Portrait of Bampton, Devon, in the Eighteenth Century

By Tom McManamon

Appendix 3: Local Inhabitants in the Cloth and Leather Trades

The following is an alphabetical list of eighteenth century Bampton people who have so far come to light who were involved in the cloth and leather trades, with the years in which they feature. Documentation from earlier centuries is almost non-existent for Bampton. The detail has been taken from directories, property deeds, wills, and many other documents concerning the parish. Occasionally the dates beside a name seem inordinately long. This is because two or more people of the same name followed that trade and there is no way of knowing which is whom - usually father and son and even grandson. Most of the trades are self explanatory, but a few may need clarification:

Mercers were dealers in fine fabrics.
Clothiers were simply clothmakers, usually making rolls of unfinished cloth known as kerseys.
Cordwainers are usually accepted as being shoemakers, but a lot of their produce was a little more refined. Cordwain was the finest tanned & dressed goatskin from Cordova in Spain, and used for bags, gloves and the like.
Curriers dressed and coloured tanned leather.
Fellmongers were dealers in animal skins.

Badcock, Abraham, clothier 1690; sergemaker 1693-1714; 1751, 1768
Badcock, Daniel, sergemaker 1677-1738
Badcock, Peter, sergemaker 1674-1714
Ball, Henry, clothier 1670's, 1704; sergemaker (deceased) 1706
Bowden, Richard, mercer 1725, 1762, 1770
Bryant, Francis, mercer 1738, 1741, 1742, 1751
Bryant, Jacob, clothier 1678, 1702
Bryant, James, clothier 1690 [possibly same as Jacob]; mercer 1762
Chidgey, Richard, sergemaker 1793
Cleveland, Samuel, sergemaker 1714
Cook, Jonathon, cordwainer 1714
Cooke, Richard, sergemaker 1736-1757
Escott, Robert, bootmaker & shoemaker 1793-1857
Escott, Samuel, sergemaker 1793
Escott, William, bootmaker & shoemaker 1793-1851
Fisher, Edward, mercer 1681, 1700
Glasse, Daniel, mercer 1733, 1751, 1767
Gold, Gould, John, cordwainer 1770, 1780
Goodman, George, sergemaker 1725
Goodman, John, clothier 1654, 1690; sergemaker 1694, 1725, 1751, 1759, 1767
Goodman, John, senior & junior, sergemakers 1741, 1762, 1770
Hagley, John junior, mercer 1702
Harding, Simon, tanner 1713
Harris, William, sergemaker 1762
Hill, James, saddler 1738, 1742
Jorden, Thomas, cordwainer 1730
Ludlow, Samuel, sergemaker 1750
Marley, John, shoemaker 1793
North, John, sergemaker 1704
Oxenham, John, sergemaker 1711, 1714
Oxenham, John, tanner 1790
Oxenham, Roger, tanner 1733, 1735, 1741
Oxenham, Thomas, tanner 1751
Oxenham, William, fellmonger 1790
Periam, William, tanner 1793, 1806
Portbury, William, mercer 1733, 1741, 1751, 1762, 1770
Richards, Daniel, sergemaker 1709
Row, George, tanner 1793
Sampson, Richard, woolstapler 1751, sergemaker 1762, 1780, 1793
Sampson, Richard junior, sergemaker 1770
Short, William, sergemaker 1793
Spurway, Richard, mercer 1693, 1720
Style, John, cordwainer 1743-1778
Style, Thomas senior, woolcomber 1742
Style, William, mercer 1777-1791, 1805, 1814
Tucker, James, sergemaker 1793
Yeandall, Yandall, William, sergemaker 1780, 1793

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