Goddard Family History - Clothes to Coals

GODDARD FAMILY HISTORY

Clothes to Coals

Samuel Goddard (1800 – 1876) and Elizabeth Clark (1801 – 1866) had given all their sons the opportunity and means to surpass them in life, a legacy which was extended to more than a few of their grand-children. One or two of them became entrepreneurs in their own right, but it would be a son of their only daughter who would out perform them all, he co-founded a business that spanned well beyond the realm of these shores.

Elizabeth Goddard (1835 – 1913) was born in New Brentford Middlesex, she married Henry Poore Everett (1836 – 1871) a Tailor from Isleworth in the parish church of Holy Trinity, St Marylebone Middlesex in 1861. The couple set up home in the Twickenham Road Isleworth and it wasn’t long before Henry gave up his profession as a Tailor and delved into the world of real estate. Together they had six children but Henry never lived long enough to see them reach adulthood, he died in December 1871 at the age of 35. Elizabeth was left to support and bring up her six young children on less than £200 that had been left to her by her husband in his will, though more than most families had ever had, it was not a fortune, and with no other means of income the money wouldn’t have lasted too many years. So Elizabeth invested in the only thing she knew that would provide sufficient means, her own business, and by 1873 she was operating from number 142 in the Brentford High Street.

Being of the fairer sex hadn’t hindered Elizabeth in anyway, she being just as acute as her father and eight brothers. Those years spent working for her parents and learning from her brothers, had given her the know how and confidence to compete in what was dominantly a man’s world. She chose not to go in direct competition with them and targeted her business at one particular clientele, selling second hand woman’s clothes. By 1891 she had earned enough personal funds that she was able to retire in Isleworth in relative comfort.

Harry Poore Everett (1862 – 1955) was born in Isleworth Middlesex; when he became of age his mother Elizabeth made arrangements for him to move to Northumberland. Sometime prior to 1881 he travelled to the village of Hazelrigg in the parish of Longbenton, a coal mining community situated about 5 miles north of Newcastle and lodged with his mother’s life long friend Betsy Pearl and her carpenter husband John Hardy. It must have been a bit of a culture shock when the young Harry first arrived, the North East of England was booming in the 19th century with its coal mining and shipbuilding industries, world’s apart from the work opportunities and future prospects he may of have had in Brentford.

Harry was fortunate enough to gain employment as a shipbrokers clerk and once established he left Hazelrigg and moved on to Sunderland in County Durham, the most famous and largest shipbuilding town in the world of its day. He married Mary Catherine Brown in 1887 and moved in with her and her family in Bishop Wearmouth, where her father a Timber Measurer had a shop and office in the High Street. Whilst living and working in Sunderland, Harry struck up a friendship with Sunderland born John William Witherington (1862-1933) an export and shipping manager’s clerk, with Harry Everett’s knowledge of ship broking and John Witherington’s knowledge of the export trade, their relationship made for the ideal partnership, and in 1898 they founded their own shipping company calling it Witherington & Everett. In 1899 they bought an old collier ship paying £500 and after two years they could afford to buy another. It’s intriguing to know how they managed to raise enough initial capital to purchase their first ship, have enough funds for it’s operational costs and pay the crew’s wages. It would be obvious to assume that they borrowed the money from the bank, but no bank would have invested into such a risky venture without sufficient collateral in return. They certainly impressed someone enough to invest in their company, be it the bank or private investors. By 1901 Harry had moved his family and mother into a new home and was able to employ a couple of house servants. Was it just possible that Harry’s mother had put some of her own capital into his business ventures? Living with Harry, his mother would have been socialising with some very wealthy families, one of those families was that of John George Hill. The Hills were originally Tailors in the High Street Sunderland, who had put all their surplus earnings into ships and had built up a considerable size fleet. In 1903 Witherington & Everett took over the management of the Hill Steam Shipping Co, eventually merging the two companies. John George Hill passed away in the same year at the age of 77 leaving an estate valued at over £345,000 net, equivalent to £20 million in today’s currency. As one of the executors of his will, Harry was left three £100 shares in the John George Hill Steam Shipping Co.

Witherington & Everett were quick to adapt, most ships used to have horizontal stripe markings on their funnels, but Hill’s ships used to have vertical strips of calico (a plain white cotton cloth, heavier than muslin), hanging from their black funnels. Witherington & Everett adopted this idea and painted white vertical stripes known as ‘the tombstones’ on their black funnels making them unique. They also took another idea from the Hill Steam Shipping Company, who named their ships associated with rapid transport, having names as ‘Sprightly’, ‘Quickstep’, and ‘Swiftsure’, Witherington & Everett went on to have ‘Lightfoot’, ‘Speedfast’, ‘Crackshot’, ‘Skipjack’, ‘Fleetwing’, and ‘Alacrity’.

Ninety percent of the cargo carried by Witherington & Everett ships was coal; the other ten percent was made up of iron ore and timber. The freight rate for a ton of coal from the North East coast to London at the start of the 1900’s was 3s 3d. One ship could earn them 30s a month for each ton of cargo it carried, this rose to £2 a ton by 1915. The first thirty years of the 1900’s were very successful for Witherington & Everett, having signed into a number of profitable contracts; they had entered into one contract from 1907 to carry 25,000 tons of coal a year to Ireland for the Cork Gas Company. By the time of the 1911 census Henry had moved into a nine roomed house and his mother was visiting her widowed friend Betsy Pearl who was working as the postmistress in Weetslade Terrace Burradon in the parish of Longbenton Northumberland. Between 1911 and 1913 Elizabeth returned to Hounslow Middlesex where she passed away in the December of 1913. In the June of 1914 Witherington & Everett signed another yearly agreement to carry 25,000 tons of coal from the North East Coast to Cork for the period July 1914 to June 1915, but they failed to carry out the contract. When the First World War broke out two of their ships were at Hamburg Germany and unable to escape, the rest of their fleet except two were requisitioned by the Admiralty to carry bunkers for their Warships.

During the late 1920’s ships cost up to a maximum of £10 per ton dead weight to build; Witherington & Everett had a considerable amount of capital invested in their fleet of ships, and would of had to keep them all working all year round to reap any rewards from their investment. Business was going well up until the start of the 1930’s, when there was great depression with the North East suffering severely, with up to a third of the men unemployed. All the shipyards were closed for the best part of two years, and life for the average family was very hard, but it was a very hard life for the ship owners as well, they were going out of business at an alarming rate. There was a time during the depression when Witherington & Everett had seventeen out of its eighteen ships laid up. Idle ships cost the ship owners money just to moor them up and with investors wanting their money back, it didn’t take too many years for funds to dry up and companies go into liquidation. The freight rate for a ton of coal from the North East coast to London was as low 2s 3d, making it very difficult for the ship owners to make a living, they were losing money all the time, year after year, and the only way they could keep going was by selling off their ships to generate some working capital. Witherington & Everett managed to weather the storm but came out of the depression fifty percent the company it once had been by selling off half its fleet by 1938 and losing one of its founders when John William Witherington died aged 71 in 1933. Harry’s wife Mary also died in the same year aged 71, their marriage had produced three children, Arthur, Dorothy and Harry who died as an infant. By the outbreak of the the Second World War, the company was being run by the son’s, Arthur Simpson Witherington and Arthur Goddard Everett, and once again they had their ships helping with the war effort conveying military stores. Harry Poore Everett lived long enough to see the recovery of Withering & Everett and it continued to function for at least another four decades. Harry passed away in 1955 at the age of 92 having a life achievement as founder partner of Witherington & Everett, Director of Hill Steam Shipping Co Ltd, Director of Granta Steam Shipping Co Ltd, Chairman of the Tyne Improvement Commission, Chairman of the North of England Shipping Association and Justice of the Peace.

Arthur Goddard Everett MA (1897 – 1978) was born in Sunderland and fortunate enough to have had a very privileged upbringing. He was groomed at a young age to follow in his father’s footsteps, receiving the best education that money could buy. He was sent to boarding school in Yorkshire and then onto Cambridge University where he achieved a Master of Arts degree. During the First World War he was a Cadet with the Northumbrian Brigade before receiving a probationary promotion to 2nd Lieutenant with the Royal Garrison Artillery on the 14th July 1916 later to be promoted to Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery and posted off to France in the June of 1917. His future business partner Arthur Simpson Witherington who had received a similar education by first attending a Methodist run Leys boarding school before moving onto Cambridge University to read law, was also a Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery in the Northumbrian Brigade but unfortunately he was captured by the Germans in the May of 1918 and spent the next six months as a prisoner of war.

Arthur Everett married Mary Louise Hamilton (1904 – 1869) in Sunderland in 1925, and they had three daughters, Dorothy, Margaret and Eleanor. In the late 1950’s, when their traditional business of transporting coal was disappearing, Witherington & Everett diversified into the general cargo business, to the Mediterranean. To carry it on they formed another new company at the start of the 1960’s with Anthony & Bainbridge Shipping Ltd calling it the Gracechurch Shipping Line Ltd., of which Witherington & Everett had a fifty per cent holding. Arthur went onto more than equal his father’s achievements by becoming a partner of Witherington & Everett, Director of Granta Steam Shipping Co Ltd, Director of Crackshot Shipping Co Ltd, Director of Gracechurch Line Shipping Ltd, Chairman of the Tyne Improvement Commission, Chairman of the North of England Shipping Association and Justice of the Peace. Arthur died in 1978 aged 81 and with his demise, brought an end to a male Everett’s involvement in the partnership, the Witherington’s were more fortunate that Arthur Simpson Witherington had his son Herbert to carry on the business.

SS Pegaway owned by Witherington & Everett; When on passage from the Tyne for Hamburg, with coal, the vessel sank 30 miles NW of Terschelling Light Ship on the 04-04-1938.

On a poignant note Witherington and Everett lost more than a few ships over the years to the natural elements of the sea, collisions, striking mines and enemy attacks. On the final day of the war in Europe, 7th May 1945 and one hour away from peace, the SS Avondale Park managed by Witherington & Everett was sunk in the last ever attack by a German U-Boat.

Documented references can be viewed in the Database