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| Legal Quays in 1757, by Louis Peter Boitard. At the time of the Harriman businesses in London, by law all of the shipping was to be done in this small area downstream from London Bridge, in the so-called Pool of London. This allowed the centralization of customs inspections of all cargo. The location was also partly due to the fact that the medieval 12th c. London Bridge prevented navigation upstream on the Thames by any tall-sailed vessel. In 1802, the completion of the West India Docks would greatly alleviate the crowding in this stretch of the river. (source) |
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| Pool of London area showing the Legal Quays between Billingsgate Dock and the Tower of London in John Rocque's plan of 1746. Behind Legal Quays lay Thames Street, with its warehouses, sugar refineries and cooperages. (source) |
"The Pool was of vital importance to London for centuries - as early as the 7th century Bede wrote that the Pool was the reason for London's existence - but it reached its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries. By this time the river was lined with nearly continuous walls of wharves running for miles along both banks, and hundreds of ships moored in the river or alongside the quays. The Pool saw a phenomenal increase in both overseas and coastal trade in the second half of the eighteenth century. Two thirds of coastal vessels using the Pool were colliers meeting an increase in the demand for coal as the population of London rose. Coastal trade virtually doubled between 1750 and 1796 reaching 11,964 vessels in 1795."Editor's note. A recent break from work and a restful stay in the Colorado mountains near Estes Park with my family gave me the leisure to discover much new information for the Harriman project, including names and dates of people I hadn't known about yet, but who seem important in the story nonetheless.
I had originally figured that the saga would only briefly cover the London years of the Harrimans, quickly zipping through the time period leading up to the 1795 emigration of William Harriman . Little of this London era was covered in the biographies of EHH by Kennan and Klein, and my original plan to was to cover all of this is a single episode.
My recent research using online record, however, has been very fruitful in uncovering new information about the family, especially helping to address the timing of Harriman's 1795 departure fro England. For example, according to at least one well-researched but non-authoritative source, William Harriman's father was also named William Harriman, and thus we can begin to call the emigrant by the title William Harriman (II) and his father by William Harriman (I). I will use parentheses because there is no evidence that they used these numerations in their name.
Although I have not been able to verify this relationship, other research has made it likely that this elder William Harriman indeed existed and was the younger William's father. In particular, there was indeed a William Harriman in London who by 1774 was an established partner in an iron merchant firm that would later become successful and provide implements in the New World. The younger William would have not have been old enough to have been this man, so they must be different people. Moreover the coincidence in addresses associated with the businesses of both William Harrimans on Upper Thames St. seems to be evidence enough for me to link the two men, given the other genealogical information.
Moreover, we can be almost certain from the fact that William's children (by Frances) were christened at the parish church at All-Hallows-the-Great on Upper Thames Street that their residence, at least in the City, was located at the place of business (at no. 81). The street had been the location of residences since the medieval times, and was no unfashionable among merchants and even nobles at times.
With this new data, and especially the connection of the aforementioned iron merchant enterprise with the illustrious John Pelly, it thus occurs to me how useful it would be to use this time period to set up many of the themes, story lines, and concepts that will be used later in the story
I've also been able to find out quite a bit about the Holmes family (that of Orlando Harriman's mother), including her name (Frances), and information her parents, and even the date and location of the Harriman-Holmes wedding [this led to a delightful coincidence regarding Hempstead, see below].
As for (the younger) William Harriman's children, the ones who went with him to the New World, I able to find birthdates for Orlando's brothers William and Edward, but so far I have not found a scrap of information regarding Alfonso, who by his name, probably was born after Orlando (post 1790). This is a blank spot I would love to fill. The relationship between Orlando and his presumably younger sibling (who would drown in New York off the Battery), would be a nice addition to the story.
All of this reminds me once again of something Thor and I used to marvel about, that before the debut of the web as we known it, the research we gathered over the course of a day or two of research (during 2005-2008) would have required decades of persistence effort and much travel all over the world.
What a time we live in! Are we going to take advantage of it to create?
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| Detail of 1767 map of London showing Upper Thames Street running west from the north end of London Bridge. Both of the known Harriman business concerns (at nos. 81 and 95) were near the area indicated as Queen Hith (Hith is an old English term for borough or hundred, according to this source), |
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| Map detail of present-day London. Red marker indicates location on Upper Thames Street near the former location of the stationery business of William Harriman (II) [at no. 81] , as well as the firm of Jukes Coulson [partner of William Harriman (I) at no. 95]. |
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| Plan of the Steelyard from Johann Gustav Droysen's Atlas, claimed to be as it was in 1667 (source) The Harriman businesses were apparently along Thames street very near to the Steelyard, which was just west of All Hallows Lane. The Steelyard was noted as the location of the warehouse of the merchants of the Hanseatic League in London, and thus was home to many expatriate Germans over the centuries going back to Medieval times. The Germans used the same parish church and thus Harrimans would have been acquainted with many Germans in their social circle of the neighborhood. The Steelyard is now the site of the Cannon Street Station. |
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| Surviving Hanseatic warehouse in King's Lynn, Norfolk, The corresponding ones at the Steelyard, which would have been adjacent to the Harriman residence on Thames Street, were demolished by 1866. for the construction of Cannon Street Station. |
The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German Stalhof / Dutch Staalhof, was the main trading base (kontor) of the Hanseatic League in London during 15th and 16th centuries.
The Steelyard was located on the north bank of the Thames by the outflow of the Walbrook, in the Dowgate ward of the City of London. The site is now covered by Cannon Street station and commemorated in the name of Steelyard Passage. The Steelyard, like other Hansa stations, was a separate walled community with its own warehouses on the river, its own weighing house, chapel, counting houses and residential quarters. In 1988 remains of the former Hanseatic trading house, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain, were uncovered by archaeologists during maintenance work on Cannon Street Station.
As a church the Germans used former All-Hallows-the-Great, since there was only a small chapel on their own premises.'
Most of the buildings of the Steelyard were destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The land and buildings remained the property of the Hanseatic League, and were subsequently let as warehouses to merchants. The Hanseatic League was never officially dissolved however; consulates of the Hanseatic League cities provided indirect communication between Northern Germany and Whitehall during the European blockade of the Napoleonic wars. Patrick Colquhoun was appointed as Resident Minister and Consul general by the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg in 1804 and by Bremen and Lübeck shortly after as the successor of Henry Heymann, who was also Stalhofmeister, "master of the Steelyard". Colquhoun was valuable to those cities through their occupation by the French since he provided indirect communication between Northern Germany and Whitehall,
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| View of docks on the north bank of River Thames, with St Paul's Cathedral behind, in the 1820s. The buildings nearest the river in the foreground fronted onto Upper Thames Street. The Harriman business and residence may well have been one of the structures visible towards the right side of the image. (source) |
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| The Three Cranes Tavern on Upper Thames Street. This would have been very near to the Harriman residence (a few blocks to the west, most likely). "The "Three Cranes" was formerly a favourite
London sign. Instead of the three cranes which
in the Vintry used to lift the barrels of wine, three
birds were represented. The "Three Cranes"
in Thames Street was a famous tavern as early as
the reign of James I. It was one of the taverns
frequented by the wits in Ben Jonson's time. In
one of his plays he says:—
"A pox o' these pretenders to wit! your 'Three Cranes,'
'Mitre,' and 'Mermaid' men! Not a corn of true salt, not
a grain of right mustard amongst them all."—Bartholomew
Fair, act i., sc. I."
(source) |
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John Middleton with His Family in His Drawing Room (1796) British School, Museum of London(source) "'John Middleton with his family in his Drawing Room', c1796. Middleton and his children sit with their housekeeper in a rather bare blue sitting room. Middleton holds what is probably a sample book; he was a colourman and lived above his shop at 80-81 St Martin's Lane, London [in the West End,near Leicester Square]." (Getty Images caption) |
1795 (Apr) William Harriman (II) sells his stationery business, leaves London, and emigrates from England to Connecticut with his family. including his wife Frances Holmes Harriman and his sister-in-law Rosamond Holmes. [source: Klein, 2000, based on Kennan, 1922]
1795 (Apr. 5) Treaty of Basel. Peace between France and Prussia, which drops out of the Coalition. France also makes separate peace with Spain, Hesse, and other powers. Britain is now virtually alone in the war against France.
1795 William Harriman (II) moves residence/business from no. 81 Upper Thames Street to the nearby address of no. 6 Great Bush Lane, and begins to conduct business as Harriman & Co. (Exeter Working Papers on Book History).
1794 (Nov) Culmination of the Treason Trials in London under the Pitt government. The defendants are acquitted in three separate jury trials to great public rejoicing.
1794 (Aug. 28) Date of the will of Jukes Coulson, London merchant, business partner of William Harriman (I) (source, citing The National Archives, Kew).
The Jukes Coulson & Co. was a firm of iron merchants, founded by Coulson, a blacksmith in Surrey. In 1806 John Pelly (born 1777), would join the firm as partner. The London Gazette announcement of this lists the Coulson firm address as being at 95 Upper Thames Street, essentially right next door to the stationery business of William Harriman (II).
In 1812 Pelly would take over sole ownership of the firm (source), operating it under the same name of Jukes Coulson & Co.. Pelly would later become a Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, and a Governor of the Bank of England. The firm's knives would be widely distributed and famous on the western frontier, of which many extant examples are found online, typically fetching very high price at auction (example).
According to this archive of colonial dispatches, Pelly was responsible for the 1849 colonization of Vancouver Island. "Pelly was the HBC executive most accountable for the company assuming responsibility for the colonization of Vancouver Island in 1849, at the British government's request. He made this decision in the face of fierce opposition from the rest of the HBC board and Sir George Simpson"1794 (Jun. 26) Battle of Fleurus in Flanders After a string of French military defeats lasting over a year, the French Republic achieves a decisive victory over a Coalition Army (Britain, Hanover, Dutch Republic, and Habsburg Monarchy), commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg, in the most significant battle of the Flanders Campaign.
Despite any tactical imbalance, the strategic value of Fleurus was immense for the French. The victory precipitated a full Allied withdrawal from Belgium and allowed French forces to push north into the Netherlands. By the end of 1795, the Dutch Republic was extinguished. After Fleurus, the republican army would keep its momentum in the war, staying on the offensive until its eventual victory against the First Coalition in 1797
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| (source) Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, La Victoire de Lord Howe, le 1er juin 1794 (The Glorious First of June), National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (exposition Loutherbourg : tourments et chimères au Musée des beaux-arts de Strasbourg |
1794 (Jun. 1) The Glorious First of June, the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between Britain and the French Republic (Bay of Biscay).
The British Channel Fleet under Admiral Lord Howe attempted to prevent the passage of a vital French grain convoy from the United States, which was protected by the French Atlantic Fleet, commanded by Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. The two forces clashed in the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 nautical miles west of the French island of Ushan.
During the battle, Howe defied naval convention by ordering his fleet to turn towards the French and for each of his vessels to rake and engage their immediate opponent. This unexpected order was not understood by all of his captains, and as a result his attack was more piecemeal than he intended. Nevertheless, his ships inflicted a severe tactical defeat on the French fleet.
1794 Britain sends a fleet to Corsica under Admiral Samuel Hood. They take the island from France and add the new Anglo-Corsican Kingdom to the realms of George III.
1794 (Apr.) The British Navy takes Guadaloupe in the West Indies from France. They are driven out later in the year by Victor Hugues.
1794 (Mar. 12) Opening of the new Drury Lane Theatre after three years of construction (source).
1794 (Feb.) The British land at Martinique in the West Indies. They take the island from the French by the end of March.
1794 William Harriman (II) listed as "Wholesale Paper & Rag Mercht. 81, Upper Thames st." in Kent's Directory for the Year 1794. Cities of London and Westminster, & Borough of Southwark. (source). Jukes Coulson & Co., iron merchants, are listed in the same directory as having an address at Dyers Hall, 95 Upper Thames st.
1794 William Harriman (I) dies (source, no citation given)
If the information regarding William Harriman (I) is correct, this would give additional background for the timing of the decision of William (II) to emigrate, as it would have come just after the death of his last surviving parent in England.
1793 (Dec. 19) Fall of Toulon to French Republican forces. The British fleet under Samuel Hood evacuates the city and the French Army fires on the refugees.
The British squadron and their boats took on board thousands of French Royalist refugees, who had flocked to the waterfront when it became clear that the city would fall to the Republicans. Robust, the last British ship to leave, carried more than 3,000 civilians from the harbour. Another 4,000 passengers were recorded on board Princess Royal out in the roads. In total the British fleet rescued 14,877 Toulonnais from the city.
Witnesses on board the retreating ships reported scenes of panic on the waterfront as stampeding civilians were crushed or drowned in their haste to escape the advancing Republican soldiers, who fired indiscriminately into the fleeing populace.
1793 (Dec. 7) Daniel Isaac Eaton, the London publisher of the popular periodical Politics for the People, was arrested by the Pitt government for publishing a statement by John Thelwall, a radical lecturer and debater.
Thelwall had made a speech that included an anecdote about a tyrannical gamecock named "King Chanticleer" who was beheaded for its despotism and Eaton reprinted it. Eaton was imprisoned for three months before his trial in an effort to bankrupt him and his family.
1793 (Oct. 24) Frances Harriman, sister of Orlando Harriman, is born in London. She is christened in All Hallows the Great on Nov. 22 (source). She lives to 1832 after making the trip to New Haven with her family (source).
1793 Setting of Book the Third of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (published 1859). Climax of the Great Terror, including the imprisonment and trials of Charles Darnay (Evremonde) in Paris.
1793 (Oct. 16) Execution of Marie Antoinette in Paris.
1793 (Sept. 6) Beginning of the Reign of Terror in Paris.
1793 (Aug. 28) Responding the request of the French Royalists at the besieged port of Toulon, a combined Anglo-Spanish fleet arrives under the command of Admiral Sir Samuel Hood of the Royal Navy and Admiral Juan de Lángara of the Spanish Navy. They commit a force of 13,000 British, Spanish, Neapolitan and Piedmontese troops to the French royalists' cause.
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1793 (Feb 1) The French Republic declares war on Great Britain.
1793 (Jan. 21) Execution of King Louis XVI in Paris.
1793 William Vaughan, West India merchant of London. publishes his first tract advocating for improvements in the Port of London, including the construction of docks.
1792 Last meeting of the London Revolution Society. Most of the radical clubs in London go underground during the conservative reaction in England that lasts 1792-1794.
- On Wet Docks, Quays, and Warehouses for the Port of London, London, 1793.
- Plan of the London Dock, with some Observations respecting the River, London, 1794.
- Answers to Objections against the London Docks, London, 1796.
- A Letter to a Friend on Commerce and Free Ports and London Docks, London, 1796.
- Examination of William Vaughan in Committee of the House of Commons, London, 1796.
- Reasons in favour of London Docks, London, 1797.
- A Comparative Statement of the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Docks in Wapping and the Isle of Dogs, 2nd ed. London, 1799.
1792 (Sept. 22) Proclamation of the French Republic.
1792 (May 21) George III of England issues a royal proclamation against seditious writing in response to the growth of radicalism in Britain inspired by the French Revolution, in particular the phenomenal popularity of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man.
1792 (May) Rights of Man by Thomas Paine is published in London. Its publisher is later arrested for sedition by the Pitt government.
1792 Conjurors' Magazine started by Henry Lemoine, London bookseller. "Lemoine's major work was published in 1797, Typographical Antiquities."
In 1786 Lemoine published anonymously The Kentish Curate, or the History of Lamuel Lyttleton, an improper narrative romance in four volume. About this time he also issued a reprint of John Cleland's pornographic Fanny Hill. In 1790 he published a rhymed version of Robert Blair's The Grave. In 1791 he compiled Visits from the World of Spirits, or interesting anecdotes of the Dead … containing narratives of the appearances of many departed spirits; a second edition was published (Glasgow, 1845). In 1793 he edited a herbal on the lines of Nicholas Culpeper's, The Medical Uses of English Plants.[
1792 Setting of the opening of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Austen wrote the book around 1795, but it did not appear in print until 1811.
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| The Mark of the Stationer's Company. Founded 1403 as one of the Liveries (guilds) of London (source) |
1792 William Harriman (II) listed as a member of the Stationers' Company (Exeter Working Papers on Book History).
1791 (Dec. 25) Charles Harriman, younger brother of Orlando, is born in London (recorded at All Hallows). He is christened on Jan. 19, 1792 (source). He dies in 1793 before reaching his second birthday, and thus does not make the trip to the new world. (source)
1791 Drury Lane Theatre is demolished and construction begins on a replacement, which opens in 1794
1790 Publication of Faden's map of the twenty-five miles around London (source: Regions and Designed Landscapes in Georgian England, S. Spooner),
"The desire of the elite to live within close proximity to London was a key factor in the creation of a lage number of designed landscapes on the urban fringe, and the dense packing of smaller landscapes in counties like Essex and Hertfordshire was replicated in other areas closer to the capital...There is a marked concentration of designed landscapes along the main road from Gulidford to Epsom, with no less than twelve houses and grounds along a seventeen mile length. Seven of these were owned by London merchants. East India Company officers and bankers..."
Spooner: Hertfordshire in particular was known for having many parks of multiple sizes among its villas, and the country roads were often lines with people out on a country walk.
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| All-Hallows-the-Great church on Upper Thames Street in London. This was the parish church for the Harriman family during the later years in London. It was located on the side of the street, at the northeast corner of All Hallows Lane, about a hundred yards east from the Harriman place of business at no. 81 (in the direction towards London Bridge). This almost certainly establishes that the Harrimans lived at the location of the business, as was common at the time. (source). See also this source regarding Upper Thames street. |
All-Hallows-the-Great was a church in the City of London, located on what is now Upper Thames Street, first mentioned in 1235. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, the church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. All-Hallows-the-Great was demolished in 1894, when many bodies were disinterred from the churchyard and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.
By the eighteenth century, traffic on Thames Street was such that passing cart-wheels almost touched the north wall of the church. Traffic in the City increased as the local population decreased during the latter half of the nineteenth century, with the development of the suburbs and the conversion of the City to a place of work. The tower and north aisle of All-Hallows-the-Great were demolished in 1876 so that Upper Thames Street could be widened. A new tower was built on the south, but in 1894, the rest of the church was demolished, the furnishings dispersed and the parish combined with that of St. Michael Paternoster Royal.
The church was rich in furnishings, many of which survive in other churches. It was one of two Wren churches to have a rood screen, commissioned by the parish after seeing that erected for St Peter upon Cornhill (the tradition that it was a gift from a member of the German merchant community is without foundation). Installed in the church at the time it was completed, it can now be seen in St Margaret Lothbury.
At its completion, it was the only Wren church to have contemporary non-memorial statues. The life size images of Moses and Aaron flanking the Decalogue on the reredos are now in St Michael Paternoster Royal, which also received the lectern (now stolen) and the chandelier. The former pulpit of All-Hallows-the-Great is now in St. Paul's Hammersmith.
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| Interior of All-Hallows-the-Great on Upper Thames Street in London, the site of the christening of Orlando Harriman and several of his siblings (source) |
1790 (Jun. 16) British Parliamentary elections begin, lasting to July.
The Prime Minister since 1783, William Pitt the Younger, led a coalition of Whig and Tory politicians. The principal opposition to Pitt was a faction of Whigs led by Charles James Fox and the Duke of Portland.
'On the eve of the...election, the Public Advertiser remarked: "Those who are candidates for London should have a thorough knowledge of its extensive trade, qualified to argue with a minister of state on any point relative to commerce." The London-based Societ of West India Planters kept alert to impending abolitionist legislation, and was energetic in organizing opposition. Richard B. Sheridan (1958), although accepting the view that London virtually abandoned the trade, brilliantly demonstrated the vital importance of London in the commercial and financial organization of the British slave trade, 1750-1807. Emphasizing the capital invested, the commission agents, the sugar trade, the London-connected slave factors in the West Indies, and the London-centered use of bills of exchange, Sheridan concluded his study with a quotation from London MP Nathaniel Newnham: "If it [the slave trade] were abolished altogether, he was persuaded it 'would render the city of London one scene of bankruptcy and ruin.'" ' (source: London, Metropolis of the Slave Trade, Rawley)
1789 (Jul. 14) Storming of the Bastille. Beginning of the French Revolution.
1789 William Harriman (II) opens his stationery trade on Upper Thames Street (?). Interesting source found here (Exeter Working Papers in Book History). Note change of address in 1795 before departure to the New World. Great Bush Lane is just off Upper Thames Street, across the street from All-Hallows-the-Great Church. Was this an actual move of address, or re-addressing of the same location?
HARRIMAN, William, stationer and paper and rag merchant, 81, Upper Thames Street 1789L-1795K; 6, Great Bush Lane 1795K. Trading: as William Harriman 1789L-1795K; as Harriman and Co. 1795K. Livery Sta. Co. by 1792. In New York by 1796. Listed as Harrison, William 1789A.
1788 More than 60 members of the House of Parliament are merchants, with the majority doing business in London (source).
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| The London Tavern in 1809.The buildling dates from 1768, when it was rebuilt after a 1765 fire. (source) |
It was formed in 1788, obstensibly to commemorate the centennial of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the landing of William III, and was one of several radical societies in Britain in the 1790s. At the time of the fall of the Bastille in July 1789, the London Revolution Society was the most vocal of the radical societies.
1787 (Jul 3) Edward Harriman, brother of Orlando, is born in London. He is christened at All-Hallows-the-Great on July 24 (source).
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| St.Mary's Church is Hemel Hempstead. Construction dates from the Norman era in 1140. Possible location of the 1785 wedding of William Harriman and Frances Holmes. It is approximately 10 miles north of Rickmansworth, where the Holmes sisters were born. By coincidence, Hemel Hempstead was the birthplace of John Carman, and immigrant to the new world who founded the village of Hempstead, Long Island, which would later be the birthplace of E.H. Harriman in 1848. |
1785 (Oct. 25) Marriage of William Harriman and Frances Holmes at Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England (source). William (on his second marriage) would have been 25 at the time, and Frances would have been 24, providing her birth date of 1761 is correct.
"The most effective way for the middle and upper class to meet prospective partners was at the various balls that were so frequently held in both public and private venues, but courting couples were expected to behave formally, even when greeting each other in public. "
"By today's standards, most [weddings] were low-key affairs, with few guests and moderate expenditure on wedding clothes and celebrations."
"The age of consent was fourteen for boys and twelve for girls, but most did not marry until their early twenties, even if they were betrothed at an earlier age. Apprentices were not permitted to marry, so many young men married late, in the mid- to late twenties."
"Marriage based on love and on freedom was becoming more common. For many, though, particularly if accustomed to wealth...a husband with a respectable income or a wife with a generous dowry was extremely desirable, if not an absolute necessity....A good number of parents arranged marriages to ensure that their children were securely established in life, and girls from wealthy families were provided with dowries, or 'portions', to make them attractive to male suitors'
'Rather than riding in a carriage, most people walked to church, and it was customary for flowers, herbs, and rushes to be strewn along the route or at the church porch.'
'The wealthy wore fine clothes for weddings, and white chosen for the bride and sometimes the bridesmaids as well. Most people, including the brides, simply wore their Sunday best or something that could be subsequently used for that purpose. The bride's wedding clothes were secondary to her trousseau, for which she might be given household linen, itens of clothing and other articles for her new life."
Jane Austen's England: Daily Life in the Georgian and Regency Period. (source)
1785 (Apr. 6) Trial at Old Bailey of Patrick Daley for the theft of bars of irons belonging to William Harriman and his business partners. Harriman did not testify. Daley was found guilty and sentenced to death. (source)
442. PATRICK DALEY was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 27th of February last, seventeen bars of iron, value 4 l. the property of Jukes Coulson , William Harriman , and Benjamin Bates , then being in a certain lighter, on the navigable river of Thames .
- FRANKS sworn.
I am an officer belonging to the custom-house and another officer was looking out to see whether we could light of any smuggled goods, on the 27th of February, about twelve at night, we were on the water, and we saw a boat coming from the ships lying at Union stairs tier, and we rowed along-side of her, and found it full of iron; we found seventeen bars of iron; then the person that was with me stepped in and said it was iron; we consulted a little while, and took the man in custody, and the iron.
1785 (Feb. 23) Testimony of William Harriman (I) at Old Bailey in the trial of William Price for the theft of 400 iron hoops belonging to him and his business partners. Price was found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment (source). The William Harriman here is certainly the same one as in the 1774 trial.
393. WILLIAM PRICE was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 7th of January last, four hundred iron hoops, weight 1300 lb. value 10 l. the property of Jukes Coulson , William Harriman , and Benjamin Bates .
WILLIAM HARRIMAN sworn.1785 British imports of cotton more than double from 1780, following the opening up the American trade after the war. By 1790, cotton has become the dominant material in English papermaking.
I am one of the partners in the house of Coulson and Bates; on the 7th of January, we sent a parcel of iron hoops, they were landed into our open barge, the wharf is three yards from the house belonging to the partnership, there were five ton landed that day; the next day a person came and gave us some hints; we knew there was a deficiency by weighing the hoops, we weighed them about two or three days afterwards; they were a particular kind of hoops, we never saw them after; I cannot swear there was any mark on them.
"England's textile industry had traditionally relied on wool, linen, cotton and silk for its fiber, but after 1780 its use of cotton (half of which came from America) increased exponentially, and must soon have outdistanced all other fibers. England imported twice as much cotton in 1785 as it did in 1780, three times as much in 1789 as in 1785, and so on. The imported fiber first went into textiles, which after five or ten years were turned over to the ragpicker, who took them to the paper mill. So we would not be far off if we said that cotton began to be the dominant fiber in English papermaking sometime after 1790. It held first place for about 80 years, until 1870, in book papers at any rate, when the use of wood fiber became common (Barrow Laboratory, 1974)." (source)
1784 (Oct. 20) William Hodgson, merchant and noted colonial sympathizer, found dead by suicide at 17 Colemen Street in London (source).
"Hodgson had demonstrated a strong affinity for the patriot cause when he labored
zealously with Benjamin Franklin and others for the relief of hundreds ofAmericans imprisoned in England. He had also endeavored to stimulateBritish trade with the new United States even before its independence wasrecognized. Yet for all of his noteworthy efforts, this London merchantfailed to receive adequate and deserved recognition..." (source).
1783 (Dec. 19) William Pitt (the Younger) becomes Prime Minister of Britain. He stays in office until 1801.
1783 (Sept. 3) Treaty of Paris. Britain recognizes independence of the United States.
1782 (Apr. 28) William Thomas Harriman is christened in London at St. Giles, Cripplegate (source). His parents are listed as Wiliam and Elzbth. Harriman (source). It seems reasonable to suppose this is the older (half) brother of Orlando, since we know that he had a brother of this name, and that his father William Harriman (II) was married to Eliza Garton before he married Frances Holmes, Orlando's mother.
1782 (Apr. 11) Thomas Harriman (possible male relation of William Harriman?), listed as admitted to St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark. (source). Discharged May 30 (source). His address is given in the logs as Green Man, Tooley Street, London Bridge (city). According to this source, the Green Man at that location was "licensed victualler"(tavern).
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1780 The Gordon Riots in London.
The riots began as an anti-Catholic protest in London against the Papists Act of 1778, which intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics. The protest evolved into riots and looting. The Riots came at the height of the American War of Independence, when Britain was fighting American rebels, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic. They led to unfounded fears that they had been a deliberate attempt by France and Spain to destabilise Britain before an imminent invasion similar to the Armada of 1779.
On 2 June 1780 a huge crowd, estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 strong, assembled and marched on the Houses of Parliament. Many carried flags and banners proclaiming "No Popery", and most wore blue cockades which had become the symbol of their movement. As they marched, their numbers swelled. They attempted to force their way into the House of Commons, but without success. Gordon, petition in hand, and wearing in his hat the blue cockade of the Protestant Association, entered the Commons and presented the petition. Outside, the situation quickly got out of hand and a riot erupted. Members of the House of Lords were attacked as they arrived, and a number of carriages were vandalised and destroyed.
Despite being aware of the possibility of trouble, the authorities had failed to take steps to prevent violence breaking out. The Prime Minister, Lord North, had forgotten to issue an order mobilising the small number of Constables in the area. Those that were present in the House of Commons were not strong enough to take on the angry mob. Eventually a detachment of soldiers were summoned, and they dispersed the crowd without violence. Inside the House of Commons, the petition was overwhelmingly dismissed by a vote of 192 to 6.
Once the mob around Parliament had dispersed, it seemed to the government that the worst of the disorder was over. However, the same night a crowd gathered and attacked the Roman Catholic Sardinian Embassy Chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Bow Street Runners and soldiers were called out and made thirteen arrests, although most of the ringleaders had managed to escape. The same night the chapel of the Bavarian Embassy in Warwick Street, Soho, was destroyed and crowds caused random violence in streets known to house rich Catholics
The army was called out on 7 June and given orders to fire upon groups of four or more who refused to disperse. About 285 people were shot dead, with another 200 wounded. Around 450 of the rioters were arrested. Of those arrested, about twenty or thirty were later tried and executed. Gordon was arrested and charged with high treason, but was found not guilty. Brackley Kennett, the Lord Mayor, was convicted of criminal negligence for not reading out the Riot Act and given a £1,000 fine.[ The military units which dealt with the rioters included the Horse Guards, Foot Guards, Inns of Court Yeomanry, the Honourable Artillery Company, line infantry including the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), and militia brought in from neighbouring counties. The defence of the Bank of England was conducted by the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot under the command of Thomas Twisleton, 13th Baron Saye and Sele.1780 Setting of Book the Second of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (published 1859). Includes the treason trial of Charles Darnay at Old Bailey.
1780 Founding of the London Society of West India Planters and Merchants
1778 (Feb. 6) Franco-American alliance, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, brings French Army troops into American Revolutionary War on the side of the Continental Army against Britain.
1777 (circa) Hypothetical scene between the Holmes' sisters regarding the character Orlando in As You Like It. If Frances was born in 1761, which seems more likely than 1765, given the sources, this would make her about 15 or 16 and would make her younger sister Rosamond about 7 or 8. We would probably not want to make Rosamond much younger than that, for this particular interaction.
Initially I had igured on placing this interaction between Rosamond and Frances (while play acting As You Like It, after having seen it in a performance) sometime in the late 1760s, but given the birth dates of the two sisters, it seems obvious to put the scene sometime in the late 1770s. This seems perfectly in accordance with the near continuous run of this play at the Drury Lane Theatre in the last few decades of the Eighteenth Century. We can perhaps conjecture that they saw the play while visiting London from their family home Hertfordshire.1776 (Sept. 6) The Lord Mayor of London is robbed by a single highwayman near urnham Green while in his chaise and four (source).
1776 (Jun. 10) David Garrick retires from the stage at Drury Lane Theatre. (source)
1776 (Apr. 30) Date will for James Harryman or Harriman, a grocer in St. John's parish in Southwark, is listed as proven in Old Bailey Court records (source). Possible male relation of William Harriman (II)?
1776 Publication of The London Directory for the Year 1776: Containing an Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Merchants and Principal Traders of the Cities of London and Westminster
1775 Setting of Book the First of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (published 1859). Includes the mission of Jarvis Lorry of Tellson's Bank to Paris to retrieve Doctor Manette after his long imprisonment from the Bastille prison.
1774 (Sept. 7) Testimony of William Harriman (I) at Old Bailey Court in the robbery and forgery trial of Charles Nangle and Mark Love. Based largely on Harriman's testimony, Nangle was found guilty and sentenced to death. Love was acquitted. (source, from documents in Harvard Univ. Library) Note that we cannot know apparently if this William Harriman is the same man William Harriman (I), the supposed father of William Harriman (II), but is seems a plausible guess.
William Harriman . I am clerk to Mess. Colston; I went to the bank on the 28th of June last and desired four bank post bills three fifties, and a thirty-six pound eighteen shillings and fourpence, to be made payable to Robert Swyer of Shaftsbury or his order; I put them in my pocket and went home; this was about two o'clock on Tuesday; the 28th of June in going home, somebody in an alley pushed against me; I thought it an accident and did not lay any stress upon it; when I got a little further I put my hand in my pocket and missed my pocket book; I went home directly and acquainted the head clerk with it; after that I went to the bank and got the numbers of the bills, which were 7800, 1, 2, 3; was advertised them next day; I went to the bank for the numbers, within about half an hour after I was robbed.
Harriman is later presented with one of the recovers bills by the prosecutor, and he identifies it:
Harriman. The bill produced is one of those I received from the bank; I know it by a blotch in the name.
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| Record of testimony of William Harriman (I) in the1774 trial of Charles Nangle. (source) |
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| An Old Bailey trial, circa 1808. (source) |
1774 Mary Cole [wife of William Harriman (I) and mother of William (II)] dies (source, no citation given)
1773 (Dec. 16) The Boston Tea Party.
1770 Followers of radical Member of Parliament John Wilkes start a riot at Drury Lane Theatre over the staging of the play A Word to the Wise by government supporter Hugh Kelly, forcing the abandonment of the production. Kelly had made a defence of the government's right to use force against Wilkes' supporters at the St. George's Massacre in 1768.
1769 Attempt to sabotage the master silk-weaver's looms in London by the "cutters". (source)
"The East End [of London] became the home of manufacturing, of brewing and distilling, sugar processing and textiles. In combination with the ever-hungry maw of the port, its industries consumed the lives of generations of workers. Besmirched by the smuts and odours sent skyward from the warm coal-fired hearths of the West End, East Enders struggled in poor conditions, at difficult jobs, in a poor environment. Periodic attempts to defend their jobs in the face of threats posed by labour-saving devices led to occasional violent protests, such as the attacks by the "cutters" on master silk-weavers' engine looms in 1769...By 1815 a member of the gentry would no more consider leaving his West End haunts to walk to the East End than he would consider walking to the moon."1769 Rosamond Holmes, sister of Frances Holmes, is born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshir eto Edward Wilson Holmes and Rosamond Rose Lane Holmes. She is christened on Nov. 25 (source)
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| John Wilkes at his trial before the King's Bench in May 1768. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, his supporters appeared before King's Bench, London, chanting "No liberty, no King." Troops opened fire on the unarmed men, killing seven and wounding 15, an incident that came to be known as the St George's Fields Massacre. (source) |
1768 (May 10) St. George's Fields Massacre.
British government soldiers opened fire on demonstrators that had gathered at St George's Fields, Southwark in south London. The protest was against the imprisonment of the radical Member of Parliament John Wilkes for writing an article that severely criticised King George III. After the reading of the Riot Act telling the crowds to disperse within the hour, six or seven people were killed when fired on by troops.
On 8 August, two soldiers were brought before a grand jury at the Surrey Assizes charged with the murder of William Allan. However neither was indicted because one escaped (or was freed) from the gaol attached to the courthouse.[1] The grand jury also decided the other deaths were caused by "chance medley"
1766 Charlotte Holmes, younger sister of Frances, is born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. Date of death unknown. She later marries John Gorman (source).
1766 Parliament passes the the London Paving and Lighting Act (6 Geo. 3 c. 26), "An act for the better paving, cleansing, and enlightening, the city of London, and the liberties thereof; and for preventing obstructions and annoyances within the same; and for other purposes therein mentioned.” It also sets a standard for the numbering of street addresses in London, (source).
One of the other purposes therein mentioned was the numbering of houses. With an aim to bring order to the chaotic numbering systems or lack thereof on London streets the Act provided that “… the said commissioners … may also cause every house, shop, or warehouse, in each of the said streets, lanes, squares, yards, courts, alleys, passages, and places, to be marked or numbered, in such manner as they shall judge most proper for distinguishing the same.”[5] This was quite an undertaking that took years to accomplish. It was a decade later before numbered addresses...in the City of Westminster appeared in The London Directory (1776). The London Directory and its competitors were published primarily by booksellers or printers to supplement their income and were highly profitable. To say they were competitive is an understatement. “Some of the most hotly disputed struggles over copyright in the century concerned guidebooks. Many were optimistically emblazoned with a royal license and a notice that the work had been entered at Stationers’ Hall. Various struggles between rival guides intensified as the potential for profits became clear.”
1763 Susanna Holmes, sister of Frances, is born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. Date of death unknown (source).
1762 John Wilkes, radical Member of Parliament, starts the newspaper The North Briton. After one article iss published on 23 April 1763 severely attacking George III, the king and his ministers tryto prosecute Wilkes for seditious libel. However Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield rules at his trial that as an MP, Wilkes was protected by parliamentary privilege so he was released without conviction.
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| Map of the Turnpike Gates around the edge of London. Published by J. Cary 1790. The most likely route for a journey from the City of London to Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire would have have been along the Edgeworth Road through the Paddington Gate (pink area on the middle left side of map). This route was essentially identical to the ancient Celtic-Roman reoute across Britain known as Watling Street, and today is the essentially the course of the A5 Motorway. (source) |
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| Map showing the location of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire in the environs of Greater London (indicated by red pin). "As early as the end of Sixteenth Century, John Norden was able to remark that Hertfordshire was well known for being 'replete with many parks', as well as having 'many sweete and pleasant dwellings' As well as the number of elite residences, the pastoral and ancient character of the London clays gave the landscape the appearance of being a large designed park or garden, something noted by Defoe in the early Eighteenth Century, 'the enclos'd corn fields made one grand parterre, the thick planted Hedgerows, like a wilderness of labyrinth, divided in Espaliers; the villages interspers'd, looked like so many noble seats of gentlemen at a distance. In a word, it was all nature, and yet look'd all like art.' The 'grand parterre' was added to during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, when the number or parks, gardens, and gentelmen's residences grew substantially, and contemporaries were well aware of this increase." Regions and Designed Landscapes in Georgian England (source). |
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"Glazing the finished sheets to smooth the surface for writing" From European Papermaking Techniques 1300–1800(source) |
1761 Early text on paper making process published in Europe. Joseph-Jérome Lefrançois de Lalande, “Art de faire le papier,” in Description des arts et métiers, vol. 4 (Paris: Académie royale des sciences, 1761). Translated by Richard MacIntyre Atkinson as The Art of Papermaking (Kilmurry, Ireland: Ashling Press, 1976).
The literature of papermaking is sparse until the mid-eighteenth century, when the French writers Jérôme Lalande, Louis-Jacques Goussier, and Nicolas Desmarest began documenting the craft in their country.2 The absence of details from earlier periods is no doubt a result of trade secrecy, the habit of passing skills directly to family members or in-laws rather than to outsiders, and the lack of ability, time, or need to document the craft in writing. (source: Excellent reference of European paper making techniques)
1760 (Jul 31) William Harriman (II) born, in Nottingham (source). He later marries Eliza Garton (vital dates unknown) and later Frances Holmes.
1760 Population of London approximately 750,000
London grew decade by decade to reach 1.4 million individuals by 1815. Built by hand, a city still dependent on night-soil men and hand pumped water; London developed a complex organisation in these decades to feed and water, clean and care for an unprecedented number of people.
It was in these decades that London’s pattern of inexorable growth became more firmly established. And this growth was largely the result of migration. High mortality rates and unhealthy living conditions continued to suppress the fertility and life expectancy of native Londoners, ensuring that the capacious shoes of the dead always needed filling with new feet. At the same time, with the introduction of innoculation against smallpox and a decline in infant mortality London's population started to become sufficiently healthy to reproduce itself.
What was most distinctive about this period, however, was the pattern of migration. People from Europe and the British Isles now rubbed shoulders with Black Africans and Caribbeans; with Lascars from India and returned colonists from North America and later Australia. Thrown onto London’s shores by the storms of war and revolution, of the Seven Years’ War, the American War, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; these new, war-weary migrants created a population for late eighteenth-century London that was more varied than had existed in any European city since the Roman Empire.(source)1759 (Jan. 15) Opening of the British Museum.
The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location.
With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. In 1757, King George II gave the Old Royal Library and with it the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the Museum's library would expand indefinitely. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and David Garrick's library of 1,000 printed plays. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the Museum acquired for £8,410 its first significant antiquities in Sir William Hamilton's "first" collection of Greek vases.
"if England can be said to have had an "Enlightenment" it was to be found somewhere between Grub Street, White's coffeehouse, the Royal Academy and that quintessential eighteenth-century London institution, the British Museum." (source).1756 Mary Holmes, eldest sister of Frances, is born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire (source). Date of death unknown. She later marries John Barney Sumner.
1752 Marriage Act of 1753 decrees that all marriages after 25 Mar 1754 were valid in law only if they had been advertised in banns or sanctioned by a special license and were conducted by an Anglican clergyman in a church. (source)
1742 (circa) William Harriman (I) born (source, without citation). He later marries Mary Cole (date of birth and parentage unknown, source).
1730 Edward Wilson Holmes born in in Ayot Saint Peter, Hertfordshire, England, to Edward Holmes and Mary Wilson (source). He later marries Rosamond Rose Lane (date of birth and parentage unknown).
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| Blackwall Yard from the Thames, by Francis Holman, 1784, in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The yard by this time was well-known as the location for much of the shipbuilding and repairing for the East India Company. (source) |
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