The Eagles Have Landed- in Spittal Street!

 Joseph Eagle or sometimes "Eagles" ran a grocery shop in Spittal Street Marlow. This was close to the old Greyhound Inn. Sadly neither building still exists. Joseph was on the premises by 1833.

He and his wife were worshippers at the Salem Chapel now known as Christ Church (United Reformed) in Quoiting Square. Their daughters Charlotte and Elizabeth were baptised there in 1811 and 1812 respectively (but born 1809 and 1811). There was also a known daughter Harriet born circa 1818. I didn't see her baptism in the microfilm images I was studying but I may have missed it, ditto the son William and daughter Ann who appear on the censuses or other known daughter Keziah. They were probably just on another reel of film.

The register gives Elizabeth and Charlotte's mother as an Elizabeth which is puzzling as their father appears as married to an Ann on the census and a Joseph and Ann Courtney married in 1809, before the births of Charlotte or Elizabeth. 

Daughters Harriet and Elizabeth did not marry and acted as assistants in their father's shop during his lifetime. In 1840 a bad shilling was passed in payment to Harriet but the Marlow constables were already on the trail of the culprit and caught him while he was still in Eagle's shop.

Three years later a boy called Thomas Plumridge was sentenced to three days in jail for stealing a piece of pork from the shop.

Joseph died sometime between 1861 and 1871. Elizabeth and Harriet took charge of the business in his place. In 1879 Benjamin Green* appeared in court charged with stealing a bottle of sweets and a bottle of sherbet from them while Harriet was on duty behind the counter. He had moments earlier in the same courtroom been jailed for 3 months for poaching so the second charge was not pressed.

Elizabeth died in 1880 after which Harriet carried on with the assistance of her young niece Ann Cheer (daughter of her sister Ann AKA Annie). Harriet died in 1893. 

Her sister Charlotte married James Sawyer the baker at the age of 17. She ran the Sawyer's bakery in West Street for many years as a widow. See an image of the site of those premises and read more about Charlotte  here

Keziah Eagle's husband Jason Povey got into trouble for accepting a bribe to vote a certain way during one of Marlow's many notoriously corrupt elections. More on that and Jason in future.

For other shopkeeping Marlow families see the Biographies Of Families option on the top drop menu. And for other post related to shops see the Specific shops, schools etc option on the same menu.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. 

*Benjamin Green went on something of a one man crime wave in 1879. Early in the year he was acquitted of a charge of stealing a substantial amount of money from his employer Harriett Anthony of the High Street. At the same session he was also acquitted of stealing a pair of boots from Battings. However both the boots and the money were found later, secreted in the stables where Benjamin had worked.  He had claimed to have seen a man run out of the garden at the time of the robbery but it was a lack of footprints on bare soil to support his story that caused the police to be suspicious in the first place. 

Sources:

Bucks Herald 14th March 1840 and Bucks Gazette 11th March 1843. Reading Mercury 1st February 1879. Copies held in the British Library archives and accessed via the BNA March 2021.

My transcription of images of Salem Chapel baptisms on microfilm #007765132. Provided by the LDS church, Intellectual Reserve Inc.

1883 Kelly's Post Office Directory  published by Kelly's Directories Limited

1839 Robson's Commercial Directory. University of Leicester Archives.

1853 Mussons and Cravens Directory. University of Leicester Archives.

1844 Pigotts Commercial Directory.

Census 1841-91

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

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that the sources listed above don't lose credit for contributing.