Hertfordshire Genealogy: Occupations: Hertfordshire Brickmakers in 1851

The main part of a Post Office/Kelly's County Directory listed the towns and villages in alphabetical order, with a description of each, later with details of the public institutions for the larger towns, followed by a list of the gentry, etc., (i.e. the well-to-do i the larger houses) in alphabetical order and a separate list of trades people, again in alphabetical order. If this was all, and you were looking for somebody by name, or with a particular trade, but did not know where they were in Hertfordshire, you would need to look at every town/village entry to find them. For this reason there was a Court Directory which listed all the gentry and a trades directory which lists traders alphabetically under trade headings.

The following names of Hertfordshire brick and tile makers have been extracted from the long list of brickmakers in the 1851 Post Office Court and Trade Directory for the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey & Sussex, which is available on CD from Archive CD Books.

Having got these names it is now possible to go to the County Directory for 1850 (which is available in the local studies section of a number of the larger public libraries in Hertfordshire) and find somewhat more detailed entries for each under the appropriate town.

Bennett William, brickmaker, Harpenden
Blackwell Charles, brickmaker, Bushey
Bryan Isaac, potter & brickmaker, Woodside, Hatfield
Bull George, brickmaker & farmer, Tring
Chapman John, farmer & brickmaker, Ashwell
Franklin Thomas, brickmaker & farmer, Bennet's end, Hemel Hempstead
Granby John Alexander, brickmaker, Common, Barnet
Lines George & Richard, chemists & druggists & brickmakers, Market Place, Hertford
Parker John, brickmaker, registrar of births and deaths, & parish clerk, Abbots Langley
Rogers Henry, brickmaker, Cheshunt street, Cheshunt
Snow John Henry, bricklayer, brick maker & lime burner, Hadham road, Bishop's Stortford
Yorke Wm. Builder, surveyor, & brickmaker, Turner's hill, Cheshunt
Young Henry, stonemason, brickmaker & lime burner, Hadham road, Bishop's Stortford

Judith White writes: One of Thomas Franklin daughters, Hannah, married into the Holinshead family. Thomas' occupation was "Brickmaker" when Hannah was baptised on 15 Feb 1816, and again when she married William Holinshead on Sept 11th 1837. In both cases, the source is the parish registers for the Parish Church in Hemel Hempstead. Thomas Franklin was my 4 times great grandfather. Hannah was the daughter of his first wife, Sophia nee Moore. According to the familysearch Thomas was baptised in Hemel Hempstead on 12 Sep 1779, the son of Michael Franklin and Martha.