Thomas Griffin Hiatt 1783

Thomas Griffin Hiatt
1783 - 1847

Thomas Griffin Hiatt was probably born in 1783. He was baptized on January 1, 1785 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. His parents were Richard and Elizabeth.

He married Elizabeth Wall on December 25, 1804 in Halesowen, Worcestershire, England. They had five children.

Name	Baptism Date
Richard Thomas	June 10, 1808
Elizabeth	August 2, 1810
William John	November 16, 1812
Henry James	June 2, 1816
Charles Wall	October 22, 1822

All the children were baptized at Saint Martin, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.

Richard and Henry became chronometers or watchmakers. Henry and his family moved to Liverpool in the 1850s. By 1871 Richard and his family joined Henry in Liverpool living in a house nearby to Henry.

Elizabeth married John Slaney, a wine merchant, in 1830. The following year they had a son, John Hiatt Slaney. Elizabeth died in 1844 when she was 35 years old from inflammation of bowels.

Deaths
The Staffordshire Advertiser
Saturday, October 5, 1844, page 3

On Sunday morning last, aged 35, Elizabeth, the beloved wife of Mr.
John Slaney, wine merchant, of Wellington, Salop, only daughter of
Mr. Thomas Griffin Hiatt, of Birmingham.

William John Hiatt was a handcuff and lock manufacturer according to the 1851 census. Notice of his death in 1859 states that he was a lock manufacturer of Masshouse Lane. This is the same occupation as his father and his father lived and worked at Masshouse Lane.

Birmingham Daily Post, Birmingham, West Midlands, England · Monday, December 12, 1859, page 4, death of William John Hiatt

DIED
On the 9th inst., Mr. William John Hiatt, lock manufacturer, of
Masshouse Lane, in this town.

Charles was a Solicitor according to the 1871 census and his death notice in 1900 he is listed with the same occupation.

Birmingham Weekly Post and Midland Pictorial, Birmingham, West Midlands, England · Saturday, February 24, 1900, page 22, Charles Wall Hiatt death notice

HIATT—On the 20th inst., at The Limes, Wellington, Salop, Charles
Wall Hiatt, solicitor, aged 79. Friends will kindly accept this (the
only) intimation. No flowers, by special request.

Thomas Griffin Hiatt was living at 26 Masshouse Lane in 1847 when he died. He was 64. His son William was with him. The cause of death was disease of the mucous coat of the bladder and enlarged prostate gland. His occupation was a handcuff maker.

The Birmingham Journal, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, Saturday, March 13, 1847, death Thomas Griffin Hiatt

On Sunday, after a long and paiful illness, which he bore
with exemplary patience and resignation to the Devine will, Mr.
Thomas Griffin Hiatt, of this town, in the 64th year of his age.

Thomas Griffin Hiatt left everything in his will to his wife, his two sons, William and Charles and then to his two son’s children. These children were born after Thomas died.

His wife, Elizabeth, died January 4, 1858. The following year their son William died. Thomas, Elizabeth and William are buried together at Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Metropolitan Borough of Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

Thomas Griffin Hiatt employed some people who worked at his company on Masshouse Lane. This company was known as Hiatt and Company. When Thomas died his son William ran the company.

The company had some different names over the years. It was mostly known as Hiatt and Company and closed in 2008. According to many internet sources, the company was founded in 1780 in Birmingham, England. This would be three years before Thomas was born. Was this a family business that Thomas inherited? There is no mention of who founded the company.

During the late 1700s and into the 1800s Hiatt and Company supplied slave traders across the Atlantic with handcuffs, collars, and chains. This went on well into the 19th century—long after the abolition of slavery in Britain and the United States.

In 1813 a partnership was dissolved between Thomas Griffin, Thomas Hiatt, and James Nicholls. They were doing business as Thomas Griffin and Company and they made handcurrs and other felon's irons. Could Thomas Griffin Hiatt been named after Mr. Thomas Griffin? It may be that Thomas Griffin was Thomas Griffin Hiatt's grandfather.

Aris's Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, Monday, 29 March 1813, page 1

NOTICE, is hearby given, that the Partnership
lately subsisting and carried on between Thomas
Griffin, Thomas Hiatt, and James Nicholls, of Bir-
mingham, in the County or Warwick, Handcuff,
Horselock, Felon's Log Irons, Stell Horse Collar
Dog Collar, and Dee Lock Makers, under the Firm
of "Thomas Griffin and Company," was and stands
dissolved on and from the ninth Day of March inst.
so far as respects the said Thomas Hiatt. All Debts
due and owing to and from the said dissolved Partner-
ship will be received and paid by the said Thomas
Griffin and James Nicholls. Witness the Hands of the
said Parties the 23d Day of March, 1813,
                         THOMAS GRIFFIN,
                         THOMAS HIATT,
                         JAMES NICHOLLS.
Signed in the Presence of
   Clement Ingleby.

In 1818 Thomas Hiatt is listed in the Directory of Birmingham as a felons' irons and gate lock manufacturer located on Moor Street.

Wrightson's New Triennial Directory of Birmingham, 1818

Hiatt T.G. felons' irons and gate lock manufacturer,
Moor-street

There is an entry in the 1818 for a company called Griffin and Nicholls. They make horse and dog collar, fetter and gate lock. It is located on Digbeth Street which is where the Thomas Griffin and Company was located.

Eventually Thomas Griffin Hiatt moves his company to 26 Masshouse Lane which is the next street over from Moor Street.

Aris's Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, Monday, January 24, 1825, page 3

IRON FOUNDRY

THE Executors of WILLIAM PAYNE, late
of Sheep-street, Iron-founder, inform the Mer-
chants and Factors of Birmingham, that they have dis-
posed of the above business to Messrs. NICHOLS and
HIATT, and beg leave to recommend them to their fu-
ture faveurs.

JAMES NICHOLS & THOMAS GRIFFIN
HIATT take this opportunity of gratefully ac-
knowledging the support they have received from their
respective friends, and inform them, that they have
purchased of Mr. WILLIAM PAYNE the above Iron.
foundry Trade, which they will carry on in conjunction
with their own, and respectfully solicit the support of
their Friends in both businesses, assuring them that
nothing on their part shall be wanted to merit the
same.
Birmingham, Jan. 22, 1825.

In the 1835 Wrightson's directory of Birmingham, Thomas Griffin Hiatt is a manufacturer of felon's irons at 26 Masshouse Lane. James Nicholls is listed as a manufacturer of hand cuffs, irons, &c. at 63 Digbeth which was the location of the Griffin & Nicholls companny. There is no entry for Thomas Griffin. He probably died some time in the 1820s when James Nicholls is listed alone in the directory in 1829 at the Digbeth site.

In 1829 the Metropoliton Police Act established the Metropolitan Police. They had jursidiction around the city of London. They became a good customer for Hiatt and Company since Birmingham is just outside of London.

In 1835 the workers threatened to go on strike over their wages. There is no further information about the strike so it is assumed that it did not happen.

TO THE PUBLIC OF BIRNMINGHAM, Aris's Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, Monday, 27 April 1835, page 3

“The following humble Address of Operative Screw,
Locksmiths, and Handcuff-makers, of Birmingham, is
most respectfully made to the Classes in general:--
“We the Operative Locksmiths of Birminham,
having for some time a ta or ence a frievour reduc-
tion in the remuneration for our labour, have at length found it
incumbent on us, as an imperative duty towards the rising genera-
tion, in addition to the want of common necessities immediately
felt by ourselves and families, and in justice to the trade, to con-
vene a general Meeting of our body, which was held on the 23d of
February, 1835, when it was unanimously agreed-That a general
strike should take place on the 6th of April, provided an advance
of wages was not agreed to by our employers previous to that time.
“We have merely to state, that in consequence of our employ-
ers refusing to comply with our demands, we are under the neces-
sity of throwing curselves upon the benevolence of the Operative
Classes, trusting they will render us that support which, they are
no doubt well assured, the emergencies of our present situation re-
quire.-[Wright, printer, Moor-street.]”

TO THE PUBLIC OF BIRMINGHAM.
WHEREAS handbills, of which the above is a copy, hav-
ing been generally circulated, which are calculated to excite
the sympathy and mislead the parties to whom they are ad-
dressed, we deem it but justice to them and to ourselves to
disabuse them by stating the following facts, namely-that
a reduction of prices at times has taken place, in conse-
quence of the competition we have had to contend with
against small Saturday-night men, is admitted; and on our
part to such an extent as nearly to annihilate all profit;
and our men know as well as that they are in existence,
that we are at a positive loss by a great portion of the
goods we make. While we admit this, we positively deny
that the reduction in their wages is a tithe-part of what we
sacrifice in our profit.—Now as to that part of the Address
which charges us with refusing to comply with their de-
mands, the case is this:—about the end of February they
handed us a list of their terms, and stated the 6th of April
for the advance. Between these two periods little or
nothing was said by either party on the subjeet. On the
4th of April (which was Saturday) they reckoned as usual,
and not an individual said a syllable about the matter—nor
has any one been to enquire whether we would or would not
agree, or to say a little about it—and have never been
since. So much for our refusing. Had they confined them-
selves to what was practicable and reasonable, and an ap-
plication in a proper way been made, their proposition
would have been at once entertained; but by conspiring as
they have done in order to force unconditional compliance,
we are determined to resist such tyrannical and arbitrary
conduct to the last
  We now advert to that part of the Address which states
them to be in want of common necessaries for their fami-
lies, and shall anser that by merely stating that their
earnings average from twienty-five to thirty-five shillings a
week, when they work A WEEKK, which is seldom, or we
may say, never the case, and which we shall be happy to
demonstrate (from books kept by themselves from Monday
morning to Saturday night) to any respectable individual
who may feel an interest in the affair. But the true state
of the case is this—they want to get as much money in
three days as will support their families and supply them to
get drunk and attend men-fights, dog-fights, &c. the other
three days of the week. Their object in holding out is to
compel us to send for them and make terms; this we are
resolved not to do, if they never come into our employ
again.
  We take this opportunity of acknowledging the kindness
of our friends in suspending their orders, and respectfully
solicit their indulgence to assist us in resisting so unprinci-
pled and injurions a combination.
                 THOMAS GRIFFIN HIATT,
                     20, Masshouse-lane, Moor-street;
                 JAMES NICHOLS, 63, Digbeth
  Birmingham, April 25, 1835,

After Thomas Griffin Hiatt dies in 1847, his son William John Hiatt takes over the business.

Hiatt, William John, Directory of the Borough of Birmingham, And Six Miles Round, by W. H. Dix and Compy., 1858, page 163

Hiatt William John, (successor to the late
  Thos. Griffin Hiatt) handcuff manufer to
  Her Majesty's Honorable Board of Ord-
  nance, and original manufacturer of all
  kinds of police and other handcuffs, police
  leg, and travelling irons, police staves,
    sabres, pistols, rattles, and lanterns, 26,
Masshouse ln ; h, Moseley rd, Balsall heath

Eventually Hiatt and Company mostly made handcuffs. These were hand made by skilled craftsmen. Hiatts handcuff was made of forged steel and was worked into shape by skilled craftsmen and were very durable.

The company continued to operate at 26 Masshouse Lane until bombs were dropped there during World War II. According to the Hiatt-Thomspon website that can be found in the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive, on the night of April 8, 1941, bombs were dropped in Birmingham destorying the building at 26 Masshouse Lane.

After the war the company was located on Baltimore Road, Great Barr, Birmingham. The company mostly specialized in handcuffs.

In 1986, Hiatt & Company formed a seperate firm in the US called Hiatt-Thompson located in Bedford Park, Illinois. This company sold Hiatt products in the US and Canada.

In 2005 the company was picketed by human rights activists protesting Hiatt & Company to stop exports to US military which used Hiatt handcuffs at their naval base at Guantánamo, Cuba. The naval base was used as a detention camp for housing prisoners of the "War on Terror" without due process which led to widespread criticism for human rights violations.

The Birmingham company moved its production to the US in 2008, resulting in a loss of 15 jobs.

In 2009 Harvard African American History professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. found himself locked out if his own house. Someone reported to the police of a potential burgler breaking into the house. Dr. Gates was arrested and handcuffed with Hiatt handcuffs that were manufactured in Birmingham, England. These handcuffs were donated to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington DC.

In 2014 the company Safariland Group began manufacturing and selling Hiatt handcuffs. They are located in Jacksonville, Florida, and Ontario, California. They have sales offices in Woolston, Warrigton, United Kingdom. Their manufacturing locations are in the United States and Mexico.

Pedigree Chart

Sources

Ancestry.com, in the Worcestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, Bromsgrove St John the Baptist, Parish Registers, 1783-1793, image 38 of 240, christening for Thomas Griffin Hyatt

Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 2054; Folio: 272; Page: 4; GSU roll: 87313, Warwickshire, Birmingham, St Peter, 12, images 5 and 6 of 53 and 54, William John Hiatt head

Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 2054; Folio: 272; Page: 4; GSU roll: 87313, Warwickshire, Birmingham, St Peter, 12, images 5 and 6 of 53 and 54, William John Hiatt head.

Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census, Class: Rg 9; Piece: 2668; Folio: 64; Page: 31; GSU roll: 543009, Lancashire, Liverpool, Dale Street, District 13e, Henry James Hiatt head

Ancestry.com. 1871 England Census, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1871 England Census; Class: RG10; Piece: 3808; Folio: 94; Page: 18; GSU roll: 841908, Lancashire, Everton ,ALL, 4, image 19 of 49, Richard Hiatt head

Ancestry.com. Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912, Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912, Birmingham, St Martin, 1813-1817, Reference Number: DRO 34/10; Archive Roll: M99, image 325 of 370, Hiatt, Henry James

Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, PROB 11: Will Registers, 1845-1847, Piece 2066: Vol. 19, Quire Numbers 901-967 (1847), will of Thomas Griffin Hiatt, images 165 - 166 of 553

Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, FHL Film Number: 919767, Richard Thomas Hiatt.

Archive.org Wayback Machine, Hiatt-Thompson.com, June 6, 2004, https://web.archive.org/web/20040606224544/http://www.hiatt-thompson.com/index.cgi

Birmingham Daily Post, Birmingham, West Midlands, England · Monday, December 12, 1859, page 4, death of William John Hiatt

Birmingham Weekly Post and Midland Pictorial, Birmingham, West Midlands, England · Saturday, February 24, 1900, page 22, Charles Wall Hiatt death notice

Directory of Birmingham, 1835, Publisher Wrightson & Webb, pages 70 and 100

"England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFTZ-S28 : 28 September 2019), Elizabeth Hiatt in entry for Charles W Hiatt, 1871.

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J7Q8-Z8B : 23 March 2020), Elizabeth Hiatt, 1810.

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWJZ-ZP8 : 23 March 2020), William John Hiatt, 1812.

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NYL2-LYM : 24 March 2020), Charles Wall Hiatt, 1822.

"England Marriages, 1538-1973 ", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N29K-T3X : 13 March 2020), Thomas Hiatt, 1804.

"England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGDL-D4NK : 26 February 2019), John Slaney and Elizabeth Hiatt, 31 Oct 1830; Marriage; citing Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, p. , Warwick County Record Office, England; FHL microfilm 919,783.

"England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGDL-Y2W8 : 26 February 2019), Elizabeth Hiatt Or Slaney in entry for John Or John Hiatt, 16 Jul 1832; from parish registers of the Church of England, database and images, citing Baptism, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, Warwick County Record Office, England.

FindAGrave, Key Hill Cemetery Memorials matching records for Hiatt, https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2399129/memorial-search?firstName=&lastName=Hiatt&includeMaidenName=true

Handcuffs https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2024.23.1.1

Hiatt, Thomas Griffin death, GRO Reference: 1847 M Quarter in BIRMINGHAM Volume 16 Page 302 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wrightson_s_New_Triennial_Directory_of_B/31uAAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover&bsq=hiatt

Infamous handcuff manufacturer to leave Birmingham, BusinessLive, 18 June 2008, https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/infamous-handcuff-manufacturer-leave-birmingham-3959202

Shackles and Handcuffs: The ‘Special Relationship’ of Racist Policing, History Workshop, Oxford University Press, Joseph Yannielli and Christine Whyte, 9 July 2020, https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/slavery/shackles-and-handcuffs/

Slaney, Elizabeth death, GRO Reference- 1844 D Quarter in WELLINGTON (SALOP) UNION Volume 18 Page 157

Slaney, Elizabeth death, The Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday, October 5, 1844, page 3

Slaney, Elizabeth died, The Stafforshire Advertiser, Staffordshire, England, Saturday, October 5, 1844 page 3.

Some Hiatt history, Tapatalk Handcuff Forum, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/handcuffsforum/some-hiatt-history-t3488.html

The Birmingham Journal, Birmingham, England, Saturday, 09 January 1858, page 5, death notice for Elizabeth Hiatt

The Hiatt Handcuff Brand Re-Emerges with its Legacy of Quality Restraints, press release from Safariland, January 16, 2014, https://inside.safariland.com/news/hiatt-handcuff-brand-re-emerges-legacy-quality-restraints/

TO THE PUBLIC OF BIRNMINGHAM, Aris's Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, Monday, 27 April 1835, page 3

UK firm picketed over Guantánamo 'torture' shackles, The Guardian, by Audrey Gillan, Thursday, 8 Sep, 2005, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/sep/09/guantanamo.usa

Wikipedia, Guantanamo Bay detention camp, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp

Wikipedia, Metropolitan Police Act 1829, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Act_1829

Wrightson's New Triennial Directory of Birmingham, 1818 by Frank Graham