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Waters was founded by David Shakespeare Waters (1771-1849) in June 1802. His mother was Hannah Shakespear,
whose brother emigrated to America circa 1768. One of them, Samuel, claimed descent "through a brother"
from William Shakespear of Stratford. Our founder David Waters is buried in the Waters family vault at Keresley Church,
Coventry, with his wife Ann, and another nine members of the Waters family. The business passed to their eldest son, also David (1810-1896) and then to his son Hubert David (1854-1918), who is credite with starting the wholesale side of the business. Hubert's son Reginald Rigden Waters, a Captain in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in France in October 1916, and his daughter Gladys married Richard Caldicott in 1920. Gladys inherited the business in due course, and her husband, although trained in his family's silk ribbon business, took over at Waters. Thus Caldicott family descendants remain at Waters today, 200 years after Hannah's boy opened his shop in Coventry. |