William Day Lithographer London

[juliakennedy]

I am researching the Victorian artist Robert Carrick (1820-1905) who may also have been the same person as the lithographer Robert Carrick who worked for Day and Son and who was the lithographer behind the famous copy of Turner's "Blue Lights".

I am trying to find out if company records for Day & Son are stored anywhere for public access to solve this mystery. Can anyone help with this?

[K Rees]

Hi Julia,

I can't answer your question; however, I will send on your request to two of William Day's direct descendents, both are still resident in England.

Keith Aus

[eef2010]

Hello all--
I'm also researching an artist who worked with Day & Son: Martin Johnson Heade, who hoped to have a set of hummingbird paintings ("The Gems of Brazil") printed as chromolithographs by Day & Son in the 1860s. I'd love to find out if the company records or correspondence might survive somewhere. Julia, were you able to find a repository for the papers, or might someone be able to make some suggestions for me?

Many thanks,
Ellery

[Valda]

Hi

The National Archives has an online register of surviving deposited business and organisational papers and their whereabouts

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/simpleSearch.asp?subjectType=O

The index holds nothing for Day and Son (printers)


St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway 3rd January 1854
John Bellenie Day Full Bachelor Gent Holloway Wiliam Day Gent
Rose Isabel Rees Minor Holloway William Lee Rees Gent
Both signed
Witnesses May Rees and ?


1st April 1846 St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway
William Day Full Bachelor Gent Holloway William Day
Elizabeth Rees Minor Spinster Parish of West Molesey Surrey James Rees
Both signed
Witnesses Alfred P? and  James B?


St George the Martyr, Queen Square, Holborn/Camden 
Baptisms - all parents William and Caroline

23rd May 1819
Caroline Ann Day, 5 Orange Street, father's occupation baker

10th September 1820
Sarah Bellanie Day, Orange Street, father's occuaption baker

2nd May 1823
William Day, Great Queen Street, father's occupation proprietor of Golands Lohan

5th January 1825
Emma Day, Great Queen Street, father's occupation Lithographic printer

28th January 1827
Frederick Day, 39 Great Queen Street, father's occupation Lithographic printer

7th February 1830
John Bellenie Day,  Gate Street St Giles, father's occupation Lithographic printer

5th September 1834 born 3rd August
Emma Anna Maria Markwell Day, Gates Street, Lincolns Inn Fields, father's occupation Lithographer


1851 census HO107 1501 folio 276
Leas? Tree Cottage Tollington? Row Islington
Caroline Day 56 Head Widow Lithographic and copper plate printer employing 18 men St George the Martyr Middlesex
Joseph Day 22 Son same occupation as mother St Giles in the Fields Middlesex
John B Day 21 Son same occupation as mother St Giles in the Fields Middlesex
Emma A M K Day 16 Daughter St Giles in the Fields Middlesex
Eliza Jane Brice 19 Visitor Taunton Somerset
plus 1 servant

Joseph married Eliza Jane Brice in 1851 St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway


1841 census HO107 673/6 folio 18
Great Queen Street St Giles in the Fileds
Wm Day 45 Lithographer
Caroline Day 45
Caroline Day 20
Wm Day 15
Joseph Day 13
John Day 11
Mary Day 20
Anna Day 6
all born Middlesex


Mary Day married in 1849 to Robert Kent Thomas at St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway


St John the Baptist, Clerkenwell  1st June 1817
William Day   
Caroline Bellenie
Bachelor and spinster of the parish
Both signed
Married by banns
Witnesses Henry George Holden and Ann Bellenie


Regards

Valda

[K Rees]

Hi Valda and eef2010

I have now built up quite a reasonible story and record of the Day family, and I am offering my rough notes; however, eef2010, I will not have what you are looking for - rather family descendants.

Valda, once again you have produced the goods. You have some other records that I did not find. Also, I have found the parents of Caroline Bellenie, and signatures now confirm that Bellenie name should be spelt this way.

The two Day sons married two Rees cousins. There is one person in Somerset still with the Day surname, but she is not able to contribute much more at this stage.

Keith Rees

[Valda]

Hi

So were Caroline's parents William and Ann nee Mitchell who married 1st May 1786 at St John the Baptist, Clerkenwell - William was a widower?

If so a possible Prerogative Court of Canterbury will

Will of William Bellenie, Stonemason of No 7 Fisher Street Red Lion Square 25 May 1822 PROB 11/1656

St George The Martyr, Queen Square 29th April 1822 
William Bellenie aged 79, Fisher Street

St George The Martyr, Queen Square 13th January 1830
Ann Bellenie aged 70, Fisher Street


Considering that William Day's first occupation was a baker and that he switched to printer between 1820 and 1825 (not just printer a lithographic printer) that is quite a jump.

If the Bellenie parents are correct they married at St John the Baptist Clerkenwell as did William and Caroline. In 1825 a James Day, a printer was buried in the same churchyard. He was a bachelor aged 57 who left a will. His death occured after Emma Day's baptism at the beginning of the year which gives her father's occupation as lithographic printer. Day is a common surname and because of age this James, if he was connected could not have been William's sibling. It could very easily be just a red herring since the surname is so common.


Regards

Valda

[snowball]

Hi - not sure if this helps, but Day and Son appears to have been wound up in 1870: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/23595/pages/1606
Regards
Rob

[K Rees]

Yes, Valda, I also came up with Caroline Bellenie being a child of Wm Bellenie second marriage to Ann Mitchell as you stated. I did not pursue his first wife and a number of chn, as that was beyond what I needed at the time.

Although William Day may have been a baker, I still believe his father was a printer - but I will need to spend more time on that theory.

Some of my notes:
William Day also enjoyed the patronage of the Royal Family as 'Lithographers to the King'. In 1837, the firm of Day and Haghe, as it was then sometimes called, apparently had requested a grant of the Royal Warrant from the newly enthroned Queen Victoria, and were in the same year granted the Warrant as 'Lithographers to Queen Victoria and to the Queen Dowager, Queen Adelaide'. This was confirmed in a letter from St. James's Palace on 29 July 1837:

'Gentlemen,
I beg to acknowledge the Receipt of your Petition of the 11th June and am honoured with the Queen's Command to acquaint you that Her Majesty has graciously signified her consent that you should be appointed lithographers to Her Majesty's Household.
I have the honour to be
Your obed. humblest
H. Wheatley'

Some more of my very rough days include:

Another indication of the interest taken by the Royal Family in lithography, and particularly the firm of Day and Son, was that in 1856 the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred paid a visit to the works in Gate Street. The firm's premises had been enlarged around this time, and the visit probably marked the completion of the new work. The visit naturally received public attention, and a wood-engraving of the event appeared in the Illustrated London News shortly afterwards.

Another well-known person who dealt with the firm on at least two occasions, was Florence Nightingale. There is a collection of her correspondence in the British Library, which contains one letter from her to Day and Son, and one from the firm to her.(20) The letter from the firm to Miss Nightingale is dated 7 January 1863 and is written on stationery with the firm's letterhead. It reads:

'Day and Son Lithographers and Chromolithographers to the Queen
Steel and Copper Plate and Letter Press Printers, Gate Street, Lincolns Inn Fields -- Messrs. Day and Son present compliments to Miss Nightingale and beg to thank her for the cheque for Mr. Bedford's Photographs of the Prince of Wales tour. Messrs. Day and Son will be happy to send Miss Nightingale duplicates of the Scutari views and also to send the entire series for her inspection which they will do on Saturday, and should Miss Nightingale select any single photograph Messrs. Day and Son will gladly make an exception.'

The firm later became Day and Son and by 1845, it is recorded that William Day left 30,000 pounds to his son to carry on the business.


I also concluded that Caroline Day nee Bellenie marries a second time to James Day, the son of Samuel Day and Mary Shephard.
1861 Census: Reference:  RG 9/1626  Stewards (?) House, Pawlett, Somerset
George Heath        Head   Widow    71   Farmer                          Born: Pawlett, Somerset
Mary Childly            Serv     Widow    52   House keeper                       Stoke (?), Somerset
James Day             Visitor   Married  71   Proprietor of houses            Pawlett, Somerset
Caroline Day          Visitor   Married  66   Proprietor of houses             London
Elizabeth Day        Visitor   Unm        66   Proprietor of houses             London
E.A.M.K. Day          Visitor   Unm        26                                                         London

1871 Census: Reference: RG 10/ 730  ...... Grove, Peckham, St. Giles, Camberwell, Surrey
Caroline Day               Mother    Married    76                          Born: London
John R. Nicholls         Visitor     Married     50   ...............                    Portsmouth, Hampshire
Caroline A. Nicholls   Visitor    Married      51                                     London
plus a servant


I do have a copy of the William Day's Will, Printer of 17 Goswell St 1 Sep 1834 whose wife was Ann, but I have not done much with it.

Regards,

Keith Rees

[K Rees]

Valda and others
I have an ongoing working project called Serving their country in The Great War, where I try to write a summary of any descendant of David Rees (1757-1837) of Haverfordwest, Wales who served in WW1.
So far, I have 22 Australians; 4 New Zealanders (2 nurses); 9 Welshmen; and 7 Englishmen.
Tonight, I found that Earle Eric Bellenie Day (1885-1961) enlisted in Royal Airforce 10 Dec 1915.
He was a great grandson of William Day, the Lithographer of London and grandson of John Bellenie Day. Yes, a little complicated but John Bellenie Day married Isabel Rose Rees, and his brother William Day of Day and Haghe, the Lithographers, married Elizabeth Rees, her cousin.
Anyway, I no longer have access to the company that sourced Royal Airforce records of WW1.
Can anyone spare a minute or two, and tell me anything of Earle Eric Bellanie Day during WW1. He had married Elizabeth Maud Skellorn in 1909 Islington. He was born in Auckland when his dad was a journalist there in 1885.
Keith