Webb, Henry

Hammersmith, London; chair maker (b. c. 1731-d.1793)

Son of John Webb (1702-94), he worked in his father’s chair making trade in Dorney and then in Hammersmith, London. He was buried on 5 June 1793 at St Paul’s, Hammersmith, where his wife, Elizabeth, nee Carter, had been buried at the same location in 1785. They had two sons, John (1753-95) and Henry (1755-94) and one daughter, Martha (1756-1822). Elizabeth had a brother, John Carter (bapt. 1729) and one of his sons, Timothy (bapt. 1768) rented premises in Hammersmith from Martha Webb, his cousin, in 1803 (land tax records). 

Henry Webb was recorded in 1763 in connection with the furnishing of Alresford House, Hampshire. In 1767 supplied 24 forest stools painted white at £5 8s and 6 German stools similarly painted to Sir John Griffin Griffin at Audley End, Essex. The Croome Court, Worcestershire accounts record the supply of a ten foot sofa and four German chairs painted green in July 1769 at a cost of £4 14s 6d. Osterley Park, Middlesex received chairs from him in 1782 and 1789 and in 1791 he supplied to Lord Ducie ‘6 large Fluted back German chairs’ at 2s each.

In 1775 he took out insurance cover of £400 on a house and shops, and land tax returns for 1780 and 1782 indicate that he owned or leased property in King Street, Hammersmith. His will was proved 5 June 1793 at which time his age was said to be 62, indicating that he was born about 1731. In it he was described as a ‘Windsor Chair Maker’. He left to his eldest son John his dwelling house and workshops in Hammersmith. Other properties were left to his second son Henry and daughter Martha, and the stock in trade was left equally to his sons. There were also bequests of cash and stock to his children, revealing him to have been a prosperous tradesman. Despite leaving the business premises to his son, it was Webb’s daughter Martha who carried on the Windsor chair business. It has been speculated that there was a connection between Henry Webb and Thomas Ay[c]liffe jnr, ‘Turner in Ordinary to His Majesty’, based in Soho; between 1767 and 1783 Ayl[c]iffe traded as ‘Aycliffe and Webb’ and supplied ‘forest stools’ &c to Sir John Griifin Griffin in 1775 and 1783.

For a family tree for the Webb & Carter families, chair makers, see Parker, Regional Furniture (2020).

Sources: DEFM; Parrott, ‘Windsor Chair Making on the Outskirts of Eighteenth-Century London; William Webb of Newington and Henry Webb of Hammersmith’, Regional Furniture (2008); Parker, 'Windsor Chairs, Children's Carts, German Stools, Rustic Chairs, Summerhouses and Perambulator: The Webbs (and Bunce and Carter), Dells, Priors and Trotmans, Regional Furniture (2020).