Edward Harrison of Merton House (part 2)

EDWARD HARRISON

OF MERTON HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Edward Harrison had launched The Young Ladies’ Journal in 1864 in partnership with James Henry Dunlop Jehring, a printer, and John Peter Wall, a wood engraver at 188 Strand. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on 6 April 1865, although an announcement to this effect did not appear in the London Gazette until 1 February 1867. (John Wall died eleven months later).

James Jehring, born in Glasgow in 1821, came to London in the early 1840s and established himself as a printer. After marrying Jane Turner in Clerkenwell in 1846, he moved to St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (1851 census) and later to Grosvenor Park, Newington (1861 and 1871 censuses – in the latter census he was shown as employing 25 men, 20 women, 16 boys and 6 girls). By then he had formed a partnership with Edward Harrison as Harrison and Jehring as printers (later Harrison, Jehring & Co.), initially at 15 & 16 Portpool Lane, Gray’s Inn Road (1863) and later at 25 & 27 Portpool Lane (1882 onwards).

By 1881 Jehring had moved to Enmore House, Woodside Green, Surrey – the 1881 census showed he was employing 33 men, 40 women and 20 boys. He died at Enmore House on 21 March 1896, leaving an estate worth £8,329 (£850,000 in today’s terms). His son, Ernest Augustus (born 17 November 1856), took over his role in the company.

As well as his printing partnership with James Jehring, Edward Harrison also worked in partnership with Edward Henry Viles, best-known as an author. Viles, born in Southwark in November 1841, spent most of his life in Staffordshire, firstly working as an accountant’s clerk before finding his metier as a writer. In 1864 he helped Harrison launch The Young Ladies’ Journal, and he remained a close collaborator with both Harrison and his sons until his death. He was also a partner in the printing firm of Sweeting & Co. of 4 Dyer’s Buildings, Holborn. He obviously maintained a London address, a necessity given his work, and as evidenced by the birth places of some of his children – his daughter Minnie, for example, was born in Kentish Town in 1864; his son Edward was born in Bloomsbury in 1867; and his daughter Louisa was born in Bloomsbury in 1869, and baptised in Haverstock Hill, with her father’s address given as 62 Brecknock Road, Kentish Town.

By 1870 Viles had made enough money, although it is not clear how, to build and occupy Pendryl Hall in Codsall Wood, Staffordshire, a substantial country house, where he indulged his passion for photography – in particular, he became an expert in microphotography, and exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society and published numerous articles in photography journals.

In the 1881 census, he is recorded as living at Pendryl Hall with his wife, Annie (née Bennett, born in Bilston, Staffordshire around 1841 – they married in 1863), four children, and six domestic staff. Rather strangely, online histories of Pendryl Hall (it is now a wedding venue) refer to Viles renting the property to a local businessman for the use of his married daughter in 1879.

In 1888, Viles was living at16 Wetherby Gardens, Brompton, Kensington. In the 1891 census his sons Edward and Harold were described as an “Assistant Editor” and a “Publisher Books” respectively.

Edward Viles senior died on 8 December 1891, leaving an estate worth £16,893 (£1.6 million in today’s terms). Probate was granted to his widow and to his son Edward.

Edward Harrison junior was born in 1851 and baptised at St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, on 22 July 1852. (He was actually Edward and Mary’s second son to be named Edward – the first, born on 8 January 1846 and baptised at St. Leonard’s on 21 April 1848, died a few months later and was buried in St. Mary’s churchyard, Haggerston, Hackney, on 21 September 1848). He presumably joined his father’s business after leaving school – in the 1871 census an Edward Harrison, publisher, is recorded as a visitor at an address in Hoxton. In 1878, he married Amy Grace Brearey (born in Brixton in 1856) at St. George’s, Hanover Square, with whom he went on to have five children: Ethel (b. 1880), Kathleen (b. 1882), Freda (b. 1885), Sibyl (b. 1887), and Shirley Cecil (b. 1890) In 1881, he and his wife and Ethel were living in Tyson Road, Lewisham, along with Edward’s widowed brother George (who was not shown as having any trade or profession, but who had been described in the 1871 census as a bookseller). By 1891 the family had moved to 28 Crystal Palace Road, Beckenham, Kent, which was, at the time of that year’s census, occupied by Edward, Amy, their five children and four servants. In 1893 the family moved to Endrick Bank, Honor Oak Park, Surrey, where Edward died on 23 May 1895, leaving an estate valued at £4,459 (around £450,000 in today’s terms). He was buried in Nunhead Cemetery on 27 May 1895.

At the time of his death, he was a partner in Harrison & Viles; Harrison, Jehring & Co.; and Sweeting & Co. His wife took over his role in all three companies, although the partnership running Sweeting & Co. (James Cowie, J.H.D. Jehring, Amy Harrison, Frederick William Harrison and Ernest Augustus Jehring) was dissolved by mutual consent on 30 June 1895, with James Cowie carrying on the business on his own. (London Gazette, 13 August 1895). In November 1897, Frederick left the partnership operating as Newspaper Proprietors and Publishers at Merton House, Salisbury Square, leaving it in the hands of Amy Harrison and Annie Viles. (London Gazette, 23 November 1897). Two months later, he left the partnership running Harrison, Jehring & Co., leaving Amy Harrison, Annie Viles and Ernest Jehring to continue it. (London Gazette, 18 January 1898). This partnership was itself dissolved on 30 March 1901, with Ernest Jehring taking sole responsibility (London Gazette, 17 September 1901).

Annie Viles died four years later, on 24 July 1905, at 2 Downside Crescent, Havertsock Hill, Middlesex, leaving an estate worth £1,926 (£181,000 today); Amy Harrison died on 14 August 1910, at 21 Mowbray Road, Norwood, leaving an estate worth £3,583 (£320,00 today).

What happened to Frederick William Harrison is a mystery. He was born in 1858 (exact date of birth is not known); in the 1871 census an F.W. Harrison is recorded at a small boarding school in Hampstead; but after the 1881 census, when he was living with his father at Kingsbury House, aged 23, but with no apparent trade or profession, there are no definite sightings of him in the online genealogy records. Whilst his father left him a share in Harrison & Viles, and whilst he also became a partner in Harrison & Jehring, he did not stay associated with these companies for long, leaving both in 1897. What became of him after that is a mystery.

Edward Harrison’s second son, George Leekey Harrison (his middle name came from his mother’s family) is another rather mysterious figure. He was born on 14 September 1849 and baptised at St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, on 22 July 1852 (at the same time as his brother Edward). After leaving home in the late 1860s he appears to have begun his working life as a bookseller, presumably working for his father – he was shown as such in the 1871 census, when he was recorded as a visitor at an address in Brixton. He married Florence Jane Guiver (born in Bilston, Staffordshire in 1852 – at the time of her marriage her father was the Treasurer at the Drury Lane Theatre) at St. Pancras on 4 December 1872, while they were both living at 3 Mornington Crescent, with George described as a publisher. They moved to 10 Stansfield Road, Brixton, where they had two children: Ernest George (born in 1873) and Florence Nelly (born in 1875).

George’s wife died four years after the birth of her second child, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery on 19 February 1879. Both children were subsequently brought up by their maternal grandparents in Brixton. In the 1881 census, George was living with his brother Edward and his wife Amy in Lewisham, his profession being shown as a Lace Importer. In 1885 he inherited his father’s interest in the printing firm of Harrison & Jehring – however, he appears to have sold this fairly quickly, as in the 1891 census he is recorded as “living on his own means” and staying at a hotel in Brighton.

He then seems to have taken a lead from his father-in-law, who had become a theatrical manager, and at the time of the 1901 census he was working as a theatrical agent and lodging in Aberavon, Wales. However, this clearly did not work out, and the last trace of him, rather sadly, is in the 1911 census when a George L. Harrison is recorded as an inmate in the St. Pancras Workhouse, 4 King’s Road, Camden Town, his profession given as journalist. He was also shown as married (whereas in 1881, 1891 and 1901 he was shown as widowed), although there does not appear to be any online record of a second marriage. Neither is there any obvious record of his death, although family trees posted on the Ancestry website suggest he died in 1950.

The firm of Harrison & Viles moved from 135 Salisbury Court to 8 Farringdon Avenue in 1902. At that time, it was being run by Edward Harold Viles’s two sons, Edward Bennett Viles (born in 1866) and Harold Bennett Viles (born 1868), along with Amy Harrison. Amongst the publications they were still issuing were The Young Ladies’ Journal, Harrison’s Dressmaker and The Guide to the Worktable, plus they still had stocks of penny dreadfuls such as Black Bess. On 4 December 1906 Harrison & Viles was incorporated as Harrison & Viles Limited, a private company limited by shares, with a share capital of £292 divided into £1 shares. Its major shareholders were Edward Viles, Harold Viles and Amy Harrison, having 288 shares between them. Edward Viles became the General Manager. After Amy Harrison’s death in 1910, her place as a director was taken by her daughter Katherine Kingsbury Harrison, with Amy’s shares allocated to largely to Katherine and and her two sisters Freda and Sibyl.

Ten years later, the directors felt obliged to appoint a liquidator, having resolved, on 21 April 1920, that the company was no longer viable. In January 1921 the liquidator pinpointed the wartime increase in paper prices as the reason for the company’s declining profits. In June 1919 the directors had tried, without success, to raise extra capital to meet their increasing costs, and so in August 1919 they approached George Newnes Ltd. with a view to selling up – Newnes subsequently purchased all their titles on 17 November 1919 for £2,000, and Harrison & Viles effectively ceased to exist.

This was not without its problems, as both Viles brothers then claimed damages for breach of a life agreement written into the company’s Memorandum of Association – that they would remain directors for life. Edward made a claim for £3,120 plus £545 in “lost” director’s fees; Harold made a similar claim although this was later withdrawn. The company’s creditors objected, especially when the liquidator wrote that if the claims were met they would only receive around 50% of the amounts they were owed. In the event, a compromise was reached, although the terms are not known. (Source: National Archives files).

Edward Bennett emigrated to Australia in 1924, and died there in 1939; Harold Viles died in Islington in June 1937.

The company of Harrison, Jehring & Co. moved from Portpool Street to 11, 12 & 13 Emerald Street, Theobolds Road, Holborn, in 1905. It continued largely as a printing firm, although a handful of titles appeared under its imprint. In June 1914 its directors created Harrison, Jehring & Company (Limited), with a nominal share capital of £12,000, buying out the old company for £10,839. Towards the end of the First World War the company published a series of photographic portraits of various aspects of the conflict, including “Carry On”: British Women’s Work in War-time; The Sentinel of the Sea: The Tireless Vigil of the British Navy; Through Swamp and Forest: The British Campaigns in Africa; and German Prisoners in Great Britain.

In October 1920, all six shareholders (all members of the Jehring family) sold their shares to United Press Ltd. for £15,000, using the proceeds to pay off outstanding loans. United Press had been formed in May 1922 ostensibly to acquire the titles owned by Lloyds Publications, the last remnants of the publishing empire created by Edward Lloyd in the 1830s. On 17 January 1923 United Press sold all its shares to William Robert Masters, for £4,726, and a month later it was facing a winding-up order. In the meantime, Masters had become the Managing Director of Harrison, Jehring & Co. Ltd., although he was not paid a salary and merely drew expenses. In 1926 he began making loans out of the company’s funds to two other companies with which he was associated – both of them went under in 1928. Edgar Dunlop Jehring (Edward Augustus’s son), who had remained on the company’s board, resigned in protest at Masters’s activities, but this did not prevent Masters from making further bad investments with the company’s cash and accruing further debts.

In June 1930 Masters considered that the company owed him a substantial sum for his services and on 3 June 1930 he gave a promissory note to a registered moneylender as security for a loan of £4,200, bearing interest at 42% per annum. He later secured a further loan of £5,413. Between June 1930 and August 1931 the company paid out £3,818 by way of servicing the loans – capital and interest – but this was insufficient and in October 1931, owed a total of £8,298, the moneylender petitioned for Harrison, Jehring & Co. Ltd. to be wound up – this was dismissed as the court had already ordered the company’s closure. This was the consequence of earlier petitions from creditors, one in January 1930 and the second (from the Forrest Printing Ink Company of Verulam Street, Gray’s Inn Road) in August 1931. A winding-up order was finally made on 13 October 1931, although Harrison, Jehring & Co. Ltd. wasn’t struck off the Companies Register until March 1936. (Sources: National Archives files and the London Gazette).

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Edward Harrison was, perhaps, a more significant figure in the world of cheap Victorian publishing than has previously been recognised. His career as a publisher lasted from the late 1850s until his death in 1885, with his name living on in the shape of the company he founded, and with his success largely due to the popularity of his penny-part serials. As a periodical publisher, he had more failures than successes, although his most successful periodical, The Young Ladies’ Journal, lasted for 56 years between 1864 and 1920. Unlike many of his contemporaries and rivals he was a careful publisher, seemingly only falling foul of the law once, when he was sued by Stannard & Sons, printers, of Oxford Street, who alleged that he had copied one of their maps of Paris and published it in The Gentleman’s Journal in November 1870. Harrison denied that it was a copy while admitting that use had been made of Stannard’s original. He therefore contested the claim, refusing to give up all unsold copies of the Journal and to destroy the block from which his map had been printed. Unfortunately, the outcome of the litigation is not recorded, other than that a breach of copyright had occurred. (Source: National Archives file).

Equally as important was Harrison’s role as a printer. By joining forces with James Jehring in 1863 he was able to maintain control over his own printing costs, plus make money from printing for other publishers. The company of Harrison & Jehring flourished for almost 70 years, although its demise, in 1931, was marked by controversy. So, too, was the demise of the remnants of his publishing business, Harrison & Viles, but it had nevertheless outlasted most of those companies with which it was competing in its early years.

Edward Harrison of Merton House (part 1)

EDWARD HARRISON

OF MERTON HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Edward Harrison was associated with penny dreadfuls and cheap weekly periodicals between around 1860 and 1870, operating out of Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. He issued over 20 penny-part serials, including the well-known Black Bess, or The Knight of the Road, and The Blue Dwarf, and for a while worked in partnership with the author Edward Viles. Yet, despite his name being familiar with enthusiasts and collectors, nothing seems to be have been written about his life and career.

Edward Kingsbury Harrison was born in Clerkenwell on 14 June 1819, to Thomas and Susannah Harrison, and baptised on 1 August 1819 at the parish church of St. James, Clerkenwell. [Note that some sources, most notably my own book From the Penny Dreadful to the Ha’penny Dreadfuller, erroneously suggest that Edward Harrison was born in 1805 in Cornhill, London – this was another Edward Harrison, born into a family of stationers and who himself became a stationer, operating out of 82 Cornhill with his brother Matthew, until the early 1870s]. The family was living in St. John Street, Clerkenwell, with Thomas working as a poulterer. Edward was their second and apparently last child – the first, Thomas James, had been born in October 1817, at Back Road, Islington, and baptised on 2 November 1817 at St. Mary’s, Islington. He died at the age of 15 at Bull and Mouth Street, Aldersgate, and was buried in St. Mary’s churchyard, Lambeth, on 13 June 1832.
   
Nothing is recorded about Edward’s early life or the beginnings of his career – an Edward Harrison of the right age is recorded in the 1841 census working as a bookseller in Cambridge, and living with a Mary Clapham (aged 58) and her 28 year-old daughter Maria, although it is not known if this was same Edward Harrison.

It is known, however, that Edward, then living at 20 Highbury Terrace, Islington (and rather strangely recorded as a canvas manufacturer) married Mary Leekey (born on 9 February 1813 in Basinghall Street, in the City of London, the daughter of George Leekey, a baker) at the parish church of St. Mary’s, Islington, on 13 April 1845. Almost immediately, they moved to 146 Kingsland Road, Hoxton, where they went on to have seven children: Edward (b. 1846, died 1848), Mary Ann (b. 1847), George (b. 1849), Edward (b. 1851), Louisa (b. 1852), Kate (b. 1855), and Frederick William (b. 1858).

As well as being Edward’s home, 146 Kingsland Road was also his business premises, where he began operating as a bookseller in 1846. In 1861, he also operated out of 1 Exeter Exchange, Strand, and by 1862 had moved his second premises to 135 Salisbury Court, off Fleet Street. This was, at some point in the 1860s, given the name Merton House, Salisbury Square, although it was the same building. In 1866, Salisbury Court became his sole business address, and, indeed, remained in the Harrison name until 1902.

By 1861 Harrison had moved the family home from his business premises in Kingsland Road to 49 Alma Street, Hoxton, where, at the time of the 1861 census, he was living with his sons George and Frederick and a servant, the census recording that he was a bookseller and publisher employing ten assistants. His daughters and son Edward were away at a boarding school in Weston Street, Croydon.

As a publisher, Harrison focussed on penny-part serials and weekly periodicals aimed at both children and adults. His first venture appears to have been The Home Magazine, subtitled A Journal of Entertainment and Instruction for Everyone, which was launched in 1856 and ran for at least 400 numbers until 1865. Harrison is also credited with the ownership of Figaro in London (not to be confused with an earlier and more famous weekly with the same title, which was founded by Gilbert Abbot å Beckett in 1831 and published by William Strange, which ran until 1839). This revival, published and printed by John Frederick Stone, ran between 28 February and 23 May 1857, when its title changed to Figaro, or Life As It Is, and as such it ran for only a further 8 weeks.

Harrison’s third venture may have been The Illustrated Sporting News and Theatrical and Musical Review, which ran, with a couple of minor changes in its title, from March 1862 to March 1870. This was published by Harrison at Salisbury Court, until October 1864, when it was taken over by George Maddick. (Maddick had, in fact, been associated with it since 1862, probably as editor, and working in partnership with John Tallis).

In October 1863 Harrison, in partnership with Joseph Hardiman, Edwin J. Brett and William Emmett, launched The English Girls’ Journal and Ladies’ Magazine, with Emmett as editor and Harrison as publisher. In February 1864, all four joint-proprietors were taken to court by William Stevens, the proprietor of The Family Herald, for breach of copyright – Emmett had reprinted articles and other material from the Herald without permission. As soon as Harrison was made aware of this, in January 1864, he cut himself off from the magazine, giving his three co-partners all unsold copies and giving up any further rights. Hardiman, Brett and Emmett continued to publish the magazine until October 1864, when their partnership broke up.

In the meantime, Harrison had launched a second periodical aimed at a young female readership, The Young Ladies’ Journal, which went on to run for 2,906 numbers between April 1864 and February 1920 – issues from 1899 onwards carried the imprint of Harrison & Viles. This paper had four spin-offs: between June 1869 and January 1870 there were nine monthly issues of a free supplement, The Young Ladies’ Journal Language of Flowers; these were followed by The Young Ladies’ Journal Complete Guide to the Work-Table (later re-issued as a complete volume, which ran to several editions); in 1892 there were three numbers of The Young Ladies’ Journal Library (re-issued in one volume); and in 1895 there was the Butterfly Series of Complete Stories.

Harrison had rather less success with his two periodicals for boys. In March 1863 he launched The Boy’s Miscellany, an Illustrated Journal of Useful and Entertaining Literature for Youth, a one penny weekly containing stories, factual and instructive articles, puzzles and exercises. Harrison kept this going until January 1864, when it was taken over by its printers, Maddick & Pottage, in lieu of unpaid debts. It was subsequently published by George Maddick, although it closed down in July 1864. In an intriguing reversal of fortunes, Harrison later took over Maddick’s Boy’s Penny Monthly, which had been launched in July 1864 and which ended up in Harrison’s hands the following November – its precise length of run is not known.

The Boy’s Miscellany was the first weekly boys’ periodical to give a prominent role to “sensational” fiction, and it was notably followed by Edwin J. Brett’s Boys of England in 1866, which in turn was followed by numerous rival papers published by the likes of the Emmett brothers, John Allingham and Samuel Dacre Clarke. In November 1869 Harrison tried to draw readers away from some of these early weekly boys’ papers with The Gentleman’s Journal, an Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Information and Amusement (later called The Gentleman’s Journal and Youth’s Miscellany), which claimed to offer a higher quality of material. Edited by George Frederick Pardon (“Captain Crawley”) and printed by Harrison & Jehring (see later for details of this partnership), it was accompanied by free monthly supplements containing a range of factual articles, and free colour plates, and while it was definitely a better-quality product than its rivals, it proved to be too expensive to maintain, and it ended its run in September 1872, when it was merged with The Young Ladies’ Journal.

In October 1863, Harrison launched The New Newgate Calendar, containing the Remarkable Lives and Trials of Notorious Criminals Past and Present. This ran for 80 weekly numbers until 1865, and contained a mixture of genuine accounts of criminals and their trials and serial fiction. It was re-issued from April 1867 onwards.

Other periodicals published by Harrison included Mr Merryman (March 1864, three numbers only, an illustrated comic weekly), and The Illustrated London Novelist (October 1864 onwards, one penny weekly and sixpence monthly, subsequently re-issued in one volume).

Harrison was perhaps better-known for his penny-part serials, of which he issued well over 20, most being subsequently re-issued as complete volumes, between 1860 and 1870. Thirteen are listed in A. E. Waite’s Quest for Bloods, and a further ten in COPAC. Dating these is not always easy – the following list is in alphabetical order, with dates (and other information) where given those in Waite or COPAC:

• The Adventures and Vicissitudes of Captain Cook, Mariner (20 parts, 1870)
• Black Bess, or The Knight of the Road (by Edward Viles , 254 parts, 1863-68)
• The Black Highwaymen (by Edward Viles, sequel to Black Bess – 86 parts, 1868-69)
• The Blue Dwarf (60 parts – 1860-61)
• Blueskin: A Romance of the Last Century (by Edward Viles , 158 parts, 1866-67)
• Clifton Grey, or Love and War (by Pierce Egan, c. 1870)
• The Dance of Death, or The Hangman’s Plot (23 parts)
• Edward the Black Prince (by Pierce Egan, c. 1870)
• Gentleman Clifford, and His White Mare Brilliant (by Edward Viles, 35 parts, 1864)
• The Ghost’s Secret, A Tale of Terror (8 parts, 1863)
• Jessie, the Mormon’s Daughter (by Percy B. St. John, 64 parts, 1861)
• The Lady of Title: A Tale of High Life (12 parts, 1861)
• The Life and Surprising Adventures of Charles Peace (1879?)
• The London Apprentice and The Goldsmith’s Daughter of East Chepe (by Pierce Egan, 97 parts, 1855)
• Little John and Will Scarlett, or The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest (40 parts, 1865)
• The Mystery of Marlborough House (51 parts, 1866)
• The Orphan Sisters, or The Lovers’ Secret (24 parts)
• Red Gauntlet, or The Bandit (26 parts)
• Robin Hood and Little John (by Pierce Egan, 35 parts)
• Roderick Dhu, or The Warriors of Clan Alpine (c. 1870)
• Silver Axe: An Arabian Nights Story (12 parts)
• Tales of Brigands and Banditti (26 parts, 1865)
• Wat Tyler (by Pierce Egan)

The authorship of some of the above serials is open to dispute – Montague Summers, for example, wrote that Black Bess “was fathered and signed by Edward Viles but was written for him by J. F. Smith at (it is said) a fee of £3 10s per number”. An alternative theory is that Black Bess, and its sequel, were written by James Malcolm Rymer. The Blue Dwarf was credited to Lady Esther Hope, although there is another later version of the story, published by Hogarth House, attributed to Percy B. St. John, with some sources suggesting that Hope and St. John were the same person. Alternatively, it has been suggested that Esther Hope was actually W. Stephens Hayward.

What is certain, however, is that Edward Viles worked closely with Edward Harrison from 1864 onwards, with their relationship culminating in the partnership of Harrison & Viles.

Edward Harrison’s wife had died in the mid-1860s (her exact date of death has not been established), and on 15 June 1867, at the parish church of St. Giles, Camberwell, Edward re-married, his second wife being Eliza Ann Watson, a widow (born 28 January 1817, the daughter of James Streek, a tailor, and his wife Elizabeth). They subsequently moved to Kingsbury House, Valley Road, Shortlands, Kent, where the family remained until Edward’s death.

Kingsbury House was a substantial country residence, with nearly three acres of grounds which included “croquet and tennis lawns, large flower and kitchen gardens, ornamental lake, fernery, conservatories, large coach-house and stabling” (as advertised when it was put up for auction – London Standard, 26 February 1887. It had failed to sell at an earlier auction in October 1886). Harrison had acquired a collection of around 200 oil paintings, watercolours and engravings, which was auctioned at the same time as the house. He had also been a noted grower of orchids, building up a substantial collection which had been auctioned in four sales twelve months previously.

Eliza died on 11 August 1877, and his daughter Mary Ann died on 6 August 1881. Edward himself died, at 79 Adelaide Road, Haverstock Hill, Middlesex (although his home address was still Kingsbury House) on 13 December 1885, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery four days later. He left an estate worth £28,203 (£2.7 million in today’s terms). His executors were J. H. D. Jehring, Edward August (a banker’s clerk) and Edward Viles.

In his will, he bequeathed all his interest in his printing partnership of Harrison & Jehring to his son George. He left his leasehold interest in Merton House to his sons Edward and Frederick in equal shares as tenants-in-common, and he also left his business of wholesale newsagent and publisher, including the rights to The Young Ladies’ Journal and Black Bess, along with the management and control of all other publications with which he had a joint interest with Edward Viles, to Edward and Frederick in equal shares. He also stipulated that the future profits from The Young Ladies’ Journal were to be divided equally between Edward, Frederick and Kate (i.e. Catherine Hester) Burroughs, who had been the editor of the Journal for many years. (Catherine’s daughter-in-law, Kate, went on to marry Harold Bennett Viles, one of Edward Henry Viles’ sons, in 1899).

Edward Harrison’s home, Kingsbury House, was to be sold, and the proceeds, along with the cash he had held in a building society, his life assurance policy, and the rest of his personal estate (after gifts of jewellery etc. to his sons and cash gifts to his servants and all his employees) to be divided into six equal shares, two each to his daughters Kate and Louisa and one each to Edward and Frederick.

The various partnerships with which Edward Harrison been involved, with James Jehring and Edward Viles, therefore continued, although ultimately not altogether smoothly.

To be continued...