Theophilus Clifford - stonemason

Updated December 2023

If you have ever crossed Marlow Bridge you have seen the stonework of he wonderfully named Theophilus Clifford. His first name is from the Bible and though a bit old fashioned for a man born as he was circa 1796 it would have been a familiar first name to most people in his day.

Theophilus married in his native Oxford in 1817 to fellow local Sarah Goodall. At some point in the early 1820s the couple moved to Marlow after Theophilus bought a stonemason's business there from Mrs Smith. In 1823 Theophilus sued his neighbour Mr Allum for £300 for slander after Allum publicly accused him of stealing a leaden pump from the yard they shared. 

A great opportunity for the young stonemason presented itself with the 1829 decision of the town to replace it's wooden bridge with a new iron suspension bridge.

Theophilus, in partnership with Marlow builder Thomas Corby, won the contract to do the stonemasonry and brickwork for the bridge's pillars. The bridge building process was a painful and fraught one. I have a post on the blog which goes into detail about this if you want to learn more - see link below. Suffice to say money was in short supply. Theophilus and Thomas found themselves being asked to take a pay cut from their contract price, with the threat of being replaced if they refused. They had already started work, and Theophilus had had to procure the stone from suppliers pressing continually to be paid themselves so such a request seems unfair.

There was growing unease about the bridge project per se and Theophilus and other contractors came to realise that they had to agree to lower and later payments or risk the whole project.

So it was perhaps with mingled feelings Theophilus gazed upon the finished project in the Autumn of 1832. His early pride in the suspension bridge is evidenced however by the naming of his and Sarah's daughter with the middle name Suspensiana in 1829. You can read about the extraordinary struggles to complete the Suspension Bridge here.

Other places that Theophilus is known to have worked include Cromwell House in Marlow High Street and in Little Marlow Church.

Theophilus and his family lived in the High Street. In the 1833 parochial assessment notebooks the property he occupied was described as a dwelling house, workshop, garden and yard with an annual value of £10.

The year of the assessment Theophilus was burgled and a copper boiler and some pots and pans were stolen from his home.

Later in the 1830s he had to pay £70 compensation to a Mr Strange for allegedly maliciously and falsely prosecuting him for allegedly stealing marble offcuts from him. Strange said that Theophilus was trying to crush him as he wanted to set up his own business in rivalry to Theophilus who had previously had no rival in the town of Marlow. 

In the early 1840s Theophilus and Sarah returned to Oxford. They lived in St Aldgates in the city centre. Tragically Theophilus died aged only 55 in 1845. His will left all he had to his "dear wife" Sarah in her lifetime then to all his children equally. He wanted three of his children in particular- Jane, Charlotte and James- to have his furniture. Sarah was the sole executor of the will and guardian of their children. The 1841 census also shows children William and Mary to the couple. Mary became a straw hat manufacturer. She married Henry Quarterman and had several children before dying at the age of 40. More on her and other straw hat makers in Marlow here

William became a stone mason like his father but died of consumption aged 27 a year after Theophilus.

Daughter Jane also died of consumption in 1846. Other daughters died prematurely too- Sarah aged 23 in 1841 and Elizabeth aged 19 in 1842.

Sarah died after a long illness at Rose Place, St Aldates Oxford in 1863 aged 65. She was buried at Marlow with several of her children. See the grave here.

For other grave pictures see under Graves on the menu. All mentions of someone on the blog can be found by searching for them on the Person Index.

See:

Original will from Oxfordshire Record Office.

Oxfordshire marriage bonds and allegations, Find My Past, accessed October 2020.

1841 census, transcribed from microfilm image by me.

Quarter Session Records, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies.

1833 original parochial assessment notebooks and corrections in possession of my family and transcribed by me.

Grave transcription by Kathryn.

Windsor and Eaton Express 27th July 1833. British Library Archives.

Jane's death notice= Oxford Chronicle 28th March 1846. Copy held at the British Library and accessed by me online via the BNA September 2020.

© Marlow Ancestors. If quoting from this material credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain linked to the information they provided.