Borwick’s and Howards’

Two things I always have in my cupboard are baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, so I was interested to come across adverts for both these products in my mum’s copy of Mrs Beeton, and very interested by the fact that the baking powder I have is Borwick’s, and that is the one mentioned in the advert.

The original recipe came from the Reverend John Hudson who passed it to his son-in-law George Borwick on his marriage to daughter Jane. After much experimentation the product was sold from the company of George Borwick and Sons, founded in 1842. By 1851, George and Jane had quite a growing family, Alfred, Charlotte and James Mary, Robert and Sarah. George’s profession is described as dry-salter; in those days before freezers and refrigeration, dry-salting was a valuable and important way of preserving food. Alfred might have been the eldest son but it was Robert who became the chairman of the firm and was made a baronet for his services to British industry. I can’t find out much more about George, he was born in 1807 and died in 1889; he was born in Torquay, but I notice that many Borwicks come from the Orkneys, so maybe that was where his family originated from.

I hadn’t heard of Howard’s Bicarbonate of Soda, and I have struggled to find very much about it at all, except for an advert for Andrew Lawson’s Lime Fruit Juice; Lawson was a ‘dispensing and family chemist’ from Dundee, and in the advert he gives the ingredients of Gingerade Soda and Potass Waters – each bottle contains a ½ scruple of Howard’s Bicarbonate of Soda and Bicarbonate of Potass… a scruple… 1.296 grams.

By a little lateral research I wonder if I have found the company; Howard’s of Ilford was established in 1797, as the advertisement mentions, It seems that Luke Howard and William Allen began working together in the 1790’s producing pharmaceuticals, particularly quinine and aspirin. Allen had previously been associated with Samuel Mildred (I almost deviated into investigating Mildred which we know as a first name but here is a surname) Their pharmacy run by William Allen, was at Plough Court, in London under the management of Allen, but the laboratory was in Plaistow under the direction of Luke Howard. The partnership ended after ten years, but Howard continued manufacturing their products and the firm became Howard and Sons, in business until it was taken over in 1961.

http://borwicks.co.uk/

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