Category: London England

The Apprenticeship of a Coal Merchant

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In 1799, Henry Keene Smithers became an apprentice to his father, Henry Smithers, a London coal merchant and poet.1  It was not uncommon for teenage boys to become apprentices to their fathers, but given his father’s broad range of interests, his experience might have been somewhat unusual. 

Henry Keene Smithers (1785-1859) was the eldest of the six children of Henry Smithers (1762-1828). (For clarity, I will refer to the son as Henry K., the father as Henry sr.) Born in London, Henry K. was 14 when he started his apprenticeship, slightly younger than the average age of 17. 

Henry Keene Smithers apprenticed himself to his father in 1799.

Apprenticeship traditions dated from medieval times. The master was expected to house and feed the apprentice, teach him (or her) a marketable trade, and ensure that the apprentice followed the moral values of society. The apprentice had to learn various skills and obey the master. Many apprentices started by doing simple tasks, such as sweeping the floor, while observing the master conduct business. They gradually acquired the skills they needed over a seven-year period. 

Henry sr. was an educated man. His own father and grandfather, both named Joseph Smithers, had been schoolmasters at St.Margaret Lothbury Academy in the City of London. Henry sr. believed that studying the arts and sciences promotes hard work, virtue and happiness, so it is easy to imagine that his son studied the classics along with accounting and the intricacies of the coal business.  

In 1807, after Henry K. completed his apprenticeship, he was granted the Freedom of the City of London.  In medieval times, a freeman had been someone who was not the property of a feudal lord but enjoyed privileges such as the right to earn money and own land. Many city dwellers were freemen, so this was the origin of the term ‘freedom of the City’. Freemen had various rights, including the right to carry on their trades, and the right to vote for Members of Parliament. In London especially, freedom also brought social prestige. 

Completion of an apprenticeship was one way to achieve freedom of the city, but by the end of the eighteenth century, it was frequently purchased or inherited. In 1799, Henry sr. paid 46 shillings, eight pence to be admitted to the Freedom of the City of London.2 Henry K. was made free by patrimony; in other words, because he was his father’s legitimate son.3

Henry sr. was also a member of a trade guild, the Company of Fishmongers, and so was his son. Guilds and livery companies were another medieval invention. They were created so their members could provide each other with support and enforce standards in craftsmanship and in retail trade. The guilds also oversaw apprenticeships, ensuring that masters met their obligations and that apprentices achieved competence.

There was a lot to learn about the coal trade. Coal was shipped from the north of England, where it was mined, down the coast to London, where people used it to heat their homes and to power expanding industries. Some 1.2 million tons of coal were imported to London in 1800. But the merchants had to deal with hundreds of regulations and pay expensive duties to the government. So many people complained about the high cost of coal in London and suspected there were irregularities in the system that  Parliament held an enquiry into these issues. 

Clink Street, Southwark, near The Clink Prison and London Bridge

An 1803 London city directory shows that Keen and Smithers, coal merchants, had an office on Clink Street in Southwark, not far from the London Bridge on the south shore of the Thames. The Smithers family had lived in Southwark in 1799, but by 1807 Henry sr. must have achieved considerable financial success because he now lived at an exclusive address: the Adelphi, a development of 24 terraced houses, built in the 1770s overlooking the Thames River, near today’s Victoria Embankment Gardens in central London. 

Perhaps the coal business became too challenging, however, because in 1812 and 1813, the names of Henry Keene Smithers, Henry Smithers and another partner appeared in the bankruptcy announcements of several English newspapers. 

Henry sr. appears to have retired soon after that, perhaps to travel and concentrate on his writing. He published several books in the following years, ranging from an account of his travels in Europe to a book about Liverpool and the cotton trade.

At some point, Henry K. also left the coal business. In the 1841 census, he identified himself as an accountant and in 1851, he said he was a general merchant and agent.

Research Remarks 

While in London in September 2014, I visited the Museum of London Docklands, where I found several panels about the coal trade. 

Stuart A. Raymond’s My Ancestor was an Apprentice; How Can I Find Out More About Him? London: Society of Genealogists Enterprises Ltd, 2010 provides background on apprenticeships and freedom of the city and guides the researcher looking for further information.

The database London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1925 provides a wealth of information. These documents give an indication of family relationships, apprenticeships, guild membership, residence and occupation, as well as admission to the freedom of the city. 

In 1818, Henry sr. wrote, “I maintain that the cultivation of the Arts and Sciences are Favourable to virtue and to happiness. I. The cultivation of the Arts and Sciences naturally promote Industry. II. Habits of Industry are favourable to Virtue and Piety. III. The practice of Virtue and Piety ensures to man the greatest portion of happiness, taking into consideration his relation to the present and to a future state of existence.” Smithers, Henry.

The Cultivation of the Arts and Sciences. Brussels, Printed at the British Press, 1818, p. 10.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t8ff52w97;view=1up;seq=10

The books of Henry Smithers are available online or in reprint editions. He wrote both poetry and non-fiction, but his best known book is probably Affection; with Other Poems, by Henry Smithers of the Adelphi, London.London: Printed for the Author by T. Bensley and Sold by W. Miller, 1807. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t5cc0z71k;view=1up;seq=1

photo credits: above, Ancestry.com; below, Janice Hamilton 

Footnotes

  1. “London Metropolitan Archive; Reference Number: COL/CHD/FR/02/1315-1321,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 December 2014), entry for Henry Keene  Smithers, 5 December 1799; citing London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1925. 
  2. “London Metropolitan Archive; Reference Number: COL/CHD/FR/02/1229-1265,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 December 2014), entry for Henry Smithers, 8 October 1799, citing London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1925. 
  3. “London Metropolitan Archive; Reference Number: COL/CHD/FR/02/1655-1660,”database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 December 2014), entry for Henry Keene Smithers, born 1812, 3 June 1807, citing London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1925.

Henry Keene Smithers, Non-Conformist

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When my three-times great grandparents Henry Keene Smithers and Charlotte Letitia Pittman were married in 1809, the wedding took place at St. Martin in the Fields, London. It is a beautiful church, but it was probably not their first choice because it is an Anglican church and Henry was a non-conformist. Between 1754 and 1837, all marriages had to take place in the Church of England to be legally recognized, hence Henry’s and Charlotte’s Anglican ceremony.  

In England, non-conformists were members of Protestant denominations such as Congregational, Presbyterian and Baptist, rather than the established Church of England. These religions trace their histories to the 16thcentury, and their members were subjected to varying levels of persecution over the years. After the Act of Toleration was passed in 1689, non-conformists were allowed to have their own places of worship and schools as long as they took certain oaths of allegiance. 

Henry Keene Smithers

Once married, the Smithers attended a non-conformist Independent, or Congregational, church called Walworth Locks Fields Chapel in Southwark, Surrey. Congregationalists believe that the church congregation has the right to determine its own affairs. There is no church hierarchy, no bishops to tell members what to think or do. 

Henry may have been quite involved in this chapel, given that the couple’s children were baptized there. Henry and Charlotte had at least eight children: Henry Keene (1812-1874), Alfred (1814-1874), Francis Pittman (1815- ), Sophia Anne (1817-1883), George Clayton (1819-1821), John (1821-1893), Charles Francis (1822-1887) and Mary Keene (1827-1859). In fact, George Clayton Smithers appears to have been named after Lock Fields Chapel’s long-time minister.

(Their youngest son, Charles Francis Smithers, who was my great-great grandfather, is the only one of Henry’s and Charlotte’s children whose baptismal record I cannot find. He married in Waterford, Ireland in 1844 and immigrated to Canada, where he became a successful banker. He too brought up his children in the Congregational church.)  In the 1840s, Henry was secretary of the Society for the Relief of Widows and Children of Dissenting Ministers, a charity that supported families of deceased non-conformist ministers who were living in poverty.1

probably Charlotte L. Smithers

The Smithers family’s association with non-conformist beliefs seems to have been long-standing, Henry Keene Smithers was born on 3 July, 1785 in the City of London, and his birth was registered at Maze Pond, Southwark, a Baptist church, in 1789.2  The 1762 birth of his father, Henry, was also included in non-conformist records,3 but his mother, Sophia Papps, was baptized at the Anglican parish church in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1763.

Charlotte, Henry’s future wife, was born in Antigua around 1785. Her family were most likely Anglicans, but I have not seen a baptismal record for her, nor do I know when or why she moved to England.  

After they were married, census records show that Henry and Charlotte lived at various addresses in County Surrey, near London Bridge on the south bank of the Thames River. Today, this region has been swallowed up by the city. The family’s roots in Surrey also seem to run deep. Henry’s grandfather Joseph Smithers married Martha Keene in 1760 at St. Mary’s Church, Newington, Surrey.4 The fact they were married by licence is a hint that they too were non-conformists and not members of this Anglican parish.

Henry died in Peckham, Surrey, on April 23, 1859, age 73, and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, Lambeth. Charlotte lived the last two years of her life in Peckham with her widowed daughter Sophia Holton and two grandchildren. She died Aug. 10, 1861 and was buried in the same cemetery.

Research remarks

The birth and baptismal records of Henry Keene Smithers, and other non-conformist Smithers family members, can be found in the England & Wales Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970 collection online on Ancestry.com. The Congregational church baptizes infants, so these records are for baptisms, however, Baptists perform adult baptisms, so the record for Henry Keene Smithers refers to his birthdate.

I obtained the date of birth of Charles Francis Smithers from the Smithers Family Book, privately published in 1985 by Elizabeth Marston Smithers. His family’s religious affiliation comes from the 1861 Census of Canada East.

All Church of England records I have mentioned are available through Ancestry.com in parish records or marriages and banns. The date of birth of Charlotte L. Smithers, is not available from parish records since they were not well preserved in Antigua. The source of her place of birth and age are taken from the 1851 England Census, accessed through Ancestry.com. She was also recorded in the 1861 England Census.

The fact that Henry was involved with a group that helped the families of dissenting ministers is revealed in a directory of London charitable organizations.

Regarding the small cameo portraits of Henry Keene Smithers and his wife, Charlotte, they belong to one of my cousins, and are framed together with similar images of Charles Francis Smithers and his wife, Martha Bagnall Shearman. They are identified on the back of the common frame, but the one I believe to be Charlotte L. Smithers is identified as “Miss Richardson.” I have yet to come across anyone named Richardson in the family tree, so I am assuming the unknown person who supplied this information many years ago was wrong.

For more information about Henry Keene Smithers, see http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/49405444/person/12982389981, the Smither, Smithers, Smythers Public Member Tree on Ancestry.com, edited by Michael Smither.

Footnotes

  1. The Metropolitan Charities: Being an Account of the Charitable, Benevolent, and Religious Societies; Hospitals, Dispensaries, Penitentiaries, Annuity Funds, Asylums, Almshouses, Colleges, and Schools in London and Its Immediate Vicinity. London: Sampson Low, 1844 (Google eBook), p.61.
  2. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970,” Ancestry.com (http//:www.ancestry.com: accessed 29 Nov. 2014), entry for Henry Keene Smithers, 3 July, 1785, London; citing General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Registrar General (RG) 4. The National Archives, Kew, England.
  3. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970, database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 1 Dec. 2014), entry for Henry Smithers, 7 Aug. 1762, London; citing: General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Registrar General (RG) 4. The National Archives, Kew, England.
  4. London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 29 Nov. 2014), entry for Joseph Smithers, 19 March, 1760, Southwark; citing Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812. London, England: London Metropolitan Archives; St Mary, Newington, Composite register: marriages, banns, May 1754-Jul 1769, P92/MRY/010