Trawling through my transcriptions of the 1891 census from microfilm I found some people with slightly more unusual occupations than the usual agricultural labourers, seamstresses and paper makers.
Roughton Henry Whall A native of Gloucestershire, Roughton was an organist and professor of music according to the census. He had the role of organist at the parish church in Marlow. He was also, though not at Marlow, a clarinet teacher. His older brother William Boulter Whall was a mariner who published an important book on English sea shanties in 1910. Roughton contributed the musical settings for the book while their niece Veronica illustrated the work. In 1891 Roughton aged 29 and his wife Flora (nee Adames, married Chichester 1887) lived along with a servant in the High Street. Roughton had lived in Marlow for about 4 years at that point. The Whalls were still there in the High Street in 1892 but seem to have moved away quite soon afterwards. The couple settled finally in Stroud, Gloucestershire where Roughton acted as the church organist for over 20 years. He died in 1937 leaving an estate worth just over £3,500. Flora passed away the next year with an estate worth a little under £9,000.
Charles Campton A watercress grower living Henley Road. Aged 34. The local watercress industry never garners much attention but it encompassed sites at Marlow (along the Henley Road), Little Marlow, Bourne End, Wooburn Moor and Medmenham. It was up in Chesham that the Bucks industry was centered however. There a Henry Dell grew 100 tons of the crop in 1881 alone. Half a bushel of watercress wholesale in 1885 was worth 1 shilling. It was a popular food in the Victorian era. Though it was made into soups and purees, it was thought to be most beneficial when eaten raw such as in a salad or sandwich. Charles Campton may have had streams flowing from the Thames to feed his watercress beds however running water was not necessary to grow the plant, a plentiful supply of near enough water from a well which could be used to wet the soil regularly was enough. Fellow Marlow Ancestors blogger Kathryn has grown watercress in her Marlow garden in the modern day nowhere near a stream. The water of course must be clean. During the 1890s there was a panic when the public began to realise that some growers were using water from streams into which Wycombe Sewage Works discharged their effluent, as well as water from potentially contaminated wells. The victims in all this were mostly Londoners who ended eating up he majority of Marlow area cress. Charles Campton is not known to have been involved in selling dodgy cress!
Jeffery Truss A bill poster aged 77 living West Street with his wife Ann, as they had done for years. Being the town Bill Poster was an official position with public announcements being posted up for the public by the man given that job. Though he does not say so on the census, Jeffrey had also been the town crier since at least 1866. He had earlier in life been a cordwainer. In 1894 poor Jeffrey was rendered bed ridden with paralysis and suffered the loss of his wife. He died himself the next year and was buried in St Peters Roman Catholic churchyard. Perhaps he was a late convert to Catholicism as he was for decades one of the bellringers of the C of E parish church. He was in fact one of the team that first rang the bells when the (current) new church was built back in the 1830s. Jeffrey also played the hand bells in local musical concerts.
A biography of his successor as Bill Poster for Marlow, Edward Hatton, has been published on the blog here.
Ellen Venables A draper's cashier visiting Clara and William Langston at no 12 High Street. It is quite unusual to see shop assistants specifically referred to as cashiers. This implies she most probably worked somewhere sufficiently large or busy for it to be someone's job to just take payment rather than to be a general assistant. More about the Langston's here
See:
Wikipedia article on W. B Whall, brother of Roughton.
Obituary Jeffrey Truss South Bucks Standard 14th June 1895.
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