George Smith II & Thomas Hayter
George Smith II and Thomas Hayter (Grimwade p. 909) had workshops and a retail shop at 4 Huggin Lane, Wood Street in the Parish of St. Michael, London. They were in partnership from 1792 to 1805.
Employed in the shop were three shop men headed by Hayter. Henry Thomas Jennings was one of the shop men.
Hayter was a careful man with concerns about being robbed and would spend hours applying secret marks to gold rings etc. prior to them coming up for sale so that they could be identified as his in the event of a robbery. If a suspicious person entered the shop, Hayter would say "take the spoons upstairs" - this would be a secret signal for one of the shop men to go to the rear workshops and alert the journeymen, he would then go and fetch the constable (who was probably on a retainer to be close by).
