Ince, Charles

London; cabinet maker (b.1768-d.1830)

Second surviving son of William Ince, of the Mayhew and Ince partnership. He was presumably trained in his father’s business and after its demise the London Gazette, 12 April 1800, published an announcement that Charles Ince would continue in business at his father’s house.  However he soon moved the business to Holles Street, Cavendish Square.  He paid rates on no. 23 Holles Street Cavendish Square in 1801 and nos 23 and 24 in 1802-3. In 1803 he was among the master cabinet makers listed at the end of Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary. His career as a master cabinet maker was short lived, however, and on 11 & 12 April 1804 the Morning Post advertised an auction of stock on the premises and reported that Mr Charles Ince was ‘declining business’. Among the ‘Excellent cabinet and upholstery stock’ advertised were ‘an elegant rose-wood cabinet, mahogany secretaries… an excellent counting house desk’.

In 1797 Charles married Anna Maria Jones, a widow. They had three children of whom one, Charles Vogel Ince, survived to adulthood. The couple moved to Swansea where Anna died in 1822. From Swansea Charles moved to Claines, near Worcester, where he died in 1830.

Source: Ingle, William Ince Cabinet Maker 1737-1804 (2nd edition, 2020).