BORN:

12th May 1810 Clerkenwell, Middlesex

MARRIED:

Martha Jane Denham of Manchester, born 11th May 1811, died 19th December 1870

KNOWN CHILDREN:

Emily Anne (c1837)

Anna Maria (c1839)

Julia Maud (c1846)

Caroline Jessie (c1851)

DIED:

20th July 1862 in Manchester

Buried 24th July 1862 in Manchester General Cemetery

Biography

David Wilkinson was born in Clerkenwell, London. From parish registers his parents are believed to be James Wilkinson and Ann Waters who married at St. Lawrence and St. Mary Magdalene Milk Street, London, in 1805.

The history of the Wilkinson family in London is not known. David's first appearance in Manchester is at his marriage of 1835, job listed as a bookkeeper. He next appears in a list of railway investors. By 1837 he had invested £250 in the London and Exeter Railway. His address was listed as 29 Every Street, Ancoats, Manchester (view Google Map), and he described himself as a merchant.

In 1839 his name appears on an invoice from the company of Molineaux Webb Ellis, to a customer in Macclesfield who had ordered some cut glass.

By the 1841 census he was listed as a commercial traveller and he had moved to Bradford Street, Ancoats. He may have moved on to Percival & Yates in their early days, and he registered two items under his own name in 1849, a basin and a butter. It is suspected both were produced by Percival Yates though there is no sign of these items in later Manchester catalogs. It is thought he joined Molineaux Webb once more as a business partner some time after the Ellis family left the partnership in 1848.

On the death of Thomas Molineaux in 1851, David Wilkinson was in partnership with Thomas Webb. After the retirement of Thomas Webb in 1859, David was in partnership with Thomas' son, Thomas George Webb.

David Wilkinson held the position of Chairman of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Association of Flint Glass Manufacturers at the time of the National Glass Strike. A letter that he sent to a local paper in February 1859 in this capacity can be read in Chapter 6 of the History section.

David Wilkinson died in 1862, leaving a large estate valued at under 25000 UKP. A brief notice in the newspaper reads:

July 20th, aged 52. David Wilkinson Esq, of the firm of Molineaux, Webb & Co., Manchester Flint Glass Works

Grave of David Wilkinson and wife at Manchester General Cemetery

Signature of David Wilkinson on a 1839 document

1841 CENSUS:

Job Title: Traveller

Address: Bradford Road, Ancoats, Manchester

Others: Living with wife and two children

1851 CENSUS:

Job Title: Flint Glass Manufacturer employing 100 men

Address: 12 Crescent, St Andrews Street, London Road District, Manchester

Others: Living with wife, mother (from London), three children and one servant

1861 CENSUS:

Job Title: Glass Manufacturer

Address: 2 Park Street, Ardwick, Manchester

Others: Living with wife, two children and one servant