when they knew I was not worth a shilling, as when they imagined me to be in the most flourishing way.”

Of Thomas Whipham Jnr.(See Grimwade, p.698 re partnership ‘Whipham & North’) “I wish I could speak in the same terms of kindness of Mr. Whipham ; but, though an honest and well-meaning man, he proved himself to me unfeeling and ungrateful.” And of North (Whipham’s partner) “who was the very creature of apathy”

Of William Eley (Grimwade 3101, 3111-2, 3114, 3871) “and in Mr. Eley a bitter enemy; which, indeed, I might have expected, for I knew him to be of a vindictive temper”.

Of Richard Crossley (Grimwade 2288, 2294, 3334) “The late Mr. Richard Crosley, of Giltspur- street, was my principal spoon-maker; I have laid out more than fifty thousand pounds with him, and he always regarded me as one of his earliest and best friends. He came originally to London as a boy, and was employed by Chawner, the spoon-maker in Paternoster-row, to carry charcoal to his men ; hence he was known by the name of Charcoal Dick; but being a smart lad, and writing a good hand, he was soon promoted to a place in the counting-house; and having by the sobriety and frugality of his habits saved a hundred pounds, he began business for himself, and received his first order from me. Mindful of the kindness, he returned it some years afterwards by offering me a loan of five hundred pounds; which I accepted, saying jestingly, that I was in no danger of breaking, but that I would make over the lease of my house to him as security for the money. This I accordingly did; and, ten years afterwards, the event I had thought so improbable took place. Mr. Crosley, of course, recovered his money on the security ; and for this I was accused, among other fabrications, by Mr. Eley, of making a partial distribution of my effects.
There could not be a more honest or industrious man than Crosley ; during the long course of years in which we were engaged together in business, there never was a difference of five shillings between us, so punctual was he in his accounts: and here I must point out to my young readers the difference between prudence and thoughtlessness. Franklin's adage, " Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you," was never more fully verified than in the situation of Crossley and myself; he began the world with a hundred pounds, and left off business with eighty thousand : I began with forty times his capital, and, so far from increasing it, lost it all; the reason is obvious–he was always laying up, and I was always laying out. As he grew old, however, he carried his frugality to the extreme, and gradually sunk into the vice of avarice, too often the characteristic of old age. He would not allow himself veal or pork, because they were dearer than other meats; and usually bought a leg'of mutton for his Sunday's dinner, which used to serve the family till Thursday. He bequeathed the principal part of his fortune to his nephew, who was literally at the plough-tail when the news of his uncle's death arrived."

And of Phillip Rundell of whom most people write with distain:
“There cannot be a person whose character I respect more than Mr. Rundell's; the immense wealth which he has amassed by his own industry, he dispenses with the utmost munificence : one of his nieces was married two years ago; he presented her with seven thousand pounds, and informed her, that he had the same sum ready for her three other sisters, if they married equally to his satisfaction. I have been told, and give credit to much greater acts of kindness on Mr. Rundells part than this, and I have no doubt, that whenever his will shall be opened, it will be found fraught with benevolent remembrances of those workmen, the prime of whose days may have been passed in his service. A gentleman, to whose powers of amusement the public is largely indebted, I mean Mr. John Bannister, was complimented by Mr. Rundell with a very handsome gold watch, and has received, moreover, on the birth of every one of his children, a token of remembrance from the purse of the same gentleman. Mr. Bannister's banker in the city having unfortunately stopped payment, Mr. Rundell, who had recommended him to Mr. Bannister, sent to him to tell him not to make himself uneasy, for that he had no doubt but that the bank would go on again after a little time the same as usual, and in the mean time he would take all Mr. Bannister's losses upon himself”

The Fruits of Experience, Or, Memoir of Joseph Brasbridge, Written in His 80th Year: Or Memoir of Joseph Brasbridge, Written in His 80th and 81st Years
By Joseph Brasbridge
Published by Printed for the author, 1824, is available to view online at:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XzUKE5DBv3UC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trev.

[buckler]

Trevor pointed me in the direction of this posting recently, and having read his quotes given above on the silversmiths' characters I with much reservation down-loaded and started to read it . Two hours later I have finished it ! Well worth the effort. Trev has found virtually all the silversmith references and quoted them above, but there is much more to enjoy. (Trev you missed " Rundells , that great Leviathan of the trade " though )
But it's one of the most readable accounts of the life, attitudes, and details of upper -middle class merchants of the period I've seen. He does no moralise by preaching, as the later Victorian tracts are prone to do, but tells an easy tale. Numerous mentions of assorted friends, colleagues, customers etc. Including a charming personal recollection of Lady Hamiton. Trade practices and finance. The amount of plated goods being sold by the top echelons of the silversmith retailers comes as a surprise. From the riots of 1780's , the celebrations after George III's first return to sanity. the forming of the gentleman militias to retailing strategy .
Well worth a read to get a flavour of the period.
Also at the end of the book you cannot help , even with his faults, liking the author .
.

[dognose]

Thanks to Buckler's research, a receipt issued by the firm of Brasbridge & Slade can be seen at:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... _id=390369" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trev.
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[dognose]

For details of the inscription on Joseph Brasbridge's gravestone at St Mary's Church, Hornsey, see:

http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trev.
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[dognose]

Joseph Brasbridge - London - 1791

'Argent Moulu' was an alledged improvement on Sheffield Plate.

Source: Morning Post and Daily Advertiser Tuesday 1st February 1791, Issue 5553

Trev.

[dognose]

Brasbridge & Slade - London - 1774

Source: St James Chronicle or the British Evening Post. 14th April 1774.

Trev.

[dognose]

A mention of Joseph Brasbridge as found in 'Walks and Talks about London' by John Timbs - 1865. In this passage he is talking about Fleet Street:


Next door but one to Alderman Waithman, at No. 98, Joseph Brasbridge, the silversmith, kept shop. In his eightieth year he wrote his Life, which he entitled The Fruits of Experience, full of pleasant gossip about the tavern-clubs, card-parties, and minor gaieties, of St. Bride's. He was more fond of following the hounds than his business, and failure was the ill consequence: he tells of a sporting party of four–that he and his partner became bankrupt; the third, Mr. Smith, became Lord Mayor; and the fourth fell into poverty, and was glad to accept the situation of patrol before the house of his Lordship, whose associate he had been only a few years before. Smith had £100,000 of bad debts on his books, yet died worth one-fourth of that sum. Brasbridge's Toryism made him a troublesome neighbour to Waithman, who denounced the silversmith at Ward meetings; but, by the help of friends, gifts, and loans, he became re-established in business, with moderate success.

One of Brasbridge's tavern-haunts was the Globe, in Fleet Street. Among the company was a surgeon who, living on the Surrey side of the Thames (Blackfriars Bridge was not then built), had to take a boat every night, at 3s. or 4s. expense, and the risk of his life; yet, when the bridge was built, he grumbled at having a penny to pay for crossing it. Other frequenters of the Globe were Archibald Hamilton, "with a mind fit for a lord chancellor;" Carnan, the bookseller, who defeated the Stationers' Company upon the almanac trial; Dunstall, the comedian; the veteran Macklin; Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, who always thought it most prudent not to venture home till daylight; and William Woodfall, the reporter of the Parliamentary debates. Then there was one Glover, a surgeon, who restored to life a man who had been hung in Dublin, and who ever after was a plague to his deliverer. We remember the Globe, a handsomely-appointed tavern, some forty years since; and meeting here the eccentric Hugh Evelyn, who set up a claim upon the Wotton estate of Sir Frederic Evelyn, in Surrey.

Another of Brasbridge's circles was the Sixpenny Card Club, at the Queen's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard: among the members was Henry Baldwyn, who, under the auspices of Bonnel Thornton, Colman the elder, and Garrick, set up the St. James's Chronicle, which once had the largest circulation of any evening paper. This worthy newspaper-proprietor was considerate and generous to men of genius: "often," says Brasbridge, "at his hospitable board have I seen needy authors, and others connected with his employment, whose abilities, illrequited as they might have been by the world in general, were by him always appreciated." Among Brasbridge's acquaintance, also, were–John Walker, shopman to a grocer and chandler in Well-street, Bag-fair, who died worth £200,000, most assuredly not gained by lending money on doubtful security; and Ben Kenton, brought up at a charity-school, and who realised £300,000, partly at the Magpie and Crown, in Whitechapel.

An odd story is told by Brasbridge of a surgeon in Gough Square, who had purchased for dissection the body of a man who had been hung at Tyburn: the servant girl wishing to take a peep at the defunct, stole up-stairs to the room where the body had been deposited, and was horrified at seeing him sitting up, when she ran down-stairs in great terror. The surgeon humanely concealed the resuscitated subject in his house until he could get him conveyed to America. This he did, and outfitted him at his own expense. The man prospered, made a handsome fortune, which he gratefully left, many years after, to his deliverer and benefactor. Brasbridge ultimately retired from business, with a competency, to a cottage at Herne Hill; and his object in writing his Life was to show that "a man may be a bankrupt without the smallest imputation on his integrity; that it is never too late to do well; and that honesty, frugality, and industry will invariably, in the long-run, be rewarded with at least decent competency, peace of mind, and the good opinion of all but the envious and malignant."

Trev.

[dognose]

A period review of “The Fruits of Experience” the memoirs of Joseph Brasbridge:





Trev.