We can find evidence of shoemaking in Romsey from at least Tudor times.  The Coxes were shoemakers based in the building which is now a bookshop, at 25 Church Street, Romsey.  John Cox  (died 1677) followed his father or grandfather, also John Cox (died 1588)  into the same trade.   There was an earlier John Cox who died in Romsey in 1546 and left a will but we do not know his trade.  John Cox, Junior, was Mayor of Romsey in three years between 1651 and his death in 1677.

25 Church Street, a listed building, was built as a timber-framed jettied building facing onto the street and located at the west end of a long plot which extended back to the east. The building was constructed in around the C15.

We don’t know a lot more about the Cox family but both of the later John Coxes left wills and inventories.  The inventory for John Cox junior indicates that he was a very wealthy shoemaker!  The value of all his goods in 1677 which included eight leases relating to land and various tenements amounted to £640 which would be enough to employ a skilled tradesman for 20 years of full-time employment.

The extract of the inventory for John Cox, died 1588, shows the value and type of goods found in the shop.

In the Shoppe	£	s	d
Item 12 dosen and 7 payre of shoes of all sortes	5	6	8
Item a sletter hide of lether and 2 buttes with other old peces of lether		13	4
Item 2 cuttyng knyves with laste stoles and other shop towels		5	0
Item wood and faggettes in the yarde		6	8
Item a parcel of haye		2	6

Sources

1. Will Extracts – Ancestry.co.uk
2. Image of Building – Romsey History Society Archives
3. Other Images from the Web – if anyone owns any copyright to illustrations here please contact the King John’s House museum so that appropriate acknowledgement can be made or the item removed if so
4. Information about building Historic England website