The Fenton’s, John and Albert: History
Two men from the Birmingham area with
the surname Fenton were associated with Avery style needle cases, John Fenton and Albert Fenton.
Neither of these men were listed in city and trade directories during
the years they were involved with these needle cases. This suggests they were not commercial
enterprises, but rather simply individuals working in some area related to the
production of stamped brass items. The
two were from the same family, John was the father of Albert
and both spent most of their lives in the Birmingham area. As a result, there are no company histories
in this chapter only the histories of these two men. In addition, a special section has been added
to document the patents Albert Fenton registered in conjunction with William
Avery during the ten years Albert lived in the Redditch area.
John
Fenton
The
man known as John Fenton was born c1815/1816 in London. Between 1810 and 1820 there were at least
seven children born in the London area with this name making it nearly
impossible to prove who his parents were unless new evidence comes to light in
the future. By the time John was 21 
years of age he had moved
to Birmingham where he married Hannah Prime at St. Philip’s Cathedral in
1836. John and Hannah had 8 children
between 1836 and 1858: William, Jane, Robert, Albert, Christian, Sarah Ann, Eliza and Emma. Two
of these children died within a year of their births, Jane of whooping cough at
age 7 months and Christian of dysentery at 4 months. Later, their eldest son, William, died at age
14 of typhus. At first John worked as a
tile smith then as a steel toy maker and in his later years as a traveling
jeweler. The family moved around quite a
bit from 1836 until at least 1846 living in Aston Manor, first in 1836 on Aston
Road, then in 1839 at Catherine Street, in 1840 on Lawley Street and lastly in
1846 on Wainwright Street. Around 1850
the Fenton family moved a few miles south to Summer Lane in Birmingham where
they lived in 1850 and again in 1858.
During the second half of the 19th century Summer Lane[1]
was known for its court housing which consisted of back-to-back houses with
workshops built around a shared interior courtyard. The people who inhabited these accommodations
were usually poor and lived in overcrowded conditions which often led to
serious health issues. In addition to
living on Summer Lane for a few years, the Fenton family also resided in court
housing in 1861 on Hatchell Street and in 1871 on Radnor Street. This could explain why three of the Fenton
children died young and also why Hannah died in 1864
at age 47 of phthisis, also known as pulmonary tuberculosis[2]. In 1872 John registered two designs for Avery
style needle cases, the Flower Petal Paperweight and
the Nosegay (pictured here) which was only produced with the W. Avery & Son
name. When he registered the Nosegay, he
indicated his address was Spring Hill in the Soho area of Birmingham. It seems most likely John designed these
items because his son Alfred worked with Avery a few years earlier. Sometime between 1871 and 1881 John married a
woman named Ann who was born in Liverpool and they
moved to Hampton Street in Birmingham.
Perhaps John met his second wife while working as a traveling jewelry hawker which was his occupation according to the 1881
census. The fact that John died in 1889
at age 73 in the Workhouse Infirmary in Birmingham is further evidence that his
family was part of the working class.
Little
information about the children of John and Hannah has been found because the
Fenton surname is fairly common in the Birmingham
area. This makes it very difficult to
determine which children belong to which parents without additional evidence
such as locating the father’s name, address and
occupation on the child’s marriage record.
The only information uncovered to date revolves around their two sons,
Robert and Albert, and their daughter Sarah Ann. The eldest surviving son of
John and Hannah Fenton was Robert who was born in 1840. At age 20 in 1860 Robert married Catherine
Coley in Aston. Robert worked as a
burnisher at first but by 1861 was a stamper and piercer and by 1871 a tool
maker. His occupation in the 1860’s and
early 1870’s meant he had the skills needed to actually
manufacture the Avery needle cases his father registered and perhaps he
was involved with producing some of the ones his younger brother Albert
patented. Robert and Catherine had at
least 6 children: Mary A., George R., Catherine, James, John
and Flora. His family also lived in
back-to-back court housing from 1861 until at least 1901. Robert died in Birmingham in 1912 at age
73. Information about Albert can be
found in the next section of this chapter.
The oldest surviving daughter was Sarah Ann Fenton who was born in
1852. Sarah Ann married Samuel Francis Stapenell, a widower and button turner, in 1878 in
Aston. Stapenell
had 2 children from his previous marriage: Jane and Samuel who were born in
London. In 1881 the Stapenell
family was living in back-to-back court housing in Birmingham. Sarah’s husband Samuel died in Birmingham in
1911 at the Workhouse Infirmary and Sarah died in Birmingham twenty years later
at age 78 in 1931.
Albert
Fenton
Albert
Fenton was born in Aston in 1843, the third son of John and Hannah Fenton, and
was baptized at the St. Peter and St. Paul church in Aston, pictured below[3]. When he was two and a half years old his
younger sister died and when he was seven his older brother died making him the
second son. In 1860 at age 17[4]
Albert married Catherine Sanders at the St. Peter and St. Paul Church in
Aston. After their marriage Catherine
was most often referred to as Caroline which was probably her middle name. At first Albert worked as an engine fitter
and polisher and by 1863[5]
he became a machinist. Albert and
Caroline had 4 children between 1863 and 1874: Alice, Albert Edward, Louis and Kate Florence Evalina. At first the family lived in Birmingham,
however sometime between 1863 and 1865 they moved to the Redditch area where
Albert registered a patent for improvements in the machinery for the manufacture
of fish hooks in 1865.
A year later in 1866 he registered a crochet hook handle but on this registration, he indicated he was from
Birmingham. Then in 1867 when he
registered another design with James Sandilands, a fishing rod maker, for
improvements in machinery for making fish hooks,
Albert was listed as being from Redditch.
According to the 1871 census the Fenton family was living in Crabbs
Cross in the Redditch area that year.
Sometime
during his early years in Redditch, Albert met the needle manufacturer William
Avery. By 1868 they were working
together and registered a patent for seven different needle case designs. Roughly a year later in 1869 
they registered another
patent together this time for eighteen different needle cases. Two of their most popular designs, the Quadruple and the Demi-Quad, were also registered in the USA
in 1870. It seems likely that Albert’s
older brother or father either helped in making these items or assisted Avery
and Albert in connecting with other manufacturers in the Birmingham area. William Avery’s main business in Redditch was
needle making and his firm did not have the skilled workforce or machinery to
make fancy stamped brass items. Albert’s
father was a steel toy maker and his brother was a
stamper, piercer and tool maker, they had just the skills necessary to manufacturer brass articles as did many other manufacturers
in the Birmingham area. The relationship
with Avery must have ended sometime in the early 1870’s because by 1873 Albert
partnered with Samuel Wilson to form the company known as Fenton &
Wilson. One design for the handle of a
crochet needle was registered in 1873 by Fenton & Wilson of Redditch. This company was also listed in an 1873 city
and trade directory as “patentees & manufacturers of needles, needle cases,
fish hooks & tackle. &c, 11 Peakman St” in Redditch.
Photograph
taken in 1960 of Peakman Street in Redditch close to
where Albert Fenton worked in 1873 (S=Forge Mill Needle Museum archives found
by Patrick Chester).
Because Samuel Wilson was also listed
separately that year as a needle manufacturer it seems likely that he handled
the production of the needles and fish hooks, whereas
Albert managed the registration of the patents and coordinated the production
of the needle cases through his contacts in Birmingham. Unfortunately, the Fenton & Wilson
partnership did not last long as it was dissolved in early 1874.
Exactly what happened to
Albert Fenton after his time in Redditch is unclear because very few records
related to him after 1874 have been located.
By 1876 he returned to Birmingham where he designed and registered a
needle case design known as the Metal Ribbon, although it is not known whether
this needle case was ever manufactured as no examples have been found. A year later in 1877 he patented the Palace
needle case, front and back pictured here, with another Redditch needle
manufacturer William Woodfield, in which he was listed as “Albert Fenton of
Birmingham.” Albert, with his wife Caroline
and their daughter Flora, appear to have visited Leicester in 1891 as they were
listed in the census that year only a few blocks from where their son Albert
Jr. was living at that time. It is
unknown when and where Albert and Caroline died.
Information
about the children of Albert and Caroline Fenton is limited because there were
several people with the same names making it difficult
to match records to the correct person.
Although their eldest daughter Alice was born in 1863 in Birmingham,
their eldest son, Albert Edward Fenton, was born in 1865 in Redditch. By 1891 Albert Jr. was living in Leicester
and was working as a gymnast. He married
Ada Beckett in Bradford, Yorkshire a year later in 1892 and died in a trapeze
act while performing with his wife in 1900[6]
in South Shields, Durham. A description
of this tragic event was described in a local newspaper and is shown on the
next page. The second son Louis was born
in 1868 in Redditch. Louis also worked
as a gymnast and at some point changed the spelling of
his forename to Lewis. Lewis remained a
bachelor until age 41 when he married Emily Pearson in London in 1908. It is unknown if they had children or when
and where he died although he appears to have been imprisoned in London in 1911
for some unknown reason. The youngest
child of Albert and Caroline Fenton was Kate Florence Evalina who was either
born in Redditch or Birmingham around 1874.
Kate married Sydney Atkinson in 1893 in Prestwick, Lancashire. By 1911 the Atkinson family was living in
Southwark, the section of London just south of the River Thames near London
Bridge, where Sydney was working as a gymnast fixer. Kate and Sydney had at least 5 children: Sydney, John Tarr, Florence, Alice and Bertha Edith.
Although, the photograph of the three gymnasts[7]
shown on the next page is allegedly of Albert, Kate
and Lewis, it could be Albert, Ada and Lewis.
“FATAL
FALL FROM A TRAPEZE.” [8]
“On Wednesday Mr.
Shepherd, Deputy-Coroner, held an inquest at South Shields concerning the death
of Albert Edwin Fenton, aged 34, which took place at the Ingham Infirmary from
injures received by a fall while at practice on the trapeze in Algie’s Circus,
Ocean Road, on Tuesday. Ada Fenton,
trapeze artist, living at 45 Mile End Road, said the deceased was her
husband. His professional name was
“Elba.” They were engaged as
professional trapeze artistes at Algie’s Circus, and about half past twelve on
Tuesday were practicing in the circus.
She was on one of the bars, and her husband was on the fixed pedestal,
and he was to swing off the pedestal, turn a
somersault, and catch her hands. In
attempting to do this he gave too sharp a turn, missed her hands, and fell into
the net. He would fall about six feet. He fell on the back of his neck and severely
injured himself. He was removed to the
Ingham Infirmary, and died there about two o’clock the
following morning. The feat was one they
had done for years without any accident happening. Her husband had had 27 years experience as an acrobat. The net, pedestal, bars, etc., were their own
property, and were in proper working order.
He had fallen into the net before while practicing, but not in
connection with that feat. Claud
Randall, equestrian, spoke to having witnessed the accident. When deceased
started witness noticed that he got up a greater speed than he usually did, and
when he turned, he turned so sharp that it was impossible for the last witness
to catch him. He fell about six feet,
and owing to the sharpness of his turning, he went another half somersault
before he reached the net. The result
was that he fell on the back of his neck, and his body doubled over. Deceased, whom he had known for over 20
years, was an experienced acrobat. The
jury found a verdict of accidental death.”
Needle
Cases Patented by William Avery and Albert Fenton[9]
Albert
Fenton and William Avery patented 25 needle case designs together as shown in
the two patent drawings at the end of this section and in the detailed versions
in the Images section of this chapter.
Of these 25 designs, only 6 are known to have been produced, however of
these, 36 slightly different versions have been found. Fenton and Avery’s first patent, #3517 dated
November 19, 1868, included 7 needle case designs of which only 2 were actually manufactured but with 23 slightly different
exteriors. The second patent #2998 dated
October 14, 1869 contained 18 needle case designs of
which only 4 were produced. Of these 4,
13 slightly different versions were made.
In all cases the only difference between versions was the exterior
decoration. Because of the popularity of
two of these needle cases, Fenton and Avery also patented them in the USA, the
Quadruple on January 18, 1870 patent #98,904 and the
Demi-Quad on May 3, 1870 patent #102,471.
What follows is a brief discussion of the 6 designs that were
manufactured including patent drawings and photographs of the needle
cases. All of
the photographs of the actual needle cases are of ones in the possession of the
author of this book.
Drawing from UK
Patent #3517 dated November 19, 1868.
The
Quadruple style needle case is shown on patent #3517 in Fig. 7-10. It is a small rectangular shaped brass needle
case, about 7 by 3.3 centimeters, with four slots inside where needle packets
are stored. On
the outside, in addition to a stamped design in the center, there are two
numbers near the bottom separated by a small knob, described as a thumb bit in
the patent, that can be moved from one side to the other. The numbers, usually 6 and 7 on one
side and 8 and 9 on the other, represent the size of the needles in the
corresponding interior packets. All
one has to do to retrieve the needles they want is to
open the top and slide the small knob to the correct size, then the packet for
that size is pushed up for easy access.
The Quadruple needle case can be found with twenty-one slightly
different exterior decorations, and it is Avery’s most popular needle case
design. Fenton and Avery also patented
it in the USA less than a year and a half later with patent #98,904. The Quadruple needle case can be found with one
of at least thirty-two different company names, many from the London area and a
few from New York.
The
design for the lever style needle case is represented in Fig. 5-6 of patent
#3517. This needle case is quite small being rectangular in shape roughly 4.3 by 1.8
centimeters. It is made of two pieces of
brass attached together with a ridged bar at one end resting on a pivot and a
catch at the other end that when opened folds outward to display a small needle
packet inside. Only two versions of this
needle case have been found. The Patent
Lever Needle Case has the front decorated with an oval shaped centerpiece
surrounded by scrolls and other patterns.
The back contains the name of the needle case as well as the name W.
Avery & Son Redditch and a small section in the center that displays the
size of the needles found inside. The
second lever style, known as the Minerva Lever Needle Case, was produced
specifically for the Nottingham/London company Copestake, Moore, Crampton &
Co. It functions exactly
the same as the Patent Lever, the only difference being the exterior
decoration. The Minerva Lever has the
head of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war, in the front centerpiece
because this was the company’s logo. The
back contains the name of the needle case, the Copestake name and the size of
the needles inside except the design patterns surrounding the words are a bit
different from the Patent Lever. Additionally, the back of the Minerva Lever
Needle Case contains the words “Patent No. 3517”.
Drawing for UK
Patent #2998 dated October 14, 1869.
Fig. 1 of patent #2998 shows the
mechanical components and exterior design of the Demi-Quad needle case. This
was also a popular Avery style design which was later patented in the USA less
than a year later with patent #102,471.
So far eight slightly different versions have been located including one
that has the words “Patented in America S.G.D.G” stamped on the outside of the
lid. This needle case was given the name
Demi-Quad because it holds two needle packets inside. It is also a small rectangular case which is
4.6 by 2.2 centimeters with a lid at the top and another at the bottom. To access the needles all one has to do is open one of the lids and a crank arm attached
to the lid raises the needle packet for easy access. This needle case design can be found with the
name of one of eight different companies on it.
The
golden style needle case is pictured in Fig.14 of patent #2998. This 6.8 by 4.6 centimeter
rectangular case is composed of two pieces held together at the center by a
hinge joint that allows the two pieces to move freely so it can be opened and
closed effortlessly. Inside each piece
there are two slots for needle packets with the size of the needles stamped on
the slot holder. In additional
to the exterior decoration, this needle case also has some interior decoration
surrounding the needle packet size numbers.
The golden needle case comes in two varieties with one of eight company
names on it, however the only other difference being the name Athena or Stella
with one exception. The exception is the
one made specifically for Copestake, Moore, Crampton & Co. This Athena Golden Needle Case not only has
this company name on it but also has the firm’s logo, the Minerva head, stamped
in the oval area next to the hinge joint.
Athena was the Classical Greek goddess of wisdom and war, the Greek
equivalent to the Roman Minerva.
Fig. 17 on patent #2998 shows the internal
and exterior components of the Ladies Companion needle case which is
cylindrical in shape with a 3.7 centimeter diameter
and 4.6 centimeter height. This needle
case consists of three circular parts.
Four vertical receptacles to hold different sized needle packets rest on
a base with studs that contain the size of the needles in the packets. This is hidden under a circular outer case cover with a vertical slot.
On the top a circular lid contains the name of the needle case and the
company name as well as small opening slot. “To extract a needle of a required size the
outer case is turned around until the slot comes in a direct line with the stud
of the needle packet required, this will also bring the slot into position, the
stud is then pushed up, taking with it the needle packet which will appear out
of the slot above the case and ready to use”[10]. The Ladies Companion needle case is found
with only one of two different company names.
The Royal style needle case design is
shown in Fig. 13 of patent #2998. It is
a rectangular needle case 8.1 by 4.4 centimeters with an outer decorative
sheath open at each end. An interior
plate which contains four needle packet slots sits inside the decorative
sheath. To retrieve needles, the
interior plate is pulled out of the sheath on one side
or the other and the requisite size needles are displayed so they can be
extracted. This needle case comes in two
varieties, the only difference being the exterior decoration. The one known as the Royal with Vase contains
on both sides the name Royal Needle Case, the company name and a large central
bordered area with a vase filled with flowers surrounded by decorative
motifs. The second version called the
Royal with Crystal Palace is identical to the one with the vase, except on one
side the central area contains a depiction of the Crystal Place exhibition
hall. This needle case design can be
found with one of six different company names.
