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The Founding Five
The founders of Molineaux & Webb were:
William Maginnis
Boulton Molineaux
Thomas Molineaux
Owen Ellis
Thomas Webb
The first appearance of the company on a commercial directory of Manchester dates to 1828, and names the firm as Maginnis, Molineaux & Co. We believe the company originally started under this name, although it was also known throughout its history as the Manchester Flint Glass Works.
The Warrington directory, the original name of the firm, and later documents allow us to take a guess at the relative importance of the five founders.
William Maginnis
William Maginnis has two entries in the 1824 Warrington directory - cut glass and a linen draper. With a Warrington glass industry connection, and his name in the first company title, Maginnis would appear to be the most important name behind the founding of the company. He left the partnership in 1831. In 1832, Maginnis quit a partnership with his likely brother-in-law Samuel Perrin and William Robinson. He set up a Maginnis family glass business in Manchester which ran into financial difficulties within a few years.
Boulton Molineaux
The 1824 Warrington directory shows Boulton Molineaux as a hat manufacturer. In later life, Boulton was connected with other businesses in the Warrington area. Unlike the other founders, he never moved to the Manchester area, until he retired in the 1850s. We think he provided business finance to the company and regarded it as another of his business interests. He appears to have no connections with the glass industry other than his financial support of Molineaux & Webb. He left the partnership in the 1840s.
Thomas Molineaux
Thomas was the younger brother of Boulton and was a chemist. We believe he was the leading figure in the firm after William Maginnis moved on, until his death in 1851.
Owen Ellis
Little is known of Owen Ellis. He died in 1839.
Thomas Webb
The Webbs were glass workers in Warrington who somehow rose to prominence sufficiently to be co-founders of the company. If anything their story more closely matches that of the Percival family who were also workers rather than manufacturers in Warrington. The two families intermarried. After various deaths and business dissolutions, the Webbs took control of the company from the 1860s onwards.
When was the company founded?
The founders of the business obtained a 1000 year leasehold on a portion of land on Kirby Street on the 26th December 1826.
After construction was completed, a notice was placed in the Manchester Courier for June 1827 which read:
MANCHESTER FLINT GLASS WORKS, CANAL STREET, NEW ISLINGTON
The proprietors respectfully announce that they shall commence the Manufacturing of FLINT GLASS in all its various branches, on Monday the 18th instant - particulars may be had by applying at the works.
Further evidence pinning down the date comes from the baptisms of the children of (co-owner) Owen Ellis. Owen described himself as a glass maker of Warrington when he baptised a child on 4th August 1826, but when he baptised his next child on 22nd June 1827, he called himself a glass manufacturer of Manchester, in the first week of opening.
The following accommodation advert appeared on the 1st September 1827, also referencing that the glass works were up and running.
To be sold by private contract, all those four substantially built messuages or dwelling houses, with Yards, and other conveniences thereto belonging, situated in Kirby Street, Manchester, opposite the new Glass Works. This property has been erected within the twelve months, is fitted up with ovens, grates, and closets, well tenanted, at rents amounting to £41 12s per annum, and has been coloured and painted throughout during the last month.
One of these houses was soon occupied by glass blower William Webb.
Production began 18th June 1827
(name label from a 1839 document)
Perrin & Robinson
The family names of Perrin and Robinson continued in the Warrington glass industry after the dissolution of Perrin & Geddes, and also crop up in the Manchester area. Josiah Perrin, who had an interest in the glass works at Bank Quay, was in partnership in the Warrington-based company of Alderson, Perrin & Robinson by 1824. There was a glass manufacturer called William Robinson up and running in Manchester by the 1830s, though we do not know if he was related to the Robinsons of Warrington. It is unclear to what extent the Perrins and Robinsons of Warrington were connected to the Manchester glass industry.
On the 1828 commercial directory of Manchester, there are three relevant entries
GLASS CUTTERS and DEALERS
Josiah Perrin, 21 Market Street
GLASS MANUFACTURERS AND MERCHANTS
WARRINGTON BANK QUAY GLASS CO. (cut and plain) 5 Exchange Street
GLASS MANUFACTURERS
Alderson, Perrin & Robinson (flint and watch) Cock hedge (a Warrington address)
This would suggest that Josiah Perrin may have been operating as an agent for Warrington glass companies in Manchester. The earliest date for him in Manchester is 1825, when he is listed as a freemason living in the area. This behaviour would square with the Bank Quay Glass Company, which had agents and listings in Liverpool and Manchester whilst being based in Warrington. Josiah Perrin was still in Manchester at the time of the 1836 commercial directory, working as an agent for Alderson & Co, but also had a sideline as a cigar importer.
Dissolution of the founding partnership
Notice is hereby given, that the partnership lately subsisting between us, the undersigned, carrying on the trade of glass manufacturers, at Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, under the firm of "Maginnis, Molineaux, and Company," is this day dissolved by mutual consent, so far as relates to the said William Maginnis. All debts owing to or by the said copartnership, will be received and paid by Thomas Molineaux, Owen Ellis, Thomas Webb, and Boulton Molineaux, the remaining partners by whom the business will be carried on in future.
As witness our hands this eleventh day of August, 1831.
WILLIAM MAGINNIS,
THOMAS MOLINEAUX,
OWEN ELLIS,
THOMAS WEBB,
BOULTON MOLINEAUX
Glass Displays at the V&A Museum, London
The panels describing the glass industry in the 17th to 19th centuries show the focus in Lancashire shifting from Warrington to Manchester.
First sighting of the factory on a map?
This early map of Ancoats was published in 1831 but may have been compiled a year or so earlier.
We think the Molineaux & Webb factory was constructed in early 1827, situated on the south side of Kirby Street, and expanded eastwards along the road in later years. It is unclear if this map captures the factory or shows the situation just prior to its construction. The Manchester Rate Books of 1831 place a much smaller value on the factory than in later decades, so it is possible that in the first few years it was quite a small enterprise, nestled at the corner of Kirby Street and Canal Street. Certainly by the 1840s it had grown much larger and would have replaced some of the buildings seen here on the south side of Kirby Street.
"Molineaux" and the company name
The name of the company has caused a great deal of confusion due to spelling errors in contemporary newspapers and other sources. Typically this centres on the family name of "Molineaux", which was only ever used one way by the company, but has been transcribed as "Molineux", "Molyneux", "Mollicone" (!) etc in various sources. This has led to a claim that the company changed its name in the 1860s from Molineux to Molineaux, but this is not correct. The error arose because their first pattern registration in 1846 wrongly named the company as "Molineux & Co", and then the correct company name was used on the next registration in 1864.
Perhaps the wildest transcription error has to go to a journal of 1857 which called the company "Webb and Ellis", a name which it never held at any point.
The most reliable sources to consult are official legal notices in Gazettes.
During the time of the Webb family involvement, the company name was:
1827-1831: Maginnis, Molineaux, and Company - short form: Maginnis, Molineaux, & Co.
1831-1848: Molineaux, Webb, Ellis, and Company - short form: Molineaux, Webb, Ellis, & Co.
1848-1887: Molineaux, Webb, and Company - short form: Molineaux, Webb, & Co.
1887-1929: Molineaux, Webb, and Company Limited - short form: Molineaux, Webb, & Co. Ltd
Also known as the "Manchester Flint Glass Works" throughout its history.
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