| Repository | Archives |
| Reference Number | P/SOU |
| Level | Fonds |
| Title | Records of the Soutter Family, Lower Shadwell, Ship-owners |
| Date(s) | 1771-1920s |
| Description | Correspondence and notes, and also diaries of Richard Coombes Soutter, 1816-1865.
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CATALOGUE STATUS: The following deposit is currently uncatalogued, however a box list is available in this description:
Accession reference: TH/10685:
Accounts, diaries, correspondence both business and family. Also family history research relating to Soutter, Johnstone and other families.
This deposit is uncatalogued, however a box list is available in this description. Please contact staff to arrange access to view items by appointment.
Box 1: account books 1810s-1860s (4 volumes), annual diaries 1857-1860, 1862-1865 (8 volumes)
Box 2: Letters relating to family and business [unsorted], business cards including R C Soutter (late R & R Soutter), 'packing, tarpauling, cotton and linen, coil cloth manufacturer, hessians, bags, sackings etc' of 114/117 Broad Street, Ratcliff.
Also business agreements as follows: Copy deed of indemnity, 12 Dec 1832, Mrs S Moates and Mr R C Soutter to Messrs Lachlan and Masters - upon Mrs Moates transferring her interests in the business to R C, R H and S Soutter; Copy articles of agreement R C Soutter, R H Soutter and Samuel Soutter, 1836; deed of dissolution of copartnership between Mssrs R C, R H and S Soutter, 1839; Peach v Pigou Chancery Court case papers, 1839-1877; papers relating to shipping cargo; family death notices, bills and rate payments Hamlet of Ratcliff; papers of H O Soutter, 1900s.
Box 3:
Johnstone family history notes (Johnstone of Annandale, Scotland) - letters and research papers. Includes letters to Mrs E J Morgan. Covers mainly 1870s-1920s.
Box 4:
Letters relating to family and business [in sub-box, unsorted]
Loose account papers, birth and death certificates to c 1904, promissory notes. Also business receipts receiving goods, 1810s-1860s
Outgoing wetcopy letters of R C Soutter, 1840s-1850s
Box 5:
Letters relating to family and business [in sub-box, unsorted]
Loose letters mainly of Mrs Mary Soutter of 2 Tredegar Square, Bow and Mrs Webster of Teversal, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, 1840s
Peach v Martineau Chancery judgement, 1877, 1 document
Henry O Soutter of 38 Parliament Square, relating to Annandale, 1879
Copy of ship mate's account of the barque 'Graham' Hudsons Bay Company, 1849
School notebook
Note book of Soutter family history and business notes, to 1840s, 1 volume
Notebooks (c4 volumes) and loose parts/pages from notebooks on Johnstone family history in Scotland |
| Extent | 11 files and 14 volumes; 5 boxes |
| AdminHistory | Richard Soutter lived at at 49 Lower Shadwell. Mary later lived at Tredegar Square, 3 Cottage Grove, Mile End Road.
Directories:
1835: Richard Combes Soutter, sail-maker, ship-chandler and tarpaulin manufacturer, 49 Lower Shadwell
1845: Richard and Robert Soutter, sail-makers, 49 Lower Shadwell; Samuel and Company, ship-owners, 44 Lower Shadwell
1857: Richard and Robert Soutter, tarpaulin maker, 49 Lower Shadwell; Christian Moates Soutter, ship-owner, 44 Lower Shadwell
1859: Richard and Robert Soutter not listed; Christian Moates Soutter, ship-owner, 44 Lower Shadwell
During the 1850s Richard Coombes Soutter was of 16 Tredegar Place, Bow and 49 Lower Shadwell, sail and ship chandler. He later moved to 25 Aberdeen Park, Highbury and 114-117 Cock Hill, Ratcliff East. |
| RelatedMaterial | Stride and Son, auction house, sold a related archive of letters, documents, diaries, ephemera and photographs relating to Commander James Cantrell Johnstone Soutter (2 boxes). Lot 530, Auction Date: 13 November 2024.
According to the Auction House, 'Soutter was born in 1885, appointed Senior Lieutenant on the cruiser Amethyst: in 1915 Amethyst was attacked and 22 of her crew were killed. In helping steer the damaged cruiser, Soutter was mentioned in dispatches and promoted to Lieutenant Commander, later seeing action at Jutland. In 1928 he was subjected to a court martial for having negligently or by default hazarded Tourmaline and Splendid. The charge was proven and he was severely reprimanded. He continued to serve and during WWII was appointed in command of the armed yacht Evadne. The archive records many of the events in Soutter's life, including accounts of his activities in both world wars as well as his court martial.'
Please contact Stride and Son (https://www.stridesauctions.co.uk/) for further details.
Dominic Winter Auctions, auction house, sold a further related archive of family papers.
Lot 318 in Printed Books, Maps & Decorative Prints, Autographs & Ephemera, Postcards & Records
Date: 23 July 2025
Mainly family papers including correspondence of H O Soutter of Fairfield, Edenbridge, Kent and of Commander James Cantrell Johnstone (Johnstone) Soutter RN of Lees Court, Faversham, Kent. With diaries, family photographs and cuttings. Family history notes relating to the Johnstone family (of Annandale, Scotland) and Coombes family of Shadwell.
Records from this Lot donatedto Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives during 2025-26 as accession reference TH/10685. |
| Subject | Shadwell |
| Shipbuilding history in Tower Hamlets |
| Shipping lines and companies |
| Access Status | Open |
| Request | NO - This material is not orderable. Please see access restrictions for further details. |
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