NAILERS - Gwilliam, Littledean (General)

by shepway , Friday, June 27, 2014, 20:12 (3803 days ago) @ Jefff

This is a paragraph from Averil Kear's article in the New Regard:

The Gwilliam family of Littledean were nailmakers by 1766 when young John Coleman of Mitcheldean was apprenticed by Robert Gwilliam and by the early nineteenth century the Gwilliams had become well established as the leading manufacturers of nails in the area. Henry Gwilliam had seven sons and one daughter and when he died in 1817 he made sure that all were well provided for especially John, stating in his Will, 'to my son John Gwilliam I leave my dwelling house and nailshop and sider mill stables and pigs cot garden brewhous and the pees [piece] of ground aginoing [adjoining] it also my goods chattels and living stock that I shall leave'. Three or four members of the Gwilliam family were nail-makers in Littledean until at least 1897 when Jeremiah Gwilliam moved to Chalford near Stroud to carry out his trade there.

Mike