3.4 Post-1904 and the Kelly Conundrum 

3.4.1    Post-1904 

While others had tried to issue a Plymouth area directory such as Thomas (1836), F Brendon (1852), W Brendon (1862, 1864 and 1867) or Thorne/Trythall (1873, 1875, 1877), none was a regular work like that published under the name of Eyre. Although the Eyre Brothers gave up their directory after only three editions it did have a long, and moderately successful, life. After 16 editions under the Eyre name, it was taken over by A H Swiss in 1905 as The Post Office Directory of Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse which became … Plymouth and District after 1915. The secondary title being; With which is incorporated "Eyre's Post Office Plymouth, Devonport, Stonehouse, and District Directory”. 

 

Fig. 29. Title pages to the 3rd, 5th, 10th and 13th Editions of the Plymouth directory. 

Swiss and Co. were a firm operating from Devonport which seem to have specialised in hunting maps, producing maps for most English counties with hunts.[9] Alfred Henry Swiss was registered as printer at 112 Fore Street in White’s Directory of 1878 and Swiss & Co. - printers to H M Stationery Office, printers, stationers (retail), booksellers, insurance agents, map publishers and relief stampers - were still registered at that address in 1930. In Eyre´s 6th edition they were at 111 and 112 Fore Street.

Although the Swiss directory appeared annually from 1905-1906 to 1915 the war years seem to have upset the regularity of publishing and only copies for 1920, 1923 and 1928 are known.[10] The 1905-06 Edition included a map which was a copy of Maddock´s map from the 2nd Edition but with added detail, expanded to show more in the north, now in colour and with an index of important places below and the title of the directory (Swiss …) above.

In 1932 the directory was now published by Underhill and issued as The Post Office Directory of Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse and it still retained the link to Eyre in its extended title. It is not known how many years Underhill published the directory but it seems to have been a short-lived undertaking[11].

By far the most successful directory publisher at this time was the firm established by Frederic Kelly and for a short period the Plymouth directory started by the Eyre Brothers was, in fact, taken over and published as Kelly’s (formerly Underhill’s) Post Office Directory of Plymouth and District but it only seems to have appeared annually from 1935 to 1940 under this name. The directory was revived after the Second World War and copies for 1951, 1953 and 1955 (8th edition) are known.

Frederic Kelly (fl.1845-1900) founded Kelly & Co., the London-based publishers who specialised in directories: the first, London, was produced in 1843 from his Post Office Directory offices at Old Boswell Court (later from Temple Bar, 1845-68). The first County Directories appeared c.1845 and they included maps of the relevant county/counties. Devon appeared in 1856 and was re-issued, but at infrequent intervals, well into the next century[12] with updated maps (identifiable having the title Post Office Map Of ...). In c.1860 the first complete compilation of the maps was issued, the Post Office Directory Atlas. Kelly´s survived a short time as KellySearch, an online search tool.

The actual techniques employed by Frederic Kelly came under fierce criticism from different quarters over time.[13] Kelly was employed by the Post Office as Chief Inspector of Letter-Carriers circa 1835. At that time the PO Directory of London was owned by the family of his predecessor but he managed to buy the copyright from the widow. In the 1840s Kelly was criticised by members of parliament for using the government paid carriers at his disposal to compile information which he could use in his (private) directory.

Losing his post in 1860 he took the London directory with him. He had founded the company Kelly & Co., and with various family members expanded the directory business. He was able to buy up Pigot and Slater´s long-running series and bought William White´s business. During the course of the 19th century, he bought out or put out of business a number of rivals. His attempt to claim the title Post Office Directory for themselves failed in 1879. Frederic died in 1883 but his family, especially a son called Frederick, continued all aspects of the business. In 1897 the company became Kelly´s Directories Ltd.

3.4.2    The Kelly Conundrum

The eventual acquisition by Kelly´s of the heir to Eyre´s Plymouth directory is ironic. Eyre Brothers, in the guise of G P Butcher, had started the directory back in 1880 and issued three editions. This directory had established itself but the publisher was forced to quit due to bankruptcy. But that is not the full story.

In the early months of 1887, the Eyre Brothers were still making news in various regions. Down in the south west the Western Morning News was digesting the fact that the producers of their directory had gone bankrupt and, in a report published on 5th February, gave more of the details behind Mr Butcher´s plight. In it, not only is poor George now a butcher but the name Kelly appears as a spectre.

Under the simple headline “Eyre Brothers” here is the account in full:


At the London Bankruptcy Court yesterday, the first meeting of creditors under the failure of George Pallant, butcher (sic), trading as Eyre Brothers, and described as a publisher, of Paternoster-square, Paternoster-row, was held, Mr Lamb presiding. The debtor recently published a directory circulating in Plymouth, and had an action brought against him by Messrs. Kelly and Co., who obtained an injunction restraining him from doing so. The statement of affairs shewed liabilities unsecured £1,024 and assets of £42, the indebtedness being to a large extent due to creditors in Birmingham and Sheffield. -The debtor stated that he commenced business in 1874 in Partnership with Mr Cole, and they carried on business under the style of “Butcher & Co.,” and in 1875, in connection with his partner, he presented a petition for liquidation, when a dividen(d) of 10s in the £ was paid. He recommenced business in 1876. In reply to questions, the debtor said that he had also been an advertising agent, and what contracts he had at the time of the failure he had handed over to the official receiver. -The Chairman said there was practically no business before the meeting, a summary administration order having been already made, and the debtor having been adjudged bankrupt. -The public examination is fixed for the 10th of February.


Obviously, George had admitted being one of the names behind Butcher & Co., but there is no mention of the other two enterprises of Percy, Butcher & Co., or of Butcher, Cole & Co., even though we can be sure he was involved in both.

That Kelly took out an injunction is not surprising. There must have been any number of other publishers up and down the country emulating the efforts of this company and the main work of reference in this sector, Shaw and Tipper, is full of entries covering the period from 1850 to 1900 alone. As far as Plymouth was concerned, Kelly had no direct city directory and their own series included Devon (with or without other counties) only every four to six years; it appeared only in 1883, 1889, 1893, 1897 in the period during which the directory used the name “Eyre” in the title. For whatever reason they successfully put Butcher out of business. The injunction against the Eyre Brothers may have been because of plagiarism from their pages, but the other directories published before 1875 seem to have escaped notice, or was it the use of the magic words Post Office in the title?


Fig. 49. Typical Butcher cover: here Butcher, Cole & Co´s South Dorset directory.

The fourth edition was left for W H Hood to publish. Walter Harry Hood (1861-1929) was also a London lad, born in Lewisham, the son of a builder turned china dealer.  He was listed as a clerk in 1881, but as a publisher in 1891. Laurence Worms suspects he may originally have been employed by Butcher. Could it be that he was operating only as a front man with Butcher in the background? During this time Butcher was the Advertising Manager, after all.

Hood´s publishing career comprised two editions of the Plymouth directory (1888-90 and 1890-91), editions of Eyre´s Picturesque Devonshire and Cornwall and the Crossing book on pixies. Like Butcher, he had moved from publishing into becoming an advertising agent by 1901. In some ways he bridges a gap for G P Butcher between ceasing direct involvement with the directory and his next employment, and that would be for Hammond, the next Plymouth directory publisher as his General Manager.

Hood only managed to issue two editions of the directory before handing over to Hammond. Could it be that he, too, had problems with Kelly? Butcher had maintained that most of his debts were with creditors in Birmingham and Sheffield. Could one of these have been Hammond? We know that J G Hammond was a successful printer in Birmingham. We also have a lack of printer´s signatures in any of the works discussed here. Only the first edition of Watering Places of the South of England has been seen with such a signature and this was Philip & Son, Liverpool. Could Hammond have been Eyre´s printer and helped out when Butcher was no longer able to carry on under the Eyre name? 

It is now absolutely clear that George Pallant Butcher was the leading force behind the Eyre Brothers; but whether he took over from a company of the same name, whether he really was just an editor or why exactly the name Percy appears briefly are questions still unanswered. Nevertheless, for a short period between 1873 and 1904 the names Percy, Cole, Butcher and Eyre were associated with a large number of directories and guides from their addresses in Paternoster Row and Paternoster Square. In the publication of the first two editions of the Hotels of the UK, Eyre produced what amounts to an atlas of the British Isles and they began a directory of Plymouth which persisted well into the next century, including a locally produced map in it which became something of a standard feature. 

 

Kit Batten

May 2022








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