Treacher, Samuel, I, II, III

Oxford Street (later Road) High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; chair maker and turner (fl.1757–1844)

There were three men of the same name and all members of the same multi-generational chair-making family. 

1. The first Samuel Treacher was a farmer and turner from Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He died in 1757, his will probated on 13 August that year.
2. The second Samuel Treacher was his grandson and the son of William Treacher senior, born in Hughenden, Buckinghamshire in 1742, and apprenticed to a blacksmith in Chesham. By 1771 he had left off blacksmithing and joined his father, William senior and his brothers, William junior and Daniel, in High Wycombe. In 1784, Samuel and his two brothers, were the only High Wycombe chair makers listed in Bailey's Directory. He was situated at Upper Barn in Oxford Street, which was the main road leading out of High Wycombe. In 1782 he purchased a Sun Insurance policy fot this property, valued at £200, of which £50 covered tools and stock. Samuel was the first of the three brothers to die, in 1799. He had run his brother, William junior's former business in Oxford Street, called Temple Place.

3. The third Samuel Treacher (son of William junior and Samuel I), is named in directories and a Militia Census, 1790–1844, in Chepping Wycombe. He was also named in the parish accounts in 1790 for supplying ‘a half part of the wood used in the hall’ of the workhouse. By 1806, borough accounts record that his property in High Wycombe (previously hid father's) was called Temple Place, the same used in most subsequent documents, and that Oxford Street became more commonly referred to as Oxford Road, where he was listed in 1839.

   It is difficult to determine the types of chairs Samuel made in his workshops, but he may have continued to make 'Windsor, Dyed & Fancy' chairs, mentioned in his father's billhead (below):

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Adam Bowett and Margaret Rayner suggest in their 2023 Regional Furniture article, that a 'fancy' chair was usually a painted or japanned chair. The authors also mentioned that the Treachers and and another multi-generational family of High Wycombe chair makers, the Skulls, shared business premises in the High Street (1783) and in Paul's Row (1784-88). 

Sources: DEFM; Margaret Rayner and Adam Bowett, 'Samuel Treacher and Thomas Widgington, Pioneers of High Wycombe Chairmaking?', Regional Furniture (2023), pp. 67-79; The London Archives (TLA), Sun MS vol. 299, p. 603; L. J. Mayes, The History of Chairmaking in High Wycombe, 1960, p. 24; Public Records (baptisms); C. Musgrave, Regency Furniture, p. 97; The National Archives (TNA), PROB 11; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 832.