See the Potteries List section for the Westbury-on-Trym Pottery.
The Pottery had previously been run by George Hart.
| 1775-c80 | Stephen Fricker ran the Westbury-on-Trym Pottery. |
Fricker went out of business, caused by the loss of trade during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), and was succeeded at the Pottery by Roger Yabbicom.
| 1760 | 16 Oct. Sarah, daughter of Stephen and Martha Fricker, baptised (PPR). |
| 1773 | 14 Oct. Stephen Fricker moved from the Wine Vaults, St Thomas Street, to the Fountain Tavern (BG). |
| 1775 | Victualler, Fountain Tavern, 12 High Street (SD). |
| 1775 | Presumably the vintner of St Mary le Port parish for whom George Hart, potter, stood surety (AKL). |
| 1775 | 16 Dec. ‘Stephen Fricker at the Fountain Tavern in High Street, Bristol, begs leave to acquaint the public, that he hath taken and entered upon The Sugar House Pottery, at Westbury, (lately carried on by Mr George Hart, who is now retired from business) where he will make it his study to be attentive to that manufactory and hopes for the kind encouragement of sugar-bakers, merchants and others, and as the quality of the goods speaks for itself, he is silent on that head, but will endeavour to merit the favours of his employers. N.B. Chimney, garden and flower pots are also manufactured there …’ (BG, FFJ). |
| 1778 | Jan. He was living at Burfield house as a tenant when George Hart sold it to John Trehawke of Liskeard in Cornwall for £2,400, the property then being described as ‘two messuages, two pothouses, one stable, two gardens, four acres of land, four acres of meadow, twenty acres of pasture and common pasture for all manner of cattle’ (BRO 21782, box 17, bundle 6). |
| 1780 | 6 Jul. ‘For Sale by Auction … Lot I A modern new built House situate at Westbury-on-Trim … Lot II Two very good Houses, the one lately built, with Kitchen and Pleasure Gardens, and adjoining the same is a valuable Pottery, which for Conveniency and Repute, is not to be equalled in this Kingdom, and has been so for these 40 Years last past, and is now let to Mr Stephen Fricker (tho’ much under let) at the yearly rent of £105.5s … on a lease of seven years, five of which will expire on 29 day of September next …’ (BG). |
| 1783 | 23 Jun. ‘Recd of Mr Stpn Fricker one years rent for the Claypits due Lady day 1783 … £5.5s’ (BRO AC/E37). |
| 1788 | 22 Apr. William Fricker, possibly Stephen Fricker’s son, buried (WPR). |
| 1788 | 20 Jun. Probably the Stephen Fricker buried in Bristol (Ancestry website). |
| Fricker’s four daughters were married after his death; one, Sara, married Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another, Edith, married Robert Southey, both of whom were eminent literary figures of the 19th century. The other sisters, Mary and Martha, married repectively Robert Lovell and George Burnett (Cottle 1980, 3). | |
| 1795 | 10 Oct. ‘Sunday … was married at St Mary Redcliff Church, Mr Coleridge, of this city, to Miss Sally Fricker, daughter of Mrs Fricker, school-mistress, on Redcliff Hill’ (BMBJ). |
| 1795 | 21 Nov. ‘Saturday was married at St Mary Redcliff church Mr Southey, of this city, to Miss Edith Fricker, daughter of Mrs Fricker, school-mistress on Redcliff-Hill’ (BMBJ). |
| Southey’s son was to write: ‘at Bath … Mr Coleridge first became acquainted with his future wife Sarah Fricker, the eldest daughter of the three sisters, one of whom was married to Robert Lovell, the other having been engaged for some time to my father. They were the daughters of Stephen Fricker, who had carried on a large manufactory of sugar pans or moulds at Westbury, near Bristol, and who having fallen into difficulties, in consequence of the stoppage of trade by the American war, had lately died, leaving his widow and six children wholly unprovided for’ (Southey 1849, Volume 1, 216-217). |