Background

Author: Nev. Ramsden

The Spedding Family of Whitehaven

For wider reading on this family, see-

The Spedding family; with short Accounts of a few other families allied by marriage – a PDF copy is available on line:- Https://archive.org/stream/speddingfamilywi00sped/speddingfamilywi00sped_djvu.tx

There are ten separate Spedding families associated with Whitehaven and the immediate surrounding district; but there is only one that contained men who operated as merchants in the town of Whitehaven

The Spedding brothers

John Spedding (1685-1758) was first employed by Sir James Lowther's father, apparently to assist with the accounts. In his will Sir John bequeathed two years' salary (£20) to Spedding, and commended him to James. Spedding's adverse reports on the accounts of the colliery manager (John Gale, relative of the Speddings) led to Gale's dismissal (1707) and the discovery of embezzlement by him. John became colliery manager in his stead. It had been intended that John's younger brother, Carlisle Spedding, should go to sea with one of Gale's sons, but this now fell through, and Carlisle was instead employed as a subordinate to his brother. (It is said that Carlisle was sent to Tyneside to work as a hewer (under an assumed name) to see how things were done there, his true identity only being revealed by his getting expensive medical treatment after being hurt in an explosion. However the story first appeared in print a generation after Carlisle Spedding's death, and one modern writer doubts it, finding no evidence for it in the Lowther accounts, and seeing no reason for subterfuge since Tyneside and Cumberland sold their coal into different markets. John was promoted to steward (in conjunction with Richard Gilpin 1722-30: on his own after 1730); he also entered into business on his own account, backed by Lowther's money and uncertainty as to when he was acting for himself, and when to further some scheme of his employer's was helpful to both parties. Carlisle's innovations in the Lowther mines at Whitehaven earned him a national reputation as a mining engineer; he succeeded his brother as colliery manager in 1730.

taken from:- Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. – Journal for 1909.

Only two members of the extensive Spedding family can be readily identified as a Whitehaven merchant. The first was James Spedding, 1720-1759, the third son of John, 1685-1758, & Ann [Richardson] Spedding who was a Lowther Estates Steward. James married Susannah Irton of Irton Hall in West Cumberland and they produced one son and two daughters. The second, also named James, was James Spedding, 1719-1788 who was a timber merchant & who married twice to Elizabeth Harrington then Mary Todd, having six children between them.

James and Mary Spedding built the “Acorn House’’, now a corner house at No.30 Roper street, and lived there in 18th century Whitehaven. The house was constructed in 1743 by James, the son of Whitehaven’s famous mining engineer Carlisle Spedding, and intended it to be used as both a dwelling and offices for the family business. The acorn finial above the doorway is a reference to the Spedding coat of arms, which bears three acorns in its design. The family company, James Spedding and Co., Timber Merchants in Whitehaven and Keswick, carried on a large business as timber merchants both at home and abroad.