John Breakspear was the father of Eliza Ann Breakspear and grandfather of Walter Showell the founder of Crosswells brewery in Oldbury. He was baptized on 12 Apr 1777 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
He married Emma Salmon on 22 Dec 1801 and a number of his children were baptized in Chipping Norton, others in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire and one in Brill in Buckinghamshire. Latterly he lived in Aston Birmingham.
This geographical mobility would, one presume, be connected to the Pub and Inn trade, either as a publican or an Excise Officer. Two daughters married Birmingham publicans, firstly Jane to John Davis, licensee of the Malt Shovel, Lower Tower Street and secondly Eliza Ann to Walter Showell (Snr) the licensee of the Bulls Head, Price Street.
John Breakspear was the son of William Breakspear and his wife Elizabeth, licensees of the Blue Boar Inn in Chipping Norton. This William Breakspear probably came from a line of Breakspears who were Blacksmiths in Oddington, Stow-on-the Wold and Moreton-in -Marsh. The uncorroborated trail is left by a series of wills that takes this blacksmith line back to the late seventeenth century.
Although the Henley brewing dynasty founded by Robert Breakspear (1749-1812) had connexions with Chipping Norton, there seems to be no direct family relationship to John Breakspear. Robert Breakspear’s parents married in Chipping Norton in 1748 and his eldest son, an Oxford educated cleric who moved to Cheshire, also states that he came from Chipping Norton, although he was born in Witney where his father first established a brewery.
John Breakspear’s sister Mary married William Colegrave, a butcher from Sibford in 1807. She is described in the local paper as the second daughter of Mrs B of the Blue Boar Chipping Norton. This figures with the baptisms of the children of William and Elizabeth Breakspear as a daughter Mary was baptised on 2 Jan 1779.
Although it is usual in these journals to use the abbreviation such as Mrs B, where the surname is mentioned in the previous sentence, we can read something more into this. The Bee, as an insect, is a symbol of the Breakspear family. It appears on the crest of Nicholas Breakspear the twelfth century Pope and also on the Beer Pumps of the modern day brewery of Brakspears.
Another sister of John was Jemima baptised on 22 Jul 1785 and she went on to marry Thomas Stuchfield on 12 Jul 1810 in Chipping Norton. The Stuchfield family had family and coaching interests in Brill, which could also go to explain the birthplace of John’s youngest daughter Emma Dudley Breakspear baptized in Brill in 1813.
The oldest sister Ann Breakspear, bap 8 May 1775, married Benjamin Churchill of Deddington. It would appear that Benjamin Churchill was at one time the licensee of the Three Horse Shoes in Deddington.
From all this we can conclude then, that Mrs B, John’s mother, was the landlady of the Blue Boar in Chipping Norton in 1807 and his father, William Breakspear, although living in to his 90’s probably played a more background role, with wider business and farming interests.
By about 1820 John Breakspear had moved to Birmingham. He is recorded as being a licensed victualler first at the Acorn, Summer Street, and later at the Malt Shovel in Smallbrook Street, Birmingham from 1821 to at least 1836. His daughter Eliza Ann was to take over as licensee of the Bull’s Head in Price Street on the death of her husband, Walter Showell, in 1835. But Eliza Ann Showell’s father in law, Joseph Showell, had been licensee of the Black Swan, also in Smallbrook Street and this may be how the families met.
In an announcement in Aris’s Birmingham Gazette on 29 Aug 1836, the licence of the Crown and Anchor, with eleven years unexpired, was offered up for treaty, as the existing tenant John Breakspear was retiring. The quest to sale is repeated in the same paper on 7 Nov 1836, where it states that John Breakspear is now fully occupied with his new venture the Aston Flour Mill.
The seemingly ambitious attempt to take over a flour mill and to dispose of pub licenses coincides with a time (1836-1837) that he was also standing security to obtain probate on his daughter, Eliza Ann Showell’s husband estate.
The sale did not seem to proceed quickly and it would seem that all matters took a turn for the worse. John Breakspear died on 22 Mar 1838 aged 60 in the presence of his daughter Eliza Ann Showell of Price Street, Birmingham. His profession is recorded as Miller and that he died in the Water Works Mill, Aston, after a short but severe illness. The cause of death on his certificate is described as ‘Nervous fever’.
Selected Sources and Notes
- Death Certificate of John Breakspear
- Warwickshire Licensed Victualler Database 1801-1828
- Three of John Breakspear’s children have baptism records that indicate their father’s profession was ‘Excise Officer’, 1815-1820
- The Malt Shovel in Smallbrook Street is a different pub from the Malt Shovel, Lower Tower Street. In 1855 on the death of John Davis, Jane like her sister Eliza took the licence of her deceased husband’s pub.