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CHAPTER SIX
Some Additional Records of Tobacco-pipe Makers
in Essex and E. Anglia
By L. S. Harley
Since writing the Memoir on The Clay Tobacco-pipe in Britain,
I have found a few more names of pipe-makers and tobacconists
which it seems desirable to record in order to supplement that
Memoir.
The Curator of the Passmore Edwards Museum recently sent
to me two pipes "found in the mire at Creekmouth, Barking,
Essex, early in 1963" by a Mr. Booth of Ilford. One of them is
of early eighteenth century date, about 1710-1730, and bears
initials I H on the foot. While there is no real reason to suppose
this pipe to be of Essex make, it is interesting to note that there
was an E H making pipes in Romford in 1722, but no other maker
with an H surname is recorded for Essex in the eighteenth century.
The other pipe from Barking Creek has a 'reeded' bowl, and is
almost certainly of early to mid-nineteenth century. It has
initials T B on the foot, corresponding with the name displayed in
an unusual fashion round the bowl, just under the lip: BALME
ROMFORD. This pipe is illustrated in Plate 12. I knew of
no such Essex maker; but in Oswald's list (published in Brit.
Arch. Assn. Jnl. (Ser. 3), 23: 61) I find he has extracted from
Johnston's Directory (and also in Pigot's Directory): Thomas
BALME 1805-1832 Warden Tobacco-pipe Company LONDON.
I have wondered whether Thomas Balme came to Romford
from London after 1832, but there is no 'Balme' resident at Rom-
ford in 1848 (according to the earliest Directory in the British
Museum Library) and none also in 1888. On the other hand, yet
another pipe has now turned up in West Ham, bearing on the
back of the bowl, in a shield, the name (B) ALM (E) MILE END,
the initial and final letters of the name being nearly obliterated.
This pipe was presumably made in Balme's 'London' days, before
1832.
I have searched through the records of Wills at Chelmsford
(by courtesy of Mr. Emmison) and discovered the following
references: