Geoffs Genealogy Update 2 October 2013
Wednesday October 2nd, 2013 | Geoff
I mentioned in my last post that I had been using the Land Tax records on the Ancestry.co.uk website to track the residence of James Jacobson (c1692-1759) at King Street, Tower Hill, in London. This month I have continued to work with the Land Tax Registers, but this time concentrating my research on other members of the Jacobson clan. This has been part of my efforts to update my knowledge of this branch of the Bankes Pedigree in the light of records that have appeared on the internet since I last carried out a similar exercise.
This research has yielded some good results. We already knew that William Jacobson (c1732-1787) was a son of the above mentioned James, and earned his crust as a Linen Draper in the Poultry area of the City of London. According to the London Encyclopaedia (1) The Poultry was a continuation of Cheapside, heading towards the Bank. This latest research has confirmed that William occupied rented premises in this street, and also added a bit more detail, as I have been able to track him at The Poultry from 1756 to 1784. There was a sheriff’s prison in this area of London, and it appears to have been very close to William’s premises, as he was consistently listed in the returns a couple of entries after the Compter. This cannot have been an altogether pleasant experience, as “…it emanated a ‘mixture of scents from tobacco, foul feet, dirty shirts, stinking breaths and unclean carcases'”(2)
It seems that William may have retired to the country sometime after 1784, as in 1786 he can be traced in the Land Tax Registers for Hackney. If the idea of retiring to the country in Hackney seems a little odd to us, it certainly was not odd in William’s time, as Hackney was then a largely rural area, albeit an area that was starting to be developed. In 1786 and 1787 we find William living in Mare Street, Hackney, and paying a rent of £16 per annum to a certain Peter Hammond, who owned a number of properties in the same street. William died in 1787, and was buried in Hackney Independent Chapel, also in Mare Street.
William Jacobson had five children, two of whom died in childhood. One of his offspring was another William Jacobson (1776-1834). We found him in the Land Tax records for 1810, 1813 and 1814, apparently living in Hoxton Square, Shoreditch and working at his business address in Quaker Street, Spitalfields. Possibly he used to travel each day to and from work during this period. Our first sighting of him in Quaker Street was in 1798, and the final record was dated 1826, when he was listed as Jacobson & Reynolds. We know nothing of his business partner other than his surname, but we do know that William earned his living as a Silk Dyer. Silk production was the main industry in Spitalfields at that time.
The first sighting we have of Jacobson & Reynolds, as opposed to Jacobson was dated 1813. Although Mr Reynolds is often not mentioned in the listings it seems probable that in fact he was in business with William throughout the period 1813-1826. Kent’s Directory of 1823 lists the business as:
Jacobson & Reynolds, dyers, Quaker-street, Spitalfields (3)
Over the period William was listed in these records renting several properties at the same time. In 1815, for instance, he was renting two houses and also his business premises. The rent paid on each of the houses was £10 per annum, and the rent on the business premises was £35 per annum.
We know from other sources that William Jacobson was living in Shoreditch when he died on 27 April 1834. He was buried in St Thomas Square Independent Burial Ground, Hackney.
Joseph Gutteridge Jacobson (1781-1828) was another son of William Jacobson (c1732-1787), and I was able to track him in the Land Tax Registers from 1818 to 1828. He was recorded in Bridge Ward, City of London, and we know from other sources that he was trading as a druggist in Gracechurch Street. From 1818-1821 he is listed in partnership as Jacobson & Beddome, but thereafter he was listed in his name. This reflects the fact that Joseph’s partnership with Samuel Beddome was dissolved in 1822(4).
In the registers for 1826 and 1827 we found that Joseph Gutteridge Jacobson signed as one of the assessors, which must indicate that he was a man who was well regarded in his community, although perhaps not the most popular of men!
A week after his death on 18 April 1828 Joseph was buried at St Thomas Square Independent Burial Ground, Hackney.
I found this research very satisfying, and feel that I have learned quite a lot about our Jacobsons as a result of it. It now remains for me to enter all this information in my records – a very large task, I can assure you!
Notes:
1 & 2 Weinreb, B & Hibbert, C (1983), The London Encyclopaedia, MacMillan, p 636
3. Kent’s Original London Directory 1823, Henry Kent, p 183.
4. London Gazette 23 March 1822, p 10
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