The administration papers surrounding the death of Walter Showell at the age of 33 in 1835 can perhaps assist in understanding how his three year old son, Walter Showell was brought up in his early years. This in turn can offer insight into the self evident business drive and ambition that was to be the force behind Showell’s brewery and its large pub empire, reaching its zenith in the 1890’s
Walter Showell, senior, had been born in late 1802 (bap 28 Mar 1803, St Martin’s) and must have lived all his life in the pubs run by his father, Joseph Showell. Although his father died only a few months before him in June 1835, it is clear that the licenceeship of the Bull’s Head in Price Street must have in fact been passed to Walter around 1828. The older son Thomas was apparently already running his own pub ‘Whittington’s Cat’ from as early as 1816.
Walter thus was in a position to marry, and he wed the 18 year old daughter of a fellow Birmingham licensee Eliza Ann Breakspear on 20 May 1830 (St Peter’s Harborne). The new family lived and worked the Bull’s Head, Price Street in the centre of Birmingham with the father now in effective retirement. His first son, William Henry Showell, died aged nine months in 1831 and his second and only other surviving child was Walter, born 26 Sep 1832. Walter junior would therefore have been only three years of age when his father died.
The death was described in a local paper as ‘after a short illness’ but it was clearly quite sudden and unexpected. Importantly Walter left no will. It is clear from the administration papers that the full weight of the business, practically and legally, fell very suddenly on to the shoulders of his twenty two year old widow.
The date of death is recorded as 27 Nov 1835, burial on 4 Dec 1835 in St Paul’s Birmingham. On 1 January 1836 Eliza Ann petitions the bishop’s court at Lichfield for administration to be granted to her – the net value of the estate would appear to be not exceeding £800. She is supported in this document by John Breakspear of Birmingham, Victualler and William Breakspear of the same, Warehouse Clerk. This would be her father and younger brother both near neighbours. All three underwrite a bond for £1600 to the court and promise to deliver a full account of the businesses, debts and obligation of Walter Showell to the court by 31 Dec 1836.
The documents appear to go on to show that this obligation was apparently only cleared on 6 Jul 1837, replaced by an even larger surety and stamp duty charge, this time guaranteed by Thomas Showell (the deceased’s older brother) and a William Cartwright. One can only presume that Walter’s affairs were more complicated and larger than anyone has supposed.
Perhaps the main complicating factor was the death of Joseph Showell, the father, whose will had only been granted probate in Sep 1835, a few months before Walter’s own death. That will, whilst acknowledging that Walter would inherit the Bull’s Head, empowered the three trustees of the will (which included the oldest son Thomas, but not Walter) to basically sell assets at auction and divide the proceeds between the four children. Walter would be expected to ‘buy’ out the pub within a defined timeframe from his share of the proceeds.
It is not obvious how all this and these delays panned out, but July 1837 certainly seems to mark the assertion of Thomas Showell over the estate of his brother. Eliza Ann appears to have been caught in the middle. Her own father John Breakspear was ailing and died on 22 Mar 1838. She appears at first to have continued to run the pub, but at some point, Thomas Showell took over.
Eliza Ann Showell remarried, to Thomas Francis, an engraver, on 10 jan 1840. She had certainly left the pub by then. The marriage clearly could have been the cause of a final rupture or it may have been the effect of her losing her place without her husband.
Can we imagine how the young sole child Walter fared in all this? He was never to become licensee of his father and grandfather’s pub, but the trade was certainly in his blood. One can imagine that in the first years after his father’s death he was brought up in the Bull’s Head by and with his mother. However his mother’s remarriage must have changed everything. The 1841 census shows he was living with his father’s sister, the widowed Mary Ann Hands. Daniel Hands her husband had died in 1837.
Thomas Showell his uncle was becoming more and more important in the trade and from 1846 to his death in 1857 he was Secretary of Birmingham Licensed Victualers Trade Protection Society. But Thomas, who had married three times, had a full family of four sons of his own.
All would suggest that the young Walter Showell probably lived with the Hands family. He may have been educated at the expense of his uncle. Whatever the case, his mother was seemingly preoccupied with her new family. Thomas Francis, recently widowed, clearly looked to her to take on this role with his own young children. Walter was thus strongly influenced by his uncle, who was certainly a lot more presence in his young life than his mother, let alone his stepfather, Thomas Francis.
In the 1851 census, aged 18, Walter Junior is listed as being an apprentice Chemist to Charles Tonge, a probable business acquaintance of his Uncle Thomas. Within a few years Walter can be seen advertising in the local paper for an apprentice Chemist to train under himself. His marriage in 1854 to Sarah Hartill, daughter of a significant maltster, broadened his horizon. By 1858, a few years later, he is described as a Corn Factor, with interests according to a newspaper advert also in employing a baker. One can only presume with this multifaceted background and eclectic experience in these loosely related industries he was able to take an opportunity to set up the Victoria Brewery, in Simpson Street Oldbury in around 1864. The view that pubs need no longer brew their own beer had come of age.
Sources and Notes
- Administration Papers of Walter Showell, Finally resworn 6 Jul 1837
- Will of Joseph Showell, Probate 7 Oct 1835, Lichfield (Father)
- Will of Thomas Showell, Probate 25 Nov 1857, Lichfield (Brother)
- Will of Daniel Hands. Probate 4 Jan 1838, Lichfield (Brother-in-law)
- Warwickshire Licensed Victualler Database 1801-1828
- Walter junior’s first cousin, George William Hands, (b 1833) also became an apprentice Chemist and Druggist. This was probably seen as a sounder career path than Licensed Victualler. George William Hands was also clearly close to his own brother in law, George Wilcox, who ran a Chemist business in Aston/Bordesley. George Wilcox married Maria Hands (b 1828) in 1847 – another of the Hands’ children that Walter grew up with.