I have already metaphorically put pen to paper regarding the Careers of the Ford Family of stone and Marble Masons of Bath.
This post is a series of notes to act as an aide memoire.
John Ford I (1711 - 67) brother Stephen Ford (d.1785).
John Ford I was the son of William Ford mason of Colerne, who had married Mary
Mullins 13 April 1710 at Colerne.
His will PROB 11/932/343 dated 31 May 1763 - his executors his son John Ford (II) and nephew William Ford, witnessed by Sarah Elkington, George Penny and William Hooper.
To son John his interests in the water pipes cisterns etc for the Kings Circus and Gay St.
The property in Charles St with the courtyard and gardens and workshops adjoining.
The plot or piece of ground in the Parish of St James, Bath which he used as workyards which he had purchased from Thomas Garrard and his wife.
Daughters Betty, Martha and Susannah and Mary (Plura) £250 and her children Joseph, John and Mary
He leaves his sisters property leased at Colerne where they lived with their mother.
Work yard and shops in John St. (Walcot, Bath) to the testators son John.
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Ref. land at the Vinyards -
Garden in Walcott, Winniard close, Great Kingsmead. (Hayne,
Ford, Sainsbury, Omer, Jelly, Morris, Davey). 1755 - 62)
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/8e5cc821-c677-4b58-99c1-49819a6896af
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The Death of William Ford - Bath Journal - Monday 25 September 1786.
Builder and Mason - Dwelling house at the Vinyards.
The Will of William Ford - 23 July 1786.
Father of John and Stephen.
Mentions properties in the Vinyards, Hoopers Court (Hedgemead), Gibbs Court ( behind Chatham Row) Walcot St), Miles Court (now Miles Buildings), and Gay Street (home of his mother - ultimately devised to his son Stephen) Bath.
He was a partner in the water works which supplied the Circus and Gay Street.
He also His leasehold premises shop and yard near the road from Monmouth Street towards Bristol to his son Stephen.
His messuage or tenement in Edgar Buildings, (George St.) coach house, stable, garden and vaults leaves to his wife until her demise or remarriage) and the devised to his son John Ford I.
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It appears that he had already made separate arrangements for his
daughter Mary and her husband the sculptor Joseph Plura and their children - Joseph (Giuseppi) Plura married Mary the 17 year old daughter of John Ford I in 1750 - he arrived in England and was settled in Bath by 1749 - he probably arrived from Italy with the bath sculptor Prince Hoare. He had set up his own workshop in Bath in 1763.
In 1742 the surveyor Thomas Thorpe produced a map - An Actual Survey of the city of Bath
in the County of Somerset and of five miles round in nine sheets. Both John
Ford and his brother Stephen were subscribers along with many of the great and
good including Ralph Allan, the Earl of Chesterfield and Alexander Pope.
In his will (PROB 11/932/343) our John Ford II mentions his wife Martha (Elkington), his mother Mary Ford (nee Mullins), sisters Sarah and Alice (of Colerne), daughters Mary (m. Joseph Plura sculptor and assistant to Prince Hoare), Betty, Martha and Susanna. The Elkingtons were Bath merchants.
When he died he had several properties including three in Pierrepoint St, St James Parish which he left to each of his daughters and a property in Duke St (off the Grand Parade - between North and South Parades) designed by John Wood), and property in Charles St (off Queen Square) including courtyard, garden and workshops, and property in John St. which he left to his son John Ford II.
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John Ford I was the master-mason responsible for building
amongst many Bath properties, King Edward's Grammar School in Broad Street in 1752.
Rupert Gunnis noted that "almost certainly he executed" some of the earlier funeral monuments which had
previously been listed under his son, John Ford II (1736 - 1803) but only one can be identified with any certainty.
This should be treated with some caution - it is not
implausible but it is most likely that the sculptural work was carried out in
his workshops - on the other hand, his son John II describes himself as a
statuary (in his will), whilst there is no documentary evidence it seems most likely that John Ford II worked with Prince Hoare and Joseph Plura (who married his sister Mary.
John Ford I was an executor of the will of Dr Bennett Stevenson (d. 1757) who was the minister from 1720 of the Presbyterian church in Frog Lane (later rebuilt as New Bond St). Stevenson was a founding governor and sat on the Mineral Water Hospital Committee.
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The Death of John Ford I at Weymouth.
Salisbury and Winchester Journal - 14 September 1767.
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Winchcombe Howard Packer Monument.
after 1747.
Bucklebury - west Berkshire
inscribed Ford and Parsons.
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The Fords and the Buildings of Bath.
The following attributions of buildings by the Fords need to be checked - info from -https://julianorbach.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/7/5/23756946/wiltshire_architects.odt
1765. Probably built a wing Burton Pynsent house, Curry
Rivel, Som, for William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, which remains after the rest was
demolished; RL2 63; Ford builder but Pitt may have designed it himself, SC
notes;
1765-7, mason, Burton Pynsent column, Curry Rivel, Somerset, for
William Pitt to design by Capability Brown, cf Follies Journal 7, 2007 41-55;
1768 - Ford the Younger was involved in the building as
Mason of 25 Royal Crescent Bath along with Charles Coles plasterer.
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The Other John Fords of Bath.
There are several other John Fords of Bath which he
shouldn't be confused with - John Ford, Mayor of Bath 1660, and John Ford, the
apothecary - this John Ford was the son of an apothecary, Richard Ford Mayor of
Bath in 1713 and again 1741 to whom he had been apprenticed. In 1741 a certain
John Garden accused him of making ‘a sodomitical assault’ on his person.
A
further complaint of 1742 claimed he was neglecting his civic duties. He leased
property in Stall Street (including the ‘Back House’), part of the White Swan
in Cheap Street, the Boat Tavern in Walcot Street, and a lodging house at the
Cross Bath.
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The Fords and the Building of Gay Street and the Circus
Very low resolution and almost unreadable image of a plan at Bath Record Office.
Showing the plots of the houses in Gay Street and the first houses to be built in the Circus.
I will hopefully be able to obtain better images in due course.
West side of Gay Street
1, Gay Street in trust Thomas Jelly
2 and 3, Gay Street - John Ford.
8. Gay St - Prince Hoare.
9. John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
17. Dr Oliver.
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The Circus.
1, The Circus John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
2. The Circus John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
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East side of Gay Street.
4. Gay St. John Ford and Thomas Jelly.
8 & 9. Gay St. John Ford
10 and 11 Gay St - John Mullins
(It is probably no co incidence that John Ford had married Mary Mullins 13 April 1710 at Colerne. The Mullins were land and quarry owners at Box and Colerne - a few miles east of Bath - http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/mullins-family-schoolmasters.html
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Popes Bath Chronicle 9 December 1762.
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Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 18 April 1765.
The reference here is also to his brother Stephen Ford (mason) d. 1785.
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William Ford, Stephen Ford. - Property at The Vinyards, Bath - sometimes called Harlequin Row.
Adapted and improved from -
https://historyofbath.org/images/ProceedingsPDFs/PROCEEDINGS%2007%202018-19.pdf
On 26 February 1755 Charles Hayne, a descendant and heir of
Thomas Hayne, sold to Thomas Omer, Gentleman, and Thomas Jelly, carpenter, "All that close
of meadow or pasture ground called the Winniards (Vinyards) containing by estimate 5 acres being in the parish of Walcot
and adjoining to the city of Bath".
Omer and Jelly were among the leading developers of Georgian
Bath, Omer as a financier and Thomas Jelly as the architect and builder.
Other parts of Winniards (Vinyards) were being laid out for building at
this time in a rather piecemeal fashion. To the south on the same day, 21 December 1756, Omer and Jelly
conveyed to John Hutchins of Bath, plasterer, the plot on which now stand 10 Vineyards and the houses behind.
Hutchins in turn conveyed the plot to John Hensley of Bath, carpenter, on 25 September 1760.
By that
time the adjoining plot had been acquired by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. The Huntingdon Chapel was completed
in 1765 as the home for her strict Methodist sect, the Connexion.
By a deed of 26 February 1761, Omer and
Jelly conveyed the 20 Vineyards plot to William Sainsbury and John Mann.
Omer and Jelly conveyed the plot containing 18 and 19
Vineyards to Biggs and Prynn by deeds of 16 and 17 April 1765. By a deed of 19 April 1765, Biggs and Prynn
conveyed a plot extending "123 feet backwards towards the west" to two other Bath builders, John Hensley (who
had built No.10) and William Davis, who then built the houses which are now 18 and 19 Vineyards and sold them to
the Reverend Edward Sheppard (is this Dr Shepherd of Chatham Row?).
The plots on which 1 to 6 Vineyards stand were conveyed on
22 February 1764 by Omer and Jelly to a number of builders:
• Henry Gibbs of Bath carpenter and James Allen of Bath
baker
• John Latty of Bath carpenter and Richard Lingers of Bath
mason.
• William Davis of Bath tyler and plasterer and Samuel
Rundell of Bath barber.
• Jasper Davis of Bath painter and Samuel Rundell of Bath
barber.
• William Ford of Bath mason and Stephen Ford of Bath master
builder (5 & 6).
7 Vineyards must already have been built by then, as the
builders were required to erect a 'good and substantial messuage in such a form as the tenement erected by Benjamin
Chilton in the same row'. Chilton, a plumber, had the plot immediately to the north.
The line dividing
these plots from Belmont was marked by a trench cut in the ground.
These names and occupations speak of a great local
entrepreneurial spirit. Everyone seems to have been getting in on the development act. We also see the same combination
of artisan and financier as with Jelly and Omer.
13 and 15 Vineyards are similar in design. They were
complete by about 1770, but curiously there was a 20' gap between them. In 1771 the Chronicle carried an advertisement
by Mr Walter Bennett, who occupied No.13, offering his "well-built brick dwelling house" for
sale together with a 20 foot plot "on which another house might be erected, having the walls on both sides, from the Roofing
quite down to the Kitchen Floor, already built". The house and vacant plot were still being offered for sale in
September 1774 but the space had been filled with a new house by 1779, cleverly linking the two
earlier houses.
Garden in Walcott, Winniard close (Vinyards), Great Kingsmead. (Hayne,
Ford, Sainsbury, Omer, Jelly, Morris, Davey).
...........................
Jelly and Ralph Allen's Town House.
The building is north - and behind North Parade Passage and Church St
The land to the North was formerly the Bowling Green
In 1620 Thomas Cotterell obtained a lease to build against
the orchard wall, and this may have been the foundation of 7 and 30, though the
two properties shown on this present map are slightly larger than the
dimensions given on his lease.
In the Survey of the Manor before John Hall's death, and
again in 1718, 7 is called the Post House, but by 1726 it is named the Old Post
House.
In 1727 Ralph Allen held the site, having become a
sub-tenant there as early as 1718. He also acquired part of the Bowling Green
as a garden. The ornamental front designed for him in 1727 can still be
seen on the north side of the property, facing east. There is no trace however
of a further "northern wing", a misunderstanding.
The 1762
development lease for the grounds of Abbey House leaves no room for such a
wing, and there is no sign of it on later maps.
In I733 the Kingston rental lists 7 as "Mr Ralph Allen
his Heirs''. By 1750 Philip Allen is listed for the property. In the
1760's it is given as being in the occupation of Prince Hoare.
Holland (2007) claims that the N wing on the opposite side
was never built: she notes that the land on which it supposedly stood had been
granted to Jelly and Fisher for development in 1762. Current stonework at the South corner of the Ralph Allen Town House and to the rear elevation of 2 North
Parade Passage does suggest both these buildings were linked at some stage.
As suggested by Cotterell's map of Bath of 1852, Ralph
Allen's town house had by then been subdivided into three properties: 1 and 2
North Parade Passage and what is now called the Ralph Allen Town House. The
three properties are also shown on the 1:500 Ordnance Survey Town Map for Bath
published in 1886.
The building was later occupied by the sculptor Prince Hoare - it is likely that his workshops were on the site of the Bowling Green which had earlier been the garden of Ralph Allen.
Bath Chronicle 19 April 1770, - Property: to let - house
near North Parade, Bath lately in possession of Mr Prince Hoare. Details from
Mr Edw. Parker, wine merchant in Westgate St, Bath. This refers to the house referred to as Ralph Allen's Town House the Old Post Office.
The map below shows the area before the building of Church Street which cut through from the Abbey Green to the Abbey via Kingston Parade.
Abbey house was demolished in 1755.
Anne Bushells House west of the Ralph Allen,s Post office
The house on the corner of Abbey Green and Church St was built by Thomas Jelly for the Duke of Kingston's Estate in 1762.
Jelly and Fisher also obtained permission to make vaults
fifteen feet long stretching under Abbey Green.
The Kingston Estate Map. 1725 Copied 1882.
A Map of the Scite of the dissolved Priory of Bath
called ye Bath Abby with the several Lands & Tenements within the Liberty
& Precincts thereof adjoyning to the City of Bath . . . Copied Jan 7 1882
Original dated 1725.
KE 1725 Bath Library.
Anne Bushells House is to the West of Ralph Allen's and later his brothers Old Post House.
This property became the premises of the sculptor Prince Hoare.
Next door in what became Sally Lunns 1743 the Duke of Kingston, who had acquired all the land
of John Hall, sold the property to William Robinson and the legal
documents from this transaction can be seen today displayed on the walls.
From 1781 to 1786 James Wicksteed operated here as a seal
engraver. His father John had pioneered a water powered seal engraving machine,
based for decades in Widcombe, where the Wicksteed Machine became one of the
local sights. (this needs checking)
Lilliput Alley was previously called -
..............................
. A Map of the dissolved Priory or Abbey of Bath
belonging to his Grace the Duke of Kingston 1750.
ref KE 1750
Peach Collection, Irvine Collection, Bath Library.
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Locating Fords workshops and the Jelly's Timber Yard.
Ranging along the north side of the Bristol Road (the continuation west of Monmouth St, from East to West are Sir Peter Rivers Gay’s
Kitchen Gardens, a Coal Yard (intended site of a Farm House and Offices), and a large block of storage
buildings and auction rooms (formerly Jelly & Sainsbury’s and Jelly and Fishers Timber Yard) west of Queen Square in Stable Lane
(now Palace Yard Mews).
Currently Davies Painters and Decorators supplies.
The yard of William Ford (and likely John Ford I and his son) as mentioned in his will was also located in the same area along the road to Bristol - a continuation of Monmouth St. - I suspect between the Coal Yard and
Brett's Timber Yard was some meters further West.
Detail from Map of Bath dated 1795 by C. Harcourt Masters.
Stable Lane - now Palace Mews
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Jelly and Atwood in Broad St, Bath.
Walborough (St Werberghs) Meadow later called Cockey’s Gardens, the house of Edward Cockey is mentioned as standing there in 1709 and 1756.
In 1734 the Corporation issued a lease of the triangular corner site (corner of Broad St and Bladud's Blgs) to Edward Newman. By July 1757 it leased ‘two messuages’, i.e. Nos.
17 and 18, Broad St to Thomas Jelly. It seems likely that he built 17 and 18,
though it is apparently uncertain whether
Thomas Jelly or Thomas Atwood designed Bladud’s Buildings to the north-east of 17 and 18 Broad St
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Jelly, Palmer and St James Parade.
St James's Parade, originally Thomas Street, was the
centrepiece of a development from 1765 onwards by Richard Jones, Thomas Jelly
and Henry Fisher who were granted liberty in September 1765 to 'pull down the
Boro' walls next to the Ambry gardens in order to build new houses there'.
The
street was closed off with bollards at each end, and the houses fronted a broad
paved walk in place of the road. The elevations, attributed to Thomas Jelly and
John Palmer (c. 1738 – 19 July 1817) show the influence of John Wood the Younger's work elsewhere, as
in Rivers Street. The houses were mainly built in c1768.
The aim of making the Avon navigable as far as
Bath was achieved in 1727 and a quay constructed just below the bridge on the Ambury meadows
complete with warehouses. These early warehouses appear to have remained standing, although their
use had changed over time, until at least the 1930s.
It was from the new town Quay, completed in 1729 with warehousing, timber yards and houses
designed by John Strachan, that most of the imported materials for the Georgian building
developments were supplied.
The Ambry: The most easterly of these grounds adjoined
Southgate Street and St.Lawrence’s Bridge rebuilt as the Old Bridge in 1750 and was known (with a variety of spelling) as the Amery,
Ambry or Ambury, a name perhaps derived from an isolated property in the north-east corner of the
meadow by the South Gate (still marked by Amery Lane) which is thought to have been the site of the
Almonry where alms were dispensed at the city’s entrance.
After the Dissolution of the monastery in 1539, the King’s
Barton and the Manor of Walcot, together with the Ambry, passed through various hands, and from 1699
were all acquired by Robert Gay, a London surgeon.
It was he who made the first agreements for
the Georgian development of the upper part of the town with John Wood, but it was his daughter,
Margaret Garrard who completed the agreement in 1765 for the development of the Ambry with
Henry Fisher, Thomas Jelly and Walter Taylor. This led to the complete infill of the remaining
open area with streets, including St.James’s Parade (initially called Thomas Street), Wine Street and
Peter Street (initially Queen Street or Lower Queen Street) on the north side, and to the south, Somerset
Street (initially Garrard Street), Corn Street (linked to the Quay by a narrow passage called The
Ambury), Back Street, and Little Corn Street (initially Clarke’s Lane).
For the Ambury estate: the Corporation gave ‘Messrs. Richard
Jones, Thomas Jelly and Henry Fisher…liberty to pull down the Boro Wall next to the Ambury
Gardens [for which Fisher and Jelly paid the rate - St. James’s Rate Book, 1765-66, Bath Record
Office], in order to build new houses there…’(Council minutes, 30 September 1765); see also building
leases for St. James’s Parade, etc., granted by Jelly, Fisher and Taylor (a grocer, and beneficiary under
will of Richard Jones, deceased), BC 153/121a, 1to 4, Bath Record Office;
For Kingsmead: the Lidiard papers, Box I, DD/CRM,
Somerset Record Office, show, inter alia that in1785, Henry Fisher gave Giles Fisher (of the tiler &
plasterer branch of the family) ‘our third of the Kingsmeads’ (the other two thirds having belonged to Thomas
Jelly and John Ford, respectively), in trust for Robert and Thomas Lidiard, both masons, who had recently
purchased it, and continued building there.
From A New and Correct Plan of the City of Bath and places
adjacent,
published by Taylor and Meyler, 1750-1751.
.
A New Plan of the City of Bath,
published by Leake and
Taylor, c.1770.
https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/8dd19670-1336-4a5e-8e5a-c777d3aea0ec.pdf
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St Swithin's Church Walcot, Bath.
Walcot Church (St Swithin’s) was located at the junction of
today’s Paragon, Walcot Street and London Street and was rebuilt in
1777 - 80 by John Palmer and Thomas Jelly.
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Of Tangential interest.
Deeds of 7, The Circus etc.
Deeds sold by Bonhams referring to Garrard and the development of the Kings Circus in particular 7 The Circus built for William Pitt Earl of Chatham - together with attested copies made in 1767 of the bargain
and sale from Thomas Garrard to Jenny, widow of John Wood, and John Wood Jr of
The Hayes, Walcot (just to the east of Bath above the London Road).
“for the purpose of building the King’s
Circus and Gay Street, Bath”, 1754,
of the sale of No.7 by William Pitt to
Robert and Charles Dingley, 1763, of the sale by the Dingleys and Thomas
Nuthall to Charles Dingley, 1766, and of the sale by Charles Dingley to W.A.
Ashhurst, 1767, and of the sale by Ashhurst to Lady Bradshaigh, 1771; plus
later and related deeds and copies, the originals (from 1775) on vellum, the
transcripts on paper, the first duty-stamped, some dust-staining etc., folio
https://www.bonhams.com/auction/15066/lot/883/bath-collection-of-deeds-relating-to-no7-the-kings-circus-bath-comprising-a-counterpart-release-from-dorothea-lady-bradshaigh-to-diana-molyneux-1775-a-conveyance-in-fee-of-the-same-property-from-lady-bradshaigh-to-john-taylor-a-conveyance-in-fee-of-the-property-from-taylor-to-david-ross-1783-and-from-his-son-colonel-robert-ross-to-mrs-sutherland-1810-together-with-attested-copies-made-in-1767-of-the-bargain-and-sale-from-thomas-garrard-to-jenny-widow-of-john-wood-and-john-wood-jr-of-the-hayes-walcot-just-outside-bath-for-the-purpose-of-building-the-kings-circus-and-gay-street-bath-1754-of-the-sale-of-no7-by-william-pitt-to-robert-and-charles-dingley-1763-of-the-sale-by-the-dingleys-and-thomas-nuthall-to-charles-dingley-1766-and-of-the-sale-by-charles-dingley-to-wa-ashhurst-1767-and-of-the-sale-by-ashhurst-to-lady-bradshaigh-1771-plus-later-and-related-deeds-and-copies/
