James Shears and Sons
Encyclopedia
James Shears and Sons was a firm of London coppersmith
s and braziers who were active from c1785 to 1891. The firm was founded by James Shears (c1750-1820) and continued by his two sons Daniel Towers Shears (1784-1860) and James Henry Shears (1788-1855) and subsequently by William Shears.
). In 1770 the first mention occurs of William Gore at 67 Fleet-market, the address at which the company was to remain until at least 1822. By 1779 Gore had taken James Shears into partnership and the firm became Gore & Shears. In about 1785 Gore either retired or died and Shears continued the business in his name alone. Both Gore and Shears were members of the London livery company, the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers
. In 1799 he was elected to the Corporation of the City of London
as Councillor for the ward of Farringdon Without
.
In 1810 Shears and his sons still appear to have been resident in the Fleet Market premises at Fleet Market, but at the time of his death James Shears had a house at The Oval
, Kennington
.
Much of the company's business at this period appears to have been as suppliers to the brewing trade, especially of the copper
vats used in beer
-making process. They also manufactured boiler
s for steam engine
s and so established close and enduring links with the Birmingham firm of Boulton and Watt
, the leading manufacturers of steam engines. Several instances are known of Boulton & Watt recommending Shears to customers who had purchased an engine and required a suitable boiler. Later the company also had connections with the sugar refining industry as evidenced by the patent granted to Daniel Towers Shears in 1850 (see below) and his subsequent connection with the Glucose Sugar and Colouring Co Ltd.
. The company was still at this address in 1822 (when a fire broke out at the premises described as extending "from the west side of the Market to Shoe-lane"). By this time Fleet Market
was becoming increasingly dilapidated and by 1834 at the very latest Shears & Co had acquired freehold property at 27 Bankside
on the Southwark
bank of the Thames
. This remained their main base for the rest of the company's existence. However, the evidence of contemporary directories and newspaper items shows that during its existence the company occupied other sites in and around London at one time or another including 22-24 Fleet Market (in 1811 where they had a lease on property that was due to expire in 1813); 25 Fleet Market (in 1815); 60 Lower Shadwell (also in 1815). They had copper
rolling mills at Merton
, Surrey (where they were in possession by 1815 and continued there until 1867): in 1819 they obtained a steam engine to power these mills from Boulton and Watt
. In 1867 the company's property included the copperworks, two wharves, an engineering works and other adjacent premises at Bankside, the copper mills at Merton and manufacturing premises at New Park Street, Southwark
.
and brass
manufacture or to industries which used utensils made of these materials:
1817 Machine to cool liquids, e.g. in the process of distillation or brewing. (This has been described as the first true heat-exchanger)
1824 Manufacture of zinc (with his brother James Henry Shears and Frederick Benecke)
1830 Apparatus for distilling (subsequently described as "a bad imitation of the Pistorius still
")
1845 Production of ingots of zinc from ores
1847 Treatment of zinc ores to produce ingots
1850 Manufacture and refining of sugar
1853 Improvements in brewing
In 1842 Daniel Towers Shears married his second wife, a Maria Dickenson; at the time he was living at The Lawn, South Lambeth and this was still his home at the time of his death in 1860. Maria Shears died in 1862.
, he speculated in a number of concerns which often had little connection with the company's core business. In some of these his brother was also a partner, but probably only in a passive capacity.
The first of these was the Real del Monte Company which was formed in 1824 by John Taylor (1779-1863), the mining engineer and entrepreneur, to operate silver mines in Mexico
. Shears was closely involved and one of the directors of the company. Another company formed by Taylor later in the same year was the British Iron Company
: Shears was one of three managing directors, together with Taylor and Robert Small, until 1826 when he was obliged to resign as a result of dissatisfaction among the shareholders at the management of the company.
Also in 1824 Shears formed the Llangennech
Coal Company to work the coal under an estate to the east of Llanelli
in south Wales. This estate had been leased from Edward Rose Tunno (1800-1863), a rich young man whose income appears to have derived from slave plantations in Jamaica
. In this concern Shears was joined by his brother and by two London merchants, Thomas Margrave and William Ellwand. The property included the derelict Spitty copperworks which the Shears brothers (on their own) proceeded to re-open in 1824. The following year, on the opposite bank of the river Llwchwr, they built a new zinc works at Loughor
(or possibly re-activated an existing one) where they intended to produce zinc
using the recently granted patent of 1824. These two enterprises were obviously intended to be complementary to one another in providing the materials required for the manufacture of brass
, part of the core business of James Shears & Sons.
Shears, Margrave and Tunno further collaborated in acquiring mining property in Cornwall in 1825; Shears is also believed to have had interests in copper mining in north Wales.
The copper and zinc works proved unsuccessful. The zinc works was offered for sale in 1825 almost as soon as it had been completed and the copperworks closed in 1831. Copper prices had fallen steeply since 1825 and the Llangennech Coal Company was proving more costly than had been expected since difficulties were being experienced in reaching coal in a new pit that had been started in 1825. Despite this the partners in the Coal Company, with seven others, formed the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co in 1827 to build a new deep-water dock in Llanelli
and a railway to connect it to the new pit then in the process of sinking. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1828 (9 Geo. 4 c. xci) but work on the railway and dock did not start until after coal had been proved in the pit in June 1832. Shortly afterwards, in December 1832, the Shears brothers withdrew from the Coal Company but James Henry Shears retained an interest in the coal industry, becoming involved with the Broadoak colliery at Loughor
in 1834.
A likely factor contributing to Shears' disengagement from the Llangennech Company was the situation in which the affairs of the British Iron Company
were then placed; this must have required much of his attention and finance. Immediately after its formation the company had invested heavily in taking out mineral leases, in setting up new ironworks and in buying new ones. Following dissatisfaction among the shareholders Shears was compelled to resign as a director in 1826 but he continued as one of three trustees of the company's property. The most serious issue concerned the Corngreaves estate near Dudley
in the west Midlands for which the company had paid an excessive price at a time of high iron prices in 1825. Following a collapse in the market Shears and his fellow trustees commenced legal action to have the contract revised. The case with appeals lasted from 1826 until 1838; the final result was against the company and led eventually to its collapse.
At the time of his death in 1855 James Henry Shears lived at Streatham Hill.
, described as coppersmiths, engineers and millwrights, until 1891 when a sale of its assets by order of the mortgagees took place. No subsequent reference to the company has been found.
family of Norfolk
; they were also senior employees at the Anchor Brewery, Southwark
. James Shears's youngest daughter, Lydia (1794-1855), was married to John Gray (1791-1826) of the Gray and Dacre Brewery
, West Ham
, Essex
.
As further evidence of the close relationship between the coppersmiths of the Shears family and the brewers of the Spurrell family, James Shears's eldest son Daniel Towers Shears married Frances Spurrell, the youngest sister of James and Charles Spurrell (so three Shears siblings married three Spurrell siblings). Furthermore, Rebecca, the eldest daughter of James Spurrell and Rebecca Shears, went on to become the wife of another important brewer, James Watney
.
Coppersmith
A coppersmith, also known as a redsmith, is a person who makes artifacts from copper. The term redsmith comes from the colour of copper....
s and braziers who were active from c1785 to 1891. The firm was founded by James Shears (c1750-1820) and continued by his two sons Daniel Towers Shears (1784-1860) and James Henry Shears (1788-1855) and subsequently by William Shears.
The origins of the company
James Shears was born in about 1750, the son of Thomas Shears (1709 - 1778) and Sarah Towers (? - 1766). He was baptised at All Saint's Church, Ockham, Surrey on 2 September 1750 . James Shears was married to Ann Pitcher on 16 June 1772 at St Giles, Cripplegate, London. His death on 25 June 1820 at the age of 70 is recorded in the Morning Chronicle, 26 June 1820. He entered the copper trade at the age of about 12, probably in the workshop of the coppersmith William Gore. Gore first appears in London directories in 1768 with premises at Fleet-ditch (an earlier name for Fleet MarketFleet Market
The Fleet Market was a market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet. The market was located approximately where the modern Farringdon Street stands today, to the west of the Smithfield livestock market....
). In 1770 the first mention occurs of William Gore at 67 Fleet-market, the address at which the company was to remain until at least 1822. By 1779 Gore had taken James Shears into partnership and the firm became Gore & Shears. In about 1785 Gore either retired or died and Shears continued the business in his name alone. Both Gore and Shears were members of the London livery company, the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers
Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers
The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Armourers' Guild was established in 1322; it received a Royal Charter in 1453. Other Companies, including the Armour Repairers, merged with the Armourers. In 1708, brass workers joined the...
. In 1799 he was elected to the Corporation of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
as Councillor for the ward of Farringdon Without
Farringdon Without
Farringdon Without is a Ward in the City of London, England. The Ward covers the western fringes of the City, including the Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Smithfield Market and St Bartholomew's Hospital, as well as the area east of Chancery Lane...
.
In 1810 Shears and his sons still appear to have been resident in the Fleet Market premises at Fleet Market, but at the time of his death James Shears had a house at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, Kennington
Kennington
Kennington is a district of South London, England, mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, although part of the area is within the London Borough of Southwark....
.
Much of the company's business at this period appears to have been as suppliers to the brewing trade, especially of the copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
vats used in beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
-making process. They also manufactured boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
s for steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s and so established close and enduring links with the Birmingham firm of Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
, the leading manufacturers of steam engines. Several instances are known of Boulton & Watt recommending Shears to customers who had purchased an engine and required a suitable boiler. Later the company also had connections with the sugar refining industry as evidenced by the patent granted to Daniel Towers Shears in 1850 (see below) and his subsequent connection with the Glucose Sugar and Colouring Co Ltd.
Premises
The company's original premises which were taken over from William Gore were at 67 Fleet MarketFleet Market
The Fleet Market was a market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet. The market was located approximately where the modern Farringdon Street stands today, to the west of the Smithfield livestock market....
. The company was still at this address in 1822 (when a fire broke out at the premises described as extending "from the west side of the Market to Shoe-lane"). By this time Fleet Market
Fleet Market
The Fleet Market was a market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet. The market was located approximately where the modern Farringdon Street stands today, to the west of the Smithfield livestock market....
was becoming increasingly dilapidated and by 1834 at the very latest Shears & Co had acquired freehold property at 27 Bankside
Bankside
Bankside is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance before London Bridge at St Mary Overie Dock to...
on the Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
bank of the Thames
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
. This remained their main base for the rest of the company's existence. However, the evidence of contemporary directories and newspaper items shows that during its existence the company occupied other sites in and around London at one time or another including 22-24 Fleet Market (in 1811 where they had a lease on property that was due to expire in 1813); 25 Fleet Market (in 1815); 60 Lower Shadwell (also in 1815). They had copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
rolling mills at Merton
Merton (historic parish)
Merton was an ancient parish in the Brixton hundred of Surrey, England. It was bounded by Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Morden to the south and Kingston upon Thames to the west. The 1871 Ordnance Survey map records its area as . The parish was centred around the 12th century parish...
, Surrey (where they were in possession by 1815 and continued there until 1867): in 1819 they obtained a steam engine to power these mills from Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
. In 1867 the company's property included the copperworks, two wharves, an engineering works and other adjacent premises at Bankside, the copper mills at Merton and manufacturing premises at New Park Street, Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
.
Daniel Towers Shears
Daniel Towers Shears appears to have been responsible for the day-to-day running of the company by 1810. During his career he took out a number of patents , all clearly related to the business of copperCopper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
manufacture or to industries which used utensils made of these materials:
1817 Machine to cool liquids, e.g. in the process of distillation or brewing. (This has been described as the first true heat-exchanger)
1824 Manufacture of zinc (with his brother James Henry Shears and Frederick Benecke)
1830 Apparatus for distilling (subsequently described as "a bad imitation of the Pistorius still
Still
A still is a permanent apparatus used to distill miscible or immiscible liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor...
")
1845 Production of ingots of zinc from ores
1847 Treatment of zinc ores to produce ingots
1850 Manufacture and refining of sugar
1853 Improvements in brewing
In 1842 Daniel Towers Shears married his second wife, a Maria Dickenson; at the time he was living at The Lawn, South Lambeth and this was still his home at the time of his death in 1860. Maria Shears died in 1862.
James Henry Shears
James Henry Shears, the younger of the two brothers, appears to have had a more adventurous streak than his older brother. In the 1820s, during a period of national economic euphoriaEuphoria
Euphoria is an emotional and mental state defined as a sense of great elation and well being.Euphoria may also refer to:* Euphoria , a genus of scarab beetles* Euphoria, a genus name previously used for the longan and other trees...
, he speculated in a number of concerns which often had little connection with the company's core business. In some of these his brother was also a partner, but probably only in a passive capacity.
The first of these was the Real del Monte Company which was formed in 1824 by John Taylor (1779-1863), the mining engineer and entrepreneur, to operate silver mines in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Shears was closely involved and one of the directors of the company. Another company formed by Taylor later in the same year was the British Iron Company
British Iron Company
The British Iron Company was formed in 1824 to smelt and manufacture iron and to mine ironstone, coal, etc. It was re-formed as the New British Iron Company in 1843 and wound up in 1892.-British Iron Company :...
: Shears was one of three managing directors, together with Taylor and Robert Small, until 1826 when he was obliged to resign as a result of dissatisfaction among the shareholders at the management of the company.
Also in 1824 Shears formed the Llangennech
Llangennech
Llangennech is a village in the area of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, West Wales, United Kingdom.It is governed by Carmarthenshire County Council and Llanelli Rural council. It falls in the Llanelli parliament Constituency. Llangennech is also the name of an electoral ward coterminous with the village...
Coal Company to work the coal under an estate to the east of Llanelli
Llanelli
Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...
in south Wales. This estate had been leased from Edward Rose Tunno (1800-1863), a rich young man whose income appears to have derived from slave plantations in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. In this concern Shears was joined by his brother and by two London merchants, Thomas Margrave and William Ellwand. The property included the derelict Spitty copperworks which the Shears brothers (on their own) proceeded to re-open in 1824. The following year, on the opposite bank of the river Llwchwr, they built a new zinc works at Loughor
Loughor
Loughor is a town in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Loughor. The town has a community council called Llwchwr....
(or possibly re-activated an existing one) where they intended to produce zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
using the recently granted patent of 1824. These two enterprises were obviously intended to be complementary to one another in providing the materials required for the manufacture of brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
, part of the core business of James Shears & Sons.
Shears, Margrave and Tunno further collaborated in acquiring mining property in Cornwall in 1825; Shears is also believed to have had interests in copper mining in north Wales.
The copper and zinc works proved unsuccessful. The zinc works was offered for sale in 1825 almost as soon as it had been completed and the copperworks closed in 1831. Copper prices had fallen steeply since 1825 and the Llangennech Coal Company was proving more costly than had been expected since difficulties were being experienced in reaching coal in a new pit that had been started in 1825. Despite this the partners in the Coal Company, with seven others, formed the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co in 1827 to build a new deep-water dock in Llanelli
Llanelli
Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...
and a railway to connect it to the new pit then in the process of sinking. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1828 (9 Geo. 4 c. xci) but work on the railway and dock did not start until after coal had been proved in the pit in June 1832. Shortly afterwards, in December 1832, the Shears brothers withdrew from the Coal Company but James Henry Shears retained an interest in the coal industry, becoming involved with the Broadoak colliery at Loughor
Loughor
Loughor is a town in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Loughor. The town has a community council called Llwchwr....
in 1834.
A likely factor contributing to Shears' disengagement from the Llangennech Company was the situation in which the affairs of the British Iron Company
British Iron Company
The British Iron Company was formed in 1824 to smelt and manufacture iron and to mine ironstone, coal, etc. It was re-formed as the New British Iron Company in 1843 and wound up in 1892.-British Iron Company :...
were then placed; this must have required much of his attention and finance. Immediately after its formation the company had invested heavily in taking out mineral leases, in setting up new ironworks and in buying new ones. Following dissatisfaction among the shareholders Shears was compelled to resign as a director in 1826 but he continued as one of three trustees of the company's property. The most serious issue concerned the Corngreaves estate near Dudley
Dudley
Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
in the west Midlands for which the company had paid an excessive price at a time of high iron prices in 1825. Following a collapse in the market Shears and his fellow trustees commenced legal action to have the contract revised. The case with appeals lasted from 1826 until 1838; the final result was against the company and led eventually to its collapse.
At the time of his death in 1855 James Henry Shears lived at Streatham Hill.
Later history of the Company
Following the death of Daniel Towers Shears a dispute concerning his estate arose between Frances Shears (probably his daughter) and his wife's family, the reasons for which are not clear. His assets were ordered to be sold by the Court of Chancery and a series of sales took place in 1867 of the premises of the company and its stock, stores and equipment. Whatever the outcome of these sales the company continued to trade under its original name and was controlled by Daniel's son William Shears. It remained at 17 and 27 BanksideBankside
Bankside is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance before London Bridge at St Mary Overie Dock to...
, described as coppersmiths, engineers and millwrights, until 1891 when a sale of its assets by order of the mortgagees took place. No subsequent reference to the company has been found.
Daughters of James Shears
As well as his two sons who succeeded to the management of the business, James Shears had several daughters, three of whom married brewers, which demonstrates how close the relationship between coppersmiths and brewers was. Rebecca Shears (1786-?) was married to James Spurrell (1776-1840) and Hannah Shears (1790-1882) to Charles Spurrell – James and Charles were brothers and members of the SpurrellSpurrell
Spurrell is a surname found in a number of parts of England and Wales, as well as other parts of the world.- The Spurrells of Norfolk, England :...
family of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
; they were also senior employees at the Anchor Brewery, Southwark
Anchor Brewery, Southwark
The Anchor Brewery, Southwark, was situated off Southwark Bridge Road and had its main entrance on Park Street, Southwark.- History :The brewery was established in 1616 by James Monger and for many years was a relatively small concern. In the 18th century it was owned by the Thrale family, who were...
. James Shears's youngest daughter, Lydia (1794-1855), was married to John Gray (1791-1826) of the Gray and Dacre Brewery
Gray and Dacre Brewery
The Gray and Dacre Brewery operated in West Ham, Essex, in the first half of the 19th century.It was set up by John Gray and a member of the Dacre family, which was resident in West Ham for several generations until the 1860s...
, West Ham
West Ham
West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-War social housing...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
As further evidence of the close relationship between the coppersmiths of the Shears family and the brewers of the Spurrell family, James Shears's eldest son Daniel Towers Shears married Frances Spurrell, the youngest sister of James and Charles Spurrell (so three Shears siblings married three Spurrell siblings). Furthermore, Rebecca, the eldest daughter of James Spurrell and Rebecca Shears, went on to become the wife of another important brewer, James Watney
James Watney
James Watney was a brewer and landowner who resided at Haling Park, Croydon, and Beddington, Surrey. He was born to Daniel Watney of Mitcham, Surrey and Mary Galpin , daughter of James Galpin of Mitcham, Surrey...
.
Descendants of James Shears
- Reverend Frederick SpurrellFrederick SpurrellThe Reverend Frederick Spurrell was the second son, and seventh of eight children, of Charles Spurrell and Hannah Shears . He was descended from the Spurrell family of Thurgarton, Norfolk....
, M.A., A.K.C. (1824-1902), grandson. - Reverend Augustus ShearsAugustus ShearsThe Reverend Augustus Shears was the sixth and youngest son of Daniel Towers Shears , a partner of James Shears and Sons, and Frances Spurrell , daughter of John Spurrell of Bessingham, Norfolk....
, M.A. (1827-1911), grandson. - Flaxman Charles John SpurrellFlaxman Charles John SpurrellFlaxman Charles John Spurrell , the archaeologist, geologist and photographer, was born in Mile End, Stepney, London, the eldest son of Dr. Flaxman Spurrell, M.D., F.R.C.S., and Ann Spurrell...
, F.G.S. (1842-1915), great-grandson. - Reverend Ernest Henry ShearsErnest Henry ShearsThe Reverend Ernest Henry Shears was an Anglican clergyman in South Africa.Ernest Henry Shears was the ninth son of James Henry Shears , a partner of James Shears and Sons, and Mary Mann...
, M.A. (1849-1917), grandson. - Herbert Wrigley WilsonHerbert Wrigley WilsonHerbert Wrigley Wilson , known often only as H. W. Wilson, was a British journalist and naval historian.He was the eldest son of the Reverend George Edwin Wilson and, like three of his five brothers, became a journalist...
(1866-1940), great-great-grandson. - Herbert George Flaxman SpurrellHerbert George Flaxman SpurrellHerbert George Flaxman Spurrell , the biologist, physician and author, was the only son of the architect Herbert Spurrell and Harriet Rebecca Blaxland...
, M.B., M.A., F.Z.S. (1877-1918), great-great-grandson. - Constance WatneyConstance WatneyConstance Watney, M.B.E., C.O.C., S.R.N., M.B.C.N., was a British born missionary nurse in Uganda.-Early Years:Constance Watney was born in 1878 in Beddington, Surrey...
(1878-1947), great-great-granddaughter. - Major-General Philip James ShearsPhilip James ShearsMajor-General Philip James Shears CB was the only son of James Charles Shears, a mechanical engineer from Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, and Beatrice Jane Margaret Dumas, and was born on 6 April 1887 in Surbiton, Surrey...
, C.B. (1887-1972), great-great-great-grandson.