William James CHAPLIN M.P. [4003]

  General Notes:

William of Hyde Park Gdns and Ewhurst Park Hants was M P for Salisbury, and Sheriff of London 1845-6.

The year 1847 is a landmark in Salisbury's political history in several ways. It brought to an end the period, beginning in 1818, in which the city had been represented by one Whig and one Tory,and began a period of nearly thirty years during which it was represented by two Liberals; it saw the virtual disappearance of the old family connexions and their replacement by new men, who, though still men with local connexions, were not local men in quite the same sense. For example,William James Chaplin, head of the well-known carriers and coach proprietors, Chaplin & Horne, M.P. from 1847 to 1857, owed his election to his chairmanship of the South-Western Railway, which,it was considered, would give him power to confer benefits upon the city From: Salisbury: Politics and parliamentary history since 1612, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 117-124. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41796 Date accessed: 18 April 2013.

The Times, Sat July 19 1859
London and South-Western Railway - Notice of next half-yearly general meeting ---- A vacancy has been occasioned in the Board of Directors by the death of William James Chaplin Esq ----

Chaplin William James Esq. 17 May 1859 the Will of William James Chaplin late of 2 Hyde Park Gardens in the county of Middlesex Esq deceased who died 24 April 1859 at Hyde Park Gardens aforesaid was proved at the Principal Registry by the oaths of Elizabeth Chaplin of 2 Hyde Park Gardens aforesaid Widow the Relict William Augustus Chaplin of 17 Mansfield Street Portland place in the said County Esq and Ernest Chaplin of 91 Victoria Street Westminster in the said County Esq the sons and Charles Pressly of Surbiton Hill near Kingston in the County of Surrey Esq the Executors. Effects under £180,000. Re-sworn July 1861 under £300,000. National Probate Calendar.

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 30 Mar 1851, Ewhurst Hse Ewhurst HAM.
William is recorded as head of house aged 63 a gentleman born Rochester KEN

2. William James Chaplin: The Swan with 2 Necks Inn with Timetable of coach departures: Lad Lane LND.
The Swan with Two Necks was a coaching inn in the City of London that, until the arrival of the railways, was one of the principal departure points for travel to the north of England from London. Its site was given over in the early 1860s to a goods and parcels depot for a firm of railway agents and carriers.
The Swan stood in a courtyard on the northern side of Lad Lane, near the junction with Milk Street, Aldermanbury, and Cateaton Street. Lad Lane and Cateaton Street were among four streets amalgamated into Gresham Street in 1845.

Rather than being ringed, swans' bills would be annually nicked, in Swan Upping, using a metal implement, a practice reflected in the pub name The Swan with Two Necks, a corruption of "The Swan with Two Nicks".

Until the arrival of the railways, the Swan was one of the principal departure points for travel to the north of England from London. John Taylor stated in his Carriers Coimographie (1637) that "The Carriers of Manchefter, doe alfo lodge at the two neck'd Swan in Lad lane (betweene great Wood ftreet, and Milk-ftreet end) they come every fecond Thurfday: alfo there do lodge Carriers that doe pafse through divers other parts of Lancafhire."

Around 1835 the Swan came into the ownership of the Kentish coachman William Chaplin (1787-?) who built up a large coaching business that by then used 1,200 horses. By 1835 he was running 68 coaches using 1,800 horses and employing 2,000 men. Among the other inns he owned were the Spread Eagle, Gracechurch Street, the Cross Keys, and the White Horse, Fetter Lane. He has been called "perhaps the greatest coach proprietor that ever lived".

Chaplin sold most of his horses, however, to invest in the railways and the inn at the Swan closed around 1860. It was replaced by a new building that functioned as a goods and parcels depot for Chaplin & Horne railway agents and carriers. The British Almanac of 1862 reported that:
One of the most remarkable recent buildings in the City for its size and constructive features occupies the site of the well-known Swan-with-two-Necks, in Gresham Street. It is built for Messrs. Chaplin and Horne, the railway carriers, and has a frontage of nearly 100 feet, a depth of 150 feet, and a height of 64 feet above the pavement, while beneath are warehouses and extensive stabling. The front has a solid architectural character, in keeping with the purposes to which the building is to be applied. The ground floor, of Portland stone, rusticated, rests on a granite basement, while the three upper stories are of brick with stone dressings, a massive cornice crowning the whole. The architect was Mr. W. Tite, M.P. ; the cost has been a little under £40,000.

A trade directory for 1869 listed the site as "the Receiving Office for Goods for the Great Eastern, London & South Western, South Eastern, London, Brighton & South Coast & London, Chatham & Dover Railway Companies." Advertising for Chaplin & Horne from 1874 indicates that the site continued to be known as the Swan-with-two-Necks but that it was only one of many depots run by the firm. Chaplin & Horne were in competition with Pickfords for much of the nineteenth century and Pickfords eventually took over Chaplin & Horne and the Swan at 57 Gresham Street became a Pickfords depot and their head office.
Wikipedia.

The print (probably dating from some time in the 1820s) showing the large yard of the inn. The coach office is to the left with a board outside, advertising the services. Nearby is a coachman, with a whip in his hand. In the centre of the view is a fully laden coach about to depart through the large archway on the far left. The galleries allow access for guests to rooms in which they stayed overnight.
Engraved by F. Rosenberg after a painting by James Pollard. Published by J. Watson, London, 1831

This was one of the really well-known inns of the City of London. It was first mentioned 1556. Its site was between Wood Street and Milk Street beside a short street called Lad Lane. Lad Lane is said to have originally been called 'Lady Lane'. According to Harben, the large inn stood on the north side of Lad Lane at No 10 in Cripplegate Within Ward. Gresham Street was gradually laid out from 1845 and completed 1881-95, incorporating several small lanes into a wider thoroughfare \endash including Lad Lane.

In 1637 John Taylor published his 'Carriers' Cosmographie' which was a guide for inns \endash rather like Bradshaw's guide to the railways 200 years later. Taylor has an entry for the Swan with Two Necks stating: Carriers of Manchester come every second Thursday 'at the two-necked Swan in Lad Lane.' Carriers 'that do pass through diverse other parts of Lancashire' lodge there. Carriers of Stafford 'and other parts of that county' come on Thursdays.

By 1829 it is known to have been in use as a coaching inn, with 23 daily departures by mail coaches. John Timbs, in his 'Curiosities of London' published in 1855, states that the 'Swan with Two Necks, Lad-lane, now Gresham-street, was long the head coach-inn and booking-office for the North.'

Swan with Two Necks was a corruption of the phrase 'swan with two nicks \endash referring to swans owned by the Vintners' Company. All swans on the Thames have been owned either by the Sovereign; the Dyers' Company; or the Vintners' Company for many centuries. Swans owned by the Sovereign are unmarked. Swans owned by the Dyers carried one small 'nick' filed into the bill (or beak). Swans owned by the Vintners carried two 'nicks' on the bill. The marking is still carried out annually on the Thames during a two-week event, which takes place in July \endash known as Swan Upping. These days, instead of marking the bills with 'nicks', the swans have rings put on their legs to indicate ownership.

William married Elizabeth ALSTON [4002] [MRIN: 1372], daughter of William ALSTON of Rochester [3981] and Sarah LOADER [3983], on 11 Jul 1816 in St Nicholas Rochester KEN. (Elizabeth ALSTON [4002] was born on 23 Jun 1794 in Rochester and died on 7 Nov 1866 in Hove SSX.)