Stephen Wiggin: The Wax Chandler of Exchange Alley

[Stephen Wiggin was the brother of Thomas, Linda's 6th great-grandfather.]

Tucked away in the quiet churchyard of Ightfield in Shropshire lies the final resting place of a man whose life intersected with the buzzing heart of 18th-century London commerce. Stephen Wiggin, born on July 10, 1690, in the rural village of Ightfield, made his mark as a wax chandler in the metropolis, a profession that lit the homes, churches, and businesses of the capital with hand-dipped candles during an age before gaslight.

It is unusual to know the exact birth date of someone born in the 1600s, but in Stephen’s case, his baptism record offers remarkable detail. The parish entry reads:

“Stephen Wiggin was born July ye 10 1690, Stephen Wiggin the son of Richard Wiggin was borne about 9 o clock at nigh: he was baptised August ye 7 beeing the second year of the raine of King William and Queen Mary.”

No other children from Ightfield—Stephen’s own siblings included—have such an informative baptism record. This rare level of detail not only provides us with an exact date and time of birth but also hints at the care with which his early life was documented.

Below: Baptism record from the Ightfield Parish Register

Wiggin’s journey from Shropshire to London is not unusual for ambitious men of his era, but the records he left behind give us rare glimpses into his life. On October 19, 1714, he achieved the status of Freeman of the City of London, a distinction that granted him the right to trade within the city and placed him among the respected ranks of London’s merchants and craftsmen. Records show he obtained his freedom by Redemption—that is, by purchasing the Freedom rather than through apprenticeship or inheritance. The year is a curious one—it marked the dawn of the Georgian era with the accession of King George I, a time of political shift and renewed economic opportunity. While we don’t know if Wiggin was directly affected by the change in monarch, he was undoubtedly establishing his trade in the heart of the city.

On August 17, 1720, he was also made a freeman of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa. This was a royal chartered company, later known as the Royal African Company, which held a monopoly over English trade along the West African coast. It dealt in gold, ivory, and—tragically—the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. Though its influence had declined by 1720, membership still carried commercial prestige and elite connections.

By the 1740s, Wiggin had become a familiar figure in London’s commercial circles. Land tax records from 1743 list him as a resident of Farringdon Without, a large ward that encompassed some of the busiest areas of the city. A year later, in 1744, he placed a public notice in the newspaper offering a reward for lost lottery tickets—an intriguing episode that suggests he had a stake in the increasingly popular (and speculative) government lotteries of the period. Whether the tickets were ever found is not recorded, but his advertisement hints at a man engaged in the financial and social life of Georgian London.

By 1745, Wiggin gave his address as Baker’s Coffee House in Exchange Alley. This location is particularly telling. Coffee houses in 18th-century London were more than places to sip a hot beverage—they were hubs of news, gossip, business, and finance. Exchange Alley itself was the beating heart of the city’s financial world, where merchants, stockbrokers, and lottery agents mingled. For a wax chandler like Wiggin to reside or work from such a place implies he was not merely selling candles but was embedded in the larger commercial networks of the city.

Despite his long residence in London, Stephen Wiggin eventually returned to his Shropshire roots. He died in May 1767 at the age of 76 and was buried in his native Ightfield. Though he lived a life largely unrecorded by grand events, the surviving traces of his career—his freemanships, his presence in tax rolls, his advertisements—paint a portrait of a man who moved comfortably between the rural past and the bustling commercial present of 18th‑century England.

His will provides further insight into his connections and affections. He left property and land in Shropshire to his siblings, along with £200 to his sister and brother. Numerous nieces and nephews each received £50 (worth about £9,000–£10,000 today). Notably, he bequeathed a significant amount of property in St. Giles Cripplegate to Mr. Samuel Putney, who had lived with him for several years. This legacy suggests a close personal relationship, perhaps one of trust and companionship in his later life.

Today, the name Stephen Wiggin might be a quiet footnote in the annals of history. But his story reminds us that the city of London was built not just by nobles and politicians, but by craftsmen, tradesmen, and merchants whose labor and ambition illuminated the city—quite literally, in Wiggin’s case.

Below: St. John the Baptist Church, Ightfield — where Stephen Wiggin was baptised in 1690 and buried in 1767.

Linda EYE on the PAST