STANDRING, Samuel (1820?-1890) — London
Toymaker; printer; publisher; puzzle-maker; map dissector; bookseller; wheelwright, cabinet-maker & carpenter. Known for distributing many of the maps and other puzzles produced by James Richard Barfoot and his son James Widdowfield Barfoot (see BME 2011). Advertised a parlour cricket game in 1865 and croquet sets in 1868. Advertised himself extensively as a “manufacturer of wood boxes, Tunbridge alphabets, dissected puzzles, transparent slates, and an endless variety of instructive and amusing games, wholesale only, and for export” (Lloyd’s List, 13 Jan 1876, et seq.)
Born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, and baptised there 1 Feb 1820 — the son of Robert Standring (1782-1859), at that time described as a labourer, although later as a farrier, horse-breaker, or horse-dealer, and his wife Margaret Smithson (1791-1857), who had married in 1819. Standring originally became a wheelwright in his native Epworth, but by 1851 was a toymaker in London, employing seven men. Two younger brothers, George Standring (1833-1853) and William Standring (1835-1924), were living and working with him in that year, as journeyman and apprentice respectively. Described as a carpenter in the register, he married Catherine Kearley (1824-1870), daughter of a Hoxton wheelwright, with whom he had several children, 30 Aug 1852, at St. John the Baptist, Shoreditch. Recorded as a printer employing twenty men in 1861. He was in partnership and sharing premises with Lewis Cowan (or Cohen) (1803?-1864), publisher and “planned puzzle manufacturer”, previously of Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, as ‘Cowan & Standring’ from at least 1855 to Cowan’s death early in 1864, at which time Standring was his sole executor: they advertised as “Cowan & Standring, juvenile publishers, map dissectors & makers of water colors and boxes” and produced a number of picture books for children, some, if not all, illustrated by James Richard Barfoot (see BME 2011). Elected as a guardian to the Holborn Union Poor Law Board in 1869, becoming vice-chairman of the Board in 1874, and chairman in 1880, and as an Overseer for the Poor for West Finsbury Liberty in 1873. In 1871, by now a widower, he was recorded as a master cabinet-maker employing twenty men and five boys — his sons Samuel Standring (1853-1895) and George Standring (1855-1924) evidently already employed in the business, the latter specifically as a printer. The 1881 census return gives him as a manufacturer employing sixteen men — son Charles now managing the business, and George employed as a printer. Standring died 20 May 1890 at his home in Wood Green. Probate on his personal estate of £712.11s.4d was granted to his son Samuel. The second son, George, is remembered as a notable publisher and printer in his own right, operating from the family Finsbury Street address: he was an early member of the Fabian Society, producing mainly political material, including the earliest Fabian tracts by George Bernard Shaw and others.
High Street, Epworth — 1841
9 Finsbury Street, Chiswell Street — 1851
8 & 9 Finsbury Street, Chiswell Street — 1855-1885
— 68 Grange Street, Hoxton (home) — 1871
7-9 Finsbury Street, Chiswell Street — 1890
— Ivy Cottage, Truro Road, Wood Green (home) — 1880-1890
BNA. Census 1841-1881. LHD. Information from Adrian Seville.