Will Elizabeth East Great Marlow 1733

 Elizabeth East, widow of Great Marlow.Will proved 1733. My comments to the will are in square brackets [].

Says she sick and weak of body but of sound and disposing mind.

Commends soul to God and asks body to be buried in lawful manner at the direction of her appointed executor.

Her feather bed with coverlet, curtain and valance and it's feather bolster, feather pillows, calico quilt, two blankets and ? which is in the best chamber of the house she lives in to her daughter Sarah East. Also to Sarah the ... plate and the  ... box and the biggest casket or ... trunk in the chamber above the shop. Also the ... on the table in the hall, her best suit of clothes, her... gown and her..... Also the profits of the post office [letter receiving place, typically incorporated into the post master's home or business rather than a stand-alone premises. Customers had to pay to receive their letters as there were no postage stamps by which the sender could purchase delivery] and three gold rings. 

To daughter Jane East the feather bed with curtains, valance, feather bolster and feather pillows and bedstead and the chest of drawers which are in the aforementioned best chamber [does Elizabeth mean the girls to share inheritance of the same bed or is there -improbably- two four poster beds in the same room?]. Also to Jane the oval table in the parlour, four gold rings.

The feather bed with the blue curtains ("and balls"?) in the back chamber with a bed rug, two blankets, a feather bolster,  two feather pillows, a bedstead ... and a ... to daughter Dorothy East. Also to Dorothy the chest of drawers in the chamber over the shop and the oval table in the parlour below [again is this just a share in the oval parlour table already given to daughter Jane?] , and her second best suit of clothes, a ...coat and two gold rings.

Also a feather bed, a pair of blankets, a ...rug, feather bolster, striped curtains and bedstead.... in the chamber above the shop to her son John East. Also to John the smallest chest and the great black ... trunk  in the same room. 

A feather bed with ... curtains, and bedstead in the chamber above the shop to her son Robert East. Also to him the .... bed in the back chamber [how many beds does Elizabeth have ?!?] with a ... bolster, coverlet, a blanket, a bedstead ... and a straw bed [mattress] and the largest chest in the same room.

A feather bed with a feather bolster , a (brown?) rug and two blankets, a bedstead ... and a straw bed [mattress] to her son Thomas East. The chest in the room below also to him.

To each of her sons John and Robert East and daughters Dorothy, Sarah and Jane East four pairs of sheets. To her daughter Elizabeth Hall and to son Thomas East two pairs of sheets each.

Something else which I couldn't read to her daughter Elizabeth Hall.

Son John East and daughter Dorothy East £5 each.

Daughter Jane East £20.

All her brass and pewter except the coppers in the brew house or the washhouse  to be equally divided between her children John, Thomas, Robert, Dorothy, Sarah and Jane. 

Sons John and Thomas to get a Christening dish each which belonged to her late husband. Theses represent two of three such dishes she has.

All the tables lying in the room over the shop to her daughters Dorothy, Sarah and Jane.

Her biggest looking glass to daughter Sarah. Another looking glass to daughter Jane.

Her stock in trade as a butcher and all residual property she has to son Robert East who is appointed executor [but see note below]. Well beloved friends John Lattimore [Lattemore, Lattimer] of Great Marlow brewer and Robert ... yeoman of Bisham to be the will overseers. The overseers get a guinea each. If the children argue about the will the overseers will offer guidance. 

Witnessed by Samuel Phillips, Thomas Lawson and Thomas Beesley.

NOTE= probate information attached to this will at the National Archives says that the will was proved by her son and sole executor John East despite the fact it was his brother Robert who was named sole executor in the will and not him. Such a circumstance would usually be explained in the record but in this case, nothing! Did the clerk accidentally write John instead of Robert?? Or was Robert dead and John taking on the role as administrator of his estate and thus any other estates Robert was supposed to have administered as well? A third option is that Robert renounced his role as executor, which did sometimes happen, and it was agreed between them that his brother could take on the role in his place. As I say these last two occurrences would normally be noted in the record.

John Lattimore the brewer may have been the "Lattemore" at the High Street pub The Black Boy which later moved to Church Passage. He also rented a cellar for storage in Quoiting Square. He was late deceased in 1744 and his wife Mary was continuing the brewing business.

Will transcribed to the best of my ability from an original at the National Archives, Kew by me Charlotte Day and then summarized here.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this summary for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Wain Grave Marlow Cemetery

 

This grave is listing to one side, hence the apparent angle. 

In loving memory of Flight Lieutenant William Donston Wain RAF. Born December 11th 1889. Died serving in Berlin February 1920. 

Additional information: 

William was married to Nesta, daughter of Mrs Forrest  of New Court *Marlow in 1918. His widow remarried in 1921 and as Mrs Forbes Liston was responsible for giving New Court  and Liston Hall to the town. 

An adjacent grave is that of Nesta's mum Lucy Forrest and brother Robert Forrest who was missing presumed killed in action 1914. 

To look for information about any particular person on this blog use the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu. 

*A history of New Court is available here

For other grave images see the index 

here

Index of posts about general Marlow history here

© MarlowAncestors 

Life in 1950s Marlow Part Four Food and Shopping

 Part One dealt with Sport and Leisure, Part Two concerned homes and employment and Part Three dealt with Transport and Childhood.

Introduction

During the 1950s great concern was felt by Marlow shopkeepers about the frequency with which Marlow residents chose to shop elsewhere. The long favourite "big town" destination Maidenhead and nearby High Wycombe had been joined by Slough as an easy option for those traveling by car (it had already been accessible though not quite so conveniently by train). The Marlow Chamber of Trade tried to encourage Marlovians to spend their money primarily in the town. In response to such pleas one unnamed Marlow woman wrote to them in 1959 saying that shoppers were forced to go elsewhere because Marlow shops carried too narrow a range of stock and only very low levels of what they did carry. Another woman wrote to the Bucks Free Press in a similar vein.

It should be noted that allegations that Marlow people ignored their own shops had been made almost yearly since at least the 1880s, and yet the occupancy level for business premises was high at all times until a slump came in the 1960s.

Sunday opening of shops came to Marlow in the 1950s. Only book, toy, fancy goods, souvenir and stationary shops could open (up to 8pm in 1959) or those selling postcards, or souvenir photographs.  Marlow was deemed eligible as it was "a holiday resort". Not all eligible retailers chose to exercise this new freedom however and for some shoppers Sunday trading was still seen as very much the wrong thing to do.

Many shopkeepers no longer lived in their premises in the 1950s, though there were exceptions. Herbert Haley the High Street chemist had a flat above his shop as did the proprietors of the chemists at 14 Spittal Street for instance.

Non-Food Shopping 

The long standing drapers, outfitters and clothiers, Morgan's, in Market Square still existed in name in the early 1950s though it then sold McIlroy brand clothing from High Wycombe. Later in the decade it became W.J Daniels, famed for it's big sales. A little further down the High Street earlier in the decade was Helen Whateley, dressmaker and tailor. If you were lucky that is- she didn't open weekends or Wednesday afternoons.

Miss D Wiggham ran the Dawn Boutique at 1 Station Road. For men Hewetts in the High Street was an outfitter who also sold sports clothing and school uniforms.

Farrier's Wool Shop at no 48 High Street sold hosiery and underwear as well as embroidery and knitting supplies and finished pieces of embroidery art to decorate the home.

Making their own clothes remained quite common for women. Men's clothes except for knitted items such as scarves and socks, had long since been generally considered too risky for the average domestic tailoress to attempt, due to the skill level necessary and also because of the less forgiving and more expensive fabrics involved in suits and trousers. Some housewives were still sufficiently skilled to make shirts, though by this period it wasn't the norm for them to make rather than buy them.

Knitting machines could be bought from A.E King drapers in Spittal Street, which also sold hosiery, women's underclothing, blankets and household linens.

Those wanting to accessorise with a walking stick or similar could head to "fancy goods", tobacco, confectionery and grocery retailer Coster and Sons, also in the High Street. A small shop -how they packed all that in I'll never know!

Walking sticks were also sold by John Harleigh and Sons the sports goods / sportswear shop in Spittal Street as were ladies handbags, luggage, and umbrellas. This was still an era infused with the "make do and mend" ethos and in that spirit Harleighs both sold and repaired all those items. Similarly you could make use of shoe repairers Ted Neighbour, who also operated in Bourne End, or Mr Palmer in Station Road. New shoes were sold by Millwards in the High Street and old ones repaired there. 

A jeweller and watchmaker with decades of experience behind him, Lawrence Mundy, operated in Chapel Street. Ronald Bailey was a jeweller and silversmith at 37 West Street.

Home furnishings suppliers in Marlow were described in Part One "Homes" of the life in 1950s Marlow posts.

Food

"High class" groceries could be bought from the two High Street premises of Barksfield Brothers grocers and wine merchants. The "family grocer" R Browns was also in the High Street while Dorsetts was in Market Square. Mr Dorsett had a "mobile shop" by the end of the decade that visited outlying places, including the High Wycombe suburbs.  All the grocers in Marlow still shut for lunch in the 1950s.

Mac Fisheries supplied fish and shellfish (and fruit from the fruiter's section) and Harleyford Dairy had shoppers' dairy based needs covered. Both of these were in the High Street. Another fishmongers Castle Fisheries was in Chapel Street and acted as both a hot fried fish takeaway and a shop which sold fresh and dried fish for home cooking. Castle Fisheries was operated by members of the Bunce family. Butchers were located in Market Square, the High Street and Spittal Street. Tom Morris butchers of Spittal Street supplied the meat for Borlase School meals.

Ellison's and Sons was a baker of the High Street, plus of course there was Burgers.

Aldridge's in Market Square offered a range of frozen foods. These were still quite new and some people refused to even consider buying frozen meat in particular and could even be cautious about frozen vegetables. Most frozen meat had been shipped in from abroad e.g New Zealand lamb and a prejudice about the quality of foreign bred animals was partly to blame for this attitude .Advocates of frozen foods however were passionate in trying to open those closed minds! The methods of freezing used commercially in the 1950s were not as advanced as they are today so it is generally considered that frozen products would have been of more variable quality then and cooking them required more skill and judgement than we would necessarily realize today.

Pinkneys Nurseries at 54 High Street was both a fruiterer and a florist (a not uncommon combination in the past). 

Those that wanted to try a touch of self sufficiency could purchase supplies from one of Marlow's most unusual shops, Moreton's beekeeping supplies at 19 West Street. This also sold games, model aircraft, balsa wood for crafts, guns, ammunition, and fishing tackle. Quite a mix!

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Sources for this series of posts are listed in Part One.