Carter, Timothy

King Street, Hammersmith, London; Windsor chairmaker (fl.1804– d.1821)

Baptised at Burnham, Buckinghamshire, he was the son of John Carter whose sister, Elizabeth, was married to Henry Webb (1731-1793). He married Hannah Grimmer at St Paul’s, Hammersmith on 17 May 1803 and his marriage bond described his trade as Windsor chair maker. In the same year he rented premises in Hammersmith from Martha Webb, daughter of Elizabeth & Henry Webb.

He is probably the ‘Carter’ who was paid £3 3s 6d in May 1804 for ‘rustic chairs’, the transaction being recorded in the Heathcote account book. Sun Fire Office records him as ‘Timothy Carter at the Windsor Chair Manufactory, Hammersmith, gent. Other property or occupiers: the Sun near the Creek Hammersmith’.

Holden’s Directory, 1805-07, listed him as a Windsor chair maker in King Street, Hammersmith. At the time of Timothy’s death, 1821, three daughters survived and his victualling and chair making businesses were left to his widow and another executor to provide for her and the daughters. His will was proven in 1822 and The Morning Advertiser, 13 October 1823, announced the sale of the lease and goodwill of the chair making and timber business. 

For a family tree of the Webb & Carter families, chair makers, see Parker, Regional Furniture (2020).

Sources: Parrott, ‘Windsor Chair Making Eighteenth-Century London’, Regional Furniture (2008); Parker, 'Windsor Chairs, Children's Carts, German Stools, Rustic Chairs, Summerhouses and Perambulator: The Webbs (and Bunce and Carter), Dells, Priors and Trotmans, Regional Furniture (2020)