Thomas Christy Jnr. to Samuel and Henry Christy. Reference: B/P/2/3, Folder 1F.
Thomas Christy Jnr. to Samuel and Henry Christy, March 1835. Reference: B/P/2/3, Folder 1G.
Resources
John Christie-Miller. Feltmakers, 1957. S/J 48.
William Barber. The Chronicles of Canal Street,1965. S/J 48.
John H. Smith. Christy and Co- Development of the Hat Trade, 1988. S/J 48.
Penny Mcknight. Christys’ Hat Works, 1996. S/J 48.
James Turner. ‘The First Shop in the Trade’, 1986. S/J 48
George Augustus Sala. The Hats of Humanity, 1868.. S/J 48
Christys' brochure. Reference: 0983: S/J48.
Thomas Christy Junior’s notebook, 1822. Reference: D1329/1/3/2.
Miller Christy (1748-1820) was born in Ormiston, Scotland. At the age of 15 he was bound apprentice to his brother-in-law William MiIller and taught "the art and mystery of feltmaking". He was released from his apprenticeship in 1768, after which he travelled to London to make his trade as a journeyman hatter.
In 1773 Miller opened a hat shop in partnership with Joseph Storrs in White Hart Court. His skill as a hatter is evidenced by his admission to the Freedom of the Feltmakers Company in April of that year.
The Christy Hat Company remained a family run business for nearly two centuries. During this time, Christys' became one of the largest hat manufacturers in the world.
73
THE HOUSE OF CHRISTY
Miller Christy. Reference: D1329/3/1/1.
William Miller Christy. Reference: D1329/3/1/1.
In 1794 the partnership with Storrs was dissolved and the business became the sole property of Miller Christy.
The firm's name was changed to M. Christy and Son in 1799 when Miller's oldest son Thomas was taken into partnership.
Miller's advancement may be traced in this collection of bills from the firm's early years. Note the increasing annoyance of the beaver in the top left corner of the letterheads.
John Christy. Reference: D1329/3/1/1.
Miller Christy married Ann Rist and had five sons, three of whom would become partners in the firm:
Thomas Christy (1776-1846):
Thomas was taken apprentice to his father in 1790 and became a partner in 1797. He was mainly concerned with the business in London. He retired at a much earlier age than his brothers and was active in William Wilberforce’s anti-slavery campaign.
William Miller Christy (1778-1858):
William became a partner in 1800 and looked after the Stockport interests of the firm. He was frequently in conflict with his partners due to his extravagant spending and risky speculation in the cotton and banking trades.
John Christy (1781-1873):
John became a partner in 1805. Often referred to as "poor John" amongst the partners due to his supposed poor health, John lived to the age of 92.
The North-west was traditionally the home of hatting excellence. In 1795 it was claimed that Manchester’s manufacture of hats was "inferior to none", and that Manchester hatters "lead rather than follow the fashion".
Stockport was home to 18 large hat manufacturers in 1815 and it was said that "The best English hats are made in London and Stockport"
In 1797 Christys' began an association with Stockport that would last until 1996. The Stockport firm of Thomas and John Worsley were making finished hats on commission for Christys'. Impressed with the Worsleys' high standards, Christys' acquired the firm in 1826 and took over the Canal Street factory.
As the firm grew, the factory was continually expanded and by 1864 the whole building was said to be "the largest hat-factory in England, probably in Europe".
Hillgate factory, 1880. Reference: 0069: S/J 41.
Thomas Christy's son Samuel became a partner in 1830 and William Miller Christy's son Henry followed soon after. They moved to Stockport to oversee the factory.
William Barber, a long time employee of Christys' and self taught inventor of hatting machinery, remembers Samuel and Henry in his memoir The Chronicles of Canal Street:
"For a while Mr. Samuel and Mr. Henry were here together. The business was always very steady and regular much more so than any other Firm, Mr. H.C. and Mr. S.C. looking well after it.
Mr. Samuel had a pleasant cheery face and manner. A blowing up by him was very much less dreaded than one by Mr. Henry who could make his words sting like nettles."
Henry travelled extensively and was a student of anthropology, geology, ethnology and geography. He died from an inflammation of the lungs that set in while he was in France searching a cave for ancient flint tools. On his death, Henry left an extensive collection of prehistoric and and geological specimens to the British Museum.
Samuel was politically ambitious and in an anti-Tory broadside form the 1840's he is described as "an old councillor, we think a Reformer, but found in bad Company, of good abilities, to whom we would say, 'come out from among them'".
He was M.P for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1847 to 1859, during which time he remained working for Christys'.
Samuel Christy. Reference: D1329/3/1/1.
Henry Christy. Reference D1329/3/1/1.
Accounts bundle, 1837. Reference: D1329/1/2/1.
Thomas Christy Junior was the son of Thomas and became a partner in 1823 at the age of 22, taking over his father's duties in London.
His purchase notebook from 1822 with its tiny, neat writing reveals a little of his meticulous nature.
It is largely due to the young partners' habit of never throwing anything away that the Christy archives is so comprehensive and varied.
Samuel appears to have been responsible for accounting at the Stockport factory and he kept receipts for everything.
To the left is a receipt for some mushrooms which are complained to be "very dear this year", as well as Samuel's subscription to Stockport library.
Going to America. Reference: 36027: S/J48.
In the second half of the 19th century the hatting industry in Stockport grew dramatically. This was largely due to Henry Christy's encouragement of innovation, making him a major influence in the growth of the English hat industry.
Hatting in England had long been a manual trade and the hat making process had been largely untouched by the mechanisation of the industrial revolution.
In 1859 Henry and William Barber visited the US where the hat-making industry had already reached an advanced level of mechanisation. On that trip they bought a variety of new machines and installed them in Hillgate Mill. The photo on the left is believed to have been taken at the beginning of the trip.
These machines allowed Christys' to meet the revived demand for felt hats after a period in the 1840's when silk hats were the preferred fashion. Between 1860 and 1900 the number of hatters in Stockport working for Christys' increased from 473 to 3000.
Having pioneered the mechanisation of the hatting industry, Christys' continued to grow and earned a world-wide reputation as manufacturers of high quality hats.
The fashion plate to the left shows some of the variety of hats made by Christys'. In 1887, the fame of Christys' was such that the Royal Album of Arts and Industries of Great Britain declared::
"Christys! Who has not heard of Christys, the world renowned and famous manufacturers in countless shapes and materials? the name “Christys” predominates the habitable world. Their goods are to be found in every market. North, South, East and West, from pole to pole, in the Old World and in the New, we meet with the name. No region is too remote, no country, be it ever so inaccessible, but it is present and influential. In the Palace and in Parliament, in the church and the barrack-room, in the desert and upon the battlefield; in the bazaars of the East, from Turkey to Japan; from Norway to the Cape of Good Hope; from Canada to Chile, in Australia and in New Zealand, and in the chief cities of the continent, Christys wares are to be found."
A frequent target for Thomas Junior's ire was his uncle William Miller. William's ventures into banking and the cotton trade, as well as his speculative and expansionist outlook, were a constant cause of disagreement between the partners.
In the letter on the left, Thomas Jnr. is especially disdainful towards his uncle:
"Uncle Wm. must have got onto some good thing I think for it occupies his attention most days till 3 o' clock or after (and) is no doubt better worth his time than our beautiful business was last year. I should like something of the sort myself very well if the same constant attention to it was not required".
Thomas Junior and his uncle were perpetually in conflict with one another, each one bitterly complaining about the other to the rest of their partners.
In a letter to Samuel Christy in 1842, William Miller complains that "The caprice and interference of thy brother with almost everything I do is most striking and annoying" (29/10/42. B/P/2/15, Folder 2ADA).
The escalation of this battle can be traced in the extraordinarily comprehensive series of letters in the Christy collection.
Many of the letters that survive in the Christy archives were written by Thomas Christy Junior to his cousin and brother at Stockport. They reveal a colourful and entertainingly snarky personality.
He often writes to complain about the firm's lack of capital and vent his frustrations as an often chastised and much junior partner to his uncles in London.
In this letter, Thomas writes of the mounting bills and the necessity of abandoning the factory in Fairfield to help cover them:
"the sooner you can get Fairfield into the till the better. If Henry has some idea of bringing some pretty Kendal girl to settle down there with him I will be truly sorry to interrupt such a plan but I am sure to go there at all would entail great loss even if we had money so to think of it when we have not is an absurdity."
