Doughty, Joseph & Martha

Minstergate and 6 Coney St, York; spinning wheel makers, turners, toymen and cabinet makers (fl. 1755–1824)

Born in 1755, Joseph was baptised at church of St Michael-le-Belfrey, York. His parents, John and Ann Doughty, had a shop in Minster Yard, York. Joseph continued his father's business in Minstergate selling fishing tackle and ivory, bone and wooden ‘toys’.

An advertisement for 1 August 1786 in the York Courant stated that Joseph Doughty had succeeded his father John who was by then 70 years of age approx. On the 1 January 1787 Joseph Doughty married Martha Parker by license at St Michael-le-Belfry church, York. He was listed as a shopkeeper at this time, aged 32. An advertisement in the York Herald for 27 March 1790 proclaims ‘Joseph DOUGHTY, at the FISH and FLY, within Minster Gates has now in stock a very extensive range of angling equipment as wells as ink-stands, canes, whips , walking sticks and umbrellas, combs ivory, bone and wooden toys, hygrometers, barometers, fans, fan mounts and fan sticks.’

Joseph Doughty was admitted as a Freeman of York, making it possible for him to trade in the City itself. He moved to new premises at 6 Coney Street, York in partnership with Joseph Marshall, where they advertised their ‘new invented spinning wheel’. Doughty died on 18^th December 1801, and his widow, Martha, announced her intention of carrying on the business in York Courant, 8 March 1802. Further advertisements in 1805 and 1807 show her trading as a ‘Toy, Tunbridge & Cabinet Manufacturer’. On 1 December 1813 Martha married Joseph Marshall. He was entered as merchant of the Parish of St Mary Bishophill Junior and Martha a widow of St Michael-le-Belfrey. On 28 March 1814 the business appears as ‘M. MARSHALL, (Late Doughty) Turner, Cabinet Manufacturer &c, CONEY STREET, YORK’. In the Yorkshire Gazette, 8 May 1824 she announced the sale of the business to John Hardy and expressed thanks for favours conferred upon her during the last thirty years. The spinning-wheels that Doughty produced were for ladies of leisure or boudoir wheels. They are recognisable, although not all marked. Their characteristics include a vertical wheel with an unusual lobe form table supported on either three or four turned legs and a system which allows the thread on the bobbin to be filled evenly (illus. Bryant, ‘Joseph Doughty, a York Spinning-Wheel Maker’, Regional Furniture (2011), figs 8-12). A wheel in the Castle Museum, York, is inscribed ‘Doughty, York’. At present (2011), ten are recorded.

Source: DEFM; Bryant, ‘Joseph Doughty, a York Spinning-Wheel Maker’, Regional Furniture (2011).

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