ABRAHAM, Jacob (1772?-1845) — Exeter, Bath & Cheltenham
Optician, instrument-maker, globemaker, etc. Produced New terrestrial globe 1813, apparently with Abraham’s label covering an earlier one by Nicholas Lane; Newton’s new and improved terrestrial pocket globe 1817 – with Abraham’s imprint pasted on beneath the title. Also produced spectacles, telescopes, microscopes, barometers, orreries, etc.
Born in or about 1772, perhaps in London, where his mother died at the age of eighty in 1823. He began in business in or about 1795, probably in Exeter: he is first recorded there, but by 1802 was migrating to Bath to coincide with the fashionable season each year. In 1802 he was advertising “all sorts of spectacles, mounted in silver, tortoiseshell, or steel; prospect, reading, opera, and Claude-Lorraine glasses; linen-provers, telescopes, and microscopes; goglers to preserve the eyes from the dust or wind, chiefly used for riding; hergrometers and thermometers; watch compasses, camera obscuras, preservers for young ladies’ and gentlemen’s eyes, particularly those who never used glasses before; concave and convex glasses for short-sighted persons”, etc., (Bath Chronicle, 25 Feb 1802). By 1808 he was now sharing his time between Bath and Cheltenham. In 1812, Abraham was one of the leading figures in the establishment of a Jewish cemetery in Bath. The Bath Chronicle of 27 May 1813 related a curious story of the Exeter merchant Lazarus Cohen, Abraham’s brother-in-law, who had been captured by the French on a voyage to Guernsey two years earlier and imprisoned in France, but had now escaped and made his way safely home via Prague.
Abraham announced himself as Optician to the Duke of Gloucester, and to the Duke of Wellington, from at least 1818, and in 1828 the local press recorded a visit to Abraham by the former, with the purchase of several articles, and repeated visits by the latter, with “some very large purchases”, a few weeks later (Cheltenham Journal, 21 Jul 1828 & 1 Sep 1828). A large portion of the stock was dispersed at auction in 1843, but his son Maurice Abraham (1808?-1872), who later emigrated to Australia, had taken over the business in Queen’s Circus, Cheltenham, by June 1845, probably with the assistance of his sister Sophia (1811?-1884). The eldest son, Abraham Abraham (1799?-1863), had long been independently established and was a very well-known instrument-maker in Lord Street, Liverpool. Jacob Abraham died at Cheltenham 20 Sep 1845 at the age of seventy-three. A lengthy will, noting numerous property interests, survives in NA (PROB 11/2026/136), probate being granted 13 Nov 1845. There is a trade-card in the Science Museum. His widow, Hannah Cohen (1764?-1846), died at Cheltenham the following year, reportedly at the age of eighty-two.
Fore Street, Exeter — 1802-1803
— and 12 Kingsmead Square, Bath — 1802-1803
1 Bartlett Street, St. Andrew’s Terrace, Bath — 1804
7 Bartlett Street, Bath — 1808-1811
— and 65 [High Street], near the George Inn (opposite the Post Office), Cheltenham — 1808-1810
— and 5 Cambray Place, Cheltenham — 1812
— and 290 High Street, Cheltenham — 1813
1 Bartlett Street, Bath — 1814
— and 105 [High Street] near Stiles’s Boarding House, Cheltenham — 1814
7 Bartlett Street, Bath — 1815
— and Adjoining Mr. Thompson’s Pump Room, Cheltenham — 1815-1832
1 Bartlett Street, Bath — 1818-1820
7 Bartlett Street, Bath — 1821-1845
— and Adjoining the Montpellier Rotunda, Cheltenham — 1833-1840
1 Queen’s Circus, Cheltenham — 1840-1843
— and Bays Hill Terrace, Cheltenham (home) — 1841
BNA. Calvert. Clifton. LHD. NA. Taylor (1966). Webster.