Birmingham Button Box: Joseph Green's Suit

Joseph Green in a formal jacket with smart buttons.
Copy held at V&A.

Several years ago I wrote about Portugal House, which was a grand house on New Street, built by Joseph Green. Green was a fashionable dandy, referred to as 'Beau Green', and I was recently informed that a suit of his formal clothes are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, complete with a fine set of metal buttons, which were possibly made in Birmingham (see below). The suit was probably worn in the late 1770s, and looks very similar to the one Green is wearing in a portrait of him (above).

Detail of buttons, from Joseph Green's coat. V&A.

Front of Joseph Green's coat. To see more
details of the suit on the V&A site, click here.

Joseph Green had married an heiress, Elizabeth Cotton, in 1776, whose family were of Etwall Hall in Derbyshire (Etwall here).* Green was described as of 'St. Philip's Birmingham' and the couple moved to Birmingham after the marriage, where Green had recently built his fine town house, Portugal House. Green had made his own fortune selling Portugal wine, hence the name of his home, some of the business possibly being inherited from his uncle, another Joseph, who was a victualler (an early name for an alcohol seller).

Joseph and Elizabeth had five children, the eldest inheriting Etwall Hall.** Green went bankrupt in 1799, and he seems to have left Birmingham at this time, and moved to Derbyshire. He died 28 January 1810 and was flamboyant to the end with the unusual description of his funeral procession in his will:

It is my will & desire that my Body may be deposited in Etwall Church yard in a Vault, near to the Comunion [sic] opposite to the Gate that leads to the Village, & that a plain stone be placed within the Church to be engrav’d thereon the arms, as on my Gold Seal, with a few lines to my memory, & that my Body be carried to the Churchyard in a Hears [sic], & only one mourning coach, to be carried to be interd [sic], by six of the Poor men of the Hospital, in their Gounds [sic]

He bequeathed the gold seal mentioned to his eldest son, along with portraits of his parents and 'all the family writings'.* Green was buried in the vault he described, which was discovered by accident this year (2019) at St. Helen's church in Etwall (see BBC news site here).***

Elizabeth later applied so that her children could take the Cotton name, which she achieved in 1820. She died in 1833 and was probably buried in the same vault as her husband.

Portrait of Joseph Green, owned by the family.
With thanks to Sarah Kimbell.

You can also find out about some Green's role in Birmingham's Theatre Royal - here.

NOTES
**Elizabeth's older brother, William, was described as a 'lunatic' by Joseph Green in his will, which probably explains why his sister and her children inherited the estate. 
***Joseph Green's coffin, discovered by accident in 2019, states that he was born in 1737.
* Joseph Green and Elizabeth Cotton married 12 August 1776 at Mucklestone, Staffordshire; will of Joseph Green, 1767, Dioceses Of Lichfield And Coventry Wills And Probate 1521-1860; will of Joseph Green, 1810, Dioceses Of Lichfield And Coventry Wills And Probate 1521-1860; Rag Castle

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.29: The Battle of the Theatres (New Street)

The Theatre on New Street on fire in 1792, produced by W. Pursall of
Dale End.

I haven't explored the Theatre much on this blog yet, one of the most prominent and admired buildings in the town, so thought that I might introduce it now: ablaze. After several unsuccessful attempts to set the Theatre alight, 'the inhabitants of Birmingham were alarmed by the cry of Fire!'* in the early hours of the morning of 17 August 1792. Within a short time of discovery, the whole building was engulfed and completely destroyed by the fire, all apart from the elegant stone facade which remained for another 100 years.

There were two theatres in Birmingham from the mid 1770s, the King Street Theatre, opened in 1752, and the New Street interloper, opened by the old manager of King Street, actor Richard Yates. Both venues battled with the other for primacy and to become 'the Theatre'. In 1774 when the New Street Theatre opened, the one on King Street was enlarged and 'beautified', but beautifying was not the only tool in the battle of the theatres, there was much criticism of the kind of performances put on to attract poorer spectators at reduced rates and paying workers in theatre tickets to keep down expenses.* Neither theatre had the royal license required for holding plays, but found ways around that barrier, usually by surreptitiously inserting plays as 'interludes' between musical concerts. Attempts to obtain licenses were blocked by some, such as many in the Society of Friends, and the Evangelical minister Rev. John Parsons who believed the theatre 'productive of idleness and dissipation'. Much criticism seemed to surround the idea that the industrious workers would neglect their duties to go to the theatre instead.

The New Street Theatre attempted to get a license in 1777,** promising critics that 'rope dancing, tumbling [and] puppet shows' would cease (the root of all evil, as we all know) and that the season would be limited to within June and September only, the London off-season. This bid was backed by Matthew Boulton who felt that theatrical performances produced by a single licensed theatre-house would improve the manners of the working people of the town and:

'prevent them from relapsing into the barbarous amusements which prevailed in this neighbourhood in the last century [...] Their diversions were bull baiting, cock fightings, boxing matches and abominable drunkenness [...] But now the scene has changed. The people are more refined and civilized, and the taste of their manufactures much improved.'

If Birmingham could be seen as a more 'refined and civilized' place, this of course meant that merchants like Boulton could promote their high quality goods more easily to widening middle class markets, and it would also attract more tourism to the town, and to manufactories like Boulton's at Soho. The entreaty fell flat though, and in the June of 1777 continuing rivalry meant that both theatres were closed by the magistrates until the summer of 1779. Those that wished for the return of plays met at the Old Cross in January 1778 and decided that one licensed theatre was preferable to two unlicensed ones, the New Street playhouse being preferred. In 1780 the New Street Theatre finally built the new facade designed by Samuel Wyatt that had been discussed since before the theatres were closed as well as adding a 'publick Coffee Room', which by the year of the fire had become the Shakespeare Tavern and a number of houses on the land of the theatre for added revenue.* The theatre, with its new facade, was described as 'the most elegant and certainly the best theatre for summer performances of any in this kingdom'.* It seems to be an attempt to win critics over with architecture; classical styling promoted theatre as an intellectual and civilised pursuit. The New Street Theatre tried to promote this idea by accommodating travelling lectures on science, fundraising for the Sunday Schools and putting on patriotic plays during the American War of Independence.

The end of the rivalry came in 1786 when the King Street Theatre finally closed; the town could not support two theatres, and New Street had won the battle for survival, simply becoming the 'Theatre'; though it did not obtain its license till 1807, thus becoming the Theatre Royal. So, it was not the rivalry that caused the fire in 1792, but, theatre as a leisure pursuit was still frowned upon by many and it was generally thought that the fire was a radical attempt to erase the playhouse and all its supposed negative influence from the streets of Birmingham once and for all. The plan failed, and by popular demand and with the help of the theatre-going public the Theatre reopened in June 1795. It had been  rebuilt by George Saunders of London and Charles Norton of the Cresent in Birmingham, though retaining Samuel Wyatt's 1780 facade; and I will be taking you inside this theatre in a forthcoming post.

Focus on the Illustration


Next door to the Theatre was Portugal House, above, Joseph Green's splendid home. Here you can see his furniture piled outside the front, presumably with Mr. Green himself, the renowned dandy, standing in the doorway. His house did not catch fire. ~
The following sections depict: 1) a man holding a hose directing water at the theatre, 2) armed guards patrolling outside Mr. Green's house (perhaps his servants), 3) an unknown 'event'; perhaps those who consumed this image after its production were aware of what this section was depicting, but the meaning seems now lost, and 4) part of the crowd of spectators.

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2.

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NOTES
External Links: eighteenth century theatre
* References on request
** King Street also, unsuccessfully, applied for a license in 1778