Number 7 Glade Road today. Now renamed.
Given the Shamrock name is this Marlow's luckiest address?
Maybe so!
On 18th March 1896, Emma Hubbard died at her home there at the age of 98. [She was baptised at Cookham in June 1797]. A great age to reach at any time but especially lucky to achieve for a woman born in the 1700s. Emma was the widow of William Hubbard originally of Pinkney's Green. The couple had no children.
He was a corn merchant / insurance agent and general business man. The couple moved about a considerable amount during their married life and Emma made quite a few moves herself as a widow.
The local news obituary of Emma stated that she was a cheerful woman with a sharp memory till the end of her life. It explained too that she was the daughter of farmer John Westbrook and was born on Spencer's Farm, Maidenhead. This was located on the road to Cookham. The baptism record shows her mother to be an Ann.
John Westbrook was a gentleman farmer holding not only Spencer's Farm but several others nearby.
The newspaper obituary also said that Emma was a relative of Richard Westbrook who once ran the Crown in Marlow. I haven't investigated whether this is accurate. The pub business was in the family- Emma's older brother John ran the Saracen's Head in Beaconsfield from circa 1841 until he sold up in 1848.
She came to Marlow in the 1870s to live with her brother John having previously lived as a widow in Reading with her married sister Sarah Micklem and Sarah's husband the magistrate Edward Micklem. It was after John Westbrook's death in 1877 that she moved to Shamrock Cottage. Accompanying her was her niece Eliza as a paid companion, presumably the "Miss Westbrook ". Emma and Eliza had arrived in Glade Road by the time of the 1881 census. By 1891 the two had added a 15 year old live in servant to the household, Dora. I found Dora's last name hard to read- Mare? Emma was living on her own means. Her husband's financial affairs seem to have been a bit up and down, and her dad made her sister Caroline his only heir but Glade Road was a moderately expensive address so Emma was either frugal or a shrewd investor of what she had.
What of Eliza Westbrook her paid companion? Well perhaps some of that lucky shamrock charm had rubbed on her too as she lived to at least the age of 101! She moved away from the cottage at some point between 1903 and 1911. By 1939 she lived at number 8 Station Road Marlow.
Eliza was a regular donator of goods like clothing to the patients of the Cottage Hospital in Glade Road. Her aunt Emma used to donate gifts to children in Buck's workhouses so theirs was a kind household.
William Fisher was the resident of Shamrock Cottage by 1911 and until at least 1924. More on him in future.
For more residents of specific houses in Glade Road, Marlow see on the menu under "Specific Shops, Streets....ETC".
All mentions of any individual on the blog can be found on the Person Index.
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Sources included:
Bucks Herald 28th March 1896. South Bucks Standard March 1896. British Library Archives.
Censuses my transcription from microfilm.
Kelly's Directory of Bucks 1911, 1915 and 1924. Kelly's Directories Limited.
"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NY1S-177 : 21 September 2020), Emma Westbrook, 1797.
GRO death registrations, GRO.
Will John Westbrook, 1839. National Archives, Kew. Transcribed by me.
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