The Oylers and Spitalfields

 

Photo from Spitalfields Market.

Historic Spitalfields Market has been a trading site in London since the 1600s. Various generations of the Oyler family have sold produce at the old market from the mid 1800s. While my own connection to this branch of the family is distant, I know there are others out there who are more recent descendants from Thomas Pettit Oyler and his heirs. There's a great photo from 1910 showing the name Potter Oyler on the outside of Spitalfields Market (I don't have the digital rights to post it on the blog), and it looks like there was a Potter Oyler Ltd operating at Spitalfields up to 1990.

Thomas Pettit Oyler married Elizabeth Potter in Kent in 1817. They had at five daughters - Caroline, Mary, Frances Matilda, Elisabeth, and Harriet - and one son Potter Samuel Oyler. Thomas and Elizabeth moved from Kent to Shoreditch in the early 1830s. Elizabeth died in 1840, and Thomas in 1842.

Potter Samuel Oyler was born in 1821 in Sandhurst, Kent. In 1841, he married Mary Ann Hales, the granddaughter of a grocer, in Shoreditch, and they had nine children. Potter and family appear in the 1851 England Census, living at 8 Fashion Street in Spitalfields.

Ancestry. 1851 England Census.

By 1861, the family was at 33 and 34 Commercial Street, and Potter is listed as a fruit salesman. His oldest sons, Thomas P. and George Oyler, ages 15 and 13, are listed as assistant salesmen. They would later take over the business with their mother after Potter's death in 1868 (for a copy of the will of Potter Samuel Oyler and Mary Ann Hales Oyler, see this page on Rootsweb posted by a descendant of Thomas Pettit Oyler).

Ancestry. 1861 England Census.

The Standard. 28 Mar 1871.

In the 1871 England Census, Mary Ann is listed at 27 Commercial Street in Spitalfields as a fruit saleswoman with her children.

Ancestry. 1871 England Census.

The Oylers invested in property, and according to the survey of London, in 1879 Thomas P. and brother George Oyler built St. James' Chambers a dormitory house that had 420 lodgers. In 1880, they rebuilt 199 and 201 Poplar High Street, and later 203-207 Poplar High Street. Mary Ann Oyler died in 1886, her daughters married fruit salesmen from the area near Spitalfields. One son William operated the Bridge House tavern.

Thomas Potter and George, operating as "T. and G. Oyler" appear in the England newspapers with various interests, from owning The Swan pub on Great Dover street, a fruit business at Spitalfields Market, and sourcing fruit and produce from Kent and other locations. It looks like the building where the Swan pub was located no longer exists, but The Roebuck is a historic pub nearby that could be worth a visit.

A cool item is this photo of an old market token labeled P. Oyler, Spitalfields. According to a Google search, the tokens were used by wholesalers and retailers to track deposits on returned containers and work done by porters. The tokens served as a receipt and prevented fraud.

Source: eBay.

Branches of the family descending from George Oyler carried on the family business and maintained a connection to Spitalfields Market into recent decades. This is a fascinating bit of history and I'll try to check out the Spitalfields Market area when I'm in London again next month.