Marine Store dealer

[radstockjeff]

I have several of these in various parts of our family histories. What sort of dealers would they have been or would this be a "generic" term to include anyone who bought and sold. One document I have suggests that in one case the property was used as a rag and bone merchant yard. Talking mid 1800s onward.

radstockjeff

[Peter Goodey]

A marine store dealer was a junk dealer so rag and bone merchant is spot on..

[Mutley]

A marine store dealer was a junk dealer.

Thanks Peter, I always thought it was a chandlers so it is a good job you replied before I did.

[radstockjeff]

Thanks for the info both of you. I began to think as much when I saw the reference to Rag and Bone Merchant's Yard (This was from a complaint to the local council about the stink!
Adds a bit more colour to the family history!

radstockjeff

[Peter Goodey]

Just to clarify, I was referring to England. Usage of the term in Scotland might be a bit different.

[Coromandel]

'Old iron‥is collected‥by a class of persons calling themselves 'dealers in marine stores'.' (1831 book quoted in OED)

Thanks to Charles Dickens we can take a look inside one such dealer's shop:

'She had stopped at a shop over which was written KROOK, RAG AND BOTTLE WAREHOUSE. Also, in long thin letters, KROOK, DEALER IN MARINE STORES. In one part of the window was a picture of a red paper mill at which a cart was unloading a quantity of sacks of old rags. In another was the inscription BONES BOUGHT. In another, KITCHEN-STUFF BOUGHT. In another, OLD IRON BOUGHT. In another, WASTE-PAPER BOUGHT. In another, LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S WARDROBES BOUGHT. Everything seemed to be bought and nothing to be sold there. In all parts of the window were quantities of dirty bottles - blacking bottles, medicine bottles, ginger-beer and soda-water bottles, pickle bottles, wine bottles, ink bottles . . . There was a little tottering bench of shabby old volumes outside the door, labelled "Law Books, at at 9d." . . . several second-hand bags, blue and red, hanging up . . . heaps of old crackled parchment scrolls . . . rusty keys, of which there must have been hundreds huddled together as old iron . . . litter of rags tumbled partly into and partly out of a one-legged wooden scale . . . bones in a corner, piled together and picked very clean . . .'

(from Bleak House; I have left some bits out as indicated by the '. . . ')

[Coromandel]

The 'Old Bailey Proceedings Online' website is another useful source of insight into old trades.

From the cross-examination of James Deadman of Turnmill Street, witness at an 1824 trial:

Q. What are you?
A. A rag merchant
Q. Do you mean a dealer in marine stores?
A. You may call me so: 'Dealer in marine stores' is written over my door; I call myself a rag merchant: I deal in iron and lead . . .

[LittleSpark]

My gtgrandparents were rag & bone collectors and were shown as Marine Store dealers on one census.
I always wondered what this meant and thanks to BG members have now found out.

Sheila

[Katy]

Thanks for this information. One of my ancestors had a nickname of "Rag and Bone Jones", yet the census returns had marine store dealer. His son was quite prominent in the Ship Industry of Cardiff, but I could never find information regarding the rag and bone bit.