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« on: Monday 11 February 19 13:15 GMT (UK) »
The Goat's Head was a pub at 33 Willow Row in Derby. My ancestor Edwin Bradbury is listed there in Freebody's 1852 Directory as a beerseller. He appears to have been the landlord from 1851 to 1855 or thereabouts. My great grandfather, Edwin's son Joseph, was born at 33 Willow Row in 1855.
The trouble is:
1. Edwin was born circa 1832/3 so he would have been a minor in 1852. In the 1851 census (where he is listed with his Boam in-laws) he is aged 18.
2. Edwin's profession was coach maker - that was his occupation in the 1851 census and on Joseph's birth certificate in 1853
So what was going on? Was Edwin just a front man, perhaps holding the tenancy as agent for someone else? (The former landlord of the Goat's Head, the insolvent Clement Keys, was living next door at 34 Willow Row during this time period.)
Could a minor be the licensee of a beerhouse in the 1850's?
An 1852 ad for the sale of The Goat's Head names the tenant as Edwin Bond. I'm guessing that's a typo but if it isn't, who was he?
Edwin Bradbury was certainly running the Goat's Head in 1855 when he gave evidence in court.