James Ivall (1832-96), coachmaker and dairyman

James Ivall was a son of David Ivall, who was the younger brother of Thomas Ivall (1781-1835), my great great great grandfather. This profile contains information from research done by Dennis Endean Ivall.

James was born 24 October 1832 in St Pancras and christened on 17 November 1832 in St Pancras Church. He was the third child of David Ivall (1795-1850) and his wife Martha Ivall nee James (1796-1853). They had six other children namely David James (1830-73), Martha James Brisco (1831-99), Laura (1833-39), Emma (1835-86), Kate Bainbrigge (1836-1917) and Albert (1839-97).

James’s father was a highly successful coach maker who ran a thriving business. In the 1841 census David’s family are listed as living at 158 Tottenham Court Rd, the address of his father’s business. It seems likely that James was at boarding school at the time of the census as he is not listed at this address. The family later moved to 14 Blomfield Road, Paddington, a large house that overlooked the Regent’s Canal. It is still there (but is now number 24).

On 10 December 1846, James (then aged 14) was apprenticed to his father as a coachmaker. The apprenticeship was “turned over” to Henry Black on 5 Jun 1851 at the request of James and his mother, following his father’s death in 1850.

The 1851 census shows Martha Ivall (aged 55, an annuitant), David James Ivall (20, an artist), Martha Ivall (19), James Ivall (18, an apprentice coachbuilder) and two servants living at 14 Blomfield Rd.

James’s mother died on 13 June 1853. He received approximately £5,000 (equivalent to about £290,000 in modern day terms) in total from his parent’s estate when he reached the age of 21 later that year.

The Daily News of 6 October 1854 contains an item stating that James Ivall had been elected a fellow of the Zoological Society of London. James’s father had been elected a fellow of the Zoological Society in 1849.

After his mother’s death, James Ivall formed a partnership with his elder brother David James Ivall and with William Collins Large to run the coachmaking business at 158 Tottenham Court Road. Ivall and Large are listed at this address in the London Post Office Directories of 1855 to 1858.

The 1855 and 1856 London Post Office Directory lists in James Ivall at 96 Camden Rd Villas, Camden. He appears in the Court section, which contains people with social and professional status.

A newspaper report on the Befordshire Poultry Exhibition in 1855 lists the names of those who won prizes for various categories of domestic poultry. James Ivall of 96 Camden Road Villas came first in the Cochin China (Cinammon and Buff) category.

The book “Reports on the Carriages in the Paris Exhibition 1878” lists a donation of £10-10s made to the Coachbuilders Benevolent Fund in 1856 by James Ivall of 100 Talbot Road, Notting Hill.

On 4 September 1856, James married Sarah Benn at St Mary’s Church, Hampton. He was aged 23 and she was 17, the daughter of a coal merchant. One of the witnesses was William Sheldrake Sparks who married James’s sister Martha in April 1856. Another was Joseph Martin Heywood, who had married James’s sister Emma in May 1856. The marriage certificate gives James’s address as Albert Place, St Mary Abbotts, Kensington. The 1857 Post Office Directory also gives this address (10 Albert Place, Kensington) for James.

James and Sarah had 9 children (6 boys and 3 girls), although the first 4 died in infancy. Their children were Fanny Charlotte (1858-9), James David William (1859-62), Florence Martha Charlotte (1860-5), Horace Bentley Benn (1861-2), James (1867-1922), William Albert (1868-1948), Edith (b1870), Henry Thomas (1874-1956) and Percy (1877-1945).

Although infant mortality rates in Victorian times were much higher than now, it seems statistically unlikely that this would be the only reason for the deaths of the first four children, particularly since James and Sarah were not poor and so must have lived in reasonable housing conditions. A possible explanation for the deaths is that Sarah had syphilis, probably caught from her husband. In Victorian times about 10% of the population suffered from this disease, for which there was no effective treatment. Children born to mothers with syphilis were normally sickly, failed to put on weight and died young. However, the mother often recovered from the disease and went on to have healthy children.

Ivall and Large acquired new premises at 125 Picadilly in 1857 and the lease to 158 Tottenham Court Rd was transferred to James Shoolbred, a draper.

The 1861 census shows James (a coachmaker master aged 29) and Sarah (22) living in Thames St, Hampton, Middlesex with their children James David (1) and Florence (5 months) as well as Charlotte Benn (34), Sarah’s sister.

The London Gazette of 4^th April 1862 contains the following item “Notice is hereby given, that the partnership heretofore subsisting between the undersigned, in the business of Coach and Harness Makers, carried on at No 125 Piccadilly and No 56 South Audley Street, both in the county of Middlesex, under the style or firm of Ivall and Large, hath been dissolved, as from 31^st day of March last, so far as respects James Ivall, by mutual consent. As witness our hands this 1^st day of April 1862. David James Ivall, William Collins Large, James Ivall.

James then became a dairyman. London PO Directories 1863-76 have several entries for James in their commercial section (he is not listed in the Court section) :

1863	James Ivall, cowkeeper, 11 Celbridge Place, Paddington
1864	James Ivall, cowkeeper, dairyman and farmer, 11 Celbridge Place, Paddington & Marylands and Ash Grove Farms, Harrow Rd
1866, 68	James Ivall, cowkeeper and dairy farmer, Westbourne Park Farm Dairy, 11 Celbridge Place, Westbourne Park.
1870	James Ivall, dairyman, 11 Celbridge Place, Westbourne Park
1871, 74, 76	James Ivall, cowkeeper, 120 Talbot Rd, Westbourne Park

In 1864, he went to court to recover an unpaid bill and won the case.

From Marylebone Mercury, 10 Dec 1864

The item below was published in the Marylebone Mercury of 28 April 1866 : 

Precautions against Cholera. Mr. James Ivall was summoned as the owner of Maryland Farm, in the Harrow Road, on the complaint of the Sanitary Inspector of the parish of Paddington, under the “Nuisance Removal Act for England, 1855,” for having on the above premises “an accumulation of rotten fish and decayed vegetable matter, so foul as to be nuisance or injurious to health.” Mr. H. Sullivan, the sanitary inspector, proved the nuisance, and explained, that this was the second summons granted relative to this nuisance, and applied for an immediate order to have the same abated.

The London Gazette of 6 December 1867 contains a bankruptcy notice for James Ivall. It says that all of James’s estate and effects had been assigned to his brother Albert Ivall (of Chapel Farm, Hastings, a farmer) as his Trustee to be administered for the benefit of his creditors.

The census of 1871 lists the inhabitants at 120 Talbot Rd, Kensington as James (a dairyman aged 39) and Sarah (31), their children James (4), William (2), Edith (1) and Sarah’s sister Charlotte Benn (40, a dressmaker).

Albert Ivall, James’s younger brother, was involved in a Chancery Court Case in 1874. The Hastings and St Leonards Chronicle reported :

“Mr Albert Ivall was cross examined by Mr Glasse QC. …..He and four others were now carrying on the business of a dairyman at Bayswater. He superintended the business. …. The business belonged to his brother. His remuneration was uncertain. Sometimes he got £1 a week.”

The brother referred to was James Ivall.

In 1881 James (a coachmaker’s clerk aged 47) and Sarah (40) were back at Thames St, Hampton, Middlesex with their children William (12), Edith (11), Henry (7) and Percy (4). Also listed at the address was Martha Sparks (49), who was James’s elder sister and a widow (her husband died in 1880). The house is called “The Box, Thames St, Hampton” in the 1885 electoral register.

By 1891 James (aged 58) was a coachbuilder’s manager at the carriage factory of F W Lucas, 240 Brixton Hill, Brixton, The census that year shows him at this address with his wife Sarah (51), and their children Edith (21, a stationer’s assistant) and Henry (17, a silversmith’s assistant).

James died on 19 Dec 1896 in Wandsworth aged 64. He was buried in Morden Cemetery. The probate register gives his address as 172 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction and his occupation as tobacconist and newsagent. He left no will. Administration of his estate, which was valued at £183, was granted to his widow Sarah, who died in 1904.

Martha Sparks, the elder sister of James died in 1899. It seems that she had lent him money as in her will (made in 1897) she says “I release my brother James’s estate from any moneys he owed me when he died”.