Up: Hayward
YOR: 16 of 113
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and Empire yielding in the West. The American War of Independence was
drawing to a close. On January 20th 1783, His Britannic Majesty (George
the Third) acknowledged the United States to be "free, sovereign and
independent, relinquishing all claims to the government, propriety and
territorial right of the same."
Freedom was on the march. Britons never will
be slaves, a philosophy which the Pilgrim Fathers had planted in new
and fertile soil, was becoming more than a national monopoly. The peace
with America brought prosperity and trade, particularly with the former
colonies. Within ten years, Great Britain's imports and exports were to
double themselves.
Samuel Hayward had saved enough money to marry
early in life, his first wife bearing him fourteen children before she
died in 1787. Within a short time, he re-married and was rewarded with
a further twelve children by his second wide, making a grand total of
twenty-six. Fortunately, his father, the Dissenting Minister, had invested
in a large family vault in Bunhill Fields where the many children who died
in early infancy were speedily accommodated. The family tree thus
sadly pruned, four main branches continued to flourish in the persons
of four sons, two by each marriage, John and Samuel, by the first,
and James and George by the second. It is through Samuel, the second
son, that the glass business descended, he alone of the four brothers
electing to follow the same trade as his father. The eldest son, John,
went into the paint and house decorating trade, James took up ironmongery
and George entered into partnership as a wholesale stationer with James
Barry, brother of Sir Charles Barry, architect of the House of Commons.
It would seem, however, that all the sons of old
Samuel Hayward were first trained in the glass business. At that time,
tradesmen invariably lived on the premises where they worked and the
fortunes of the four young lads would have been strongly affected by
the atmosphere and influences of their father's livelihood.
During the same year that Samuel Hayward opened
his warehouse in the shadow of St. Mary-le-Bow, some workmen were
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