Thread: "Dip-at-toe" stubtails 18th century

Originally Posted by Hillbillystixnstraights

Please forgive the thread breaking�� has anyone heard of "Holbem&Co" waranted? I can't find anything... 2 pictures, that's it��. Any ideas?

I've seen maybe one or two with that stamp in my time.

Digging around in records, I can find much, but I can identify the Holbem of Holbem & Co.

It was Thomas Holbem. He's mentioned exactly once in the apprentice registries as a razor maker apprenticing John Bartlem in 1803 for the standard period of 7 years.

HOWEVER, the optical character recognition for Google Books' copy of Volume II of Leader's History didn't pick up his listing as an apprentice because the print is small and Holbem was being read as Holbern, because he's listed there as Thomas Holbem, son of John (grocer), apprenticed to William Wright, cutler (another seldom-seen name!) in 1780 and freed 1802, just in time to take John Bartlem as an apprentice.

John seems to have never finished his apprenticeship though, so it's entirely possible that Thomas Holbem fell out of the trade, since he doesn't show up as a cutler of any stripe in any of the usual directories.

A dig through Ancestry doesn't turn up much, but I strongly suspect this is the fellow:



(that is from the monthly meeting of the Balby, Quakers of Sheffield, Doncaster, etc, and is their burial records)

Twenty Sixth Day of the Third Month of 1832 (when died) -- Thomas Holbem -- Abt. 66 (years old) -- Sheffield (residence) -- (blank description) -- Twenty Ninth Day of the Third Month of 1832 (when buried) -- Sheffield, not a member (where buried)

Most likely what we're looking at there is the burial record for someone who died very poor, as many cutlers did.

Unfortunately, that's all I can turn up.

Though I can add that the (name) & Co style mark was very common around that time period, with Wilton & Co, Styring & Co, and at least several others I can't quite sift out of the back of my head at the moment.