The Misses Barton were formerly large scale employers in a characteristic Marlow industry for upwards of half a century. Yet hardly anyone remembers them now. As female business owners and ones employing an entirely female workforce, our story of Marlow's Victorian women of business wouldn't be complete without them. Their industry was the manufacturer of embroidered clothing, in particular baby clothes. Marlow used to be famous for this, and if you have a young female ancestor* who gave their occupation as satin stitch worker or embroiderer in a census, it's very likely they were working in this industry. There were several large employers in Marlow in this field, including the Washbournes, Flints, and Bartons, occupying several hundred women and girls between them. Fashion's came and went, and all the families manufacturing in this are had their financial ups and downs as we shall see, but they nevertheless lasted most of the 19th century and some beyond.
Susan (b.1820), Rosa (b 1830, Ada (b.1826) and Amy (b.1832) never married. Their sibling Charlotte (b.1813) did but was soon widowed and returned to Marlow to live with her sisters. (It's surprisingly common for local woman who had their own means of making a comfortable income to remain single we've noticed. Money bought choices unavailable to the poor.) They had at least one brother with them for a while at Marlow - Frederick. He will be researched more later but today's subject is the Barton woman.
Background
The girl's parents William and Charlotte were not of local birth and seem to have moved here from London in the late 1830s. William was a baby linen manufacturer at this time. They had certainly arrived by early 1840, when they were living in West Street in a house valued at £17, let from Sir William Clayton. A near neighbour was the Flint family of fellow embroiders/cap makers. At this time, it was estimated 2,000 women and girls were employed to produce satin stitch work for these kind of employers in the neighborhood of Marlow. The relationship between these two big rival concerns is an interesting one. I believe they became acquainted when both were in London. But by this point, their relations were anything but cordial. In 1841 William Barton acted as an "informer" as it was referred to at the time. He reported that old family friend John Tarrand Flint was engaging in the "truck system" at Marlow. This means he was accused of paying some of his female workers in the form of groceries rather than ready money. This practice had now been made illegal for most manufacturers to do. William said this was not fair on the workers and had a disastrous affect on local shop keepers if allowed to go on. (And of course might have reduced Flints costs in a competitive market, especially as the goods supplied were supposed to be tea and coffee supplied by one of his sons then working for a tea dealer.) Barton sent to the Aylesbury assizes to lay his information. This was not well received in Marlow where the Flints were well regarded, especially as it was said to be an act of ingratitude by the Bartons who apparently had been assisted by the Flints when in "abject need". Furthermore John Flint had taught the baby linen business to the Bartons in the first place they said. The Flints denied they paid anyone other than in coin, and the justices declined to take the case further. William Barton tried again at the local magistrates court but they said that the women's work didn't count as manufacture as defined in the Act that banned the Truck System. William then presented a letter from an MP who had first proposed the bill. The latter said it was his intention that the law should apply to all wages but the JPs said intention was all well and good, but the letter of the law as passed was their business. William thought the Flints should have to pay a heavy financial penalty, but they always denied having begun the truck system. So no more came of the matter directly. It seems that the Barton's son Frederick was involved in an altercation with Flint's son Charles the year before, which saw the former convicted of assault and fined £5. Sympathy was expressed at the levying of what was the maximum penalty, considering all that seems to have been involved was the shaking of a fist in a face, and maybe a little shove. It was assault considered that the magistrates should have taken into account that young Frederick Barton claimed to have been much provoked by Charles Flint blackening his character to his unnamed employer with the supposed intent of stealing his position! Reports in different papers come down either very harshly on the Bartons or quite the opposite, and partly this is because the papers were very politically partisan and the Barton family were associated with the Clayton political cause. When William's outbuilding in West Street was the victim of arson in 1843, the Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury news thought "It is to be regretted that any one could be found base enough to attempt to do an injury to one so universally respected and who from his kindness it was thought impossible to have an enemy". Short memories there. As both parties were generally known for generosity and good employee relations, let's hope the squabbles worked themselves out and the two could live happily in the same town over the next few decades!
Housing trouble
But back to the sisters. The time after their arrival in Marlow was obviously rocky. Although their house in West Street sounds a good size and had a pleasant garden stocked with fruit trees and flowers, it was also described as in quite a state of disrepair. It's hard to know how far in the past the Barton's financial difficulty was. A nice looking residence in a respectable street quietly falling apart behind the scenes suggests perhaps they needed to be cautious with their funds. They moved out to another house in West Street in the summer of 1840. I do not know if the girls themselves had any embroidery training beyond what all young ladies were expected to have, but their mother Charlotte was certainly an accomplished needlewoman. She was still had the eyesight and dexterity to execute complicated sewing projects in her senior years, including an embroidered family portrait completed when she was age 80. This was put on display in Marlow on a few occasions as part of fundraising events.
Elections in Marlow were usually fraught, sometimes violent and always accompanied by accusations of fraud and bribery on both sides. William Barton's vote was struck off as invalid in the 1842 election as he had voted (for the Claytons) on the strength of occupying the first West Street house mentioned above. But he'd actually moved out before the election and you had to be actually be in occupation in your registered property in order for your vote to count. (And for a minimum time before the voting day.) No action was generally taken against those voting when not entitled to, and in William's case it was probably an innocent error, as the house he moved into would also have qualified him to vote had he registered on the strength of occupying it - although he might have fallen slightly short of the minimum residency. Those who wanted his vote discounted said the disputed house was empty with a "for rent" sign up in the window. Several workman employed to do it up then said there was no furniture there. But as what counted as "occupation" was not always simple, it was attempted to show that as the Barton girls and their mother had visited the old house and picked the fruit from the garden, it was still occupied. They had gone in as they had not got to the end of their notice period the family said, and Clayton had commenced household repairs in the hope of finding another tenant sooner. If he could, he'd let them off the rest of the notice. The court was not convinced especially as the Barton's had all the furniture in the new house, and so the vote was thrown out.
A Comfortable Life
By 1851, the family had moved to what was then known as Mill Lane or Thames Bank, now Mill Rd. (Thames Bank was also the name of a substantial house, but the Barton were not in occupation there.) Later they would occupy the beautiful property known as Thames Lawn. Now this is NOT the house now known as Thames Lawn (which was previously known as Thames Bank House and Goodyers) but an earlier version that stood nearer the lock which burned down in 1897. It was rebuilt in a different style and much enlarged but within a few years the name had changed and Thames Lawn was adopted as a moniker for the house that currently bears the name. 10 years later we are told the Barton's employ 80 hands. By this time Rosa had sadly passed away. The remaining Barton sisters were aged between their late 20s through to their 40s, and it's difficult for us to know how involved at this point they were in the business. Their parents were elderly though, and it's hard to imagine they wouldn't have welcomed some assistance. They clearly knew enough to practically take over things when their father died in 1872.
At an uncertain point probably some time before Williams death, the others moved out of Thames Lawn which was then in the occupation of William Rose, a solicitor. The 1872 household furniture sale which occured on the death of Rose gives us a glimpse into what must have been a comfortable home, as well as a prettily placed one. Among the objects sold by Roses estate were a library of 900 (yes 900) books, a nearly new oak punt, a "very fine" dining suite, old Wedgwood, Chelsea and oriental china, a phaeton, bronze figures and some oil paintings. [It was common to sell up possessions when moving, even if not after a death, necessity was not necessarily involved and was not in Roses case.] The Bartons remained in Marlow - I'm uncertain as the address the immediately moved to but in the 1890s onwards they were living at Wood View.
The Ladies Lend A Hand
It's from the 1870s on that we see the sisters start to be listed much more often at events, as subscribers, at meetings etc in their own right. I think this was a new chapter in their lives, independence in financial and social matters going together. It's a shame that so often they are listed just as "the misses Barton" as it's difficult to get an idea of the individual interests and character of the women. It does seem that all had a hand in the business though, as variously each are described as a baby linen manufacturer at times. Susan died in 1878 though.
They always appeared amongst those ladies manning stalls and tea tables at parish events, such as the annual parish tea and harvest festival. They were especially active in supporting the cottage hospital. Not only did they subscribe to it (to provide for its maintenance), but they also organised collections to make sure everyone else contributed too! And they made very frequent donations of practical items from newspapers for the patients to read to things like butter, eggs and old linen which was recycled into cleaning materials etc.
It seems the sisters maintained an interest in history, in particular that of their craft. They owned lots of items of antique linen and clothing which they lent to various local exhibitions and fundraisers. In 1891 they displayed some of these plus a handsomely embroidered muslin dress at a display of local craft and industry held at the Music Room in St Peter's Street (now the Masonic centre). But the exhibition I'd most like to have seen was what they contributed in 1884 to what was known as a "Conversazione" at Marlow Place. This was a fundraising event for the Literary Institute and was a sort of display of curiosities with an supposedly intellectual bent. The Misses Barton lent the embroidered family portrait of the family completed by their mother mentioned above, as well as artwork, a piece of lace made out of the pith of an Indian tree, a silver snuff box, an Egyptian water bottle and a portrait of the former Russian Czar, as removed from a cottage at Sebastopol by a former Marlow resident. An interesting collection!
I haven't traced the death of Amy but the last of the other sisters, Ada Sarah occured in 1906. There wasn't much of a baby linen or large scale embroidery trade left in Marlow although there were still plenty of woman earning a living as dressmakers, seamstresses and the like. Considering the work produced here was once considered amongst the best in the country, according to William Barton, it's a shame it's not a trade better remembered.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day
* Not all of the women working in this industry were young. In 1891 it was noted that Samuel Flint (son of Charles) had a number of elderly women working for him, including some aged 80.
Related posts:
This deals with the sudden death of one of the Barton's servants: here
The Flints, embroiders of Marlow: here
All mentions of an individual or family here can be found in the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.
Index of posts related to other Marlow industries and employers etc here
Sources include:
Report into the controverted Elections at Great Marlow (1843 Anon)
Journals of the House of Commons February 3-December 13, 1842: Vol 9 Publication date February 3-December 13, 1842. HMSO
Census transcript from the originals, by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day.
England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJVS-1NY : 13 March 2020), Charlotte Benton Barton in entry for Thomas Hamer, 1837.
Kelly's Directory of Bucks 1899 (Kelly's Directory Ltd)
Dutton's Commercial Directory 1863. (Dutton & Co 1863)
Windsor & Eton Express 17th March 1842, Slough Borough Libraries
South Bucks Standard 13 November 1891, 29th November 1895, British Library Archive
Bucks Herald 8 November 1884, 29th Jan & 6th October 1906, as above
Bucks Gazette 28th March 1840 & 27th February 1841, as above
Bucks Examiner, 27th February 1891 as above.
Bucks Advertiser And Aylesbury News 22 April 1843, as above
Thames Bank/Lawn research by Kathryn.