Dec.  2,  1895.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
39? 
TEA  PIONEERS  IN  ENOLAND: 
A FAMOUS  FENCIiURCH-STREET  FIRM. 
[Abt-idycd  from  the  London  “ Cif  >/  /’/'m'.”) 
From  wiiat  was  gathered  at  an  interview  the  other 
day  witli  tlie  head  of  tlie  well-kuown  lirni  of  tea 
merchants,  Messrs.  Davison,  Newman,  and  Co.,  of 
Fenchurch-street,  the  question  whetlier  we  drink  good 
tea  (writes  a representative  of  the  Citi/  I’ress)  is  open 
to  mucii  discussion.  A cheap  article  nowadays  sells, 
says  the  head  of  the  firm,  and  thereby  becomes 
poxjular.  Dut  whether  the  policy  x>ni-’sued  by  the 
community  is  one  to  be  commended  is  oxien  to  grave 
doubts.  Competition  is  the  jiropelling  agent  of  the  age 
of  merchandise,  and  to  a large  extent  it  is  responsible 
for  the  many  interior  kinds  of  goods  that  now  glut  tho 
markets.  The  responsibility  always  rests  with  con- 
sumers, for  the  supply  is  'made  according  to  their 
demand. 
The  tea  house  of  Messrs.  Davison,  Newman,  and  Co. 
is  the  oldest-established  in  this  country.  It  was  foun- 
ded in  165U,  when  tea  was  “worth  its  weight  in  gold," 
by  Daniel  Rawlinson,  the  father  of  Alderman  Sir 
Thomas  Rawlinson,  who  was  Sheriff  of  London  in  1GS7, 
and  Lord  Mayor  170(1.  The  “ Annual  Register  ” gives 
the  following  x>articulars  of  the  founder  of  the  firm  : 
‘ Daniel  Rawlinson,  merchant,  bapitized  1G14,  died 
1679.’’  There  is  a tine  portrait  of  him  in  the  liawks- 
head  School.  He  rebuilt  the  latter  in  1675.  A monu- 
ment is  erected  to  his  memory  in  St.  Dioiiis 
Backchurch,  Fenchurch-street.  Samuel  Pepys  and 
Daniel  Rawlinson  (founder  of  the  firm)  were  friends, 
and  seeing  how  near  to  one  another  they  lived  the 
fact  is  not  suiqiiising.  The  diarist  frequently  refers  to 
“Dan  Rawlinson.”  Mr.  Battersby  {ride  Pepys’  Diary, 
p.  aos,  August  t'th,  1G6G)  informs  Pepys  that  “after  all 
this  sickness,  and  himself  (Rawilnson)  spending  all 
the  last  year  in  the  country,  one  of  his  (Rawlinson’s) 
men  is  dead  of  the  plague,  and  his  wife,  and  one  of 
his  maids  sick  and  himself  shut  up.”  Whereat  Pepys 
says  that  he  was  “mightily  troubled.”  On  August 
9th,  three  days  later,  we  learn  from  the  same  source 
of  the  death  of  Mrs.  Rawlinson,  the  continued  ill- 
ness of  the  maid,  and  the  fact  that  Mr.  Rawlinson 
had  been  forced  to  quit  his  house.  On  September 
8th,  1667,  Mr.  Pepys  relates  how  he  met  Mr.  Raw- 
linson in  Fenchurch-street,  the  latter  having  been 
looking  over  the  ruins  of  his  premises  destroyed  by 
the  Great  Fire  of  the  jirevious  year. 
The  firm,  which  carries  on  business  today  almost 
on  the  same  lines  as  it  did  in  the  days  of  that  much- 
maligned  monarch  Charles  II.,  is  justly  en- 
titled to  the  term  famous,  for  it  is  one  of  the 
first  historic  houses  of  business  in  the  City,  The 
business  was  commenced  in  P’enchurch-street  250 
years  ago,  and  was  conducted  at  the  same  old 
place  until  1890,  when  the  successor  was  irer- 
force  obliged  to  remove.  From  No.  44  they  migrated 
to  No.  57,  but  deep  was  the  regret  of  the  firm,  and 
jrerhaps  quite  as  deep  was  the  regret  of  their 
old  customers,  and  everybody  else,  at  the  removal  of 
such  a grand  old  landmark.  But  it  was  compulsory 
owing  to  City  improvements.  The  establishment  is  split 
up  through  it,  however,  for,  while  the  retail  business  is 
carried  on  at  the  new  address,  the  wholesale  business 
is  done  at  the  large  five-storey  warehouse  in  Cree- 
church-buildings,  Leadeuhall-street.  In  1763  the  fiim 
was  known  as  Rawlinson,  Davison,  and  Newman. 
In  1777  the  style  Davison,  Newman  & Co;  w'as  ad- 
opted, and  is  retained  to  the  present  day.  In  1777 
Moukhouse  Davison  and  Abraham  Newman  admitted 
into  partnership  three  of  the  clerks,  who  put  various 
small  sums  into  the  business,  no  amount,  how’ever, 
e.vceeding  .£500  ; a Mr.  Thwaytes  invested  .£500.  These 
small  sums  of  money  qualifying  for  partnership 
in  a well-established  firm  whose  capital  was  £80,000 
seems  ridiculous,  but  the  fact  is  nevertheless,  true. 
In  1792  the  capital  increased  to  .£196,C00.  Our  re- 
presentative was  privileged  to  inspect  the  original 
books  and  documents  and  many  other  interesting 
data  of  the  old  firm.  In  the  “Annual  Register” 
for  1799  we  read  the  following:  “Died  this  year, 
in  I’cnchurch-street,  Abraham  Newman,  Esq.  He 
was  one  of  the  richest  citizens  of  London He 
acquired  ,£600,000 So  forcible  was  his 
habit  that  he  went  every  day  to  the  shop  and  tea 
his  mutton  chop  at  two  o’clock  ....  with  his 
successors.  To  each  of  his  daughters  he  left  one 
hunured  thousand  pounds.”  He  retired  some 
years  before  he  died.  Monkhouse  Davison  died  in 
1793.  The  two  jrartners  were  buried  in  one  vault. 
The  memorial  tablet  still  exists  in  the  church  of 
St.  Clave,  Hart-street.  Time  eventually  cai'ried  off 
all  the  original  partners  and  also  the  two  clerks, 
leaving  Mr.  Thw'aytes  the  master  of  the  whole 
concern.  He  realized  an  enormous  fortune,  for,  after 
providing  pretty  comfortably  for  those  who  knew 
him  best,  he  bequeathed  £40,00U  to  the  Clothworker’s 
Comxjany.  The  interest  on  £20,000  of  that  sum  we 
understand,  is  now  paid  annually  to  the  blind  by  that 
company.  The  following  extract  is  taken  from  a book 
called  “'The  History  of  Signboards”: — “At  44,  Fenchurch- 
street,  a very  old-established  grocery  firm  still  carries 
on  business  under  the  sign  of  the  “ Three  Sugar 
Loaves.”  The  house  XJiesents  much  the  same  ap^iear- 
ance  it  had  in  the  last  century,  with  the  gilt 
sugar  loaves  above  the  doorway,  and  is  one  of  the 
few  places  of  business  in  London  conducted  in 
the  ancient  style.  The  small,  old-fashioned  wiiidov/- 
panes,  the  complete  absence  of  all  show  and 
decoration,  the  cleanliness  of  the  interior,  and  the 
quiet  order  of  the  assistants  in  their  long  white 
apron  betoken  the  respectable  old  tea  warehouse, 
and  inixiress  the  passer-by  with  a comiilete  con- 
viction as  to  the  genuineness  of  its  articles.  ” 
This  description,  of  course,  referred  to  the  old 
Xiremises.  Over  the  new  premises,  57,  Fenchurch- 
street,  the  identical  old  shop  sign  is  still  to  be  in 
the  shape  of  a crown  supporting  three  gilt  sugar-loaves. 
The  connexion  enjoyed  today  by  Messrs.  Davison, 
Newman,  and  Go.  is  of  a nature  fully  commensurate 
with  the  honorable  records  of  a prosperous  com 
inercial  career  of  nearly  two  and  a-half  centuries- 
Their  mercantile  relations  are  of  the  most  in- 
fluential order,  many  of  their  customers  having 
dealt  with  them  for  generations.  This  reflection 
(continues  our  representative)  brings  us  back  to  the 
abstract  question — tea.  The  late  Sir  Andrew  Clark 
was  no  friend  of  the  teas  hailing  from  any  planta- 
tions but  those  of  China,  our  representative  was 
told.  In  his  lecture  to  the  students  at  the 
London  Hospital,  the  late  doi/eii  of  the  medical 
profession  said: — “If  you  want  to  have,  either  for 
yourselves  or  your  patients  tea  which  will  not 
injure  and  which  will  refresh,  get  black  China 
tea.””'  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  principal  that  the 
tea  which  comes  from  fields  not  Chinese,  and  for 
which  there  is  now  such  an  enormous  public 
demand,  is  not  the  best  friend  of  the  tea-drinker. 
Tea  “ critics  ” say  that  it  is  too  pungent,  and  what 
money  is  saved  in  buying  it  for  home  consum- 
tion  is  lost  in  another  way,  for,  by  all  accounts, 
the  drinker  of  such  tea  can  seldom  make 
sure  of  retaining  a healthy  nervous  system. 
Unfortunately  the  peojile  are  so  wedded  to  cheap 
and  strong  teas  other  than  Chinese  that  they 
do  not  relish  the  more  delicate  importations  from  the 
Flowery  Land.  India  and  Ceylon  send  over  good 
tea  as  well  as  indifferent  tea,  but  tea  specialists, 
like  the  successors  of  the  Cit3'’s  earliest  firm  of  tea 
merchants,  would  never  recommend  the  choicest 
products  of  those  places  in  preference  to  those  of 
China.*  Pure  tea,  pure  coffee,  and  pure  sugar  are 
necessary  to  health  and  happiness.  Among  the  work- 
ing classes  of  the  community  it  is  generally  believed 
that  cheap,  and  thereby  impure,  stuff  is  only  sold 
for  them,  and  that  the  higher-priced  foods  belong  to 
the  world  w'hich  is  not  theirs,  the  world  of  the  “ upper 
ten.”  But  will  it  surprise  them  when  they  hear  that  many 
of  the  nobility  today  insist  upon  having  tea  at 
less  than  Is  6d  per  pound  ? Will  it  surprise  the  rea- 
ders of  the  CiU)  Fress  to  hear  that  while  it  is  possi- 
ble to  get  at  this  establishment  fine  old-fashioned 
China  tea  at  2s  4d  per  pound,  many  of  the  beat  coun- 
try families  w'ill  not  buy  it,  preferring  the  cheap  Ceylon 
instead  ?f  The  finest  tea  that  is  imported  into  this 
* Sir  Andrew  Clark  recanted  this  opinion  after- 
wards and  pronounced  good  Ceylon  tea  the  best  he 
ever  tasted. — Ed.  T.A. 
t This  just  shows  how  behind  the  age  the  Firm’s 
views  are,— Ed.  T.A. 
