John Nicholas Arbery established his family's drapery shop in November 1894 in Market Place, Wantage, before which he ran the business in partnership with Jesse Lay. The shop's history dates back at least to the 1690s as a mercer and cloth merchant's.
The business was taken over by John's son, Howard Farnham Arbery, in 1920, who died shortly after the firm became a limited company in 1951. His wife, son and daughter became directors. The shop closed on 28 October 1995, after more than a hundred years in business.
The collection of records given by the company consists mainly of volumes recording and summarising sales and purchases by the firm, although there are also some letters involving customers and suppliers.
Most of the records were received as a gift in April 1996, accession number 4080. However, a couple of volumes were handed over in November 1995 (accession 4042).
Catalogued by Mark Priddey, July 1998.