Lupton, William

Lancaster, Lancashire and London; cabinet maker (fl.1761-1807)

The son of Thomas Lupton, yeoman of Poulton Hall in the parish of Poulton, William was apprenticed to Richard Gillow of Lancaster from 23 October 1761. He was Charles Lupton's brother.

In February 1762 a £10 fee was received from his father for William's apprenticeship. He and four other workmen, William Taylor, Askew, John Seargent and Jos. Foster, made ‘a large piece of furniture' for John France Esq. in 1766 (illus. Stuart (2008), pl. 598). He was paid £2 6d, for four weeks and three days’ work on it. He made a ‘snap top table with half moons to make it an oval table’ with John Park; Lupton worked on it for 5½ days to Park’s 2½ days. Also in 1766 he made a small mahogany table with term legs which is illustrated in the Estimate Sketch Book and for which he was paid 10s (illus. Boyton (1995), fig. 57). A mahogany cupboard for a chamber pot which Lupton made in 1766 is illustrated in the Estimate Book. It was a quarter of a circle in plan and took him 3 days for which he was paid 5s. He also made a fire screen for Mr Strickland which took him 3½ days with John Neil.

In 1774 he made a variety of furniture for Gillows including: common fan-back chairs, dining tables, best splat-back chairs, old splat-back chairs, eight fan-back chairs for Williams Hasell (now at Dalemain), night tables, sideboard tables with moulded legs, glass frames with scrolled pediments and best splat pattern chairs. In 1778 the Lancaster firm's clerk noted that they had allowed him 4gns, from his work account in Lancaster to be paid into his brother Charles' account. In May 1783 he made six chairs in the straight Gothic style with tapered legs. These chairs were also carved: he was paid 4s 2d. but one of Gillows' carvers would probably have done the carving.

Lupton signed the new journeymen's wage agreement in 1785 with about thirty-three other workmen. One of the chairs illustrated in the agreement, a star-back chair, was made by William Lupton in November 1789. The notes under chair number 18 read: ‘The star back with hollow seat and swept side rails and straight front and back with plain tapered legs and no strichers... 7s 11d. William Lupton was paid that 23rd November 1789'.

On 21 February and 7 March 1789 he was mentioned in the Gillow’s Petty Cash Book. William Lupton was recorded in their Petty Ledgers from c.1766-1804 and in 1807.

A second William Lupton, son of Charles Lupton, was apprenticed to Gillows in 1804.

Sources: DEFM; Boyton, Gillows Furniture Designs (1995); Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840 (2008), II, pp.260-62.