The Brook, Wokingham

[behindthefrogs]

It is interesting that he describes himself as a woolstapler.  I had always regarded that job, a wool sorter, as a rather lowly job whereas James would appear to have been a wool importer a local JP and a person of some standing.  I also can't find any immediate information about a wool business in Wokingham.  There were some sheep in the area but these appear to have been on mixed farms and not on any scale.

David

[newburychap]

It is interesting that he describes himself as a woolstapler.  I had always regarded that job, a wool sorter, as a rather lowly job

A wool stapler is not a 'wool sorter' but a dealer in wool. Many wool staplers were very wealthy in the days when the wool trade was England's main industry.

The wool trade employed huge numbers of people - most in agriculture (shepherds, drovers etc) or processing the wool (spinners, dyers, weavers etc). However, there were three groups who made very good money - of these the wool stapler was probably be the least financially successful. Staplers would buy wool at markets and wholesale it to the clothiers who would turn it into cloth and sell it to merchant adventurers who exported it to the Flemish markets in Antwerp etc. Clothiers could be fabulously wealthy (eg Jack of Newbury) but the merchants were the ones who made the most - Sir Thomas Gresham bought a lot of cloth from the Newbury clothiers. Gresham was probably the most important financier of the Tudor age - advisor to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I.

By the C19th a wool stapler would be importing wool as foreign wools made better cloth (I believe Spanish wool was particularly popular). By that time the wool trade was dying out in Berkshire - its peak was pre1600.

[behindthefrogs]

It is interesting that he describes himself as a woolstapler.  I had always regarded that job, a wool sorter, as a rather lowly job

A wool stapler is not a 'wool sorter' but a dealer in wool. Many wool staplers were very wealthy in the days when the wool trade was England's main industry.

Every one of sixteen dictionaries which I have checked (fourteen of them online which took a few seconds) including one of mine which is nearly 100years old define a wool stapler as someone who sorts wool according to its staple i.e. the quality of its fibre.  A few of them as an aside mention that the term is also used for a dealer.  I will agree that in this case he was a dealer but I still wonder where he carried out his business.

David

[Galium]

I have a wool stapler who lived in Cirencester d. 1860.  He is sometimes described as a wool stapler, and sometimes a fellmonger ie. a dealer in animal - usually sheep - hides.  He was wealthy enough to have property to leave to his children, and going by his children's marriages, moved among a circle of other comfortably off citizens such as farmers and wine merchants.

[JC1]

Thanks for all the interesting information. I have found a James Twycross on the 1851 census. It states that he was born in Godalming, Surrey and was living in 1851 in Wokingham. It describes him as a tanner and wool stapler master employing 43 persons in trade, and gives his age as 55. Regarding the address, it just gives the number 46 - I have looked back to number 1, but no street name is given - the page is just headed with 'Wokingham (part of)'.

Looking back at previous entries in this thread, it appears that the three children didn't go to Australia until 1853, so he presumably wouldn't have been described as a wool importer until then, unless he was already importing from anywhere else?

I found census entries for 1851 and 1861 which appear to relate to the children -

For 1851 there is an entry giving a James Twycross (aged 25) and Ann Twycross (aged 28). James is described as a wool stapler (if I remember correctly it said that he employed approximately 30 men) and they are both listed as being born in Wokingham. They are both listed as being unmarried.

 The entry for 1861 gives a James Twycross aged 37 as a visitor, with his profession given as an Australian merchant. Fortunately it is possible to identify the two as the same person, as some people are listed as visitors in the 1851 census, who are in turn given as James's hosts in the 1861 census - presumably he had returned from Australia to stay with them.

[behindthefrogs]

Are there any named houses or businesses in the same street?  If there are I can probably locate it for you.  I don't have access to the 1851 census currently and so I can't help directly.  Can you get back to where it specifies the enumerators walk?

David

[Galium]

Searching  this website:
http://www.historicaldirectories.org/

Slater's Directory of Berkshire, 1852

Wokingham pages

Under  'Woolstaplers'

'Twycross, James & Son, Peach Street and The Brook, Wokingham: Bradford, Yorkshire and Rochdale, Lancashire'

and under 'Miscellaneous'

'Twycross, George and John, tanners Tannery'

[JC1]

Thanks very much to both of you for helpful information. On James Twycross's census entry for 1851 he mentions his son George aged 33 - he lists him as having no occupation. Census details to follow ....

 

[JC1]

Some of the place names are quite hard to read, so it may be a difficult task!
In reverse order (leaving out the numbers with no names next to them) -

70 and 69 are both Martins Lane, 68 is Lucas's Hospital, 65 is Benhams Buildings, 54 is Prospect Place, 48 looks like Prospict Place, James is 46, there is an uninhabited building between 46 and 45, 44 is hard to read but could be ?Beulam or ?Bewlany Houses, 43 is the gasworks, 32 looks like Tangleys Farm, 26 could be ?Hagril Farm, 24 is ?Woodcray or ?Hoodcray Farm, and 11 is ?Birchin Inams or ?Birkin Israms Farm. How can I find out where the enumerators were to walk?