His Family

On  7 July 1784 Paul Storr son of Thomas, victualler, of Tothill Street, Westminster, was apprenticed to William Rock of Parliament Street, citizen and Vintner[1].

This apprenticeship could appear singularly unremarkable for, at the time, he was both son of a victualler and grandson of a former victualler; and was thus following family tradition.  However, as it contradicted the accepted idea that Storr had only been informally apprenticed to Andrew Fogelberg it prompted further research into his family, about whom N.M.Penzer had already written so much in his book Paul Storr 1771-1844 Silversmith and  Goldsmith.  This hopefully might provide some information that would explain the association between Fogelberg and the Storrs, leading to Paul Storr's career as a goldsmith, and also whether the Rock family had any relevance.

To date the marriage of Paul’s grandparent's, Edward and Elizabeth, is still untraced and the first reference to them is found in the parish register of St. John's Smith Square, Westminster[2], when their daughter, Margaret, (born 29 February) was baptised on 2 March 1732.  It is likely Elizabeth's maiden name was Norton as it was used as a second name for their eldest son Edward and again as such for William, one of their grandsons.

Edward Storr  =  Elizabeth (? Norton)

                            1730/31

                1.Margaret               bp.2/3/1732

                2.Sarah                     bp.23/5/1734

                3.Elizabeth               bp.6/4/1736

                4.Edward Norton bp. 16/8/1738

                5.John                      bp.13/1/1741

                6.Thos                      bp.29/5/1743

                7.Mary                     bp.20/9.1749

 In  1735 in a list of licences “granted and renewed to victuallers selling brandy and other distillations” in St. George's Hanover Square in the Liberty of Westminster, Edward is recorded on Thursday 18th September at the Horse Shoe, Audsley Street[3].

The baptisms of three more of their children are recorded in the parish registers of St.George's, Hanover Square[4], Sarah (born 20) baptised 23 May 1734. Elizabeth (born 13 March) baptised 6 April 1736 and Edward Norton (born 27 July) baptised 16 August 1738.

The family  moved from the Horse Shoe to the Angel in Tothill Street[5], probably in 1740, as three more children were baptised at St. Margaret's Westminster: John (born 9) baptised 13 January 1741. Thos (born 28) baptised 29 May 1743 and Mary (born 15) baptised 20 September 1749.

In 1743 Edward Storr appears in the victuallers licence list for the parish. He is listed in the poor rate books in 1752, 1762 and 1764 at  the  Almonry[6] but in 1765 his name is crossed out. In the rates books between 1769-1770 there appear to be no Storrs listed in the   Almonry, Union Street, or New Palace Yard.

      In the Court of Alderman’s Papers for January 1772[7], an Elizabeth Storr, widow aged upwards of 64 years, “who had been a housekeeper several years in the Parish of St.Margarets, Westminster, and paid all parochial taxes - by many losses and misfortunes reduced to poverty and is incapable of getting a sufficient maintenance by her labour”, applied to the Governors of Emanuel Hospital in Westminster to admit her into the room of Millersont Windsmore decd. 

It appears her petition was unsuccessful as the following  entry appears in the Court of Aldermans reps book dated 11 February 1772 : “Ann Davis a poor old woman of St.Margarets Westminster was admitted into one of the dwelling houses in Emanuel Hospital in the room of Eleanor Windmore deceased”.    

No burial for Edward or Elizabeth Storr  is recorded at St. Margaret's, Westminster between 1764-1784 and no wills have been located.

Their eldest son, Edward Norton Sterr (sic), was apprenticed on 22 March 1753[8] to John Christopher Romer[9]of St.James's Westminster, silver chaser for 7 years at a premium of £5. Research to date has produced no evidence of  his whereabouts after that date.

      Their second son John was probably apprenticed to a hatter sometime during 1755. No record of this has been found in the apprentice records at The National Archives.  Apprenticeship records for St. Margaret’s Westminster only date from 1767.

      John married Elizabeth Martin at St. Margaret's Westminster on the 8 August 1767.  A son, William Norton was baptised on the 23 August 1768. Joseph, their second son, was born 18 September and baptised 8 October 1770.  Elizabeth was buried on  2 July 1771 and the infant died  shortly after.  For some reason John was not granted a probate administration for Elizabeth's goods and chattels until 1787[10].  As a widower, he remarried at the same church on 4 August 1774, Ann Nicholson, and this was witnessed by his brother Thomas and a William Nicholson.[11]                         

Edward and Elizabeth’s youngest son,   Thomas (Paul Storr’s father), was similarly apprenticed to Christopher Romer on the  11 October 1757[12]. His apprenticeship would have ended about 1764, but there is no evidence that he became free of any City Livery Company.

The Marylebone rates books[13] for 1764, 1769 and 1770 list a Thomas Starr, in Market Street, just off Oxford Street.  That this name Starr is merely another misspelling of Storr is likely for two reasons.

Firstly, in  Thomas Storr's will, proved 27 January 1804[14], he left  property in Oxford Street to his son Paul.

Secondly, although three of his children were baptised at St. Mary Marylebone (in which ward Market Street lay),. Thomas Scott (born 7) baptised 19 April 1767, Paul (born 1) baptised 28 October 1770 and another Thomas born and baptised 8 November 1772. Unfortunately there is no mention in the  registers of  the death of their first-born, Thomas Scott, or the birth of  their daughter Ann sometime between 1767 and 1770. Thomas had married Sarah Fulloway at Kensington 14 February 1765.

Thomas Storr     =    Sarah Fullaway

                                         1765

                1.Thomas Scott    bp.19/4/1767

2.Ann

                3.Paul                     bp.28.10/1770

                4.Thomas               bp.8/11/1772

                5.Sarah                    bp 21/9/1775

Ann Storr married Samuel Amphlett on the 28 December 1787 at St. Margaret's Westminster, and their son Samuel was baptised on the 12 December 1790 at St. Clement Danes.  Samuel  Amphlett was apprenticed to his Uncle Paul on the 4 December 1804.

Thomas Storr left the Marylebone area sometime during 1773 or early the following year as another daughter, Sarah, was baptised at St. Margarets Westminster on 21 September 1775. Sarah married Richd. Bishop in Westminster in 1797[15] and is mentioned as Sarah Bishop in her father's will.

Thomas appears as a victualler in Union Street in the 1774 Westminster Poll Book, and  is entered in the rates books at New Palace Yard from 1774 until 1785[16].

By 1783 both Thomas, and his brother  John Storr, the hatter, appear in the rates books. Thomas at New Palace Yard, paying rent of £29 and tax of £1.2.4 and John in Union Street, paying rent of £18 and tax of 13s.10d.  In a directory of 1790 the number is shown as 12 Union Street.  Thomas also appears between 1783-86 renting a property in Little Queen Street North which from 1788-1791 passed to his son-in-law Samuel Amphlett.

In the register of apprentices for St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist, Westminster 1767-1792[17], there are two entries when both brothers are shown at Union Street.  On the 23 June 1786 Thomas, victualler, took Elizabeth Reed aged 13 years and 6 months apprentice until she was 21 years of age, and on the 12 April 1789 John, hatter, took Elizabeth Jarman aged 15 years until she was 21.  John's son William is also shown as a hatter of St.Margaret's in the same register, when he took John Storr, a poor Boy of the parish of  Westminster, apprentice on 29 June 1795.

On the 17 August 1782, a Mr.Prickard[18], paid John Storr 18.0s for a 'Fine Hat', and on the 3 January 1787, 11.0s for a 'Round Hat' and 16.0s for another  'Fine Hat'.

By 1791 Thomas Storr is no longer listed  and John Storr is paying rates on the house and garden at Horseferry Road on which Thomas had taken out a lease in 1788.  In 1792 John’s wife Ann is shown at Union Street, and John is still listed paying for Horseferry Road although by that date he had died. Thomas reappears in  1793 paying £15.10s on the Horseferry Road property.

Thomas Storr died the 3l December 1803 and his will was proved 27 January 1804.  From 1803-1822 the ratepayers of the property in Tothill Fields were Mrs.Thomas Storr, Sarah Storr and another unnamed Storr.

To date nothing has been discovered that might explain why Thomas decided to abandon the craft in which he appeared to have been trained and take up a similar trade to that of his father.  Penzer assumes that he took over the family business but this appears unlikely as Edward Storr appears to have disappeared from the Westminster area some years before Thomas moved to Union Street.

Having completed his seven year apprenticeship Paul Storr was made Free of the Vintners Company and the City of London on the 5 October 1791 when his address was shown as Tothill Fields, Westminster.

He entered his first mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall with  William Frisbee on the 2 May 1792 at 5 Cock Lane, Snow Hill and it was not until 12 January 1793, on entering his second mark, that he moved to 30 Church Street formerly the work shop of Andrew Fogelberg.

Paul Storr married by licence at St.James' Piccadilly[19], 27 June 1801 Elizabeth Susanna Beyer, (1771-1843), youngest daughter of Adam Beyer (1729-1804), of the parish of St. John Hampstead, Middlesex. Adam Beyer traded as a piano and organ builder in Compton Street, Soho, with his brother Lorence.

Paul and Elizabeth Storr had ten children[20] and fifty four grandchildren. Their son Paul was born 9 May and baptised on 31 May 1805 at St. James's Westminster. He was free of the Vintners' Company and City of London  by Patrimony 1 June 1836 when he was a Wine & Brandy & Hop Seed Merchant at 51 John Street, Crutched Friars.  He went  on the livery 4 July 1839.

On 17 April 1828 Paul Storr entered into a civil apprenticeship with his second son Francis[21] and this seems strange as there would seem to be no reason why Francis could not have become  a free Vintner.

Paul Storr retired to Hill House, Tooting, Surrey and died there on the 18 March 1844 leaving an estate valued at £3,000.  He and Elizabeth are buried in the churchyard of Tooting Parish Church and during 1992 the Silver Study Group rediscovered their grave, which by that date was completely obscured and hidden amongst a grove of trees and bushes[22].  The site has since been cleared and it is hoped will be maintained in the future.

To discuss further the undocumented apprenticeship of  Paul Storr to Andrew Fogelberg we must return to his father and his uncle.

In 1760 John Christopher Romer bought the workshop formerly run by Edward Wakelin and probably including his former apprentices, Ansil and Gilbert[23], working as journeymen plateworkers, this places the young Thomas Storr working alongside them during the period 1760-64.

Subsequently the firm of Ansil and Gilbert took over the workshop in 1764 and by 1780 Gilbert was in partnership with Fogelberg.  Given the association with Gilbert and the fact that Ansil seems to have disappeared from the scene by 1780 it seems logical to assume that Thomas chose to apprentice his son within the firm of his former associate Gilbert, although by the time of  Paul's apprenticeship his father was a victualler and there appears no evidence to suggest that he was still involved in the trade of a silver chaser.

The evidence to support Storr's undocumented apprenticeship to Andrew Fogelberg appears somewhat circumstantial. Although  much of his early work was very similar in style and design to Fogelberg's.

 A letter written by John Samuel Hunt, in which he speaks of Storr's 'foreign' master, and other papers in which the statement is supposed to have been made, no longer appear to exist[24].             When Paul Storr became free of the Vintners’ Company  in October 1791 he gave as his address the family property in Westminster. His first mark, with William Frisbee 2 May 1792 was at 51 Cock Lane[25] and it was not until 12 January 1793, on entering his second mark alone, that he moved to 30 Church Street, formerly Fogelberg's workshop.

Andrew Fogelberg, having served an apprenticeship in his native Sweden came to England sometime around 1760.  He married by licence 21 October 1766 at St.Ann's Soho Elizabeth Herbert. They were both shown of the parish, the witnesses were Fra.Williams and John Elcock.  At the same church on 17 April 1792 he married Susannah Walker, who was from Hampstead, this was witnessed by his business partner Stpn.Gilbert and a Joseph Davies.  However, as a foreigner, he would not have been a member of a City Livery Company and any apprentices would have been in a similar position and this then could be the reason for the arrangement with William Rock.

According to the Manor Book for the Manor of Hampstead[26]he took a house on the south side of Pond Street, Hampstead on the 18 January 1796.  In the Hampstead return of population 10 March 1801 he was shown living there with three females (Susanna and perhaps two servants).  In the census of 27 May 1811 he was still in Pond Street but the staff appeared to have been reduced to one.  He died early in 1815 and his will drawn on 22 December 1803 and proved 3 February 1815 left the house to his wife[27].

On 3 August 1815 Susanna Fogelberg, widow admitted on the ground of the Lady (of the Manor of Hampstead ) after an Escheat (accrued on the death of Andrew Fogelberg - an alien born, and never naturalised or indentised according to the Laws of England) to all that Messuage or tenement with the Yard Garden and appurtenances thereunto belong, situate on the south side of Pond Street.....afterwards the said Susanna Fogelberg in Court surrendered the said messuage and premises to Paul Storr, of Pond Street, Hampstead, aforesaid, esquire, his heirs and assigns forever[28]. By 17 April 1816 Susannah Fogelberg had moved to rented accommodation at 8 Denmark Street, Soho[29]. Her will was proved on 17 August 1818[30].

William Rock, Paul Storr's formal master, took sixteen apprentices through the Vintners Company between 1772 and 1806.  In all the apprenticeship entries after 1787 he is shown as a gentleman of Parliament Street and it appears  he received no official payment.  From the varying trades carried out by those who became free it appears unlikely that he was teaching them a working trade, and therefore it seems plausible to assume that the apprenticeships were for convenience only. 

There obviously was a connection between the Fogelbergs and  Storr but as yet no definite documentary evidence has been discovered.  Susannah Fogelberg surrendered her property in Hampstead to Paul Storr in August 1815, however, she had married sometime after Storr finished his apprenticeship and before he took over the workshop