Sugar refining in Gloucester ...

Gloucester gets no mention in 'Deerr' or 'Hutcheson' and maybe only served to process the excess Bristol imports that that city could not cope with, however it is surely worth mentioning here for there is evidence of small-scale refining for more than 100yrs.
Sugar refining, along with glassmaking, appears to have been confined to a small area called The Island, west of the city centre between the Foreign Bridge and the Westgate Bridge and abutting the River Severn.
In the late 17thC there were "one or two sugar refineries in the city".(1) In 1710 "standing by the riverside was a tall structure of four storeys and attics, possibly built as a sugar refinery" and this was still operating in 1722, however, in 1729, the refiner John Pinfold moved his business to Temple St, Bristol and a group of Bristol refiners took over the Gloucester premises for warehousing sugar destined for the Midlands.(1) It was William Barnes, George Daubeny, Edward Whitchurch, John Gifford, Michael Pope and Edward Curtis who took over the Gloucester premises at an annual rent of £6 on a lease of 42yrs. The contract was honoured for at least the next 21yrs even though some of the gentlemen fell by the wayside.(2) The sugarhouse was working 1750-60, but then again for sale, with suggestions that the Bristol refiners were once again involved in its closure. In 1768, Barnes and a Morgan Smith leased the sugarhouse formerly called Lower Glasshouse, "lately in possession of Daniel Ellis", to James and Joseph Cooper on the condition that "should they make and set up erect build raise or erect building structures for making baking refining selling bonding sugar for using exercising conveying on any branch of the trade or business of sugar baking or sugar refining" and it was mutually agreed by all that if the building was destroyed by fire the Coopers would pay £600 to Barnes & Smith.(3)
There must have been a second sugarhouse, for two timber merchants "occupied a former sugar house beside the river in 1736".(1) This could well have been the sugarhouse mentioned in a document dated 1725 & 1735 regarding a messuage late in possession of the partners of a sugarhouse near to the Westgate involving lands belonging to St Bartholomew's Hospital.(4)
The VCH reads "Sugar refining was re-established in the Island by Henry Ercks before 1799, when his premises were devastated by fire. In 1801, Ercks found new partners but the partnership was dissolved the following year and he was later declared bankrupt. In 1808 a brewery for porter and strong beer was built on the site of the sugar house." The London Gazette shows Henry's bankruptcy in 1802 that was probably brought about by the death of banker Samuel Niblett, one of the three bankers who put up his mortgage of £1000 for land to the west of the sugarhouse in 1796. Niblett's estate insisted on £500, which Henry Ercks did not have, being made over to others assumedly to pay Niblett's debts. Henry's children Mary, Louis & Ambrose were also mentioned in the document even though Mary was only 21 and Ambrose 14, both bpt in Christ Church, Spitalfields, London.(5) Henry Ercks had sold his London business in Wentworth St in 1794, before moving to Gloucester ... he died in Liverpool in 1827 aged 72.

1. Gloucestershire Victoria County History vol 4
2. BGAS Transactions 1965 vol 84
3. Gloc RO GDR/K2/4
4. Gloc RO GBR/J/1/2018B etc
5. Gloc RO D3117/784

The curious case of John Gardner's ledger ! ...

John Gardner was running the Cheltenham Original Brewery in about 1800. He used a very large ledger in which to record what appear to be small brewery accounts. Just who was John Gardner? Was this not his first business? Was he previously a sugar broker or was that possibly the trade of his family? Just why did John Gardner use a secondhand ledger for his brewery business and use it in such a way that would suggest every spare square inch of unused page was of great value???

This ledger is held at the Gloucester Record Office under reference D5130/6/1 and tucked in between the marbled front leaves is a short hand-written note dated 24 Sep 1953 from Peter Mathias of Jesus College, Cambridge, which begins, "This ledger has been used for two separate purposes. The original entries [double page folios] 1771-1778 are those of a Sugar Merchant's business, including actual sugar buying, selling, brokerage, interest charges etc; and an occasional cotton transaction. Superimposed on this, in double columns per page are the personal accounts of (doubtless) John Gardner's Brewery 1800-1807. These include many small trade accounts, bricklaying and so forth, and probably contain all private sales of beer for the years in question, though no sales to public houses. ... The question still remains over when Gardner was in the sugar business as well as brewer and banker, or his father before him."

Some of the names that head the double pages of the sugar entries read ... George Brucker, J&P Turquand, John Walker, Goodhart & Wittich, Ainswick & Burmester, Charles Cammeyer, Jasper & Eggars, Arney & Walker, Steilen & Doorman, George Deichman, Harman Samler, Helmken & Ratcliffe, Robert Walker, William Butt, and Thornton & Watson. Not all the names, by far, but enough to show quite some portfolio of London's top refiners of the time as well as Thornton & Watson of Hull, not only dealing in sugar but also borrowing money.
Harman Samler purchased sugar 1771 - £847 and cash 1772 - £471, 1774-77 £4017, paid off slowly.
Thornton & Watson dealt with him for only about 15 months - Feb 1771 to Apr 1772 - borrowing cash of £117, and purchasing sugar for a total of just over £3600, and all paid for promptly.
From 7 Oct 1773 to 17 Feb 1774 this broker traded 525 hogsheads of sugar from Jamaica, Grenada, St Kitts and St Vincent to the value of £9968.

So why is this ledger so peculiar .... take the Thornton & Watson pages - beautifully headed Thornton & Watson; three columns to the left of the page used for month, day, item sold; four columns to the right used for a number?, £, s, d; with the central columns blank and using just over half the length of the page. However, this is now added to in a less tidy hand ... down those central columns are the accounts for 1806-7 of Mr Cotter at Barretts; and at the bottom of the page the accounts of Dr Cother 1806-7, Mr Neal at Llewellins 1802, Mr Chambers 1807 and Mr Rawlins the milkman 1812. The opposite page has added the accounts of Mr Eliker at Haywards 1806 and those of Mr Ingram the shoemaker 1801-3. Both pages are completely filled.

This is a very interesting ledger to decipher, I'll have to go back again soon and spend much longer on it. If John Gardner was not a London sugar broker, then who was?