Froggatt Dynasty

I have matched up a Froggatt Family Tree with UK Census' detailing their age address and occupations with interesting results. I hope it is legible.
I have listed those with skills that could relate to handcuff making, but excluded brass founders/casters, copper spinners and a gimlet maker (a drilling tool?).
Elias Froggatt 1780-1842 I have as a locksmith. The family tree I found list him as handcuff maker.
It makes me wonder who made my Froggatt handcuffs, where and when!

Nice work, Paul!

I would have to agree that the "gimlet" referred to the earlier drilling tool rather than the latter usage as a lime and vodka cocktail.

One would have expected that the earlier Froggatts would have been titled as the handcuuff fitters and the latter ones as the handcuff makers, though I suspect that this is only a matter of terminology. After all, Froggatt never made rivet shackles to the best of my knowledge.


Regards,
Jason

I have matched up a Froggatt Family Tree with UK Census' detailing their age address and occupations with interesting results. I hope it is legible.
I have listed those with skills that could relate to handcuff making, but excluded brass founders/casters, copper spinners and a gimlet maker (a drilling tool?).
Elias Froggatt 1780-1842 I have as a locksmith. The family tree I found list him as handcuff maker.
It makes me wonder who made my Froggatt handcuffs, where and when!

Click to expand...

Thanks Jason,
I wonder if some of them didn't want to be referred to as just handcuff makers in the census - and they weren't, as we know.
Sometimes listed as Hardwareman, Dog Collar makers, or Whitesmith. In 1861 William Froggatt at 289 Bradford St, was listed as a Whitesmith employing 8 men and 2 boys.
But it also strikes me how long the business(s) stayed in the family - 4 or 5 generations, whereas as only Thomas Griffin Hiatt made handcuffs for the most well known company. After Thomas Hiatt died his oldest son William ran the business until at least 1851 but seems to have sold it off. All we know it that between 1886 and 1958 Hiatts had been sold 4 times.
Froggatts deserve more credit for their production of handcuffs as a family business.
Paul

I have matched up a Froggatt Family Tree with UK Census' detailing their age address and occupations with interesting results. I hope it is legible.
I have listed those with skills that could relate to handcuff making, but excluded brass founders/casters, copper spinners and a gimlet maker (a drilling tool?).
Elias Froggatt 1780-1842 I have as a locksmith. The family tree I found list him as handcuff maker.
It makes me wonder who made my Froggatt handcuffs, where and when!

Click to expand...

Greetings Paul:

Another family owned Darby manufacturer with British military ties is the RCS firm. These seem to have been made in greater numbers than the Froggatt made Darbies, often bearing the broad arrow mark, though more or less conform to the standard form and function.

Vintage Hiatt sales literature stated that the company began as a manufacturer of animal restraints (I take this to include the now illegal animal traps) until the slave traders contracted them to produce human restraints (slave shackles). Those neat locking dog collars -- which appear to be identical to the Froggatt collars -- are often mislabeled as slave ID tags. Often times, slaves purchased at auction were cruelly branded -- sometimes more than once -- by their current owners. There were some plantation owners, however, that apparently did use slave tags, though I've yet to find an example with verifiable provenance.


Regards,
Jason