The Pickeirng / Hayes Family Business Connection

“The Athenaeum: a magazine of literary and miscellaneous information, 1807, Volume 2 – Bankrupts, July 1807" Edited by John Aikin
Joseph Pickering, Frodsham Cheshire, corn-merchant,m June 22, 23, and July 11, at eleven, at the Globe Tavern, John-street, Liverpool. (Windle, John-street, Bedford-row; and Griffith, Lower Castle-street, Liverpool.)

From: “An account of the ancient town of Frodsham in Cheshire”, pg. 211, by William Beamont
“… In the year 1803, when England was threatened with invasion, and an immense army was gathered on the opposite coast, under the command of General Napoleon Buonaparte, the spirit of the country was roused, and volunteers were everywhere raised to defend the country;
And none were for a party,
But all were for the State.
Frodsham was not behind the rest of the country in raising a regiment of her own, and we are fortunately able to give a list of the officers.

The Frodsham Volunteers.
Major-Commandant: Daniel Ashley – 20th August 1803.
Captains: John Nuttall, George Whieley, William Ashley, Joseph Pickering – 20th August 1803
Lieutenants: William Hayes, John Wright, John Mauley, Joseph Ones – 20th August, 1803.
etc…”

[Ed.] Note that Joseph Pickering signed up for the army in the year he was declaired bankrupt.

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Note to be confirmed for this William Pickering:
From Dissertation by Peter E Swift: “The Port of Frodsham”
“The fortunes of the port now rested with anyone who was prepared to use the tidal resources, the existing quays and warehouses and develop locally based trades. Only the salt-producing business of Crosbie and Urmson continued in its role, passing into the hands of another local businessman, William Pickering, in 1832.”

Advertisement from Worrall's directory of Warrington, 1876.

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From: Dissertation by Peter E Swift: “The Port of Frodsham”, Chapter 4
"Earlier Wiliam Hayes II had a daughter [Ann] who married Joseph Pickering, another commercial family in Frodsham.  Much later we learn of the demise of the business, which changed its management over time.  The Hayes family left a permanent mark on Frodsham in their graves and memorials in St. Lawrence’s churchyard, as did the Pickerings."

“… From 1773-1817 it traded as Crosbie and Urmson; from 18171-1832 it was Urmson and Dawson and from 1832, upon the death of Urmson, to 1852 it was William Pickering associated with William Hayes. In 1832 the Saltworks and other property belonging to the late Thomas Urmson was sold to William Pickering and William Hayes”.

“… The demise of the salt works is described in detail the Warrington Guardian of 1856 when James Pickering & Co of Frodsham sold by auction ‘the whole of the plant and material used there in the manufacture of salt’  By this time, the trade in salt had long since by-passed the port of Frodsham. [Warrington Guardian, 12 April 1856 and 12 May 1856.This sale included two iron boats. The sale was without reserve’ as the works are entirely discontinued and the premises are engaged for other purposes not connected with the salt trade’.]”

“… Pigot’s Directory of both 1822/3 and 1828/9 lists Hayes and Urmson as shipbuilders, which could mean that Hayes was supported and possibly financed by the salt partnership. The Sutton tithe apportionment of 1845 records William Hayes II as holding the dock and dockyard as well as a related house, and close by, J.R. [John Rigby] Pickering and William Hazlehurst held the machine house, wharf, yard and lime-kiln. These three family names crop up time and time again over the years, involved in local commerce, as well as working agricultural land”.

“… Bagshaw’s Directory of 1850 records Wm. Hayes and Son, shipbuilders and slate merchants and James Pickering & Co, coal ,lime,timber and slate merchants.  Muir’s 1874 Directory notes  William Hayes Pickering, coal, lime and tile merchant”.

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Pigot’s Commercial Directory of 1834 lists the following:
• William Pickering and Son had the principal trade in salt;
• William Haslehurst and William Pickering were corn dealers;
• William Hayes and Co., shipbuilders
• Hayes and Pickering were slate and timber merchants
• Thomas Hazlehurst provided occasional conveyance by water to and from Liverpool.”

“… The merchants lived in the town, especially in Main Street, where William Pickering, George and James Rigby, corn dealers and William Hayes resided. A much more comprehensive view emerges from the 1851 census.  We have a collection of ship’s carpenters, sawyers, engine drivers, railway labourers and labourers at the chemical works, probably Heywood and Massie, plus one or two mariners . An extension of the Quay into the saltworks records James Pickering and his family, then owners of the works, whose wife is shown as farming 103 acres, and several salt boilers who probably needed to live on site. Ship Street housed many labourers at the chemical works. In Main Street Frodsham, as well as the merchants John Rigby Pickering, John Higson Hayes and his son William, lived many chemical and railway labourers, carpenters and mariners.

“…The Hayes family also farmed 100 acres. By the 1861 census things had changed both on the Quay and on Main  Street. Many small traders now lived in Main Street as the town expanded, as well as widow, Ann Heyes at number 180. A few shipwrights remained.  Ann Pickering,  wife of  Joseph, lived  at  the  saltworks as did  William  Hayes Pickering,  son of William Pickering, now  a coal  and lime merchant; the  salt  boilers  had  disappeared. Three ship’s carpenters remained as did Thomas Acton, a retired ship builder.  By 1871 almost the entire male inhabitants of both the Quay and Ship Street worked either at the Chemical works or the Bone works. Ships’ carpenters had either retired or moved away.

The Web site www.PickeringFamilyHistory.com, based in Phoenix, Arizona, produced by Connie [Pickering] Stover, a  descendant  of  the  Pickering  family,  gives an  insight  into what  happened  to some of the more ambitious local business men. They migrated to Liverpool and found employment there. For example, Charles William Harrison Pickering (1815-81) eventually became a partner in Schroeders, Merchant Bankers. Peter Pickering (1785-1865), son of John Pickering, b.1744, Corn merchant at Frodsham and father of eleven children, became associated with the Baltic timber trade, based at Liverpool, as did his older brother James.

He [Peter] married a Danziger and established a large family connection there. He wrote a diary, which recounts his early life at the mill in Frodsham. He says that his father ‘resolved to rent a manufactory (at Frodsham Bridge), the largest of its kind in Great Britain, which was then being in the process of being built’. The family actually lived in the warehouse during its construction and he was born there.

[A chance contact revealed the existence of the Web site based in Arizona, and discussed above. The extensive family tree shows a welter of Pickerings, descended from Thomas Pickering of Norley, near Frodsham, alive in 1695, some of whom had distinguished careers in many parts of the world. They took their commercial acumen in the flour and corn milling, timber and finance, first to Liverpool, then Northern Europe and the U.S.A, as well as Australia and New Zealand.]