Details about Towers Burdon & Co.
John James Towers and John Vincent Burdon went into partnership in 1883 when they purchased the Dunholme from William Gray.
Family History:
John James Towers was born at Stockton-on-Tees in 1855 to parents Andrew (master mariner) and Mary Alice (nee Hunter) Towers. In 1861 the family were living at Rowell Street, Hartlepool. Andrew died in 1864. By 1871 John was a shipbroker’s clerk living at Regent Street, Hartlepool with his mother who had remarried and was now Mary Alice Smith. On the 1881 census John was still living with his mother and siblings at Regent Street and was at this time a coal merchant.
Under Shipping Companies there is a separate entry for Andrew Towers, John’s father, and other Hartlepool citizens who owned and had shares in sailing ships from 1855.
John Vincent Burdon was born at Hartlepool in 1845 to parents Thomas Bailes (shipbroker) and Eleanor (nee Miller) Burdon. He became a shipbroker’s clerk and then a shipbroker. He married Julia Porter at Richmond, Yorkshire in 1876. The couple had nine children. In 1881 the couple were living with three of their children at Stranton Terrace, West Hartlepool. By 1901 the family had moved to 23 Brougham Terrace and by 1911 to 87 Grange Road where John was listed as a merchant broker dealing in coals, loams and building materials.
John died aged 77 on 19th February 1922 at Ashtrees, Billingham leaving effects of £1,547.
Dunholme
