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BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS VOL. XLIX THE GOLDNEY FAMILY A BRISTOL MERCHANT DYNASTY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Boston Public Library https://archive.org/details/goldneyfamilybriOOstem THE GOLDNEY FAMILY A BRISTOL MERCHANT DYNASTY BY P. K. STEMBRIDGE Published by BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY c/o Department of Historical Studies University of Bristol 13-15 Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1TB 1998 csm I IIS/ ISBN 0 901538 19 1 © P. K. Stembridge No part of this volume may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage or retrieval system. The Bristol Record Society acknowledges with thanks the continued support of Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol, the Bristol and West Building Society and the Society of Merchant Venturers. BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY President: The Lord Mayor of Bristol General Editor: Joseph Bettey, M.A., Ph.D., F.S.A. Assistant Editor: Miss Elizabeth Ralph, M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A. Secretary: David Large, M.A., B.Litt. Treasurer: James Fussell, M.Sc., C.Eng., MIMM. The Society exists to encourage the preservation, study and publication of documents relating to the history of Bristol, and since its foundation in 1929 has published forty-nine major volumes of historic documents concerning the city. All the volumes, together with their authoritative introductions, are edited by scholars who are experts in the chosen field. Recent volumes have included: Reformation and Revival in Eighteenth- Century Bristol, edited by Jonathan Barry and Kenneth Morgan (Vol. XLV), ', The Pre-Reformation Records of All Saints Bristol, edited by Clive Burgess , (Vol. XLVI) and the final part of Bristol Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade to America (1770-1807), edited by David Richardson (Vol. XLVII) and The Topography of Medieval and Early Modem Bristol, edited by Roger H. Leech (Vol. XLVIII). Forthcoming volumes will include a study of the government of Bristol during the later nineteenth century, the correspondence of Edward Southwell (MP for Bristol 1739-54), and records relating to the Atlantic trade of Bristol during the eighteenth century. In return for the modest subscription, members of the Society receive the volumes as they are published. The subscription for private members is £10.00 per annum, for U.K. institutions £12.50, and for Overseas membership £15.00. Subscriptions and enquiries should be made to the Hon. Secretary, Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol, 13-15 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB. Produced for the Society by J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd. Winterstoke Road Bristol BS3 2NT CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements vi Editorial Notes vii List of Abbreviations viii Foreword ix Part I: The Goldney family: a Bristol merchant dynasty Introduction 1 Thomas Goldney I 1620-1696 3 Thomas Goldney II 1664-1731 10 Thomas Goldney III 1696-1768 25 Part II: The Documents Thomas Goldney I 84 Thomas Goldney II 85 Thomas Goldney III 116 Appendix: Family trees 160 Index 167 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The suggestion for this volume and the general form it should take came from the Bristol Record Society’s editor, Dr. J. H. Bettey. I am grateful for this and also for his very generous help and encouragement throughout the process from idea to completion. The initial research began some years ago, and many individuals and friends connected with Goldney house and family and the staff of record offices and libraries have been helpful. In the early years, Mr. Ellison Eberle provided enthusiastic encouragement, and Mr. Hugh Dunsterville has generously lent family documents. The staff of record offices, Flintshire and Shropshire before they changed their names, Wiltshire and Bristol and the Society of Merchant Venturers have all provided facilities and help. I am grateful to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol for permission to reproduce material from the two principal Goldney collections of documents. In Senate House, Derek Allen arranged for the study of Goldney deeds and Mary Williams, former Bristol City archivist, supervised and helped with the recording. Recently Nicholas Lee and Michael Richardson of the Bristol University Library Special Collections have been extremely helpful. I am grateful to them all and to the various friends who have provided help and encouragement over the years. vi EDITORIAL NOTES Note on dates and transcription For much of the period covered by this study, i.e. up to 1752, the Old Style Julian Calendar was in use, with the New Year beginning on Lady Day, 25 March. March was counted as the first month and the following January and February as the eleventh and twelfth months of the same year. These two months were sometimes shown with the double year dating, i.e. 1725/6, or as 1725 O.S.. In 1752 the 11 days were caught up between 2 & 14 September; Thomas Goldney III makes a few references to this circumstance in his Day Book. In the narrative in Part I all dates previous to September 1752—and the ‘lost eleven days’—have been converted to the New Style. Dates as used in Quaker documents have generally been converted to the conventional days and months, rather than the numbers which the Friends preferred to use, e.g. First day for Sunday, seventh month for September, rather than the naming of days and months after heathen gods. Numbers and abbreviations remain in the transcriptions of the documents, e.g. 8:br for October, X :br for December. In the transcriptions from seventeenth and eighteenth century documents, as well as the original dating, the original spelling and capitalisation have been retained. Both the Goldneys, Thomas II and Thomas III, made much use of abbreviations with superscript. Throughout the transcriptions, superscript has not been used; abbreviations have generally been expanded when quoted in the text for easier reading, and often in the transcriptions for clarity. Vll ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXT B.R.O. Bristol Record Office B.R.S. Bristol Record Society F.F.B.J. Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal Flints. C.R.O. Flintshire County Record Office [now Clwyd] Glos. C.R.O. Gloucester Record Office O.S. Old Style dating P.R.O. Public Record Office S.B.L. Shrewsbury Borough Library [now Shropshire Records & Research Centre] S.M.V. Society of Merchant Venturers Som. R.O. Somerset Record Office S.R.O. Shropshire Record Office [now Shropshire Records & Research Centre] U.B. University of Bristol U.B.L. University of Bristol Library, Special Collections department Wilts. C.R.O. Wiltshire County Record Office Vlll