MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS and TRADERS.

[It is difficult to classify the men noted in this section. Possibly some of them should appear elsewhere. Their ideal characters are best seen when there has been a combination of energy, perseverance, promptitude, integrity, far-sightedness, conciliation and benevolence. ]

JOHN SAMON, JOHN SAMON the younger, and RICHARD SAMON.

JOHN SAMON, (died 1416), must have been a good Mayor of Nottingham, for he served the office, first as Bailiff, then Mayor, four times, with twenty-six years between the first year of office (1381) and the last (1407). The family record was remarkable, for his father, JOHN SAMON, was Mayor five times between 1361 and 1378, and RICHARD SAMON, son of the junior John, was Mayor six times between 1418 and 1451. The elder John was a benefactor to the building of St Mary's new church. The son gave as a mortuary, or gift after death, to the church, his best horse with saddle and bridle, and also £10 to the fabric. (F. A. Wadsworth, in T.S.T's. 1917, pp. 47 and 50). The canopy of his tomb still stands in St. Mary's South transept, having been transferred from the old church which was razed four hundred years ago, but by a strange vandalism the altar tomb and effigy with the hands raised upon the breast in the attitude of prayer "was utterly destroyed this spring," so says Orange in 1840 (p. 516). John Samon further founded a chantry in St. Mary's church, and his son Richard increased the benefaction.

All the three Samons gave benefactions for the poor. The first gave three cottages in Cowe Lane (Clumber Street) for ''three poor men for ever."

THOMAS THURLAND, (d. 1473-4), was a merchant of the staple, or, in other words, a dealer in wool, and possibly in leather; or, again in other words, an exporting and importing merchant. He prospered exceedingly and became wealthy. He was nine times Mayor of Nottingham, and four times returned as Member of Parliament. He gave and collected money for the repair of Trent Bridge, which at that time was a work of charity, not of municipal obligation. He was one of the Commissioners of Land Taxes. He, about 1458, built a large mansion in Gridlesmith. Gate, now called Pelham Street, the grounds of which reached to Clumber Street and Parliament Street, and the hall stood where Thurland Street now is. He was the benefactor of Trinity Guild, the chapel of which was in the North transept of St. Mary's church, of which guild he was an alderman, and there is the canopy of his tomb, for the great tomb has been shamefully handled and mixed.

Thurland Hall passed to the Earl of Clare, and came to be called Clare Hall, and there King Charles I. stayed when he set up his Standard. It came into the possession of the Newcastle family, and in 1812 a strip of sixteen feet was given by the Duke to the Corporation to widen Cow Lane, thence called Clumber Street, and to keep company with the change Boot Lane became Milton Street. The house was afterwards used as a place of public entertainment, and pulled down in 1831. There was a great cellar or cave attached to the house, deep down in the solid rock, and when the Great Central Railway built their tunnel under Thurland Street this rock cellar was cut through, and the wine and spirit merchant who used it claimed and obtained exceedingly heavy compensation for its loss. The Duke of Newcastle claimed for the freehold under the street, but no compensation was awarded.

GERVASE WYLDE, of Nettleworth, Warsop, in early life was a merchant, and resided in Andalusia, Spain, but when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada he placed his services at the disposal of Queen Elizabeth, and at his own cost fitted out a ship, and joined the English Fleet. After the defeat of the Spaniards, he returned to Nettleworth, and married Margaret Burgess, of Nottingham, by whom he had six sons and three daughters. He was Muster Master for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, which office he retained because he had "well discharged his place." He appears to have been at one time a verderer of Sherwood Forest.

He was ninety-three when he died. He must have been a man of some importance at home, for in the fine old parish church his pew and three others were family pews, while the rest of the parishioners sat apart from their wives. (Rev. R. J. King's Register).

SAMUEL UNWIN & SONS, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, were, according to the researches of Mr. G. G. Bonser, a very prosperous business firm about the middle of the eighteenth century. They manufactured gingham, and nankeen, and hosiery. The worthy parents married at Teversal Church, 20th January, 1735, occupied the Hall, the site of which was where "The Lawn" now is. "The best rooms," says a letter in 1779, " are occupied as warehouses and counting houses for the cotton manufactory." They were plain, worthy people, who visited all the families in the neighbourhood, even the Duke of Portland, and yet retained some of their original manners. "Their carriage is studded with brass nails, their horses are heavy and bobtailed, and their coachman's hair in a state of nature." "Mr. Samuel, the son, had a Swiss servant, and phaeton, and pair of horses."

Mrs. Unwin took the principal care of attending to the business. Her industry laid the foundation of one of the largest hosiery concerns in the kingdom. They also established a banking business, and Mr. Bonser gives a copy of the promissory notes issued by the firm, headed "Sutton Works," and giving a view of the Works, and a windmill in the rear. This issue of notes, it is stated, was the origin of the Nottingham & Notts. Bank, of which Edward Unwin (died 1841) was the first chairman, and it recently merged in the London, Westminster & Parr's Bank, later becoming the Westminster Bank.

This commercial development operated in several ways: (1) By skill, energy, economy and integrity the Unwins acquired a fortune. (2) Work, and a living, was found for a large number of workpeople for many years. (3) The regular employment attracted a great many people from other parts, and small traders built cottage houses regardless of sanitary arrangements, or gardens, or neatness; for there was no parochial control. (4) When trade and employment failed, Sutton had become a place of intense ugliness and poverty, which the Silk business carried on afterwards by several firms, failed to remove, but which the colliery developments, and the modern hosiery factory system, have considerably modified, and improved. (Mr. Bonser's paper).

JOHN BOOT, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, who married in 1724, was a maker of clocks, and those clocks were valued for the goodness of their workmanship, and because the work was done with exactitude. His nephew John (son of Isaac, who died in 1752) developed the business. The clock cases also came to be valued: made of oak, and of solid workmanship, priced in the books of Haslam, who made them, at ten shillings each, but after one hundred and fifty years wear were as good as when they were made. There are not many of these clocks left in the Sutton district, but enquiries for them come from afar. (G. G. Bonser).

JOHN HOUSMAN BARBER, (1775-1833), was a Grocer and Tallow Chandler, Hollow Stone, Nottingham. He was Sheriff in 1816, Alderman, Mayor in 1817, 1825 and 1831, the latter being when the Castle was burnt. He was the object of attempted crime in 1820 when, standing in his counting house, a miscreant fired at him a horse pistol, or blunderbuss, heavily charged with slugs, but the shot missed. The dastardly act called forth many tokens of respect, for Mr. Barber was an unwearied worker for the public good. A reward of five hundred guineas was offered, but without result. He was a terror to evildoers.

In 1815 the Baptist Church in Park Street, Nottingham, requested him to preach in the villages as occasion offered, especially at Arnold. He promoted the building of George Street Chapel, and, in addition to giving his share, he begged money in the town, and travelled hundreds of miles in visiting the Baptist community, and so collected the funds to pay for the cost of building.

Richard Morley
Richard Morley

John Morley
John Morley

I. R. MORLEY stand for John and Richard Morley, born in the old Manor House adjoining Sneinton Church, their father being a small farmer and a hosiery manufacturer, a combination not unusual from one hundred to two hundred years ago. In 1797 it was decided that John should go to London, and open a small warehouse for the sale of the goods manufactured in Nottingham and its villages, under the direction of Richard. The warehouse in Nottingham was first in Greyhound Street, and later occupied the whole Eastern side of Fleteher Gate.

RICHARD MORLEY, (1775-1855), largely developed the Hosiery business in Fletcher Gate, Nottingham, and extensively employed workmen in the surrounding villages. He was Mayor in 1836 and 1841; was an Alderman of the Corporation, and a Justice of the Peace; was Chairman of the Board of Guardians for the Union in which Sneinton was included. He took an active part in the building of the Mechanics' Institute, and was a Deacon of Castle Gate Chapel, and participated in many social efforts for the advantage of the people. The condition of the working framework-knitters was shockingly bad, as were the customs of the trade, but the house built up the tradition that they should pay the best wages then current, but still miserably small, and try to find regular work as far as practicable.

JOHN MORLEY, (1768-1848), set up the hosiery business in London in a small way, and lived on the premises. With untiring diligence, a cultivated mind, and shrewd common sense he soon increased the sales of the Nottingham goods, which became ever expanding. He afterwards took a house in Homerton, where most of his children were born, and later he bought a large house at Hackney.

ARTHUR MORLEY, (1812-1860), was a son of Richard Morley, and was at the head of the Fletcher Gate business in the middle of the last century. He was distinguished for his thoughtful interest in the welfare of the workpeople. Outside business matters he took an active part in the educational work of the Mechanics' Institute, in the establishing of Young Men's Improvement Societies. It was largely through him that Albion Chapel was built, and the schools in the adjoining street were chiefly paid for by him, but his sympathies and work were far beyond denominational limits.

Thomas Hill
Thomas Hill

Samuel Morley
Samuel Morley

THOMAS HILL, J.P., (d. 1909, aged 87 years), on the death of Arthur Morley took charge of the local part of the business, and under his direction the Manvers Street, Handel Street, Daybrook and other factories were opened and developed; the factory system with its better machinery, lighting and sanitation, its regular hours and standard wages bringing great benefit to the workers, and Parliament abolished frame rents and charges.

SAMUEL MORLEY, (1809-1886), the son of John Morley, was born in 1809, and at sixteen entered the counting house in London. He soon proved himself to be not only industrious, but having great energy, combined with capacity for management, and this, guided by deep religious convictions. In 1840 he became the virtual head of the London business, for his father retired, in order to devote himself to religious and social work. Thereupon the business greatly extended, and when his uncle Richard, and his cousin Arthur, died, he became the sole managing partner. More than forty years before Old Age Pensions were adopted he devised a system for his aged workpeople whereby he allowed each of them six shillings a week, without work, and other retiring allowances cost him over £2,000 a year. He took an active part in promoting elementary education, always insisting on simple Bible teaching. He was elected M.P. for Nottingham, but was unseated through the illegal doings of too zealous friends. He was M.P. for Bristol from 1868 to 1885. He served on the London School Board 1870 to 1876. His benefactions to public charities and religious institutions were very large. In 1885 Mr. Gladstone, as Prime Minister, wrote Mr. Morley, by Queen Victoria's command, offering him a peerage, adding "I do not know that I have ever had a more genuine pleasure in conveying a proposal of this nature than now, when I make it to one who has earned so many irrefragable titles to the honourable regard and warm reverence of his countrymen." The next day Mr. Morley replied that he sincerely valued Her Majesty's kindness, but begged respectfully to decline the proposal. In his later years he became wide in his sympathies, and broad in his politics. He died in 1886, and at his funeral there were deputations from ninety-seven institutions and associations with which he was connected. There is a statue of him in Parliament Street, but both the stone and the site are unsuitable for their purpose.

GEORGE GOODALL, (1839-1917) spent his whole business life in connection with the firm of Messrs. I. R. Morley, whose service he entered as an apprentice at fourteen in 1852, and gradually his position was advanced, for he was attentive to his duties, took an interest in his work, was methodical, reliable, and so passed through the stages of manager of a department, general manager, and in 1892 became a partner. His name was in 1906, added to the Commission of the Peace. He was for many years an active member of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce. He was honourable in business, and religious in spirit, and active in connection with social and religious work, for more than fifty years acting as a local preacher.

On the wall of the Fletcher Gate entrance is a War Memorial to 1,203 men of this firm who answered the call in the Great War, 171 of whom made the supreme sacrifice and whose names are recorded. Erected in grateful memory by the Firm and Staff.

THE WILSONS.

WILLIAM WILSON was a Cotton Spinner at the Mill on Ilkeston Road, Old Radford, and resided for some years in Plumptre House, Stoney Street. His wife was a sister of John and Richard Morley, the founders of the hosiery firm. He was one of the Sheriffs in 1798, for there were then two town Sheriffs, the duality being a remnant of the days when one was appointed for the English borough, and the other for the French borough. He served as Mayor in 1811, and three times afterwards. In December of the year named, the price of wheat was 140 shillings per quarter, and there was famine and destitution. The Mayor called a meeting for promoting relief, and £4,184 was raised. In 1831 he was acting as ex-Mayor, and when the Reform Riots began, on a Goose Fair Sunday, Mr. Wilson was fetched out of Castle Gate Chapel, where he was a deacon, and rushing out he exhorted the rioters to refrain and disperse, when he was struck a severe blow on the neck, and thereupon the Riot Act was read. The popular fury burst out again the next day, and the Castle was burnt.

WILLIAM WILSON, (d. 1866), son of the above, carried on the cotton business for some years, and lived at the house adjoining the Leen at Old Radford. He built Mission Schools. The latter part of his life was spent at Sherwood Hall, Mansfield, where his son

HENRY J. WILSON leased one thousand acres of forest land, and in lieu of rent had to subdue and clear it, and bring it into a proper state of cultivation. He then removed to Sheffield, and for fifteen years served as a member of the School Board, and afterwards was for twenty-five years M.P. for the Holmfirth division, every election, except one, being contested by a fresh opponent. He took an active part in opposing the state regulation of vice, and supporting Social Purity, being co-Secretary with Mrs. Josephine Butler in that work. As a member of the Royal Commission on the growth of Opium in India to be sent to China for the sake of revenue, he visited India to see its action, and joined in securing its abandonment.

J. WYCLIFFE WILSON, brother of the foregoing, removed from Radford to Sheffield, where he had the management, and later the chairmanship, of the Sheffield Smelting Company. In 1906 he was Lord Mayor of Sheffield. On the Board of Guardians he originated the system of Scattered Homes for Workhouse Children, which system has been adopted in more than one hundred Unions. He took an active part in the classification and separation of the deserving inmates from the known vicious ones. His portrait, painted by Mr. Hugh Riviere, was publicly presented, and adorns the walls of the Town Hall. For fifty years he was a deacon of the Nether Congregational Church.

MISS WILSON, sister of the foregoing, became the wife of W. Hind-Smith, of Y.M.C.A. note, and in Leeds did a good work in connection with the British Workman movement;—that is—the Public House without the intoxicating drink.

HERBERT INGRAM, (1811-1860), carried on the business of bookseller, stationer, printer and binder, in Chapel Bar, Nottingham. He was born at Boston, and educated at the Free School there. When out of his apprenticeship he, for two years, worked as a journeyman printer in London, so as to improve his knowledge and skill. He then set up in business in Nottingham; and in 1842 founded the "Illustrated London News." He became M.P. for Boston in 1856, was twice re-elected, and became a munificent benefactor to the town. One of his efforts was to provide a good supply of drinking water, for which there was great need. He and his eldest son were unfortunately drowned in Lake Michigan, when on a visit to the United States. A statue to his memory was erected on the South East side of Boston church.

After 82 years of useful work by the newspaper it is (1924) pleasant to read that the present editor of the "Illustrated London News," Captain Bruce Ingram, is the grandson of the founder and original proprietor, issuing the paper from the same building as that from which his grandfather broke traditional use by giving a picture of a fire at Hamburg, and by many woodcuts.

JOHN BRADLEY, (d. 1866, aged 64) was a thread manufacturer of Nottingham and Mansfield. He was also a member of the Nottingham Town Council, and Alderman and Mayor. He married a daughter of Micah Gedling, whose house stands at the East end of Gedling Grove, and they had a very large family, filling two seats at Parliament Street Chapel. One of his daughters became the wife of Sir Mark Firth, the principal donor to Sheffield University. Mr. Bradley left £400 towards the building of new schoolrooms. He was regarded as a wise counsellor, and this was the way in which he had been trained by his father, who in business matters always consulted John, and asked his opinion of the course to be pursued. If John's opinion was approved it was commended; if otherwise, the difficulties and objections were suggested until John gave a revised opinion, which was followed by wise compliments, and so came the habit of weighing every situation.

Thomas Adams

THOMAS ADAMS, (1807-1873), was a Lace Manufacturer and Merchant, and his firm built the large and handsome warehouse in Stoney Street, Nottingham. He was born at Worksop, and apprenticed at Newark. He displayed considerable interest in the welfare of their four hundred workpeople. A chaplain conducted a religious service in the basement of the warehouse, which service he attended every morning at eight o'clock, and the half hour occupied was paid for to the workpeople as warehouse time. He was also a great benefactor of churches and schools. "I can make money," was one of his remarks, "but I cannot make a speech." Stained glass windows to his memory are in St. Mary's Church, and in Lenton Church. St. Philip's Church, in Pennyfoot Street, was designed as a "Thomas Adams Memorial Church," built at a cost of £8,000, but since that time the greater part of the houses in the parish have for sanitary reasons been demolished in what is called "the Carter Gate area," thus creating a very difficult position not only for the church, but more still for the very poor people expelled, for whom no housing provision had been, or since has been made.

CHRISTOPHER THOMSON, (b. 1799), who resided at Edwinstowe, published "The Autobiography of an Artizan," educated himself in early youth, and then sought to help the labouring men to cultivate their minds and so to appreciate the beauties around them. He worked as a house painter and decorator, but was not satisfied with working for himself, he wanted also to benefit his neighbours, so he promoted and got established a village library, and obtained gentlemen to give lectures, and started an Odd Fellows lodge.

Mr. Robert White, in his "Sherwood Forest," referring to Christopher Thomson adds the words, " venerated name," "who made a special measurement of the Major Oak," (p. 222), and he adds a chapter entitled, "A Day in Sherwood Forest," by Christopher Thomson, which indicates a passionate love for the Forest and its scenery; and of the Major Oak he says:—

"His bole grips the earth at a circumference of ninety feet, a little higher up six feet from the ground his girth is thirty feet, and of his fifty arms which he throws so majestically around, one alone is twelve feet in circumference, while unitedly he waves his oaken wreath over a diameter of two hundred and forty feet." (p. 248).

Thomson's character and work is referred to in that charmingly illustrated book, "Scenery of Sherwood Forest," by Joseph Rogers.

RICHARD ALLEN, (1814-1884), of Long Row, Nottingham, Stationer and Printer, was a useful man in printing many local, historical, or scientific books and papers. "Allen's Railway Time Table" was a great public convenience. His "Red Book of Local Institutions" was helpful. "A Souvenir of Newstead Abbey" was among his booklets. His "Great Midland Almanack," published for many years, was of a superior type,— filled with notable items, which he collected all the year round, commencing each Christmas Day for the year but one following. He joined the Robin Hoods when that body was first formed, and having a fine tall, portly figure, and a long beard, he was proud to walk with two others in front of the Robin Hoods on marches, as pioneers carrying formidable looking but polished implements for removing all obstacles impeding the march. He was Provincial Grand Secretary of the Freemasons 21 years.

SAMUEL FOX, (1781-1868), was a Grocer in High Street, and resided at the top of Hounds Gate, Nottingham. A member of the Society of Friends and participator in every philanthropic effort that engaged attention in the town, he actively promoted education when it cost subscriptions to build and maintain schools. He would be found every Sunday morning at the Adult School in East Street, teaching those who desired to learn how to read and write, for in those days the children of the poor had to go to work, without any opportunity, so far as the mass were concerned, of going to a day school. In the Life of George Cadbury, the "Founder of Bournville," it is stated that the Nottingham Adult School was founded in 1798 by Wm. Singleton and Samuel Fox, and that this school was visited by Joseph Sturge when he was a candidate for Parliament in 1842, and it led to the formation of an adult school in Severn Street, Birmingham, in 1845. Samuel Fox energetically supported the abolition of negro slavery. He. was a member of the public local body called the "Board of Health" when, in 1832, the Asiatic cholera scourge occurred in Nottingham. There were about eight hundred oases of the plague, involving some three hundred deaths. No public provision was available for burying the bodies. The churchyards were full. There was a miserably scanty provision in some small burial grounds in Barker Gate, but these were surrounded by houses, whose inhabitants were alarmed at infected bodies being brought close to their homes. Public authorities move slowly, and schemes to be approved by Government departments move slower still. Samuel Fox cut the knot, or solved the problem. He had a small grass field, the first to the South at the East end of Beck Street, the site of which its now largely occupied by Bath Street, "Bury them in my field, I will give it for the purpose," and to this day, although a field belonging to St. Mary's glebe was added, and another field purchased, and the name was officially painted "St. Ann's Cemetery," and afterwards "St. Mary's Cemetery," yet the common people in the district still call it "Fox's Close" or "Fox's Burying Ground." There is another reason than the gift. Two men during that awful "visitation" as they called the calamity, but it would have been more appropriately called ''the vengeance on neglect and insanitary conditions,"—two men especially went in and out amidst the plague, doing whatever was necessary for the public welfare, regardless of their own safety, and they were Samuel Fox, the Quaker, and the Roman Catholic Priest —the Rev. R. W. Willson—afterwards Bishop, who built St. Barnabas' Church, on Derby Road.

In the "Life of Bishop Willson" it is stated that Samuel Fox in consenting to the consecration by the Archbishop of York of the Burial Ground was unaware that the control would thereby be vested in the Vicar of St. Mary's and the Church of England, and thus Dissenting ministers would be excluded from officiating. However that may be, Samuel Fox became the leader in effort and purse to provide a cemetery in which burials could take place regardless of ecclesiastical distinctions. In 1836-7 representative men of all the denominations in Nottingham, thirty-seven in number, joined in a petition to Parliament praying that they might be incorporated, and pledging themselves to establish a Cemetery, if Parliament would give them powers. They agreed that part of the cemetery might, if so desired, be consecrated by the Archbishop, but other part should not be,—there was breadth—the breadth of God.

The act was passed, and Samuel Fox was appointed one of the original Directors, and served two periods of four years each, and twenty years as Treasurer. The energy he showed may be measured by the attendances at Committee and other kinds of meetings. In one period the record of attendances was by ordinary Directors about five; half a dozen of the others attended ten times, but Samuel Fox gave twenty attendances.

Having got the act, the next step was to find a site in which suitability of soil, accessibility, and reasonable price could be combined. The Committee, after several other attempts, reported in favour of three fields on Sion Hill, behind the windmill at the top of Back Lane, belonging to Mr. Fox, and which he was willing to sell for the purpose at £96 an acre. The land of an adjoining owner could not be had for less than £168 per acre. In the tower over the entrance lodge Mr. Fox wanted a public clock, and to secure it he paid half the cost. He wanted a fountain in the centre of a square opposite to the office, and he would pay the whole cost. There was a difficulty as to the Directors building the Lodge adjoining Waverley Street on the four acres allotted by the Inclosure Commissioners, so he built the Lodge and presented the Directors of the Cemetery Company with it, and thus right through his course, so that the Company felt impelled to place a tablet in the chapel describing him as "its Munificent Benefactor."

He was active in promoting the welfare of the Mechanics' Institution, and if he saw an article of furniture required, would send it, and he joined two others in buying extra land.

He gave evidence before the Children's Employment Commission in 1842. He said for forty years he had taken an active part in promoting the education of the labouring classes in the town. In the day schools the children remain not more than twelve months. The teachers receive only £20 a year, and the children's pence, say £20 more. He had established and maintained a female Adult School, at which a great number of Sabbath School Teachers attend, but many of the Teachers of the Sabbath Schools are quite incompetent, and irregular in attendance. If children under nine are prevented being employed there must be schools for them.

When the Irish Famine occurred in 1847-8-9 and the people, not only there, but in England, were starving, for there seemed to be no employment, and bread was dear owing partly to duties and partly to seasons, Samuel Fox determined to import maize flour, then a little-known article, and he sold it to the poor at 2d. a stone less than it cost him. There were long queues in the street waiting to be served, and George Sheffield carried out all the arrangements. "A Lady," whom gossip placed as residing in the Park, pushed by all the applicants in order to be served first, but she was repulsed by Samuel. "Thee take thy place at the back, or thou wilt have no flour.''

It was an interesting sight, about 1850, to see in Samuel Fox's shop those two rows of assistants behind the long counters,—the Burts, the Hutchinsons, the Armitages, all dressed in Quaker garb, the men on one side in dark drab and the women on the other side all in Quaker caps, for there was a big business done, and the shop was crowded with customers, for everybody knew they would be served with the real article at a reasonable price, and the "thee's" and "thou's" were accompanied by a smile. They were all teetotalers, and pork pie and hot coffee were given to customers at Goose Fair.

On being solicited in 1867 for a donation towards the cost of building a British School, and the need for it being shown,—for those were the days in which all schools were voluntary, and must be built and sustained by donations and school pence—he remarked, "Thou art the third this morning on a similar errand but I'll help thee," and suiting the action to the word he pulled out his purse, when the applicant said, "Please do not give me any money to-day, for the School will not be commenced until £600 has been promised." "In that case, come again as soon as thou wants me." A few weeks passed, when Mr. Fox called upon the applicant and said, "I have brought thee £10 toward that School; some money came in that I did not expect, and thou had better have it, for if I keep it, it will be sure to go somewhere, and then I may not be able to help thee."

LEWIS HEYMANN, (d. 1869), Stoney Street, Nottingham, and West Bridgford Hall.

There was no man who did more to extend the lace trade of Nottingham than Lewis Heymann. He was a German, and Manager of A. J. Saalfeld Co. He had no money, but he had what is better—character, joined with energy, good taste, and agreeable manners. Mr. Alexander, a Hamburg capitalist, had confidence in him, which he justified, and very wisely he married Mr. Alexander's daughter Julia. He had designers in his warehouse where he could supervise them several times a day, S. W. Oscroft being at the head, and not only did he widely extend the trade in Nottingham goods by his knowledge of languages and of houses abroad, but he developed taste and skill to such an extent that the "Arts Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the International Exhibition of 1862" declared that "the productions of Nottingham now surpass those of France." Mr. Heymann won the Gold Medal of the Exhibition. He may be considered the pioneer of the curtain trade about 1850, for he created the demand, and then supplied it. He had successfully exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, when Mr. Richard Birkin was one of the judges, and one of the articles he exhibited was a design of Mr. Samuel Oscroft, who was then in his employ, in which the rose, thistle, and shamrock were successfully entwined.

One of his sons—long since deceased—is believed to have been the anonymous donor of £10,000 to the Nottingham University College. (See "Old Notts. Suburbs," p. 351).

ALBERT HEYMANN, Esq., J.P., (d. 1924, aged 87), a quiet, benevolent gentleman, was son of the above.

Richard Birkin

RICHARD BIRKIN and his son Sir Thomas I. Birkin, and his sons have for one hundred "years carried on a lace manufacturing business at New Basford, employing in normal times eight hundred persons, including many highly skilled ones. This enterprise has, of course, been conducted for personal advantage, but has been also beneficial to the workers, the locality, and the State. The operations include every branch of the trade.

Richard Birkin, who died in 1870 at Aspley Hall, was born at Belper. He commenced work in the lace trade just before the great boom of 1823, in which many speculators were ruined, but he by industry, skill, and economy survived, and later joined in partnership Alderman Biddle. He afterwards purchased Plumptre House and grounds in Stoney Street, which were for a period used by the School of Art, and later the street called Broadway was formed through the grounds. He was four times Mayor of Nottingham, was a Borough and County Magistrate, and a Director of the Midland Railway. His widow died two days after him, and both were buried in the same grave.

T I Birkin

SIR THOMAS ISAAC BIRKIN, Bart., (1831-1922) born at Basford, died at Ruddington Grange. He greatly developed the business established by his father, so that it became the largest of its class, adding the curtain business, and extensions in foreign countries. He acted as a Juror of the Paris Exhibition in 1878. He was Chairman of the Nottingham School of Art. Outside his business he had many engagements. He, in 1850, and for some years commanded a company of the Robin Hoods. In addition to his support of the Genemi Hospital, he gave the house and grounds called Forest House, and monetary gifts, to the Committee of the Children's Hospital. He was a President of the General Dispensary. He gave Obelisks, which stand in Queen Street and in the Castle grounds, in memory of the men who fell in the South African War. He was High Sheriff in 1892, a Deputy Lieutenant, Director of the Great Northern Railway, etc. He left over two million pounds, of which the Government Duty was over £900,000, and £3,000 went to charities.

LADY BIRKIN, who died six months before her husband, desired before her death to give £1,000 to the Children's Hospital, but had not expressed it in her will. Shortly afterwards Sir Thomas sent to the Secretary a cheque for the amount. A similar gift is acknowledged in the Report of the Samaritan Hospital for Women. They, in 1920, celebrated the sixty-fourth anniversary of their marriage.

COPESTAKE, MOORE & CO., Hounds Gate, Nottingham, and Cheapside, London.

Sampson Copestake, (1800-1874), the founder, in 1826 went from Radford to London to start the business. There little is recorded of him, but he is described as a man of amiability, modesty, patience, kindness, and common sense. George Moore was not a Nottingham man. He, having been a commercial traveller, joined the business when it was a very small one, and under his direction it became one of the largest in the trade in London, and their warehouse one of the largest in Nottingham. The large clock and bells which occupy the tower in Sneinton Market were the gift of Mr. Moore. The life of "George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist," was written by the famous Samuel Smiles, author of "Self-Help," and is a book for the young.