INDUSTRIES 



its name from the fact that a company of 

 Flemish glass blowers settled there nearly four 

 hundred years ago. Of this there is no proof, 

 but it is quite certain that the glass industry 

 existed there in the seventeenth century. 



The register of the Stockport church for the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century contains 

 several references to the glass industry, though in 

 some cases without any specification of] the place. 

 This certainly indicates the existence of the 

 industry in the neighbourhood, though not neces- 

 sarily in Lancashire. The earliest of these 

 references is 1605, and is as follows : — 'July 31, 

 1605, an infant of one Dionise, a glassman, 

 buried.' Two references, however, point 

 definitely to Haughton : — 



Dec. 7, 1636, Thomas, the son of Thomas Bagley, 

 clerk of the glasshouse in Haughton, baptized. 



Sep. 15, 1644, Margaret, daughter of Robert 

 Wilson, a glassman at ye glasshouse in Haughton, 

 baptized. 



After 1 644 there is no further mention of the 

 glass-house in the registers.^" 



It was probably in the early eighteenth century 

 that the glass industry became established in south- 

 west Lancashire. The first reference we can find 

 is one in the Liverpool municipal records, that 

 Mr. Josiah Poole undertook a glass-house at 

 Liverpool in 1715.^^ Thirty years later the will 

 of James Taylor, of Liverpool, glass-grinder,^^ was 

 proved, and in 1755 that of William Roberts, 

 of Liverpool, glass-grinder." Two other wills of 

 interest are those of 



Samuel Woods, of Liverpool, glassmaker, 1762. 

 Nathan Banner, of Liverpool, glassmaker, 1780." 



Arthur Young, writing in 1 769, mentions that 

 there are two glass-houses at Liverpool, in which 

 the earnings are nine or ten shillings a week.'' 



The only reference we can find to the glass 

 industry of Prescot is that in Pococke, who 

 visited the place in 1751 : ' They had a manu- 

 facture of green glass, but the house has been 

 taken by one of Sturbridge in Worcestershire, in 

 order to shut it up.' '• Other sites of the glass 

 industry are indicated by the Index to Wills^^: — 



1 72 1, Peter Wilcox, of Sutton, glassmaker 

 1752, Thomas Fenny, of Eccleston, nr. Knowsley, 

 glassmaker 



'" The account of glass-making at Haughton is from 

 Middleton, Annals of Hyde, 296-300. 



" Quoted in C. T. Gatty, The Liverpool Potteries, 

 Hist. Soc. of Lane, and Ches. xxxiii, 127. 



" Index of Wills, Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xxv, 

 xxxvii, xxxviii. 



" Ibid. " Ibid. 



" Arthur Young, Tour in North of Engl. (2nd ed.), 

 iii, 169. 



" Dr. Richard Pococke, Travels through Engl. 

 (Camden Soc. 1888), ii, 208. 



" Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xxii, xxv, xxxvii, xliv. 



1775, John Highton, of Eccleston, glass bottle 

 founder 



1788, Peter Seaman, of Warrington, glass manu- 

 facturer 



Aikin mentions that the making of glass at 

 Warrington has employed many hands, and that 

 it is a flourishing branch of manufacture.'* 



In 1835 Baines remarks that the glass trade 

 of Warrington continues to flourish." As late 

 as 1857, '^2 men and 2 women ^^ were em- 

 ployed in this branch of manufacture, but the 

 Warrington industry was already far surpassed 

 by that of St. Helens, which is now the centre 

 of the glass trade in Lancashire. 



The British Cast Plate Glass Manufactory 

 was established in 1773 at Ravenhead, St. Helens. 

 It is interesting to note that the company was 

 incorporated by special Act of Parliament. This 

 statute, 13 George III, cap. 38, is entitled: — 



An Act to incorporate certain persons therein 

 named and their successors, with proper powers for 

 the purpose of establishing one or more glass manu- 

 factories within the Kingdom of Great Britain, and 

 for more effectually supporting and conducting the 

 same upon an approved plan, in a peculiar manner, 

 calculated for the casting of large Plate Glass. 



The preamble mentions that the existing 

 method of making plate glass is not brought to 

 a state of perfection equal to that in foreign 

 countries. Further, that the necessary manu- 

 factory cannot be established without great risk 

 and a very large expense. Several persons having 

 already formed themselves into a society and 

 having subscribed considerable sums and pur- 

 chased materials and engaged persons for the 

 purpose of establishing and carrying on the said 

 manufactory, they desired to be incorporated in 

 order to carry on the undertaking more easily. 



In view of the statements made in the pre- 

 amble, it seems very likely that foreigners were 

 introduced into this country to assist in carrying 

 on the works at Ravenhead. This at least 

 would explain the following entry in the Index 

 to WiUs^"- :— 



1788, Jean B. Bruyere, of Ravenhead, plate glass 

 manufacturer 



We should naturally infer that Bruyere was 

 a Frenchman. 



By Section I of this Act, the Rt. Hon. John 

 Stuart, commonly called Lord Mountstuart, Hon. 

 Major-General Charles Fitzroy, Herbert Mack- 

 worth, Peregrine Cust, Thomas Dundas, Robert 

 Palk, John Mackay, Philip Affleck, James Mow- 

 bray, Robert Digby, Angus Mackay, Henry 



'* A Description of Manchester, 1795, 303. 

 " Hist, of Lane, iii, 68 1. 



*" T. A. Welton, Statistical Papers based on the Censm 

 of Engl, and Wales, 1851, 103. 

 " Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xxlv. 



405 



