William Worth

William Worth

1789-1878

One of the leading lawyers in Bourne for a short spell during the early 19th century was William Worth although his reputation has become little more than a footnote to the career of his son Charles who, by the accident of his father's profligacy, left home when still a boy and achieved international fame in France.

Although a successful solicitor, he had a flamboyant and irresponsible lifestyle, notably gambling, drinking and a penchant for speculative investments, all of which contributed to his downfall.

He was the son of William Worth (1737-1812) who originated from Horbling near Bourne, and married Ann Tyler there on 3rd July 1788. Their son, named William after his father, was born at Horbling, near Bourne, and baptised there on 18th September 1789. The couple also had another son called Henry and a daughter, Elizabeth.

William senior began his legal career as an articled clerk in the offices of B Smith and Company, solicitors, at Horbling, where he was engaged on various duties such as collecting rents, attending drainage, turnpike and charities meetings and serving as deputy steward for sundry copyhold manors. By 1780, he had become managing clerk, a post he held for fifteen years, but was replaced by Benjamin Smith, junior, (1776-1858) when he returned from a spell working in London.

When Benjamin Smith, senior, died in 1807, Worth was made a quarter partner and when he died in 1812, aged 75, William Worth, junior, who was also working for the firm by that time but in a less responsible capacity, succeeded his father after being offered the same terms. But his relations with Benjamin Smith were troubled from the outset because of his bad habits.

Benjamin Smith kept diaries that record occasional glimpses of his conduct. On 12th May 1813, he wrote that William had become extremely drunk while attending the Folkingham fair when he lost all of his money and somehow ended up in Edinburgh from where he was rescued by his brother Henry who brought him back to Bourne where he was reinstated. By 1817, Smith was complaining bitterly about Worth's conduct, particularly his drinking, and in October the partnership was, as advertised in the London Gazette, dissolved. The two settled, Worth remaining with the firm but simply as a clerk. They did work together for a further year, apparently without any major disruption, until mid-November 1818 when Worth expressed a desire to leave Horbling and Smith recorded in his diary: "I wish he was gone."

Similarly, he wrote on December 13th: "Note this morning from WW that he wished to leave me which I am glad of and wish was done." Worth applied for a position in London which did not materialise and then after some discussion about going to the firm's Donington office, the two had a serious argument and Smith demanded the keys of the office, effectively ending his association with the firm.

Although the friction between Smith and Worth hardly produced a congenial work environment, the accounts show that the firm prospered during their association and indeed, it was this association that built up a new office facility. An improved setting, better bookkeeping and more efficient modes of transport, reflected the firm's graduation from a parochial and provincial firm to one which embraced business in both Lincolnshire and London.

Worth sold up his house at Horbling and in 1820 moved to Bourne to set up in practice. He had married a local girl, Ann Quincey, on 2nd December 1816, and they later moved into a large house with room for his law offices which he had built in North Street, known today as Wake House, between 1821 and 1824. Money does not appear to have been a problem at this time because we know that he soon had a prosperous practice with offices in both Bourne and Folkingham which was offering substantial mortgages from wealthy clients and so he had access to unlimited funds and he was also one of the subscribers to build the new Town Hall in Bourne with a donation of five guineas [over £400 at today's values].

The couple had five children, William (1819), Harriet (1821), Sarah (1824) and Charles (1824) who died in infancy followed by another son, Charles Frederick, who was born on 13th October 1825 when the couple followed the practice that was usual at the time of giving him the same name and he was destined to become the Charles Worth of fashion history.

William Worth is mentioned as the legal adviser in many of the land and property transactions taking place in Bourne at that time. But his extravagant lifestyle continued and despite matrimony, he did not mend his ways and as the drinking, gambling and bad investments continued, the debts piled up.

In addition to his personal problems, he also suffered a major set back to his professional career when his law books were stolen by burglars. They broke into his offices in North Street on Saturday 8th December 1821 and removed a large collection of volumes dealing with various subjects relating to legal procedures which were invaluable in the running of his law practice including wills, the payment of bills, patents, court procedures, mortgages, auctions, annuities, bankruptcy, and conveyancing. The thieves were never caught.

Worth also made many enemies, among them Benjamin Ferraby, a veterinary surgeon, of West Street, Bourne, who attacked him on 7th September 1832. The cause of the acrimony is not known but as a result of the incident, Ferraby was indicted at the Kesteven Assizes held at the Town Hall on Tuesday 16th October when he was convicted of assault, fined 40s. and imprisoned at the House of Correction at Folkingham for six weeks.

Worth's precarious lifestyle continued, his extravagance and wayward conduct eventually driving him into bankruptcy. He finally deserted his wife and children in 1836 after his affairs collapsed, leaving them homeless and destitute, and in desperation, Mrs Worth sought help from wealthy relatives living at Billingborough who employed her as a housekeeper.

Charles had been forced to leave school at the age of 11 and after an unhappy spell as a printer's apprentice, he went to work at a local linen shop to help earn his keep and often delighted the ladies of the village by making them intricate lace caps. It was eventually arranged that he should go to London and be apprenticed to a draper and he was put on a stagecoach to the capital to start the new life that eventually brought him international fame.

In later years, William Worth made an attempt to contact Charles but the approach was rebuffed and they never met or spoke again. His exact whereabouts after leaving Bourne are a mystery. The house had been heavily mortgaged and the mortgagee may well have been William Brown Darwin, a wealthy landowner of Elston Hall, Nottinghamshire, a nephew of the celebrated Charles Darwin, because ownership reverted to him and he leased it to a Spalding solicitor, Gervase William Willders, who had taken over Worth's practice four years before but when Darwin died in June 1841 he bought the property. Willders himself died in 1853 and the house was purchased by the solicitor Mr Stephen Andrews.

Charles Worth, who had been born there, had gone on to an illustrious career in international fashion and a happy family life in France where he died in 1895. He had become one of the richest men in Paris, awarded the country's highest accolade, the Legion of Honour, and the president of the republic was among the 2,000 people who attended his funeral. Little however is known of his father's later years. William Worth came back to Lincolnshire and lived for a while at Horbling where he again practised as a solicitor but he eventually retired and moved to Billingborough where he died on 12th November 1878, aged 89, and is buried in Horbling churchyard.

Ann Worth died at Highgate, London on 3rd September 1852, aged 59, from
sub-acute gastritis and is buried in Highgate cemetery. It has also been established that her name was simply Ann, and not Mary Ann as has been believed, the name used Charles Worth’s biographer, Diana de Marly*, which has been widely copied. Her address on the death certificate is given as North Road, Highgate, and it has been suggested that perhaps she had recently returned to England after attending the wedding of her son, Charles, who was then working for Gagelin and Opigez in Paris, the leading fashion fabric retailers of the day, where he met Marie Augustine Vernet, an attractive sales girl, who became his bride. They were both 26.

The grave of Ann Worth was finally located in Highgate Cemetery in November 2014 by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery who cut away the dense undergrowth to reveal a single stone bearing her name and date of death and located close to that of the Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens, and his family. The inscription reads: "In memory of Mrs Ann Worth, formerly of Bourne, Lincolnshire, who died in Highgate 3rd September 1852, aged 59."
Descendant Paul Quincey who had sought held from the Friends while researching his great aunt's death, then placed some flowers on the tombstone as a reminder that she had not been forgotten by the family. "Highgate cemetery was never a cheap place to be buried", said Paul, "and the grave is substantial so I think this indicates that Ann Worth did not end her life poor and neglected as was previously suspected although how she lived between 1836 and 1852 remains a mystery."

* Worth: Father of Haute Couture, Batsford, 1980.

REVISED NOVEMBER 2014