SKIPPER, Charles 1 (1798-1883) — London
Wholesale export & manufacturing stationer; printer; engraver; lithographer; vellum binder; account-book manufacturer; machine-ruler; improved copying machine maker, etc. Produced, as ‘Charles Skipper & East’, ‘Report of the deputation appointed by the Honorable the Irish Society to visit the City of London’s plantation in Ireland’ 1836, with folding maps; Billingsgate Market 1845, a plan for the City of London; ‘A catalogue of the library of the London Institution’ 1835-1852, with plans, etc. Known principally for the printing of official reports, tables, diaries, almanacs, catalogues, etc., while the BM has a number of examples of banknotes, cheques, etc., produced by the company, as well as a trade-card depicting the new premises on St. Dunstan’s Hill, apparently designed by Sir William Tite.
Born in London 30 Nov 1798 and baptised 27 Dec 1798 at St. Dunstan in the East, the son of Peter Skipper (1763-1846) and his wife Elizabeth Cooper (1766-1841), who married in 1785. Apprenticed (Stationers) to George Cooke — possibly the engraver George Cooke (see BME 2011), although there was a second George Cooke in the Stationers at this period — 5 Apr 1814. Turned over to his father 3 Dec 1816. Worked with his father as ‘Peter Skipper & Son’, before taking over in about 1822. Free (Stationers) 3 Jun 1823. He shared an address with William Edmund East from 1825, and traded as ‘Charles Skipper & East’ from at least 1832. An 1830 Sun Fire Office insurance policy is in LMA. He married Elizabeth Rippen East (1809-1871), his partner’s sister, at Tooting Graveney 9 Feb 1833. The partnership was taking in advertisements for the Public Ledger in the 1830s. Skipper lived on the business premises on St. Dunstan’s Hill until at least 1837, but was living in Russell Square 1841-1883, in 1841 with his wife, a number of children, including Charles Skipper 2 below, and several servants. Papers relating to an 1843 court case brought by Brookes Hugh Bullock against ‘Skipper & East’ in NA. The partnership with East was announced as “expired by effluxion of time” 30 Jun 1858, with Skipper nominally continuing alone, but his son Charles Skipper 2 testified at an Old Bailey trial, concerning the alleged theft of a quantity of metal type, 23 Sep 1861, “I manage the business of Skipper and East — it is my father’s business entirely — he does not take an active part in the management of it — I have managed, going on for four years — my father is very infirm and unwell — he is not in a fit state to come here to be examined — the prisoner’s father was in the employment of our firm, and had been for a great number of years — the prisoner was also in our employment, as assistant-overseer in the letter-press printing department, at a salary of 150l. a year, paid weekly — I was aware of the fact that he carried on a small printing business himself — he had no authority from us at any time to remove any type from our premises at all … there is not a gentleman named East in the firm — there was once — I have managed the business going on for four years — I managed it soon after I was twenty — it is more than three years — I never knew Mr. Dredge, sen. to manage the business — Mr. East did so before me, and my father managed the business up to the time that Mr. East took the management — that was about twenty years ago — my father has not managed the detail of the business since then — he has not come regularly — I last saw my father this morning — he is not at all well”. The partnership with his son was formally dissolved 30 Jun 1870, with the introduction of a new partner in Edward Wormald (1848-1928). Now fully retired and a widower by 1871, the elder Skipper was resident with two unmarried daughters and numerous servants in the latter part of his life. He died at Brighton at 3 Eastern Terrace 8 Nov 1883. Probate on a personal estate of £192,136.14s.9d (later reduced to £167,870.18s.8d) was granted to Edward Norton Clifton of Harley Street and John Charles Hardy of Bush Lane 2 Jan 1884.
21 Mincing Lane — 1817-1825
— and Slade’s Place, Deptford — 1825
1 St. Dunstan’s Hill, Great Tower Street — 1823-1883
— and 10 Great Tower Street —1839-1846
— 28 Russell Square (home) —1841-1883
— 9 Chichester Terrace, Brighton (home) — 1869-1871
— 146 Marine Parade, Brighton (home) — 1876-1883
Apprentices: George Whitehead 1825; Henry Joseph Williams 1826; Joseph Mayott 1826; Henry Nicholas Nissen 1827; Thomas Brooks 1829; Thomas Knight 1830; James Faithfull 1830; Charles Frederick Reynolds 1835; William Frederick Mayott 1835; Francis James Phillips 1839; Abraham Woods 1839; William Hill 1840; John Brown 1842; William Henry Harper 1842; William Simpson 1845; William Henry Wildman 1846 (£10); Arthur Reynolds 1846; Frederick Francis May 1848; John Clark 1849; James Davies 1850 (£10); Henry Victor David 1852; Francis Brothers 1852; Charles Skipper 2 (son) 1853; Frederick Toghill Lowe 1853; William Robert Barnard 1853; George Sills 1854; George Dredge 1854; Frederick Sleap 1854; James Skinner 1854; Josiah Waller 1855; Robert Tidswell 1855; Sydney William Bridge 1855; John Sennacar Summerfield Stratford 1857; George Bassett 1857; William Dent 1857; James Colocott 1857; George Powell 1857; Robert Charles Louvel 1857; Charles Geddes 1858; Edward Morgan 1858; William McCabe 1858; Isaac Hall 1858; Edwin Groom 1859; Henry Warwood 1866; James William Allingham 1867; William Marchant 1868.
BBTI. BM. BNA. Brown. Census 1841-1851, 1871-1881. LG. LHD. LMA. NA. OB. ROLLCO. Todd. Twyman.