A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



After the brewery had been inspected the king 

 and queen were entertained by their host at a 

 sumptuous banquet. 



Whitbread represented Derby in Parlia- 

 ment, and in 1795, after acquiring a large 

 fortune, he purchased Lord Torrington's 

 estate at Southill in his native county. He 

 was a man of strict religious principle, and of 

 a benevolent disposition ; his portrait by Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds is in the hall of the Brewers' 

 Company. To this company he left various 

 charities for the relief of decayed master 

 brewers and of poor freemen (or widows of 

 freemen) of the Brewers' Company. On the 

 death of his father in 1796 Samuel Whit- 

 bread the younger succeeded him as head of 

 the brewery with which he had been con- 

 nected for the previous ten years, and from 

 1799 the business was conducted under the 

 style of Whitbread & Co. The younger 

 Whitbread is best known as a keen poli- 

 tician and supporter of Fox and the Whigs. 

 He obtained more leisure for his parlia- 

 mentary work by taking partners into his 

 business, which continued to increase con- 

 siderably. In 1806 Whitbread & Co. ranked 

 fourth among the London brewers, brewing 

 101,311 barrels. In the following ten years 

 the business more than doubled itself, the 

 quantity of beer brewed in 1815 reaching 

 261,018 barrels. In 1834 ale-brewing was 

 commenced here, porter and stout only having 

 previously been brewed. Mr. Whitbread the 

 politician left two sons, the younger of 

 whom was M.P. for Middlesex for several 

 years and died in 1879. Mr. Samuel Whit- 

 bread, grandson of the politician, represented 

 Bedford in Parliament from 1852 to 1895, 

 and was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1859 

 to 1863. Although situated so closely on the 

 confines of the City of London, where land 

 is of such high value, the brewery of Messrs. 

 Whitbread is fitted up with every necessary 

 for carrying on their business under the most 

 approved conditions, and with the help of the 

 latest inventions and improvements. 



The Swan Brewery, Fulham, dates from 

 the early part of the 1 8th century, when it 

 started in a very humble way at Walham 

 Green, and was afterwards successively owned 

 by John Stocken, William Chambers, and 

 Sidney Milnes Hawkes, all well-known 

 members of the trade. The following ad- 

 vertisement appeared in the London Evening 

 Post from Tuesday, 26 August, to Thursday, 

 28 August 1740 : 'To be lett, and enter'd 

 on immediately for the remainder of a term of 

 about eight years to come. A very convenient 

 and well-accustom'd Brew House at Walham 

 Green, in the parish of Fulham, with the 



malt-house, dwelling-house, and all manner of 

 useful offices thereto belonging, and also four 

 acres of hop-ground lying behind the same. 

 For further particulars, &c.' 



In 1746 Henry Temple of St. George's 

 Hanover Square, was admitted to ' two pieces 

 of customary land at Wansdon's Green,' on 

 one of which was erected a messuage 'known 

 by the name or sign of the White Swan.' 

 He shortly afterwards surrendered the pro- 

 perty to John Carwell. 20 Nothing more is 

 known of the Swan Brewery until its great 

 development by Oliver Stocken, who acquired 

 the business in 1769. He came from an 

 ancient family, a branch of which was settled 

 at Linton, Cambridgeshire, where Richard 

 Stocken, the grandfather of Oliver Stocken 

 the brewer, was buried on 19 March 

 1 7 14-1 5. 21 Young Oliver came to seek 

 his fortune in London and first settled him- 

 self at a small ale-house at Walham Green. 

 He afterwards purchased the Swan Brewery 

 and converted it into a flourishing business, 

 which he continued to manage until his 

 death in 1808. The brewery then passed 

 into the hands of his sons William and John, 

 the latter of whom died in 1820, leaving 

 William the sole proprietor. William Stocken, 

 who died in 1824, was succeeded by his son 

 Oliver Thomas Joseph Stocken, who was 

 then only twenty-four. Under his manage- 

 ment the business again greatly developed 

 until his unfortunate failure in 1840, when 

 the brewery passed by public auction into the 

 hands of Mr. William Chambers, Stocken's 

 son-in-law. About the year 1852 Mr. Sidney 

 Milnes Hawkes bought the brewery, and two 

 years later sold it to the Right Hon. Sir 

 James Stansfeld. The firm became known 

 later as Messrs. Stansfeld & Co., Ltd. 



In the days of the Stockens, the Svsan 

 Brewery had a wide and justly-earned cele- 

 brity ; among its aristocratic patrons were 

 George IV, the Duke of York, and the Prince 

 of Saxe-Coburg. The Old Swan tap in con- 

 nexion with the brewery developed eventually 

 into a well-known tavern, and remained in 

 the hands of the Stockens until the year 1840. 

 Included within the brewhouse property was 

 Wendon or Wandon House, a fine old man- 

 sion which faced Walham Green. This 

 building, known also as ' Dowlers,' from the 

 name of a tenant, John Dowbeler, was the 

 manor-house of Wendon, and had been the 

 abode of many families of note. To an old price 



20 C. J. Feret, Fulkam Old and 'New (1900), ii, 

 217. 



11 Particulars of the family and a pedigree are 

 given by Feret, op. cit. ii, 218, 220. 



I 7 6 



