Thomas Goulding dies; Richard Wood takes over

(1747 - 1836)

 

Richard Wood was apprenticed to his uncle John on 6th February 1761, but was only 18 when John died, so the business was run by Thomas Goulding.

 

Thomas however died young and Richard not only took over the business but also his wife!  Ann was, in addition, his first cousin John's daughter.

 

Richard obviously valued the Goulding name because for some time his scale labels stated 'Richard Wood (late Goulding)'.

 

In 1802, the partnership between two London scalemakers Charles DeGrave and John Sawgood was dissolved by mutual consent, and Richard Wood together with two suppliers to the trade took over the debts of the business.  DeGrave later came back into the scalemaking trade and was one of the firms that became part of the Avery scale business.  However Sawgood appears to have fallen on hard times.  In 1825 his 19 year old son Thomas John Sawgood was sentenced to 7 years transportation for stealing a quantity of meat.  After serving 4 years of his sentence on board the prison hulk Ganymede, his father petitioned for clemency, the grounds being that he was ‘old and blind and relies on son to work for him, has brought up son to be honest and dutiful, 'got in with bad lot' and was drunk when committed crime, has served 4 years, no previous offence, mother destitute without him'. It seems the petition was successful and Thomas Sawgood was released.

Richard and Ann's two children both died in infancy, so the business was taken over by his nephew Robert.