Edwin Bradbury and The Goat's Head - - a minor running a pub?

[ShaunJ]

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.

[avm228]

I believe that in this period the regulation of beerselling was about as lax as it ever got, following the coming into force of the Beerhouse Act 1830 under which any ratepayer could get a licence to sell beer. This sudden liberalisation of a previously tightly-regulated area was a trigger for huge uptake of these licences, and one suspects the large numbers of applications may have meant that each one was not scrutinised very carefully (perhaps especially given that detailed registers of licences granted were no longer required).  I'd have thought it quite possible that Edwin could have obtained a licence despite not yet being 21 (if being of age was even a requirement - I haven't looked).  There was some tightening in 1834 and 1840, but strict regulation did not return until about 1870.

[ShaunJ]

Thanks for that info, AVM228.

[spendlove]

Hi

Holding a beer licence was not the same as being a licensed vitular i.e. having a pub licence.
The beer house obtained their licence from Customs  & Excise, however the pub licence had to be renewed every year from the annual licensing session.

The beer house act of 1830 allowed any one who paid local poor rates to obtain a beer licence, they could sell beer or cider but not wine or spirits.  There was not the samecontrol over beer houses as there was for a public house licence which had to be renewed every year and if their conduct had not been satisfactory the licence could be refused.

So the Goats Head was not a pub, it was a beer house.

Hope this helps
Spendlove

[ShaunJ]

Thanks Spendlove. It was indeed a beerhouse but as it is described in contemporary documents as a "public house" (see the two newspaper items I attached to the original post), I think I am justified in calling it a pub.