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The King's Laceman and the Bishop's Friend: Bryant Barrett (c. 1715–1790), Merchant and Squire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2015
Abstract
A career in business was one of the few outlets open to Catholics in eighteenth century London, yet among such businessmen only Thomas Mawhood, the Smithfield woollen draper, and the publisher J. P. Coghlan have been studied in any depth. Bryant Barrett, who will be the subject of this article, is in a different category. His contacts with the wider world of Georgian society allowed him to cross boundaries of class and religion, and although he made his considerable fortune by supplying high society with its luxury fashion accessories, his private life was marked by unostentatious piety and a practical Christian ethos inspired in part by his mentor Richard Challoner. Though his two marriages brought him within the fold of the Catholic gentry, and his wealth earned him the status of a country squire, he remained true to his origins.
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References
Notes
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12 D/Ebt A 2/1: entries for 20 April and 29 June 1747.
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