Item LEN/5 - Diary

The Leng family were residents of York, and are most well known for the creation of the 'Fulford Biscuit', and for their factory in York.

The 'Fulford Biscuit' was the creation of John Leng and his wife, Hannah Horsely, who lived in Wilberfoss. John, and his brother William, were brought up by their Uncle Thomas after their father died and their mother, Elizabeth Horsley, remarried. In 1800 Uncle Thomas died and left William £300. John, who was a 28 year old baker, was left the farm.

John and Hannah had 7 children, and his brother William and hist wife Ellis Rowntree had 10. It was during this time that the biscuit, which became so popular, was created. The biscuit was plain, yeast-raised, and saucersized, a development from the much plainer (and harder) ship's biscuit.

In the early 1800's, John sold out to William and moved to Fulford in search of a better education for the boys and better marriage prospects for his girls. Non-Freeman of the City were not allowed to open a shop in York, but could trade in Thursday market, where William sold his meat and where kin lived at 7 St. Sampson's Square.

77 Main Street, Fulford, became John Leng's family home with the bakery built into the side of the house. John set up his son 'Biscuit John' in St. Saviourgate, later moving to 2 Coppergate.
His son Charles was in Lambeth, distributing the biscuits. Brother William's sons Robert and George were apprentices when their father and two brothers died in 1831. Their mother, Ellis, moved to 69 Main Street, Fulford. Baker John died in 1849, and as Hannah was already dead, the Fulford Biscuit rights and recipe were left to daughters Mary and Maria Leng. Mary died in 1855 and Maria married.

Once qualified, Robert and George set up at 7 St Sampson's Square as competitors to Biscuit John, as York was now an open market. Later his only son John Philip, still at 2 Coppergate, sold the biscuits but later traded as a corn and flour merchant also buying many properties in York for his 10 children. Only George and his family continued making the biscuits at 77 Main Street. They were sold in Coppergate until 1902, when his widow, Jane Hunt, died.

Marjorie Leng, a granddaughter of John Philip, inherited the recipe, but not the method.