1 - Warrington Glass Industry

The families behind Molineaux & Webb had their roots in the Warrington glass industry.

The area of Warrington Bank Quay gained its first glass works in the late 17th century, but it was not until the mid 18th century that a number of glass houses opened in both Bank Quay and the central areas of Warrington. The Bank Quay Glass works were opened in 1757 by Robert Patten and Peter Seaman of Warrington, and Edward Deane and Thomas Falkner of Liverpool. A few years later, Josiah Perrin, a former Bristol glasshouse manager, also opened a glass house in Warrington.

1757 may be a significant date, as the first member of the Webb family to appear on the parish register of Warrington's main church St. Elphin, did so in 1757 when Thomas Webb (c1729-1810) had a child baptised there. This suggests that the Webbs were drawn to Warrington by its emerging glass industry.

The Webbs, and indeed the Percivals (of Ancoats glass firm Percival & Vickers), were strongly associated with the works at Bank Quay. The cones of the glass works can be seen in a painting of Warrington from 1772 by the artist Donbavand. The original can be viewed at Warrington Museum. The glass works are on the far left of the painting.

Perrin & Geddes

In 1795, the works at Warrington Bank Quay became known under the name of Perrin, Geddes & Co. Joining the Perrin family in the local glass industry was a William Geddes. He was from Scotland and connected to the glass company of Archibald Geddes & Co. at Leith.

View Google Map of the area where the Bank Quay factory was located

Perrin & Geddes operated from 1795 to 1824. The company was largely in the control of Liverpool merchants, and by 1797 Josiah Perrin, now resident in Liverpool, and Edward Falkner of Liverpool, had the biggest shares in the firm. Falkner was a significant businessman who owned land in Liverpool and West Derby. Deane Road Cemetery in Liverpool was built on his old estates.

Perrin & Geddes' most famous glassware was a collection made for the Prince of Wales. The Prince was impressed by the glassware used for the occasion of his royal visit to Liverpool in 1806, and the Liverpool Corporation ordered a large set of table glass for him which took over a year to produce. Items from this set can be viewed at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, though most is still in the possession of the royal family at Windsor Castle. Other items made by Warrington glassmakers can be viewed at Warrington Museum.

Prince of Wales cypher on a Perrin & Geddes glass item, circa 1806-8, in the V&A collection

Perrin & Geddes glass item 1806-8, in the V&A collection

Clipping from a Scottish newspaper, dated December 1813

We understand that the superb set of glass, so particularly taken notice of at the Prince Regent's dinner, was made by the late Mr. Geddes of Leith, when he resided at Perrin, Geddes and Co.'s glass works, at Warrington, and was presented to his Royal Highness by the Incorporation of Liverpool; and that several of the patterns are just now to be seen at the Edinburgh Glass house Company's works, at Leith, among their elegant assortment of glass now selling off.

Perrin, Geddes & Co. broke up in 1824. A surviving notice tells us the major names behind the firm at the time it was wound up.

Notice is hereby given, that the partnership formerly carried on as Glass Manufacturers and Dealers, at the Bank Quay Glass Works in Warrington and at Liverpool, both in the County of Lancaster, under the firm of Perrin, Geddes, and Company, was dissolved on the 30th day of June 1824, by mutual consent.

Dated the 30th day of August 1826.

Hannah Evans, In her own right

E.D. Falkner, Jno. B. Falkner, John Ashton Case, Executors of the late Edward Falkner, Esq.

J.A. Borron, One of the Executors of the late William Geddes, Esq.

Josiah Perrin, In his own right.

Hannah Evans, Peter Vawdrey, Personal Representatives of Amy Seaman, deceased.

P. Nicholson, In his own right

Peter Vawdrey, In his own right

Joseph Flintoft, Maria Flintoft, In their own right.

We have found no direct evidence in the records as to why the firm folded, but the list of names in the dissolution gives a few clues, with three of the key partners having died. It is unknown when William Geddes died. Edward Falkner passed away in 1821. Amy Seaman, presumably related to the Peter Seaman who opened the original Bank Quay works in 1757, died way back in 1798.

Subsequent legal notices in 1828 show that a legal battle developed between Peter Vawdrey - representing the interests of the (very) late Amy Seaman - and Archibald Perrin Geddes, as they struggled to find living descendants of Amy Seaman. However the fallout from the death of Edward Falkner looks like it could be of greater significance to the dissolution of Perrin & Geddes. His substantial business interests were being unwound in the years after his death, and in 1825 his partnerships in various companies located in Liverpool, Colombia, Guiana and Venezuela were formally ended.

What is curious about the list of owners behind Perrin & Geddes is that none of them were known to be involved with Molineaux & Webb, and yet it was the break up of the firm which prompted various glassmaking families and businessmen in Warrington to move to Ancoats in Manchester to start new glass businesses.

After the dissolution, the name of Josiah Perrin (1797 - 1849) crops up again in clippings related to the Warrington glass industry. His death notice read "for many years representative of the firm of Messrs. Alderson, Perrin & Co., glass manufacturers."

Family connections to Perrin & Geddes

Baptisms at St. Elphin Warrington circa 1818-1820 reveal that Molineaux & Webb co-founder Thomas Webb (1796-1873) was living in Bank Quay, practically next door to the factory. His elder brother Jesse Webb (1781-1851) was living a few hundred yards to the west at Sankey Green.

Thomas Percival, whose son co-founded, Percival & Vickers, was a works manager at Perrin & Geddes.

Molineaux & Webb co-founder William Maginnis was one of the businessmen who moved to Ancoats. There was a marriage between Samuel Perrin and Ann Maginnis in 1823 and the children from this marriage were living with William on the 1841 census.

Whereas the Webbs and Percivals had a working link with Perrin & Geddes, the Perrin-Maginnis marriage is the only suggestion of a link between families at company ownership level.

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