Becket(t), William

Lancaster, Lancs.; cabinet maker and joiner (fl.1771–1800).

Son of James Beckett of Wray near Lancaster. Apprenticed to William Blackburn on 1 June 1771; admitted freeman, 1779–80, when stated ‘of Wray’.  Named in the Gillow archives between 1786–1800 for ‘moulding claws’. He signed Gillows' journeymen's price agreement in 1785 with some thirty-three other workmen. Lindsay Boynton states that William Beckett was involved in ‘designing’ furniture for the Lancaster branch. He was recorded in the 1789 Gillow’s Petty Cash Book on 21 February and 7 March. Possibly the maker of the large chest of drawers, mahogany veneer, oak carcase, bowfronted, belonging to the late Edward Croft-Murray and traced to William Rawlinson of Ancoats Hall, which he rented from the Moseleys in the later 18th century. Inscriptions in black lead on underside of bottom of third drawer and on outside of back of third drawer: ‘WILLIAM BECKET MAKER 1789’.

Sources: DEFM; Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800 (1995), p.18; Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840 (2008), II, p.217