Stephens, John

Bristol, Gloucestershire; upholder (1756–81)

In August 1756 Stephens announced that he had opened a shop at Castle Street ‘where he has a great Assortment of all sorts of Upholstery Goods’. Specially mentioned was a ‘curious collection of the newest and genteelest Paper Hangings’.

John Stephens explained that he was ‘late Appentice to Mr. John Purnell’. He was declared bankrupt in Gents Magazine May 1767 and this may have occasioned a change of address.

His trade card [Leverhulme Collection, Metropolitan Museum, NY] states that he traded from an address in Maryport Street. Here he sold retail and wholesale ‘All Sorts of the Newest & Genteelest Paper-Hangings, Also great Choice of Rugs, Blankets, Quilts, Matresses &c.’ The exact date of this card is uncertain.

In 1774 he was living in the parish of St Augustine and in 1781 the parish of St Peter [Farley's Bristol Journal, 28 August - 4 September 1756; poll books].

Source: DEFM