| A genealogical presentation of the life and times of the ancestors and descendants of William Henry Mathews (1880 – 1964) and his wife Sarah Louisa Florence Mitchell (1889 – 1972). |
| THE MATHEWS FAMILY LINEAGE |
| William MATHEWS (1811 – 1890) William was born in Marylebone – one of London’s ancient parishes – and was baptised in St Mary’s Church on December 29th, 1811. He was the second of eight children, brothers Henry (1807 – 1876), Richard (1814 – 1863), Edward (1819 – 1862) and John (1823 – 1841) and sisters Mary (1815 – 1815), Mary (1816 – ????) and Ann (1817 – ????), born to cabinet maker Sampson Mathews (1784 – 1846) and Mary Ann (nee GRACE; 1783 – 1846) of Bryanston Square, Westminster. His grandfather was John, a wood carver and furniture trader [1] in The Strand, London. As there was no formal public education in England at the beginning of the Nineteenth century, the Mathews boys soon found themselves learning basic woodworking skills in their father's workshop at number 59 Crawford Street, Marylebone, Westminster (around the corner from their family home). At the age of 14, following on from his elder brother, William began his joinery apprenticeships [2] at 45 Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn. William was the first of the Mathews boys to marry, his wife Caroline TOWNSEND (1812 – 1847) being of the same parish. Caroline was born on the 5th of July 1912 in Hanover Square, the heart of the St. Marylebone Parish of Central London. Her father and mother were both in service employed by a spinster and her daughter of the same district, he a coachman, and she a mothercraft nurse. |
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Their first year of marriage was spent living above the Crawford Street workshop and it was here that their first child William (1833 – 1838) was born. The following year, William's brother Henry married Sarah GREENWOOD (1797 – 1878) prompting the brothers to set up their own workshop in larger premises and share residential quarters on Vauxhall Road Pimlico. It was here that Caroline gave birth to their two daughters Caroline Emma (1834 – 1838) and Mary Ann Susannah (1836 – ????). Henry and Sarah also had a son Henry Charles (1836 – ????). For the young cabinet makers, the Pimlico business struggled, and their partnership lasted barely three years with Henry opting to go his own way. William and his family remained in Pimlico until the beginning of 1838 when tragedy struck. A severe winter season accounted for the lives of 5-year-old William and 4-year-old Caroline within two months of each other. With the Pimlico business no longer a viable option, life was at the cross-roads for William, Caroline, and their two-year-old daughter Mary. Electing to move back closer to the trading district of Edgeware Road, a premises was secured at 42 Lisson Grove Paddington. William’s younger brother Richard who had married Elizabeth CARTER (1817 – ????) two years earlier – the occasion witnessed by William – had acquired a residence at 41 Market Street (now known as 41 Church Street) [3] just around the corner from Lisson Grove. Richard, who had been working as a cabinet maker with his father up until this point in time, seized the opportunity to join his brother. For William this was a much better partnership arrangement as he was much closer to his younger sibling. At this time there were a plethora of cabinet makers in London but few who specialised in pianos and when John Broadwood & Sons, the piano manufacturers of Horseferry Road, Westminster [4] began offering apprenticeship positions, William seized the opportunity. |
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Initially, only intending to be at Horseferry Road for one year, William’s commitment became three years, resulting in him being granted a pianoforte manufacturing certificate [5] by the company in 1845. For William and Richard, their 42 Lisson Grove business now had a clear direction – bespoke pianoforte manufacture – with a showroom [6] quickly acquired at 6 Homer Street (just around the corner from their family’s old cabinetry workshop). Over the next couple of years, William and Richard's foray into the pianoforte business flourished, but for William this success was overshadowed, firstly by his parent’s death in 1846, and followed by his wife Caroline's death on the 2nd of November 1847. |
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| Following his wife's death, their housekeeper (and Caroline's carer during her illness) Mary Ann PETTY (nee KEW; 1823 – 1850) became William’s second wife two months later. It was also Mary's second marriage. |
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Born Mary Ann KEW to an English farmer Thomas KEW, Mary was a twenty-five-year-old widow living in Chelsea when she married William Mathews - her first husband, James Malford PETTY, a smith of Charles Street Chelsea had died in 1845. Mary bore a son William Sampson in October 1849 but tragically both mother and son were dead (of unknown cause) by March the following year. Whilst his personal life was in tatters, William's enthusiasm for his craft drove him forward, buoyed in part by the industrial revolution which had begun to make a bold impact on the world. Londoners were particularly excited by Royal Prince Albert’s promotion of The Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition to be held in 1851. Like many manufacturers of the day, William was challenged to produce something “special” that might be accepted by the exhibition committee. During his final year at Horseferry Road, William's master, Henry Fowler Broadwood, had been keen to explore the possibility of using a bolted iron frame for his grand piano construction, a recently developed American idea. Considering that this could also be his “point of difference” for his own pianoforte model, William, leaving Richard in charge of the London business, set sail for Boston, Massachusetts, in 1850. Armed with a letter of introduction from H.F. Broadwood, William spent the year as apprentice to Jonas Chickering [7] at the Boston Piano Factory. As well as celebrating his 40th birthday in Boston, William married [8] his third wife, a Scottish widow named Margaret ROBERTSON (nee NICHOL; 1815 – 1859). Margaret NICHOL was born on the 9th of November 1815 to Scottish parents. At the age of 19 she married David ROBERTSON (1813–1849) in Auchtergaven, Perthshire before migrating to the United States of America. Margaret was a thirty-five-year-old widow living in Boston, Massachusetts when she married William Mathews in 1850. Now having embellished his woodworking craft with ironmongering skills, William and his new bride returned to London to construct what he hoped would be a successful exhibition applicant. It was! Along with Isambard Kingdom Brunel's cast iron-frame and glass components of Crystal Palace, the cast iron-frame and mahogany combination of the William Mathews pianoforte was highly acclaimed. |
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| OFF TO THE AMERICAS |
In 1852, with the family business consolidated, and safely in brother Richard’s hands, William and Margaret once again set sail across the Atlantic, this time for British North America where they planned a new beginning in the rapidly developing colonial outpost. Travelling up the Erie Canal from New York to Lake Ontario, they arrived in Hamilton, a settlement of barely 8000 inhabitants. The Canada Census of 1851 records that there were four piano makers in the country, all based in Toronto. William and Margaret's first residence [9] was in MacNab Street Hamilton, where William set up his business shingle as a bespoke cabinet maker and piano tuner. It was here that Margaret gave birth to their daughter Alice Lily Margaret (1853 – 1901) and son James Henry Alexander (1854 – 1896). Now, with two youngsters, the MacNab Street house was too small, so a larger residence was purchased in Elm Street North. During this time William also acquired business premises on King Street West – Hamilton’s main trading district. It was in this workshop that William, using native spruce for its soundboard and the readily available maple for the body and framing, constructed his first locally produced cast iron-frame pianoforte. This he entered [10] in the Toronto Fair of 1857 and won first prize, a feat which was repeated in 1858. From his earliest days alongside his father and the years spent at Broadwoods, William learnt the importance of the Guild system and the part Freemasonry played in its formation. When The Grand Lodge of Canada was formed in Hamilton, Ontario on the 10th of November 1855, William was one of its foundation members. To this point life had constantly been a roller-coaster ride for William. Whilst he had achieved business success and personal acclaim, his family situation had constantly changed. 1859 was a turning point in his life, beginning with his wife Margaret being diagnosed with a heart condition. The small community of Hamilton did not have the medical facilities for her on-going management, so the family moved to Toronto where they found a three-story shop front residence on Yonge Street. Unfortunately, Margaret's condition deteriorated rapidly and even specialist treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston could not save her. William was a widower again - this time with two children under the age of six. The Canada Census of 1861, taken on January 14, records William as a pianoforte maker, living with his children and two servants at 301 Yonge Street Toronto. A London letter later the same year from his sister-in-law Elizabeth created more stress for William. It carried the grave news that her husband Richard and her brother-in-law Edward were seriously ill and no longer capable of work. She urgently requested that William, being a partner and director of the family's business, needed to decide the company's future viability and direction. So, with little choice William, leaving the Toronto business in managerial hands and his children in boarding school, returned to England. |
| THE LONDON CLOSURE |
During the years he had been absent from England, William's brother Richard, together with their younger sibling Edward (who was a furniture upholsterer) had continued manufacturing cabinets, furniture and pianos at the Lisson Grove and Homer Street premises [6] up until 1855. In 1856, with William's approval, the company was split in two parts: Richard reinvesting in a workshop in 14 Little Queen Street, Edgeware Road and a pianoforte showroom on the Marylebone Road, whilst Edward and his young family invested in a furniture workshop near Regent's Park (Augustus Street). The family business had been in good shape before the deteriorating health of both Richard and Edward in 1860, but now Richard’s 22-year-old son Henry Sampson was responsible for all the cabinetry and Edward’s wife Caroline responsible for the furniture upholstery. On his return to Marylebone, William could immediately see that the company's future was untenable and when Edward died in 1862, closely followed by Richard six months later, the family company was dissolved. Richard’s eldest son Henry Sampson was the only one of William’s nephews to have any interest in continuing piano construction. This he did into the middle 1870’s at a workshop in 112 Pratt Street, Camden Town. Richard’s younger sons Charles, Edwin, and Alfred pursued trades in carpentry at various Camden Town and Kentish Town locations, whilst Edward’s sons all became either upholsterers or carpenters in the Kentish Town district. |
| FAMILY REUNION |
William returned to his family and Toronto workshop in June 1865 only to find that factory produced pianos [11] had taken over the marketplace. There was now little demand for bespoke manufacture. He also discovered that during his absence, the political landscape of the country had changed. The territory that had been a British colony named British America, was clearly leaning towards confederacy and the push to become an independent state seemed inevitable. On the 1st of July 1867 The Dominion of Canada was proclaimed. Being a proud Englishman, William didn’t like it. |
| THE AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE |
If the truth be told, William never spent any length of time in any single location so it should not surprise that at 57 years of age he and his children emigrated to Melbourne, Australia. It should also not surprise that he had remarried [12] at the time of their arrival in 1868, his fourth wife being a Yorkshire lass from Cottingham named Elizabeth (nee BOOTHBY; 1841 – 1885). The couple had married in Constantine, Michigan, United States of America when she was twenty. The new arrivals leased a two-bedroom cottage and land (with shed) at 30 – 33 Clarendon Street Emerald Hill. This property, which later became a showroom, remained in their possession [13,14,15] until William’s retirement in March 1880. William commenced business out of his shed, but with son JHA (Henry) eager to assist, a larger premises was leased at 227 Clarendon Street in August 1870. It was here that the father and son team built their first cottage upright piano. A year later, William also leased a larger two-room workshop at 150 Clarendon Street, which he used to begin constructing his first Australian made pianoforte. William established a reputation quickly and was rewarded by admission into The Royal Society of Victoria in 1872. |
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The society was so impressed with his native timber pianoforte that they deemed it a worthy Victorian entrant at The London International Exhibition in 1872. It was purchased by the society, shipped to London, and duly won a gold medal. William’s prize winner eventually returned to his custodianship in July 1873 being proudly displayed in his 150 Clarendon Street workshop. When the family home was redesigned to include a bespoke showroom in October 1874, the piano was proudly displayed at number 30 Clarendon Street, whilst the family enjoyed more comfort in their residence next door at No. 33. |
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Whilst his early years in Melbourne were fully occupied with establishing his business, the one facet of his life that he missed was his devotion to freemasonry but when the Lodge of Emerald Hill was founded in February 1875, William became a foundation brother. Like all other branches, Emerald Hill Lodge became incorporated in the Grand Lodge of Victoria five years later with William being a craft member of Australia Felix Lodge of Hiram No 4. Life for the Mathews family changed again in 1877 when son JHA (Henry) married. William, at 65, and wishing to retire, began transferring all the business assets to his son who had acquired premises at 108/110 Nelson Road, Emerald Hill. |
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By 1881 William had retired and had moved with Elizabeth to Caroline Terrace [16] in Drummond Street, Carlton. Yet another move in 1884 found them in the Grampians at Stawell where sadly for William, Elizabeth passed away barely six months into their Houston Street occupancy. |
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William returned to the city, renting a terrace [17] in Newry Street, Carlton until a severe bout of bronchitis and pneumonia saw him hospitalised. Released to convalesce at his son's residence in South Melbourne, William died, aged 78, on the 8th of August 1890. |
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William Mathews, a British citizen, lived in four countries. He had four wives, outliving them all. He sired six children, outliving all but two. His seven siblings all pre-deceased him. William's life, whilst full of tragedy and sadness, was one of achievement and fulfilment. |
References
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