6. William White Co. - Later Years
The company of William White continued
to produce new editions of the directories, i.e. brought up to date and
reissued, with the last issues appearing during the 1890s. The later
directories were published in Sheffield under the William White name at Hoole´s
Chambers, Bank Street (originally 10, then 18 & 20) but also by Simpkin,
Marshall & Co. in London. The Preface now usually ends with a printed
signature of W White, and from the 1880s there was a distinctive trade mark
logo. The company advertised a new work in 1892: White´s Hardware Trade
Marks. This contained all the registered marks in use in the hardware
trades in the UK, with the main text edited by Herbert Hughes of Sheffield
Chamber of Commerce.[i] It is about this time that White´s adopted a more systematic alphabetic approach: they were one of the last directory publishers to abandon the Hundred system of organisation.
William White´s Trade Mark Index
(White´s is bottom right) from circa 1878[ii].
In directories published throughout
this time, the company were claiming (in advertisements) that the company was Established
1822, i.e. the year of the Yorkshire directory and the title pages often
refer to previous directories published. Up until the end of the century seven
counties were completely revised under the White company successors, some more
than once, e.g. Devon in 1878 and 1890, or Suffolk three times in 1874, 1885
and 1891. The last county directory was the 1892 fifth edition of Lincoln. Some
city directories appeared until 1895 (Leeds 1894 15th ed., and
Grimsby 1895 8th ed.). The run of directories for Sheffield held at
the Sheffield Central Library and Sheffield Archives shows that that city was
reissued almost every two or three years[iii].
The final edition under the name William White was published in 1896. The
subsequent directories are listed as White´s (Kelly´s) Directory, hence,
in 1901 when the 23rd edition of the Sheffield directory was
published, this was being printed and published by Kelly´s Directories Limited.
At some time between 1885 and 1890 the company became William White Limited,
and the address changed to 9, St. James Row.
White’s Directories, following the
example set by Edward Baines, included a considerable amount of information,
collected and brought together from a wide range of sources. It was so thorough
in its content, and professionally presented, that many of the later
directories followed the design and layout of White´s. His title and style of
directory became popular and were copied from as early as 1845 by imitators;
including some who did not scruple from piracy![iv]
As it was put in his obituary: ‘his works went far beyond a mere catalogue of
names. He made them histories and gazetteers and in terms of style and
condensation he was unequalled[v]’.
As White pointed out in his numerous prefaces, their content was compiled from
the many existing secondary sources: ‘Guidebooks and Local Histories’ of the
largest towns and ‘other places and districts’; ‘personal visits’; and Parliamentary
Reports of Public Charities, Population, Church Benefices, &c. In the Preface
to the 1850 Directory of Devonshire, for example, he (the author) ‘has
to tender his grateful acknowledgements to many literary and official Gentlemen
for the valuable Communications, with which they have furnished him, in
answer to his multifarious enquiries.’
It must also be mentioned that
canvassers also played an important part in information gathering. In the
Preface to Leicestershire with Rutland (1846) White states: Authenticity being the grand requisite of
topography, all possible care has been
taken to avoid errors in the following pages;
every Parish, and almost
every House in
both Counties, has
been visited, and
the information either
collected or verified
on the spot. We know that
White had problems with his own father and brother who had been employed as canvassers
or travellers as early as 1844. He also took another one of his street workers
to court in 1862, Drake had been collecting information from 1856 to 1860 for
White´s. In addition, in many newspapers throughout the 1860s and 1870s White´s
appealed for information concerning changes to addresses or businesses in order
to bring the directories up to date[vi].
The announcement in the Ilfracombe Gazette of Saturday 14th
April, 1877 was probably typical. Under the heading Parracombe, it announces A
NEW DIRECTORY and reports that "A representative of the publishing house of Mr
William White, Sheffield, has been staying here during the last three weeks
collecting information for a Directory of Devonshire to be shortly
published" (this would be the second edition of 1878).
The Preface always included an
exhaustive list of sources used for the historical section. William also referred to
the number of subscribers to the work (nearly 3000 in 1850 for
the Devon volume). For historians of the present day the various directories
and gazetteers serve as sources of local information which is difficult, if not
impossible, to obtain from one single source.
Care must still be taken, however: Gareth Shaw calculated that while Baines's
1823 Lancashire directory has 70 per cent of the households in very large
towns, only six per cent of those in small villages are recorded. Even White's
directory of Exeter of 1890 includes only 65 per cent of the households[vii].
Although absorbed into the Kelly empire, the
name of White´s continued to be used until 1930, a testimony to the regard
shown for these directories, despite the fact that they were far from national.[viii]
The Sheffield directory maintained its old spine title (and colour) until
1919.
Spine title
of White´s Sheffield Directory 1915 but published by Kelly & Co.
Image courtesy of William Whiteley & Sons Ltd. Unit 1
Lakeside, Rother Valley Way, Sheffield, S20 3RW and taken from their website,
November 2025.
William White´s Directories:
Click the entry below to access relevant page.
1. Early Years - William White and Edward Baines
2. William White & Co.
3. Rivalry and Family Feud
4. Francis White
5. Maps
6. William White Co. - Later Years
Appendix I. Description of the maps in the Directory of Yorkshire (Baines)
Appendix II. Description of the maps in the Directory of Lancashire (Baines)
Appendix III. Description of the maps in the Directory of Durham and Northumberland (White & Parson, White 1)
Appendix IV. Maps used by White´s from 1832 onwards.
White 2 - Cumberland & Westmorland
White 3 - Nottinghamshire
White 4 - Staffordshire
White 5 - Norfolk
White 6 - Yorkshire (later editions)
White 7 - Lincoln
White 8 - Suffolk
White 9 - Leicestershire with Rutland
White 10 - Essex
White 11 - Devonshire
White 12 - Hampshire with Isle of Wight
White´s city directories
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