INDUSTRIES 



following advertisement appears in the A/ar/Aa^«/)?o'j 

 Mercury of 3 May in this year : 'Whereas 

 William Bett, a tall thin youth about 22 years 

 of age with short brown hair, a sad coloured 

 coat and Leather Breeches, went away from his 

 Master, James Morgan, Pipemaker in North- 

 ampton, on St. James's Day last : this is to forbid 

 all Persons from harbouring or employing the 

 said William Bett at their Peril ; or if he will 

 return again to his Master, he will be kindly 

 received and all faults forgiven. N.B. — The 

 said James Morgan will give any good workman 

 a year's work in his trade of pipemaking with 

 good Wages.' 



In the Parliamentary election of 1768 three 

 Northampton electors appear as following the 

 occupation of pipe-making.^ 



In 1785^ John Roberts, a pipemaker, was 

 appointed town crier. In 1 80 1 his son, Robert 

 Roberts, also a pipe-maker, was appointed keeper 

 of the town gaol, and also acted as bell-man and 

 sheriffs officer.' He conducted his business of 

 pipe-making on the gaol premises, latterly with 

 the help of his son Edward, who in 1830 took 

 premises in Scarletwell Street, and on these same 

 premises Mr. Alfred Roberts, son of the last- 

 named, with the help of his son, continued the 

 business established by his great-grandfather 

 before 1780. 



That beds of clay suitable for pipe-making 

 existed locally is proved by frequent references 

 in the columns of Northampton's first weekly 

 newspaper. The Mercury, earliest produced in 

 1720. From the columns of The Alercury we 

 also gather that beds, probably of river-drift clay, 

 existed south of Northampton Fields and in 

 Moulton Field, the latter being inferior in qua- 

 lity to the former. The earliest reference is in 

 1726, and appears in the form of an advertise- 

 ment : 



' This is to give notice to all Pipe M.ikers and 

 Waggoners, that Tobacco Pipeclay at Northampton 

 Pits will be sold for Eightpence a hundred on the 

 27th of this instant June. Ready money at the 

 Pits and welcome ! ' * 



On 6 February, 1743-4, appears : 



' This is to give notice to all Pipe Makers and 

 others, That Tobacco Pipe Clay, both Grey and Black, 

 will be sold for fourpence per hundred this season, at 

 Northampton Pits, by Messrs. Daws and Company. 



Note. — Any person that will bring a customer to 

 the above-named Daws shall have Twopence for their 

 pains paid by Mr. John D.iws.' " 



In 1747 we find, under date I June : 



' To be sold, at Samuel Pool's, in Abingdon {sic) 

 Street, Northampton, the very best Black-Grey Pipe 

 Clay at Fourpence per 1 00 weight.' 



' Phillips MSS. 



' Northampton Borough Records, ii, 87. 



' Neild, State of Prisons (18 1 2), 436. 



' Northampton Mercury, 13 June, 1726. ' Ibid. 



We give one further example, as it alluces to 

 the Moulton clay : 



' To all Pipemakers and others that use Tobacco 

 Pipe Clay. That they may be kindly used with the 

 Best of Clay from the Pits on Northampton Fields by 

 directing to Samuel Poole at the Star*^ in North- 

 ampton. 



Note. — All Chapmen sending as above may depend 

 on having none of the clay from the pits in Moulton 

 field/ which was found so prejudicial to the fair 



Trader.' * 



The allusion in the above advertisements to 

 waggoners and chapmen would seem to imply 

 that all the clay was not used locally, and thus 

 confirms Morton's statement already quoted. 

 The pits seem to have run from where the 

 Militia Stores now stand to the back of the 

 Grand Stand on the Racecourse. The bed was 

 thoroughly worked out, but even now, when 

 trenches are made in the streets in the vicinity, 

 traces of the clay can still be seen,' while it 

 ended in a coarser kind of clay which was not 

 suitable for pipes, but was used by the makers for 

 lining their kilns.^" It is to this cla)' that the 

 noted Northamptonshire geologist referred when 

 he wrote : 



' Near the stand on the Racecourse was a large pit 

 quarried for clay, sand and building stone. At the 

 top of this section was a cream-coloured clay, probably 

 of drift origin.' " 



Some time before the year 1850 the supply of 

 local pipe-clay was exhausted, and since this time 

 the clay has been procured from Devonshire.'" 



Beside the Roberts family the following names 

 occur in Northampton as tobacco-pipe makers. 

 In 1840 Francis Street, of Horse Shoe Street, 

 Northampton, followed by Thomas Street, of 

 Horse Shoe Street, Northampton, in 1856. 

 This business was taken by Brooks and Hughes, 

 who closed down about 1 890. In 1835 James 

 Chick was making pipes in Foundry Street, and 

 the business was continued by his son until 

 1 880, and then came to an end. 



At Brackley William Reeve made pipes from 

 1850 to 1866, while a considerable amount of 

 pipe-making appears to have been carried on at 

 Peterborough in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century ; as for example in 1847 by T. Brown, 



' The Star Inn was in Abington Street at the 

 corner of Dychurch Lane. 



' About 3 miles north of Northampton. 



' Northampton Mercury, 5 June, 1749. 



' See article by Mr. A. Adcock in Northampton 

 Doily Reporter, iz Nov. 1901. 



'" Information supplied by Mr. Alfred Roberts, who 

 joined his father about 1855. 



" Article by Samuel Sharp, Esq. Proceedings of 

 Geol. Soc, 9 March, 1870. 



'• Morton had stated in 171 2 that so much of the 

 clay had been ' digged up at Northampton in the last 

 thirty or forty years that, as the workmen say, there is 

 not above a bench or two of it left' (op. cit. 71). 



