On the 1 February 1853 the London Gazette published the following notice:
Norman Buchanan, insolvent debtor, by his petition at Hastings. Formerly of 28 George Street, Hastings, hair dresser and general dealer, afterwards of the same, in partnership with Horace Sparks Prior, same business, and now of 32 Norman Road West, St Leonards, hair dresser and general dealer, insolvent debtor.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 25 March 1853, briefly mentioned as one of three insolvency cases in the County Court:
Norman Buchanan, late of Norman road, St Leonards, hairdresser, supported by Mr Kell, for his final examination, and there being no opposition the insolvent passed.
On the 15 November 1853 the London Gazette announced that Buchanan would pay a dividend of 2s 2d and a farthing in the pound. In other words, a little over 10% of his debts would be paid to his creditors.
Buchanan was an insolvent debtor rather than the much better known bankrupt. Until 1861, only those who bought and sold goods to make a living could be made bankrupt. Anyone else who was unable to pay debts was referred to as an insolvent debtor. In theory they could go to prison until the debts were paid (as in Dickens’ Little Dorrit, based on his own father), unlike bankrupts. A hairdresser, of course, did not buy or sell goods. In practice, I have noticed exceptions to this rule.
It is nearly always hard to find information on the business affairs of shopkeepers and the like, but announcements of dissolved partnerships (to establish who would settle any debts) and bankruptcies or insolvencies do give a little information, as with this man. Census returns sometimes mention how many staff are employed by someone.
Norman Buchanan had married, 7 October 1824, St Clements Hastings, as a bachelor, Mary Edwards, widow, both of the parish. They had four children. In 1835 he was an elector at Ore. She died in 1837.
In 1842, a partnership with William Tuppen in Hastings as hair dressers was dissolved (London Gazette, 9 December 1842).
In 1850 a partnership with Horace Sparks Prior at 28 George Street was dissolved, as mentioned in the opening extract of this post. It was normal for hairdressers to be perfumers as well.
In the 1851 census Horace was at the same address of 28 George Street, age 24, hairdresser employing 1 man, born Poole, Dorset, with his wife.
In the same 1851 census Buchanan was at Longfield, St Mary in the Castle, a widower, 49, barber, born Glasgow, Scotland, with three children born Hastings and a Wenham sister in law, a dressmaker. The children were Margaret, 9, Cecilia, 7, Norman, 6, and Thomas, 4 (who died in 1854).
On the 9 July 1852 the Hastings and St Leonards News announced that he had married, 21 June 1852, St Sepulchre’s, London, as of St Leonards, Miss Delia Crouch, daughter of Mr J.P. Crouch, of Cobourg Place, Hastings. The actual marriage certificate indicated that he was a hair dresser of 21 Fleet Lane, son of Norman, hatter, she the daughter of John Pollard Crouch, yeoman. In the 1851 census at 3 Coburg Place her father was a widower, retired farmer, aged 80. She was 39, a governess, as was her sister Ellen, 34.
In the 1861 census he was at Wokingham, Berkshire, 59, married to Delia, 53, born Westfield, Sussex, with 17-year-old dress maker daughter Cecilia. In the same census daughter Mary (actually Margaret) Buchanan was a dressmaker boarding at 6 Melbourne Place, Hastings.
Norman Buchanan died in 1862, leaving no will and apparently no announcement in the newspapers. Traders’ adverts in newspapers can sometimes be revealing, such as stating that they had earlier worked for another business, or had taken over a business, but there do not appear to have been any in his case.
In the 1871 census Delia was an assistant to a lodging house keeper, Caroline Carey, at 29 Eversfield Place, St Leonards. Both daughters, Margaret and Cecilia, were lodging with a French polisher at 13 London Road. Margaret was 29, dressmaker, while Cecilia, 27, had no occupation listed. In 1872 Cecilia died at Hastings. At about the same time Margaret married, at London, Daniel John George, a tailor; they appear in London in later censuses.
In the 1881 census Delia was still with Caroline, as a housekeeper, Caroline being again a lodging house keeper, at 121 London Road, St Leonards. I cannot trace her in the 1891 census.
Delia’s death can only be that of a Delia Buchanan in the Knaresborough area of Yorkshire in 1895 or 1896, aged 88. I was not able to trace all the relevant census returns for her stepchildren.
In the 6 July 1895 edition of the Hastings Observer there was an advert for an apprentice to Norman Buchanan, a hairdresser at 6 Silverhill Terrace, and the elder son. He was at that address in the 1891 census, age 46, born Hastings, married to Charlotte, also 46 and also born in Hastings.
APPRENTICE. – Respectable BOY wanted to learn the Haircutting and Shaving: every opportunity to learn the business thoroughly. – Apply Norman Buchanan, Hairdresser, 6, Silverhill-terrace, 6, Silverhill-terrace, St Leonards.
There was, incidentally, a Hastings and St Leonards Hairdressers’ Association at that time. At one meeting, chaired by Mr W. Dine, Mr G.H. Wheeler of Gensing Road ‘read the first portion of an interesting paper on different kinds of baldness’, with its contents given in detail (Hastings & St Leonards Times, 18 November 1882). The Hastings Observer of the same date failed to give details of the talk but did inform us that there was ‘a very good attendance’ – I wonder how many hairdressers there actually were in the town.
In the 1881 census George Wheeler was a 32-year-old hairdresser, born Hastings, living with his family at 21 Gensing Road.
The association must have only just been formed, as the proceedings of the second annual dinner were reported on on the 3 November 1883, Hastings Observer, with an attendance of 50, including numerous wives. Wheeler was the president. It was stated that six hairdressers had met and had decided to form an association, because it would be ‘a great benefit to the trade.’