THE
FIRST LADY EDITOR
This was
the first Harvey's eldest daughter. Elizabeth Berrow, then
aged 27. She took over the management of the business and
continued for two years until her marriage in 1779 to John
Tymbs, and it was his name thereafter that appeared in
the imprint as the publisher. John Tymbs, who Elizabeth had
married, and took over the running of the Journal, was emphatically
a ''character.'' He was described an benign, benevolent and
unswervingly honest. He has been pictured by the treatist,
Dighton, in a group with his friends Dr Nash, the Worcester
historian, Sir Anthony Lechmere, and nineteen other well-known
Worcester personalities in 1829, and also in full-length portrait.
His dress was even then considered so old-fashioned as to
be almost odd. He was the last man in Worcester to wear his
hair in a pig-tail. In his youth he had served an apprenticeship
in London, but after his marriage to Elizabeth Berrow he seems
to have been mainly engaged in the management of his wife's
property in the printing house and Berrow's Worcester Journal.
Elizabeth Berrow
In 1796
it is recorded that he accepted responsibility for issuing hair powder certificates. These documents certified compliance
with the tax then newly imposed on all those who wished to
wear their hair powdered, a fashion which the tax effectively
killed. The tax was one guinea for each person, but those
with more than two unmarried daughters in their family could
let all their daughters powder their hair legally for a combined
payment of two guineas. Privates, NCOs and subalterns in the
Army and Navy were exempt, as also were Clergymen and dissenting
preachers of all denominations with incomes of less than £100
per year.
John
Tymbs
Both John
Tymbs and his son Harvey Berrow Tymbs were admitted to the Worshipful Company of Clothiers
incorporated in the City of Worcester by Charter of Queen
Elizabeth. John Tymbs was admitted a Weaver in 1784 and became
High Master in 1794. Harvey Berrow Tymbs was admitted a Weaver
in 1822 and was Weaver's Warden in 1856. John Tymbs died in
January 1835 at the age of 85, leaving his son Harvey, who
he had taken into partnership to carry on the business with
another son Henton James Tymbs and Henry Deighton. Pictures
- These pictures have been preserved by descendants of Harvey
Berrow. That on the left is probably a portrait of Elizabeth
Tymbs, Harvey Berrow's grand daughter. The other picture is
thought to be a silhoutte of the same person as an old lady,
but in view of the fact that there is some doubt about both
pictures, one or other may be Elizabeth Berrow who also became
Elizabeth Tymbs when she married. .
The
following letter dated October 7th 1779 appeared in the
Journal columns while Elizabeth Berrow was at the Helm
''To
the Printer of the Worcester Journal. I take the liberty
of informing you and the public that the account of a
melancholy accident happening to a poor man at Evesham
which was inserted in your last paper is utterly devoid
of foundation: as is likewise that part of it which mentions
a certain person being mayor elect of that borough for
the ensuing year. - It would better become that ridiculous
scribbler who sent you such a paragraph to employ
this wonderous abilities to a more laudable purpose than
to intrude such an empty piece of pretended intelligence
which is equally as void either of with or instruction
as it most certainly is of truth. I am yours etc. H.''
This letter had the following footnote: (In order to suppress
the like impositions on the public, the Printer in future
will not insert any articles of deaths, marriages, etc
which are sent by anonymous writers.) The actual occurence
was that a man was reported to have fallen into a vat
of boiling ale
