UPDATED NOVEMBER 2024
New Court house and outbuildings were, controversially at the time, built in 1875-77 partially on what had previously been the grounds of Globe House in the High Street. I am uncertain how old Globe House was though I think that it was probably the home of Luke Medwin in the 1780s. There was another house too which stood next to it also fronting onto the High Street and also demolished to make way for the stable and other buildings of New Court.
Between (at least) the 1810s and 1840s the Hone family owned that other house and much of the land behind it which would become the site of the New Court grounds. John Hone left his High Street home to his son also called John in his will written in 1813 and proved 1819.
In 1831 the Hone property was empty. Two years later it was described as consisting of the house, lawn, greenhouses, pleasure garden, orchard, kitchen garden, stables, large store house and coach houses and had an estimated annual value of £50 a year.
John junior had married Susannah Gage daughter of the vicar of Bisham in 1822. She did own the house after his death but I haven't got John's will and their daughter Susannah junior who died young in 1844 left all her (unspecified) property to her mother so it is possible the house went first to Susannah junior.
Globe House meanwhile was occupied by Stephen Gardiner a merchant in 1841 and by Elizabeth Welch in 1851. It was worth £12 a year in 1833. Behind it were sheds and a yard.
George Davenport lived there from at least 1861 to the time of his death in 1869. George had earlier in his life been declared insane due to religious mania and a generosity of habit that was considered irrational. George had for instance refused to prosecute a man who stole his coat on the grounds that none of us are perfect! He also couldn't stop giving money away to the point that the wellbeing of himself, his wife and their children was considered to be under threat. Thus the official declaration of insanity.
By the time he moved to Marlow poor George was a widower. He had a paid companion to "watch" him, as well as four other servants. He died of apoplexy in 1869 aged 61. His obituaries speak of his great generosity to the Marlow poor so those impulses of his hadn't been entirely curbed.
53 year old Esther Wethered, who had an independent income, was resident in the house in 1871. Née Peel she was the widow of Florence James Wethered who had for years been the Vicar of Hurley near Marlow before his death in 1867. Their son Florence Thomas was also Vicar of Hurley. If you are puzzled about these two male uses of the name Florence, don't be. For most of history males were the only bearers of the name.
Esther moved out of Globe House to The Cottage, Oxford Road. Despite the name, The Cottage was not little, but a good sized house. There Esther died in 1903. With her at both of her Marlow homes as well as in Hurley was her long term parlour maid / housemaid Emily Eaton who was originally from Caversham.
Esther had actually wanted to move from Globe House into the Old Workhouse building which was put up for sale by the parish. She put in an offer of £1200 for the building but withdrew from the deal after the offer had been accepted, causing some ructions.
On a more positive note, Esther was a dedicated supporter of the Cottage Hospital both in terms of financial donations and practical gifts for the inpatients such as eggs for their breakfast.
In 1875 Frederic William Berger was the owner of Globe House and it was he who knocked it down, and the house next door which had been occupied by William Vincent Baines a coal and salt merchant in 1871. The demolition in itself didn't get people's backs up, it was what he replaced them with. The street frontage of the property was the stable block and coach house plus a brick entrance archway, the new house being well back from the road. Nowhere else in England, lamented the Bucks Herald, would you be allowed to put the back end of your stables onto a town's main street. For others the red brick of those stables and the size of the arch were a vulgarity no matter where they were placed. In the building trade and architecture community the archway in particular was seen as a triumph of design however.
Globe House had had an archway entrance too, there are some old photos of Marlow which show it however this was itself apparently not hugely old as property descriptions of what I believe to be Globe House in the late 1700s say that the arch then had a room at the top, something which the photographed arch clearly does not so that must be a later archer.
The architect of New Court was not a Marlow man but the builder of the stabling and archway was, Thomas Corby, based right next door to the new stable block. He, his father and their workers built so much of Marlow at the time. I will do a separate post on him and his work in the future. He may have actually built the house as well.
Frederic Berger had previously been living at Court Garden house in Marlow. Hence the not very original New Court title for his new home. He was a horticultural enthusiast famed in gardening circles, especially for the full orchard within a glass house he had at Court Garden. He had much less space to play with - between 2.5 and 3 acres depending on what source you believe - at New Court. But he made sure to include a gardener's lodge within his plans, a vital thing for attracting and keeping the most skilled head gardeners. The grounds also contained substantial glass houses, a vinery, a small orchard and pleasure grounds. Inside the house were seven bedrooms, a morning room, study, dining room, drawing room and kitchen.
Unfortunately Frederic died in 1878 and the house was sold. I could not decipher the name of the person who bought it. It was sold again in 1880 by Mr Norman Layton. See my post on the Rookery in Marlow here for more of how he fits into the Marlow story.
In 1883 Jane Ward, widow bought the house for her and her (grown up) children. Née Hoane she was a Marlow woman born 1814. Her husband William Lakin Ward was of Essex origin but by then practised in Marlow as a successful solicitor. He was the Clerk to the local Magistrates and the Clerk of the Commissioner of Property, Land and Income Taxes in Marlow. Many a Marlow will I have transcribed from the Victorian era was witnessed or drawn up by him. He died in 1872 before the family moved to New Court.
Jane was one of those women who were able to vote for the first time when County Councils were first formed in 1889. Not only did she vote but she banded together with a group of other Marlow women to nominate a (male) candidate to represent Marlow. This level of engagement with the full electoral process so early on was highly unusual for women.
Jane donated books to the town's new Institute's library in 1890 and supported other charities too.
A list of those attending her funeral and laying wreathes include her household staff - butler Mr Flint, housekeeper Mrs Stretton [Sarah, listed as the cook 1901 census], maids Miss Curd and Miss Sure, head gardener Mr Turnedge and under gardeners Messrs Brinsden and Silver.
Her grave in All Saints churchyard is shown above.
Her children were also active in local affairs. Daughter Elizabeth never married but filled her time with concern for improving the lives of the poor. She even studied for an examination in domestic hygiene to help her understanding in this area. She also liked gardening and was involved with the parish church. She died aged just 38 in 1888.
Jane's son George Rolls Ward was a mad keen cricketer from his schooldays onwards. He served as the captain of Marlow Cricket Club and Honorary Secretary of Bucks County Cricket Club at different times as well as being a churchwarden, Chairman of Marlow Gas Company and JP. He too never married. He died of pneumonia in 1907 aged 57.
As Jane herself died soon afterwards and in 1908 the house was again up for sale. By this time it had gained the mod con of a bathroom!
Mrs Robert Forrest, widow, was living in the property in 1918 when her daughter Nesta married William Wain of the RAF. Nesta married secondly William Duncan Forbes Liston in 1921. They made their home at New Court but with this we are stretching beyond my normal blog time period so I'll leave it there with just a few more notes. Nesta added a library extension to the house in 1931. She left New Court and the grounds to the people of Marlow. Since the end of the house as a private residence several of the specimen trees which once graced the garden such as the mulberry and Judas trees have been lost though the redwood is still soaring into the sky. The house still stands however, divided into multiple residences for older people. The archway and stable block remain next to the High Street. You can walk through the arch into a little shopping complex built onto the one time grounds of the house.
More posts about individual houses in Marlow, big and small, can be found under the "Specific Shops, Streets...Etc" menu option. That's also the place to look for other High Street related posts.
More grave photos on the menu under Graves.
See the Person Index for all mentions of any person on the blog.
Post researched and written by Charlotte Day.
Research sources:
PCC will John Hone held at National Archives Kew and transcribed by me.
1833 parochial assessment surveyor's working notebooks held by my family and transcribed by me.
Census - my transcription of census page images on microfilm.
Bucks Herald 30th October 1875 and April 27th 1907. Newspapers held by the British Library and accessed via the BNA.
Boyle's Court and County Guide 1869, digitized by Google.
Death and marriage certificates obtained from the GRO.
Post Office Directory of Northants, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire. Edited by ER Kelly. Published by Kelly and Company London. 1869.
Building News and Engineers Journal, volume 31. Copy held by University of Michigan. Digitized by Google. Other loose physical pages possibly from a different edition of the same publication.
Gardener's Weekly Magazine and Floricultural Cabinet 1863, digitized by Google.
Great Marlow Parish Registers, old transcription by myself.
Reading Mercury 11th December 1875. Copy held in the British Library Archive, accessed via their partnership with the BNA.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day, photos and additional research by Kathryn.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this material for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here.