John Brown of Thornbury, Clockmaker

[DRH123]

I slipped up when I suggested the brother William continued the business. I skimmed Arthur's will quickly and didn't notice that he also had a son William. That's the William (wife Rebecca) who was a bookseller in Bristol and took on the apprentice Arthur had when he died.

Strangely, William became a burgess (freeman of Bristol) "by redemption", i.e. by paying for it, when he should have had it by right from his father. (That made more sense when I thought he was the brother.) I wonder if it made a difference that Arthur himself became a burgess through his marriage to Jane Badger, who presumably was not William's mother.

David

[Geordie daughter]

Hi David
And I didn't pick up that you'd said brother, not son, either. Do you have the details of William's being made a burgess, because that's information I haven't been able to unearth so far, and it would be really helpful? I'm also intrigued by your mention of Arthur being married to a Jane Badger. The info I have, to date, is that he married Sarah Wakely in Honiton in 1753 (died 1777, Honiton) and then Elizabeth Morgan at All Saints, Bristol, by licence in 1781. Elizabeth is the "dear wife" mentioned in his will.

Arthur's brother William was a peruke maker and hair dresser and I've established that he was in business in Bath between 1760 or so, and 1769, possibly later, though I can't find any advertisements or mention of him in Bath beyond that year. Where he did his apprenticeship, I do not know. I do know, however, that he moved to Bristol at some point before he died in 1791, but not when exactly. This William's son John was a tailor and stay maker in Bristol prior to 1796 when he and his family moved to America; I've found very little on John's life in England, though the American side is very well documented through his work as a nonconformist preacher, and as a collector of funds (and books) for establishing Miami University. Yesterday I found a trade card for Wall and Browne, "Stay Makers, Taylors and Habit Makers," of Broad Mead, Bristol, so this morning I'm hoping to follow up the Walls, to try and identify who his partner was.

[DRH123]

Arthur Browne, Stationer became a burgess on 23 Dec 1778. He was eligible through being married to Jane the daughter of Thomas Badger jnr, Soapmaker, deceased. They had married at St Stephen's in Bristol just a month before, 26 Nov. If his first wife died in Honiton in 1777 he must have moved to Bristol quite recently. Did he know her before, or did he move first and then think "I'd better find a wife who can make me a burgess"? [In theory you had to be a burgess if you wanted to run a business in the city.]

William Brown, Bookseller became a burgess 15 May 1786 by a vote of the council. That was the route used by someone who had no claim through family or apprenticeship. It involved a substantial fee, in his case £8 8s.

They each had several apprentices. The apprentice records usually include the master's wife's name. Arthur has wife Jane in 1779 and Elizabeth in 1781 and 1784. William with wife Rebecca took on apprentices in 1786, 1788 and 1792. He also took over Arthur's last apprentice in 1789 (wife not mentioned in this case). There are also two in 1800 and 1806 to a stationer and bookseller William Browne with wife Elizabeth. I assume that's the same William.

David

[Geordie daughter]

Thank you, David, what you've given me is incredibly helpful. I had no idea Arthur had been married three times. As far as I can work out, Arthur and Sarah left Honiton shortly after August 1776, which is when he announced that his business there was being taken over by Samuel Lott. My best guess is that they wanted to be closer to their daughter Hannah who had married Henry Lane in Bristol in 1774, and given birth to their first grandchild in the following year, but there may well have been other family already established there.

Sarah died in Bristol and was buried in Brunswick Square Dissenter's Burial Ground in March 1777, so Arthur didn't take long to remarry. (It's probable that the Badgers were also Dissenters so if that's the case Jane would have been a member of the congregation.) I think you're right about the marriage being a case of "needs must," especially as a lot of Arthur's stock had been destroyed in a fire in Bristol shortly before Sarah died.

Looking at the dates, William became a burgess shortly before his father died, by which time he was more or less running the business on his own account, from what I gather, so he would need to put himself on an official footing. And yes, William also married again, to an Elizabeth Tully, in 1799. My best guess is that Rebecca had died the previous year as the burial records are a little garbled.

[Geordie daughter]

Poor Jane Browne (nee Badger) was buried in October 1779 with her child, hence the short duration of the marriage. Found her in the Broad Mead Baptist burials register.

[DRH123]

Well done finding Jane. I couldn't find her before ... and I still can't see her now. Ancestry's image of the Broadmead Register only has 4 burials in 1779, none of them her. (Although there is some extra writing in some sort of shorthand or code.)  Where did you find the record?

David

[Geordie daughter]

Morning, David. I subscribe to Find My Past, which is how I was able to find the burial, though it took a bit of finding (i.e trawling through the original images page by page, which I find is the best way with these particular records). The entry reads "Oct 6 [1779]:Mr Arther [sic] Browns wife was Inter'd 3 yards from the South wall and 10 yds from the west wall to the Head of the grave her Child laid on her 6 feet deep." (You have more detailed access to apprenticeship and burgess records than I do, though, it seems!)

I've also managed to confirm that the Badgers were, indeed, nonconformists: there are three burials between 1752 and 1761, for Mr Thomas Badger, Mr Thomas Badger's wife and a granddaughter. The nonconformists weren't big on recording personal information, so no mention of occupation or other distinguishing details. These burials actually kicked up another connection as they were buried at the foot of "Mr Annerlyes toome," and a Sarah Annely married one of the Thomas Badgers back in 1716.

I'm wondering if Jane wasn't the child of a second marriage as there is a lease and release dated 28 July 1760 mentioning Thomas the soapmaker's son (also Thomas) and Mary Wilcox (widow) formerly Wilkins, nee Badger, who are their father's devisee and executrix respectively.

[DRH123]

That's strange. If I search FindMyPast for a Brown burial in Bristol in 1779, or even for Browns, that record doesn't appear. If I allow 5 miles around Bristol it does. It seems that they've classified the Broadmead ground as near Bristol but not in it, even though they put the location in the index as Bristol! Same for other non-conformist burial grounds.

I can see now a Rebekah Brown aged 59 buried 11 Oct 1797, Broadmead. Is that William's wife? There's also a record at Lewins Mead of charging Mr Brown Bookseller for his wife's grave in March 1798. I suppose that's what you mean by the records for Rebecca being a bit garbled.

I don't know what it is that Ancestry have that they call the Broadmead register. It does have some burials from there, but only a fraction of those in the FindMyPast version.

The Bristol Burgess and Apprenticeship Books can be downloaded from the Bristol & Avon FHS site, £7 each. They can be very useful for ancestors in Bristol.

[Geordie daughter]

Yes, that's part of the problem with researching this particular family and its various branches. When searching for non-conformist records, if you put in the area they're associated with, you get nothing, but leaving the location blank gives a ridiculous amount of hits. Just to confuse things even more, in some instances "local" non-com baptisms are registered in London, not at local chapels, as I found with another set of Brownes in Bridgwater who may or may not be related in some way. It doesn't help that the Brownes travelled around the country a lot.

I am so pleased you found the entry for Rebecca - you've solved the mystery of when she actually died. I only had the Lewins Mead ones, as, several years ago when I did the initial research, I didn't realise they might be recorded in the Broad Mead registers too. There was a second entry in the Lewins Mead register saying "Mrs Browne in her husband grave" dated 18 January 1799, hence my head scratching. 

Thanks for the head up about the Burgess and Apprenticeship Books. Do you know whether they include outlying areas like Bath, or is that a separate set of records? I ask, as I'd love to find out whether William Browne, the peruke maker and hair dresser, was a Freeman of Bristol, or of Bath. Bath, like Bristol, was pretty strict about their tradesmen being Freemen in order to carry on business.