}
Richard Berriman, early tobacco-pipe maker in Bristol
Richard Berriman is the earliest recorded clay-pipe maker in Bristol. Records indicate that he was active in the trade between 1619 and 1652.
Little is known about him, but a few of his pipes survive.
Both Richard and his wife Anne trained people to make clay pipes. They are recorded as employing three apprentices, the first of whom was a man called John Wall, who commenced his apprenticeship in November 1619. By 1630, Wall too was taking on apprentices.
An inventory taken shortly after Berriman's death (a probate inventory) shows that he worked from home in the parish of St James. The inventory listed '2 working benches, one beating stock, 1 Tub, 5c. of clay...16 moulds, some small Tooles and some odd boards to the Value of £1,8s', which suggests that his working conditions were sparse and far from opulent. This set-up was typical of pipe-making at the time, often consisting of husband and wife teams. It was not a particularly lucrative business and nor did it command high social status. In a list of Bristol companies, listed in order of precedence for a procession before the mayor, pipe makers were placed twelfth out of seventeen. Nonetheless, by the late 1640s, the City Fathers were keen to encourage the industry, and, soon after the end of the English Civil War in 1651, Bristol pipe manufacture expanded.
This expansion was driven, in 1652, by the establishment of a Pipe Makers Guild, founded by Richard Berriman and 24 others, including four women. The regulations of the guild stated that only members could sell clay pipes in the city, that members must swear an oath to observe the guild's rules and that no member could employ a boy to make pipes without making him an apprentice. At this time, only Bristol, London and York had a guild specifically for pipe makers. Membership was seen as a recognition of skill, and each pipe maker would have been expected to produce pipes of a certain quality.
Richard Berriman, along with many other pipe makers, marked his products with his own initials and symbols. Some of the early marks show a dagger over a heart between his initials; others show a spoon-like symbol above a heart. There are two different theories about the significance of these symbols, but neither is likely to be true. One states that the dagger is a reference to Berriman being stabbed in the heart when his name was removed from the list of guild members; the other that the spoon-like symbol is actually a shovel referring to his surname Berriman or 'bury man'.
With the formation of the Pipe Makers Guild, pipe making flourished in Bristol. By the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries Bristol was the second largest pipe making centre after London. During this time, Bristol became the largest exporter of clay pipes to North America. Many pipes with the marks of Bristol makers have been discovered there, including a few with Berriman's mark.
Little is known about him, but a few of his pipes survive.
Both Richard and his wife Anne trained people to make clay pipes. They are recorded as employing three apprentices, the first of whom was a man called John Wall, who commenced his apprenticeship in November 1619. By 1630, Wall too was taking on apprentices.
An inventory taken shortly after Berriman's death (a probate inventory) shows that he worked from home in the parish of St James. The inventory listed '2 working benches, one beating stock, 1 Tub, 5c. of clay...16 moulds, some small Tooles and some odd boards to the Value of £1,8s', which suggests that his working conditions were sparse and far from opulent. This set-up was typical of pipe-making at the time, often consisting of husband and wife teams. It was not a particularly lucrative business and nor did it command high social status. In a list of Bristol companies, listed in order of precedence for a procession before the mayor, pipe makers were placed twelfth out of seventeen. Nonetheless, by the late 1640s, the City Fathers were keen to encourage the industry, and, soon after the end of the English Civil War in 1651, Bristol pipe manufacture expanded.
This expansion was driven, in 1652, by the establishment of a Pipe Makers Guild, founded by Richard Berriman and 24 others, including four women. The regulations of the guild stated that only members could sell clay pipes in the city, that members must swear an oath to observe the guild's rules and that no member could employ a boy to make pipes without making him an apprentice. At this time, only Bristol, London and York had a guild specifically for pipe makers. Membership was seen as a recognition of skill, and each pipe maker would have been expected to produce pipes of a certain quality.
Richard Berriman, along with many other pipe makers, marked his products with his own initials and symbols. Some of the early marks show a dagger over a heart between his initials; others show a spoon-like symbol above a heart. There are two different theories about the significance of these symbols, but neither is likely to be true. One states that the dagger is a reference to Berriman being stabbed in the heart when his name was removed from the list of guild members; the other that the spoon-like symbol is actually a shovel referring to his surname Berriman or 'bury man'.
With the formation of the Pipe Makers Guild, pipe making flourished in Bristol. By the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries Bristol was the second largest pipe making centre after London. During this time, Bristol became the largest exporter of clay pipes to North America. Many pipes with the marks of Bristol makers have been discovered there, including a few with Berriman's mark.