In 1630 the fame of the Burton ale had spread to London, and that excellent liquor was sold at “The Peacock” in Gray’s Inn Lane. In the Spectator of May 20th, 1712, is recorded how the writer and Sir Roger de Coverley visit Vauxhall, where, after inspecting the garden, they concluded their walk “with a glass of Burton ale and a slice of hung beef.”
The history of Burton as a great brewing centre cannot be traced back much beyond 1708, at least so far as export is concerned. When, as the result of an Act passed in 1698, water communication was opened up between Burton and the Baltic ports, the brewers were not slow to take advantage of their opportunities, and in 1748 a considerable export trade had been established, the Russians being by far the best customers. {336} Both Peter the Great and the Empress Catherine were extremely fond of Burton ale. The Empress, indeed, is said to have loved it not wisely but too well. In 1791 there were nine brewers in the town, their names being Bass, Clay, Evans, Leeson, Musgrave, Sherratt, Wilson (two) and Worthington. Previous to the year 1822 Burton ale was better known on the Continent than in England, but about that time the brewers turned their attention to increasing their home trade, and met with marked success. In 1851 the breweries had increased to sixteen, giving employment to 867 men and 61 boys.
The special recommendation of the spring water at Burton consists in the fact that whatever saccharine may be put into it, appears to remain there for any length of time without being chemically injured by those mineral combinations which are generally present in spring water.
Burton of the present day is a city of breweries. Tall chimneys tower on all sides, the smell of new beer pervades the air, great red brick buildings block the way in every direction; engines glide noiselessly about dragging trucks loaded with casks; burly brewers’ men meet you at every corner; it is, in fact, the very home of John Barleycorn. The Breweries of Burton in this present year of grace are thirty in number, and give employment to about eight thousand men and boys.
In a view of Burton-on-Trent, engraved in 1720, is a small brewery, which was then the property of one Benjamin Wilson, the founder of the great firm of S. Allsopp and Sons. Though not the creator of the Burton Beer trade, he was the first to carry on an extensive business as a common brewer, and was, it is believed, the originator of the extensive export trade which Burton carried on during the eighteenth century. Letters of his are still extant, from which it may be gathered that he had established a flourishing trade in Burton ales so early as 1748. His account books show that in 1770 the business done with Russia was an extensive one, and partly carried on by barter.
In 1774, in a letter to Mr. Charles Best, Mr. Wilson writes: “We have already two large Brewhouses Employ’d, and are about to use a third, the whole of which will take all the money I can raise with convenience to myself, beyond which I do not choose to go.” In a letter dated Oct. 23, 1775, from Messrs. B. Wilson & Co. to Messrs. J. D. Newman & Co., St. Petersburg, occur the following interesting passages:—“To people who have the Credit of their own Manufacture and y inseparable Interest of their Friends at Heart, we cannot but feel an accumulated Satisfaction at every additional instance of our Ale proving fine and distinguishing itself, wch, in Justice to its Character, we have ye {337} happiness to say our Friends have universally confirmed. To ye several Queries of yr Letter, we beg leave to acquaint you that tho’ many Merchants from St. Petersburg are supplied with Burton Ale from our House, yet there are many we are not intimately connected with, their orders being transmitted through ye Houses of Hull and London . . . . . The Price of Ale last year at Burton from ye extravagant Price of Grain sold for 17d per Gallon.”
In the order book for 1770 are many entries which appear curious enough to modern readers. Some of the customers order their casks to be cased, i.e., enclosed in a larger cask—a process necessary to prevent the “Gainsboro’ Captains,” as the bargees were called, from “sucking the monkey.” One customer writes: “Send me 24-gallon casks strong ale and let ye casks be iron-hooped at the head.” Another wants “two 14-gallon casks of strong ale by sea” to London, and another “a hogshead by land” also to London, the carriage of which must have been very extensive.
There may possibly be persons still living who recollect an old fellow named Dyche, who was full of information regarding the early history of the Burton Ale trade. He remembered John Wilson well, and described him as a kind, hearty, portly, well-favoured old gentleman, somewhat peppery withal, but never angry without a cause. Dyche’s father worked for Mr. Wilson during forty years as a sawyer, his business being to cut up into staves for the coopers, the timber brought from the Baltic in exchange for ale. At fourteen years of age the younger Dyche was apprenticed to the cooper at the brewery. The commonest ale was then, according to Dyche, as strong as the strongest ale now brewed.
Dyche used to tell how old Benjamin Wilson had two sons, and a daughter renowned far and wide for her beauty. This Miss Wilson became the wife of Mr. James Allsopp, and her son Samuel was father of the Mr. Henry Allsopp, now Lord Hindlip of Hindlip, who for many years was head of the firm.
Benjamin Wilson the younger, having no children, took his nephew Samuel into the business, much against the wish of Mr. James Allsopp, who had intended his son for the church. John Walker Wilson, another son of old Benjamin, also joined the firm, but soon left it and started a brewery (now Worthington’s) on his own account. On the death of Benjamin Wilson the younger, who never married, the business came altogether into the hands of his nephew, Mr. Samuel Allsopp, and was carried on under the style of “Wilson & Allsopp” until 1822, when the name was changed to “Samuel Allsopp & Son.” {338}