Yes the grave is wonky, not my camera! Sorry the lighting is not great.
Mary, Henry and Brenda Clark. In Marlow Cemetery.
Mary Lyford Clark b May 23 1849, d Jan 12 1932
Henry Clark - b. Jan 16 1844 d. Mar 12th 1932
Brenda Gertrude, daughter of the above. B. Sept 5th 1881. D. Jan 16 1942
Post by Charlotte Day.
©Marlow Ancestors. Permission to reproduce image freely given.
So far this blog contains mention of
177
People from or associated with Marlow.
It is a cold but fair February afternoon in Great Marlow 1903. Hannah Allen, of Hatches Row by Dean Street is about her housework when her teenage granddaughter Eliza runs in. The girl tells her that there's a baby lying on the ground outside. A boy from the Holloway family she says, saw it first and asked her to look. Hannah glances out of her kitchen window. In the grass next to the rubbish pit known as Langley's Pit, used by the local council she can see certainly something, and she goes to investigate.
Lying face down at the edge of the pit, is a naked, bloody newborn. Hannah remains calm. Though the child is not moving she knows that does not mean it is hopeless. She places her hand upon the little girl but finds her stone cold. Hannah removes her apron to give the girl a decent covering and sends Eliza for a constable.
The constable notes blood on the grass and a gooseberry bush by the pit. Possibly also in a privy by it which upon inquiry he finds is used by the Boddy family headed by John and Sophia of Marefield Passage. (Aka Maresfield) Harriet Boddy, the 24 year old eldest daughter of the house is known to be expecting.
Theirs is not a happy home. John and Sophia are by their own admission living separate lives under the same roof. They no longer share a room. The fact that Harriet has for the second time become pregnant by an unknown father is causing financial worry and resentment from the main breadwinner, dad John. With only a labourer's wage he is already a man who leaves for work at 5am at the very latest, often at 4am. He has said the child might have to go to the workhouse. His wife and daughters are no longer talking to him as a result.
Under the cover of Hannah's apron the infant is carried to the Verney Arms pub in Dean Street to await examination by a surgeon.
In the meantime the constable seeks Harriet. She is not at home but her sister directs him to their grandmother's house. There he finds her sitting with her three year old son Albert playing on her lap. She denies having given birth but agrees that a doctor can examine her.
Her grandmother takes her upstairs to await Doctor Culhane. His examination when he arrives is brief. The constable waits outside the bedroom door. Doctor Culhane tells him that there is no question about it- Hannah has just given birth.
The constable takes her and her grandmother back to to Harriet's house in Marefield Passage. A trail of blood drips runs from the back door, up the stairs and to Harriet's bedroom. Someone has tried to wipe up a large puddle of blood on the floor beside her bed. The blanket is bloodstained.....
So began a case that horrified Marlow though it would not have surprised them. I have found multiple examples in Marlow history of dead babies being discovered in fields and ditches. Usually no parent was identified for them. The suspicion was always that the child was an illegitimate one stillborn or the victim of infanticide. At least one other case was in the immediate vicinity of Marefield.
The coroner's inquest on baby Boddy returned a verdict of wilful murder and a warrant was issued for Harriet's arrest.
Her initial appearance in a court of law was at a special hearing at the magistrate's court where it would be decided whether or not to send the case to the Assizes. Harriet had spent the time since her arrest in jail without access to any legal advice.
Such cases were always extremely difficult. It seems that the blood on the child probably came from the birth process and a bleeding umbilical cord. There were no obvious injuries to the body. Neither were there signs of disease or malformation in the child's internal organs. Cause of death was in other words "unascertainable" using only the scientific evaluation available in the early 1900s. If the mother claimed that the child was born dead it was hard to prove otherwise. This was exactly what Harriet claimed. She said that she had not realised that she was so close to term. Her mother Sophia had intended not to leave her side close to her time. As it happened Harriet found herself alone at home when she felt labour pains. Within an hour, she said she had given birth to a stillborn child. She admitting taking the body out to the rubbish pit. Of very low intelligence according to most people who knew her, she had no real explanation for doing this. Possibly the trauma of it all. Any jury at the Assizes would have to consider whether Hannah was telling the truth or had as the prosecution argued killed her daughter by leaving her to die of exposure and bleeding by the rubbish pit.
John Boddy, Harriet's father gave evidence that suggested that the child was in fact born between 4 and 5 in the morning, hours before Harriet claimed. He said that he had heard an odd sound outside which he later took to be a newborn cry as he laced his boots before work. He also heard Harriet come in the back door just afterwards. If this was the case the entire family was at home at the time. Sophia Boddy and two other daughters would even have been sleeping in the same bedroom as Harriet. No one else in the family agreed with this version of events. Perhaps Harriet was moving about because of early labour pains, whether she was able to recognise them or not. The sound may have been her not a baby. Why she would deny this can't be told. One thing is sure- her father's evidence was dangerous if excepted by a jury as it would destroy her claim that the child was born dead, never having drawn a breath or making a sound. It could seem to imply complicity in the concealment of birth, or worse, on the part of his wife and daughters who surely could not have failed to notice someone giving birth inches from where they slept.
The case was sent to the Assizes. John Boddy's evidence either mistaken or even malicious was not given much weight. There a jury decided that a murder charge was not appropriate without evidence of any premeditation leaving the possible charges of manslaughter and concealing a birth still on the table.
At this point Harriet did have a defence lawyer. She plead guilty to the concealment of birth charge only. This matched the jury's opinion by the time they heard all evidence. Her lawyer hoped she could escape without penalty given that by then she had spent 4 months in jail, was mentally incapable of proper judgement and had suffered enough already by losing the child she had been looking forward to having. In concealing the birth there could have been no premeditation. Harriet had not sought to hide her pregnancy from anyone. Nor had there actually been any real attempt to conceal the body. It was plainly visible where she had laid it. Her 3 year old Albert was not neglected. In fact he seemed a happy boy loved by his mother.
The judge was more hard-line than the lawyer or jury and said in his opinion the case bordered on manslaughter. He clearly had doubts that the child was really born dead. He imposed a sentence of 3 months hard labour.
Within a few years of the case Harriet's father died leaving Sophia and Harriet to support the family as charwomen. I do not believe Harriet ever married.
BACKGROUND:
Maresfield Passage- AKA Gas Alley in the case notes- no longer exists, neither does Hatches Row. The Boddy household had lived at Maresfield passage for many years.
There were other Boddy households in Marlow at the time. While many of those other Boddy individuals were related to one another their tie if any to John Boddy was not obvious to me upon very superficial research. John lived in Lane End before moving to Marlow. Sophia was née Collins. They married 1877.
Eliza Allen lived in Cambridge Road. She was 15 years old. She had Holloway cousins which probably included the boy who first saw the body.
Research sources:
Marriage, death and birth certificates from the GRO.
1881 and 1891 censuses transcribed by me from microfilm census page images held at a LDS family history centre., London. These would now be available online.
1901 census from Find My Past UK accessed March 2018.
Newspapers at the BNA accessed March 2018 / June 2020: South Bucks Standard 13th February 1903, Reading Mercury 27th June 1903, Bucks Herald 20th June 1903.
Great Marlow parish registers, old transcriptions by me.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day.
To find every mention of a person on this blog use the person Index option on the drop down menu.
© Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain credited for the information they provided.
So far this blog contains mention of
174
people from or associated with Marlow.
For Gertrude Alice Nicholls who died aged 67 in 1931, Herbert William Nicholls who died aged 73 in 1932 and "Bugler G C (Percy) Nicholls" of the 3rd Rifle Brigade killed in action in France aged 24 in 1914.
Use this © photo if you wish with credit. Photo and transcription by Charlotte Day.
These are not my ancestors. Everything on this blog is provided to help others with their own heritage.
To find every mention of a person on this blog use the Person Index option on the drop down menu.
So far this blog contains mention of
166
people from or associated with Marlow.
Summary from my transcription of a PCC will held at the National Archives, Kew.
I found a few lines of this, especially following the gift of spoons to the sons, entirely unreadable. The following is my best go at the will.
ANN WANKFORD, WIDOW, PROVED 1787, WRITTEN 1786.
Says she ill but of sound mind.
Daughter Sarah Rose wife of William Rose at Well End all testator's wearing apparel, silver, china, household furniture and cash in the house. Plus any residual goods.
Sons George and Charles £1000 in stocks each. George of the Royal Navy, Charles "now of Montego Bay in Jamaica". The two sons and son in law William Rose £50 each for mourning. Sons also got 6 silver table spoons. They could divide testator's books at their discretion I think.
To Mrs Mary Angus, widow and her daughter Elizabeth ?[different last name] spinster of Greenwich in Kent 2 guineas each for a ring.
To Mr ... Crofton of Watling Street London 20 guineas as an acknowledgement of many hours given.
Asks to be buried Bromley by Bow Middlesex [near her two deceased friends I think it says but they not named if that is the case].
Daughter Sarah and a ... Crofton joint executors.
Witness Thomas ?ket, who made a mark.
Summary © Marlow Ancestors. Please give a link here if quoting from this work but you are more than welcome to do so.
So far this blog contains mention of
163
people from or associated with Marlow.
Before the current bridge was built Marlow had an infirm wooden bridge, that began at the end of St Peter's Street. It had only been built in 1788 and was made of oak yet storm damage and heavy traffic kept taking a toll on it. For years locals decried the state of the bridge on the grounds both that it was an eyesore and a danger. The bridge wardens tried to get official help to repair or replace the existing structure. However it took legal action against the County of Buckinghamshire to force them to organise a new bridge.
Not everyone agreed the bridge should be replaced rather than repaired. The artist JMW Turner sketched the old bridge at the end of its life and thought it one of the loveliest he had seen. He said that parts of the bridge were painted to look like stone. An 1801 description agrees on the stone effect given by the white wooden ballustrades. On the other hand, the Berkshire Chronicle in 1832 thought the old bridge was "cumbrous and ugly".
Justices of the Peace decided a new bridge should be provided. The Bridgewardens owned some land which they could sell and put towards the cost but nowhere near enough. There were some rich people in the town willing to put some money up as subscribers but again not enough. The County took out loans. It was at first thought £2000 might be sufficient extra cash to build the bridge- four times that amount proved nearer the mark when estimates were received. (And the estimates were themselves hopelessly optimistic) The county of Berkshire paid something towards the total. Still, a lot was going to be owed.
Tenders were put out and plans drawn up without every aspect of a financial plan on a concrete basis.
Work began in September 1829 when the bridge's designer and engineer John Millington laid the first stone of one of the pillars. Mr Owen Wethered first placed some coins as a sort of time capsule into the hole dug for that.
The church bells rang in celebration and each worker present was given a token shilling and 10 pence as a gift.
Ominously however as the town stood around that important first hole, it filled back up with water. So a planned official "laying of the first stone" (which would not actually be the first of course) ceremony with more pomp was postponed.
Work progressed on the bridge at what seemed a glacial place. Weeks into the works there wasn't much to see beyond an enormous hole built for those pillars. Pumps had proved incapable of keeping water out of it. Millington asked the incredulous magistrates who had ordered the bridge what he should do about it. They replied that a qualified civil engineer such as himself would be rather more the person to know what to do than them. We must be fair to Millington and point out the pumps supplied to him were clearly not powerful enough but the powers that be baulked at more expensive but more effective pumps. What Miington was really saying was "What is it you think I can do about the bridge as you don't want to buy me a proper pump?" He claimed that it had always been agreed that he should be provided with a steam powered pump, and in the end one was purchased for his use at the cost of £400. He reasoned that it would only be in use for a few months and so could be sold thereafter for only a small loss. (He was wrong, and the pump only fetched £100 in the end.)
Marlow became a local laughing stock. Dark mutterings that the engineer was incompetent, even fraudulent grew. Issues beyond problems with pumps were at play.
Right from the get go Millington had faced allegations that his bridge was not going to be strong enough to support itself. Other similar bridges had collapsed in recent years, critics argued. Some of those expressing doubts were involved with building it. Millington tried to prevent critics looking at his plans or speaking to the justices. Some of the bridgewardens were on his side and were willing to help him with this. Probably they felt he didn't need to have to justify himself to armchair experts. And all the while costs were spiralling. Some Marlow residents accused the bridgewardens of being fleeced by any which contractor or surveyor possible in pursuit of their white elephant vanity project (hardly fair. It wasn't they who specifically wanted a suspension bridge). Why can't we have a good old stone bridge came the cry.
In 1829, the Marquis of Chandos, on a visit to Wadham Wyndham at Beech Lodge, travelled to the construction site. He expressed surprise at the state of things and was "astonished to see no engineer or clerk of the works present." It was if these essentials had been done away with entirely he thought. Another of the party was heard to call the sight a "disgrace to the county."
Poor Millington gave up and announced he was off to work on some mines in South America. He would leave full plans and instructions with assistant James Savage who would complete the work. And he would like a full settlement of his account before he left!
His bridge would not have fallen down it is fair to say. Copies of his plan managed to survive and later engineers who looked at them did not find them dangerous. They would have given Marlow pedestrian footways of 5 foot width rather than the slightly narrower ones there today. However James Savage was not confident in the design (especially the load bearing capacity of the pillars which were to be in iron) and felt the instructions supplied to him were not good enough to work with.
Perhaps Millington was as much fed up with the backbiting and factional nature of the town as regards the bridge as the engineering challenges it presented.
Enter William Tierney Clark. Millington's design was junked in favour of one of his. Clark had built a similar bridge at Hammersmith and it was still standing which was pretty much the sole criterion on which he got the job. Marlow was nervous and it wanted reassurance. (It was initially expected that engineer Mr Savage of St Katherine's Docks would take over the project.)
So what could go wrong?
Well how about broken down engines, unacceptable quality ironwork being supplied, threatening contractor's who hadn't been paid on time, incompetent workmanship on the created approach roads so that they were impassable, disputes with nearby landowners....
1830 came and went. So did 1831. The Bucks Herald thought rumours that bridge would finally be passable in January of that year might be true and if not, they feared the bridge would have it's name changed to the "Procrastination Bridge" by the world at large. The stonework had at least been finished the previous year, and it was, according to the Reading Mercury "very handsome."
National interest in the saga began to show itself. Visitors followed the earlier example of the Marquis and made a point of inspecting the scene and asking embarrassed locals and frustrated workers why the bridge still wasn't ready.
Things were getting ever more fractious on the bankside. In order to have an approach road to the bridge a small piece of land had been taken from the gardens of Court Garden House. The trees felled in the process were old and tall and Court Garden's then owner didn't feel that he had been adequately compensated for the loss of the timber they represented. This was a bit of hot air to be honest as the trees were clearly ornamental and likely never would have been cut down for sale as timber. He also complained that the bridgewardens had failed to build him a new boundary wall for his property. Wary of the expense involved when the project was already so much in the hole, they dragged their feet in resolving these complaints.
Nor could anyone agree as to how the loans for the bridge should be repaid. A locally levied income tax for the sake of the bridge was unpopular with those who were paying it, but equally plans to pay off the debt by charging every future horse, carriage and herd of cattle a toll to cross it were bitterly opposed. The income taxation continued in the end.
Persistent accusations about false accounting (through incompetence) directed at the bridge wardens didn't help the mood. Financial matters surrounding the bridge had got so complex between Bucks, Berks, the bridge wardens, landowners, a long list of changing contractors and suppliers etc it seems no one could agree who owed what to who let alone all the what, where, when or whys.
An additional expense was the basic repair of the old bridge in 1830 so that it wouldn't completely fall down before the new one was ready.
Those who did have faith in the suspension bridge were rewarded when 3 years almost to the day the original work had begun Mrs Clark's (perhaps wife of the engineer but there were Clarks in the town otherwise) carriage became the first vehicle to cross the new bridge. She was on her way home from London.
Officially the bridge opened on September 23rd 1832.
This meant the old bridge could be dismantled and sold in three lots by local auctioneer Thomas Rolls. He cautioned that as it was largely rotten not a lot should be expected for it. Someone acting for Rolls' company bought one of the three lots it was divided into in a (slightly shady one must say) attempt to pretend to other buyers in the room that it was a desirable thing. In the end £92 was raised. Not apparently what some had hoped for. It is interesting to compare the description of the wood with that appearing in the notice of auction which described it as suitable where strong timber would be required such as lock repairs!
Not quite all bridge construction problems were then at an end. That badly laid approach road was still considered unfit for use in 1836. Tierney Clark still hadn't been fully paid by then and was preparing to sue.
Marlow did grow to love its bridge. It served as the end point for most races of the town's beloved rowing regatta as well as a great place to watch the event from. Punting races, when part of the regatta, used it as a starting point.
Countless painters and early photographers came to Marlow specifically to capture the landmark.
On a sadder note the bridge became a suicide spot, especially in the late 1800s.
Someone who jumped from the bridge and didn't mean to harm himself was Alfred Perry of Dean Street. An employee of Robert Shaw the boat builder based by the bridge, 30 year old Alfred leapt off after apparently trying to prove he could do what an elderly fisherman had just demonstrated he could- dive from the bridge into the Thames. Unfortunately Alfred dived onto the asphalt path below instead. He was badly injured and expected to die but pulled through. It must have been an anxious time for his wife Ellen. They had a band of young children to support. Happily, Alfred was alive and well on the the 1891 census, though he had switched jobs to that of fisherman.
The bridge attracted some anti-social behaviour. Within days of tche bridge opening signs had to put up to discourage the little boys who were clambering onto the bridge and swinging from its chains. Three youths -Thomas Burns, William Cox and Roland Rose plead guilty to throwing stones from it in 1899. A letter to the South Bucks Standard in 1904 lamented the local habit of spitting from the structure.
Some vehicles could be problematic too. By the mid 1870s too-heavy vehicles using the bridge were stressing the structure and signs forbidding them to cross were first erected 1877. They were largely ignored. In 1909 a traction engine pulling a cargo of very heavy lead caused the carriageway in the centre of the bridge to collapse. A team of men worked all night to free the engine from the hole it had created. Just weeks later an 8 tonne vehicle was caught going over it. Most drivers of overloaded vehicles were not locals but Thomas Lowe [or possibly Love, Jane found the original record hard to read] of Chalk Pitt Cottages was summoned for taking a heavy motor engine over the structure in 1908. In the same year, some councillors had demanded that heavier vehicles should be allowed to cross the bridge arguing that if it wasn't a strong enough structure to support them, it should be made so.
Some Other Marlow People involved in some way with the bridge construction project:
Miss Symonds- more than a third of money loaned for the project came from her. Sadly I do not know her first name.
John Rolls- sold some of his land for the bridge to be built on (reluctantly). His brother Thomas was an industrious bridge warden. Left to him the project probably would have had far fewer problems.
Thomas Lovegrove- repaired the work's steam engine.
William Bond- one of those paid for carpentry work. A post on him and his father with a photo of their home is here on the blog
Corby and Clifford building company for brickwork and stone masonry [Thomas Corby and Theophilus Clifford.] The latter named a daughter with the middle name Suspensiana after the bridge in 1829. A biographical post on Theophilus will be found Here
To find people on this blog select the Person Index option on the drop down menu. More general history posts are listed under General History on the menu.
To read about the adjacent old Marlow church replaced at a similar time, see the post here
To read more about the old bridge and the repairs done in 1860 to the new bridge see here
Researched and written by Charlotte Day. Additional research by Kathryn Day.
©Marlow Ancestors.
Some sources and background reading:
A Memoir of Suspension Bridges by Charles Stewart Dewry 1832. Published by Green and Longman. Digitized by Google from a copy held by the University of Michigan. In this you can see Millington's design for his bridge.
Bridgewarden accounts and papers at Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies some of which were accessed by Jane Pullinger.
Newspaper copies held at the BNA: Berkshire Gazette 12th September 1829, Windsor and Eton Express 15th September 1832, South Bucks Standard 17th June 1904, Maidenhead Advertiser 24th February 1909. Bucks Herald 9 October 1830. Berkshire Chronicle 29 September 1832.
1891 census from microfilm images transcribed by me and supplied by the LDS at a family history research centre.
Beauties Of England and Wales or, Delineations topographical, historical and descriptive, of each county - John Britton, Edward Westlake Brayley et al. (1801)
So far this blog contains mention of
4,300
people from or associated with Marlow.
James Rimmel [can be Rimmell, Rimell*] took over the licence of the Ship in West Street Marlow on March 1881. Though only his name is on the licence he carried on with his job as a gardener as well as being the pub landlord so his wife Hannah must have been heavily involved in running things. With 8 children at home on the 1881 census a few months later, ranging in age from tiny baby Hannah up to 21 year old Harriet that can't have been an easy task. Mrs Rimmel well knew large families however. On both the 1841 and 1851 censuses when she was with her parents James and Charlotte Bowles in Gun Lane she was herself listed as one of eight children at home each time.
After the last tenant of the Ship died the entire contents both trade and domestic were stripped out and sold so James and Hannah apparently had to start from scratch. As a gardener with so many children you can't imagine James was rolling in money but may have been able to get a loan. Pub owners in this era could offer this to prospective tenants. That James maintained a second job is perhaps telling of the family's stretched finances.
In an effort to make their pub stand out from the competition James had a skittles alley installed out back.
It seems he had quite a sense of fun- in 1882 he offered a prize of a leg of mutton to anyone who could climb up a greasy pole to grab hold of it. Someone did win the prize!
In 1884 James died aged only in his 50s. The same year, the couple's 24 year old daughter Harriet also passed away. Hannah applied to take over the license for the Ship. The magistrates said that they didn't like women publicans but in the end decided to allow her to continue. How generous of them to decide she didn't need to lose her home and income just because of her sex!
Two years later Hannah was fined for allowing the Ship Inn to be a place of consort for prostitutes. She argued that she did not know the women she was serving were prostitutes. The constables admitted that the prostitutes sometimes drank just with other women, in other words they were probably just socialising not touting. As they were banned from other pubs in the town lest the publicans got in trouble for "harbouring" them they had nowhere else to do this. Perhaps Hannah was ignorant of their trade, perhaps she was kind. The eyes of the male police and male magistrates were incapable of seeing the poor women as anything other than a prostitute acting as such every waking moment of their existence.
A matter of weeks later Hannah gave up the Ship. Given her conviction the magistrates would not renew her licence.
In November 1890 Major Henry Scott of Marlow took newspaper ads asking for a good cook able to do nursing too. Hannah senior must have applied for the job because at the time of the 1891 census she was a live-in nurse in the home of Henry and Ada Scott down by the river Thames. Her children Alice and Harry worked as domestic servants in the same house. Hannah was allowed to have her 10 year old daughter Hannah junior living with her too.
Major Henry died in 1893 by which time he had already moved to Windsor so the Rimmel family's stay with them was short. Hannah senior became a needlewoman to support herself. Before marriage she had been a satin stitch worker so that was an obvious job for her to take on. Her son Harry lived with her. He carried on the family tradition of being a gardener.
Background:
Hannah grew up in Gun Lane which is now called Trinity Road. Her father James Bowles was an agricultural labourer.
James was the son of William and Ann Rimmel. He married Hannah in 1855.
Hannah and James' son William is down as a 14 year old paper maker's labourer on the 1881 census. There were paper mills down by the Thames.
*Other spellings found include Rummell, Rymell, Runall and Reymell (three 1851 newspaper articles on George Rimmell, convicted of stealing 2 pieces of wood from the rick-yard of farmer William Creswell, manage between them to use 5 different spellings of the surname, 3 in one article! The sentence was one year with hard labour as he had a previous conviction. His co accused, Henry Robinson, recieved 2 months with hard labour.
For a full list of Marlow pubs, inns, beerhouses etc see this post here
List of landlords for The Ship here
Rimell graves in Holy Trinity here
To find out about the pubs in more detail see the Pubs option in the top drop down menu. Use the A-Z people index in the same menu to find every mention of a named individual, no matter how small and the biographies of individuals and families options for more detailed updates. Happy Hunting!
Sources:
Census my own transcription from census page images on microfilm provided by the LDS in a Family History Centre.
Marriage and death certificates from the GRO.
Newspaper copies held at the British library/ BNA: Maidenhead Advertiser 3rd May 1882 and Surrey Advertiser November 1890.
Great Marlow parish registers, my old transcriptions.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day.
To find every mention of a person on this blog use the Person Index option on the drop down menu.
© Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to quote from this research but please link back to this blog so that source citations are not detached from the information.
So far this blog contains mention of
136
people from or associated with Marlow.
