A Shilling And No More!

 

Jane Trask ran her grocery business on this site by 1814. Above is a photo of the site of her business as it looks today but note the premises were rebuilt before 1894 so what we see today is not the actual building which she used. At her death in 1816 she left her business to her niece and nephew Ann and John Hood. They struggled to make a go of the business and became insolvent in 1817. Later that year Ann married William Mathews who took over running things and made a great success of it. He was also a tea dealer.

He died in 1833 and left all his personal property to his wife Ann for her life then it was to go to their youngest son Thomas. William the elder son in the family had, his father wrote, already had sufficient sums advanced to him in life and thus his father did not feel justified in leaving him more than a token shilling as an inheritance. Ann was the will's executor. 

She carried on the business as a widow. Her son Henry was also listed as a grocer, presumably helping his mother, in 1839.

Son William occupied the other part of their subdivided home. In 1833 William's part was worth £10 a year and Ann's part was worth £14. She was on the right hand side.

In 1834 Ann had two whitewash brushes that she had left hanging on a nail outside her window stolen by Henry Neighbour and William Willis. She could prove that they were hers because her deceased husband had carved a distinctive mark onto them. The men received a sentence of six weeks hard labour. William Willis continued offending and ended up being transported to Australia. Read more about him here.

None of the Mathews family were still living in Marlow in 1841. The premises they had previously used were then occupied by the Footitt family Chemists. These moved across the street to different premises in 1860. More about them in a post of their own here.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Sources: 

My transcriptions of the wills of William Mathews, Jane Trask and Robert Colbourne. Both wills held at the National Archives.

1833 parochial assessment. Original handwritten notebooks held by my family and transcribed by me.

1831 Pigots Directory.

1853 Mussons and Cravens Commercial Directory. University of Leicester archive.

Bucks Herald 5th July 1834. Copy held at British Library and accessed by me March 2021 via the BNA.

England Marriages from Familysearch:

(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NNP9-HJN : 11 March 2020), William Matthews, 1817.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this image or research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here do that the sources I list do not lose credit for providing information. Thanks.