We’re used to ‘family trees’ that show how people are descended from one another, but how do trades and skills pass down through families? In this article, archives volunteer Tony Bucknall explores the different occupations that Nettlefold family members have pursued through time. He’s discovered some interesting connections, including one with Henry VIII!

The GKN archive we acquired a few years ago contains a book called ‘The Nettlefolds’ by the genealogist Anthony C. Crofton, which was commissioned by the family in 1963. We had already compiled a family tree on Ancestry.com that contains over 4,000 people connected to the Nettlefolds, and after adding data from the book it was clear the family had a fascinating trading background. 

Yeoman farmers

We can trace the Nettlefolds twelve generations back from John Sutton Nettlefold.  During the 16^th century, the family was based in Dorking, Surrey. In 1538, Edward Nettlefold was a farmer who referred to himself as a ‘yeoman’. He was also a cartwright, with a particularly high-profile client. In the state papers for King Henry VIII referring to Nonsuch Palace in Ewell, there is a note sending the wheels of the ‘great wean’ (or ‘cart’) to ‘Netilfold’ to be mended. 

The next two generations were also yeomen, and in his will of 1581, Edward bequeathed to his eldest son all his ‘wheels and wenes’ and farming equipment along with his cartwrighting tools. His son Edward (born 1543) appeared in the Surrey Muster Rolls as a ‘bill-man’ (owner of a bill hook used in battle). This was the same type of weapon used to kill King Richard III a century earlier at Bosworth Field.

Branching out into textiles

Whilst Edward’s descendants mostly continued the farming tradition as yeomen or husbandmen (ranking below a yeoman but above labourer), Richard (born 1622) was a mercer, importing and exporting textiles, and at age 42 was recorded on the tax records as a constable. This move away from farming was also reflected in the descendants of Edward’s brother Richard (born 1575). His son Robert was a ‘victualler’ or innkeeper. However, he and his wife Sarah were bound over to keep the peace in 1661, particularly towards a local blacksmith!

This hostile environment must have left its mark on their two sons, who followed their uncle into the textiles trade. Edward (born 1648) became a tailor. Francis (born 1650), a direct ancestor of Winterbourne’s John Nettlefold, undertook an apprenticeship as a cordwainer (shoemaker) in Esher and Guildford, and continued this occupation throughout his life.

The Dyers’ Company and the move to London

Francis the shoemaker was the last generation to ply his trade in Surrey. His two sons John and Edward (born 1680 and 1681) moved to London to undertake apprenticeships as dyers, both at the age of 14. They became members of the Dyers’ Company by virtue of their apprenticeships. Once a member of the Dyers’ Company, John could pass membership down by ‘patrimony’ to his sons John and Charles.

The Dyers’ Company was one of the oldest guilds in London, dating back to 1188. Their role was to regulate the industry to maintain standards. In 1552 the colours of cloth sold in England were restricted to scarlet, red, crimson, murray (purple), puke (blue-black), orange, tawny, russet, marble grey, sadnew (sepia), azure and watchet (pale blue). The task of monitoring adherence to these rules would have fallen to the Dyers’ Company.

In the next generation we find Francis (born 1715) extending the family’s interest in textiles by completing a haberdashery apprenticeship.

Regulating trade on the Thames

Edward (born 1681) lived in the parish of St. Mary at Hill in the east of London, with good access to the Thames. The river was a crucial trading conduit for London, and the next Nettlefold generations combined their trade as Dyers with river-related occupations. Later we find Francis (born 1746) acting as a coal meter, who weighed and regulated the transport of coal. Oyster meters regulated the trade in oysters at Billingsgate Fish Market, and we find Nettlefolds performing this role as well.

From textiles to leather

Edward’s son John (born 1703) became affiliated with another guild in London, the Leathersellers’ Company, having begun his apprenticeship at the age of 14. Like the Dyers Company, this guild ensured its members maintained standards, and provided alms houses and schools. 

Leather working was closely linked to the meat trade, and it’s perhaps not surprising that one of John’s sons, Edward (born 1737) became a butcher. His brother (another John!) stayed in the leather trade and so did his son, who also served as a lighterman, operating flat-bottomed barges on the Thames.

In the next generation, we find three Nettlefold brothers choosing a different path and becoming Attorneys at Law. Edward (born 1783) was a Commodore of the Fleet and established an annual sailing match to commemorate the coronation of King George IV.  However, his business life was not successful, and he died as a debtor in Fleet prison, aged 48.

To Birmingham via India

Samuel Nettlefold (born 1782) was the great uncle of John Sutton Nettlefold. He was first documented as living in Birmingham, where he was a resident of Edmund Street according to the 1841 census. Prior to this, he worked as a shipping clerk for the East India Company from 1810 until 1831. At the time the East India Company ruled large swathes of India. Their exploitation of the country is meticulously described by the historian William Dalrymple in his book ‘The Anarchy’.

The Nettlefolds enter the metal trades

Samuel’s brother John Sutton Nettlefold (born 1792) began by following his forebears into the leather trade, becoming a member of the Leathersellers’ Company in 1817. Then, he heralded a departure into another trade that became crucial to the Nettlefold story: metalworking. 

By 1821, John had formed a partnership with Adolph Leopold Pfeil and John Zeldwick to form an ironmongery business. By 1826 he had his own brass foundry, and in 1839 he set up a wood screw mill at Baskerville Place, Birmingham to supplement his ironmongery business in London.

The turning point in John Sutton Nettlefold senior’s fortunes was purchasing the patent for automatic screw-making machines from American inventors, and accounts vary as to when this happened. It is widely thought that he saw the machines at the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace, whereas other sources state that the inventors did not have a stand at the Great Exhibition. I suspect that even if he did not see the machines at the Great Exhibition, he became aware of their existence at this time, through the international industrial networking that took place at Crystal Palace.

In 1819, John had married Martha Chamberlain, whose nephew Joseph Chamberlain would become the Birmingham MP and famous statesman in later life. John joined forces with Martha’s brother Joseph Chamberlain (senior) to fund expansion of his screw-making business. John Nettlefold sent his son, Joseph Nettlefold, to Birmingham to manage all engineering aspects of the partnership and Joseph Chamberlain (junior) represented his father’s interests by managing the business aspects of the company.

The Chamberlains sold their interest in the company to the Nettlefold family in 1874 for £120,000 (£12m today) and a new company of Nettlefolds Limited was formed. In 1901, the company was merged with the nut and bolt manufacturers of Guest and Keen to form Guest, Keen and Nettlefold (GKN).

John Sutton Nettlefold senior had three sons, Edward, Joseph and Frederick, born between 1820 and 1833. They were all involved in the ironmongery business either in London or Birmingham. It was Frederick and his brothers who commissioned the recording of the Nettlefold pedigree in the College of Arms in 1866, and applied for the grant of armorial bearings. The motto they chose, ‘Treu und Fest’, means ‘Loyal and Steadfast’. One of these brothers, Edward (born 1820), was the father of John Sutton Nettlefold (junior) who went on to build Winterbourne.

John and his brothers Edward, Hugh, Oswald and Godfrey all worked for the family screw-making firm, although John left in 1892 to work for the armaments company of Kynochs. This move proved very lucrative with the onset of conflicts around the world and in particular the Boer War and World War 1. Despite the passage of time, membership of the Leathersellers’ Company was still passed down to John through patrimony.

John Sutton Nettlefold of Winterbourne had only one surviving son, John Kenrick (‘Ken’). Despite studying at the London School of Economics Ken decided to follow a religious path and became a Church of England priest. Three of John’s daughters, Lois, Beatrice and Valerie were involved in farming in Kenya, Berkshire and Scotland respectively, bringing the Nettlefolds back full circle to their agricultural roots.

In this ‘family tree of trades’, we can see common threads of entrepreneurialism and dedication. Through Guild membership and investment in apprenticeships, skills were passed on, and generations of Nettlefolds gave committed service to their communities.