Introduction
Elinor Shipway (née Bird) was the owner of number 40 Friar Street from 1731 until her death in 1760. During her lifetime she outlived two husbands and two sons. This is her story as it relates to Tudor House Museum.
The property that we now know as 40 Friar Street Worcester, that was from ~1615 until 1909 the Cross Keys Tavern and forms part of today’s Tudor House museum, came into the ownership of Thomas and Elinor Shipway in 1731. For over a century the property had been owned by the Cooke family. The Cookes were mainly farmers who, after 1625, rented out their city property. Thomas and Elinor were city folk. For at least part of the 29 years of their ownership resided there. There is also a suggestion that Elinor herself lived there as a child.
Baptism
The first we know of Elinor is from her baptism. This took place in 1694 on the 23rd of December at St Alban’s church, Worcester. Here father was one Georg (without the final “e”) Bird and her mother Mary. This complicates the history somewhat as there are at least two other married couples named Georg and Mary Bird in Worcester at the time. There is also some evidence to suggest that they were all related. For this reason it is not possible with any certainty to determine all of Elinor’s siblings. Neither is it possible to know the exact domestic circumstances of her early life.
Family
Fortunately, we do know from Elinor’s eventual will that she had at least two brothers; Richard and (possibly) John. The parish record for St Helen’s church record Richard son of Georg and Mary Bird being baptised 16th September 1697 and John baptised 1st October 1704. From the same parish records George, son of Georg Bird, is baptised 7th October 1686 and Sarah daughter of Georg and Mary is baptised 11th August 1700.
The records for St Helen’s show that a Georg Bird married a Mary Osburn on 14th July 1683. There being no other record of a Georg Bird marrying a Mary within a Worcester parish then this is our option for her parents’ marriage.
Note these all occur in St Helen’s parish, but that Elinor was baptised in St Alban’s. The most convenient explanation for this would be that in the 3 years between Elinor and Richards’ births the family moved. Of course, St Alban’s might just have been more expedient for the baptism at the time. There appears to have been no rule that you had to baptise you child in the parish you resided in.
Friar Street
It may well be a co-incidence, but none-the-less interesting and intriguing, to discover that the Worcester City pourpresture records have Georg Bird paying 4d for a “sellar head” (right to sell beer) commencing circa 1698. NB Pourpresture means: endeavouring to make private which ought to be public, eg the encroachment onto a public right of way. This individual is recorded as living in St Peters ward – the administrative area wherein Friar Street lay. NB here we are dealing with political not parish boundaries, which not necessarily the same areas even if they do use the same names.
Georg Bird’s immediate neighbours are known to have resided either side of the Cross Keys Tavern. What is more, the property that Georg Bird is stated as being resident in is listed as being “late Welfare”. This means it was previously in the occupancy of a Mr Welfare. Towards the end of the 17th century William Welfare is known to have sold beer from a Tudor House building .
Georg Bird continues to pay his 4d per annum for the right to sell beer up until about 1721. At this point the city pourpresture records get amended to state that “Mary Bird (widow)” takes over. Unfortunately, no pourpresture records survive beyond 1721. So we cannot tell for how long Mary Bird continues or who takes over from her.
It is not unreasonable to postulate that Elinor grew up in what was to become the Cross Keys. It certainly gives one explanation to the Bird family relocating between 1694 and 1698, as they take on the running of a Friar Street pub.