This week's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured Ross Kemp looking at his publican ancestors in Portsmouth. He was shown a census showing his ancestors living at the pub, but what other sources are there for researching publican ancestors?
Transfer of Licences
Various Acts were passed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries relating to selling alcolhol. The best place for finding out who was granted a licence to sell alcolhol from a particular premises is newspapers, where the transfer of the relevant licecences were often reported. This example from The Manchester Evening News of 1872 lists the change in licence for a number of establishments, the first being the excellently named pub the 'Admiral Haddock'.
Trade directories
Not all censuses provide the name of the pub that an ancestor ran - censuses can be inconsistent with providing this address information. One way around this is to seek the individual in question in a local trade directory. These were published from the 17th century onwards, and by the 19th century a number of publishers were producing these volumes. They listed the trades, industries and institutions in towns and parishes, often accompanied by maps and other local details of note.
Looking for the 'Admiral Haddock' in Pigot & Dean's New Directory of Manchester, Salford etc for 1821-2 identifies John Wright as the licence holder of this establishment.
Other digitised sources
Increasingly, genealogical sources are being digitised and made accessible online. Looking at what is available for the 'Admiral Haddock', the pub pops up as the address of one Whittaker Pate in the 1850 electoral register. He lived at this address, and was qualified to vote due to his ownership of 7 properties, which he held the freehold of.
Whittaker Pate can be identified at the premises in the 1851 census, albeit as is often the case when considering addresses listed in censuses, the name of the establishment is not specified. The address of 'Parsonage Lane' is all that is given. Whitaker [sic] was listed as the licenced victualler there, with five live-in staff working there.
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