Charles Early

Silhouette of Charles Early aged 8, in 1832.

Dates: 1824

Charles, son of John and Betsy Early, was born in West End Witney and is acknowledged to be an important character in the history of the Early company as he was responsible for growing and transforming his branch of the business during the Victorian period.

He was sent away to boarding school in Oxford but by the age of 15 had become apprenticed to his father to learn blanket weaving; he was one of the last people to be indentured as an apprentice under the auspices of the Witney Blanket Weavers' Company (the local trade guild), which was coming to the end of its life at this time. He joined the family firm in the 1840s and was very soon controlling it, as he was to do for the next 60 years.

Charles began expanding and modernising in the 1860s by buying up land next to their existing premises, installing new power driven machinery and bringing together many of the blanket making process onto one site instead of several. In the decade following a terrible fire at New Mill in 1883 he managed to gain possession of the whole site there and bring it under his control.

Oil painting of Charles Early in middle age.

Charles was known to be a forceful but kind man and was married to a strong personality in Sarah Vanner, whose prosperous family were descended from Huguenot silk weavers. They had three children and a long life together living in Newland House. He was brought up in a strict Methodist household and continued in this tradition, being a local Wesleyan preacher and a lifelong teetotaller, although it was said that he did not try and impose his beliefs on his workforce.

When he was quite an elderly man in 1905, Charles turned out to witness the destruction of much of Witney Mill by fire. A story is told that he enquired of the Chief of the Fire Brigade 'Is everybody safe?' and the reply came back 'Yes, Mr Early'. 'Can anything be done to save the Mill?' 'No I am afraid not' was the answer. 'Then let us enjoy the spectacle' said Charles and after doing so, went off home to bed [1].

Charles became very well known in Witney; he was a successful business man who held substantial shares in the Witney Railway as well his blanket concerns. He was also a respected member of the community and served as a Justice of the Peace for sixty years. He died just two years after Charles Early and Co. had become a public limited company in 1910 [2].