The Turner Family and Chafford Mill No 389,

Fordcombe, Penshurst, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Sarah Tanner

[This article appeared in ‘The Quarterly’ the Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians No 52 September 2004]

Copyright©SarahTanner

 

 

 

 

In 1877, Richard Tuppen Tanner started the family business of R.T.Tanner & Company, wholesale stationers and paper merchants, in the City of London, which finally ceased trading in 1999.  Having researched the Tanner ancestors for many years it came as a surprise to find that another branch of the family, the Turners,  were involved with a paper mill for a hundred years from 1796. Richard Tanner’s youngest son Arthur married a great great granddaughter of Ann Turner.

 

The family of William Turner of Chafford Mill appear to have been blacksmiths in Maidstone, Kent from as early as 1718[1]. His father, also William,  is shown as a blacksmith and patten maker on the freedom of an apprentice in 1775[2], and  William   having been apprenticed to his father, blacksmith, became free of the Corporation of Maidstone in 1782[3].  It is not clear whether the family were already involved with the paper industry, but certainly there is a William Turner in 1783 paying £1.2.6d on a property with a rateable value of £15 in Stone Street, Maidstone,  next to Thos Pine[4].  William junior and his siblings were all baptised at the Earl Street Presbyterian Chapel, Maidstone and would therefore have been known the Pines, another family with a long tradition of presbyterianism and papermaking.

 

At the time of his death in 1792 William Turner senior appeared to be paying rates on several properties/land in Maidstone and in his will dated 1792[5] left all his goods and chattels to be divided between his son William and daughters Elizabeth, Sarah,  and Ann.  William junior is shown as ‘of  this Town’ in the register of Earl Street Chapel, Maidstone when his son Richard was baptised there in 1796[6], the same year he first appeared paying rates in Penshurst.  By 1799 no Turners appear paying rates in Maidstone.  William’s  three sons were all made free of the Corporation of Maidstone by patrimony when his occupation is given as a papermaker, the elder sons George William and William in 1812,  and the youngest, Richard in 1818[7]. 

 

In 1800 William’s sister Ann married John Green[8], who's occupation is given as a paper maker of Penshurst  in 1808,  when he acted as an executor of his uncle’s will[9].  John remained working at Chafford until circa 1812 and in 1813 he appears paying rates for Hayle Mill[10] which he subsequently purchased from John Pine in 1817[11].

 

William Turner appears as a paper maker of Chafford when the Mill was allocated excise number 389 in 1816[12],  but in the Excise General Letter dated 8 October 1817 it stated that there was a change of occupation of Mill No 389 at Chafford  ‘the present occupiers being G. W. & R. Turner Paper Makers’[13] and from that date they paid the rates on the mill. It would appear that William was no longer running the business but he continued paying the land tax and rates on some of the property until his death in 1828[14]. Unfortunately he died intestate and administration of his goods and chattels was granted to his wife in May the following year[15].

 

On Friday 18^th June 1830 the following appeared in the London Gazette “ Notice is hereby given that the partnership heretofore existing between us the undersigned, George William Turner and Richard Turner carrying on a business as paper manufacturers under the firm G & R Turner at Chafford, in the Parish of Penshurst, in the County of Kent, and at Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, but which business at Bermondsey was in fact the sole property of the said George William Turner, was on the 11 day of June dissolved by mutual consent.  The debts due to and from the said partnership, in respect of the business at Chafford, will be received and paid by said Richard Turner who will continue the business there on his separate account.  The business at Bermondsey will be carried on by said George William Turner on his own account, separately as heretofore, and all debts due in respect of thereof will be received and paid by him”.  George William was subsequently declared bankrupt in the London Gazette on 5^th May 1835[16] and does not appear again in respect of Chafford.

 

It is not clear whether George and Richard’s other brother William was involved in the business. He does not appear in the rates books,  and the only reference found to him is in Pigots 1831 London Directory where he is listed with George William at the address in Bermondsey.  William was shown as having no occupation on his death certificate in September 1838 when he died at Peckham House, a lunatic asylum  in Peckham[17], and from the district of Camberwell when he was buried at Penshurst[18]. 

 

Wednesday 17 September 1834 was a highlight in the life of the Turner family when the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria visited Chafford.  Richard Turner took them round the mill explaining the various manufacturing processes and before the Royal visitors left they ‘passed through’ the dwelling house meeting Richard’s mother in the drawing room.[19]

 

At the time of the census in 1861[20] Richard Turner was still proprietor of the mill employing 34 men, 11 boys, 30 women, and 8 girls,  and in 1864 is listed producing writing, drawing and bank papers, hand and machine made, copying papers tissues etc[21].  However, in the rates books for 1865[22] Henry Warden Esq appears as the owner of the house, paper mill and land with Richard’s son, Richard David Rains Turner Esq as occupier.

 

In 1848 Richard’s daughter Arabella had married Harry Warden, then a railway contractor, who is shown as a gentleman living at Oakfield Court in Tunbridge Wells in 1860 and 64 respectively, when two of his sons were baptised at Trinity Church.

 

Henry Warden and RDR Turner entered into a partnership at Chafford but notice of the dissolution is found in the London Gazette in February 1868[23] when Henry took over and the firm was styled Turner and Co.

 

In the 1871 census[24]  Henry Warden is listed as a Paper Manufacturer/Land Owner employing 31 men, 45 women, 6 boys, 6 girls, living at Oakfield Court, Tunbridge Wells.   Richard Turner senior appears as an annuitant with Richard D.R. shown as a paper maker living at Chafford House[25].   Richard Turner senior died in January 1872[26] and is buried in Fordcombe church yard.

 

In the Tunbridge Weekly Express in 1873 a report appears about a cricket match played on 26^th August between Gentlemen of the Neighbourhood and Eleven Ovendens of Fordcombe (most of whom appear to have been employed at Chafford).  “Through the kindness of Messrs. Warden and Turner of Chafford Mills, a general holiday was granted to their employees part of whom went to Brighton and the rest were provided with an excellent tea upon the grounds and spent the afternoon very enjoyably in different games”[27].

 

Therefore it appears that although the partnership with Henry Warden had been dissolved Richard. D.R was still involved with the mill and is listed living at Chafford in the 1878 Post Office Directory of Kent.  However,  by December that year he had moved on and is listed as the occupier of Roughway Paper Mill, which was owned by Walter Monckton[28], and is shown there in  the 1881 census.[29]

 

Henry Warden is again shown as a Paper Manufacturer in the 1881 census[30]  employing 68 persons and in July 1886 he paid the fares for the employees annual outing to Eastbourne[31].  His wife Arabella died in 1883 and was buried in the Turner family grave in Fordcombe Churchyard.   

 

No.389 Chafford Mill, Kent, is listed under the heading of ‘Mills not in working order, to let, sell etc’ in Kent’s Paper Mill Directory published on January 1 1886, but in the following year’s edition,  and subsequent issues,  it appears as a working mill. 

 

In the 1891 census Henry Warden is still listed as a paper manufacturer living in Tunbridge Wells but does not give the number of persons he was employing at the mill[32].  

 

In his will, which was drawn on  27 March 1895 and witnessed by William Reading, Manager,  and Owen Reading, Foreman,  of Chafford Mills,  Nr Tunbridge Wells he stated that it was his "desire that the Chafford Paper Mills should be sold as speedily as possible after my decease”.  When probate was granted to his son Richard on his death aged 75,  on the 8 January 1897 he was shown of Chafford, Penshurst, Kent. He left net £41.251.13s 4d.

 

Thus the Turner’s involvement with Chafford Mill ended although the family side of the association did not as on the 22nd September 1898,  Herbert Green, of Hayle Mill, near Maidstone, a cousin,  became Chairman and Managing Director.  Chafford Mill finally passed out of the family ownership in November 1905 when ‘A Resolution was passed for voluntary winding up of "Turner & Co (Chafford Mills) Ltd’ with Mr Herbert Green of Hayle Mill, Maidstone, and Mr Lawrence Green of Oaklands, Maidstone, appointed liquidators"[33].