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French and Company
At the end of the 1840s the cork-cutter shop at 28 Piccadilly was vacated on the retirement of Joseph Hardy and William Page. The business came under the new management of ‘French & Butler’ who were an exhibitor at the Great Exhibition staged in 1851 in Hyde Park, London. The exhibition catalogue titled the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations had the entry: (1)
French & Butler, 28 Piccadilly – Manufacturers and Importers.
Specimens of different qualities of ready-made corks of
English and Spanish manufacture.
The two business partners were Beal French and William Bradley Butler. The main headquarters of the cork manufacturing enterprise of Beal French was the address 51 Crutched Friars in the City of London.
Shortly after the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Piccadilly shop was relocated to 178 Piccadilly, and Butler resigned his interest in the company (2). William Bradley Butler became established as a cork merchant and cork manufacturer at No. 1 Savage Gardens, a street running south from Crutched Friars (3).
For the French family, the Post Office London Directory for 1853 listed:
Beal French, cork merchant & manufacturer & importer of spanish corks,
51 Crutched Friars.
French (Beal) & Co., cork manufacturers, 178 Piccadilly.
In the 1854 Post Office London Directory the Piccadilly location of French & Co was recognized as ‘cork manufacturers to her Majesty & the Royal Family’. In the street index, published in the 1854 directory, 178 Piccadilly was situated on the south side of the street, just west of the cross street of Duke Street, St James’s. At the corner, on the east side of Duke Street, was ‘Fortnum, Mason & Co., grocers’, 181 to 183 Piccadilly; a few doors along was ‘Thomas Hatchard, bookseller’, 187 Piccadilly. It is notable that Fortnum & Mason and Hatchards have both continued to trade at the same location to this day.
The annual London directories reveal that, by 1860, French & Co had left Piccadilly and set up an office at 28 King Street, St James’s Square, near the south end of Duke Street. The 1860 street directory showed that a neighbour was the club Willis’s Rooms, also known as Almack’s, at 26 King Street. The King Street office of French & Co did not last very long – by 1861 it was closed and the sole location of Beal French’s cork manufacturing business became 51 Crutched Friars.
Advertisement, 1862
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| from the
Official Catalogue of the Industrial Department,
International Exhibition, London, 1862, Google Book online  .
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In an advertisement for ‘Beal French & Sons, Cork Merchants & Manufacturers’, published in 1862, the words ‘By Appointment to Her Majesty and the Royal Family’ were written on a ribbon above the Royal Arms. At the bottom of the advertisement was a statement that the firm was established in 1808.
The Founder: David French
The original founder was David French, the son of John French of East Farleigh, Kent. In August 1796, David arrived in London to start an apprenticeship with Joshua Hardy, cork-cutter and member of the Pattenmakers’ Company of London (4), who was the father of the Piccadilly cork-cutter Joseph Hardy (who was chronicled in the previous section). David French’s term as an apprentice with Joshua Hardy started near the end of the seven-year apprentice term of William Page who later became a business partner of Joseph Hardy (5).
David’s brother named Beal French married Barbara Durrant at a wedding held at All Saints Church, Frindsbury, Kent, on 3 April 1804. Just six months later, on 18 October 1804, Beal French was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church, Chatham, Kent. In the new year, at Chatham, his son Beal French, born 4 March, was baptised on 10 April 1805 at the Independent Ebenezer Chapel (6). Beal French was later to become the head of the cork-cutter business founded by his paternal uncle.
David French and Elizabeth Usborne, of Staplehurst, Kent, were married in London on 4 September 1808 at St Olave’s Church, Hart Street (7), located at the north end of Seething Lane where Hart Street becomes Crutched Friars.
From 1809 and onwards the annual Post Office London Directory included the entry ‘David French, cork-manufacturer, 51 Crutched Friars’. The profession of cork-cutter of the eighteenth century was now upgraded to cork manufacturer and cork merchant.
David French, aged 56, of ‘Crutched Fryers’, was buried on 9 February 1836 at Wycliffe Chapel, a Congregational church independent of the Church of England (Anglican Church), built in about 1831 at Philpot Street by Commercial Road in East London (8). There is no record of children from his marriage (9). After his death, the business at 51 Crutched Friars continued to operate under the joint management of his widow Elizabeth and his nephew Beal French.
The 1841 Post Office London Directory described: ‘French & Nephew, merchants & manufacturers of french, spanish and faro cork, 51 Crutched Friars’. Faro is a city in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, where today cork factory tours are a tourist attraction (10).
The Second Generation: Beal French
In the 1837 United Kingdom general election, called after the death of King William IV, members of the London companies (liverymen) qualified for the vote; a poll book recorded that Beal French of Crutched Friars exercised his right to vote as a member of the Pattenmakers’ Company (11).
In November 1845 the London Gazette announced the end of the business partnership named ‘Widow French and Nephew’ on the retirement of Elizabeth French. Beal French was now in charge of steering the cork-cutting enterprise at 51 Crutched Friars through the Victorian era.
The wedding of Beal French and Mary Abigail Lewis took place on 23 September 1831 at St George-in-the-East Church situated near the London Docks (12). Their two eldest sons, Beal Frederick French and David French, born respectively on 3 August 1833 and 19 May 1835, were baptised at Wycliffe Chapel, Philpot Street (13).
David French was trained to become the heir to the family cork manufacturing business, while Beal Frederick French qualified as a solicitor and eventually set up his practice at the offices of the family business. The 1861 Post Office London Directory listed:
Beal French & Son, cork merchants & manufacturers & importers of spanish corks,
by appointment to Her Majesty & the Royal Family, 51 Crutchedfriars.
Beal Frederick French, solicitor, 51 Crutchedfriars.
Beal French & Son hosted an annual dinner, at their business premises, for their employees and valued customers from the beer and wine trades. The festivities to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the firm were reported in The City Press on 13 March 1869. (Possibly this was the 50th anniversary of when Beal French started as an apprentice to his uncle who founded the business in 1808). The journalist gave an account of the congeniality of the occasion and noted that the ‘warehouse or shop in which the dinner took place was plentifully hung with flags of all nations, and presented a gay appearance’ (14). An attendee George Hibbert was located in the 1869 Post Office London Directory as representing ‘Edward & George Hibbert, wine, spirit & export porter merchants, 7 Jewry Street, Aldgate EC & 68 Fore Street, Limehouse E.’ Another guest was ‘W. H. Teulon, C.C.’ The post-nominal initials indicate that he was a Common Councilman elected in the City of London. He was the hop merchant William Hensman Teulon (1809–1899) of ‘Teulon & Doggett, hop merchants, 6 Cooper’s Row EC & Southwark Street, Borough SE’ (15).
The catering, in the form of a ‘substantial dinner’, was provided by the Cheshire Cheese tavern, the neighbour at 48 Crutched Friars, supervised by John Wright who was the manager from about 1848 to 1882 (16).
After Fenchurch Street railway station opened in 1841 (17), the trains of the London and Blackwall Railway crossed over Crutched Friars along a railway bridge. A sketch from the 1840s shows the railway arch hugging up to the Cheshire Cheese tavern which was demolished not long after to make way for expansion of the railway line. A new premises for the Cheshire Cheese was built under the new railway arches where it still operates as a pub at the same location today.
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The Cheshire Cheese Inn, 48 Crutched Friars, 1840s
Part of a sketch by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd (1793–1864) |
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The border below the sketch (not shown) has the words:
‘The Cheshire Cheese, Crutched Friars – now pulled down’. The railway arch to the left has the label: ‘Railway Bridge – Blackwall Railway’. Beal French & Son, at 51 Crutched Friars, was located a few doors along to the right. from the London Picture Archive , London Metropolitan Archives.
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When the rebuilt Fenchurch Street railway station opened in 1854 the trains now rumbled over the railway bridge by the cork factory of Beal French & Son at 51 Crutched Friars.
A detailed map of the area, from a survey completed in 1887 for the purposes of a Fire Insurance Plan, illustrated the platforms of Fenchurch Street Station. The railway bridge over Crutched Friars was marked with the phrase ‘P.H. Under Bridge’. P.H. was the abbreviation for Post House to indicate that this referred to the Cheshire Cheese at the address 48 Crutched Friars. The building clinging to the north-east of the railway bridge, 51 Crutched Friars, was identified as the French Cork Factory and the next building, 52–53 Crutched Friars, was labelled Tea & Cork Warehouse & Offices.
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Plan of Fenchurch Street Railway Station, 1887
Part of Sheet 62 in Vol III of Goad’s ‘Insurance Plan of London’ |
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At the right, the red outline has been added to highlight the building with
the name French Cork Factory. The lower end fronts Crutched Friars, marked number 51. At the upper left of this building there is a small box with the letter H, the symbol for a Hoist. from the London Picture Archive , London Metropolitan Archives.
Interesting information about the Goad Fire Insurance Plans, including a guide to abbreviations and symbols, is provided by the National Library of Scotland .
Also see the
British
Library .
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Beal French and his son David were both active members of the Pattenmakers’ Company of London. Beal French was Master of the Company, elected for a one-year term, in 1867, 1870, 1872 and 1875; David French served as Master in the years 1873 and 1876 (18).
In the 1871 census the family home of Beal French, ‘cork merchant’, was south of the River Thames in Eltham, now part of Greater London, but then in the county of Kent where he was born. He may have been attracted to the area when Eltham Station (now Mottingham) on the North Kent Loop Line of the South Eastern Railway opened in 1866 providing railway links to London (19).
Beal French, aged 73, retired on 31 December 1878 and handed over the management of the family business to his son David French (20). A death notice was printed in The Times, London, on 31 December 1889:
On the 27th [December], at his residence, Eltham, Kent, Beal French,
late of 51 Crutchedfriars, E.C., in the 85th year.
The Third Generation: David French
The company Beal French and Son now had the son David French at the helm. The 1881 census enumerated David French, aged 45, living on Amhurst Road, Hackney with his wife Emma, sons Lewis (aged 7), Percy (aged 2), and Hubert (9 months), and daughters Alice (aged 5), and Mabel (aged 3). He reported his profession as ‘cork merchant and manufacturer employing 16 men and 6 boys’. Of the live-in servants, Mary Charter’s devoted service to the French family spanned the census returns from 1871 to 1891.
David French was an active member of the Lower Clapton Congregational Church. A newspaper ad placed in 1874 requested that applications for the position of organist, with an annual salary of £40, be sent to David French of 193 Amhurst Road (21).
By the time of the 1891 census, David French and his family had settled in Eltham, where his father had made his home. Their family home was named Mayfield, Court Road, Eltham.
In the 1890 Post Office London Directory the firm of Beal French and Son at 51 Crutched Friars was listed in the trades of ‘Cork Cutters & Manufacturers’, and ‘Cork Merchants & Importers’. Under the management of David French, Beal French and Son held a Royal Warrant as the supplier of wine corks to the Royal Household of Queen Victoria, giving the right to use the Royal Arms on trade cards (22). The Royal Warrant continued with both King Edward VII and King George V (23).
In the 1901 census, David and Emma French’s sons Percy, now aged 22, and Hubert, aged 20, living with their parents in Eltham, both reported their occupation as ‘assistant cork merchant’. They later became partners in Beal French and Son.
When David French retired on 30 June 1911 George V had just began his second year as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India. On the retirement of their father, the two brothers Percy and Hubert became the joint managers of the ‘business as Cork Merchants and Manufacturers, at 51 Crutched Friars, in the city of London’ (24).
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Crutched Friars looking east from 37,
photograph by Charles Goss, 11 February 1911. |
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The arch of Fenchurch Street Station is visible in the background.
Behind the arch was the location of the French Cork Factory at 51 Crutched Friars. photograph in the collections of the Bishopsgate Institute, displayed at the webpage: Charles Goss’ Vanishing London .
Another photograph of buildings in Crutched Friars, dated 1912, London Metropolitan Archives
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On 3 August 1911, just one month after his retirement, David French, aged 76, passed away. He was buried at the Eltham parish church of St John the Baptist (25). He was predeceased by his wife Emma in July 1909.
The Fourth Generation: the French Brothers
The brothers Percy and Hubert French continued the work of Beal French and Son as an official supplier of wine corks to the Royal Household of King George V (26). Their partnership ended on the death of Percy French, aged 41, in May 1920 (27).
In the decade of the 1920s Hubert French managed the cork manufacturing business at 51 Crutched Friars with the help of his older brother Lewis French. The commercial section of the Post Office London Directory for 1925 had the entry:
Beal French & Son (Hubert French & Lewis French, C.I.E., C.B.E.),
cork merchants, 51 Crutched Friars EC3.
A biographical note for Lewis French stated:
Lewis French was born in October 1873, he was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School and St John’s College Oxford. He served with the Indian Civil Service and was Secretary to Government of the Punjab. During WW1 he was Secretary for Military Affairs to the Punjab Government, and Secretary to the Provincial Recruiting Board (28).
He was awarded C.I.E. (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire) in 1914 and C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1919 (29).
On 5 December 1930 the London Gazette published a notice that the partnership of ‘Hubert French and Lewis French, carrying on business as Cork Manufacturers and Merchants, at 51 Crutched Friars’ was dissolved. This appears to mark the closure of the family business (30). The company’s history was remarkable. Founded by David French in 1808 the business operated at 51 Crutched Friars for over 120 years.
Beal French & Son’s cork manufacturing business was absorbed into Barthes-Roberts Ltd. For more information see the section London Cork Merchants: 20th Century.
Epilogue
The London Gazette, 8 December 1931, reported the appointment of Lewis French, Esq., C.I.E., C.B.E. to be an Official Member of the Executive Council of Palestine. He and his wife Margaret made their home at 20 Lytton Grove, Putney in southwest London (31).
Lewis French, in his 72nd year, died 20 April 1945 (32) (less than three weeks before V-E Day – Victory in Europe, May 8 – the end of World War II in Europe). He was survived by his brother Hubert French.
Digital Archives and Databases
- Family history records, with browsable document images, hosted by Ancestry:
- Census records, The National Archives.
- London Directories, London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library.
- London parish registers, London Metropolitan Archives:
- Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812
- Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932
- Deaths and Burials, 1813–2003
- Westminster parish registers, City of Westminster Archives Centre.
- London Gazette, The Gazette website.
- Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) Wills, National Archives, London.
- The Times Digital Archive, The Times in partnership with Gale Cengage Learning.
Notes
(1)
Great Exhibition 1851 catalogue,
Internet
Archive ,
(top right of page 310 of the digital file; page 786 of the original document).
(2) The London Gazette, 9 July 1852, published a notice of the end of the partnership of Beal French and William Bradley Butler, cork manufacturers, at 178 Piccadilly.
(3) A notice in The Times, London, 10 March 1869:
| William Bradley Butler, late of No. 1 Savage Gardens in the City of London, cork merchant and cork manufacturer (who died in or about the month of October 1868) . . . . Rebecca Martha Butler, Edward Arthur Roberts, and Catherine Butler, the executors of the deceased. |
Probate record dated 7 November 1868 (probate record search: gov.uk
):
| The will of William Bradley Butler, late of 1 Savage Gardens in the City of London and of Hill Side, Balham in the county of Surrey, deceased, who died 21 October 1868 at Margate in the county of Kent, was proved at the Principal Registry by the oaths of Rebecca Martha Butler of Hill Side aforesaid, widow, the relict, and Edward Arthur Roberts of Mount Nod, Greenhithe, in the county of Kent aforesaid, Esquire, the executors. |
(4) Transcribed apprentice records of the Pattenmakers’ Company in London Apprenticeship Abstracts, 1442–1850, FindMyPast online database.
(5) Original records of the Pattenmakers’ Company in the London Metropolitan Archives should be checked to confirm the length of the apprentice term and membership details.
(6) Transcribed births, marriages and burials recorded in Kent were found in the FreeREG online database. Family history was confirmed in the will of John French of East Farleigh, Kent, probated 8 November 1827 (PCC Will, National Archives).
(7) London Marriages, London Metropolitan Archives, Ancestry online.
(8)
England & Wales Non-Conformist Burials, FindMyPast online.
History notes on Wycliffe Chapel are at
Wikipedia ; and
Oxford
Scholarship Online .
(9) The will of David French, cork manufacturer of Crutched Friars, London, was probated 26 April 1836 (PCC Will, National Archives). The will was just a few lines making his ‘dear wife Elizabeth’ the sole beneficiary and the sole executor.
(10)
The
history and use of cork in the Algarve ;
Eco-Cork Factory ,
Cork Factory Tour, Industrial Tourism, Algarve, Portugal.
(11)
The City of London Poll-Book: Election 1837,
Google
book online . The introduction stated:
‘The Franchise of the City of London is of two classes:
Livery; £10 Householders’.
(12) London Marriages, London Metropolitan Archives, Ancestry online.
(13) Non-Conformist Record Indexes, FamilySearch Historical Records.
(14) The British Newspaper Archive accessed at FindMyPast.
(15)
Post Office London Directory, 1869.
Teulon’s business partner was Frederick William Doggett.
A note about Teulon and Doggett is in the
Newsletter of the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery,
September 2009 .
The business addresses at both Jewry Street and
Cooper’s Row were near Crutched Friars:
heading north, Crutched Friars becomes Jewry Street;
the north end of Cooper’s Row connects to Crutched Friars.
In 1860, William Hensman Teulon of Cooper’s Row, London was
granted a patent for an invention for ‘improvements in brewing’
(Chronological and Descriptive Index of Patents Applied for and
Patents Granted, London, 1861,
Google book
online ).
(16)
Cheshire
Cheese history notes online.
(17)
History of the Fenchurch Street railway station:
Wikipedia
; and
Railway
Stations in the UK.
(18)
Pattenmakers’ Company of London:
List of Past Masters .
(19)
For railway history see:
Dartford Loop Line ,
Mottingham railway station , and
History of Sidcup Golf Club .
(20) Notice in the The London Gazette, 7 March 1879.
(21)
The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, London, 1 September 1874,
Google eBook .
(22) The London Gazette, 5 January 1900, p. 93, named ‘Beal French and Co.’ in the ‘List of tradesmen who hold warrants of appointment from the Lord Steward, with authority to use the Royal Arms’. The year 1900 was the last year in the long reign of Queen Victoria.
(23) The London Gazette, 1 January 1907, p. 4, named ‘Beal French and Son’, wine corks, London, in the ‘List of tradesmen who hold warrants of appointment to His Majesty King Edward VII from the Lord Steward, with authority to use the Royal Arms. These warrants do not carry the right to fly the Royal Standard’. The London Gazette, 14 February 1911, p. 1131, named ‘Beal French and Son’, wine corks, London, in the ‘List of tradesmen who hold warrants of appointment to His Majesty King George V’.
(24) Notice in The London Gazette, 4 July 1911.
(25) Death notice in The Times, 5 August 1911 and London Burials, London Metropolitan Archives, Ancestry online.
(26) The London Gazette, 1 January 1918, p. 118, named ‘Beal French and Son’, wine corks, London, in the ‘List of tradesmen who hold warrants of appointment to His Majesty King George V, from the Lord Steward, with authority to use the Royal Arms’.
(27)
Indexes of death registrations at the FreeBMD website;
Notice in the The London Gazette, 15 March 1921.
(28)
Medals awarded to Lewis French were sold at
Bonhams Auction ,
9 April 2013.
(29) Notices in The London Gazette, 22 June 1914 and 3 June 1919.
(30) In the 1932 Post Office London Directory the commercial section had no listing for the French cork merchants and the street directory did not name a tenant at 51 Crutched Friars.
(31) The 1939 England register (Ancestry online) recorded Lewis French, retired civil servant, born 26 October 1873, living with his wife Margaret R.G. French, born 20 April 1877. Their address was 20 Lytton Grove, borough of Wandsworth.
(32) Probate record of Lewis French, 1945 (online at gov.uk).
Text Copyright © WhistlerHistory 2023.