BARCLAY, David

1728 - 1809  (81 years)

• Name	BARCLAY, David  [1]
  Born	1728	Walthamstow, London, Middlesex, England
  Gender	Male
  Died	30 May 1809	Tottenham, Middlesex, England
  Buried	6 Jun 1809	Winchmoor Hill, England
  Person ID	I1064	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	BARCLAY, David,   b. 17 Sep 1682, Urie, Ketterose, Kincardineshire, Scotland ,   d. 18 Mar 1769, Winchmore Hill, Middlesex, England  (Age 86 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	FREAME, Priscilla,   b. 19 Apr 1702, London, London, England ,   d. 9 Oct 1769, Tottenham, Middlesex, England  (Age 67 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Married	8 Oct 1723	Devonshouse, London, England   [2, 3]
  	Quaker Meeting House
  Family ID	F5486	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	LLOYD, Rachel,   b. 2 Jun 1743, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England ,   d. 12 Jun 1792, Winchmore Hill, Hertfordshire, England  (Age 49 years)
  Married	1767
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023
  Family ID	F273	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	HUDSON, Margaret,   b. 1729, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England ,   d. 20 Apr 1763, England  (Age 34 years)
  Married	6 May 1749	Cheapside, London, London, England   [4]
  Children	1. BARCLAY, Martha,   b. 6 Mar 1751, Walthamstow, London, England ,   d. 6 Jul 1766, Tottenham, Middlesex, England  (Age 15 years)  [natural]   2. BARCLAY, Agatha,   b. 13 Oct 1753, Saint Austin, England ,   d. 4 Aug 1776  (Age 22 years)  [natural]
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023
  Family ID	F274	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		David Barclay
  		Youngsbury in the 18th century, recorded in a watercolour by Henry George Oldfield.
  		David Barclay
  		Anchor Brewery 1826
  		Barclay's Lager
  		David Barclay and Martha Hudson marriage record

  
  

• Notes

  The very wealthy Scottish-American David Barclay14 united with his partner Perkins to buy out t the Anchor Brewery along with The Anchor inn. It was sold by H. Thrale &. Co. on 31 May 1781 for 135,000 pounds and started trading as Barclay, Perkins & Company. On 3 June 1781 Hester Thrale, the widow of the owner, and better known as the muse of Dr Johnson, wrote in… Well! here have I with the Grace of God, and the Assistance of good Friends, compleated—I really think very happily—the greatest Event of my Life:—I have sold my Brewhouse to Barclay the rich Quaker for 135,000£ to be in four Years Time Pd I have by this Bargain purchased Peace & a stable Fortune; Restoration to my original Rank in Life, and a Situation undisturbed by Commercial Jargon, unpolluted by Commercial Frauds; undisgraced by Commercial Connections: they who succeed me in the House have purchased the Power of being rich beyond the Wish of Rapacity, & I have secured the Improbability of being made Poor by the Flights of the Fairy Speculation.—'Tis thus that a Woman, & Men of feminine Minds, always—I speak popularly—decide upon Life, & chuse certain Mediocrity before probable Superiority; while as Eton Graham says sublimely —Nobler Souls, Tir'd with the tedious and disrelish'd Good, Seek their Employments in acknowledg'd Ill, Danger, and Toil and Pain. on this Principle partly, & partly on worse; was dear Mr Johnson something unwilling—but not much at last—to give up a Trade by which in some Years 15 or 16000£ had undoubtedly been got, but by which in some Years it's Possessor had suffered Agonies of Terror, & totter'd twice upon the Verge of Bankruptcy—Well! if thy own Conscience acquit—who shall condemn thee? not I hope the future Husbands of our Daughters, though I should think it likely enough: however as Johnson says very judiciously, they must either think right or wrong; if they think right, let us now think with them; if wrong,—let us never care what they think! so Adieu to Brewhouse and Borough Wintering, adieu to Trade & Tradesmen's frigid Approbation. May Virtue & Wisdom sanctify our Contract, & make Buyer & Seller happy in the Bargain.16 Mr Perkins saved the Place from the Rioters to enjoy the Dignity of it himself; he has now a fourth Share17, & will perhaps in Time be Master of it all; my Dear Sir Philip18 saved it for me & for my Children; I thanked him for it again today, and earnestly pray to God to bless him for his true, his tender Friendship: I think if ever one human Being loved & respected another that Man from his Heart loves & respects me. I have been, & am now exceedingly ill & Good Lord! how attentive, how kind he is! To him & my sweet Mrs Byron I sent the earliest Intelligence of the ease my Mind had received, they love me with more of their Souls than any body now alive I think. Few people will object to my Management, but Doctor Burney. he had set his heart on my Continuing in Business—I never knew why—but he thought it an exertion of Talents I believe & a proof of Superiority, Seward was urgent with me to quit, & the Attorney General, Wallace came over one Evening on purpose to perswade me. Mrs Montagu has sent me her Approbation in a Letter exceedingly Affectionate & Polite. Tis over now though, & I'll clear my Head of it, & all that belongs to it. I will go to Church, give God Thanks, receive the Sacrament, & forget the Frauds Follies & Inconveniencies of a Commercial Life this day On 7 July 1781, Hester wrote… We have had another hot storming Day last Tuesday 3: July about this everlasting Brew house, but 'tis over. Perkins wanted more Indulgence than we as Executors could give him; so I lent him the Money I had saved & put in the Stocks— 2000£ it was, & sold out for 1600£ & odd. He is, or ought to be much obliged; but when a Man has not all he wanted, nothing will make him quite happy19. The whole is now finished, & within three Months too. Tuto, Cito, Jucunde.— Samuel Johnson - one of the executors of Henry Thrale's will, when challenged about the value of the property by the wary bankers, famously replied… We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Despite the new ownership of John Perkins and David Barclay, for sometime after the sale the brewery continued to be known as Thrale's Brewery. It is known to have still been known as Thrale & Co. in the late 1790s. Shortly after acquiring the Thrale Brewery, Barclay, Perkins & Company installed a Boulton & Watt steam engine (which was to last for a hundred years) as if to signal the resolve which was to turn the already very large business, henceforward known as the Angel Brewery, into the largest brewery in Europe and one of the sights of London. David Barclay the younger was one of the slave owners to emancipate his slaves in Jamaica. On 3 April 1797 Thrale and Co. were summoned to "answer complaint made against them for making casks on their premises."Since the 16th century on only Coopers Company in London were permitted to make brewers casks. The outcome of this case unknown. By 1810 production had increased to over 200,000 barrels a year, making it - at that time - the biggest brewery in the world, occupying 13 to 14 acres of ground. Samuel Johnson was was right. By 1815 Barclay, Perkins & Co. was the leading brewery in London, producing more than 330,000 barrels a year, with an extensive range of stabling, spacious enough to afford proper accommodation for 200 dray-horses. Visitors flocked to see the impressive Anchor brewhouse on the south side of Southwark Bridge, famous for its Russian Imperial Stout which was widely sold on the continent. 1832 fire On 22 May 1832 the majority of the buildings were destroyed in a fire when, it is believed, a lamp held by one of the employees of the brewery ignited. As the buildings were made of wood and contained very combustible material such as malt and hops, the fire spread quickly. A number of fire engines were brought in but the firemen and the brewery employees were unable stop the fire burning for many hours. As a consequence much of the brewery was rebuilt and extended. Victorian authors could not avoid pouring the celebrated porter into their books. There are many references to Barclay's beer in the novels of Charles Dickens. Dick Swiveller claimed in the Old Curiosity Shop, published in 1840, that there was 'a spell in every drop against the ills of mortality'. It was a job at Barclay's Brewery that Micawber had in mind when he was 'waiting for something to turn up'. Anchor Brewery employed some 430 men in 1850 and had the largest output of beer of any firm in London. Dr Johnson eventually had his face plastered all over the brewery's bottle labels, as Barclay's Doctor brand gained fame at home and abroad. An upright figure of the stout academic clutching a pint pot became the brewery's emblem. In 1899 the brewery was said to be one of the sights of London Visitors to Barclay's brewery during the 19th century included many of the leading figures of the day ranging from King Edward VII, Prince of Wales, to Bismarck and Napoleon III. But one other visitor sparked an international incident. The AustrianGeneral Haynau was notorious for the brutality with which he put down rebellions in Hungary and Italy. So the ink had scarcely dried on his name in the visitors' book in 1850 when the word spread that the 'Hyena' was in the brewery. The General and his companions had barely crossed the yard, reported The Times, when he was attacked by draymen and brewery workers with brooms and stones, shouting 'Down with the Austrian butcher'. Haynau fled along Bankside pursued by the angry men and took refuge in the George pub (77 The Borough), from which he was rescued by the police with difficulty, and spirited away by boat across the river. The Austrian ambassador demanded an apology, but the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston sided with the brewery men, saying… they were just expressing their feelings at what they considered inhuman conduct by a man who was looked upon as a great moral criminal. Only after the intervention of a furious Queen Victoria and the threatened resignation of Palmerstonwas a more conciliatory letter sent to Vienna. Even then Austria was still so resentful that it sent no representative to the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. Public feeling in England was completely on the side of the draymen, who became the heroes of many a street ballad. When the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi visited England in 1864, he insisted on visiting the brewery to thank "the men who flogged Haynau" In 1950 the brewery merged with John Courage and became known eventually as Courage's. NOTE David Barclay was one of the 35 members of Meeting for Suffering Committee on the Slave Trade that first met in 1783

  
  

• Sources

  [S308] Ancestry Family Trees, (Name: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.;;), Ancestry Family Tree. Database online. Record for Priscilla Freame [S211] England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837, Ancestry.com, (Name: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2013;;). England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 Database online. Record for David Barclay Jr