James Goldsworthy

Mineral Water Manufacturer


    James Goldsworthy was born in Bristol in 1826, baptised at St. Philip and Jacob's on 26th March, son of a Bellows-maker named Martin Goldsworthy and his wife Sarah Sanders who had married in the same church on 12th June 1814.
    On 22nd April 1839, James appears in the Bristol Apprenticeship Books as apprenticed to Thomas Prichard, Brush and Bellows Maker to be educated as a Bellows Maker. In 1841 James is living with parents in Barton Vale, St. Philips.
    James married Mary Ann Thomas, daughter of William Thomas, a gardener of North Petherton, Somerset, at St. George's Church, Birmingham on 6th Nov. 1848. James is stated as a Bellows Maker as is Martin, his father, on the marriage record. The couple are living at Constitution Hill, Birmingham.

    By 1851 they are living at 7 Court, New Canal Street, Birmingham St. Peter, and James is employed as a Soda Water Maker although he has a Bellows-maker named Jeremiah Aston as a lodger. They had a son William Martin, born 1849, bapt. 26 Sept. 1849 at Saint Martin, Birmingham. Also a daughter Sarah Jane was born in Birmingham in 1851. Births of daughters Hester (21st Nov.1854, bapt. Bristol 11th Nov. 1860), Mary Ann (10th Oct.1860, bapt. 11th Nov.), Emily (23rd Dec. 1861 Reg. 1863, bapt. 25th Jan. 1863) and son James Henry (b. 8th Aug. 1867, bapt. 1st Sept. at St. Philip & Jacob's, Bristol) were registered in Clifton, Bristol. Some time in the 1850's the family return to Bristol, and are living at 5 New Bread Street, St. Philips by 1861, where James has returned to his old trade as a Bellows Maker. By 1871, however, he is a Soda Water Bottler once more, still living in New Bread Street. By 1879 he has moved to 10 Chapel Street. During the 1880's his premises move a couple of times, in 1891-92 we find him at 5 Unity Street, St. Philips, opposite the Midland Railway Station, this house, which was on a weekly rental, was sold by auction on 2nd Nov. 1892. James died in 1893.

    James must have kept a link with the soda water trade in Birmingham, because for some reason yet to be discovered, in 1888, he is owner of bottles with the name J. Cresswell & Co. of Smethwick, Cresswell was still trading at the time, so some sort of partnership must have been made. In a Birmingham and district Bottle Exchange court case of December 1886, Cresswell stated quite categorically that he had never sold any of his bottles. (Birmingham Daily Post - Tuesday 21st December 1886) This is very interesting for the collectors of bottles, because Cresswell unusually used blue glass in many of his bottles, and also had links with the Keystone Company of Bristol and Birmingham. Cresswell & Co. were absorbed by Dudley District Breweries Ltd. in October1896 although Joseph Cresswell was still manufacturing in 1901. James Goldsworthy's son William Martin Goldsworthy went into partnership with Henry Boyce & Son of Meadow Street, St. Paul's, trading as Boyce & Goldsworthy. Possibly as the result of the death of James Goldsworthy, partnership was dissolved and the company was sold by tender as a going concern on 18th October 1893. The company carried on trading as Boyce, Son & Co. until at least 1897 and William Martin Goldsworthy was certainly running it in 1896. William Martin Goldsworthy died two years later, on 15th March 1898, at 12 Meadow Street, St. Paul's, Bristol. He was, at the time, both a draper and mineral water manufacturer. He left his estate to widow Hannah Louisa Goldsworthy née Burton, who he had married in Bristol in 1878. The Meadow Street company was finally absorbed into the firm of C. E. Beavis after William's death.

    James Goldsworthy's daughter Emily married George Gazzard, another Bristol aerated water manufacturer who was at 10 Regent Street, St Philips. They married in Bristol on 21st March 1891.  It is very likely that it was George Gazzard who took over James's plant in St. Philip's after James died.

10oz Bullet Stopper Bottle Goldsworthy1.jpg
Embossed:  GOLDSWORTHY / TRADE MARK / BRISTOL
(trade mark is a shield in circle with motto: "Toujours Le Premier").



Makers: Powell & Ricketts / Bristol.

10oz Bullet Stopper Bottle Goldsworthy2.jpgGoldsworthy3.jpg
Embossed:  GOLDSWORTHY / REGISTERED / TRADE MARK / BRISTOL
(trade mark is a shield in circle with motto: "Toujours Le Premier").

Makers: LUMB & CO.  / MAKERS / CASTLEFORD


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