William France Jr. (cabinetmaker)

[2] Samuel Beckwith was married to Jane Donowell, whose father was a surveyor and managed Lord Salisbury's London Estate.

[2] The partnership supplied a vast number of items to the royal household, not only for the use of George III but for his children, court officials and increasingly government departments.

[2][Note 4] Other than the items which were supplied to the Royal Family and are recorded in the Lord Chamberlain's Bill Books, held in the National Archives,[8] we know little of the partnership's other customers.

[2] Whilst France, who continued to hold the Royal Warrant, moved to premises at 31 Pall Mall, convenient for St James's Palace where the Lord Chamberlain's offices were located.

In 1830, at the time of George IV's funeral, when they were asked to clarify this item they made it clear that..... ‘The moment it became known to the public that the works of the coffin etc.

The preparations were all at a standstill and could not have been completed without assistance to keep them off, so great was the interest excited that it was a matter of necessity to employ persons night and day until the coffin was sent off to Windsor.'

William France Jr. was responsible for the construction of the Coffin and the arrangements for the lying in state in the Painted Chamber at the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich.

Naval Chronicle vol 15 1806 This coffin which is considered as the most elegant and superb ever seen in Europe, is the production of Mr France, undertaker of Pall Mall.

An interesting commission was to supply furniture for Napoleon's use on St Helena, but the Emperor died before the items could be delivered and in May 1822 50 lots were sold by Christie's.