Briscoe, Peter

Liverpool and Lancaster, Lancs.; cabinet maker (b.c.1764-fl.1821)

The son of Thomas Briscoe, cabinet maker of Lancaster, and brother of William, he was born in Liverpool about 1764. He was apprenticed to Richard and Robert Gillow on 2 February 1778; they received 10 gns as part of his apprentice fee. Gillows kept careful notes on their apprentices' movements and in 1780 commented that ‘Peter Briscoe was never all night from home’, whereas the other two apprentices (at that period Christopher Newby and Thomas Baker) were away occasionally. Gillows charged 6s per week for Briscoe's board for fifty-two weeks per year in 1784. Peter Briscoe signed the 1785 Lancaster wage agreement with thirty-two other workmen. He was admitted freeman, 1795–96 and was listed in the Gillow’s archives from 1783 to 1821. In August 1786 either Samuel Cooper or Peter Briscoe were selected as possible makers of a ‘circular commode' for John Christian of Belle Isle, Windermere (illus. Stuart (2008), pl.539).

Sources: DEFM; Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840 (2008), II, p. 222.