Hello,
I am researching the arrival of John Widder and Charles Widder to England from two states of the Holy Roman Empire.
As far as I know, John Widder lived in Norwich, and died there in 1799. He was a widower, but I could not find who was his wife or if they had children (in his testament there is no reference to his children). His father was from Mannheim (by 1728 it belonged to the Palatinate). To my best knowledge they were Protestants. John Widder probably had business with Jeremiah Ives the older, Jeremiah Ives the younger, John Green Baseley (they were from Norwich), and Joseph Echalaz (a basque merchant living in London). His niece was Mary Andre (daughter of his half-sister Catherine Elizabeth Schmaltz who married Johann Andre from Offenbach am Main), who married Ebenezer Mills in 1792. I am interested in learn more about the life of John Widder in Norwich, so any help will be welcomed.
Regarding Charles Widder, as far as I know he was born in Mannheim in 1770, the son of Johann Goswin Widder, a prominent civil servant in the Palatinate. To my best knowledge they were Catholics. By the 1790s he is already living in London. In 1801, he appeared as witness in a trial (Evan Jones, theft: grand larceny), and presented himself as a clerk in the house Jeremiah Ives the elder, Jeremiah Ives the younger, Joseph Echalaz, and John Green Bazeley. By the 1805 he is listed as living in Pentonville. By 1810 he partnered with Thomas Blyth and John Hullett, in the firm of Blyth & Co, with premises in Fore Street (Narrow Street), in a place that later will become known as Blyth's Wharf. He also partnered with John Hullett in the firm of Hullett Bros. & Co., I suspect he entered the firm after Thomas Hullett (older and only brother of John Hullett) died in 1811. He married in 1800 in Stepney, London, with Mary Archer. By then, they already had two children who died in 1804 within days of each other. Mary Widder (ne้ Archer) died in 1825, and his departure was published in newspaper in Oxfordshire, suggesting that she was born there, so I did some research and found a Mary Archer from Ambrosden near Bicester. I am interested in learn more about the life of Charles Widder in London (and eventually in Norwich), particularly from 1790s to 1810s, so any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe