Companies - registrations and winding up

[Nevthedigger]

Are there any online resources to help find out when 19th century companies were first registered for business and / or dissolved? Free would be better than subscription but anything would be a help.

[Andy J2022]

As far as I am aware there are no plans by Companies House to release their older records, which if they decided to do this would probably be via a company like FindMyPast or Ancestry in order to do the necessary digitization and transcription. Note that FindMyPast already have some details of company directors, but according to the description on the FindMyPast site, these only cover directorships since 2002 so no use to you.

The best source for company dissolutions is the London Gazette, but local newspapers may also have some details, especially if the company was a large employer in the area. You can search the Gazette section on companies but I'm not sure how far back these entries go. I suspect it's not that far. So the better option is to go to the general search function and select notices, then companies and fill in as much as you can to limit the search to the company or date range you are interested in. You will also need to check the insolvency section as well.

[Bookbox]

Are there any online resources to help find out when 19th century companies were first registered for business and / or dissolved? Free would be better than subscription but anything would be a help.

Records of dissolved companies are held at the National Archives in series BT 31 and are indexed on Discovery. See the link below for details of what is held, dates etc.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3074

To access the records themselves you would need to visit, or have someone go on your behalf.

[sugarbakers]

Agree with Andy re Gazette. You might also search by name for individual owners/directors as it's often those who were mentioned regarding changes of ownership and cases of bankruptcy and closure.

Don't forget the local record offices where you might find documents dealing with all sorts of detail, particularly land/building purchase/lease at start up.

[Andy J2022]

Trade directories will probably list the company or companies you are interested in, but as they weren't published annually in most cases, that may not help you pin down when a business started and ended. Not all companies were incorporated and so they wouldn't have been listed at Companies House. This also means that their dissolution may have been handled in an informal manner if there were no creditors, ie the company was not bankrupt.

A good collection of directories can be found here: University of Leicester

[arthurk]

Grace's Guide might be worth a look - it's mainly about industry and manufacturing, though the list of categories also includes things like Brewers, Hotels, Railway Companies and Retailers:

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page