{"id":2865,"date":"2025-12-28T19:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T19:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/?page_id=2865"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:29:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:29:06","slug":"slop-sellers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/slop-sellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Slop Sellers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Samuel Favell<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Samuel Favell was a businessman who started his career as an apprentice to his father, a Freeman of the Cloth Workers Company of the City of London.\u00a0 Through successful business partnerships, his association with the Cloth Workers Company, and investments, the one-time apprentice acquired wealth, got involved in politics and philanthropy.\u00a0 Some of the decisions he made are interesting and give some insight to his character.<\/p>

When Samuel Favell died at the age of 70 in 1830, he was a rich man, and able to leave a trust worth \u00a32,000 (\u00a3199,000 at today\u2019s values) for his wife Elizabeth to receive a comfortable income.\u00a0 Elizabeth also received his leasehold house in Camberwell along with all of its\u2019 fixtures, fittings, furniture, linen, books, pictures, wine and other chattels and effects.\u00a0 Also, all his \u2018plate\u2019, except for special items for his sons and daughter.\u00a0 His gold watch chain and seals he left to his son John, a gold snuff box presented by the Corporation of Londonderry to his son Richard, and a silver urn and silver tea pot presented by the Irish Society to his daughter Caroline.<\/p>

His son John also received Samuel\u2019s share in the London Institution, Moorfields, and ten shares in the Union Fire Office, as did Richard.\u00a0 There were also Freeholds in Fenchurch Street, Walworth, Southwark, Peckham Rye and Covent Garden in trust to his son John and nephew Richard Boswell Beddome, with the proceeds of all rents, after expenses, going to his wife during her natural lifetime, and then to be divided between the sons and nephew.<\/p>

For his daughter Caroline there was a sum of \u00a35,000 in trust to purchase securities that would produce a 6 monthly income.\u00a0 There were also sums of \u00a3400 to be paid immediately to Elizabeth to cover the periods before rents would come to her, plus \u00a31,000 to each son, plus all the capital money and stock in trade of Favell Beddome and Company of Fenchurch Street, with further instructions regarding for settling debts and collecting credits.<\/p>

At his own request Samuel was buried in Bunhill Fields graveyard in the City of London, marked by a low granite cope stone that curiously claims that he was of Flemish descent.\u00a0 Perhaps this was from a female line?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Born in 1760, as a young man Samuel was an apprentice to his father, John Favell, a \u2018Slop Seller\u2019 of Tooley Street.\u00a0 Slops was the general term used for lower quality ready-made clothing that also included uniforms for the Navy.<\/p>

His father John had himself served a 7-year apprenticeship as a Cloth Worker, becoming a Freeman of The Clothworkers’ Company in 1737.\u00a0 He had been apprenticed to a Daniel Jevon, a packer living in Tower Street, London.\u00a0 John was described on his indentures as the son of William Favell of Tipton in Staffordshire.\u00a0 His occupation at the time he became a Freeman of the Company was ‘Journey man to Mr Hunter’.\u00a0 John eventually went on to become Master of the Cloth workers Company, serving for 1774, the year before he took on his son Samuel as an apprentice.<\/p>

It would have been a good start for Samuel to be the son of the Company Master and having served his father as an apprentice for seven years, Samuel was made \u2018free\u2019 in 1781.\u00a0 The Livery Companies that controlled trade in the City of London dated back to the 1200s and had become trade controlling associations with broader aims than just passing on manual skills.\u00a0 I can imagine the young Samuel learning about the trade, how and where to buy, how to warehouse, transport, selling wholesale and retail etc, rather than learning how to make garments himself.\u00a0 There were now overlaps between the City Companies and for some trades possibly a choice as to whether to come under the Merchant Taylors or Drapers rather than Cloth Workers.\u00a0 Occupations of the Company \u2018freemen\u2019 were also varied with some members of the Cloth workers being Tobacconist, Wharfinger or Stockbroker.<\/p>

Samuel married Sarah Bardwell in 1786 and they went on to have seven children.\u00a0 Most died in infancy or their teenage years with only the youngest, Samuel junior, survived into adulthood. \u00a0Within six months of Samuel junior\u2019s birth, Sarah also died.<\/p>

In 1799 Samuel married again, this time to Elizabeth Beddome.\u00a0 They were married at Bourton on the Water where Elizabeth\u2019s father was a Baptist minister.\u00a0 Beddome Fish & Co. were Woolen Drapers in Fenchurch Street, so it is probable that Samuel and Elizabeth met through trade association.\u00a0 They went on to have three children, John, Richard and Caroline, all eventually beneficiaries in his will.<\/p>

Samuel junior, the son from his first marriage, followed in the family tradition, being apprenticed to his father, Samuel senior, becoming free in 1816.\u00a0 However, Samuel died just two years later aged just 23, explaining why he is not mentioned in his father\u2019s will.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Samuels\u2019s son John followed the same path in being apprenticed to his father, by now described as a Woolen Draper of Fenchurch Street, becoming free in 1827 and presumably going into business with Samuel.<\/p>

There were three methods to become a Freeman of a company.\u00a0 The first being Servitude, being bonded to a Master to serve an apprenticeship, usually seven years.\u00a0 The second method was Patrimony, where it was of birthright for the sons and daughters to become Freeman if their Father was already a Freeman of the Company when they were born.\u00a0 The third method was by Purchase.\u00a0 It is interesting to me that even though both of Samuels sons would have been eligible to qualify by Patrimony, they both attained their Freeman status by Servitude.\u00a0 Was this Samuel\u2019s choice to ensure they learned their trade properly before being let loose in the family business?<\/p>

Samuel was very well aware of the Patrimony route and was a signed witness on behalf of the Company granting new Freeman status to several who were practicing other trades.\u00a0 I wonder if he frowned upon the practice.<\/p>

As well as his trade associations with the Cloth Workers Company, Samuel was interested in Radical Politics and held sympathies with the struggles of the French Revolution and the possibilities of a Republic as opposed to a Monarchy.\u00a0 These views were not popular within the City Guilds and Samuel was at one point lampooned in the Times Newspaper with satirical pieces supposedly penned by \u2018Sammy Slop\u2019 about the \u2018Southwark Slop Seller\u2019 or \u2018Modern Reformer.\u2019<\/p>

Later, these frictions seem to have been overcome and from 1809 to 1829 Samuel was a member of the Common Council of the City of London, the City Corporation that governed the City of London.\u00a0 Not forgetting he was the Master of the Clothworkers company in 1813 and would have been involved in the City Guildhalls.\u00a0 His Slops business obviously enabled him to invest in freehold properties and benefit from the rents accrued, acquiring him a tidy sum over the years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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An East Indiaman sailing from Madras (Science Museum)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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But it would seem not all of his wealth was generated from the \u2018slops\u2019 business.\u00a0 Possibly through his business acquaintances, his contacts in the trade guilds or his politics and coffee shop meeting houses, Samuel invested to become a ship owner.\u00a0 In 1801 the \u2018Devaynes\u2019 was launched, probably built at Deptford further down the river Thames from Tooley Street.\u00a0 Samuel was the registered owner and the ship was tendered to the East India Company for a duration of six voyages.\u00a0 I doubt that Samuel had any involvement in the building or operational aspects of the ship but was likely to be an investor from the point of view of putting up the money.<\/p>

Ships did not last long and each sea journey, possibly of several years duration, took its toll on the structure.\u00a0 The East India company had given up building its own ships as the expense of constant replacement was crippling.\u00a0 Instead, they oversaw ships being built to their specification, funded by private investors, the hired or leased for a set number of journeys.\u00a0 Space on the vessels was rented out by the Company to the traders who purchased and moved the cargos to and from the East Indies.\u00a0 Unlike the West Indies, the East India trade was commercial and not connected with the West Indies plantations and slave trade.<\/p>

The Devaynes (named after William Devaynes, an East India Company Director) was a third class ship of 600 tons, armed with 18 twelve pounder guns.\u00a0 Although not a Royal Navy ship, the crew would have been defensively armed to provide self-protection from piracy and attack from Britain\u2019s enemies.\u00a0 At this time Britain was at war with France and their ally Spain.\u00a0 Nelson\u2019s famous battle at Trafalgar was only a few years away when Devaynes set off on her first voyage.\u00a0 The East India Company raised it\u2019s own army to defend the Companies interests and at one time had a force three times larger than Britain itself.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Devaynes was rated at \u00a313 a ton, so could have earned Samuel \u00a37,800 for each of the voyages it made under his ownership (if only charged one-way) before he sold it on.\u00a0 At times Devayne was licenced by the Government as a Privateer, and being armed could capture and take as prizes, any ships deemed to belong to enemies of the United Kingdom.<\/p>

The Devaynes sailed three voyages under Samuel\u2019s ownership.\u00a0 The first voyage, bound for Calcutta set off in August 1802, returning to Gravesend in April 1804.\u00a0 The second departed Portsmouth in September 1804 reaching Madras in June 1805.\u00a0 Shortly in her return journey she became leaky and had to leave a convoy of other Indiamen and sail to Penang for a refit.\u00a0 She eventually arrived home in June 1806.<\/p>

Her last voyage under Samuel\u2019s ownership left Portsmouth in January 1807 bound for Madras and Bengal.\u00a0 On her return she reached the Cape on 31st December 1807 and arrived in the English Channel in April 1808. \u00a0Potentially generating revenue of \u00a346,800, or around \u00a34M at today\u2019s values.\u00a0 Perhaps this is where the majority of Samuel\u2019s initial wealth came from?\u00a0 Perhaps there is more to uncover?<\/p>

Samuel sold the Devaynes before she set off on her next voyage.\u00a0 She went on to complete another three before being condemned after springing leaks on a return trip from Bombay when she had to put back into harbour.\u00a0 She was broken up in 1817, after 16 years and six journeys.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In 1813, following in the footsteps of his father, Samuel became the Master of the Cloth Workers Company.\u00a0 Since completing his own apprenticeship to his father, Samuel was the Master of nine apprentices that were each bonded to him for seven years.\u00a0 These included two of his sons, Samuel (the younger) and John, one the sons from his second marriage.\u00a0 There were also two sons of his Business partner William Bousefield.\u00a0 Samuel took on apprentices from shortly after gaining his own \u2018Freedom\u2019 right up until his death in 1830, when his last apprentice William David, was transferred to his son John Favell as Master to complete his time.\u00a0 At one point Samuel had four apprentices bonded to him.<\/p>

Samuel was a philanthropist as well as a businessman, and was one of the Founders of Mill Hill School, involved in the foundation of the Guildhall Library, the University of London, and the Sunday School Society.<\/p>

He was a Deacon of the Camberwell Congregational Church and \u2018worked untiringly for Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform, and for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and slavery, and the atrocious cruelties of the Criminal Law\u2019 according to the history of Mill Hill School 1807 – 1923.<\/p>

It seems that Samuel\u2019s son John died in 1859, leaving no heirs and making no mention of his brother or sister in his will.\u00a0 Samuel\u2019s fortune being amongst cousins and friends.<\/p>

In late 2025 an antique bible, containing family tree information relating to Samuel, his marriages and children, appeared for sale on the auction web site Ebay.\u00a0 It may be coincidental, but around the same time several Favell family wills relating to the Yorkshire family, dating back to the 1600s also came onto the market via an entirely different seller.\u00a0 I wonder if they originated from the same source with family records being disposed of and possibly there is some link between the London and Yorkshire family.\u00a0<\/p>

As well as from other sources, much additional information has been gleaned from this web site.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSamuel Favell<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Samuel had a brother,\u00a0 by the name of John.\u00a0 His life could not have been more different.\u00a0 Having travelled to Canada he worked for the Hudson Bay company and took a local wife, a native of the Cree nation.\u00a0 Their children are likely to be the ancestors of the Canadian Cree \/ Metis Favells<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Favell of the Hudson Bay Company<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Samuel Favell Samuel Favell was a businessman who started his career as an apprentice to his father, a Freeman of the Cloth Workers Company of the City of London.\u00a0 Through successful business partnerships, his association with the Cloth Workers Company, and investments, the one-time apprentice acquired wealth, got involved in politics and philanthropy.\u00a0 Some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_canvas","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2865","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2897,"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2865\/revisions\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.favell.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}