Shirley, William snr

11 Westgate, Grantham, Lincs.; Windsor chair and spinning wheel maker, turner (fl. 1815-35)

William Shirley senior was admitted as a Freeman of Grantham in 1815 after an apprenticeship to John and the William Taylor. On 25 June 1819 he placed an advertisement in the Stamford Mercury for an apprentice in which he describes himself as ‘Turner, Windsor, Turn-pin, and Fancy Chair and Spinning-wheel manufacturer...’. His son William jnr (b. 1821), after serving his apprenticeship in Grantham, set up his own workshop in Caistor in 1843 where he was joined by his younger brother, Frederick, as an apprentice in 1851.

Source: DEFM; Agius, ‘Chairmakers listed in General and Trade Directories, 1790-1851’, Furniture History (1976); Cotton, ‘Shadford, Shirley, and the Caistor workshop’, RegionalFurniture (1988); Parker, ‘The Elusive Turn-pin Chair’, RegionalFurniture (2018).