Revd William Roome And His Son

Revd William James Boden Roome was at the Congregational Church in Quoiting Square between 1871 and 1873.

William was born in Chesterfield Derbyshire in 1832 and baptised at Sheffield. His father had since 1831 ran a "classical, mathematical and commercial academy" for young gentleman in Hollywell Street Chesterfield. William's mother was Charlotte née Boden. Her father James Boden was a very long serving Congregational minister at Queen Street Chapel Sheffield (hence her son's Sheffield baptism) not to mention both a writer of and collector of hymns. When he retired it was to Chesterfield. Her brother was also a minister while her sisters ran a school for young ladies in Chesterfield. So both Congregationalism and involvement in education were well established in William's background. 

In 1841 nine year old William suffered the deaths of both his mother and maternal grandfather. This was followed the next year by the loss of his maternal grandmother too. At the same time his father was suffering severe financial difficulties so life must have been hard for the boy.

By 1851 William had moved with his father and brother to Chelsea in London from where Mr Roome ran a small private school. Some of their pupils lived in with them, others came daily. 

At some point in the 1850s William left the family business to pursue his vocation in the church and in 1863 he was appointed to the Coventry Road Congregational Church in Birmingham. The next year he married (in the Camberwell registration district) Emma Eugenia Waterman.

In the late 1860s William moved with Emma to Lindfield, Sussex before being offered his post at Marlow in 1871. He left Lindfield in April of that year with a £40 purse donated to him by his congregation at his leaving do plus another £15 gifted to him after the official goodbye celebration.

At the time of the 1871 census William was in Marlow but not yet resident at the Congregational Church's manse in Chapel Street. Instead he lived at "Rose Villa". He was not officially received as the minister of the church until an event in the Sunday School room in late September 1871. During the Summer refurbishment work had been taking place inside the church building which may explain the several month's delay between his arrival in Marlow and his officially starting work.

If William had time on his hands he likely took the chance to indulge his passion for astronomy. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and both lectured and wrote about all things space related. He was also interested in ancient cultures whose religions were entwined with astronomical observations so he gave talks on the likes of the Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. None of these talks seem to have been at Marlow.

At the event welcoming him to the church in September 1871 the traditional rattling of a collection box occurred and the local newspapers reported that William's new congregation donated a generous amount towards the cost of those recent church refurbishments.

Nevertheless William seems not to have found Marlow quite to his liking as after just under two years as minister here he offered his resignation on the grounds that he did not feel supported in his work by his congregation. 

Just before he resigned one of the most important members of his flock, William Wright of Marlow Mills, died. The funeral was one of the biggest in town for several years but while Revd Roome was asked to say some prayers at the funeral the Wright family requested that former minister Andrew Mearns return to Marlow from London to conduct the main service. Revd Mearns was very popular and much in demand as a preacher everywhere- see my dedicated post for more about him. Perhaps William Roome felt a bit slighted.

He was certainly generally piqued as he not only said goodbye to Marlow, he turned his back on the whole Congregational church movement, becoming instead a Presbyterian minister. Initially he served in London, before moving to Aldershot Hampshire. 

William and Emma's son William junior trained as a surveyor but became a missionary in Africa working with the British and Foreign Bible Society and others. He traversed that continent seven times and as a result was able to draw up useful maps for other missionaries. He also made precise records of where each African language he encountered was used as he believed only by presenting Christian material in local languages would missionaries be ultimately successful. He published a biography of African Evangelical preacher Apolo Kivebulaya whom he had met there.

While he travelled widely within Africa, William junior specialised in the Belgian Congo. His lectures on the culture of the Pigmy peoples he met there were in demand in England and Ireland alike. He illustrated these lectures with photographs and film footage. His membership of the Royal Geographic Society pushed him to make some deviations from missionary routes to visit famed African places. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and visited the spot where Doctor Livingstone's heart was buried for instance. When not in Africa he worked as an architect and surveyor, mostly in Belfast where he chose to live. His mother Emma once widowed retired to live with him there. It seems the Irish links of the family may have come from her side. Both she and her son remained devoted Presbyterians. They regularly helped raise money to aid Belfast "cripples". Emma died aged 76 in 1917.

More minister biographies under the Church Related tab on the menu. All mentions of each person on this blog can be found in the Person Index on the top drop down menu. 

See:

United Presbyterian Magazine 1876.

Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle 1863, digitized by Google.

Reading Mercury 30th September 1871 and Bucks Herald 15th April 1871.

List of Fellows Royal Astronomical Society.

Marriage Registrations England and Wales GRO.

England and Wales Census 1851 and 1871 [My transcription from microfilm].

Thanks to Aiden O'Brien for finding the Sheffield baptisms.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to reproduce this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.