Anne Badger AKA Annie moved in as the first resident of Lulworth in 1903. She had just retired from running a fancy goods repository in Market Square. Prior to that she had ran a boot and shoe repair shop. In 1879 a man stole a pair of boots from her shop. Luckily nearby shopkeeper Owen Wright saw and took off after the man capturing him and handing him over to police. See Owen's premises and find out about the historic occupiers of it here.
Sadly Anne died of heart disease aged 64 just a few months after moving in to Lulworth. She was a Catholic and is buried at St Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Marlow. Her husband Joseph, a master boot maker, had died aged just 35 back in 1874 but Anne was survived by six adult children.
Her son Joseph junior had lived with her and continued in residence at Lulworth after her death. He was a solicitor's clerk / cashier in Marlow but had sidelines as a photographer and a seller of typewriters using some of his mother's shop space for the latter. His photographic work featured in both local newspapers and the London Evening News. He was also a property speculator buying up plots of building land on Newtown Road then selling them on.
He was a politically active man being one of the founder members of the Marlow branch of the Tariff Reform League which pushed for tariffs to be imposed on the import of foreign goods into Britain to protect British businesses.
Joseph taught Pitman shorthand to both men and women at the Marlow Institute (being paid 5 shillings per class taught) and at Borlase School. At the Institute he took part in musical entertainments on the cello and viola. His musical talents and willingness to both act in and stage manage amateur dramatics also made Joseph a useful participant in fundraising events for both the Institute and the Catholic Church. Being a Catholic was difficult in late 1800s England with some people still questioning whether Catholics should really be able to hold any positions of authority in the country or vote for instance. These doubters included local people and an angry Joseph found himself writing to the papers many a time to object to Anti-Catholic hate speech by visiting speakers or letter writers to the local press. *
Did I mention he was an amateur competitive rower too, or one of the electoral returning officers who supervised polling stations in Marlow? That was one busy man. He still had time to tend his garden though and was on the committee of the annual Marlow Horticultural Show.
He appears to have left Lulworth by 1907. By 1913 he lived in Glade Nook, "Claremont Estate" Marlow. I think this house was in Claremont Gardens as we would call it today. When living there he served as Honorary Secretary to the local committee set up to help house Belgian refugees in the First World War. To read more about Marlow in the First World War see Kathryn's series of posts beginning with this one.
I found no evidence of a marriage for Joseph.
Photo by Kathryn Day. Research and text by Charlotte Day. Additional research by Kathryn Day.
*Being Catholic also opened up a few employment opportunities. Ann's teenage son John for example secured a position as a page at Danesfield House in Medmenham, home to the wealthy Catholic Scott Murray family. They had paid for the construction of the Catholic church in Marlow.
©Marlow Ancestors.
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