Nicholson Family, Cork Silversmiths during the 18th & 19th c

[scorpio]

As mentioned in my recent post in the Irish Hallmarks section about Carden Terry and John Williams, a notice by John Nicholson & Son on the same page of the Hibernian Chronicle, October 10, 1791 caught my eye. This relates to the business moving from 4 Castle Street to No. 53 opposite the Exchange and under Leary’s Coffee-House.



It’s difficult to equate this to the present Castle Street so while I don’t know exactly where No. 4 was without a visit to Cork to inspect old Wide Street Commissioners’ maps, No. 53 is easy to place as the Exchange was a well known building at the junction of Castle Street and North Main Street. Although there are suggestions that Castle Street was demolished in 1791, John Nicholson’s premises being the last to go, this may not be the case. Below are two old Cork City maps dating to 1774 and 1801 in which Castle Street looks relatively unchanged although there appears to be changes to buildings lying to the south. The 1815 drawing with its view as seen from North Main Street shows the Exchange and the buildings this end of Castle Street in their original state and intact.

1774 Map


1801 Map


1815 Drawing


Examining Cork Council records I found this, “One of the earliest relevant entries in the Council Book is from 2 June, 1786, when the Corporation proposed the purchase of houses ‘from the Exchange to the entrance to the court house’ (Caulfield 1876, 1007—8). Purchasing of properties on the street continued during the 1780s and finally, in 1791, the Corporation issued directives on the new street, which was to be 32 feet wide and ‘of equal height to Mr John Shaw’s house’ 39 (ibid. 1067). The same year, the Corporation ordered that the returns on their leased property on Castle Street should go to the ‘Commission’ (the Wide Street Commissioners) to finance the purchase of what seems to have been one of the final buildings to be acquired for the widening of the street 40 (ibid. 1068). A Wide Street Commissioners’ map (Cork City Archives Collection, no. 6) depicts a Mr Collin’s premises where the Roundy public bar is today [the Roundy Bar is at the top end of Castle Street and runs around on to Grand Parade]. The map shows empty space at nos. 2 and 3 Castle Street, on which the Commissioners proposed to build. By 1869 (Ordnance Survey map) a structure had been built at no. 2 Castle Street, but no. 3 wasn’t erected until a later date. The line of the entrance into the meat market can still be seen preserved in the plan of the present-day buildings.”

It makes sense that if the Corporation demolished Nos. 2 & 3 in 1791 or thereabouts, No. 4, where John Nicholson had his business, may not have been safe or a good place to do business from, hence the move to No. 53 opposite the Exchange. The Architectural Heritage survey dates the present buildings on Castle Street to 1835-1875 so presumably this is when the remainder of Castle Street was regenerated. The Exchange was demolished in 1837. The building on the corner fronting on to North Main Street and Castle Street across the road from the Exchange was rebuilt circa 1860-80.
Another issue posed by this notice is that it says Nicholson & Son. I’m not sure there exists a reference to John Nicholson I and II being in partnership but given this notice, one must assume either they were or Nicholson & Son refers to John Nicholson II and his son, Nicholas, whom we know did form a partnership. Cork Silver and Gold makes mention of John Nicholson II as Goldsmith, Jeweller & Sword Cutler in 1791. The same book says of John Nicholson I, probably dead by 1805 and to be more precise, I discovered he died three years earlier on the 3rd December 1802.

To confuse the matter further, Douglas Bennett in Collecting Irish Silver, says John Nicholson I and Samuel Nicholson were in partnership from 1775-1797 and attributes the mark JSN in a rectangular reserve to John and Samuel. Given the scarcity of this mark it may have been a shorter partnership than intimated and by 1791 with the business in the name of Nicholson & Son, it seems Samuel must have departed by then. Samuel is a bit of a mystery man; he does not appear in Trade Directories of the time or in the list of Cork Freemen and it seems the source of Samuel is Cecil C. Woods in The Goldsmiths of Cork (1895) where he states, “About 1775, or 1780, John Nicholson appears to have had a partner whose initials were SN–probably his relation, Samuel Nicholson.” It’s interesting to note that John and Samuel did not use IN over SN as one would expect in a partnership but JSN, so if John Nicholson I and his son John Nicholson II were in a partnership, would they not have followed a similar formula and used JJN ? However, no such mark exists, nor does JN over JN so did they simply use JN to encompass both silversmiths during the Nicholson & Son era or was this, as I suggest above, the commencement of the John Nicholson II and Nicholas Nicholson partnership with their IN over NN mark?

Lucas’s Cork Directory 1787 shows an entry for Nicolson (John) Goldsmith and Cutler, Castle-street (note, no mention of Samuel) so the business was changed to Nicholson & Son between 1787 and 1791.



As mentioned above, John Nicholson I died in late 1802 and examining Holden’s Directory 1805-07, we can see an entry for Nicolson John and Nicholas, jewellers, silversmiths and sword cutlers, Grand Parade, referring to John Nicholson II and his son Nicholas.



By the time William West’s Cork Directory 1809-10 was published, Nicholson Nich., Silversmith, Grand Parade was the only Nicholson entry so it’s clear he was working on his own by then with John Nicholson II not mentioned. Bennett implies the partnership lasted from 1797 to 1824 but clearly this was not the case. As yet, I haven’t traced a death notice for John Nicholson II.



Pigot’s Directory (Cork City and County) 1824 reveals that Nicholas had by then given up as a Silversmith and was now working as a Watchmaker.



By the time Pigot’s Directory (Cork City & County) 1830 was completed, Nicholas had disappeared from the list of Trades and no other Nicholson’s are mentioned in the Directory.

So, as a final note, should we use the spelling Nicolson or Nicholson? It’s Nicolson in Lucas’s, Holden’s and Pigot’s Trade Directories and Nicholson in West’s Trade Directory. M.S.D. Westropp uses Nicolson in his article The Goldsmiths of Cork published in The Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, 1906. In Bowen & O’Brien’s Cork Silver and Gold, it is shown as John Nicolson I (Nicholson) and John Nicolson II, while in Bennett’s Collecting Irish Silver it is John Nicholson (Nicolson) and Nicholas Nicholson (Nicolson). Cork Council spells it Nicholson in its list of Freemen as does Cecil C. Woods in his 1895 article The Goldsmiths of Cork. Personally, I believe it is Nicholson as one must assume the Nicholson’s knew how to spell their family name when submitting their advertisement to the Hibernian Chronicle and that we should now discount the spelling Nicolson when writing about the Nicholson family of silversmiths in Cork.

The various makers’ marks referred to above can be viewed here: http://www.925-1000.com/IProv_Nicholson.html

I’m sure there must be more material out there relating to this prominent family of Cork Silversmiths so please feel free to add comments, make corrections etc.

Gordon

[dognose]

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing this excellent information with us. It casts new light on the Nicholson family of silversmiths.

Trev.

[dognose]

Just for the record, here is the article by Cecil Crawford Woods:


THE GOLDSMITHS OF CORK

By CECIL C. WOODS, Fellow.

"It is no less true than strange that, for many years previous to 1878, the city of Cork had forgotten its ancient goldsmiths–men whose labours had enriched it, and done it honour, and that not one amongst the many persons who possessed fine pieces of plate stamped with the initials of those who were, in every sense, masters of the goldsmith's art, knew the names of the makers. Fortunately in that year the O'Donovan tankard, marked with R G and two castles (in three stamps), was seen by Robert Day, M.R.I.A., F.S.A., who at once formed the opinion that it had been made in the latter half of the seventeenth century in the city of Cork. Going immediately to the late Richard Caulfield, LL.D., F.S.A. (who for many years before his death was the authority upon all matters touching the history of Cork), ho put the query, "who was R G who made silver plate in this city about two hundred years ago?"–the reply soon came, "Robert Goble, Master of the Goldsmiths' Guild in 1694." Mr. Day thereupon began to collect fine specimens of old silver of local manufacture, and a few years sufficed to add to the thousands of beautiful and valuable things with which his antiquarian information and artistic acumen had already filled his house, a large number of magnificent pieces of old silver plate.

It is probable that useful and beautiful articles of gold and silver have been manufactured in the city of Cork for several hundred years, and it is certain that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there were goldsmiths in it, and that in the latter century were moulded some of those exquisite chalices and patens of local manufacture which still remain.

Cork appears to have never had a regularly appointed assay officer, and purchasers seem to have trusted–not in vain–to the honesty of its goldsmiths (who probably were ready, on occasion, to assay each other's plate). Under the Charter of James I., dated the 9th of March, 1608, to the town of Youghal, the Corporation was given power to subdivide itself into guilds, and the Mayor authority to appoint a clerk of assay; and Cork, by its Charter from Charles I., dated the 7th of April, 1631, was granted the same privileges as those enjoyed by Youghal, without specific mention of what all those privileges were. However, the power to appoint an assay officer, thus indirectly conferred upon the mayors of Cork, appears to have never been exercised. Under date the 4th of January, 1713 (1714), I find the following entry in the Council Book :–

"Whereas the Company of Goldsmiths of this City are very desirous to have an Essay Master within this city, as conceving it will tend very much to the advantage, not only of those of the trade, but to all the inhabitants who have occassion to buy or make up any plate, which being a new thing, there never having been any such person in this city, ordered, that Mr. Thomas Browne do write to Dublin to some friend to enquire the nature of such an officer, as to his commission, who constitutes and empowers him, and as to his fees what he receives, and report to this board."

Mr. Browne's inquiries bore no fruit, for in the same record, under date the 6th of February, 1786, I find this entry:–

"Ordered that the Bill formerly presented to Parliament for building a bridge over the North branch of the river Lee, &c., be forthwith proceeded on." ..." It., that a clause for establishing an Assay office, for assaying plate in this City, be added to the above Law."

This also seems to have come to nothing, as in the Cork Directory for the following year there is no mention of an assay officer; neither is there mention of one in any of the several Directories of subsequent dates which I have examined, though most of them give the name of even the humblest petty office-holder in the city. The fact appears to be that the body of goldsmiths, after due consideration, came to the conclusion that a regularly appointed assay officer would be an unnecessary expense, and a luxury without which they could very well do. But there was some kind of assay office; and I believe that, at the close of the eighteenth century, it was at the Cork Customhouse all the Cork gold and silver was assayed.

Unfortunately Cork never had a date letter, and before 1656 no marks were stamped upon its plate, but in that year the goldsmiths' guild was formally incorporated in "the city by the Lee," and thenceforward a maker's mark was almost always used; and for the first sixty years a town mark was sometimes, and after that period invariably, used on pieces of any importance, until shortly before the guild ceased to exist. From the date of the incorporation of the guild, each maker generally stamped his handiwork with his initials; and down to about 1715 each also usually added some heraldic device–generally in the same punch with the initials–as a fleur-de-lis above G R, for George Robinson (Warden in 1690). During these sixty years the town-mark was sometimes the full city arms–a ship in full sail between two castles (either all in one stamp, or in three separate stamps); sometimes part of the arms–a ship with one castle, or two castles–one at each side of the maker's mark. However, before the time of George I., the town-mark was often entirely omitted, plate bearing any of these four varieties of it being the exception rather than the rule. Articles stamped with the full city arms are now extremely rare and valuable. About the year 1715 Sterling (sometimes spelled STARLING, or abbreviated to STER) was adopted as the town-mark, and thereafter invariably used ; and down to about 1730 an heraldic device was sometimes added in the maker's mark, as, for instance, a lion rampant between two I's, for John James (living in 1722). From that time down to about 1800 the initials of the maker with STERLING, are the only marks which appear to have been used; and cases where any attention was paid to the shape of the punch were very infrequent. I believe that, with the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Dublin hall-marks appear– added to the Cork STERLING; but the earliest combination of Dublin hall- and Cork town-marks which I have seen, is dated a few years later than 1801. I do not think the STERLING mark was much used after about 1830, and certainly before 1850 it was laid aside for ever.

During the eighteenth century immense quantities of silver were manufactured in Cork; and the business was so lucrative, that some of the best county families in the South of Ireland were glad to apprentice their younger sons to leading goldsmiths in "the capital of Munster," and some of these apprentices became wealthy merchants, and high office-holders in the municipality; thus William Newenham was Sheriff in 1732, and George Hodder Mayor in 1754. The corporate existence of the goldsmiths' guild of Cork lingered on to about 1840, but by 1850 it had ceased to exist even in name. However, I am glad to say that the manufacture of the precious metals has never altogether ceased in the city, where Goble and Hodder produced works of art of which any city might justly be proud, and that many useful and pretty articles, in gold and silver, are still made in it. In 1891 the city arms was readopted as the distinguishing town-mark of Cork.

I apprehend that the records of the goldsmiths' guild are lost– probably they were destroyed long ago, and such information as I have been able to obtain has been gathered in leisure hours, during the last ten years, from many different sources.

The list of goldsmiths with which I conclude this Paper is so inferior to what I once hoped it would be, that I give it only because it possesses one quality valued by all antiquaries–it is unique–it is the first list of goldsmiths of Cork ever compiled. I earnestly hope that someone else may make a better list; but the dispersion, in 1888, of the late Dr. Caulfield's invaluable collection of manuscripts relating to Cork, and the destruction of municipal muniments in the disastrous fire which occurred at the Cork Courthouse on the 27th of March, 1891, render it all but certain (and I say it with extreme regret) that a perfect list is now a thing for ever impossible. It was originally my intention that this list should conclude with the year 1800, but, on second thoughts, I have brought it down to 1850. As I have been able to give but very little attention to the part referring to the nineteenth century, that portion must be taken as only intended to give the names of the principal goldsmiths, and, in some instances, as merely suggesting a date which may be only approximately accurate, as that at which the goldsmith retired or died. These dates, and, indeed, many others in my list, I trust that other hands will correct, and thus kindly improve this list of the goldsmiths of the ancient city of Cork.


LIST OF CORK GOLDSMITHS FROM 1601 10 1850

[In this list, whenever a man is not described as "goldsmith," "silversmith," or " jeweller," it is not certain that he was a goldsmith, &c.; but in every instance there is good reason to believe that he was one.

The leading goldsmiths' names are those given in heavier type than the others.]





(1) About 1775, or 1780, John Nicholson appears to have had a partner whose initials were S N–probably his relation, Samuel Nicholson.



(1) From about 1795 to about 1810, Carden Terry and John Williams were in partnership, and, I believe, that after that till about 1815, Mrs. Williams carried on the business under the name of "Terry and Williams."

(2) From about 1810 to about 1820, John and Nicholas Nicholson were partners.

Source: The Journal of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland - Third Quarter 1895

Trev.

[scorpio]

Thanks for posting that Trev. I meant to ask, who do you think formed the Nicholson & Son partnership, John I and John II or John II and Nicholas? Some time soon, I'll go back to inspect pre-1791 archives and see if anything more turns up.

Gordon

[Argentum2]

This might shed light on John Nicholson and the wide streets commission's acquisition of houses on Castle Street in Cork in early 1791:


FEBRUARY 10 1791 - [Advertisement] - NOTICE IS hereby given to all Persons who have, or claim to have, any Estate, Right, Title, Term, Interest, Use, Life, or Trust in and to the Dwelling-Houses and Premises situate in Castle-street, in the City of Cork, respectively in the Possession of JOHN NICHOLSON, Silversmith, and ANN WHERLAND, Widow, and in and to the Dwelling-House and Premises next adjoining the House formerly called the Phoenix Tavern, in said City, and in the Tenancy of JEREMIAH DEMSOND, Publican, and others that the Commissioners appointed by an Act of Parliament passed in the Fifth Year of his present Majesty 'For making wide and convenient Streets, Ways, and Passages in the City of Cork and Suburbs thereof,' or a competent number of said Commissioners will meet at the Council-Chamber, Cork, on the Twenty-eight Day of February Instant, at Twelve o Clock at Noon, to agree with such Persons for the Purchase of their respective Estates, Right, Title, Term, Interest, Use and Trust, Property, Claim and Demand in and to the said respective Dwelling-Houses and Premises, at which Time and Place the said Persons are required to lay before said Commissioners their respective Title Deeds concerning said Houses and Premises, and in case said Commissioners cannot agree with such Persons, or that the said Persons, or any of them shall not attend said Meeting, said Commissioners will issue a Precept to the Sheriffs of the County of the City of Cork, to impannel a jury to value the said respective Premises, and take such other steps as by law they are impowered. Cork, 9th Feb., 1791


Unfortunately, the source of this notice is not mentioned but the weblink to the page on which it is posted is here:

http://corkgen.org/publicgenealogy/cork ... rkcity.htm