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Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Consumption Cures and Ball Tickets- George Cannon.

 One of the most amusing things about looking into the past is seeing just how many occupations one person could have at once.

When looking at Great Marlow history I developed a soft spot for George Cannon thanks to him managing to be a bookseller, owner of a circulating library, tea seller, stamp seller, printer and stationer in his early days before adding landlord, property speculator, chemist and druggist to his CV later. 

Not to mention the roles he had of churchwarden, husband and father.

As you can see from my photo of his grave below, George was born in Maidenhead but he was in Marlow by 1833.

He married Mary Ann Dyson in London in 1839. Despite the London marriage both parties were "of Marlow".

Mary Ann wasn't content to have the dual occupations of wife and mother either - she was a multi times prize winning poultry breeder! Sadly she died in the 1850s leaving George to a long period as a widower. Their son James Dyson Cannon grew up to assist George in the business.

The business was located at Market Place until 1853 when George relocated to the High Street. In 1833 his premises consisted of a house, printing offices, yard and garden and had an annual value of £22.

George's High Street premises. Formerly the home of Miss Sneath. 
 


To these premises you would have taken yourself to pick up Piso's"cure" for consumption (hmmm) or other such necessities. Whilst there you could also get yourself an auction catalogue on most occasions that there was a significant property sale in Marlow, not to mention in 1865 tickets for the town ball. George may have printed some of those auction sales catalogues. He certainly printed the ball programmes plus the library catalogue and membership rules for the Marlow Literary and Scientific Institute when it opened in it's first incarnation. (George was one of those on the founding committee). He also sold prints- of Marlow racecourse for instance or of the new suspension bridge (lithographic print 17 inches by 12 inches 1830 showing what the bridge would look like when finished cost 5 shillings). To go "shopping" at George's delightful shop, see this post here that lists some of the curios available within. 

George always had at least one live in servant on every census. His wealth is further evidenced by the list of property he owned at his death in 1881- Linden Villa in Wycombe Road [exists though knocked into the house next door and not labelled], a draper's shop in Spittal Street, 6 cottages opposite South Place [known as Cannon's Row, now Platts Row, see the post here], and a bakery in West Street all rented out or let out to others. Earlier in his life he had owned the Hope beerhouse in the High Street too.



George is buried with his granddaughter Emily Mabel Calcutt b. Sept 28 1875, d. January 6 1880.  And Willie Dyson Cannon B.Mar 6 1883, d. Jul 26 1883

George was also a keen singer who could be easily called upon to offer a song at a local meeting. For example he entertained the guests at the dinner in 1847 which honoured the failed Liberal election candidate Sir William Clayton. Several other shopkeepers and tradesmen also contributed a song each. George was a vocal and long term supporter of the Liberal candidates. Elections in Marlow were rarely peaceful and the full sorry story of that one is available here

Related Posts

George sold the land which the Catholic church was built on - read more here
 
To find all mentions of George and anyone else you are interested in, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu - there's over 3,150 people there. 



Some information sources:
My transcription of censuses, using census page microfilm images.

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

Robson's Directory, Buckinghamshire 1839 copy provided by the University of Leicester.

Newspaper copies at the British Library accessed via the BNA September 2020:
Bucks Gazette 14th December 1839, South Bucks Free Press 7th January 1865 and 12th May 1882. Reading Mercury 7th May 1830.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. 1847 Election research by Kathryn. 

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use the content of this post for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here.

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