Whilst wading through my mountains of research on Great Marlow people I noticed that I had picked up quite a lot of information about those of the last name Grace so I have gathered a selection of it here:
George and Sarah:
George poss bapt 1765 Marlow to parents George and Jane however there are two contemporary Georges and only one baptism between them. Married Sarah Nibbs [this name also Knibbs in local records] 1785 Marlow. Sarah buried 1820 age 68.
George and Mary
George son of above George and Sarah. Baptised 1790 Marlow. Wife Mary buried 1840. George on 1833 parochial assessment and on 1841, 51, 61 census Gun Lane [now called Trinity Road]. On 1833 assessment his home was a cottage and garden worth £3 10 shillings a year. This would be very small, though there were slightly smaller cottages in Gun Lane. George on 1851 census is bricklayer's labourer
Children:
Richard 1.) bapt 1811. Died 1814.
2.) bapt 1815. Wife Mary Ann. Lived St Peter's Street 1851. Richard in 1861 summoned for failing to contribute to the maintenance of his children who have been sent to Reformatory Schools. Children not named in case. Road labourer for the parish 1881 when he lived St Peter's Street. *Update - one of the children was young Emily, sentenced to 3 years in the reformatory for stealing the clothes belonging to some of the girls attending the Miss Washbourne's Ladies Seminary or school in Marlow. Emily was at Hampstead Reformatory.*
Elizabeth bapt 1813. Mother of illegitimate son William bapt 1837 (who probably moved to Downley). Both of them live with her parents Gun Lane 1841. Probable mother of illegitimate daughter Sarah Webb Grace bapt 1839 too. This second child is not on the 1841 census.
George bapt 1821. Home with parents 1841. George, or just possibly his father, was stabbed by teenage Gun Lane resident Alfred White in 1858. Survived but badly injured. Alfred went for 2 years in a reformatory school as a result. George probably married a Rachel Smith 1865 Buckinghamshire. Wife definitely a Rachel. Lived 1871 and 1881 Coleshill Buckinghamshire.
Michael bapt 1826. Home with parents 1841. Ag lab. See below.
Mark bapt 1828. See below.
Frederick bapt 1836. With parents 1841. Later a labourer. Wife Eliza. Daughter Sarah born circa 1869/70 charged with stealing clothes from a woman she briefly lodged with at Rotherfield Greys near Henley in 1888. When arrested she was working at Shiplake Farm.
George and Jane
George born circa 1841/42. Parents of Mark and Penelope below. Grandson of George and Sarah above. Lived with widowed grandad George in Marlow 1851 and 1861 Gun Lane. In 1858 sentenced to 14 days in prison for attempting to steal a pie from the shop of Margaret Winfield. Accomplice Thomas Stone managed to run off with two pies but George was seized by Mrs Winfield while trying to take his one. Was not George's first conviction. That Thomas Stone later accomplice to George Grace's father Mark in stealing peas from a field. 1871 George was a casual lodger at Bear lodging house come pub Chapel Street. George married a Jane who died 1892 Oxford Road Marlow aged 50. They lived there 1891 too when George is listed as a shoe maker and Jane as a laundress, as was their teenage daughter Alice.
Mark and Penelope.
Mark bapt 1828. Son of George and Mary above. He home with parents 1841 and with wife and parents 1851. Ag lab. Married 1849 Little Missenden Penelope James. Children Michael, Mary Ann, Elizabeth (Betsy), Richard, George (possibly 2 with first dying) James, Polly?. Possibly others. Some children born before couple's marriage. Penelope acquitted of pickpocketing William Saunders in 1859. Couple lived Dean Street 1861. Mark acquitted of assaulting a woman in Quarry Woods that year. Wife Penelope died 1871. She had been drinking heavily, including at the Mint in Dean Street with her husband. He went off for a while with his nephew to go to Burroughs Grove outside Marlow. There he spent some hours drinking at the Three Horseshoes. When he returned home with some friends in a donkey cart they ran over Penelope near Marlow Bottom. She had been lying there in the road drunk and it was thought had already been run over by a ginger beer delivery vehicle. It is likely she had intended to meet her husband coming back from Burroughs Grove but had drank too much to make the journey. The report of the Reading Mercury on her inquest is listed in the sources below. The newspaper can be accessed at the British Library or via the BNA online for a fee. If you choose to read it please be warned that it contains some graphic information about the autopsy. Her husband Mark and son Michael were witnesses at inquest. Penelope was buried at Holy Trinity Church Marlow. There is no visible gravestone for her now. To see pictures of the church and graveyard as it is today please see this post.
Mark still lived Dean Street 1881. He had by then married a second wife Emily. In 1884 received 3 months in prison for receiving stolen goods, wire netting, taken from Mr Darrell of Medmenham. Had only just then been in court for attacking his daughter Bessy during a drunken argument in the Chairmaker's Arms Dean Street.
Working for High Street builder Young Lovell 1889 when charged with stealing 6 yards of asphalt from him.
George and Alice
George born circa 1856 to Mark and Penelope above. Married Alice Green Cooper 1876. Her two brothers John and George Green beat him up 1882 so he summoned them for assault. He himself was in court charged with stealing 2 cakes and some tea from Alfred Ilsley the grocer in the High Street. Sentenced to three months hard labour. Not his first conviction. To see a photo of what these premises look like today or read more about Alfred Ilsley see here.
Michael and Eliza
Michael was a coal porter and sometimes grocer, the son of Mark and Penelope above. He gave evidence at his mother's inquest. Lived Dean Street 1873. Worked for Mr Langley, presumably John Langley.
Young daughter Rose burned to death in 1880 after being left momentarily unattended by her mother Eliza in a chair by the fire while Eliza went to take husband his breakfast and to walk two other reluctant children of hers to school. Rose had suffered fits before, and had played with the fire, either of which may have led to her getting close enough for her clothes to catch fire.
Live Cambridge Road 1881. Eliza operating a corner shop 1887, 1888 in Dean Street near corner to Queens Road. Shop new built 1887 and part of "Jubilee Terrace" which honoured Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Still there 1891. No longer any old buildings there. Eliza fined £5 for selling adulterated butter (plumped with too much water) shortly after she opened. It seems a commercial traveller had taken advantage of her inexperience and given her incorrect advice about product labeling. As such Eliza's large fine seems very unfair. She must have been a determined business woman to recover from such a dent in her finances.
Michael and Eliza's son Walter later managed her shop until a fire, probably cause by mice, destroyed his stock in 1906. He moved to a different premises in Dean Street in the corner of Trinity Road where it seems his father operated as the boss. Unbelievably the next year that shop also caught fire but with less serious consequences. By 1911 the Graces had left the premises. They did not live in there.
Mary Ann Grace
Mary Ann born circa 1857/58. Daughter of Mark and Penelope Grace, above. On 1871 census a furrier living at home. 1881 own household, she an ag lab with her illegitimate daughter Rose. Married 1881 Charles Boddy. Charged later that year with stabbing him in the head with a knife in an argument after he had hit her. Her sister Elizabeth Grace rescued their baby from being in the room in the midst of their argument. When she heard her sister scream she thought she was being attacked and fetched constables. When she realised the situation she initially told the policeman her sister always went for a knife if she was angry, before seeming to decide to help Mary Ann after all and struggling with the officer who wanted to take the knife as evidence. The force of the blow had bent the knife. The blade penetrated to the bone. Mary Ann was sentenced to 6 months hard labour in Aylesbury jail. Her husband tried to prevent her arrest and did not wish her prosecuted. He required stitches to a 2 inch wound and lost a lot of blood. She said he had continually mistreated her. On hearing her sentence she fainted. (The arresting sergeant in the case was John Maneely whose biography can be read here) At the same Quarter Sessions that saw Mary Ann put in prison, her husband Charles was himself sentenced to three months in jail on the charge of fowl stealing. She still lived with her husband in 1891 when she was again arrested for threatening him, and for drunk and disorderly conduct. A constable said she behaved towards her husband then in "the most disgraceful manner" and was seen to chase him up Dean Street with a poker. An 18 shilling fine was the punishment this time. Three years later Mary Ann, up for further drunk and disorderly offences, and for swearing in public, said in court that she was driven to drink by a husband that continued to mistreat her and her children. She said she was afraid to go home so she spent much time outside. She however denied she had been drinking on the occasion for which she was arrested because she said she had no money. Mary Ann said her husband drank it away and her children would starve if she was not there for them. It was obviously a sad and difficult case and the magistrates told Mary Ann just to go home and there was no punishment.
Walter and Elizabeth
Walter son of Michael and Eliza above and born circa 1877. Wife Elizabeth of Devon origin. In 1901 lived York Road and Walter described as grocer. Probably working already in his mother's old premises. Certainly Walter in 1906 had the grocery shop on corner of Dean Street and Queens Road which his mother previously ran. The premises that year suffered a serious night time fire. A constable on his beat saved the family's life by seeing flames and waking them. Shop and family's living space both badly damaged. His shop, seemingly in charge of his father Michael this time, had moved to corner of Dean Street and Trinity Road in 1907 when a lamp fell over and caught the room on fire. This time the flames were extinguished before serious damage occurred. Walter and Eliza left Marlow not long after that second fire, leaving Michael with the shop. Walter was possibly a Salvation Army man.
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The Graces were not the focus of my research so there is likely to be much more out there on them if you look purposefully. There are definitely many more criminal cases involving the Graces - as victims as well as perpetrators. All posts are updated with new research as often as possible.
To find people of interest on this blog use the Person Index option on the top drop down menu. There is also a Biographies of Families option on that menu which you may find useful.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research if you credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain credited for contributing too.
Sources:
1833 parochial assessment. Original notebooks owned by my family and transcribed by me.
My old transcription of Great Marlow Parish Registers.
My transcription of Great Marlow census from microfilm. Census content is the property of the Crown.
Little Missenden marriage, provided by Jane Pullinger. Also judicial records / Quarter Session research of Jane. Thanks Jane!
Bucks Herald 23rd October 1858. Croydon Weekly Standard 16th April 1859. Reading Mercury 9th November 1861. Reading Mercury 11th September 1871 [Penelope's death] and 4th March 1882. Buckingham Advertiser 12th April 1884. Bucks Herald 18th December 1880. South Bucks Standard 28th September 1906. All British Library Archives. Via the BNA.
Death Certificate Jane Grace.
GRO Marriage Index online from the GRO website.
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