Notable Clothworker: Charles Day

Charles Day was born in 1784, son of a Covent Garden hairdresser. The family was originally from Yorkshire, but Charles’ father came to London to seek his fortune in the late 18th century. Charles often helped in his father’s shop on Tavistock Street, and there struck up a friendship with Benjamin Martin (a journeyman hairdresser, also from Yorkshire).

This portrait of Day (c.1820, artist unknown) hangs at Clothworkers' Hall. A slight squint and enlargement of one eye alludes to his damaged sight.

Together, they discovered a perfect formula for boot blacking; at the time, gleaming black boots and shoes were de rigueur. They began manufacturing ‘Real Japan Blacking’ in the back of the Days’ shop, establishing the firm of Day and Martin. By November 1801, they were advertising their wares in the Morning Post. The pair hit on a cunning marketing ploy. Day recruited 100 men, suited and booted them and sent them to all the suitable shops in London, separately, to purchase a bottle of ‘Day and Martin’s.’ Shopkeepers, after receiving the same request again and again, immediately began ordering significant levels of stock. Business boomed! By 1805, the firm had moved to purpose-built premises at 79 High Holborn. In 1808, Day bought Martin out with a sum of £10,000 (nearly £1 million in current terms). The business continued to thrive under the name ‘Day and Martin’, making Day a staggeringly wealthy young man.

Advertising card for Day and Martin's (after 1870).

Source: Boston Public Library.

However, while successful in business, his private life became complicated. In 1806, Day married Rebecca Peake; their daughter was born in 1808. Unusually for the times, they had no other children. By 1816, age 33, Day was blind – likely due to syphilis. Rebecca’s youngest sister, Susannah, became a close friend and confidante; through her, Day was introduced to a cousin, Sarah Peake, with whom he began a secret relationship. Unbeknownst to Rebecca, Sarah bore Charles a son, Henry, in 1823. Day provided them with a home in Earl Street (now Broadley Street), Marylebone, where they lived with Susannah. He visited regularly. A second son, Alfred, was born in 1824, and a third, Edmund, in 1827. By this time, Day’s second family was living in Seymour Place, less than a mile from Charles and Rebecca’s residence, Harley House. In January 1829, all three boys were baptised, recorded as the children of John and Sarah Price. Although Edmund had already been christened there some 18 months before, there is no recorded query from the parish. Charles visited his children regularly, but his real identity as their father was never revealed to them. Family legend passed down through the generations has it that ‘John Price’, their mythical father, died in 1831. In 1832, probably sensing his time was limited, Day made provision for his sons’ futures – bequeathing bonds of £5,000 each (about £500,000 in current terms) upon his death. The bonds were drafted by his clerk, using forms supplied by solicitors Frederick and Antonine Dufaur. In 1834, he made his final Will, although a number of codicils were subsequently added. Shortly after, Day lost the use of his limbs. In 1836, he began suffering a number of epileptic fits and died in October of that year.

A legal dispute over his Will arose almost immediately. The validity of a controversial fifth codicil to Day’s will, in which the young lawyer Frederick Dufaur was appointed a co-executor (along with a £500 bequest and right to receive commission from the collectionof Day’s rents), was challenged by the executors to the Will. The codicil was declared invalid, but Dufaur appealed the decision. He took the case to the Privy Council, assuming the family would try to make a financial settlement with him for his silence and avoid details of Charles’ secret life being exposed. The family called his bluff, and years of litigation followed. Dufaur’s appeal failed, probate was eventually granted in 1840, and the Court of Chancery subsequently became involved in the administration of the directions in Day’s will. Reports of the snail’s pace of proceedings regularly appeared in The Times, and the published letters of Charles Dickens confirm that thecase was used as justification for Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Bleak House. Dickens wrote in the preface: ‘At the present moment there is a suit before the Court which was commenced nearly twenty years ago; inwhich from thirty to forty counsel have been known to appear at one time; in which costs have been incurred to the amount of seventy thousand pounds…and which is (I am assured) no nearer its termination now than when it begun…’ In 1839, Dickens had moved to Devonshire Terrace, just 100 yards away from Harley House, so it is likely he even knew the surviving Day family. Indeed, many aspects of Day’s life have a resonance with the plot of the novel, with its themes of illegitimacy and the dishonour that went with it. Charles Day’s three sons would have discovered their true identity as their lives were played out in the courts and newspapers, but they were thereaftersworn to secrecy. They were bequeathed enough money to live quiet-but-comfortable lives out of the public eye; none of the 18 children of two of the sons’ marriages knew that their fathers were illegitimate. Only now, following recent research by Neil Price (thegreat-grandson of Day’s middle son, Alfred) has the true story been revealed. However, it is important that this colourful story should not overshadow the legacy of an otherwise important businessman and philanthropist. Of an estate valued (upon his death) at some £450,000 (about £52 million in current terms), Day left more than £194,000 in hisWill to individuals and charities, including an endowment of some £100,000 (at least £10 million in current terms) was set aside toestablish the Blind Man’s Friend, a charity to provide pensions forpoor, blind, or visually impaired persons. The Will also established aseparate trust to manage and maintain a row of alms houses in Edgware,which Day had built in 1828. The charity still continues its good worktoday. The administration of the Blind Man’s Friend (BMF) passed toThe Clothworkers’ Company in 1947, although the offices of the charityhad been moved to Clothworkers’ Hall in 1909. The BMF was by a number oflater Charity Commission schemes amalgamated with similar trusts favouring the blind, and was from 2004 part of the Clothworkers’ Charity for Welfare of the Blind.