Cox, John

London; upholsterer (1713–1749)

In the period 1713–18 Cox was at the ‘Iron Balcony’, next door to Lord Craven's in Drury Lane, but by 1734 had moved to The Piazza, Covent Garden. As early as 1713 he took an apprentice and by the 1730s had built up a substantial business serving influential and wealthy clients.

In 1734 he is recorded subscribing two guineas annually to St George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London. His earliest known commission was in 1728 when he was paid £10 16s 6d for papering ‘corniches’, lining curtains and making covers for chairs. The client was possibly the Duke of Montrose.

In 1734 he was paid £200 for a state bed and a matching set of backstools for Belhus, Essex (now at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich). On 5 November 1735 Earl Fitzwalter paid Cox £5 16s for a large Turkey carpet for Moulsham Hall, Essex. 

In 1738 six mahogany chairs costing £4 19s were supplied to Holkham Hall, Norfolk. Various small amounts for taking down beds, hanging curtains and making a wainscot bedstead (£2 5s) were paid, 1739–41, by Robert and Anne Nugent of Gosfield Hall, Essex, the work being for their London house in Dover Street.

Cox also manufactured tents and one costing £23 15s was supplied to Lord Charles Gordon 1748–49. [poll books; Guildhall Library, Sun MSS vol. 4, ref. 4066; Heal; Society of Genealogists apprentice index; St George's Hospital Minute book, p. 117; Scottish Record Office, GD 220/6/1373, GD 44/51/288/1/46; V & A archives; A. C. Edwards, The Accounts of Benjamin Mildmay, Earl Fitzwalter, p. 106; Essex Record Office, D/DU 502/2].

Source: DEFM