Records of George Buckton and Sons Ltd.

This small collection consists of a ledger (1815-48), an account book of the schooner 'George' (1830-41), a stock book for black lead (1860-1921), a lease from 1824 and a building estimate.

George Buckton was the founder of a family business in the nineteenth century. In Baines's Directory for 1823 he was listed as a general merchant, shipping agent and wharfinger. His business was located at 56 High Street, Hull and he lived at 6 Bourne Street. The ledger begins earlier, in 1815, and indicates that George Buckton was very successful; his business turned over thousands of pounds. U DX93/2 is an estimate for building a quay in 1823 (£169 13s 6d) and he seems to have profited out of ownership of this quay. U DX93/4 is the account book of the schooner, 'George', for which he was the agent along with several others. The 'George' was a boat under sail; its owner paid to have it towed out of the Humber under steam. It was mostly employed in the coal run from Newcastle and George Buckton shipped goods back and forth on the boat. It also sailed to Bridlington, Scarborough, Stockton, Sunderland and Whitby. The account book of the 'George' covers the period 1830 to 1841, a time when George Buckton was clearly very wealthy. In 1833 he became one of the first directors of the Hull Banking Company, Hull's first joint stock bank, and, in 1846, he became one of the first directors in the Hull Glass Company. The capital sunk in the latter venture by the directors was £100,000 in 5000 shares of £20 each. George Buckton and Sons carried on into the twentieth century and DX93/5 is a stock account book for black lead which ends in 1921 (Bellamy, 'Some aspects of the economy of Hull', pp.263, 374).

George Buckton & Sons Co. Ltd was bought by the Hutchinson family after the First World War and during the early 1960s the company began to focus on the trade of bird seed and pigeon corn. Cranswick Pet Products bought the company in 1995 and was renamed Bucktons in 2005.

Access will be granted to any accredited reader.

Deposited by George Buckton & Sons Ltd., Hull, Sep 1974

• Baines, Edward, History, Directory and Gazeteer of the county of York, ii (1823; rep. as Baines's Yorkshire, 1969)
• Bellamy, Joyce, 'Some aspects of the economy of Hull in the nineteenth century with special reference to business history' (PhD, Hull, 1965)