Table Of ContentBRISTOL 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.
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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
