Capstack (or Capstick), James

Market St, Lancaster, Lancs.; cabinet maker (fl.1798–1812)

He was apprenticed to Jeremiah Sowerby in 1789 and was working for Gillows by December 1798 when he made a cupboard for the firm. He had a house and workshop in Market Street, Lancaster. He is noted in the Gillow’s records for the periods 1798–99, 1800, 1802-4 and 1812–14. In 1811 a James Capstick was made freeman of Lancaster as a cabinet maker. He may the same cabinet maker whose household and business goods were put up for sale in April 1811 and whose creditors met in April 1812. Apart from his household furniture, much of which was mahogany, carpets, looking-glasses, etc, he had a stock consisting of ‘new-made mahogany writing desks, wardrobes, chests of drawers, clock-cases, washstands, night-chairs, tables, pier and swing looking glasses’, as well as eight work benches, mahogany and oak in planks and boards and mahogany veneers [Lancaster Gazette, 27 April 1811, 25 April 1812].

Sources: DEFM; Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840 (2008), II, p. 225.