The Shergolds- Little Marlow Schoolteachers *Updated July 2025*

 William James Shergold born circa 1856 in Basingstoke Hampshire arrived in Little Marlow to take over as the Head Teacher of the school on the 18th February 1888. With him came his wife Mary Ann born circa 1850 in Sidmouth Devon who was to act as the assistant and their three children Maud, Ethel and infant Frank.

The family had arrived from Ardsley in Yorkshire where Mary Ann and William also ran the village school with great success. They left however in something of a state of embarrassment as William had resigned his job at the National School because he was led to believe a job as head of the more prestigious Board School newly built in Ardsley was basically his for the asking. Actually it wasn't and the board appointed a different man leaving William and through him his wife without a job. Still the locals sympathised with him. Thanks to donations from over 200 people William was presented with an illuminated letter of thanks and best wishes plus a purse of gold coins. You will note Mary Ann who has also taught at the school for 11 years and is also leaving doesn't get a mention. The sexism of the time! The couple beat 4 other candidates to the Little Marlow role. 

Little Marlow's school dated from the early 1860s and catered for boys, girls and infants. The average daily attendance in 1894 was some 110 children out of a maximum capacity of 114.

The Shergolds fitted into the village straight away and their teaching was soon getting rave reviews from inspectors, the local press and their public. Mary Ann helped set up Mothers Meetings in the village. These were conducted in concert with the Mothers' Union, a Christian group devoted to promoting excellence in motherhood and the pooling of ideas, spiritual support and general encouragement between mothers of all social backgrounds. It was founded in 1874 by Mary Sumner and still exists. In the 1890s there were Mothers Meetings in Well End and Flackwell Heath as well as Little Marlow all united in the belief that no one could influence the future of the world for the good more than the mothers of the next generation. 

William meanwhile was conducting the church choir. He and his wife taught their school children to sing. Concerts by the pupils packed out.

The Shergolds may have taken a pay cut to come to Little Marlow thanks to William accidentally rendering them both unemployed. In Ardsley they had kept a live in servant but it took a few years to be able to employ household staff in Little Marlow. Things were obviously going well for them by 1905 when William advertised in the Maidenhead Advertiser for a live in cook. His family he said had a coach. Why was this information relevant? Firstly, because telling an applicant that you had a coachman reassured them that you were a gentleman and that you had plenty of money thus hinting at respectability and the means to pay a competitive wage. Secondly, because those living in country villages without train stations suffered a high turnover of staff who found their situation too dull and isolated- not to mention exhausting if they were expected to run errands on foot into the nearest town. The Shergolds suggest their cook could at least sometimes be dropped into town by the coach. A gentry family would not behave in this friendly way very often but William and Mary Ann sprang from humble origins. It is extremely unlikely that they could afford to employ a coachman so William Shergold would be the driver himself.

On the 10th anniversary of the Shergolds arrival at Little Marlow, the managers of the school passed a resolution to put on record their absolute approval of the teachers work. Both had worked with "perfect fidelity, sound judgement and remarkable success". The Rev Thompson added that the pair had  shown great loyalty to the school (probably acknowledging they could be better paid elsewhere) and had always met him with earnest spirit of co operation. 

Daughter Ethel trained as a pupil teacher under her parents. Once qualified in 1887 she was offered an assistant teacher's post in Trinity Schools Reading. The South Bucks Standard said that she would go there with Little Marlow's "warm esteem and cordial wishes".

By 1915 daughter Maud was acting as an assistant schoolteacher at Little  Marlow too. On the 1881 census in Ardsley she had been entered as a three year old scholar so William and Mary Ann started them young! 

In 1915 William was still the head but his assistant teacher is a Miss Ellen Frost so Mary Ann had perhaps retired and Maud moved on. She married first a Mr Johnson and then in 1924 a William Berrey. 

Son Frank became an electrical engineer who lived in Enfield with his wife Gertrude.

In 1920 William retired after 32 years service. He received a handsome cheque for £100, money raised entirely by voluntary subscription. It was noted that Mrs Shergold  had been known as "Mother" because of the kind attention she had paid to the children in her care. William had transformed the school it's mangers said, because he believed education should also include care of the children's physical and moral health. He had started organised games, and established a flourishing school garden for the boy pupils among other things and limited the use of learning by rote and cramming. 

On retirement the couple left Little Marlow to join their son in Enfield. I'm sure they were much missed. 

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

For more Little Marlow related posts see this index or for Little Marlow grave pics see here.

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Some sources:

Kelly's post office Directory of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire 1911 and 1915. Kellys Directories Limited.

"England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9Y1-MXY : 20 May 2019), William Shergold, Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing Marlow subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

"England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27Y-73JJ : 11 December 2017), Wm Jas Shergold, Ardsley, Yorkshire,Yorkshire West Riding, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 15, Piece/Folio 4600/45, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,775,291.

South Bucks Standard 10th December 1897. Burnley Chronicle 3rd March 1888. Maidenhead Advertiser 14tg June 1905. British Library. Via the BNA.

 Bucks Free Press 9th July 1920, Wycombe Library. 

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWHM-BZB

Revd Frederick Tavender - tax rebel and education campaigner

 

Revd Frederick Tavender became minister of the Congregational Church in Quoiting Square in 1892. He was from Devon, his wife Annie from Wiveliscombe in Somerset.

Frederick was raised C of E but decided to follow Congregationalism and went to study at Western College, Plymouth with that in mind. He was ordained at Wiveliscombe on the 2nd September 1886 and became minister there.

At Wiveliscombe Frederick increased the number of Sunday school pupils from 186 to 420. He also lead the charge in establishing Congregational places of worship and Sunday schools for the first time in numerous surrounding villages. He was considered one of the best ministers around for gaining new worshippers. Marlow was lucky to be able to obtain his services.

Frederick wasted no time when he arrived in town joining the Marlow branch of The British And Foreign Bible Society, becoming a prominent member of the Marlow Institute and founding the Marlow Total Abstinence Society of which he was President before the year 1892 was out. He also played cricket for Marlow in various competitions such as the traditional Married v Single Gentleman match that started the cricketing season. 

The Marlow Institute was a place for lecture, entertainments, classes and debates. Frederick was a success there and in other nearby towns with his talk and "oxy hydrogen" lantern projecting images from his Continental holiday in 1891 encompassing "a trip to Lucerne and the Italian lakes, the Apennines, Florence etc". During this trip he took part in some mountaineering.  Six years later Frederick was off again, this time to the USA to attend the Congregational Council in Boston. Marlow was treated to a lecture on what he had seen there upon his return. Unsurprisingly given the rarity of travel abroad in those days the lecture room was packed with those eager to hear about his trip. It was a lengthy trip for him and Mrs Tavender. The sea voyage took 9 days each way. Then after attending the Council he explored both the USA and Canada seeing Niagara Falls, New York, Chicago, Washington, Omaha, Toronto and Montreal.

On a more serious note Frederick took part in debates at the Institute such as one on whether parks and museums should be allowed to open on Sundays (he thought not). He also helped set up technical education classes there and in other locations in the area. 

Education was a passion of his. He tried long and hard and ultimately unsuccessfully to get a school board established in Marlow. These were non denominational boards which organised schools in an area and had power to impose a local rate tax to fund them. He argued that the existing school buildings were sub standard and the education given to the children unacceptably poor due to a lack of money. Existing schools survived largely by fund raising. The prospect of paying more tax wasn't popular and Revd Tavender found himself much in the minority in desiring a school board in the town. He pulled no punches when it came to describing how bad the schools were in his eyes, which offended some. Inspectors' reports generally considered them adequate educationally but did agree that building conditions and overcrowding were major problems.  Revd Tavender would argue that the inspector's standards weren't very high so if they said education was adequate that wasn't necessarily a great compliment. Supporters of the existing system admitted poor educational achievement in some pupils but said that this was down to: a bout of teacher illness causing long absences, whole school closures due to efforts to stem disease outbreaks in the children, and the natural incurable stupidity of some of the pupils!!

His trip to the USA and Canada in 1899 had been used also as a fact finding trip into how they organised their schools. He sought out many senior education officials on his travels and visited as many schools as possible. He thought their teaching methods far superior to what was being used in England.

In 1904 Frederick was one of a host of Marlow nonconformists who refused to pay their rates as a form of passive resistance to the Education Act of 1902. This saw nonconformists have to pay taxes to support Church of England schools even though they disagreed with what was being taught religiously to the children in those schools. That these publicly funded schools were to have no public scrutiny into how they were run or how they allowed C of E aligned teachers to present nonconformist viewpoints was especially upsetting. A nationwide passive resistance campaign grew up.

As a result of his refusal to pay the portion of the rates for education, goods to the value of the amount owed were seized from him and other protesters and auctioned off from a table outside the police court in Trinity Road by auctioneer Walter Lovegrove (of whom more in future).

The ever kind Doctor Dickson of Marlow made the only bid for all the seized items of Marlow men and women. He bid the exact amount needed plus the exact costs to the court. He returned all items to the homes of their owners.

The Conservative government lost the next election but still dominated the Lords and thus attempts to overturn their Act failed. Resistance faded in the face of the seeming impossibility of overcoming the Lords hurdle.

Frederick's had other social concerns too- he chaired the Marlow Institute's committee set up to think of ways to help the local unemployed during the hard years of the early 1900s and promoted and fund-raised for the Cottage Hospital.

He also set up "Pleasant Sunday Afternoons" in Marlow to attract those men who shied away from traditional church services. This was part of a nationwide movement. Lighter hymns were sung, music perfumed and Bible study offered as well as prayers. Frederick allowed secular music and songs to be performed at his Marlow events, which was quite unusual, but he said all music came from God and the afternoons had an overall strong Christian flavour. He drew the line however at allowing clapping. That he said was too much like behaviour at a leisure concert. He offered prizes for those Sunday afternooners who did well at their Bible study. There was in addition Pleasant Tuesday Afternoons. 

Like many of the Marlow Congregational worshippers Frederick was a supporter of Liberal political candidates in local elections.

As if he did not have enough to do, Frederick offered tuition to those young men seeking to do well in university entrance exams, as well as lessons in French, mathematics, Latin and English to pupils of all ages. Adult learners who lived some distance away could receive lessons from Frederick via correspondence. 

Mrs Tavender helped man the stalls at church fundraising bazaars. She was also an active member of the Wycombe Branch of the Women's Total Abstinence Society, eventual President of the Marlow branch of the same and a member of the South Bucks and East Berks Band Of Hope Union.

The Tavender family left Marlow so Frederick could take up a position as minister in Exmouth, Devon in 1908. At his farewell celebrations tribute was paid to his work for the benefit of Marlow's people especially the aged, sick and unemployed. It was noted that he had broken down many sectarian barriers, and encouraged co - operation with other Marlow churches and chapels. The couple went away laden with parting gifts, including a study chair (from the Marlow Free Church council), purse of gold (that is £20 from the congregation), an eiderdown quilt (Pleasant Tuesday Afternoon group), several illuminated addresses, a book, fountain pen and an inscribed gold brooch for Mrs Tavender from the Woman's Total Abstinence Society Marlow branch. 

Related posts:

For more church related content see the Church Related option on the menu. To find every mention of an individual on the blog use the Person Index Option on the top drop down menu. Fellow campaigning Minister Andrew Mearns (poverty campaigner) features in a post here while tax rebel Revd James Mountain can be found here

A post about the entertaining attempts to bring temperance to Marlow is available here

Poverty in Victorian Marlow here

 

Christchurch URC have scans of  interesting booklets about their history available on their website (under the Magazines and Resources tab) link

**DO YOU HAVE AN ANCESTRAL CONNECTION TO THIS CHURCH? IF SO, YOU MAY LIKE TO COMMEMORATE YOUR ANCESTOR BY SUPPORTING CHRIST CHURCH PATH OF LIGHT FUNDRAISING EFFORTS - SEE   Here FOR MORE INFORMATION**

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

For more see:

1901 census Great Marlow.

South Bucks Standard 29th April 1904 and 24th January 1908.

John Gidley, Presbyterian Minister

John Gidley was a Presbyterian Minister in Marlow from 1703 until his death in 1711.

He was from a Devon family* and received his MA from Exeter College Oxford University in 1660. In the same year he was ordained in Exeter Cathedral as both deacon and priest "without any subscription or oath or promise of Canonical obedience". John appears on a 1664 list of ejected (because dissenting) ministers in Exeter. He was said then to live with a Mr Clare near Key Gate in that city. This may be the merchant George Clare who went bankrupt in the early 1700s. This George sued John over property in St Thomas in 1700 so relations seem to have taken a downward turn between them. John was sued again a few years later with a large number of others, including apparent relatives of his, in relation to the estate of the same George Clare. Documents relating to this are held in archives in Devon, far from me, so I can't find out exactly what the nub of the issue was. If I am able to find out more I will come back and update this post.

In 1672 John was granted a general licence to preach but he lived on his family estate in Exeter, just occasionally preaching due to his shyness at public speaking. This was said to be so severe he could not say grace in front of others.

His confidence must have increased over time however as 1690-92 he was Independent Minister of Aldborough Hatch in Essex with a 200 strong congregation who must have expected to hear him speak on a regular basis!

I am unsure how he came to Marlow but he was here in 1698 when he witnessed the will of Richard Sawyer the basket maker. In 1703 John was granted licence for his house in Marlow to be used as a dissenting meeting house. He received £4 a year from the Presbyterian Fund 1703-09.

John's will was written in 1711 "considering my time of departure is at hand". In it he refers to himself as a "clerk" which was the term used for all ministers in those days. He mentions no Marlow property only that which he had in Devon, including New Hayes the family home. He however left £50 to any Presbyterian minister who settled in Marlow within 7 years of his death if money owed to him from the estate of a Samuel Clark was paid to his executors. The £50 was to be given to the minister at a rate of £5 a year for ten years. If no Presbyterian did settle in Marlow half the money was to go to Marlow's poor and the other half to the poor of the parish of St Thomas Devon where John's family home was located. This was just outside Exeter. Another £10 was left so that "the most religious persons" of St Thomas parish could be bought books. These were to be "faire bibles" (without any Apocrypha or Book of Common Prayer) Mr Birkett's Poor Man's Helper and Mr Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. The Mr Baxter was Richard Baxter who seems to have been personally known to John.

John asked to be buried in Marlow or some neighbouring parish. The funeral was to take place in the morning "as silently and privately" as possible. He desired a "faire noble marble" headstone be placed upon his grave with the words "Here lies the body of John Gidley Minister of the Gospel", his date of death, age and the line "less than the least of all saints" inscribed. The funeral was to be "managed" by Mr Bartholomew Pane. The placing of the vault was to be the care of John Higgs Senior, Thomas Hayson and James ...ewing. For accommodating his requests the minister of the church where he was buried was to receive 2 guineas and the churchwardens half a guinea each.

John asked that after his death his collection of books be sold with the help of Mr Samuel Cox of Ealing, Samuel Clark of Beaconsfield (perhaps a relative of the deceased Samuel Clark above) and John ?Pownell of Wycombe. John mentions few other personal items- a watch went to his cousin Gidley Burgess and a set of seals on a ring to another cousin Gidley Martin.

The main legatees of his will were various nieces, nephews and cousins of his. There is no mention of any wife of children for John.

The will and two codicils were witnessed between them by Robert Beckford, William Beckford, Robert Rance and Thomas Hobbs. These are all Marlow names. Robert Beckford was a hoop maker in West Street. He had a cousin William Beckford who was a carpenter in Little Marlow. This is likely the William Beckford of John's will. The Rance family at the time were heavily involved in rope making. Thomas Hobbs also witnessed the will of Richard Sawyer mentioned above. These men could just be friends or neighbours to John but this witness list may also offer a glimpse of the names of some of John's congregation, who are thought to be the predecessors of the congregation of the Salem Chapel / Congregational Church in Quoiting Square and thus today's Christ Church in Quoiting Square.

John's financial incentive for another Presbyterian settling in Marlow does not seem to have had immediate effect as the next such minister, John Benson, is not recorded until 1715, four years after John's death (though within the lucky seven years that would see him win that £5 a year allowance for ten years). That does not in any way mean that there were suddenly no dissenters in Marlow when John died. Visiting preachers could have kept his old congregation going until someone could be induced to move here. There was an Independent Chapel building in Marlow before 1724. 

Where John Gidley's house was in Marlow isn't known. As I said above he mentions no property in the town in his will. If therefore he rented rather than owned his Marlow home it is interesting. Whoever rented John a house would very likely have been in religious sympathy with him if they allowed him to use the building for dissenting worship. I have read every will written by any person from Marlow or Little Marlow written between 1698 and 1711 and available from the National Archives in the hope someone would mention property in such and such a street in Marlow occupied by their tenant John Gidley. Sadly no one does. Nor does anyone in describing their property describe it as being next to or opposite another occupied by John Gidley. No property transaction I can find involving any Marlow person mentions him either. I haven't given up hope of locating him within the town though. Because there were no house numbers in the 1700s any mention of a property tends to include a string of locating information telling you who lives in various other nearby properties. So there has to be a chance that John and his location are recorded somewhere. 

*John seems to have been the son of  George Gidley of St Thomas, Exeter and an unknown mother.

Note by Kathryn:

The "Presbyterian dissenter" Lord Wharton left in his will (proved 1692) a sum of 10 shillings a year to a preacher who would speak annually at Marlow on the "truth, usefulness, sufficiency and excellence of the Holy Scriptures". This was a significant sum.  The preacher should also stress the people's right to have these scriptures in their own language (as opposed to Latin). The prayers accompanying this sermon were not to mention Lord Wharton's name, an unusual request. Similar sermons were to be preached at Wycombe and other nearby towns. He also left substantial amounts to be used to purchase 1,500 bibles a year for poor children in various parts of the country ( 10 were sent to Marlow, plus 13 other religious books which were to go to those recieving the bible who'd made most improvement in their studies of it). The bibles were still distributed in the 1830s but I do not know how long the sermons continued. There was some controversy by the 1840s that money left by Wharton was not being used for the proper purposes. In particular the distribution of the bibles was mostly in the hands of the various parish churches. It was argued it would be more in keeping with the dissenting Wharton's wishes for the non conformist chapels to have charge of them. 

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

For more church related content on this blog including minister biographies see the Church Related option on the menu. To find every mention of someone on this blog see the Person Index option - there's over 6,000 people there. 

DO YOU HAVE AN ANCESTRAL CONNECTION TO THIS CHURCH? IF SO, YOU MAY LIKE TO COMMEMORATE YOUR ANCESTOR BY SUPPORTING CHRIST CHURCH PATH OF LIGHT FUNDRAISING EFFORTS - SEE   Here FOR MORE INFORMATION**

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

Sources:

Wills of John Gidley and Richard Sawyer. Transcribed by me from  PCC wills held at the National Archives, Kew.

A Short History Of The Ancient Diocese of Exeter From The Conquest To The Church Congress 1894. By Herbert Edward Reynolds. Published 1895 by H Besley and Son.

Book Owners Online, detail of John Gidley. Content CC BY-NC 4.0.

The Non- Conformist Memorial, An Account Of The Ministers Who Were Rejected. Written by Edmund Calamy and Samuel Palmer. Published by W Harris. 1775. New York Public Library copy digitized by Google.

An Abridgement of Mr Baxter's Life And Times Volume 2 by Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy, 1713. Digitized by Google.

Select Remains Of Phillip, Lord Wharton - Rev J Whitridge, published by J Brydons 1849.