William Matthews, woollen merchant of Exeter

The relationship between William Matthews, the sitter in this portrait, and Henry
Matthews, the druggist, the subject of a portrait by Isaac Bird, has not been established. There are records of a William Matthews involved in the Exeter woollen cloth trade in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The first is an entry in Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post for January 1810 (1) and concerns the dissolution of the partnership between Matthews & Seaman, Exeter fullers. William Matthews is listed as a hot presser in Magdalene Street in the 1831 Directory for Exeter.