Difference between revisions of "William Matthews"

Latest revision as of 08:38, 9 March 2016

Principal Owner of the Charlotte (1787)

William Matthews, a merchant of 6 Green Lettice Lane, Cannon Street, was listed in the London business directories from 1780 to 1791.

Lloyd’s Register for 1789 says that the Charlotte was owned by Matthews & Co. (Lloyd’s Register, 1789) William Matthews was a ship owner.

On his way northwards through the Pacific, Thomas Gilbert named a small island to the south of Vanuatu, Matthews’s Rock, after the Charlotte’s owner, and an island in the north of the Gilberts, Mathews’s Island, also in honour of the owner. He named several features on that island after the Charlotte, and the north point of the island was called Point William. (Thomas Gilbert, Voyage from New South Wales to Canton in the Year 1788. . ., London: J. Debrett, 1789, p.32)

Matthews’ wife was Charlotte Marlar. The ship was evidently named after her, and Gilbert named the Marlar Islands in the Gilbert Group after her family.

Biography

1 August 1776 – William Matthews of the parish of St Swithin, London, married Charlotte Marlar of the parish of Hadley, Middlesex at St Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley. She was under 21, and had the permission of her father, John Marlar. The witnesses were Ann Marlar and Matthew Boulton. (London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley, Register of marriages, DRO/017/A/01, Item 009) He was described in the Town and Country Magazine as living in Bush Lane, Cannon Street. (Town & Country Magazine, 1776 edition, p.448)

John Marlar, a calico printer of Beddington in Surrey, purchased Dury House in Monken Hadley from his widowed sister, in 1749. It is unclear whether this was Charlotte’s father or grandfather. When her father, John Marlar died in 1791, his will described him as living at Mitcham. He and his wife Ann had one son, John Thomas (born at Monken Hadley in 1761), and four daughters, of whom Charlotte was the second eldest. (TNA Prob.11/1204)

It seems likely that she was the Charlotta [sic] Marlar, born 16 March 1759 and baptised at All Hallows the Great in London on 23 March. In which case, she was just 17 when Matthews married her. (London Metropolitan Archives, All Hallows the Great, Composite register: baptisms 1720 - 1765, marriages 1720 - 1722/3, 1741/2 - 1754, burials 1720 - 1765, P69/ALH7/A/002/MS05161)

By the time that his will was prepared in 1792, Matthews also had a country house in Croydon, Surrey, presumably Croydon Lodge. William Matthews died in 1792 – the will was signed 26 March 1792, and proved 6 April 1792.

He died a very wealthy man. James Watt was named as one of his executors, and Thomas Taylor, shipbuilder of Globe Stairs, Rotherhithe, who was a joint owner in a number of his ships. (TNA Prob 11/1217)

Charlotte died on 9 January 1802, at the age of 43, and was buried at St John’s on 16 January. (Surrey History Centre, 2888/1/11) Strangely, there is also an entry for her at St Mary Beddington. (London Metropolitan Archives, St Mary, Beddington, Transcript of burials, 1802, DW/T/2343)

At the time of her death, she was living in Croydon Lodge. She prepared her will in November 1800 and was ill from that time. (TNA Prob.11/1368)

They had no children.

Business Background

As noted above, Matthews was listed in the London directories from 1780 to 1791.

He was at 2 Bush Lane, Cannon Street from 1775 to 1776 at least, although he was still listed at this address in a 1779 directory.

He was at 6 Green Lettice Lane, Cannon Street, from May 1777 at the latest. But this premises with the adjoining warehouse was out up for lease in April 1788, although this was given as the address on his will in 1792. (Public Advertiser, 11 April 1788)

17 August 1777 – William Matthews subscribed to the insurance policy of the Clark, a prize to the Hawke (a Camden, Calvert & King privateer) for 100 pounds from Falmouth to London. (TNA C106/192)

Matthews and Barton

As early as 1777, he had insured a premises in Jamaica Street, Rotherhithe with Thomas Taylor, Joshua Young and Joseph Barton. They were still insured in 1781. (LMA 1777 SUN 1 260 31\10\79 BN; LMA 1781 SUN 1 297 17\07\78 JT)

He had been in partnership with Joseph Barton, under the name of Matthews and Barton, merchants and insurance brokers, which partnership was dissolved on 30 September 1779. (London Gazette, 28 September to 2 October 1779).

Messrs Matthews and Barton, merchants, were joint owners with Thomas Taylor, Joshua Young, Robert and John Johnson of the brig Enterprise, Daniel Squire, Master, which took the snow Marquise Entragues off North Carolina during the American War. (Acts of the Privy Council of England, Volume 5)

On 13 January 1778, Matthews and Barton petitioned the Privy Council seeking leave to export to New York sundry military stores on board the ship Martha. (Journal of the Board of Trade and Plantations, Volume 14, Folio 15)

Agent for Matthew Boulton

He acted as London agent for Matthew Boulton from as early as 1770, Boulton was a witness at his wedding, and James Watt was one of his executors.

30 October 1771 – Boulton used Matthews when he recruited a German goldsmith who had been badly treated by one of his competitors. Boulton wanted him kept away from other firms who might try to hire him, and had Matthews board the man. (Albert Edward Musson, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution, University of Manchester Press, 1969, pp.220-221)

23 March 1772 – Boulton & Fothergill to Sir Joseph Banks. (Letter enclosing invoice, received by Banks from Messrs Boulton & Fothergill, signed by their agent, William Matthews, 23 March 1772 – State Library of NSW, Papers of Sir Joseph Banks, Series 06.110) [Note, there is other correspondence between Matthews and Banks in the Natural History Museum dating from 1792.]

21 February 1777, William Matthews in London to Boulton and Fothergill, Snow Hill Birmingham. 2 pp. 4to:

"I have seen Mrs Montague, who says she has not received the Plate you charge her with, also she says Mr Harris [Earl of Malmesbury] who is appointed Ambassador to Russia is to dine with her and she wishes to have the Plate to show to him and to recommend him to you. She wishes to see you and will recommend a lady for the education of Miss Boulton which in her opinion is a better mode than a public boarding school." (Adam Matthew Publications, Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, Series One: The Boulton & Watt Archives and the Matthew Boulton Papers from Birmingham Central Library, Part 7, Box 328, Item 25)

1778 – Boulton’s partnership with Fothergill was under strain, and Boulton seems to have used Matthews to review their books, to establish whether Fothergill was entitled to an interest in an engine that Boulton had developed. Matthews roled in Boulton’s favour. (Jennifer Tann and Anthony Burton, Matthew Boulton: Industry’s Great Innovator, 2013, p.

Boulton may have stayed with the Matthews when he was in London. Certainly his correspondence was directed there from 1775 until some years after William Matthews’ death.

Charlotte Matthews as Agent for Boulton

William Matthews was deceased by 6 April 1792, when his will was proved. His widow Charlotte continued to act as Boulton’s agent after her husband’s death until 1801 at least.

7 September 1792 – Charlotte wrote from Croydon Lodge to Boulton at Mr Thomas Wilson’s, Truro, Cornwall:

"I flatter myself I shall still have the pleasure of transacting your business and it may not be improper to state the case as it is. Your security to Mr Matthews extended it is true to his Executors, but when I understood to transact your business, I paid off your balance due to the Executors and of course the security became immediately of no effect, except against the Bond to Mr Wedgwood that Mr Matthews joined in. I therefore request you to favour me with your settlements, observing that I have the fullest confidence in you and it is only to provide against what I trust is far distant. Do ask Mr Watt whether it would not be proper for the Executors of Mr Matthews to write to Mr Wedgwood to request him to relinquish them as collateral security and take your Bond solely. I can do nothing with my opponents but Gregg has drawn up a case for Mansfield’s opinion and I am waiting the result when I shall write to Mr Watt." (Adam Matthew Publications, Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, Box 325, Item 47)

15 July 1794, Charlotte at London to Boulton, Soho, Birmingham (Private) 2 pp. 4to:

"Mr Jeffery’s has taken up ye Bill for £280-6-0. The Chief Justice dined with me on Sunday, he was very shy of mentioning your business. I ventured to say how much Mr Watt and you were injured by the Cornish people who would not pay you a Sou until the question pending should be decided in your favour, that in all probability you would have as many lawsuits in Cornwall as engines, but I hoped in the end would get the better [of them]; he told me he understood your own Counsel advised your not instituting the suit, at which I expressed much surprise and told him I had never heard that was the case and that I believed it was impossible for you to avoid it, for you had been quiet so long, that your invaders increased rapidly upon you." (Adam Matthew Publications, Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, Box 325, Item 117)

3 December 1794 December, Charlotte at London to Boulton, Soho, Birmingham (Private) 3 pp. 4to:

"I shall dine at the Bishop of Bangor’s on Saturday and the Lord Chief Justice may be there, would you have me say anything about the Cornish scoundrels or feel his pulse any way? Write me how I shall behave myself. I wish success to the Pneumatic Institute [of Dr Beddoes]. . ." (Adam Matthew Publications, Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, Box 325, Item 142)

24 December 1799, Charlotte in London to Boulton, Soho, Birmingham (Private). 2 pp. 4to:

"I have this day got an order from Mr Long for 14 casks of halfpence and 12 casks of farthings to be sent to the Agent of Transports at Deptford to ship to New South Wales. I replied that I would pay the earliest attention to his order in my power and that I had now on my books 400 orders without the hope of supplying one of them until the weather breaks, the navigation being now stopped, that only 60 casks has been received and were delivered to the public. I told Mr Lack how ill Mr Morrison was behaving and mentioned the requisition he had made of having an account rendered on each day’s coinage and particularly distinguishing what was coined before the 18th November and what since, he replied Mr Morrison had better keep quiet and that he had before tried to inform himself on that subject but was immediately silenced." (Adam Matthew Publications, Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, Box 326, Item 199)

Charlotte seems to have carried on her husband’s banking business with a wide range of customers:

"As a business widow, she made a formidable figure with an impressive clientele for her banking and bill-brokering business. We know something, but not all, of her methods from ledgers at the Bank of England that record her account there from 1793 to 1799 and from the surviving part of her correspondence with the Birmingham partnership of Boulton & Watt. Boulton & Watt, however, was but one of many of Charlotte’s customers and the names of major London merchant houses and traders recur in the pages of her account at the Bank of England. The clientele was remarkable – prosperous, ambitious, well-connected – and unlikely to give quarter to those they deemed weak. The ten years during which she ran this high-risk finance business on her own were extremely difficult ones: the country was at war with France, there were very poor harvests, unrest at home and economic crises, but Charlotte was still in business, financing Boulton & Watt and dealing with her other customers up to her death in 1802." (C. Wiskin, ‘Accounting for Business: Financial Management in the Eighteenth Century’, in Anne Laurence et al (eds.), Women and their Money 1700-1950, Routledge, 2009, p.78)

Other Dealings

William Matthews seems to have acted in a number of bankruptcies, possibly because he was a creditor. (Daily Advertiser, 2 December 1777; London Gazette, 23-27 November 1779)

July 1788 – Matthews was executor and beneficiary under the will of Peter Lyon, of St Luke, Old Street in Middlesex. He received the copyhold of a property in Hampstead. This seems to have arisen because of a loan to Lyon. (TNA Prob.11/1168)

Staff

John Woodward

He was a clerk, or agent, at Charlotte Matthew’s banking house and agency at 6 Green Lettice Lane, Cannon Street, London. He continued in the same position when she moved to 13 London Street, Fenchurch Street in July 1795. In this position Woodward did a lot of work for the engine firm, dealing with payments and accounts, hiring and directing engine erectors, investigating pirate engines and supplying information for the legal proceedings. He worked closely with the London based engine erector Richard Dayus. When Charlotte Matthews died on 9 January 1802, the business was continued at the same premises by the new firm of M R Boulton, J & G Watt and Company. Mrs Matthews’s two clerks, John Woodward and John Mosley, ran this firm as agents for the partners. Woodward was the senior agent in charge.

There is extensive correspondence between Woodward and Bolton & Watt in the latter’s surviving correspondence. Charlotte left money in her will to Woodward and Mosley. (TNA Prob.11/1368)

Ships

The Enterprise

Messrs Matthews and Barton, merchants, were joint owners with Thomas Taylor, Joshua Young, Robert and John Johnson of the brig Enterprise, Daniel Squire, Master, which took the snow Marquise Entragues off North Carolina during the American War. (Acts of the Privy Council of England, Volume 5) [Thomas Taylor was a shipbuilder and later an executor of Matthews’ estate.]

The Charlotte

1784 – Built on the Thames for Matthews & Co., as a West Indiaman Captain Thomas Gilbert.

May 1787 – She sailed to NSW with the First Fleet, returning via Canton, where she took in a cargo of tea for the East India Company.

1788 – Lloyd’s Register. 350 tons built in the River in 1784. Sheathed in 1785. Owned by Matthews & Co. Master: T. Gilbert. (Lloyd’s Register, 1789) She was sold shortly after her return on 6 June 1789.

13 November 1789 – Registration. No.295 of 1789. Owners: Thomas Bond of Bond Court, Wallbrook; Jonathan Fryer of Wapping, merchants; sub’g owners with William Bond of Bond Court, Wallbrook, merchant, who was at the time ill and not able to attend. Master: Benjamin Howes. Built in the River Thames 1784. 2 decks, 3 masts. 105’ x 28’3” x 6’6”. 338 tons. Barque built ship with quarter badges. No gallery. No figurehead. (BT107/8)

The question must be asked whether Camden, Calvert & King did not have a share in the Charlotte on her First Fleet voyage. On 28 June 1788, on his way north through the islands of the north Pacific, Captain Gilbert named a group of islands Calvert’s Islands, with the extremities being named Point Camden and Point King. (Gilbert, p.42)

Banking

Historians have described Matthews’ relationship with Matthew Boulton as including banking.

And the fragments we have of some of his other commercial activities strongly indicate a money-lending role. For example:

1782 – Myles Cooper had around one thousand pounds due to him, which were in the hands of William Matthews. (Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Vol.64, p.346)

1784 – William Matthews, John Small and John Whitlocke of Lime Street were assignees of John Willett, bankrupt. (LMA HMD/X/059-069) [Matthews’ seal is attached to the one of these (061).]

1786 to 1790 – He seems to have had dealings with the Duke of Arundel. (Heather M. Warne, ‘The Duke of Arundel’s Deeds at Arundel Castle’, Phillimore, 2010, pp.178 & 182)

He seems to have done business with Charles Vere, who was a banker, and was an executor of his estate. (See insurance documentation from May 1791 at LMA MS 11936/377/584177) But there seems to have been a closer relationship – in her will, Charlotte left an organ and Mrs Vere’s picture at Croydon Lodge to Martha Vere Fothergill. (TNA Prob.11/1368)

Other Activities

1778 – He was one of the subscribers to W. Pryce’s ‘Treatise on Minerals, Mines, and Mining’, published in this year.

1786 – He was a Governor for Life of the London Hospital. (‘A General State of the London Hospital’, 1786)

In 1791 and 1792, he was a member of the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture.