Samuel Glanville

Birth, Marriage and Death information

     He was baptized on 19 May 1723 at Holy Trinity, Exeter, DEV, ENG, Samll Son of Jno and Ann Glanvill was Bapt May ye 19th. Samuel Glanville was born before 19 May 1723 at Exeter, DEV, ENG. He and Mary Greaves obtained a marriage license on 16 February 1747; naming Samuel Glanvill aged 25 of Sheffield, and Mary Smith aged 30 of Sheffield.
     He married Mary Greaves on 16 February 1747 at Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, Sheffield, YKS, ENG, (when age calculated as 23 years, 8 months and 28 days) Mary marrying as Mary Smith. Saml Glanvill solider and Mary Smith widow by licence granted and married by Mr Dessie.
     He married Ann Boyce on 8 January 1787 at St John, Stamford, LIN, ENG, (when age calculated as 63 years, 7 months and 20 days) reported in the Stamford Mercury 13 Jan 1786:
Sunday last was married, Mr Glanville, of the Bull inn to Miss Boyce, milliner, both of this place.
     He died on 14 July 1803 at Duke of Norfolk's Hospital, Sheffield, YKS, ENG, (when age calculated as 80); reported in Lancester Gazette 6 Aug 1803:
Thursday se'nnight, in the Duke of Norfolk's hospital, Sheffield, aged 83, Mr. Samuel Glanville. He formerly kept the head inn in Sheffield, and was the first person who run coaches from Sheffield to Chesterfield.

Other information

     Samuel was married 2 times.
     On 13 October 1772 The London Gazete listed:
Whereas a Commission of Bankrupt is awarded and issued forth against Joseph Bamforth, of Sheffield in the County of York, Grocer, Dealer and Chapman, and he being declared a Bankrupt, is hereby required to surrender himself to the Commissioners in the said Commission named, or the major Part of them, on the 27th and 28th Days of October instant at Two o'Clock in the Afternoon, and on the 28th Day of November next at Eleven o'Clock in the Forenonn, at the House of Mr. SamueJ Glanvill, the Angel in Sheffield aforesaid, and make a full Discovery and Disclosure of his Estate and Effects; when and where the Creditors are to come prepared to prove their Debts, and at the Second Sitting to chuse Assignees, and at the last Sitting the said Bankrupt is required to finisth his Examination, and the Creditors are to affent to or dissent from the Allowance of his Certificate All Persons indebted to the said Bankrupt, or that have any of his Effects; are not to pay or deliver the fame but to whom the Commissioners stiall appoint, but give Notice to Mr. John Hoyland, Attorney at Law, in Sheffield aforesaid.
     It had been previously reported that the wife of Mr Glanville of the Bull Inn Stamford, previously Sheffield, had died.
     In December 1793 he gave notice he was giving over his estate and affairs to Richard Davies merchant of Stamford, and Thomas Smith the younger, merchant.
He had let out the Bull Inn in June 1793 "On account of his long Fatigues in Business, he wishes soon to retire from the Inn, and is ready to treat with Principal for the same."
     Reminiscences of Sheffield
R.E. Leader
Chapter 5
     The coaching system began here in 1760, when the well-known host of the Angel, Samuel Glanville, enterprisingly setup the first stage from Leeds to London, through Sheffield. By 1787 there were five great coach roads, and three subordinate ones. The Tontine Coach (daily except Saturday) ran to London by way of Rotherham, Worksop, Newark, and Grantham. The Mail Coach every morning, and the Heavy Coach every evening from the Angel, went through Chesterfield, Nottingham, and Northampton. To Birmingham, every morning except Sunday, the way was by Chesterfield, Derby, Burton, and Lichfield. Then there were the two north roads, one by Barnsley, Wakefield, and Leeds, a rendezvous where coaches from all parts converged; the other through Penistone, Huddersfield, Catterick, Penrith, to Carlisle. To Doncaster there was a light coach twice a week; but there was a summer service only to Manchester (via Buxton) and to Hull (via Thorne). All of these, except a Tontine " Diligence " to Leeds, and a coach to London, started from the Angel. Ten years later (1797), though the number of coaches had not materially increased, there were then two mails and seven coaches, the service all round was more frequent. The " passage " to London was at first £1 17s; to York, 11s. and 7s; to Leeds, 5s. and 3s; to Birmingham, 8s. and 6s.
     Samuel Glanville's announcement of his pioneer coaching arrangements is an interesting document. It appears in" Ward's Sheffield Public Advertiser " of November 4, 1760:
     " November 2nd. Notice is hereby given that the London, Leeds, Wakefield, Chesterfield, Mansfield, and Nottingham machines on steel springs, in four days, sets off from the Swan With Two Necks Inn, in Lad Lane, London, and from the Old King's Arms Inn, in Leeds, every Monday and Wednesday mornings, at five o'clock; breakfasts at the Angel Inn, in St. Albans; dines at the White Horse Inn, in Hockley; and lies at the Red Lion, at Northampton, the first night, breakfasts at the Three Crowns, in Market Harborough dines at the Bull's Head, in Loughborough; and lies at the Crow Inn, on the Long Row, at Nottingham, the second night breakfasts at the Swan, in Mansfield; dines at the Falcon, in Chesterfield; and lies at the Angel, in Sheffield, the third night; breakfasts at the White Bear, in Barnsley, dines at the Coach and Horses, in Wakefield; and lies at Leeds the fourth night."
     Details of the reverse journey (which are varied only by the substitution of the Blackamoor's Head for the Crown, at Nottingham, and by the last breakfast being at the Saracen's Head, in Newport) are then given, and the advertisement goes on:
     " Passengers and parcels are taken in at the above places. Two places reserved in each coach for Nottingham. Performed, if God permit, by John Handforth, Samuel Glanville, and Wm. Richardson."
     By 1787 the journey, which, in 1760 took three days, was accomplished in twenty-six hours. Leaving Sheffield at 5o'clock one morning, the coach reached London at 7 o'clock the next morning. The last Sheffield mail coach, the" Halifax Mail," did the journey from London to Sheffield in sixteen hours. After this was taken off, a coach called" The Brilliant " enabled its passengers to reach London in twelve hours, but this was only accomplished by connection with a railway train, in which they did part of the journey.
     There is, in the Town Hall, a crayon portrait of Samuel Glanville, drawn by Raphael Smith. It was presented to the Mechanics' Library by Mr. Benjamin Sayle, of Brightside, and came into possession of the Corporation of Sheffield when that institution was taken over, on the establishment of the Free Library. It bears this inscription:
     "Samuel Glanville, born at Exeter about the year 1720;entered early into the army, and was present as a drummer at the Battle of Dettingen. He afterwards came with a recruiting party to Sheffield, and was billeted at the house of Mrs .Smith,* in Church Street; married her, and afterwards kept the Angel Inn, to which house, about the year 1760, he worked the first stage coach from London. He died at Sheffield in 1803."
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* Nee Mary Greaves, widow of George Smith, and grandmother of Mr George Smith, draper (Smith and Ridal), Market Street.
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     Another crayon portrait of Glanville, from the pencil of Chantry, was in the possession of Mr. Charles Ridal, of the firm of Smith and Ridal, Market Street, but when he left the town it was sold by auction, and has not since been traced. The " Iris," whose editor, Mr. Montgomery, spoke of Samuel Glanville as " no mean benefactor to the town," gave a fuller account of his varied career:
     "He was born about 1720, near Exeter; was apprenticed to a surgeon, but entered early in life into the army as a private. In 1741 he came to Sheffield, upon a recruiting party, and married Mrs. Smith, who kept a public house in Church Lane. In the course of time he became master of the Angel Inn, and, about 1760, was a partner in the first stagecoach from Leeds to London. After some years, he retired from the public line to a farm at The Edge, near this town, where he was noticed by Mr. Arthur Young as an excellent agriculturist. But becoming at length weary of agriculture, he returned to his former occupation, and kept an inn at the Cross Keys, Wood Street (London); and some time after removed to the Black Bull, in Stamford. Where he buried his wife, and married a second. Business there, however, not answering his expectations, he came back to Sheffield, and opened a public house at the Hermitage; soon after buried his second wife, and not long after was admitted into the Duke of Norfolk's Hospital, where he found a comfortable asylum during several years. In his early days, and in public life, he was steady, active (the writer of this memoir has seen him carry out three dishes at once on his right arm from a public entertainment), attentive and obliging to his customers cheerful, rational, and intelligent in private conversation; was looked up to with great respect by all his acquaintance; and closed his days with a constant serious attention to the duties of religion."
     While landlord of the Bull, Stamford, Glanville still kept up his connection with Sheffield coaching. Godfrey Fox, who, in 1779, built the Rein Deer Inn at the bottom of Bull Stake (where the Royal Hotel now stands) started in 1783, in combinatlon with others, " A London Diligence on a new establishment, in two days, by way of Newark, Grantham, Stamford, Huntingdon, Ware, etc., to the George Inn, Aldermanbury, London ;" and on both the up and the down journeys, it suppered at Mr. Glanville's, The Bull lnn, Stamford. The fare from Sheffield to London was (allowing 141b. luggage) and parcels ~ were carried at lld. Per pound. The venture does not seem to have been a success, and the Diligence was not long kept on the road.