Joseph Webster (1813-1886) & Mary Foster (c1813-1880)
Joseph Webster was born in late 1812 or early 1813, the son of John Webster and Mary Dakeyne (probably not the original spelling). He was baptised at St Stephen’s, Sneinton on 13 January 1813.
Later in his life, Joseph took legal action when he felt he had been libelled; this case was reported in detail (in the Nottinghamshire Guardian and Nottingham Review) and according to which Joseph had “begun at a very early age, under great disadvantages, to earn his own living, he had to attend to his own education”. He “was the son of a man who did nothing for him; at the age of nine years he went out to earn his own living at 5s a week; and at the age of eleven years he went to another situation where he earned 12s or 15s a week. At the age of 15 or 16 he apprenticed himself to a man named Ashwin, a lace manufacturer, who became bankrupt when [Joseph] was 18 or 19.” Most likely this was the lace manufacturer, amongst other businesses, James Ashwin of Mount Street who was discharged from bankruptcy in 1835.
Joseph then went to work for a “Mr Hudson, of Manchester, with whom he remained some short time, until he had attained the age of 23 or 24, when he married the niece of Mr Alderman Carey, at Nottingham” (Nottinghamshire Guardian).
Joseph continued to work as a lace dealer, and established a business in Pelham street, Nottingham.
Mary Foster was born in late 1812 or early 1813, the daughter of William Foster, a lace dealer, and Eleanor Taylor. She was baptised on 12 January 1813 at St Mary’s, Nottingham.
She was related to the Carey family through her aunt, Ann Taylor, who had married George Carey in 1807. George Carey was a prosperous Nottingham merchant, owning his own hatter and hosiery shop, who was prominent in civic affairs as a city alderman and leading Methodist (he laid the foundation stone of the Wesley Chapel in Nottingham).
In the 1830s George Carey and his sons started to diversify their business, becoming involved in lace manufacturing (and this was possibly how his niece, Mary Foster, met Joseph Webster).
Joseph Foster and Mary Foster were married at St Mary’s, Nottingham on 21 March 1836.
In 1834, George Carey’s son, George Daniel Carey, had patented “machinery or apparatus to be employed in the manufacture of hats” (Annual Register, 1834). In 1835 and 1836, he was advertising “Economy, Taste and Fashion combined in that most splendid and hitherto unrivalled Carey’s patent India-rubber-proofed hat” which was manufacturer in Hull
Around this time, Joseph became involved in his wife’s cousin’s hat making business which had been established in Hull. He “was unfortunately induced by the Careys to invest the whole of what he had saved that establishment – no less a sum than £600 or £700” (Nottingham Gazette).
Joseph and Mary moved to Hull and their first child, Frederick, was baptised on 3 February 1837 at Holy Trinity church in Hull.
The hat manufacturing was not a success. On 7 November 1837, Joseph assigned his effect to a third party for the equal benefits of his creditors, and by July 1838 he had returned to Nottingham (Nottingham Review, July 1838). Joseph felt he “was deceived by the Careys, for the patent turned out to be good for nothing, and unprofitable. Consequently he lost his all, and failed, but…paid in full every human being to whom he was indebted, with the exception of the Carey family, and their claims he refused to discharge, on the grounds that they had improperly led into his ruin in Hull.” (Nottingham Gazette). The hat business failed and in 1841, George Daniel Carey, along with brother, Henry, (“Hat Manufacturers, Dealers, and Chapmen”) were declared bankrupt (Nottingham Review/Hull Advertiser, December 1841).
Joseph was arrested under mesne process by a creditor and lodged in Nottingham jail “one Christmas after his failure at Hull” – this was the occasion when “he received the bounty of a neighbouring gentleman, who at that season of the year always gave the parties confined for debt…a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding” .
This later gave rise to the title of the libel case in 1852 that Joseph (“a person of the highest respectability”) brought against a Mr Hibbs. Over the 1840s Joseph had established a successful business in Pelham Street – in 1848 he advertised in the Nottingham Journal “Joseph Webster respectfully informs the Ladies of Nottingham and Vicinity, that he has a superb stock of Lace, Muslins and Millinery, suitable for the season; and particularly calls their attention to a new article in Long Curtains, which has never hitherto been seen in the trade”.
Joseph claimed that he had re-paid everyone to whom he owed money from his previous bankruptcy, with the exception of the Carey family.
His prosperity led to him being an alderman and he was also active, as a Conservative, in the sometimes fractious Nottingham civic affairs. This had brought him to the attention of Mr Hibbs, who printed and circulated a handbill titled “Roast Beef and Plum Pudding! Being a letter addressed to Mr Alderman Webster”. Joseph was described as “a smart, flippant little fellow” and “a little gentleman so in love with himself…[who] had an air of consequence about him, and for the size of the man, I never saw a greater”. Hibbs wrote “I once knew old Bandy Webster but never knew he had a son an alderman” and went on to detail Joseph’s previous bankruptcy and wrote that Joseph had committed “the enormous crime of defrauding your creditors” and asked “where did you get your money to commence business in Pelham-street…but from the smuggled property of your late creditors? Shame, Webster!”
Joseph and Mary had six more children, all of whom were born in Nottingham: Emma Louise born on 15 April 1841, Sophia born in 1843, Joseph born in 1846, Mary Dakeyne born in 1851, Arthur Dakeyne born in 1855, and Florence Dakeyne born in 1858.
By the 1860s the family were living at Sherwood Rise – and their “villa residence” was described (when it was auctioned in July 1886 after Joseph’s deaths as a “very desirable detached and commodious freehold villa residence, with conservatory, stabling, and outbuildings adjoining, and the lawn and pleasure garden in front, and the small croft or orchard at the side…the whole comprises an area of 2,706 yards.”
In 1865, their elder son, Frederick, also a lace manufacturer, then living in South Molton Street, London, married Anne Levers, the daughter of a Nottingham publican, at St George, Hanover Square. Their younger son, Arthur, was apprenticed to a Nottingham solicitor and in 1874 as an articled clerk passed his Law Society intermediate exams. In 1876, he married Rose Hannah East, a widow from Stoke Newington.
Frederick, their son, died on 11 January 1880, aged 42. He was buried in the family grave plot at the Church (Rock) Cemetery.
Shortly after, Mary died on 12 May 1880 aged 67 – “Mary, the beloved wife of Joseph Webster of Sherwood Rise”. She was buried in the grave plot with her son.
Joseph continued to live at 2 Sherwood Rise with his three unmarried daughters, Emma, Mary and Florence. His daughter, Mary Dakeyne, married Charles Edward Townroe on 12 April 1883 at St Stephen’s, Sneinton.
Joseph died on 23 February 1886.
“The funeral of the late Mr Joseph Webster, of Sneinton, who died on Tuesday last, at the age of 73, took place on Friday, at the Church Cemetery. A large number of friends of the deceased gentleman, who was universally respected, were present…Mr J Webster was at the time of his death Chairman of the Directors of the Church Cemetery. Politically he was a staunch Conservative, and until recently took an active part in political work.”
On 21 May 1887, Arthur Dakeyne Webster was accidentally killed by being run over by a tramcar (which fractured his spine) in Adelaide, Australia, where he was working as a teacher.
He was commemorated on the family grave memorial, as was Joseph and Mary’s eldest daughter, Emma Louisa, who died 20 December 1912 and was interred at Leckhampton, Cheltenham.
