CARY

William Cary (1759-1825)

William Cary was the youngest of 4 sons born to George (a malster) and Mary Cary of Corsley in Wiltshire. George, the eldest, became a haberdasher, John became a mapmaker and co-operated with William in making globes, and Francis became an engraver. With the usual relaxed attitude to name spelling of the 18^th century, the Cary name sometimes appears in records as Carey.

After an apprenticeship with Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800), William appears to have opened his business as an optician in London at 177 Strand before 1789, when he appears in the records as a maker of philosophical instruments at 272 Strand. In 1794, his business was at 182 Strand. His instruments were very highly thought of, and surviving examples are of very high quality. He produced a wide range of instruments including microscopes, compasses, theolidites, pantographs, planetariums, sextants and reflecting and refracting telescopes. He was a Charter Member of the Astronomical Society and published meteorological reports in The Gentleman’s Magazine.

John’s business was at 181 Strand, and the globes that the brothers produced together usually bear that address.

In 1820, a fire broke out in the house of a neighbouring shoemaker. It took more than 30 minutes for water to be obtained, by which time the fire had spread to both Cary businesses which were completely destroyed. They lost everything, including William’s collection of pattern tools and models which had taken 35 years to accumulate. They moved both businesses to 86 St James Street, but by 1823, William was back on the Strand at number 277.

William became known for the quality of his astronomical instruments in Europe as well as the United Kingdom. At the beginning of the 1790s, he made a transit circle for the private observatory of Rev Francis Wollaston in Kent, which resulted in him being praised in a paper by Wollaston read at the Royal Society of London in 1793. It was presumably this contact that led to Cary becoming involved in marketing malleable platinum for William Hyde Wollaston at the start of the 19^th century (see John A. Chaldecott’s article in Platinum Metals Rev vol 23 123 for the full story).

When William died on 16^th November 16, 1825, he left bequests to his 3 brothers and his wife, Elizabeth, among others, with the residue of his Estate left to John’s sons, George and John Cary. The nephews continued the business as “William Cary”, moving to 181 Strand in 1928. For a time it was known as “J. Cary”, but reverted to William’s name after his bother John’s death in 1835.

Charles Gould was an experienced instrument maker who had worked for William in the later years of his life, and it has been suggested that after William’s death he managed the business for Cary’s brothers. In 1826, less than a year after William’s death, “Mr C. Gould’s Patent Portable Compound Microscope” was described in the London Mechanic’s Register, where it also said that the microscope was made and sold by Mr Cary of 182 Strand. The initial “pamphlet” describing the microscope developed into the book “The Companion to the Microscope” which appeared in at least 17 editions published by the Cary Company.

Apart from a brief spell between the deaths of William and his brother, John, the company was known by William’s name, even after John’s sons took over. It was renamed as Cary, Porter & Co about 1900.