In June 1791, James Pursey of Chard, Somerset, posted the following ad in the Bath Chronicle:
(A post-chaise was a closed four-wheeled horse-drawn coach used as a rapid means for transporting mail and passengers in the 18th and 19th centuries.)
He seemed to be a wealthy man, certainly an entrepreneur and although I cannot link him with any other Pursey line, I believe he provided employment for many of the wider Pursey family.
For example, the 1841 census list John Pursey (wife Hannah Bull*) as an ostler. (An ostler is someone employed to look after the horses of people staying at an inn.) John’s brother George, living North Petherton was likewise and Ostler.
John’s son William was a coach smith, living with wife Eleanor and son John George in Marylebone, London in 1851. [Eleanor was William’s cousin – the daughter of George above.] Another son Thomas was a coach trimmer, living in Market Street, Paddington, London with wife Margaret and their children. Other sons Robert and James were harness-makers.
John had a brother Thomas b 1802, Pitminster, Somerset. He is likely to be the coach trimmer who had brushes with the debtor’s court in 1832, 1837 and 1846.
* Originally, I’d thought he’d married Hannah Vickery. However, these two married in 1804
