The Rimmel Family Of The Ship Inn 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.