Early career – Business in Covent Garden – Freehold of 13 Brydges Street – Property – Gloucester Place, Brighton – John Hernon junior.
John Hernon, a military tailor, had opened his business at 31 King Street, Covent Garden in about 1800. When he became successful, he moved to 37 Sackville Street, Piccadilly, where his clientèle included the wealthy and fashionable of Regency Society. He retired to Brighton after his partnership with his son John was dissolved in 1832, and lived at 20 Gloucester Place until he died in 1838.
Trade-card of Pitter and Fox, Lacemen, c1805. ©The Trustees of the British Museum
Hernon’s friends included James Paul Hummel, hosier, and probably John Schweitzer, tailor to Beau Brummel and the Prince Regent. His only son, John Hernon junior, was apprenticed to Benjamin Fox, gold lace-maker of Bedford Street, Covent Garden. Gold lace formed the sumptuous and highly expensive gold braid and trimmings worn by military officers. Fox’s trade card shows that old gold lace was carefully collected and recycled.
Military Tailors were not the makers of commonplace military uniforms, but catered for the highest ranks, who wished to display their dress to fashionable society. This satirical print shows how costly and flamboyant military uniforms had become.
It is no surprise that Hernon senior was able to build up a portfolio of properties in London, and his will[i]14 February 1839 PROB11/1906/411lists the following:
7, Upper Queen’s Buildings, Brompton
14, 15 and 16 Pitt Street, Fitzroy Square
13 Brydges Street, Covent Garden
43, William Street, Regent’s Park
44, Connaught Square
Tenements in Princes Street, Drury Lane
19, Adam Street East, Manchester Square
122, Regent Street
18 and 20, Gloucester Place, Brighton.
Regular readers may have noticed that this list includes 13, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, the famous Mother H’s night house. Hernon appears to have acquired an interest in the freehold in 1816, and in 1826, was in a position to sell the lease[ii]Westminster City Archives 0005/017 to Thomas Hodgkins, Ann Wilds’ former partner. Owning the freehold of such an infamous establishment does not seem to have presented Hernon with any kind of moral or legal dilemma, and as freeholder, was never in trouble with the authorities.
John Hernon’s house in Brighton, 20 Gloucester Place, although sadly no longer standing, was one in a terrace of four-storey Regency Houses, with basements and gardens, built in the early 1800s. He also owned No 18, which at the time of writing his will was let to Charles Thorold esquire. Hernon added a codicil to his will specifying that if not achieved in his lifetime, his executors are to
“add and build… an additional storey thereto suitable and in accordance with the other part of the building and to furnish the same in a suitable manner in all respects and also furnish the Drawing Room in a handsome style”
Hernon’s will also mentions his library of books, left to his son. Also to benefit was his friend and executor, Charles Mansfield Clarke of Saville Street, Doctor of Physic, who received the following:
Edward Young: Night Thoughts
Thomson’s Poetical Works
The Adventures of Telemachus, published by John Churchill
Robert Percival: Ceylon
Fox: James the Second
The list suggests that the two men, shared interests outside their occupational spheres, not only in poetry, but also in the Whig writing of history and critical view of monarchy in the work of Charles James Fox.
John Hernon was also a keen fisherman, and left his collection of fishing tackle to John Hardy, possibly John Forbes Hardy, a landscape painter, whose parents lived in Worthing.
Hernon’s friend, Benjamin Fox, gold lace-maker, inherited a ‘picture of a fish’. Fox had retired from Covent Garden to Horsham with his daughter, Katharine, for whom he provided accommodation and care, to meet her special needs. [iii]The Horsham Magazine http://aahorsham.co.uk
John Hernon’s will includes provision for his daughters. Louisa, who had married the woollen dealer, Onesiphorus Roberts, was not in need of money. Roberts left an estate of £80,000 when he died in 1873. Penelope married Edward Sewell, a Brighton veterinary surgeon in 1840. Elizabeth, had married in June 1838 to an Australian businessman and emigrated to New South Wales. Hernon’s other two daughters, Emma and Ann, inherited property and incomes from the Hernon estate, moved to Devon and remained unmarried.
John Hernon junior married Ann Hummel, daughter of James Paul Hummel, on 1 Nov 1831 at St Paul, Covent Garden, and the couple spent their honeymoon in Brighton.[iv]The Brighton Gazette, 3 Nov 1831 noted Mr and Mrs Hernon as arrivals at the Royal Sea-House Hotel
After his father’s death in 1838, John Hernon junior continued the tailoring business in London until he retired in his 40s. He subsequently moved to Exeter and pursued his interests as a poet and dramatist. In 1871 when living in Torquay, he published “Popular Mythology: a collection of poems, serious and jocose.”
John Hernon junior had inherited the greater part of his father’s library. No doubt this reflects his enthusiasm for writing. He died in Newton Abbot, Devon, aged 82 in 1886. His estate amounted to £13.
What can be said of the relationship of John Hernon and Ann Wilds, later Hunter, the leaseholder of 13, Brydges Street, Covent Garden?
His will, first written in 1835, identified the occupier as “Mr. Hodgkins,” despite Thomas Hodgkin’s having died in 1826. Subsequently, Ann King had married Amon Wilds, and then in 1834, Thomas Hunter. It appears that Hernon did not wish to name Ann Hunter in his will, although he certainly was aware of her continued existence, as he still received rent from her. In 1839, after he had died, his executors advertised the freehold of 13, Brydges Street for sale. [v]Morning Advertiser 12 March 1838“ An excellent FREEHOLD RESIDENCE with capacious shop, situate as 13, Brydges Street, Covent Garden. The situation is exceedingly good, having been employed for many years as a COFFEE HOUSE AND WINE, OYSTER AND SUPPER ROOMS. The residence is let for a term of 23 years to Mrs. Hunter, a most responsible tenant at the low rent of £24 10s; it has since been under-let at ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUNDS A YEAR.”
It is not possible to tell whether John Hernon, despite living at 20 Gloucester Place, about 200 yards from the Wilds residence at 9, Richmond Terrace, (now no.13), had any dealings with Thomas and Ann Hunter, apart from business ones. It is likely that he employed an early form of social distancing!
