Genealogy Chat

Aftermonths of searching today I found eveidence of my ancestor's business. It was called Dobson and Munro, organ builders, 22 Swan St Minories. It was in the 1811 London and COuntry Directory. I've no idea who DObson was but was very interested to see he was a partner in a business in 1811. That means my estimation of his birth date at 1804 must have been wrong. He must have been much older than that. Does anyone want to make an educated guess? ALso - does anyone know where I could find more info on the business and its partners?

Where is Swan Street Minories? I thought The Minories was a street in London. nell

If you have a look at this site:- http://www.standingstones(.)com/sanjuan.html remove brackets ....... and scroll about three quarters of the way down the page, there is mention of:- a barrel organ made by Benjamin Dobson, The Minories, London. Further down the page it mentions an organ inscribed 'Benjamin Dobson, 22 Swan Street, London, England, 1735, so it seems the firm had been there a long time. There is an awful lot of reading on the site but if you read right down to the end of the article, there are bits written by the great, great great grandson of Benjamin Dobson. It mentions that The Minories was very near to London docks, just north of the Tower of London. It also gives years of birth and death for a couple of Benjamin Dobson's. Kath. x

You can see a piccy of an organ made by Dobson and Munro here: http://www.morrismuseum.org/static/collections/guinness/highlights15.html and most impressive it looks, too! nell

Found this in list of Victorian streets on Gendocs: Swan Street, Minories (some demolition), WHITECHAPEL [1871] nell

And this: Swan Street, Minories East out of Minories to Mansell Street (P.O. Directory). Partly in Portsoken Ward. Former name: 'Swan Alley' (O. and M. 1677, and in Tomlinson's Hist. of the Minories, p.294). The alley was much smaller and narrower, and the street seems to have been rebuilt towards the end of the 18th century. From: 'Swan Street, Minories', A Dictionary of London (1918). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=7999. Date accessed: 17 August 2005. nell

Wow! You lot are great! I feel I'm getting a bit warmer at last - Jennie