Harriet Samuel was born Harriet Wolf in London on 8th
March 1836, the daughter of Schreiner Wolf of Great Yarmouth and his wife
Matilda. The family moved to Liverpool
and she and her two sisters married three brothers, the sons of Moses Samuel, a
noted Hebrew scholar who had a jewellery and clockmaking business in Liverpool.
When her husband, Walter Samuel, died in 1863 she was left a
widowed mother of four young children, a fifth being born soon after her
husband’s death. Notwithstanding the hammer-blow of her loss, she took over her
father-in-law’s business in Paradise Street and proceeded to forge a major concern
in the almost exclusively male world of jewellery.
Soon after taking the reins she moved the business to
Manchester, her son Edgar managing the retail side while she developed the mail
order operation. Trading now as H. Samuel, their first shop was opened in
Preston in 1890 and the company went
from strength to strength. Harriet died on February 6th 1908, aged
71, her achievement in establishing such a thriving enterprise at a time when
women were almost unknown in business circles was exceptional. She was buried
at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.
After her death her son continued to grow the business. By
1914 it boasted 50 shops and it eventually came to dominate the UK’s high
street jewellery trade. The company was bought by Ratner’s in 1976 and when it
was rebranded as the Signet Group existing Ratner’s stores were rebranded with
the H. Samuel name.
While in Liverpool Harriet Samuel lived at 20 Paradise
Street L1 (1861 census) and 93 Church Street L1 (1871 census). Neither house
remains.
