Stonemason?

[Somerset Sal]

Does anyone know anything about the work of stone masons in London? My gt gt g'pa came over from Ireland sometime in the 1850s and spent the rest of his life living in the St Marylebone area of London. He's variously described as a stone mason or a marble-polisher.

If he'd been in the East End I'd have assumed he was working on the docks. But he's on the wrong side of London.

Any thoughts, anyone?

[Darksecretz]

Not sure Sal , but we have a section about this in our wiki (click link below)

Stonemasons - Family Tree Forum

[Somerset Sal]

Thank you for this! I'm still finding my way around this site.

[Darksecretz]

no problems..

the link on that page to the 'worshipful company members' might be able to help you further.

[Jac]

Mostly I think they worked on buildings and as what we probably now call monumental masons, making grave stones. I have stonemasons in one of my lines and apparently they worked in Brighton on all the fancy stonework there.This has yet to be proved
My stonemasons lived in Battersea and Fulham

[Jill on the A272]

I've got one who's first found in Wales in 1861 in a family who were stone masons & marble polishers, by his marriage in 1869 and following census entries he is in London as a sculptor - gravestones immediately came to mind as there are so many extravagant Victorian examples about.

[Macbev]

I have a relative...William Albert Pinker....who was foreman mason at the British Museum. He was technical adviser to five successive keepers of the Greek and Roman antiquities. "Although he had passed the age for retirement," the secretary of the museum told a Daily Mail reporter, "he was kept at work because of his uncommon knowledge of every stone and sculpture in the collection.
"He superintended the moving and handling of ancient stone and marble work and the taking up of mosaic floors and putting them into position. His work required a delicate touch as well as an expert technical familiarity with masonry." William received an O.B.E for his service, the day before he died.

His brother James, also a mason, worked with him at the Museum.

Most of the Pinker family were masons, stone sawyers and quarrymen and involved in a variety of projects like the building of the Brunel Tunnel at Box, Wilts.

[greybird]

My grandfather was a stonemason in Cornwall. He moved to S Wales looking for work and did building work in the coal mines. After an injury he moved to Kingston-upon -Thames where he did general building work, including the highest part of the Guildhall, Kingston. he also had contacts with monumental masons in Kingston. I think if they were trained in stone masonry, they could probably do any kind of building work

[Somerset Sal]

Thank you for these thoughts. I'd wondered about building projects, but I hadn't thought of grave stones... interesting...

[Vicky the Viking]

I have 2 stonemasons - father & son - living in London (Lambeth then Chelsea) from the 1860's onwards. I also wondered about what sort of work they did. My dad told me the younger (his grandfather) worked on Liverpool Cathedral. Haven't managed to prove this yet. Census info variously describes him as master mason or stone & marble carver.
My mum did give me a letter that she had kept, sent by her granny-in-law not long after I was born. In the letter she remarked on my mum getting married in a register office and commented that she herself was married in a church her husband had worked on - St Andrews in Battersea (they married in 1889). So I do know that he wasn't just cutting paving stones or making headstones.

He, and his sister, both have very nice gravestones & I wondered whether they were done by someone who knew them.

[salty]

A lot of buildings were worked on by stone masons even though they didn't do carving, the likes of st Pauls cathedral was built by stone masons as opposed to bricklayers,the carving was done by the expert stone masons top of their trade.