Revd Alexander Henderson

Alexander Henderson arrived in Marlow to become minister of what was then the Congregational Church and is now Christ Church in Quoiting Square in 1882, taking over from the popular William Morton Mather. You can read a biography post on Mather here.

Alexander was a young unmarried Scot who had recently been at New College London. As a child his ambition had been to be an engineer. He realised this dream and was achieving success - he was actually described as a genius in fact- in his chosen field. However he then described how an unexpected calling for the church came upon him with increasing urgency and he decided to attend New College and seek ordination instead. He won the Marlow job in July 1882 and was ordained as minister in October that year. His father, also a Reverend with the name Alexander Henderson, was amongst those present at that time having journeyed down from Perth.

Though Alexander was not long at the church in Marlow- a little under a year- he made a mark by instigating and dedicating a new Sunday School and made two historic firsts for a non-conformist minister in the years after he left Marlow, which must have gladdened the hearts of his former congregation as they were widely reported in religious press at the time. (See below)

Another project he had at Marlow was to encourage and much expand a scheme set up by his predecessor which saw female Congregationalists visit at home other women connected to the church, especially poorer ones, to increase a sense of fellowship between them regardless of class background. Alexander knew it could be harder for women with their home and childcare responsibilities to attend church as often as they might have wanted to. He also knew home visits from the minister, while often very welcome and sometimes indispensable, could 'get in the way' a bit. He thought that the ladies would not be too self conscious in the presence of other mothers and wives however and would sing hymns together with them or listen to Bible readings from them whilst also attending to their sewing or other tasks. Alexander additionally encouraged female only prayer meetings in his newly done up Sunday Schoolroom.

Amongst the women of the Marlow congregation was an Elizabeth Chown of nearby West Street to whom he became engaged.

News reports do not give a reason for his resignation from Marlow in 1883 but do say that he was going to be missed by his flock. 

The next year he was a Congregational minister at Plymtree in Devon, before moving to Ware Hertfordshire in 1888 and later to a church at Old Gravel Lane, Wapping London. At the latter his flock were said to be largely dock labourers and their families.

Alexander became the first non-conformist to be appointed chaplain to Hanwell Mental Hospital and the first such chaplin to the Brentford Union (catering to the poor). He held both posts for over 15 years.

In 1918 he published a pamphlet "Redemption Draweth Nigh" which could be bought for a bargain 3 halfpennies. As far as I can see this was his only published work. At around the same time he was campaigning against local cinemas potentially being allowed to open on Sundays.

He died in 1938 at his home  Whitchurch Villa, Hanwell following a short but severe illness. He was aged 85. Alexander and his wife Elizabeth were married for 53 years and had several children.

Alexander was succeeded at Marlow by John Frederick Morgan Glanville.

To find other posts about ministers of the Congregational church, consult the index here

Sources:

Summers, William Henry. History of the Congregational Churches in the Berks, South Oxon and South Bucks Association: With Notes on the Earlier Nonconformist History of the District. United Kingdom, W. J. Blacket, 1905.

Christian World [Journal] 12th October 1882.

Maidenhead Advertiser 19th September 1883. 

The Non-Conformist. 1st October 1885.

Middlesex County Times. 13th August 1938. British Newspaper Archives.

Ealing Gazette. 29th June 1918. As above.

© MarlowAncestors. 

Jane Piggott , Victorian Market Gardener of Marlow

Imagine it is a year sometime within the first three quarters of the 19th century. Imagine too, that you are walking up West Street and into the area around what we would call Henley Road and Spinfeld Lane. There is a very good chance that of all the people you meet riding or walking in your direction, one or two will be a market gardener.  And furthermore there's a good chance that one of them will be a member of the Piggott (Pigott /Picket) family or will be someone working for them. This area of town, along with areas off Station Road, has a strong horticultural tradition. The link gets diluted as the century moves along. 

When you look through the winners of local mid Victorian horticultural shows, the same individuals tend to come up often. Most are, as you may presume, male and when the rules allowed, professionally employed as head gardeners in the local "big houses." But there's another name to be found regularly amongst the winners - Miss Jane Piggott. She is the subject of today's post. 

Jane's father Thomas (born at Marlow c1779) was a market gardener with "large gardens" off Majaws Lane (AKA Madge Hawes Lane, now known as Spinfeld Lane), along with a house. In 1833 the two are assessed to have a reasonable value of £7. This slightly out of town and out of sight location meant the gardens were not infrequently the subject of petty thieving of crops. For example, some potatoes were stolen from him in 1844. One newspaper denounced  such a loss to a "sober and industrious man."  A particularly audacious raid in 1847 saw some 300 plus cabbages lifted from his land. This made news far afield. Marlow in 1840s suffered something of a crime wave, with field crops, domestic fowls and agricultural and horticultural tools favoured items. So Thomas was far from alone but this can't have been much comfort to him!  

Jane was born around 1816. As a young woman she was a "cap worker" as was her sister Agnes. This industry was a huge employer of Marlow's young ladies in the regency and early Victorian period in particular. There were several large manufacturers of these caps (mostly for babies here) within Marlow, some of whom like the Washbournes had a workshop building (first in Chapel Street then Quoitings Square), others such as the Flint family employed mostly outworkers who completed their embroidery and finishing work within their own homes. Two of the most established cap work and satin stitch employers were based in West Street and West End, not far from the home of Jane and Agnes. So whether they walked into work each day, or went to collect fresh materials to work on, they probably didn't have to travel too far. 

So far, so conventional. But by the time of the 1851 census, Jane's occupation has changed. She is now described as a "market gardener". Ten years later she is called a "fruiterer".  In 1841, father Thomas was now aged 72 years old, and no doubt welcomed the help of his unmarried daughter to manage his business. How many garden labourers the Piggotts employed at once is not always easy to gauge, not least because of seasonal variations. But we can certainly find example of men who described themselves as working for the Piggotts during this time. It was common to employ casual labourers as you needed them. Most of the Great Marlow gardeners whose markets we know of for certain sold at Covent Garden or to the local middle men who themselves took the produce to London, rather than to local markets. This is why so many people worked as a fruiterer or vegetable dealer in Marlow, compared to the number of greengrocers and fruit monger shops here. 

After her father's death, Jane did not marry but continued to manage the market garden at Majaws Lane initially. Her nephew Henry Slade, born 1841, worked as a garden labourer for Jane at this time. (Son of sister Agnes and Henry Slade.) It's in the 1860s and 70s that she began to make herself well known in the world of horticultural shows. The history of these events in Marlow is fractured, with shows and societies coming and going. Hopeful beginnings and high ideals nearly always gave way before long to squabbles or declining interest. But when the shows were at their height, they and the "rural fetes" could attract an incredibly large audience from all around Marlow. One of the latter contests, held at Danesfield in 1867 saw Jane winning a number of prizes. She is entered as the name of the winner specifically. This does not however mean she did the physical labour of growing the crops. It was usual at this period for produce to be entered under the name of the person whose garden they grew in - so the work of the gardeners at the big houses would be listed under the name of their wealthy employer. Where the work came from a market garden, the items entered were credited to the boss of it. Either way, Jane is unquestionably recognised by the event organisers as the person in charge of the business in her own right. She is not the only female entrant in this era, but she is probably the most successful one. The prizes were usually money. For example Jane won 2s for her parsnips, 1s 6d for green peas (second prize) and 1s for onions (3rd prize) all at one show in 1863. Jane seems to have had particular success with vegetables such as marrows and dwarf beans, and of course cabbages which had seemed so inviting to those thieves a couple of decades before. But she also scooped regular firsts for fruit such as plums, pears and apples. 

Later on professional gardeners (and their wives) were excluded from entering many of the local shows. Luckily by this time Jane was now able to enter the Cottagers classes as she was working as a fruiterer which was not an excluded occupation. Now it's very likely that Jane was personally growing the vegetables, as any hint of someone showing produce other than their own was soon investigated. After the mid 1870s the number of female entries in horticultural shows also declined rapidly. When female only classes were reintroduced in the late Victorian and Edwardian period, they were seen as a modern stride forward! (And they were nearly always for things like flower arranging or for posies of  wild flowers.) Jane must have smiled when she considered her own success in the world of horticulture. 

To find every mention of an individual or family here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's over 4,000 people listed there. 

To find other posts related to West End and the Spinfeld Lane area see this index

For posts about other gardeners in Marlow history, see the index here

SOURCES:

1833 Parish Assessment - transcribed by Charlotte from the original notebooks held by our family. 

Census - 1841-1881, transcribed from the microfilm by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day. Census information always remains Crown Copyright. 

Bucks Gazette 13 March 1847,  British Library Archive, accessed via the BNA partnership. 

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 30 November 1844. Thanks to Mr Ende for a copy of this.

Reading Mercury, 27 June & 12 September 1863 & 14th September 1872. As above. 

Bucks Herald 17 September 1864, Courtesy of Mr Ende. 

 Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

© MarlowAncestors 

 

Bovingdon Green and Marlow Common Parochial Assessment 1833

 Updated August 2023, with additional research notes.

The next part of my gradual transcription of the original handwritten working notebooks used to compile this assessment along with related correspondence. These faded notebooks are in the possession of my family, and also contain some pencilled in corrections from the later 1830s, though not in this section. The assessment was compiled Autumn 1833 and was to be used to calculate tax rates for Marlow for the following year.

Transcribed by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this transcription with credit to this blog.

Bovingdon Green

Each occupying a cottage and garden with annual value of £4 10 shillings:

Thomas Frith [still in Bovingdon Green 1838]

Richard Fletcher

Thomas Jones

*****

Ephraim House

House and yard 

£5

*****

William Davies

House, yard, garden and woodhouse 

£10

*****

Marlow Common

Each in cottage and garden with annual worth of £4 10 shillings:

John Swadling

Thomas Mead [Described as in Bovingdon Green 1838]

William Howard [see below for another man of this name]

James Winkworth

*****

Henry Higgins [a Mr Higgins, poor man, was threatened and burgled by two men who forced themselves into his cottage home at Marlow Common in 1840. This may well be the same Higgins as here. If so his cottage was on the edge of Wolmer Heath "some three or four hundred yards from the other cottages on the Common"].

Cottage and garden

£4

*****

Each in a cottage and garden with an annual value of £5:

John Rose

Jesse Collins [ Will coming up on the blog in the next few months]

*****

Joseph Keep

Cottage and garden

£3

*****

John Blackwell [he was a blacksmith]

House, shop [this would mean workshop], garden and orchard

£9

Piece of ground on the Common

10 shillings

*****

William Howard

House and garden

£6

*****

Edward Collins [more on him including will notes here]

The Royal Oak House [pub, actually in Bovingdon Green]

£9

*****

James Martin

Cottage and garden

£5

Note: a "Mrs Butler", probably Ann,  died at Marlow Common a few weeks before the assessment. She was perhaps the widow of the "Mr Butler" who died there in 1825. Mrs Butler may have lived in one of the households above, or it may have been that one of those households was one that has just moved in to Mrs Butler's property after her death.

For more posts on either place see here

To see more of the 1833 assessment for individual streets in Great Marlow see this index

All mentions of any individual on this blog can be found on the A-Z Person Index on the top menu. Thousands of people are mentioned.

Creswell and Cresswell Graves, Parish Church, All Saints, Marlow (also Gudgin)

John Creswell, 1843, age 66 years, 

AND 

William Creswell Died 1869 age 92. (This is William formerly of The Compleat Angler. John on the grave above is his brother, a husbandman and race horse owner etc. Read more on William here)

CWC 1842, MAC 1843, AEC 1855, M C 18?? - these initials represent people marked on the larger grave below. 

 

The Creswell area, some graves unreadable now.

J C 18(43?) and W C  - date unreadable.  

JC 1873, above. Footer of James Creswell grave below. 

Above, grave of :

Charlotte Winifred Cresswell d. Sept 13 1842, age 17

ALSO  - Mary Ann Cresswell d. Jan 6 1843 age 7. 

ALSO - Ann Esther Cresswell d. Jul 16 1855 age 17 ( The monumental mason forgot the second Cresswell S and had to put a mini one in at the last by the looks of it! )

ALSO - Martha, Wife of James Cresswell Feb 11 18?7 age 42. 

Above and below, nestled next to John, is the grave of Charlotte Winifred Gudgin, nee Cresswell. She is his married sister. Her husband Robert worked in the paper mills and the couple lived in St Peter's Street.

Charlotte Winifred Gudgin. D.Jul 21 1872 age 82. 

James Creswell, above d. 1873 age 72/3. James was the nephew of the John, William and Charlotte above. There were several other names on this grave but they have now vanished. 

In a separate area to the above graves can be found this grave "In loving memory of my dear parents - Eliza Ann Creswell d Jan 25 1903 aged 73 and Henry Creswell d. June 9th 1913 age 79 years. [Henry was the son of George and Charlotte Creswell of The Swan and would later run The Cross Keys for a few years himself]

Rear of the grave: Also Ellen Creswell, date unreadable. Likely the daughter of the above Eliza and Henry who was known as Nellie. 

**Some Creswells converted to catholicism so are buried at St Peter's Church in Marlow**

Post on William Cresswell junior, the notorious miser, farmer, and barge owner - and son of William above can be found here

More graves for Marlow, Little Marlow and Hurley indexed here.

All mentions of any individual on this blog can be found on the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu.  Thousands of people are included.

©MarlowAncestors. 

The Hackshaw Family Of West Street

 John and Thomas Hackshaw, trading as Hackshaw and Sons saddlers and harness maker dissolved their partnership in 1821, seemingly through financial difficulties though Thomas the father was 64 years old and may have wished to wind things down a bit work wise. John managed to carry on the business but he became insolvent in his own right in 1823. His financial matters were still unsettled in 1828. Once again however he recovered and continued trading. 

The premises he occupied are photographed below in the modern day. In 1832 they were assessed as being worth £11 a year and consisted of a house, garden, workshop and shed. Thomas Hackshaw operated as a collar maker (this meant of horse collars not human!) in Marlow by 1789 but I cannot say for certain that this was in the same premises. It is very likely that it was however. As well as making saddles and harnesses he had a sideline in making ropes and supplied some to the church in Marlow for the bellringers to use. Thomas is likely also be the same Thomas who was a volunteer (elected) parish constable from at least 1791-1799. John's mother was Mary (nee Burgin) who looks to have died in 1811. Thomas had previously been married to a Catherine Russell. 

Above: the black and white building is the Hackshaw family home and premises. The Lovegroves lived in the house on the right. The black and white woodwork of the Hackshaw building does not date from the time of their occupancy. It is a later addition.

John's first wife Harriet died aged only 40 in 1832 and in 1835 John Hackshaw married Harriet Lovegrove the widow from next door. Harriet had been running a boarding and day school for young ladies with her step daughter daughter Mary until Mary's death aged just 23 in 1832. 

Mary left most of what she had to Harriet. A summary of her will can be found on the blog here.

Thomas Hackshaw the father of the family died in 1838. A happier event that year for John and Harriet came with the baptism of their son John who would grow up to be a saddler and harness maker himself as well as a rope maker.

Four years later John senior was one of those called as a witness during an official investigation into widespread voter fraud in Marlow in 1842. Marlow was famous for it's dirty elections! John testified that another West Street resident had moved out of the town prior to the previous election, thus losing his right to vote in contests for a Marlow M.P. Despite this the man had cast a vote.

In 1856 John became bankrupt again. He and Harriet must have suffered greatly as a result of this because it meant the forced sale of not only his tools, equipment and stock but also the couples household furniture to pay their debts. Beds, tables, carpets and kitchen equipment all had to go. John's stock included brushes for horses and whips as well as the obvious horse bits and harnesses. From the full list of items that he had John was clearly catering for both agricultural, "sporting" (hunting) and general customers.

Some stock and tools were probably in the name of his son John junior who still lived at home and worked with his father. John junior continued in the trade but John senior became a tailor.

Harriet and John died within weeks of each other in 1869. At this point the administration of her stepdaughter Mary Lovegrove's will was apparently still not completed as it had to be passed on to someone else! John Hackshaw junior soon became bankrupt himself.

Note: there was a slightly older John Hackshaw who lived in nearby Oxford Lane and who was married to a Sophia. Don't confuse the two John seniors!

Our John and his first wife had children Charles, Christopher, Frederick, George, Harriet, Henry, and an earlier John.

Thomas Hackshaw was baptised 1757 Great Marlow to Geoffrey and Mary Hackshaw.

For every mention of a person on this blog see our A-Z index where you find over 6,000 people listed. More historic West Street residents and stories can be found indexed here. More biographies of historic Marlow families here

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Sources:

1841,51 censuses my transcription from microfilm. 1861 census Rootspoint.com. 1871 census -Jane Pullinger transcript from microfiche. All censuses remain Crown Copyright.

Great Marlow Parish records transcribed from the original register book by Alan Day.

1833 parochial assessment notebooks in my possession, transcribed by me.

Reading Mercury 16th Feb 1856 via the BNA and British Library Archives.

1839 Robson's Directory, University of Leicester Archives.

Dutton, Allen, & co.'s directory & gazetteer of the counties of Oxon, Berks & Bucks. United Kingdom, n.p, 1863.

Slater, Isaac. Slater's, late Pigot & co., Royal National and Commercial Directory and Topography of the Counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire. United Kingdom, n.p, 1852.

More Great Marlow Strays

Lost track of a Great Marlow born or resident ancestor? Look for them in these Great Marlow Strays listings.  If we come across mention of someone from Great Marlow living, dying, marrying or otherwise popping up elsewhere in the country, we collect the information and post it here. To find all mentions of an individual or family on the blog use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.  

Etheredge - see Moore

Elliott, 

MARRIAGE - 1685, Elizabeth Elliott of Great Marlow, spinster aged about 22, daughter of William Elliott, butcher, to Richard Stocke of St Trinity in the Minories, citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, bachelor age 22.  

Fitzpatrick - Henry of Great Marlow to Esther Swift of Brentford, Middlesex. By licence. March 1745, At George's Chapel, Hyde Park Corner. 

Frewing - Rev J J, eldest son of James Frewing of Oxford Road, Marlow. MARRIAGE - 11 August 1892, to Blanche Maria Harris, daughter of Charles Harris of Tewkesbury. At the Congregational Church, Tewkesbury.  (South Bucks Standard 26 August 1892)

Hackshaw, Henry

MARRIAGE: Henry, eldest son of Mr J Hackshaw of Great Marlow to Emma Harrison of "Mead-Row, near Godalming". At Holy Trinity Church, Paddington. 3 October 1850. [Sussex Advertiser, 15 October 1850]

Hone, Susanna: 

1. DEATH Paris, November 1844. Eldest daughter of late John Hone, Esq of Great Marlow. Age 22. [Morning Herald, London 25 November 1844] 

2. DEATH At Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Age 70. February 1869. Widow of John Hone of Great Marlow. 

Hone, Annie - MARRIED at Tunbridge Wells, April 10 1850. To Rev George Goldney M.A. of Southfield.  [Gentleman's Magazine, 1850] Only surviving child of the late John Hone, Esq of Great Marlow. 

Harris, Mrs (no first name given)

DEATH - May 28 1894, St Mary Cray Kent. "Born Chapel Street 1826", 48 years resident in Marlow. (Newspaper cutting, untitled,  June 1894.)

Jorden, Elizabeth - See Morsender. 

Lovegrove, Miss Charlotte

Died age 83 in Brixton on March 29th 1865 [Bicester Herald April 7th 1865]

Lovelace, Lydia MARRIAGE - of Great Marlow to John Butler of Wooburn. St James Chapel, Mayfair, January 1746. 

Mealing, Robert

MARRIAGE - Robert, of Great Marlow to Sarah, daughter of William Evans of Cheddar Somerset. Marriage took place at St Michaels Church, Chester Square, London, by Rev J H Hamilton on 7th October 1862. (South Bucks Free Press, 11 October 1862)

Moore, Catherine

MARRIAGE - April 1683, Catherine Moore, spinster of Great Marlow, to Sir James Etheredge age 26 bachelor of The Inner Temple. She age 20, and married with consent of her mother her father being dead. At "St Bennet Finck, London", by licence. 

Morsender (qv), Robert 

MARRIAGE - widower and labourer of Great Marlow to Elizabeth Jorden widow also of Great Marlow. St James Chapel, Mayfair April 8th 1729. 

Plumeridge, Joseph

MARRIAGE  - Joseph of Great Marlow to Rebecca Woodley (of Harwell?) Berks. At Harwell, 12 Feb 1779. By licence. 

Salter, Agnes 

MARRIAGE - October 1607 to Richard Sanders, at Chesham. Both of their mothers are widows. (Transcript Chesham Parish Registers by John W B Pegge, 1904)

Smith, Mathias

MARRIAGE - April 1680, Mathias Smith of Great Marlow, widower age about 55 to Mary Glew, spinster of St. Pauls, Covent Garden, Middlesex, aged about 45. At All Hallows in the Wall, London. Mary married "at her own despose" that is needed no parental consent as she was an adult according to her testimony. 

Trew, William. Surgeon of Great Marlow. 

DEATH - at father's residence in St Peter's, Thanet, Kent. Age 36. February 24th 1851. Father given as Thomas Trew, Esq. (Medical Directory of Ireland.  John Churchill 1852. Does not just list Irish doctors)

Wilcocks, Joseph

DEATH - at "Slow nr Windsor" (Slough?) Of Great Marlow, July 1793 (Bath Chronicle, 18 July 1793)

Additional Sources:

The Register of Baptisms and Marriages at St George's Chapel, Mayfair, edited by Sir George J Armymage, (Mitchell & Hughes, 1889.)

Notes from the parish registers of Harwell, Berks taken by Rev F J Williams, 1909. 

Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued by the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Canterbury, edited by George Armytage (Mitchell & Hughes 1890) 

©GreatMarlowAncestors