Person:Samuel Toy (1)

1800 - Listed in A Poetic Survey round Birmingham, published by Swinney & Hawkins, High St, Birmingham: toys, buttons, steel & gilt

"The next is that of Samuel Toy, Newhall Street, in earlier years a "steel toy" manufacturer; but in after life, being reduced in circumstances, he became landlord of the Mitre Inn, where he died, after a brief illness." - Old & New Birmingham, Robert K. Dent

Friend of John Freeth, "The Birmingham Poet". In 1792 Johann Eckstein painted a picture of 'The Twelve Apostles", a group of twelve firends, including Samuel Toy, who met nightly at John Freeth's house to discuss Liberal politics. The others were, James Sketchley, John Miles, James Murray, Joseph Blunt, Richard Webster, Joseph Feazon(?), Jeremiah Vaux, John Collard, James Bissett, and John Wilkes. Notes with picture: Alternatively known as 'Birmingham Men of the Last Century', this painting shows John Freeth, (seated, second from left), with members of the radical Birmingham Jacobin Club, who met at Freeth's tavern, the Leicester Arms, in Bell Street, from 1768 to 1808. The group, members of the rising middle class in the late eighteenth century, were local merchants and manufacturers who were involved with various projects for the improvement of Birmingham, ranging from educational initiatives to canal building. The man wearing the tall hat, on the right, is James Bisset, who published the Magnificent Dictionary of Birmingham, which listed the principal manufacturers and social leaders of the town. He also established one of Birmingham's first museums, which was visited by Nelson in 1802. To the right of Freeth, holding a clay pipe, is the only known portrait of Jeremia Vaux, one of the first surgeons at Birmingham's General Hospital. Listed in Warwickshire Freeholder's Poll of 1774 in Birmingham. Possibly in 1786 Grand Levy book in New Hinkleys. Possible brother Abraham listed in Grand Levy book of 1786 in Suffolk St, with shops.

Have will.