Scottish Coal Merchant

[OzKat]

My ancestor Robert Grant started off his adult life as an agricultural labourer. The next reference to him I find has him as farmer. Towards the end of his life he is described as a coal merchant.

When I looked for a definition I found - one who deals with coal - but what does this really mean?? Sounds like a very loose definition. What would a coal merchant really have done in the mid 1800s? Any suggestions?  Did they trade?

[peckham]

You may be taking the word “merchant” too literally, especially against the background of a more current day use/interpretation.

Not sure about Scotland but in England a coal merchant was also another name for a Coal Man (Coalman) - a person who sold coal (usually back then from a horse and cart) house to house. In latter, e.g., as “recent” as the 1960’s a coal man still delivered coal to people but by lorry (truck). However the delivery person was then typically an employee of a local distributor from which one ordered coal to be delivered as required or . . . as in the winter months . . . had a standing order to deliver x-amount of coal at regular intervals. The house I grew up in London was typical of a Victorian structure that had a cellar in which coal was stored. The coal was delivered via a manhole in the front path of the house that allowed the coal man to empty the sacks of coal down it.

[OzKat]

Yes - when I first spoke about this to my mother she was telling me about how they had their coal delivered by cart and then truck and this was in Sydney, Australia and she was born at the beginning of WW2. But she was saying that the person who delivered the coal was called a coal carter or coal man and she thought the coal merchant was the owner of the business. But we had no real basis for thinking this.

Clearly though from what you say, this wouldn't be a skilled profession so there is unlikely to be any guild or trade group which would have had records I presume?

[peckham]

With all respect to past coal men it was not a skilled job and would not have warranted a union membership let alone a guild. A physical capability and an ability to put up with coal dust being ingrained in the hair and all areas of exposed skin would have been the main attributes . . . plus the ability to manage a horse and later on drive a lorry (truck).

Re your comment about the "merchant" being the proprietor and therefore setting them apart from the delivery coal man, that is a reasonable distinction.

[peckham]

The following website references a book all about coal merchants:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:YhV5xBkCK2UJ:www.saxoncourtbooks.co.uk/ontrack/books3/itm03143.htm+london+coal+merchants+rickett+cockerell&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Among them is the names of
Geo J Cockerell & Co, South London
Rickett, Cockerell & Co Ltd, London

The latter, a name I recall, was a large “merchant” company/distributor of coal in London.
     

[OzKat]

Many thanks.
I'll certainly be taking a look.