Perry
& Co. (aka James Perry & Co. and Perry & Co. Limited): History
The
Company[1]
This firm was originally
founded in Manchester in 1824 by James Perry and at first went by the name
James Perry & Co. The main product
during the early years was pen making although it later expanded to include
pencils, pencil holders, ink stands, and other products related to
stationers. Mr. Perry’s brother,
Stephen, joined him in the business and sometime during the late 1820’s[2]
the firm moved to London. In 1828/1829[3]
the Perry’s met Josiah Mason of Birmingham and an arrangement was made with him
so that their pens were actually manufactured at Mr.
Mason’s factory on Lancaster Street in Birmingham. Almost all of the
pens Mason made in Birmingham were stamped with the Perry & Co. name and
because Perry patented a design which became known as the Perryian
pen, these pens became very popular throughout the world. The 1831[4]
advertisement pictured here places James Perry at 37 Red Lion Square in London
where they operated for over 40 years. The firm continued advertising in London
newspapers and in all of their advertisements from
1831 through 1845[5] it was
always listed with that name or James Perry & Co. at that address. At some point prior to 1839[6]
the Perry business expanded and shops were opened in
Paris, France, Hamburg, Germany and several other places. A business arrangement was also made on or
before 1839 with a man named John Hayes as he was listed in Mr. Perry’s will as
a partner. Additional information about Mr. Hayes has not been found as his
surname was quite common in the UK at that time.
After
James Perry’s death in 1846[7]
the company continued to expand under the direction of Stephen Perry and Mr.
Hayes, later adding Stephen’s two sons Joseph John Perry and Lewis Henry
Perry. From 1846 through 1875 in all of their advertisements they were listed simply as Perry
& Co. at 37 Red Lion Square.[8] Also from 1866 through 1875[9]
they registered five designs under the name James Perry & Co. or J. Perry
& Co. whereas the majority, twenty-five designs, were registered with the
Perry & Co. name, however all were listed at 37 Red Lion Square. Many historians believe this means the
company name was changed to Perry & Co. sometime between 1846 and
1875. It seems more likely that the
firm’s official name continued to be James Perry & Co. because that is how
it was consistently listed in London city directories from 1835 through 1875[10]. Perhaps the name was shortened for
advertising purposes because most of their products were stamped Perry &
Co. and that is how people knew them. In
1868[11]
the firm published its first product catalogue. On the cover of the 1871[12]
version it was entitled “Perry & Co.’s Illustrated Price Current” which
listed them as merchants, manufacturers, stationers
and dealers of fancy goods. The
catalogue contained drawings of many of the products they sold. Several illustrations of early Avery style
needle cases were included as were advertisements for the Birmingham goldsmith
and jeweler J. W. Lewis[13],
the company who created the first Avery style needle case, and for Henry
Milward & Sons[14],
a major Redditch area needle manufacturer who patented some Avery style needle
cases and had their name stamped on designs Avery patented. The Perry company’s main store according to
the 1871 catalogue was still at 37 Red Lion Square with branches at 3 Cheapside
and 355 Strand in London. The business
also had a shop in Brussels, Belgiam named Joseph J.
Perry and another in Amsterdam, Netherlands under the name Perry & Co.
The
firm went through a number of changes after Stephen
Perry’s death in 1873 under the direction of his two sons. In February 1875[15]
their Vol. 8 catalogue was printed and the cover
indicated they continued operations as Perry & Co. at 37 Red Lion Square
with a branch at 3 Cheapside in London as well as in Brussels and
Amsterdam. In addition to drawings of
many of Perry’s products, this catalogue listed seven additional Avery style
needle cases as seen in the pages shown in the Images section of this chapter[16]. That year two new shops were listed on the
catalogue’s cover, one in New York and another in Frankfort, Germany. Perry’s January 1876[17]
catalog contained the same information regarding their business name and
locations. Also, in 1876[18]
the Perry company substantially increased its business operations by purchasing
the pen business in Birmingham of Josiah Mason[19]. Mason had taken over the pen manufacturing
business of A. Sommerville & Co. a few years earlier in 1870 and at the end
of 1875 Mason decided to retire. Perry
also merged with the Birmingham pen and pencil case makers Wiley & Son and
the new company became a limited liability firm with the name Perry & Co.
Limited as seen in this 1876[20]
newspaper clipping. William Edward Wiley
and his son William Wiley, hereafter listed as Jr., became involved with the
firm in addition to Joseph John Perry and Lewis Henry Perry. Joseph John Perry
and William Edward Wiley were the company’s first managing directors[21].
By June 1877[22]
the firm moved to Holborn Viaduct because they needed more space and large and
handsome warehouses were being built in that section of London. They moved into a building five stories high
on the front facing the Holborn Viaduct and eight stories high at the back. In
this massive warehouse they stored not only the products they manufactured but
also special articles for which they were famous. The firm’s catalogue in January 1880[23],
Vol. 13, is further proof that by then the firm had moved to 18, 19 & 20
Holborn Viaduct in London (pictured on the left[24]) and was now known as Perry & Co.
Limited. The catalogue’s cover listed
shops in Brussels, Amsterdam, New York and Frankfurt
and indicated their works (another name for their factory) was located at
Lancaster Street in Birmingham (pictured on the 
right[25]). Perry’s October 1882[26]
edition, Vol. 15, included a shop in Paris.
In 1890 Perry’s London warehouse was described as follows: “The increase
of business has been so rapid that the company found it necessary to lease the
adjoining premises, which is stored with some of the two thousand articles
forming the staple trade of the London depot, and the principal of which are
the following: American letter files, clips (now manufactured in Lancaster
Street), marking and other inks, aromatic bands, audascript pens, Bostonite
goods, cigar lighters, copying ink and copying ink power, coping ink pencils,
coping presses, corrugated imperial bands, essence of ink, grease extractors,
India rubber for erasing, ink and pencil erasers, ink extractors, patent and
other inkstands in every variety, key rings, letter clips, letter files,
metallic books, paper binders, pencil point protectors, pencils and pencil
cases, penholders, pen knives, pen racks, gold pens, portfolios, presses,
Scotch Tartan fancy goods, solitaries or sleeve links, etc., etc., etc.”[27]
William
Edward Wiley remained a director until his death in 1893. His son William Wiley Jr.[28]
was elected a director in 1883 and became a joint director in 1893 shortly
after the death of his father, a position he held until his death in 1912. Lewis Henry Perry appears to have left the
company sometime after his father’s death in 1873 to pursue other interests in
photography whereas Joseph John Perry remained a director for a great many
years before his death in 1917. By 1901
Joseph John Perry’s middle son, Edmund Stephen Perry, joined the firm and
became a director who remained in that position until shortly after his
father’s death in 1917. Edmund left the
firm before 1920 to establish his own pen business under the name E. S. Perry
in North London[29]. William Wiley Jr.’s son, Arthur Edward Wiley,
became an assistant manager by 1911 but left the business sometime before 1945[30]. Because the Wiley’s lived in the Birmingham
area and the Perry’s lived in London, apparently the Wiley’s managed the
Birmingham side of the business whereas the Perry’s handled the London
operations.
Exactly
who managed Perry & Co. Limited from the 1920’s until its sale to British
Pens in 1961[31] was not
researched because the main focus of this book is the
Victorian Period when Avery style needle cases were manufactured. It is possible that some of these needle
cases were in fact made at Perry & Co.’s Birmingham factory as they had
workers with all the necessary skills to produce fancy metal items. In fact the Jubilee
Box 1837-1887 pen case seen here is further evidence of this because it is very
similar to Avery’s Quadruple needle case.
To
date, only six Avery style needle cases have been found stamped with the Perry
& Co. London name. Three of these
are identical designs, patented in 1867 by J. W. Lewis, except for the names
stamped on them and the number of slots to hold needle packets: Beatrice-6
Section, Gem-4 Section and Gem-6 Section.
Another design, the Alexander, was also patented by Lewis three years
later in 1870. Only two of the needle
cases stamped with the Perry name were actually patented by Avery: the Quadruple Golden Casket - Fleur-di-Lis in 1868 and the
Postal Weight in 1876. Examples of these
needle cases can be found in the Images section of this chapter.
The
Perry Owners[32]
James Perry was born c1791 and was
baptized that year at Heythrop in Oxfordshire. He was the son of Thomas Perry and Ann
Hopkins and he had at least one brother, Stephen. The village of Heythrop
is located about 12 miles southwest of Banbury, 123 miles southeast of
Manchester, 74 miles northwest of London and 46 miles southeast of
Birmingham. At some point James moved to
the Manchester area where in 1814 he married Mary Leslie at St. Mary in Eccles,
a town in the western section of Greater Manchester. By 1817 he was working as a schoolteacher in
Manchester who also gave lectures[33]. James soon became dissatisfied with the types
of pens used in his classroom, so in 1819[34]
he started making steel pens by hand.
This led to him establishing the firm known as James Perry & Co. in
Manchester in 1824 which later became Perry & Company of London.
While
living in the Manchester area, James and Mary had five daughters of which only
two have been identified: Clara Julian Warton c1821 and Scholastica c1827, who
was the youngest. At some point in the
late 1820’s this Perry family moved to London were James expanded his business
substantially after creating Perryian pens which
became very popular. Later, because of
his business success, the family moved to Cupola House in the Hammersmith
section of west London. Then sometime
around 1841 the family obtained a second residence in Paris, France where they
lived for a few years. Although many
historians claim James Perry died in 1843, he actually died
in Paris is 1846 at age 55. A week after
his death a special Mass was held in his honor at a church in Banbury most
likely because he was one of the most successful men who was born in that area
at that time. While it is unclear what
happened to James Perry’s wife Mary, their two daughters spent the rest of
their lives living in Paris. Clara
Juliana Warton Perry who was born in Manchester c1821 died in Paris in
1881. The youngest daughter, Scholastic
Perry, who was born c1827 in Manchester, married a French man named Maurice
Louis Maurette in Paris in 1852 and she died there 33 years later in 1885.
The following excerpts from James Perry’s 1839
last will and testament and 1841 codicil provide further proof that he lived in
Paris.
“I
James Perry partner with Mr. John Hayes as a patent pen and manufacturers
stationers at 37 Red Lion Square London, Paris, Hamburg and other places being
of sound and disposing memory and understanding but mindful of my mortality do
this 31st day of May 1839
. . . This is a codicil to
the last will and testament of me James Perry of Red Lion Square in the county
of Middlesex and of the city of Paris patent pen manufacturer and stationer and
whereas I have in and by my last will and testament appointed John Hayes, my
wife Mary Perry and my brother Stephen Perry executors and executrix of my last
will and testament with an annual allowance for their trouble . . . I have hereunto set my hand and seal this
thirty first day June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty one . . . “
Stephen Perry was the younger brother of
James Perry. He was born c1800 with
parents Thomas and Ann Perry and was baptized at St. Mary in Banbury,
Oxfordshire in 1800. At the time of his
birth his father worked as a gardener.
After joining his brother’s pen business in 1824, he also moved to the
London area sometime during the late 1820’s.
In 1830 he married Elizabeth Savage at St. George the Martyr in the
Southwark district of Central
London located on the south bank of the Thames River. Stephen and Elizabeth had 4 children between
1833 and 1840: Stephen Joseph, Joseph John, Mary Ann
and Lewis Henry. The family lived in the
Clerkenwell section of London, where at least two of their children were born,
for several years before moving to Marylebone by 1840. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died in 1841 at age
29, approximately six months after the birth of their last child in 1840. From 1841 until at least 1861 this family
lived at various places in Marylebone where Stephen was listed as a clerk in
1841, an ink stand manufacturer in 1851 and a general dealer of steel pens etc.
in 1861. Also, during those years either
his mother-in-law or sister-in-law lived with the Perry family presumably
helping him raise the children. By 1861
the two youngest sons were working in the Perry family business whereas the
eldest son studied abroad and became a priest and astronomer who gave lectures
in a number of European countries. By 1871 Stephen moved to Hampstead where he
lived with his youngest son Lewis and both he and his son were listed as steel
pen makers that year. Two years later
Stephen died there in 1873 at age 72 and was listed as an esquire in his death
notice in a local newspaper and a pen and pencil manufacturer in his will. When his estate was probated shortly after
his death it was valued at £35,000 (approximately £2,191,315 today[35])
which was proved by his sons Joseph John and Lewis Henry.
The two youngest sons of Stephen Perry pursued
careers in the Perry family business.
Joseph John Perry was born c1838 in Clerkenwell and by the time he was
23 he was working as a general manager in one of the family’s shops. In 1863 he
married Emma Mary Josephine Reddin at St. George in the Southwark section of
London. At first the family lived in
Kensington where their first three children were born, then they moved to
Hamstead where they remained for the rest of their lives. Joseph and Emma had 8 children between 1864
and 1876: Joseph Mary, Emma Mary Teresa, Harriet Mary Teresa, Edmund Stephen,
Stephen Ignatius Mary, Mary, Louise Ignatius and
Stephen John Mary. Although Joseph was
listed as a merchant in 1871 and 1881, in 1890[36]
he was recorded as a managing director at Perry & Co. Limited and in 1901
as the chairman, a position he held until his retirement. In 1901 Joseph and his wife traveled to
Bexhill, Sussex, 62 miles southeast of London where they presumably vacationed
with their middle son Edmund and Edmund’s family. Joseph’s wife Emma died in Hampstead in 1903
at age 62 and by 1911 Joseph was retired and living at his Hampstead home with
his daughter Emma and three servants.
Six years later in 1917 Joseph died at age 80 at St. Leonard-on-Sea, a
seaside resort 61 miles southeast of London in Kent. His estate, valued at £31,121 (£1,835,896
today[37])
was passed to his daughter Emma, son Louis Ignatius Esquire and reverend James
Frederick Perry. The following is a
partial transcription of his obituary.
October
13, 1917: Hastings and St Lenoards Observer newspaper, page 4, column 7[38]
“AN
OCTOGENERIAN’S DEMISE – The death occurred suddenly on the 5th inst. at St.
Leonards of Mr. Joseph John Perry. The deceased
resided at 36, Upper Park-road, Hamstead, and came here for the benefit of his
health. He was 80 years of age. He had for a great number of years been Chief
Director of the well-known firm of Messrs. Perry and Co. He was prominently associated with the Roman
Catholic Church, and had been a most liberal
subscriber to and Chairman of several associations connected with the
church. The body was conveyed by Mr. A.
C. Towner in his motor hearse to one of the chapels at St. Dominic’s Priory
last Monday. The funeral took place in
the family vault at the Roman Catholic Church, Kensall
Green. The principal mourners were: The
Misses Perry, Mr. E. and L. Perry, Mr. Arnold and Mr. Barry (representatives
from Perry and Co.), and the following Fathers: .
. .”
Lewis Henry Perry, the youngest son of Stephen
and Elizabeth Perry, was born in 1840 in Marylebone. In 1851 he attended school at The Mount in
Walsall, Staffordshire, located 9 miles northwest of Birmingham. After finishing school he returned to
London, lived with his father and became a cash keeper and book
keeper in the Perry & Co. firm by 1861. In 1864 he traveled to West Derby,
Lancashire, a suburb of Liverpool where he married Sarah Alice Copplestone. By 1871
Lewis and Sarah were living in Hampstead not far from his brother Joseph,
working as a steel pen maker with his father who was living with them. After his father’s death in 1873, Lewis
focused his attention on becoming a dealer in photography and cameras. Lewis and Sarah had 6 children born between
1864 and 1885: Anne Maria, George Arthur Copplestone,
Bessie Copplestone, Edit Eliza, Mary Theresa Gertrude and Agnes Mary Josephine. By 1885 the family moved to Tunbridge Wells
for a few years where their youngest daughter was born and by 1891 Lewis
retired there for several years. The
family returned to the London area and lived at Pembridge Square, Bayswater, a
couple blocks west of Kensington Gardens.
Lewis died there in 1900 at age 59 in a car accident. A transcription of a local newspaper article
regarding this car accident is displayed below. His estate, valued at £9,541 (£745,841 today[39]),
went to his wife Sarah and brother Joseph John Perry who was listed as an
esquire that year. Lewis’s wife and
daughters continued to live in the London area and 29 years later Sarah died in
Ramsgate, Kent, 75 miles southeast of London, a seaside town along the coast,
at age 85, presumable while vacationing there.
Her estate of £28 passed to her nephew Louis Ignatius Perry who was a
manufacturer.
July
13, 1900: West London Observer
newspaper, page 7, column 2[40]
“KILLED
BY A MOTOR CAR.
CAMERA
MAKER’S DEATH.
At Kensington Coroner’s Court, on Monday
Mr. C. Luxmoore Drew held an inquest on the body of
Mr. Lewis Henry Perry, aged 59 years, a camera manufacturer and dealer in
photographic requisites, late of 4, Pembridge Villas, Bayswater, who was killed
by a motor car driven by Mr. Hennig, the well-known billiard table maker, on
Thursday evening.
The deceased man was well known in the
photographic world, being the proprietor of the well- known “Shew” camera
works.
Marie Perry, daughter of deceased, said
that on Thursday evening she was out walking with her father. They were walking towards Kensington Gardens. She saw a motor car going round the square at
a rather fast pace, and when they reached the corner of the square near Moscow Road they had just stepped to cross the road when
deceased saw the motor car coming towards them.
It was on its near side, and her father said: “Take care or you will be
run over.” Witness made for the pavement
and the car just missed her, and on looking round she saw her father lying in
the road. The car had stopped.
By Mr. D. Neale (who appeared for Mr.
Hennig). The motor was a noisy one. I do
not remember having said it was a pure accident.
Annie White, a servant at 16, Pembridge
Square, who saw the accident, said the car was not going very fast. Deceased cleared the car once, but seemed to
lose his head, and dodged in front of it and was knocked down, She considered it was a pure accident.
Miss Florence Mary Gladstone, daughter of
Professor Gladstone, of 17, Pembridge Square, said she heard the motor. As it passed her house she saw a hat fly, and
then saw deceased in the road under the car.
She sent her butler and had deceased brought into the house,
and sent for a doctor. Death took
place there within a few minutes.
By Mr. Neale: Miss Perry made a statement,
and witness suggested she should make it in the presence of Mr. Hennig as it
would relieve his feelings. Miss Perry
then repeated the statement to Mr. Hennig and to the doctor. She said it was a pure accident and it was
her father’s own fault.
Miss Perry, recalled, said that was
correct as far as she remembered. She
supposed she did say it.
Maud Crane, a single lady, of the Princes
Hotel, Princes Square, said she was with Mr. Hennig in the motor car. When they turned the corner of the Square
they were going 7 miles an hour. When
they saw the deceased crossing Mr. Hennig applied the brake. The daughter passed in safety, but the
deceased stepped back in safety, and then came forward again and was knocked
down. At that time Mr. Hennig was
stopping the car with the other break.
By Mr. Neale: When she first saw the gentleman he was only 8 yards away.
Mr. Frederick Hennig, of 50, Blenheim
Crescent, gave similar evidence. He had
the car under control and was only going 7 miles an hour, the car being rated
up to 16 miles an hour, and he only had the gas half on. After the accident he saw the brake
underneath was broken.
Police-Constable Moss, in reply to the
jury, said motors were allowed up to 12 miles an hour in London if the road was
clear, and a reduced rate according to the state of traffic.
Dr. Walker said death was due to injuries
to the head.
The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental
Death.” They added a rider asking the Coroner to express to the Commissioner of Police that in
their opinion the speed at present sanctioned in London we too great. They thanked Miss Gladstone for her kindness
and expressed their condolence with the family of deceased.”
Edmund Stephen Perry appears to be the only 3rd generation
Perry family member known to have been involved in the Perry family pen
manufacturer business. He was the middle
son of Joseph John Perry and grandson of Stephen Perry. Edmund was born in 1867 in Kensington. In 1892 he married Agatha Mary Wray in the
Pancreas section of London. This Perry
family must have spent some time in the Sheffield area as first child was born
in the Bradfield area, a town 169 miles northwest of London. By 1901 Edmund was the director of Perry
& Co Limited, a position he held for a few years before he left the company
around 1920 to establish his own pen business known as E. S. Perry & Co.[41] Edmund and Agatha had 7 children between
1899 and 1917, the last four were all born in Godstone, a town 20 miles south
of London: Mary Agatha, Francesca Emma Mary, Elizabeth M., Cecilia Mary, Edmund
Christopher Joseph, James Stephen Joseph and Michael Aiden. In 1939 this Perry family was living in
Chislehurst & Sidcup, Kent, a suburban district of south-east London where
Edmund worked as a managing director of a manufacturing export business with
his wife and 3 of their children who appeared to be working for the same
company as their father. After 1939 the
family moved to Woodford Green, Essex in East London where Edmund died in 1944 at age 76. His estate of £3,042 passed to his widow
Agatha who died 21 years later at age 93 in 1965 at a nursing home in
Chislehurst. Her estate of £13,591
passed to their eldest daughter Mary Agatha.
The Wiley Owners[42]
William
Edward Wiley, the son of William Wiley a merchant’s clerk, was born c1823 and
was baptized at St. John the Baptist in Deritend, a historic area in
Birmingham. Sometime prior to 1851[43]
he established the gold and silver pen manufacturing business known as W. E.
Wiley & Co. at 34 Great Hampton Street in Birmingham’s Jewelry
Quarter. That same year his company
participated in the 1851[44]
Great Exhibition of the
Works of Industry of All Nations in London, the first world’s fair. Also, in 1851 he was living in the Handsworth
section of Birmingham and was listed as age 27, a gold pen manufacturer. In 1854 he traveled to London and married
Eliza Wall, who was also born in Birmingham, at St. James Clerkenwell in the
Islington section of London. After their
marriage they returned to Birmingham and had 5 children born between 1852 and
1862: William, Eliza, Ann, Emily and Rosa. Unfortunately, Eliza died in 1864 two years
after the birth of their last child at age 36.
By 1863[45]
William’s business expanded considerably, and a new factory named Wiley’s Pen
Works was built on the corner of Graham Street and Frederick Street in the
Jewelry Quarter. Today this building,
pictured here[46],
is home to the Birmingham Pen Museum[47]. By 1871 William and his children moved to
Erdington in the Aston section of north Birmingham where he was listed as a
pencil case manufacturer. After his
business merged with Perry & Co. in 1876 Wiley’s Pen Works factory was
closed and the business moved to Lancaster Street. By 1881 he employed 206 men and 854 girls and
was listed as a managing director, a position he held for the remainder of his
life. Two years later in 1883 he
returned to London to marry his second wife Emma Belinda Richmond, who was
approximately 17 years younger than him, at St. Sepulchre in the Holborn
section of London. By 1891 they were
living in a house known as The Rockery in Erdington. William died there in 1893 at age 70 and left
an estate valued at £38,553 (£3,163,247 today[48]). His second wife died twelve years later in
1905 at age 64 leaving an estate valued at £15,860 (£1,246,112 today[49]).
William
Wiley Jr. was the only son of William Edward Wiley and Eliza Wall. He was born in c1852 in the Birmingham area. By the time William Jr. was 19 years old he
was working as a pencil case manufacturer in his father’s company. In 1881, five years after the Wiley family
business merged with Perry & Co, William Jr. was listed as a manager at
Perry & Co. In 1882 at age 30
William Jr. married Alice Maude Richards in Solihull, a town 8 miles southeast
of Birmingham and they had 2 children: Ethel Maud and Arthur Edward. The family lived in the Solihull area for a number of years.
William Jr. continued to work for Perry & Co., becoming a director
in 1883[50]
and after his father’s death in 1893[51]
a managing director, a position he held for the remained of his life. By 1911 the family moved to Sutton Coldfield,
a town 7 miles northeast of Birmingham, where William Jr. died in 1912 at age
60. His estate was valued at £50,118 (£3,917,834
today[52]). His obituary is listed below. Twenty-five years later his wife Alice died
in 1937 at age 77 while living in Burnham-on-Sea, Sommerset with an estate of £1,787.
June
8, 1912: Walsall Advertiser newspaper,
page 10, column 2[53]
“FOUR
OAKS.
DEATH
OF MR. W. WILEY. – Mr. William Wiley, of “Briarwood,”
Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, whose death occurred after a few days illness, on Sunday last, was a son of the late Mr.
William Edward Wiley of “The Rookery,” Birches Green, Erdington, founder of the
firm of W. E. Wiley and Son, of Albert Works, Graham-street, gold pen and
pencil case manufacturers. He was in
business with his father for some years previous to
its transfer in 1876 to Perry & Co. (Limited), with which business he was
connected up to the time of his death.
In 1883 he was elected a director of that company, and in 1893, on the
death of his father (who was a managing director), he was appointed one of the
joint managing directors of the company.
In later years he had identified himself more particularly with the
cycle accessories section of the business of the company, which, under his able
management had been very successful. He
possessed great kindness of heart, gentleness of manner, and true sympathy with
those in trouble or sorrow, which endeared him to the workpeople, among whom
his loss will be keenly felt. The
funeral took place at Sutton Coldfield Parish Church on Wednesday.”
The
only son of William Wiley Jr. and Alice Maude Richards was Arthur Edward Wiley,
who was born in 1888 in Solihull. By age
23 in 1911 he was working with his father as an assistant manager at Perry
& Co. Arthur married Vera Evelyn
Ansell in Tamworth in 1917 and they had 2 children: Margaret and Evelyn. At some point, probably after his father’s
death in 1912, he became the chairman a position he held until sometime in the
1920’s[54]. In 1921 he became the chairman of his wife’s
family’s Ansell brewing business. The
family lived in Sutton Coldfield for many years and later moved to Torquey, a
seaside town in Devon 180 miles southwest of Birmingham. Arthur died there in 1964 at age 76 leaving
as estate valued at £205,628
(£3,622,795 today[55])
and his wife Vera died a year later in 1965 with an estate of £234,663 (£4,134,340 today[56]). The following obituary was published in a
Birmingham newspaper.
August
14, 1964: Birmingham Daily Post
newspaper, page 30, column 5[57]
“Obituary
Mr.
Arthur Wiley
MR. ARTHUR EDWARD WILEY, president of Ansells Brewery Ltd., and formerly its chairman for 19
years, died on Wednesday night at his home in Torquay. He was 76.
Mr. Wiley joined Ansells
as a director in September, 1921 and was appointed
joint managing director in 1933. In 1944
he was made chairman, and in July last year, was appointed the first president
of the company. He was also chairman of
the Perry group of companies until it was taken over by Renold Chains, Ltd.,
and co-founder of Bayliss Wiley and Co, Ltd., manufacturers of cycle
components, which was merged within the Perry Group in 1926.
Shortly before World War One, Mr. Wiley
married Miss Vera Ansell, daughter of Edward Ansell, the former chairman and
co-founder of the brewery. He is
survived by his wife and two daughters, one of whom is Mrs. J. G Swanson, wife
of the present deputy chairman . . . .”
Sir Josiah Mason[58]
Josiah Mason was born in 1795 in Kidderminster,
a town located 18 miles southwest of Birmingham. He was the second son of Josiah Mason, a
carpet-weaver, and his wife Elizabeth Griffiths. In 1817 at St. Peter and Paul in the Aston
section of Birmingham, Josiah married his cousin Ann Griffiths. Then from 1817 to 1822 he acted as the
manager of the imitation gold jewelry works of his uncle and wife’s father,
Richard Griffiths, in Birmingham. Two
years later in 1824 he became a manager for Samuel Harrison, a spilt-ring
maker
and in 1825 purchased Harrison’s business.
He tried his hand at pen-making in 1829, and then in 1830 became Perry
& Co.’s pen maker until he sold the business to Perry in late 1875. During those years Josiah had a great deal of
success and was also involved with electro-plating spoons, forks, and other
articles which became very popular after the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1870[59]
he purchased the trade of Alfred Sommerville, a wholesaler in steel pens and
stationery but carried it on under the old style of A. Sommerville &
Co. Over the years Josiah accumulated a
large degree of wealth and because he had no children, became involved with
many charitable projects. In Erdington
in 1858 Josiah founded an almshouse for thirty aged woman and an orphanage for
fifty girls. Between 1860 and 1868 he
paid for the erection a new orphanage in Erdington that handled three hundred
girls, one hundred and fifty boys and fifty infants. Then in 1872 he was knighted by letters
patent and became known as Sir Josiah Mason.
His most important work was the Scientific College at Birmingham which
he opened in 1880 and in 1893 had 556 students.
Mason College was subsequently absorbed in the University of Birmingham,
which was founded and incorporated in 1900.
Josiah and Ann lived in Erdington from at least 1851 until their deaths,
with Ann dying there in 1870 at age 78.
By 1871 Josiah was living at Norwood House in Erdington where he died 10
years later in 1881 at age 86. He left
an estate valued at £51,729 (£3,423,668 today[60]). The portrait drawing seen on the previous
page of Sir Josiah Mason[61]
was made sometime during his later years.
What follows are two partial newspaper transcriptions from 1880 and 1881
which provide additional information about Josiah Mason and his relationship with
Perry & Co.
October
2, 1880: The Western Daily Press,
Bristol newspaper, page 7 columns 1-2[62]
“THE
CAREER OF A SELF-MADE MAN.
Apropos of the opening of the Mason
Scientific College at Birmingham, yesterday, the Birmingham Mail has published
the following interesting sketch of the extraordinary career of Sir Josiah Mason. . .
. .
Amongst other “odds and ends” left by
Harrison, Mason found some curious bronze and steel pens which had been made
half a century before by one Richard Parkes, a highly skilled artificer, to
whom Harrison had been an apprentice. He
also found the duplicate of a pen made by Harrison himself for Dr.
Priestley. They were, of course, hand made, having been produced by hammering and filling,
and were necessarily rude and clumsy in shape, and unsightly in
appearance.
Some little time after this discovery
Mason walking in Bull Street saw in the shop window of Mr. Peart, a stationer,
a steel pen exposed for sale, which he bought at the price of two or three schillings, and took home.
His early experience as a pen mender enabled him to estimate the
deficiencies of his hand-made steel substitute, and the idea occurred to him
that he could produce by mechanical means a far better pen at much more
reasonable cost Quietly and secretly
working out his idea, he at length produced a pen which satisfied his ideas of
completeness, and with which he found he could make a cleaner up stroke than he
had ever seen before. How to make his
invention profitable to himself by bringing it before the public was his next
difficulty.
At that time James Perry, a Manchester man
who had removed to London, was actively engaged in agitating school reform, and
in urging the employment of improved school books and
appliances. He had already produced some
pens, shaped by hand from ribbon steel, which were on sale under the name of
“Perry Pens.” Josiah Mason, taking a few
of his pens in his pocket, went to London and showed them to Mr. Perry. At that time Mason had no conception of any
other use for his pen than as a school adjunct, but Mr. Perry, with commercial
acuteness, saw at once that it must eventually supersede the quill. Arrangements were soon made by which Mason
was to be supplied with ample capital; the pens were to be called “Perrylan” pens, and Messrs. Perry and Co. were to have the
exclusive sale in England. This was in
1828, and the connection then formed has been continued, with occasional
modifications, ever since.
Josiah Mason continued in the penmaking
business, the trade gradually extending, until the year 1876,when
being eighty years of age, he sold his business to his old friends the Perrys,
who combined with it two or three other manufacturing firms, and formed a
limited liability company, under the name of “Perry and Co., Limited. This company has greatly extended the
productive capabilities of the concern, their present production of steel pens
being between forty and fifty thousand grosses per week, or something like a
million of pens every day. The
manufactory stands on the site of Mr. Harrison’s “house and shopping,” but it
has been extended from time to time until it now covers an area of two acres,
most of the buildings being five storeys high. There are about 1,200 persons employed on the
works. . .
.”
June
17, 1881: The Birmingham Daily Post newspaper, page 5 columns 1-4[63]
“DEATH
OF SIR JOSIAH MASON
. .
. . Mr. Harrison’s house forms
part of Sir Josiah Mason’s works in Lancaster Street, now transferred to Perry
and Co. Twelve months later, Mr.
Harrison, desiring to retire from business, sold his trade to Mason for £500, which was paid out of the
first year’s profits.
. . .
To the split-ring business Mason quickly
added that of steel-pen making. Mr.
Harrison, who was an intimate friend of Dr. Priestly, had made barrel pens,
laboriously shaped and filed, for the great
philosopher, as far back as 1780; but it was not until 1825 that steel pens -
the “slip”: pens now so commonly used – began to be made as articles of
commerce. The first maker of these pens
was Mr. James Perry, of Manchester, and afterward of London, who in point of
time slightly anticipated Mr. Mitchell and Mr,
Gillott, respectively the earliest Birmingham makers. Perry’s pens, however, differed from theirs
in not being wholly machine made; the slit, instead of being formed in a press,
was made by cracking the pen with a blow from a hammer, after hardening, at a
place previously marked in the soft steel.
The method of making the slit is a great feature of the pen trade. Slitting by machinery is the essential
feature of the manufacture as now carried on, and the question of real interest
in the trade is not who was the first maker of pens of steel, but who first
made pens by machinery as a mechanical process, and as articles of common use. . . .
Mason for many years supplied Mr. Perry all he made, and
stamped them solely with Perry’s name.
His introduction to Mr. Perry happened in a curious way. The following account of it is transcribed
from a note written by Sir Josiah Mason himself, and it is therefore authentic:
“About 1829, I saw in a bookshop widow in Bull Street, Birmingham (Mr.
Peart’s), nine slip pens on a card, marked three-and-sixpence! The novelty, and the thought of Mr.
Harrison’s pen, induced me to go in. Mr.
Peart was writing with one of the pens.
He said it was ‘a regular pin,’ I instantly saw that I could improve
upon it, and offered to buy one of the pens.
Mr. Peart, however, would not sell less than the whole card; but at last he consented to sell me the one he was writing with,
and so I bought the pen for sixpence. I
returned home, made three pens that evening, and enclosed the best of the three
in a letter - for which I paid ninepence postage. I had not the slightest knowledge of the
maker, but having with difficulty made out the lettering stamped upon the pen I
had purchased to be “Perry, Red Lion Square, London; I send my letter
there, This brought Mr. James Perry to
36, Lancaster Street, the following day but one, by eight o’clock in the
morning, and from that moment I became a steel pen maker. Perry and Co. were my only customers for many
years. From our first interview, to the
present time [this was written in 1873] I have been the sole and only maker of
the Persian and the steel B pens sold under Perrys name” At first the pens were supplied to Mr.
Perry in modest quantities. . . .The first lot of one hundred gross at one order was
dispatched to London on the 20th of November, 1830. In 1831 pens to the value of £1,421 were made by Mr. Mason for
Mr. Perry and from that time the trade grew with wonderful rapidity, until when
in later years his works received their full development, Sir Josiah Mason
became the largest penmaker in the world.
In 1830 about twelve workpeople were employed in Lancaster Street, and
one hundred weight of steel was thought a large quantity to roll for a week’s
consumption. In 1874, towards the close
of Sir Josiah Mason’s connection with the works, nearly a thousand persons were
employed, the quality of steel rolled every week for penmaking exceeded three
tons, and about sixty tons of pens were constantly in movement throughout the
place, in one or other of the various stages of manufacture. When the reader is told that nearly a million
and a half pen may go to a single ton, he may form an estimate of the
development the trade has received in the course of little more than fifty years. .” .
.
