Abraham Scales

Abraham Scales 1782 – 1868

Abraham Scales was born in Pakefield on the 21st of December 1782, his parents were John Scales (1736 – 1790) and Mary Ransom (1748 – 1826). The Scales family were a prominent Quaker family in the Pakefield community. They were very involved with the Friends’ Meeting House in Pakefield Street. According to The Records of the Society of Friends in Norfolk at the Norfolk Record Office in 1831 land was purchased from Abraham Scales for a Meeting House and Burial Ground. 

The Scales family had a grocery business in Pakefield with a shop at the east end of Pakefield Street now long gone into the sea. They also owned several other properties and land in Pakefield and Kirkley. 

Abraham’s father died in 1790 leaving his business to his eldest son, John Scales Junior. Unfortunately, John Jun. died two years later leaving everything to his mother Mary who ran the grocery business until her death in 1826 when Abraham took over. It was while Mary was running the shop that she took on an apprentice called John Tawell, who later in life became known as the Salt-Hill Murderer and was executed in 1845 for poisoning his lover with arsenic.

In 1833 the Trustees of the Ipswich to South Town Turnpike Road decided to divert their road from running down Pakefield Street and making a sharp left at the end just before the cliff, to a straighter route north to Lowestoft. This route would run from the junction of Stradbroke Road, London Road and Pakefield Street and cut across lands owned by Abraham Scales he would get compensation for this, but his home, Walmer House (now in Acton Road), would go from being in the middle of unspoilt fields to being on the edge of a busy main road. The plan was passed after some opposition about the loss of passing trade down Pakefield Street and the current main London Road South Road was built. [1]   

In the 1839 Pigot’s Commercial Directory Abraham is listed as a Linen and Woollen Draper and a Grocer and Tea Dealer. [2]

In the 1845 Tithe apportionment Abraham is listed as owning the following property:

South-east side of Pakefield Street.

A cottage on the cliff end of Pakefield Street.

A house and shop with garden, paddock and yard.

Another house next door.

Bow House. This was on the site of the car park at the top of Pakefield Street.

The schoolhouse in Beach Street. Now vanished into the sea.

A garden and house.

The old Rectory. Next to Bow House with Beach Street between.

Another house.

A garden.

All the above have either gone onto the sea or been demolished.

The Quaker Meeting house and burial ground (probably as trustee).

Oak Cottage next door.

Another house.[3]

North-west side of Pakefield Street.

A yard on the cliff end of Pakefield Street.

Three cottages and yards.

House and Garden. Now known as the Manor House in Pakefield Street.

In Kirkley

A garden and field. Behind the Manor House and ran up to London Road.

Walmer House in Acton Road.[4]

Abraham had married Kezia Bleckly in 1818 when he was 36 and she was 41. She also worked in the grocery shop while he dealt with other aspects of the business. Lillian Clarke writing in “Family Chronicles”, says “Abraham Scales was a man in very comfortable circumstances carrying on a business at Pakefield. He was very aristocratic looking and always carefully dressed”.  Running a small grocery store in a quiet village could sometimes be exciting in other ways apart from harbouring future murderers. The Scales looked after the gunpowder for the Rocket Launcher used by the lifeboatmen, keeping it in their warehouse. 

One day an assistant was sent down to the warehouse and on returning Kezia Scales noticed he had no light with him. she asked him, where was his lantern? and he replied, “I had no lantern but I had taken a candle.” What have you done with the candle? she asked. His reply, “I stuck it in a keg of sand!” Without waiting to rebuke him Kezia fled to the warehouse and rescued the burning candle from the open keg of gunpowder before any harm was done. Her remarks to the hapless assistant are not recorded.  

Kezia was a small woman around 5’ 3” tall with brown eyes and skin, she was judged to be very pretty, she loved to paint, read and write poetry. She was a good manager of her home, and was energetic and industrious, everything she did was well and neatly done. One day she was tripped by some rough boys at her sisters’ gate and never recovered from the fall. After a few months gradual decline, she died on the 2ndSeptember 1846 aged 69 years.[5]

In March 1845 he had sold the Grocery and Drapery business to Robert Johnson after it had been in his family for two hundred years. Perhaps he was looking forward to spending more time with Kezia but that sadly was not to be.

After his wife’s death Abraham moved to live in his house in Pakefield Street (now the Manor House), tended by his devoted housekeeper Naomi Youell, who had looked after Kezia in all her many illnesses. His sister Anna-Maria Scales moved in with him and lived with him until her death in 1855. He and Kezia had no children, but he had a young friend called William Warman who he looked on as a surrogate son and who became his heir. 

Although no longer in business he kept himself busy. Every afternoon he drove out in his carriage drawn by a couple of cobs. He read books and had a good library. He was interested in Ornithology and in 1852 when a bird called the Adam’s Diver was killed off Pakefield he acquired it, had it stuffed and presented it to his friend John Henry Gurney of Northrepps a member of the Gurney family of Earlham Hall and nephew to Elizabeth Fry.

By November 1868 his health was beginning to fail him, and he died on the 1st of December. His Quaker faith remained strong with him to the end, and he asked to be buried in the Pakefield Meeting House burial ground, a place where he had spent so much of his time and given so much to.

At his funeral the route from the Manor House to the Friends’ meeting House was lined with people from Pakefield and the surrounding areas who came to pay their respects to him. it was a simple Quaker funeral, the undraped coffin was carried by straps to the grave and placed over it. The mourners stood around in silence then one Friend gave an address. Further silence followed, the main mourners then moved into the Meeting House for the service which was of silence broken only when moved to say a prayer. His was a sad loss to many of the poorer inhabitants who had benefited from his kindness and charity.

In his will he left most of his estate and houses to William Warman. His housekeeper Naomi Youell got £100 (£11,000 in 2025 value) and a leasehold cottage in Pakefield. Various nieces and nephews had small bequests, but his nephew Pursglove Lesley did well, getting £100 plus Oak Cottage in Pakefield Street, this was a large three story house next to the Friends’ Meeting House. The Norwich Monthly Meeting of Quakers who looked after the Pakefield Meeting House got £100 for the upkeep of it and £19 19s went to the Lowestoft and Pakefield Lifeboat Association.
 

[1] “Ipswich and South Town Turnpike Road,” Suffolk Chronicle (Ipswich), 10 August 1833, P2 Col 3; image copy, British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk : accessed 23 May 2025), British Library.

[2] Pigot's Commercial Directory (Suffolk: Pigot and Co., 1839).

[3] 1847 Pakefield Tithe Award and Map. Held at the Suffolk Archive Centre. Accessed 23rd May 2025.

[4] 1841 Kirkley Tithe Award and Map. Held at the Suffolk Archive Centre. Accessed 23rd May 2025.

[5] Clarke, Lilian, Family Chronicles. Vol 1. Wellingborough: Perkins and Co, 1912