Edmondson & Creighton; Creighton & Son; Creighton & Co.; R. & J.R. Creighton

Castle Street and 1 & 2 Lowther Street, Carlisle, Cumberland; cabinet makers, carvers and gilders, upholsterers and paper hangers, and timber merchants (fl.1830-90)

James Creighton (b. 1777) arrived in Carlisle from the Scottish Lowlands as a young joiner and became a partner in his employer’s business, Edmondson & Creighton, carvers, gilders, upholsterers and paper hangers, at 36 Castle Street (1834) [DEFM]. He subsequently made the business his own. 

By 1847, Creighton had been joined in the business by his son, Robert (b. 1816- d. 1878), with the firm being renamed James Creighton and Son. It was listed in the 1847 Cumberland Directory as cabinet makers, carvers and gilders, upholsterers and paper hangers, and timber merchants, at 1 & 2 Lowther Street. The timber section of the business was listed solely under Robert’s name in the same Directory.

James Creighton probably died c.1850 and by 1855 Robert had moved the business from Lowther Street to the more prestigious Castle Street. From 1855 to 1873 Creighton and Son/Creighton & Co. occupied no. 24 Castle Street, afterwards moving to no. 47. Castle Street was a prominent location and ‘Opposite the Cathedral’ was proudly announced on the firm’s bill/letter heads. 

Robert Creighton became involved with local government, and in 1866 was elected Mayor of Carlisle. His second son, James Robert Creighton (1845-1896) followed this same path becoming Mayor from 1880-81 and 1888-89, and finally as a Director of the North British Railway Company, whilst his trade is recorded as timber merchant (1871 & 1881 census). On his death in 1896 the Carlisle City Council erected a column in the centre of Hardwicke Circus roundabout in his memory. The family business was listed as R. and J.R. Creighton, timber merchants of Byron Street, in a directory 1897. 

The Graham Gadd Archive (NMS) holds billheads for Creighton & Son and Creighton & Co., 1855-86. The blog about the family illustrates the 1855 billhead, click here .

Sources: DEFM; History, Gazetteer and Directory of Cumberland (1847); Post Office Directories of Cumberland and Westmorland (1858 & 1873); Kelly’s Directory of Cumberland (1897); Louisa Creighton, Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton (1904); James Covert, A Victorian Marriage: Mandell and Louisa Creighton (2010); blog by Emma Baillie; Graham Gadd Archive (NMS).