Registered design number: 152426.
Proprietor: A W Digby and Company, London Ink Manufacturers.
Address: 8 Church Passage, London.
Subject: [Not given in BT 44/7].
Class 3: glass
Alfred Wyatt Digby, born 1831, Maldon Essex, son of George Wyatt Digby. Died 1901, Rochford Essex
In the 1851 Census Alfred W Digby was a lodger along with a George E Digby (b. 1829/30) at 1 Forest Row, Saint Johns Hackney, Middlesex. Arthur is a Printer Apprentice and George is a Solicitor But Employed As A Solicitors Managing Clerk. Both are born Maldon, Essex.
In the 1861 Census he was listed at 90, Chancery Lane, Liberty of the Rolls, Strand, London as age 29, unmarried, a Stationer Employing 3 Men And 2 Boys, born Maldon, Essex. He married later in 1861 - his wife was just 16, he was 29.
Presumably his
Ink Manufacturer description on the RD entry ties in with this period of his life. As a Stationer he would sell Ink, and presumably Ink Wells etc as well.
By the 1871 Census he was listed at 87 Chancery Lane, Liberty of the Rolls, Strand, London as aged 39, married with three children and now employed as a solicitors' articled clerk.
By the 1881 Census he was listed at Gentlemen's Row, Enfield, Edmonton, Middlesex and is a solicitor, aged 48 and a widower.
In the 1891 Census we find him at Ambleside, York Road, Prittlewell, Rochford, Essex aged 59, a solicitor, and remarried to his housekeeper from the 1881 Census who 30 years younger than him.
And finally in 1901 he is at 51, Queens Road, Prittlewell, Rochford, Essex, aged 69, still a solicitor.
An entry in the London Gazette dated 21 Feb 1879 gives reference in a winding up petition for another firm to
"the offices of my Solicitors, Messrs. Digby and Jones, situate at Nos. 7 and 8, Church-passage, Chancery-lane, in the city of London".
so the address on the Design registration is that of the solicitors' office it seems.
The bit below seems to refer to his father...
George Wyatt Digby of 7 and 8 Church Passage, Chancery Lane (Middlesex), gentleman [solicitor] ... described as "of the United States of America... late of Maldon";
Apparently George Wyatt Digby emigrated to the USA
"following the discovery of malpractice by his firm"
in a record which also mentions
A.W.Digby's share in the Milton Hall Estate
https://secureweb1.essexcc.gov.uk/SeaxPAM/ViewCatalogue.aspx?ID=752127They sound like an interesting family... I found more newspaper articles about them in the archive. One of them , another solicitor (I think the son of the aforementioned George E Digby) shot himself fatally in his Chambers!
From a glass point of view there is no indication of who made the inkwells for AW Digby. He only seems to have registered this one design.