Will of Elizabeth Lambe 1731

 Will of Elizabeth Lambe of Great Marlow. Written 1728, proved 1731.

 Says she is writing will because of the uncertainty of this transitory life.

Commends soul to God and hopes for pardon and remission for her sins.

Debts and funeral charges to be paid by her own executor. She to be decently interred.

To Mrs Susan Cooke a ...gown.....(several indecipherable words)

To Mr John Cooke four silver (medals?) and two pairs.....

To Mr Thomas Stanton a gold ...ring.

To Mrs Cordelia Stanton a gold locket.

To Mrs Dority [spelling reflects the common pronunciation of the name Dorothy at this time] Ward a green emerald ring with two diamonds.

To Mrs Dority Cavalier a mother of pearl snuff box bound with silver.

To Mr Peeter Pagett a silver snuff box.

To my brother....Bot... £5 and to Debora his wife £5, my wedding ring and a black cloth gown.

To John Rogers and Thomas Rogers my nephews £10 apiece.

To Richard, Robert and Debora (Dirks?) my cousins £5 apiece.

To Grace (Dirks?) a black silk gown.

To my sister Mary (Borch? Booth?) a black  gown and to her husband a silver spoon.

To Mrs Dority Horniman an ash coloured suit of silk and a quilted petticoat of red and green. In case the Ship "Mediterranean" in which the said suit and petticoat goes should miscarry the executor to make good the loss by way of a quantity of silk. [As becomes clear later in the will the testator is writing her will onboard a ship].

To Mr William M... £10.

I give mourning rings to Reverend Mr Benjamin Crow, to Mr William Gray, Mr Thomas Blackwell, Mr Thomas ...., Mr David Cannon, Mr Ch..g merchant at..., Mr John ..an, Mr John Row, Mr Robert Cartwright and his wife Mrs Mary Cartwright, Mr... my nephew and to his wife, each of the three sister of Mr (Mins?) in Bishopgate Street [presumably the street in London], Mr John Newton distiller and to his wife, Mr Thomas Buttler, Mr Cavalier of ...ghouse, to Captain Brown and to his wife, to Captain..., Mr Chamberlain Godfrey.

To Captain John Hark at my safe arrival at Legh... £10.

All else of personal estate to loving niece Anne Rogers who is also made executor of the will.

Witnessed by Richard Sh... and William May.

***

Questions may have arisen over the will as Elizabeth had made a mistake. Mr William May and Debora Rogers both of London appeared to give sworn statements as to being familiar with the testator and her wishes. William said that Elizabeth Lambe was late of Great Marlow, formerly of London and also of an illegible place in Italy. He was a fellow passenger on a merchant ship carrying Elizabeth from Legh...to England in April 1728 when and also took lodgings opposite her own lodgings when they arrived in London. There they both lived for several months.  She asked him to come and help her with her will in October 1728 [presumably ahead of her return voyage from London to Leigh...]. At the time Elizabeth indicated that she had forgotten the first name of the niece Rogers that she wanted to execute her will (!!!!). It was either Anne or Debora she thought but didn't think it mattered if the will got it wrong. Elizabeth was dictating the document to William and as she said it wasn't important that he rendered the name correctly he plumped for naming the executor as "Anne Rogers". Some time later he was once more a fellow passenger on the "Mediterranean" ship with Elizabeth and also her niece - Debora Rogers as it transpired not Anne! During the voyage Elizabeth indicated to him that this was the niece she intended to be the executor and main beneficiary of the will. This niece Debora he brought to the probate hearing. The court accepted this and Debora was allowed to execute the will. 

Hopefully she used some of her inheritance to get a nice big pendant with her name on to hang about her neck in case other relatives of hers were similarly vague as to her identity.

This p.c.c will transcribed from the original held at the National Archives, Kew and then summarized by me Charlotte Day.

Many other will transcriptions are on this blog, see the Wills Index.

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

Hawkins Farm Occupiers and Timeline

 Mixed farm on the road to Frieth. 1833= 93 acres. There was a long history of gypsy families pitching their tents on a piece of rough grassland next to the farm and its environs were also a magnet for blackberry pickers coming up from Marlow in the 1800s. Hares were once abundant in this vicinity.

Occupiers of Hawkins Farm (who are not normally the owners) Gaps in dates are gaps in my knowledge. I will endeavour to fill them all in as I wade through my old research notes or do new research=

1574= Farm existed. The name seems to have come from a contemporary owner of part of the land. A Hawkins Lane was then close by, a now vanished address.

1833= RH Russell. Owned by Sir William Robert Clayton of Harleyford. 

1841= Richard Russell (census). His aunt Martha and sister Emma live with him. Note this is clearly the Henry Richard Russell mentioned below going just by "Richard".

1842= Henry Richard Russell. Henry seems to have owned the Coach and Horses pub in Marlow.

1851= Henry R Russell (census). Wife Susannah, aunt Martha Russell, sister Emma Russell and nephew Charles Russell also present and three live in servants.

1854= Henry Russell (Kelly's Directory).

1855-65= Richard Blackwell. Tenant. He may have given up Hawkins following a damaging fire in which two horses burned to death in his stables and buildings were damaged. [Reading Mercury 23rd September 1865, British Library Archives, via the BNA]. Does not appear to have resided in the farmhouse.

1865-77= Thomas Elliot who went bankrupt. Tenant. Wife Mary, who sold eggs from the premises. Thomas grew oats and wheat and raised cattle and pigs. In 1873 Giles Lawrence a long term employee on the farm, William Swadling who had been sacked from there the day before and 2 casual employees of Mr Elliott were accused of stealing oats from the farm. [Bucks Free Press 10th October 1873] In 1875 his 13 year old worker Stephen Higgs was killed by a runaway cart in his charge while gathering hay at the farm. The boy had apparently fallen off it and was then trampled. Strong comments were made at the inquest at the wisdom of leaving such a team under the control of such a young lad. He was tenant to owner Sir William Clayton.

1882-87 William Creswell / Cresswell tenant to owner Mr Crossman. William was a troublesome man himself and it seems that his workers weren't much better= William Swadling his carter was fined for being drunk in the Hand and Flowers (possibly the same man as the alleged oat thief above), Thomas Bird his carter was warned for prolonged blocking of the road with his cart in Marefield and John Jones his general agricultural labourer was fined for working a horse with an open pressure wound under its collar. Full biography of William Cresswell / Creswell here.

1901-02 (probably by 1897). Henry Brown, a cattle dealer. Wife Mabel. They moved to Harleyford Farm by 1911.

1924= Miss Potts?

1929= Mr S Keene.

1933= some of the land sold for building land.

1939= Sidney Keene. 

1944= Mr Keene. 

1954= Mr S Keene.

To find all mentions of any individual on this blog see the A-Z Person Index. Thousands are mentioned. Other Marlow and Little Marlow farm histories and occupier posts on this blog are indexed here.

Census information is my transcription or that of Jane Pullinger from microfilm. Census information remains Crown Copyright.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this information for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

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.

Clay Lane Farm

UPDATED January 2024

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Historic Occupiers (who are not necessarily the owners)=

Description- Half way between Marlow and High Wycombe. 1798= 100 acres with 80 acres of woodland used for timber which seems to have been separately let. 1861=127 acres. 1900=162 acres, mostly growing corn but also had pasture land. 1902 = 162 acres. 1944= 170 acres dairy farm.

1798-1810. Henry Crook. In will written 1800 left Clay Lane and Limmer farms Marlow to his son John and his children. If no child of John survived then Henry's nephews Joseph, William, Charles and James were to share the property. At the time of the will John did have a living son Henry who was under 21. Henry the testator did not die until 1810.

1810-1834 John Crook, son of Henry above. He died that year. His son Henry Junior was involved in the farm by 1831 when he died. Both buried at Little Marlow, see pic of grave below:

John Crook of Clay Lane Farm. Died August 5th 1834 age 53. 

And:

Wife of the above, Martha. Died July 24 1853 age 73

And:

Henry eldest son of the above. Died January 3rd 1831 age 25 [Henry died following a fall from his horse].

And: Martha Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the above. Died --Ju-- 1865. 

The Crooks fell victim more than once to  Webb's gang of marauders. Find out more here

1839-1840 James Crook. I have not yet looked at what relation he was to the previous Clay Lane Farm Crooks. The farm was used to host a ploughing match in 1840. In 1839 Marlow butcher Charles East was sentenced to 14 years transportation for receiving a sheep stolen from James by two Handy Cross (or Booker Common) men. Appeals sent by Marlow citizens, including James Crook, for mercy for Charles on the grounds that he was from a good family and suffered lameness failed. His gaoler reported his character to be bad! The funny thing is he had been the victim of theft from his shop a few years earlier with the thief John Neighbour receiving a sentence of 7 years transportation himself -see here. Note by Kathryn - Charles was transported to Van Diemens Land on the ship Lady Raffles. This departed England on November 30th 1840 and arrived in Van Diemens Land on March 17th 1841. He had the company of other Great Marlow/Bisham men onboard- for details on them see the post here

1841-8 Mr Wane. In 1844 a Mr J Simmonds was also occupying some farm land at Clay Lane- his main crop was corn. Could be a sub tenant.

1848-53 Alfred Keene, farmer [owned by Joseph White]. Alfred farming 127 acres with 5 labourers at Clay Lane Farm on the 1851 census and when he sells up and leaves neighborhood 1853.  Joseph Blackwell also said to be at Clay Lane from 1851 so he must have been farming some of the land, the remaining 60 odd acres, while Alfred Keene was farming the rest and residing at the farm house. Joseph took possession of the whole when Alfred left in 1853. Alfred was at Woolley Farm in 1861. 

1851 (part of), 1853 (the whole) - 1880 Joseph Blackwell. Went bankrupt 1880. Wife Elizabeth. Robert Morcott his employee sentenced to 3 weeks in jail for upping and leaving Joseph's service without notice in 1860. Joseph moved to Hill Farm, Marlow by 1881. See here. For all or part of this time the farm was OWNED by Joseph White.

1881 - Clay Lane Estate up for sale, freehold. Consists of the farm, two model cottages and beech woodlands, in all just over 224 acres. 

1897- farm stock all up for sale. Farm owned by Thomas Phillips?

1899- farm itself up for sale. Charles Stone occupier, probably as bailiff for Wethered family. 1898- 1903 William Hatt lived and worked at the farm as a Carter / labourer. Lived in the farm house with his wife Mary Ann and children.

1903- Thomas Owen Wethered owner, Mr Slocock farm manager. William Hatt, carter as above killed at Marlow Bottom when his horse spooks and runs over him with the cart. Postman Joseph Preston Shipton who was on his round came to his aid but was unable to save him. 

1908- Thomas Owen Wethered selling off stock from the farm.

1909- 1921 Marshall Croxford. Sold up stock and left 1921.

1934- at least 1958 Richard Morris Kimber. Dairy farm but oats also grown. Land Army girls worked on this farm. Mr Kimber was prominent in local farming affairs and often a judge at cattle shows. 

Post written and researched by Charlotte Day with photos by Kathryn Day.

Farm occupancy compiled from adverts, censuses, property records, farming journals, court cases, wills I have transcribed and more. Ongoing research, I hope to fill in the gaps as I sift through further notes.

For other farm occupier listings soon the Specific Shops, Streets Etc option here if you want a Marlow Farm. If you want a Little Marlow or other nearby farm this menu here

For all mentions of any individual the Person Index option on the top drop down menu - new posts and people added daily. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Lane End Historic Landlords #1

Compiled from adverts, court cases, property records (some unique), censuses etc

©Marlow Ancestors. If using this original research please credit this blog and link here but you are very welcome to do so for family or local history purposes.

The Earl Grey [just possibly became the Osborne Arms Q.V]

In the 1833 parochial assessment notebooks my family owns the premises consisted of a house, 2 large gardens and an orchard and were worth £10 10 shillings a year.

1833-52 Richard Oxlade. Moved to New Inn 1852. See historic landlords for thst pub in this post. Widow Elizabeth later returned to these premises.

1861- Elizabeth Oxlade see above. Appears to be related to the Grays below.

1871- Abraham Gray. He either moved to the Osborne Arms or renamed his Earl Grey premises the Osborne Arms by 1873 Q.V

Jolly Blacksmith(s), Ditchfield. 

Converted from a small cottage. AKA Blacksmith's Arms.

1881-86 George Joseph Meakes. Usually known by his middle name. Also a blacksmith, which seems his primary trade. First wife Elizabeth had died 1879. Married Kate Blackwell of Boyn Hill near Maidenhead 1880. Attempts to upgrade from a beer house license to a full license 1886 failed because the premises were considered too small. In fact in the same year, it's ability to exist at all was threatened as was rated below the minimum value then required to be a licensed premises. The same solution was adopted here that several Marlow pubs were forced to use in the same year. A neighbouring cottage was incorporated into the premises to nudge up the value. George's cousin James Meakes had the Plough pub in Marlow see here.

1888- Richard Bowles

1891- Back to George Joseph Meakes. Repeated coming and going from beer premises was very common in this area 1800s. George defined himself solely as a blacksmith 1896 but that doesn't mean that he- or his wife- wasn't selling beer too.

1901-15 William Meakes, son of George and Elizabeth above. Also a blacksmith. Wife Mary Ann.

1939 - Jesse Meakes

Osborn(e) Arms, High Street

Possible name change from The Earl Grey at some point 1871-73. See above. Just speculation.

1873-75 Abraham Gray / Grey

1875-76 Elizabeth Gray widow of last tenant Abraham Gray.

1881-85 Frederick Goodchild. Frederick moved to the Clayton Arms, Lane End. He had married in 1873 Jane the daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Gray above. Possibly later at Olde Sun. 

1885- 1902 John Sears / Seers. Also a bricklayer. Wife Fanny. 

1902-06 John Lunnon.

1907 - John Lennon (poss Lunnon meant) 2. Emony Carter. 

1908- Mr E Carter. 

1909- E Carter.

1909- William Thomas Reynolds, temporarily.

1939- Walter Shadbolt.

Lots more Lane End landlords to come. For other pub related content see the Pub Related option on the top drop down menu. There is also a Person Index option to search for any individual mentioned on the blog. For general Lane End content see the Nearby Places option on the menu.