WELLINGTON INN, Glovers' Court

WELLINGTON INN   #

20  (later 40)  Glovers' Court

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MINE HOSTS:

1839                      William Bell

1839 - 61               Henry Forshaw  - formerly of the 'Sun Inn'  Main Sprit Wiend.   d. 19.6.1861 aged 52 years   

1861 - 66               Elizabeth Forshaw  

1866                      William Miller

1869                      Joseph Curwen  -   d. 12.8.1869, after only a week's illness, aged 61 years.

1869 - 77               Margaret Curwen

1881 - 82               Richard Webster

1882 - 95               John Mayor  

1897                      John Cave   * See article, below, re: Cave family.

1897 - 1901          George Gilleade  - 1899 owned by Hull's Brewery, Glovers' Court.

                                                           1900  sold to Boddington's Brewery, Manchester.

1901 - 11              William Edward Jackson

1913 - 17              Thomas Turner
1930                      Mr. Birkett

1932                      Martha E. Birkett

1936 - 44               Charles Edward Wilding

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Article by Keith Johnson, Local Historian, 2005 

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Preston Chronicle  5th January 1839
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Lancaster Gazette   18th February 1865
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Preston Chronicle   23rd November 1867
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Preston Chronicle   20th January 1872

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Manchester Times  28th November 1874

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Preston Chronicle   16th January 1875
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Preston Chronicle   27th April 1878
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MARRIAGE:   WILDING - BLISSETT, On Saturday
March 23rd at St. Andrew's Church, Ashton-on-Ribble,
Charles Edward, only son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Wilding,
Wellington Hotel, Glovers' Court, to Sarah Ellen, 
elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Blissett, 68, Windsor
Avenue.
Lancashire Evening Post  25th March 1940 
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THE CAVE FAMILY OF PRESTON: PUBLICANS, POLICE - AND OTHERS

A number of us have pub licensees, brewers and maltsters in our Cave family trees, so I was interested to find the website ‘Pubs in Preston - Preston’s Inns, Taverns and Beerhouses - One man’s attempt to recreate Preston’s 19th-century social life and times’. Its creator, Stephen Halliwell, has traced the life and times of hundreds of public houses and their occupants, in the Lancashire town of Preston.

The search facility revealed two Caves who were licensees in Preston -

1869-1874 - Samuel Cave (with Thomas Turner), the Fylde Tavern

1893-1894 - John Cave, The Glover Street Tavern

1897 - John Cave, The Wellington Inn

1901 - John Cave, The Exchange Hotel

1902 - John Cave, The Blackamoors Head

From just these two names has emerged an extensive and very interesting family tree. There appear to have been no other Caves in Preston at the time – always helpful in following a line – and almost without exception they stayed in the town.

Firstly, censuses indicated that Samuel and John were father and son. Samuel Cave was born in Preston in 1801 to Sarah Cave, no father was named, and he married Mary (maiden name not known). In censuses from 1841-1871 Samuel is described as M.S. (manservant), coachman, servant, and cabdriver. Census data doesn’t describe either Samuel or John as licensees, but there is sufficient evidence to indicate that they are the same people. Perhaps their time in the licensed trade was short and did not coincide with the census, or maybe they had multiple occupations. In May 1874 the Preston Guardian reported that Samuel Cave, landlord of the Fylde Tavern, was summoned for selling drink during prohibited hours, but the case was dismissed.

Samuel and Mary had at least seven children – Samuel (1833), Ann/e (1835), Isabella (1837), Sarah (1841), William (1844), Richard (1846) and John (1852). Because of the original link with the licensing trade I was initially concerned with John, the youngest, but the other siblings have also proved interesting.

John Cave (1852-1927)

In 1871 John was aged 19 and a footman (out of work). The Lancashire Record Office website also lists a John Cave who served with the police from 1871-1873, and information in a later newspaper report confirms that this was the same person.

On 11 February 1880 at St Peter’s Church, Preston, John was married to Lucy Watson, the daughter of the late William Mason, a publican. Lucy was a widow and had a small daughter Eliza Alice. Before her marriage to John, Lucy had lived with her aunt and uncle who were publicans at the Fox and Goose Tavern; and the Fox Street Tavern (later the Exchange Hotel). At the time of his marriage John was a Sanitary Inspector, also referred to as Inspector of Nuisances, and it appears that he was responsible for what we would now call weights and measures, or trading standards. Tragically, Lucy died the following year. Her daughter, Eliza Alice, later married a doctor and had three daughters. In 1883 John married Alice Foster, daughter of the late Richard Foster. They appear not to have had any family.

We know a little more about John from local newspapers. In 1878 the Preston Guardian reported a case where John Cave, inspector of nuisances, gave evidence in a case of adulterated milk. The case was proved and the defendant fined 40s. with costs. In 1880 the council minutes reported that John Cave, inspector of nuisances, had applied for an increase in salary. This was shortly after his first marriage to Lucy. The application was ‘referred to committee’ and the outcome not known.

At the end of 1892 there was considerable local press coverage about ‘The Slink Meat Traffic in Preston – Startling Disclosures’ and ‘Reorganisation of the Sanitary Dept.’ Slink meat was a term used to describe diseased meat which was unfit to eat, and as Sanitary Inspector John Cave was responsible for monitoring this traffic in the town. Some allegations state that slink meat was moved out of the area for onward sale, with the Sanitary Inspectors receiving ‘tips’ from farmers for this service, and that although S.I. Cave and his colleague had been in post for 20 years the service was negligent and corrupt, and that Preston had the highest death rate of any town in England. Probably largely in consequence, it was proposed that John Cave’s employment be terminated as part of large-scale reorganisation. However other members of the corporation spoke out in strong defence of the two Sanitary Inspectors, and a letter from John Cave was submitted. Again, it is not obvious exactly what the outcome was, but it seems likely that John Cave’s employment with the Corporation ceased, and that he then became licensee of the pubs mentioned above.

In the 1901 census John aged 45, was ‘living on own means’ with Alice, 40, at Lauderdale Street. By 1911 John and Alice, were aged 54 and 50, had been married for 27 years, and John was hotel manager at the Boreatton Arms Hotel, Baschurch, Staffs. John died aged 75 in 1927, having returned to Preston, and left the not inconsiderable sum of £3,749.4s.1d. to his widow Alice.

The Daughters:

Sarah Cave (m. Thomas Turner)

Sarah, b. 1841 is listed as a cotton weaver at home with her parents in 1861 census. In July 1861 at St John’s Church Preston, Sarah married Thomas Turner (b.1837, son of Richard Turner). In 1861, prior to his marriage, Thomas was a policeman but by 1871 Thomas was a beer house keeper – another link to the licensed trade. Presumably he was the joint landlord of the Fylde Tavern with Samuel Cave in 1869-1874. By 1881 he had become a corn dealer, then a farmer. Sarah and Thomas stayed in and around Preston and had 11 children of whom 8 were surviving in 1911. Two of their sons were butchers. Sarah and Thomas both lived into their 80s.

Ann(e) Cave (m. John Hunt)

Ann(e) was born c. 1835 and married John Hunt in 1846. They had two sons, James (b. 1864) and Richard (b. 1869), and four daughters – Mary, Sarah Ann, Ruth, and Elizabeth Ellen. This was a family mainly employed in the local cotton industry – John was a cotton yarn dresser, Ann a cotton weaver, and their daughters all followed them as weavers. James aged 17 was an apprentice coach builder.

Isabella Cave (m. Hugh Ashcroft)

Isabella Cave (b. 1837) was a cotton weaver in 1861, at home with parents. In 1871, after a little bit of detective work, I found her in the guise of Bella Ashcroft (nee ‘Kay’) living in Mount Street, Preston at an address between parents Samuel and Mary, and brother William. Neither Isabella nor her husband Hugh, a farmer’s son, were literate – they signed the marriage register with a cross - and so the name had apparently become corrupted. It is curious that neither her brother or father, who were present at their ceremony, noticed the mistake, and father Samuel’s name was also mis-spelt. By 1881 Isabella and Hugh had two daughters and two sons, in 1901 Isabella, now widowed, was a lodging house keeper.

Samuel Cave (Jnr.) (1833-1912) and his son William Henry Morgan Cave (1862-1942)

Returning to the Cave brothers, Samuel (Jnr.) is unusual in this family as he was ‘the one who moved away’ from Preston. He married Mary Morgan in July 1857 at Trinity Church Paddington. They had two sons, as well as other children. Samuel was a bank messenger. By 1901 he was widowed and had returned to Preston to live with his younger brother Richard.

Samuel and Mary’s eldest son, William Henry Morgan Cave (b. 1862), is the one who can be said to ‘have made good’. In 1881 he was clerk to an accountant, his brother Frederick (b. 1865) being clerk to an agent. In 1885 William married Elizabeth Randall in Peckham, daughter of a toy merchant. In 1891 and 1901 William H.M. and Elizabeth were in Deptford and in 1911 in Brockley, SE London, with their son Henry Randall Cave (bc 1884) and two daughters, Grace (bc 1891) and Mary (bc 1896). As the oldest grandchild of the Preston Cave clan, William was fortunate to inherit money from his father Samuel (Jnr.) in 1912 (£634.1s.6d) and from his (childless) uncle Richard who left him £1,976.8s.6d in 1929. William H.M. was a stocks and shares dealer at the Stock Exchange and he died in September 1942 in Haywards Heath, leaving £22,461.4s.1d to his eldest son, Henry Randall Cave, who was a member of the Stock Exchange. Henry Randall Cave had served in the Great War from August 1914 to March 1918, when he was discharged because of wounds following service overseas, and awarded the Silver War badge. From 1916, this was given to men of serviceable age who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness and was worn with civilian dress to prevent accusations of cowardice.

William Cave (1844-1933)

William Cave was the second son of Samuel Cave Snr. and Mary. William married Alice Miller in Preston in April 1870, and their children were all born in Preston – James Miller (1871), Mary Ann (1872), Samuel R. (1875) and Edith Isabella (1877). In 1881 and 1891 William was listed as a police sergeant and police inspector, but his earlier and more exciting career was discovered from the Lancashire Daily Post. In April 1930 on the occasion of his Diamond Wedding anniversary, and three years later, his obituary in 1933, his early life was described as “an adventurous lifetime of 65 years in which he – left school at 9; ran away to sea at 14; joined the Army at 15; was in a mutiny at 16; fought the Maoris at 17, and joined the police force at 24”. The newspaper reports:

Willie Cave had been an errand boy, a grocer’s assistant, and a plumber before he made up his mind to run away to sea at 14. So he went to Liverpool, and after wandering about the docks for a day and a night, fell in with a recruiting party. The recruiting sergeant bought him over for a shilling, kept him in bed a week to ‘stretch’ him, and then giving his age as 18 enlisted him in the 65th Foot, the Royal Bengal Tigers. After 12 months in Ireland they were sent out to New Zealand to assist in quelling the Maori rebellion. The troop ship took four months to reach Auckland, and during the voyage the soldiers mutinied, owning to a shortage of fresh water. Mr Cave spent six years in New Zealand fighting the Maoris, and he took part in the battle of Rangariri on 20 November 1863... where between 300 and 400 British soldiers were killed ... At 24 Mr Cave left the Army and joined the Preston borough police force ... rose to the rank of inspector, and retired after 26 years’ service.

Since then Mr & Mrs Cave have jogged along comfortably. For the past 22 years they have acted as caretakers ... in Lune-street, Preston, and there they live in a cosy little kitchen right in the heart of the town, yet tucked away from the noise and bustle of modern traffic.

William Cave’s 1933 obituary begins “Old Billy Cave has not lived to see the spring. The doyen of Preston police inspectors died this morning ... but a month ago he posed for a photograph with the five oldest police pensioners in the town”.

In 1893 William Cave was named in a case where an ‘absent’ landlord was accused of harbouring an officer on duty, although William Cave, an officer with nearly 25 years’ service, was allegedly searching the premises for suspected intruders. The landlord was convicted and fined £5 but it is not clear, from the lengthy and wordy reports, how this affected P.I. Cave. Later reports imply that he continued to serve in the police force.

Richard Cave (c. 1846-1929)

Richard married Susannah Fielding in 1879. Susannah was from Dolphinholme, Lancs., and they may have met when Richard worked in Salford as a servant to the Dean of Manchester, as it is recorded in the 1871 census that Susannah’s sister Nancy was also a servant there. Prior to this in 1861 Richard, aged 14, had been a footman. By 1881 he was a prison warden and appears to have followed this occupation until he appears as a pensioner, retired warden, in 1911. Richard and Susannah had no children but I view them as a kind couple - in 1901 they shared their home with Richard’s widowed brother Samuel, who had returned from London, and also Susannah’s sister Nancy who had not married. In 1887 Samuel Cave Snr., Richard’s father, had died at their home where he too may have been living after his wife died in 1880.

Having started to look for links with pubs in this family, they have proved to be of much broader interest – and there is more to find. For anyone with local knowledge of Preston, it would be easy – and fascinating – to trace where this Cave family lived and worked, often moving short distances around a small number of streets, and would provide a great family history trail.

There are still a number of Caves listed in Preston today and I wonder if they are descendants? I would like to know if anyone else has followed this interesting line, which I have been able to trace in the area for over a hundred years. Nearly all of the information in this study is sourced through mainstream genealogy websites; from the Cave FHS Table NZ, and the excellent Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website. I am especially grateful to Steve Halliwell of ‘Pubs in Preston blogspot’ for his help and interest.

Wendy Wright
'from the Cave Family History Society Newsletter, April 2013'

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CENSUS RETURNS

1841

Henry Forshaw                    30 years                         Innkeeper

Elizabeth Forshaw                30                                  Wife

John Forshaw                       3                                    Son

Mary Forshaw                      1                                    Daughter

1851

Henry Forshaw                    41 years                         Lic. Vict.                    b. Ormskirk

Elizabeth Forshaw                43                                  Wife                          b. Moston

John Forshaw                       13                                  Son                           b. Preston

Henry Forshaw                     5                                    Son                                   do

Ellen Forshaw                       5                                    Daughter                           do

1861

Henry Forshaw                    51 years                         Innkeeper                  b. Burscough

Elizabeth Forshaw                52                                  Wife                         b. Pilling

John Forshaw                      23                                   Attorney Solicitor     b. Preston

Ellen                                    15                                   Daughter                          do

1871

Margaret Curwen                47 years                         Innkeeper                  b. Holme, Westmoreland

James Hesketh                    17                                  Son                           b. Broughton

Elizabeth Clark                    40      married                Step-daughter           b. Cockerham

Joseph Curwen                    26                                 Step-son                   b. Preston

Ellen Curwen                       22                                 Step-daughter                    do

John Clark                           51                                 Stepson-in-law                  do

1881

Richard Webster                 36 years                        Lic. Vict.                    b. Penwortham

Ellen Webster                      35                                 Wife                          b. Cottam

Elizabeth E. Webster            12                                Daughter                    b. Preston

Mary A. Webster                  8                                 Daughter                             do

Margaret A. Webster            5                                 Daughter                             do

Dinah Webster                      2                                 Daughter                             do

Ann Walmsley                     42                                 Sister-in-law               b. Cottam

1891

John Mayor                        57 years                        Hotel Keeper              b. Hutton

Elizabeth Mayor                 53                                  Wife                           b. Preston

Fred Mayor                        19                                 Son                            b. Hutton

Elizabeth Mayor                  18                                 Daughter                            do

June Mayor                         13                                 Daughter                            do

1901

George Gilleade                  31 years                        Publican                     b. Ashton-on-Ribble

Annie M. Gilleade               30                                 Wife                          b. Montgomeryshire

Alice Rogers                       23                                 Sister-in-law                               do

Marjorie Gilleade                  2                                 Daughter                    b. Preston

1911

William Edward Jackson   40 years                         Innkeeper                    b. Preston

Susannah Jackson              49                                    Wife                                    do

Gladys Swain Jackson       12                                   Daughter                              do

Louisa Crabtree                 26                            Boarder  /  Weaver                      do

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