Chew, William

12 Lord St, Liverpool, Lancs.; upholder and cabinet maker (b. 1784–d. 1824)

Initially traded in partnership with his father John Chew under the style ‘Chew & Son’. In November 1811 it was announced that they were agents for ‘patent adjusting bedsteads for the relief of sick, lame & infirm persons’ devised by Messrs Parker and Cluley of Sheffield. An example of this patent bedstead was shown in their shop. William Chew was a subscriber to Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803 at which date he was aged 19. In 1809 John Chew & Son supplied chairs to the Liverpool Town Hall and there were subsequent payments from the Council for unspecified work including £95 8s on 29 June 1812, £100 on 10 July 1813 and £120 on 5 August 1814. In 1811 the firm came under the sole charge of William. However, in July 1815 he informed the public that because of his ill-health he was retiring from trade and his stock was offered to the public ‘at prime cost’. The stock was said to consist of ‘large and Brilliant Looking Glasses, cut glass Lustres, Lights and Mirrors, Lamps for Halls, Passages &c. Chairs, Tables, and a variety of Cabinet Goods in Satin, Mahogany and other Woods, Ladies’ Work, Console and Pier Tables, superfine Kidderminster, Venetian and Brussels Carpets, with Imperial Hearth Rugs to match, elegant Fourpost Bedsteads, with Cotton, Morine, Calico and other Hangings, with Window Curtains to match, a variety of Paper Hangings, with Fancy Borders to match, a few sets of handsome Mahogany Dining-room Chairs and Tables, quite new, with every other Article in the above business’. The unsold stock and the supplies of materials in his workshops were sold by auction in two sales conducted by Charles Chester jnr of Lord St on the 10 and 24 November 1815. William Chew retired from Liverpool to Holt Hill, Cheshire and in April 1816 his household furniture was also auctioned by Charles Chester at William Chew's house, no. 6 Maryland St. His death at the age of 40 ‘after a short illness’ was announced in May 1824.

Sources: DEFM; Dean, ‘The Regency Furniture in Liverpool Town Hall’, Furniture History (1989).