Grocer: Isaac Smith - Louth Lincs 1838

This page is concerned with Isaac Smith (1788-1852) as a Louth grocer. It does not deal with his trading activities in London or with his activities as a Poor Law guardian or his membership of Louth Borough Council or with his life as a churchman. (Smith’s leading role in the establishment of Holy Trinity Church, Eastgate, Louth is dealt with extensively in Lincolnshire Parish Correspondence of John Kaye Bishop of Lincoln 1827-53, Lincoln Record Society 2006; and there is a summary in The Story of Victorian Louth by Richard Gurnham 2015.)

Advertisements tend to be an unreliable source of information; but sometimes they are the only useful source. The details of grocery given here depend heavily on Smith’s press advertisements, which were both more frequent and more detailed than advertisements placed by similar local traders.

Background: Isaac Senior and Isaac Junior

Isaac Smith was born in London on 8 October 1788, his father, Isaac Smith senior (1751-1834) was a Middlesex (Marylebone) grocer, born in Grainthorpe but in London by 1780, when his son John (who eventually set up business as a grocer in Boston) was born. Both sons were baptised in The Tabernacle, an Independent chapel. Goulding stated that Isaac senior “in 1774 established the wholesale grocery and soap manufacturing business now, [1898] as then, carried on at Upgate, Louth.”¹ It seems improbable that such a young man would establish such a long-lasting business, but it is known that in 1774 Frederick L’Oste, Louth’s leading grocer, had a soap boiling establishment, which may have been in Upgate, and Isaac senior may well have worked there.²

Isaac senior certainly maintained an interest in Louth. In 1785 he took an apprentice from the Louth area, William Hyde ³ At some date unknown Isaac senior formed a Louth partnership with John Young, but this was dissolved in 1790. ⁴ By 1793 Isaac senior had formed a partnership with William Hyde as the Louth partner, and the partnership was not dissolved until 1815. ⁵ Isaac senior probably retired from business about this time and I have taken all subsequent references to “Isaac Smith” to mean Isaac junior, though this is uncertain, since they appear both to have lived at 55 Margaret Street, Marylebone. Isaac junior’s first wife died in 1816 and in 1817 he married Sophia Day, the daughter of Rev William Day, a fairly prominent Bristol clergyman. It is possible that this Church of England connection was unwelcome to Isaac senior, who was very active in The Tabernacle.

Changing Partnerships in Louth

After the dissolution of the Smith/Hyde partnership in 1815 Hyde formed a partnership with John Parkinson (born 1791); but this was dissolved in 1817, after which Hyde continued as a sole trader. ⁶ Smith then formed a partnership with George Drew, who had served an apprenticeship with Isaac senior, and with “Young”, possibly the same person as the John Young referred to above; but this partnership was dissolved in 1817. ⁷ Shortly afterwards Smith, Drew and Parkinson formed a partnership trading as “The Phoenix Tea Warehouse” in Mercer Row, Louth; the premises were presumably the same as those that (as was shown by the rating lists) belonged to Smith in the period 1823-51. Drew left the partnership in 1821 (he moved to Grimsby) and Smith’s partnership with Parkinson was dissolved in 1824, leaving Parkinson as a sole trader, operating from the same premises. ⁸ Unfortunately Parkinson was not content with being a grocer but engaged in some property transactions and was bankrupt in 1828. He left Louth and was last heard of in 1851 in the Canary Islands. ⁹

Isaac Smith Resident in Louth

Parkinson’s bankruptcy deprived Smith of income from his Louth shop. The most natural courses of action would have been to sell the shop or find a new tenant. Instead, he published the following advertisement in Mercury 3 October 1828.

ISAAC SMITH, Jun. of London, respectfully acquaints his friends at Louth and the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood, that in consequence of the failure of Mr. Parkinson, it his intention to resume his former business in that town, and that he is making arrangements for opening his shop in Mercer Row, on or about 8 October, with an entire fresh shop of choicely-selected Teas, Coffees, Groceries &c. &c., which he is determined to offer on terms calculated to restore that confidence which he had the satisfaction to enjoy on and after his first entrance into business there …

Smith seems to have been mainly resident in Louth from 1828 to 1840, probably living above the shop: no alternative address is given by R1838. At some stage during this period, he gave up his selling business in London but was active there in buying goods for the Louth business. In 1840 he withdrew to London but seems to have visited Louth two or three times a year.

The Grocer’s Goods

In Smith’s day grocers were overwhelmingly concerned with the sale of imported goods, of which the most important were tea and sugar. Tea was imported from China by the East India Company, which had a monopoly until 1834. In the first half of the nineteenth century tea was heavily taxed. There were many different types of tea. Smith’s first detailed advertisement in 1829 offered prices ranging from 2s 10d to 10s per pound. Over the period of Smith’s trading in Louth tea prices generally fell, because of freer trade and reductions in taxation. The Opium War with China in 1839-42 does not seem to have affected prices. In the longer term prices were reduced by the establishment of tea plantations in India, but this Assam tea was mentioned by Smith only as a novelty.

For many years social commentators had denounced tea drinking as unhealthy and, for the working classes, a gross waste of money that could not be afforded; but by 1828 nearly all these pundits had admitted defeat. Only William Cobbett fought a rearguard action:

I view the tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame an engenderer of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and a maker of misery for old age.” (Cottage Economy (1822) para 29; Cobbett contrasted unhealthy tea with healthy beer.)

For tea, as for many other products, adulteration was a problem. In 1844 one of Smith’s advertisements warned customers that some tea that looked to be of high quality had been “chopped up and dyed in China.” But most of the adulteration took place in England where genuine tea was mixed with other leaves.

Coffee was offered at prices ranging from 1s 4d to 3s 4d per pound. Smith virtuously stated that he would not sell coffee mixed with chicory (“gross adulteration”). Evidence to a subsequent Parliamentary committee on the adulteration of foodstuffs established that chicory was harmless and that some customers actually preferred the taste of a coffee/chicory mix. The issue was that this mixture was sold as pure coffee.

Sugar was imported in many different forms and its price was also much affected by taxation. For good quality domestic use sugar loaves were produced. In 1831 Smith advertised loaf sugar at 8d per pound in “small loaves” weighing 10 or 12 pounds.

A significant part of the business was selling dried fruit: plums, prunes, figs, currants, sultanas and raisins. A more exotic form of fruit offered in 1839 was “China preserved ginger in handsome jars” at 18s per jar. Smith seems to have had difficulty in selling these and eventually had to reduce the price but in 1844 he advertised the China preserved ginger in plain six-pound jars at 10s. In 1849 he offered jars of “Jamaica preserves, namely ginger, pine, limes …”. Less novel was orange marmalade at a shilling a pot.

Another import that figured largely in Smith’s advertisements was sago of varying types. He recommended this not just for domestic use but for cattle, pigs and poultry. However his advice to mothers in 1842 may have struck the wrong note: “Only try it, and you will soon make your babies as fat as young porkers”.

Other basic products sold by Smith included salt and saltpetre, both widely used for preserving meat. In 1847 Smith commented “Much pig-meat was spoiled last year for want of attention in buying good salt, bay salt [ie sea salt] and saltpetre.”

Smith was also a tobacconist. An 1832 advertisement included “fancy snuffs” and cigars. In 1839 he bought at auction in Louth 600 pounds of tobacco for 2s 9¾d per pound; this was smuggled tobacco that had been seized by customs officers. In 1840 he offered “finest Kentucky and Maryland” tobacco at 3s 6d per pound.

Soap and candles were the main grocery products that could be produced in Britain. As mentioned above, William Hyde, who in 1828 was Smith’s chief local competitor was a manufacturer of soap and candles. (The soap works off Gospelgate operated until 1938.) But Smith made a point of selling London brands.

Smith was not in the business of selling fresh meat, vegetables or bread. Nor does he appear to have sold any alcoholic drinks; he was active in the temperance movement. Many contemporary grocers sold bacon, ham and cheese, as did the proprietor of the Louth shop after Smith’s death, but Smith’s own advertisements did not feature these products.

The Customers: Credit and Volume

Grocers had to achieve a balance between the desired volume of transactions and the cost of credit. Wealthy individuals placed large orders but usually expected long credit; some of Smith’s comments seem to imply that a minority of accounts were only paid annually; but the advertisements make it clear that the lowest prices would be offered to purchasers paying cash.

Many of Smith’s goods were offered in quantities that would rule out most private consumers. For example, in 1835 he offered “very superior” tea “at 4s 4d [per pound] for the accommodation of Inns and large Families made up in boxes of about 30 pounds weight.” Other teas were offered “in chests”, probably at least three times the weight of the boxes.

The great majority of individuals buying groceries could afford to buy only in small quantities. They made their purchases not from grocers like Smith but from what the trade directories described as “shopkeepers”, who occupied much smaller premises in mainly residential streets. There were about 20 shopkeepers in Louth. Smith operated as a wholesaler supplying both Louth shopkeepers and shopkeepers trading in nearby villages. The later advertisements seem to have placed more emphasis on this trade, coupled with warnings that shopkeepers would be dealt with only on the basis of cash or short-term credit.

Transport

To Smith one of the attractions of Louth was that it was a port. His advertisements frequently referred to the actual or planned arrival of ships, mainly carrying his cargoes from London, though it appears from an 1846 advertisement that salt was being transported by ship from Gainsborough. Sea transport had its disadvantages, since access to the Louth Canal could be delayed by bad weather. For example (1840), “The good ship Yarburgh, Captain Dickinson, from London. Isaac Smith is truly thankful to announce her safe arrival again at Louth.” One of his last advertisements (November 1851) acknowledged maritime delays but stated that he “cannot make up his mind to drop the seamen of Louth”. But in 1848 Louth railway station opened and made more reliable transport available.

Staff

Like most other substantial tradesmen, Smith often advertised vacancies for apprentices, a recognised source of cheap labour. One suspects that Smith’s apprentices would have found working conditions unattractive: in 1832 he advertised for “a well-informed industrious youth, submissive to strict business and moral discipline.” The only information from advertisements about the number of Smith’s Louth staff is a reference in 1837 to there being four “hands” behind the counter. This is consistent with census information: the 1841 and 1851 censuses both showed resident staff comprising a manager and three apprentices. There may well also have been a porter/warehouse man.

When Smith left Louth in 1840 he installed as his manager Michael Colbridge (1812-1880). Colbridge resigned in 1849 and set up business on his own account as a grocer in a slightly smaller shop in Market Place. Smith replaced Colbridge by recalling as manager an old associate (see above), George Drew.

The Shop after Smith

The shop in Mercer Row became No 14 when Louth buildings were numbered in 1860. There seems to be no evidence that after Smith’s death his executors sold the shop. From some date in 1853 to September 1858 Henry Hicks (background unknown) occupied the grocer’s shop as a tenant. Michael Colbridge then became tenant and continued to trade there until his death in 1880. In 1875 he bought the premises for £1,800. By 1876 he had taken his son, Isaac John Colbridge (1845-1901), into partnership. After 1880 the firm continued to trade as Colbridge & Son until 1898, when Isaac retired, probably on health grounds. The shop was then taken by Frederick Edgar Robinson (1871-1954; previously a grocer in Spalding), who took the shop into the twentieth century.