Joplings (original) (raw)

Joplings is an old (since 1852) and established firm of valuers, property agents and surveyors based in Thirsk and Ripon who also are responsible for the Thirsk Auction Mart. Originally though the firm was Robert Imesons and very much a Masham family business.

Modern-day Joplings have asked MoM to research their history in the area - looking at how the business developed but as importantly, how the firm has been working with local families and properties over many generations.

Robert Imeson was a Masham land valuer, auctioneer and surveyor operating from Sutton Grange. He is found over and over in our Edmundson & Gowland papers - selling property and surveying estates. He was succeeded by his son, Robert Imeson, Jr - by all accounts a rather rambunctious fellow but a noted member of local society. He was one of the 3 original trustees of the Masham Town Hall.

In 1909 Robert Imeson Jr invited his apprentice Mark Bellerby Jopling to become a partner and the firm became Imeson and Jopling. Mark Bellerby Jopling was a descendent of the Joplings who had long had a department store in Sunderland. They were joined in 1912 by Harold Cawthorn and the firm becomes Imeson, Jopling and Cawthorn. In 1919 Robert Imeson finally retired but Jopling and Cawthorn (Gerald by this point) were able to retain the Imeson name and kept Robert Imeson's actual retirement a secret!

Over the next 50 years the name lost the Imeson and changed from Jopling and Cawthorn to Jopling, Cawthorn and Blackburn following the involvement of Michael Blackburn. The firm merged with that of Tom Kirby and with the Thirsk Auction Market and is now just known as Joplings.

We are currently taking oral interviews with the descendents of Mark Bellerby Jopling and Gerald Cawthorn to build the picture even further.
Further details can be found on the Joplings website