Coster family of Marlow

 There were historically many Costers in Marlow. We will feature as many as we can on this blog in the future but for this post I will deal with the children and descendants of a particular couple- Edward Joseph Coster and his wife Elizabeth nee Fleming. 

Edward was almost always known by his middle name Joseph. He even married Elizabeth under that name in 1843! He was then 21 years old. Edward was the keeper of Marlow's lock for many years from 1848 onwards. This was not a particularly well paid job (though you did get a house with it) and he also worked as a cordwainer until at least 1863 to supplement the family income. In 1854 it was decided by the powers that be that many Thames lock keepers were to lose their wages entirely, including Edward whose £3 a month was cut off. In return for keeping their homes and the tolls given by pleasure craft he was to work for free! Bear in mind that the pleasure craft traffic could be very low outside of the holiday season. Fortunately several of his daughters remained at home as adults and brought in an income from their "fancy" needlework. 

Elizabeth's origins are unclear. On the census she usually says that she was born in Shoreditch London. She might be a relative of the Flemings who had Marlow Place as their country home though there would be a great gulf between that family and that of her future husband in terms of wealth. There was a Fleming connection to the Wyatt family of Marlow not obviously anything to do with the Flemings of Marlow Place and possibly another Fleming family group too so that needs to be born in mind.

Edward grew up in a long gone cottage by the also lost "Tithe Barn" near Marlow Bridge. 

Lock keeping was well established in the Coster family. Edward's dad Richard* spent much of his working days as a foreman carpenter and boat repairer at Marlow Wharf for the Thames Commissioners as well as boatbuilding on his own account, but later in life became the lock keeper at Boveney, Bucks. Richard's brother Thomas was the lock keeper at Temple, the next lock along the river from Marlow. Thomas retired in 1883 because of ill health.

Edward and Elizabeth had eleven or twelve children. They raised their family as Congregationalists, attending the church in Quoiting Square. Edward had not been raised that way himself but Elizabeth may have been. 

One of their children, 7 year old Willie drowned at the lock in 1868 after apparently falling into the water unseen by any adult. Children of lock keepers were quite frequently lost in this way in the 1800s. The Thames was a generally dangerous place in Victorian times. Few years went by without a drowning, or several, in the vicinity of Marlow. In his position of lock keeper Edward more than once had to assist in the recovery of the bodies. Still, apparently, his job didn't merit any pay!

Another child of Edward and Elizabeth, Edwin also died as a child, though not as a result of an accident. Another son Charles was probably also a child death.

Edward's son Edmund became a prominent Marlow grocer at no 20 High Street (old numbering. In later numbering was no 50, also eventually Edmund was at no 52 as well). It is possible that when he appeared in the 1881 census as a grocer's assistant it was for Noah Bartlett of West Street who married Edmund's sister Ellen, though he also had a relative Richard Coster who had a grocery shop in West Street (that Richard suffered bankruptcy in 1888 and disappeared, his family apparently never seeing him again). Noah Bartlett was also a congregational man. Sadly Ellen died less than a year into her marriage. More about Noah in this post here. The post contains a link to an image of Ellen's grave and a picture of Noah's premises in the modern day.

Above, high class provisions available from Coster & Son.. 1931. 

Edmund eventually expanded into a second premises in West Street. This sold grocery and later some hardware. Like most Marlow grocers of Victorian and Edwardian times Edmund suffered multiple thefts from his premises. The lists of items stolen from him give as a flavour of his stock- packets of tea, pots of jam, bottles of sauce, canned fruit and packs of candles. He died in 1930, his wife Mary (nee Carter) in 1933. By 1920 their son Sydney was a partner in the business. After Edmund's death the High Street shop was taken over by their son Sydney who used no 50 for groceries and no 52 as a tobacconist with some lines of "fancy goods" too. Adverts from his early years in charge show that he specialized in the grocery side in Empire butter and bacon. A 1933 advert says an A Coster was also running the shop. Poor Sydney died suddenly when just 54 while acting as goalkeeper for the mens' hockey team. He had played for Marlow for years and was the Captain of the Bucks Hockey Association. I think that he was one of the special constables of Marlow. By 1948 only the tobacconist and fancy goods side of the business at 52 was still running but it was still "Costers" for years to come.

Emily, sister to Edmund, Willie and Ellen married Marlow  High Street architect Richard Wellicome of Marlow in 1878 at the Congregational Church. Her sister Alice married West Street grocer Albert G Fleet there 7 years later. Albert both ran his own shop and assisted Edmund Coster in Edmund's secondary West Street premises. When their church needed to raise £300 for renovations in 1889 Alice was amongst the stall holders at the fundraising bazaar (running a Japanese theme stall). Alice also trained the children of the non-conformist teetotal Excelsior Band Of Hope (which was based in the Congregational church) singing and elocution.

Emily Coster as Emily Wellicome operated as a milliner and fancy draper from no 5 High Street (old numbering), eventually assisted by her daughter Florence. Astonishingly, just like Richard Coster, Richard Wellicome disappeared in the midst of a financial cloud. Wellicome had been the parish surveyor and rate collector and a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1907 for falsifying his accounts. The case drew national press attention and the unfortunate Emily was pressed for interview by journalists. She spoke of her distress. A cryptic postcard was sent by him from Gloucester to their 14 year old daughter Mabel saying "We are just off, feeling better, best love to all". A Marlow woman thought she had seen him on a London omnibus with a "wild" look on his face. Some of his account books were discovered abandoned in a bag at a Liverpool quayside but of the man himself neither police nor his family could find any trace then or ever. Later that year Emily's brother Edmund the grocer, who held the mortgage for Richard and Emily's home put a lien on the property so the absent Richard could not sell the property without satisfying the debt. All credit to Emily for picking herself up and carrying on. Mind you, with several young children at home what else could she do? By 1920 Emily had retired from her business. Initially she lived in Claremont Gardens but when she died in 1929 she was of 10 Glade Road.

Another sister Anne "Annie" Coster did not marry and worked as a fancy needlewoman. She also helped out in Congregational fundraising events and was, like her dad and brother in law Noah Bartlett, a long standing Sunday School teacher. After the death of her parents she kept her own household in her parents' old Station Road home, no longer needing to work presumably because of parental inheritance. Her also unmarried sister Julia (another former needlewoman) lived with her as did their uncle William Coster. Another fancy needlewoman their sister Lucy died at the age of 32.

Alfred Coster the eldest son of Edward the lock keeper moved to Devon where he worked as a draper. He married Mary Ann Wish in Newton Abbott.

A Mrs Coster, who could be Edmund's wife, was one of the women who stitched the banners used in the town as part of the one thousand strong children's parade which formed part of the 1887 Queen Victoria's  Jubilee celebrations.

Edward Joseph the lock keeper lost his wife Elizabeth aged 63 in 1886 and shortly afterwards decided to retire on the small pension granted to lock keepers. Well-wishers collected £70 to give him as a leaving present. In 1898 he died at the home in Station Road which he shared with several of his unmarried daughters and was buried with Elizabeth in the churchyard of the Congregational Church. The South Bucks Standard in reporting his death said that Edmund was a lifelong teetotaller (he was on the committee of the Marlow Total Abstinence Society when it formed) who never used "improper words" and had performed his duties "quietly, honestly and industriously". They also said that he was a man known for his kindness to children. Things were probably quite rosy for his 25 grandchildren then! He was also a cricket fan and keen walker.

*his mother was Elizabeth nee Windsor, who lived long enough to celebrate her hundredth birthday in 1889. By this time she lived in Bray. Her brother William Windsor the town postman was said to be a renowned Marlow eccentric. 

Post written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Related posts: 

Other posts related to those who made their living on or around the river (including other lock keepers, barge men etc) at Marlow can be found in the index here

To look for mentions of a particular person or family see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

To find information about particular shops, businesses or homes see the index here

Some Sources=

GRO marriage index, GRO online.

England and Wales censuses 1841-81, transcribed from microfilm by me. Census information remains Crown Copyright.

"England and Wales, Census, 1901", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSWG-5KC : Thu Feb 13 06:58:01 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred Coster and Mary A Coster, 31 Mar 1901.

England and Wales census 1891

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGN-LPZ?lang=en

Baptisms of Edward Coster, Richard Coster, Thomas Coster- Great Marlow Bishops Transcripts, Find My Past.

Pigots Directory 1842, Slaters Directory 1852. Kelly's Directory 1899 and 1920 by Kelly's Directories Limited.

Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907, Marlow Printing Company.

Guide to the Crown Hotel Marlow, circle 1934.

Maidenhead Advertiser November 13th 1889, Baylis Media Archives.

South Bucks Standard July 1st 1898

Bucks Free Press. June 1887. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Newspapers from the British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA: Reading Mercury 12th September 1868 and 9th October 1886, South Bucks Standard 12th April 1907, Daily News 11th April 1907.

The Flemings Of Marlow Place

Edmond and Isabella Fleming kept Marlow Place as their country home from at least 1829 to the spring or summer of 1833. It is possible that they leased the property as early as 1823. They certainly had connection to Marlow that far back as we shall see below.

Edmond was a silversmith, jeweller, money lender and pawnbroker who operated from multiple London premises with the help of his family and numerous hired staff. He was an extremely wealthy man clearly in love with his job as he continued to work right up until his death aged 88 in 1836. As well as the usual pawnbroker fare of silver spoons, secondhand clothes, and rolls of fabric, Edmond's shops glittered with a grand display of jewellery items set with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls, garnets, and jacinths, with heavy gold chains, silver and gold spectacles, top quality watches and clocks not to mention paintings, snuff boxes and music boxes. Though it stretched his ready cash supplies a little he once lent a combined total of £2,500 to a single customer over the course of a few days. If he found himself in possession of too much unredeemed stock he would sell some at auction, often at auctions organised with other pawnbrokers. 

So where did our multi-hatted business man come from? Not from Marlow sadly, but from Cumberland, according to contemporary report, though the names in his family suggest a probable ultimate origin in Scotland. His wife Isabella, lived into her 90s and thus to the age of the census. In 1841 she is stated as having been born in Scotland. The couple married in London in 1782.  She was nee Purse. It isn't known how she came to make the journey to London, but we do know that she was not alone there as her brothers Alexander and William Purse both lived in the city. They too were silversmiths and in Alexander's case also a pawnbroker.

Edmund came to London with two of his own brothers, William who settled in Holborn and Joseph who based himself in Drury Lane. Joseph was certainly a pawnbroker too. William was probably the William Fleming goldsmith, silversmith and pawnbroker of Whitechapel High Street who had died or left his premises around 1829. Joseph was perhaps first to arrive in the big smoke as he appears as a London pawnbroker from 1774.  William married in London  the next year. Edmund was not definitely there before his 1782 marriage and does not definitely have his own London premises until 1802. It is possible that he and William initially worked for their brother Joseph. That said sources for the late 1700s business of London are scant.

Joseph lived in Gloucester Place, Camden Town though his shop in Drury Lane was also a dwelling house.

He did marry but mentions no children in his will. 

William is interesting as his bride is Mary Margaret Hammond at their London marriage. For reasons that you will see below it is possible that she was a relative of the Hammonds of Western House Marlow.

William and Mary had a son Henry who became a pawnbroker and silversmith too with his own premises but this doesn't seem to have lasted long. In 1827 Henry walked into another silversmith's shop, picked up a watch and just walked out with it. He was arrested. At an initial hearing it was suggested to the court that he must have been insane as no rational person openly steals a watch in broad daylight with no attempt to conceal the act. They guessed he was a teacher as he had pockets full of pens. There is no reason to think that was the explanation for the pens. It does make you wonder if he was not unwell in some way and suffering from mental confusion. Nevertheless he plead guilty and was transported to Australia.

Edmund's business concerns eventually significantly eclipsed that of his brothers. The scale of his pawnbroking/ silversmithing empire (one of his premises, in Farringdon Street, was so big it was actually a warehouse) meant he had to put a lot of trust into his staff to do without him for at least part of the time on a day to day basis. In 1828 Edmund realized that the trust placed in one of them was a mistake. Thomas Kerby, a seven year employee of Edmund's had committed multiple frauds against him. Stretching himself too thin may also be the reason that Edmund was twice fined for not displaying a both visible and legible list of his fees in one of his shops. I doubt a 40 shilling fine hurt his pocket that much!

We can't make any excuses over Edmund's conviction and fine for charging a customer who had pawned a cloak half a pence too much interest. Tsk,tsk Edmund.

Like most pawnbrokers all the Flemings suffered from thieves attempting to sell them stolen goods and as a result Fleming employees made frequent trips to the courts to give evidence for the prosecution. The risk of getting a bad reputation if stolen or fake goods were not identified quickly hung over all such enterprises. In 1787 an apparently unrelated London pawnbroker Francis  Fleming was exposed as a long term fence for goods taken in burglaries. Word that a pawnbroker called Fleming was to appear at the Old Bailey reached the people of Cumberland and some jumped to the conclusion that one of our Flemings was responsible, or as the Cumberland paper thought had deliberately spread this false information in a spirit of maliciousness. The paper was quick to stress that Edmund, William and Joseph were all honest traders with good characters (this was before the half pence overcharge on the cloak, mind you).

Edmund and Isabella's son David was also a wealthy pawnbroker and silversmith, with premises in Whitechapel. These David had perhaps taken over from from his uncle William, Edmund's brother. As David had no wife or children his principal heirs were his siblings but also two of his employees, John Vaughan and a man whose full name I could not quite read who received legacies of £200 and £50 respectively.

David's will was witnessed by a Henry Hammond of Great Marlow. It was written in 1823, six years before David's death and the first known date of the Flemings living at Marlow Place. The will was likely witnessed in London as the other men putting their names to it were London traders. Henry Hammond was the brother of Robert Hammond of Western House, Marlow. Were these Hammonds relatives of David's aunt Mary Fleming, nee Hammond? If the Flemings were not already maintaining a country home in Marlow why does one of them already know the Flemings well enough to be asked to witness so important a document as David's will in 1823, probably making a journey in order to do so?

There are other intriguing Fleming connections to Marlow. The family of late Victorian High Street grocer Edmund Coster believed that his mother was of the Marlow Place Flemings. My research suggests it is not likely she was a direct descendant of Edmund and Isabella but she might have been a slightly more distant relative. She was born in London. Another Flemming connection is the presence of a Mrs Flemming as the occupier in a cottage next to the Hammond's in Western House in 1833. We will endeavour to see if any of these links can be explained. 

Another son of Edmund and Isabella Fleming, William Thomas served an apprenticeship to a stationer but ended up becoming - yes, you guessed it -a silversmith and pawnbroker. At first he was with his father then traded as an independent in Fleet Market. There he was accused of not displaying his fees, at the same hearing his dad appeared for the same offence but William got off on a legal technicality as this address on the summons was slightly wrong. At some point between 1832 and 1834 around the time his parents decided to give up their country home of Marlow Place, William bought his own pile out in the sticks- Cookham Grove not too far from Marlow. His parents, siblings and other relatives all used it too, this was a close family and this likely reflects their approach at Marlow Place too. It was there that Edmond died aged 88 after a short illness in 1836, and Isabella in 1847. 

Like his father and brother David William Thomas was one of the governors of the Pawnbrokers Society.

A further son Joseph of Edmund and Isabella was initially a solicitor at Old Jewry but looks to have succumbed and become a pawnbroker as well as a solicitor before the end of his life. Joseph like his brothers had neither a wife nor children. This meant that two of their sisters Isabella, the eldest, and Louisa inherited much of the combined family estate as well as the lease of Cookham Grove. The women were the main legatees and executors of their mother. 

After the deaths in middle age of both her brothers, Isabella formally took over the family business for her mother. Given the scale of the operation involved it is hard to see her managing to do this if she hadn't already had some involvement prior to that. Like her dad Isabella would continue to operate as a silversmith and pawnbroker until she was in her 80s, splitting her time between London and Cookham. For inexplicable reasons her brothers had been granted probate but had failed to administer their father's will during their respective life times or appoint anyone else to do so despite years passing by so after her mother also died, Isabella sought permission to administer the whole lot, which was granted. 

In his will Edmund had suggested that his elderly wife could consider running the business after his death. If she didn't wish to do that the premises and stock were supposed to be sold off for her benefit. He obviously didn't guess that his daughter Isabella would consider taking over. As it happened the business was neither sold nor taken over by the mother. It appears Isabella's  brother Joseph took to pawnbroking alongside practicing law until his death and Isabella's subsequent takeover.

Isabella and Louisa had numerous servants to make them comfortable at Cookham and in London. The women obviously enjoyed the riverside location of Cookham Grove as they were both subscribers to a monograph on kingfishers in 1868 and one of them also donated to another bird book. While Isabella may have approved of kingfishers dipping into the Thames she was far less keen on the human equivalent. In fact Isabella and her legal representatives waged unceasing war not only on anglers but boatmen, Thames Conservancy workers, bathers, lock keepers and anyone else she considered to be annoying her or infringing on her rights to the river bank. Isabella was accused of "locking up" and blocking off everything she could to impede access to fishing ponds, backwaters and the bridges over them. She seems to have been the terror of Cookham waterfront!

Isabella subscribed to the very Victorian sounding Asylum For Idiots. The Queen herself was a patron of this Redhill institution. If you are imagining straight jackets and cruelty you will be pleased to know that the mission of the asylum was to provide kindness, protection, and education for those usually considered impossible to educate in any way. Isabella and Louisa's donations entitled them to vote for which candidate "idiots" should be admitted into the asylum when a place became vacant!

Education was perhaps a cause they particularly felt close to as they also donated to Diocesan church building funds over many years.

Louisa and Isabella both lived to a ripe old age. 

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

For more posts similar to this see the Biographies Of Families Index

A history of all the different occupiers of Marlow Place can be read here.

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

Selected Sources=

Wills of David Alexander Fleming 1829, Joseph Fleming 1803, William Purse 1805, Alexander Purse 1825, Edmond Fleming 1836 and Isabella Fleming 1847 all transcribed by me from copies of the originals held at the National Archives, Kew.

First Annual Report of the Committee to the Governors & Subscribers of the Pawnbroker's Society, 1824. Google Books.

1833 Parochial Assessment Great Marlow 

Johnstone's London Commercial Guide and Street Directory, published by Barnard and Farley, London, 1817.

The Gentleman's Magazine volume 183. By E Cave 1848. And volume 176 in 1844.

The Westminster Poll Book 1774. Google books.

Prospectus For The Asylum For Idiots. United Kingdom, n.p, 1859.

Kelly's Post Office Directory of Berkshire etc, By Kelly's Directorie Limited 1869.

M Billing's Directory and Gazetteer Of The Counties of Berks and Oxon by Martin Billings 1854.

Robson's London Commercial Directory 1822 and 1839.

Post Office Annual Directory 1808, University of Leicester Archives.

Newspapers from the British Library's archives and accessed by me via the BNA=

Cumberland Paquet 9th April 1788, Cheltenham Chronicle 3rd April 1828, Morning Advertiser 10th December 1831.

Thames River Preservation Reports, Parliamentary Papers of Great Britain Published by the Stationary Office.

Cookham Census 1841, Rootspoint https://www.rootspoint.com/record/1841-UK-Census/Joseph-Fleming-1791-Out-Of-County/4ac30f05-13cb-4ce5-bd4e-94f43b47f0de/

Other Cookham census transcribed from microfilm, National Archives by Jane Pullinger, With thanks. 

Marlow Place History

 Marlow Place is often said to have been built 1720 or 1721 for the future George 2nd when he was still the Prince of Wales. It was said to used by his son Frederick as a residence as well.  However Country Life Magazine in 1921 reported a date of 1727 visible on the roof and it is said that a brick contains a scratched on 1731 date. These may be dates of modifications to the property though they seem to be occuring rather soon after the initial build.  These later dates though do tie in better with architectural analysis by various historic visitors to the house who said 1720 is too early stylistically to be a probable date for the house and something in the later 1720s -1730 is instead indicated. 

A different edition of Country Life from 1913 mentions only a date of 1731 scratched in an apparently contemporary hand into the brickwork of the outer wall. 

A description of a brick built mansion "on the right before you turn into the High Street" [as Marlow Place would have been when you entered Marlow by crossing the river at the old St Peter Street bridge point] by someone recalling their time at the juvenile branch of the Royal Military Academy tells us it was once owned by the mistress of Charles II, Louise De Kerouaille Duchess of Portsmouth. However it calls the house Alfred House, a smaller property which is within the High Street rather than located before you reach it. Alfred House in the High Street was also used by the Academy. So which property did the writer really mean? The source he had for his information is not stated. 

I can find no evidence beyond local tradition that the house was definitely built for, rather than simply used by, the then Prince of Wales. All evidence seems to point to the house being built either for John Wallop Esq or most likely his mother Alicia. Certainly it was Alicia Wallop who lived in Marlow Place by 1739 to at least 1742. Her garden adjoined the back of High Street businesses including a soap boiler which from its use of animal carcasses would be a smelly (and fire hazardous) neighbour to have, plus at least two blacksmith premises which would have been noisy. A good reminder that even the most privileged in society in the 1700s struggled to escape the noise and mess inherent to everyday life.

Alicia is likely the Mrs Wallop who donated to the church bells in Marlow church in 1720.

Edwardian occupier of the house the keen amateur historian William Niven noted that some of the oak panelling of the house was certainly older than the house. It is possible that this came from an earlier house on the land which was owned by Alicia's ancestors.

Admiral John Forbes had recently left the property in 1772. He was "removing to Essex" (apparently  to Old Mill Green House Ingatestone) The Marlow Place household goods were therefore auctioned off and the "large and exceedingly good house" is to let. It was available with or without accompanying pasture and meadow land. The garden itself was well stocked with the choicest fruit trees, so they said. There were apparently no immediate takers and the house seems to have been empty of tenants for at least a year. In 1773 adverts offering the property decide to include more elaborate descriptions of the house to drum up interest. Amongst other benefits, we are told the town has 3 stagecoaches to London a week in the summer and two in the winter. And water carriage could be had "almost to the door". Marlow Place is not of course an immediately riverside property but is within a couple of minutes walk of the Thames. 

The resident in 1780 looks to have been Edward Valentine Stead Esq. He left the house circa 1789 and died aged just 35 in 1790. Owen Williams M P succeeded him in residence. 

The Royal Military College used the premises to provide extra accommodation in the early 1800s. Out the back the cadets had a rifle practice range. The construction of this apparently ruined the original landscaping of the gardens.

In 1833 the occupier had recently been "Edmund Flemming" (correctly Edmond Fleming). The property was then valued as being worth £110 per year. It was the most valuable house in town by some way. Edmond had  lived in the house since at very least early 1829 as a David Alexander Fleming, a silversmith, aged 44 and late of Whitechapel died at "his father's house" Marlow Place that year. His will shows that he was the son of Edmund and had no children so that his brothers, sisters, parents and employees benefitted from his will.  You couldn't get a more Scottish name than David Alexander Fleming so there's a possible clue to Edmond's furthest ancestral origins there! Edmond was already in his early 80s when his son died, and his definitely Scottish born wife Isabella was a similar age. It is likely that they wanted to downsize a bit! Or not spread themselves so thinly as Marlow Place was only their country home. Edmond was still working in Newgate Street in when he wrote his will.  His son David's will written in 1823 was witnessed by a Henry Hammond of Great Marlow which tells us that the Flemings were already connected to Marlow back then.

Nevertheless by 1836 Edmund and Isabella had moved to live with their son at Cookham Grove, Cookham as Edmond died there then and Isabella continued to live there until her own death a decade later. 

Edmond Fleming was a jeweller, silversmith and pawnbroker who operated from Newgate Street London. Cookham Grove was the country seat of his London pawnbroker son William. The son had owned that property by 1834 but seems to have let it out to others until 1836. Not only his parents but various other unmarried adult siblings made it their home or country retreat as they saw fit.

In Newgate Street Edmund occupied two premises next door to each other, a jewellers and silversmiths at 89 and a pawnbrokers at 90. Recent (September 2025) research into Edmund, Isabella, William and the rest of the Flemings has brought up so much material that we think they will be best served with their own separate post which is available now on the blog here.

In 1834 Marlow Place was advertised to let once again in the local press. [Berkshire Chronicle 26th July 1834, accessed by me online March 2021 via the BNA]. The house was then described as consisting of ten bedrooms, a library, entrance hall, dining room, breakfast room, drawing room with detached offices [they meant rooms for domestic management like laundry rooms and stores not somewhere to do your paperwork], a double coach house and stabling for ten horses. There were also lawns, greenhouses and gardens listed as part of the property in the 1833 assessment. Later reports mention meadows and those fruit trees again.

 

These premises made an impressive boy's boarding school between 1857 and 1877. Thomas Mathews was the first master to run the school there, alongside his wife. He found the building in a most dilapidated state at the start of his tenancy and spent considerable time and effort in restoring the house. He was very keen on cricket and the school had a cricket ground in a meadow by what later became the railway station. Boys needed to bring with them to school 3 suits of clothes, 6 shirts, 3 nightshirts, 6 pairs of stockings, 3 pairs shoes, a pair of slippers, 6 towels and a bible.

Music and book keeping lessons were included within the standard school curriculum as was, unusually, Hebrew if desired. For an extra fee French or swimming lessons could be obtained or the boys prepped for the Civil Service entrance exam.

When Reverend Thomas Gwynne used the premises as a school in the 1870s he could take 26 pupils. Their minimum age was 8. Gwynne had previously ran a private school from Candover Park in Hampshire. He was known as "Old Tom" to his young charges, although not to his face of course! He was a much liked man by the adults in Marlow - but not by the pupils whom he taught. More on him in a separate post in the future.

The Mathews had taken children from age 6, with the younger boys under Mrs Mathew's care. 

These various school proprietors all rented the property rather than owned it.

Marlow Place was owned by the Williams family from at least 1795 - Colonel Thomas Peers Williams was born at the house then. Owen Williams is listed in parliamentary papers as resident there 1809 to 1817. The Williams family eventually sold it to long term tenant and architect William Niven, who wrote a couple of articles about the house for magazines such as Country Life. His grave is on the blog here.

In 1877 the last incarnation of the school closed and the house was due to be refurbished and converted back into a family home. During this work, labourer Timothy Young was killed in the grounds when engaged in demolishing a 10 ft high garden wall made partly of brick and partly of flint. Timothy was buried alive when the wall suddenly collapsed before the workers were ready for it. Some of the others engaged in the task were also injured by falling bricks but Timothy was worst affected as he was hemmed in by nearby shrubs and could not make any escape. He was dug out by his colleagues but died from multiple severe injuries a little over an hour later.

Lady Marie Alice Rushout - tenant there -died in 1882. She was the widow of baronet Sir Charles Rushout and had moved to Marlow from Gloucestershire. The following year the house contents were up for sale by a Lady Northwick perhaps a relative as the contents included little miniatures of "the Misses Rushout" by Andrew Plimer. Known as "The Three Graces" they were the daughters of Sir Thomas Rushout. These miniatures were regarded as particularly fine and beautiful works of art. 

In 1885 the new occupant of Marlow Place was widow Jane Haig who moved there from Bray Court, Maidenhead. A few days after she moved in, Jane's upper housemaid Alice Anthony AKA Kate or Katie Anthony was caught with a large amount of stolen goods hidden in her bedroom. Sacked, Alice was supposed to be escorted to the 4.10 train out of town by the butler but for unspecified reasons she ended up sleeping the night at Marlow Place instead. At six the next morning she did a flit with her mistress's portmanteau and another stolen bag stuffed with an astonishing amount of loot.

Unfortunately her knowledge of Marlow train times was sketchy and she ended up waiting longer than she had expected for her getaway train. Jane's coachman John Gale* was on her trail. Confronted by him, she ran off without the portmanteau but John and a summoned constable cornered her near Little Marlow. She still had other stolen articles on her person. In court they struggled to find room to display everything she had carried off.

I won't list it all but to give you a flavour of the items here's some of them:

A gold ring

A pair of lady's drawers

2 corsets

Some sheets of papers

3 pairs of scissors

A music book

3 table cloths

12 handkerchiefs

Curling tongs for the hair

Buttons

2 tooth brushes

2 gold pins

5 pairs of shoes

Measuring tape

An umbrella

Envelopes

12 photographs (no mention of their frames)

Opera glasses

2 pairs spectacles

Elastic

Button hook.

Left behind in her room were articles stolen from Jane's housekeeping stores such as soap, furniture polish, candles and matches. I suppose Alice ran out of room in her two bags to take it all with her!

Unsurprisingly she was jailed. The maximum sentence possible -six months - with solitary confinement an added punishment. Alice screamed and collapsed in the dock upon hearing the sentence.

A crowd of around 100, all from the poorest parts of town, gathered at Marlow station to see Alice and accompanying officers of the law leave by train for the jail in Aylesbury after her conviction. It is hard to judge whether this was in support or disapproval of Alice or just from curiosity. Alice was said to have previously lived in Marlow and may have had family here.

Jane Haig continued to live at the house until at least 1888 when her married daughter Helen Frances Warner drowned while swimming with family at Temple.

William Powley once Vice Principal of Durham University lived at Marlow Place until his premature death aged 56 in 1895.

Next came Colonel Clarence Granville Sinclair a young widower who himself died aged just 37 in 1897.

He was followed in residence at Marlow Place by William Niven. Mr Niven was able to buy the house from the Williams family rather than just rent it in 1921. See a photo of his grave here. We will have more on him in the future.

* John Gale retired to Victoria Road Marlow.

Main post researched and written by Charlotte Day. Photos and information about Thomas Young and Admiral Forbes provided by Kathryn. 

Related Posts:

Biography of Alicia Wallop here

Biography of three Victorian Trinidadian pupils at Marlow Place School: here

Additional sources I found useful:

Reading Mercury 29th March 1773 & 12th October 1792, Windsor and Eton Express 31st January 1829, South Bucks Standard 27th November 1896 , Maidenhead Advertiser 14 April 1877, Oxford Journal 11 July 1772, held at the British Library Archive and accessed via the BNA.

Parochial assessment notebooks 1830s, owned by my family. These are being transcribed gradually onto this blog.

1871 census. Transcribed by me. Census information always remains Crown Copyright. 

GRO death index.

Armorial Families. A Directory of Coat Armour, by Arthur Charles Fox Davies published 1910 by T.C and E.C Jack.

Saturday Review of Politics, Literature Science and Art volumes 28-29 published by John W Parker 1870. Accessed via Google Books March 2021.

History of Newbury and Its Environs by Edward William Gray, published by Hall and Marsh 1839.

Country Life volume 49 page 353. And Volume 33 issue 836. 

Dutton and Allen Commercial Directory 1867.

Bentley's Miscellany, Volume 20 : "Shots from an Old Six Pounder". [Richard Bentley 1846]

English Country Houses: Baroque - James Lee-Milnes (Country Life Books, 1960)

 Andrew and Nathaniel Plimer - George Charles Williamson, (G Bells & Son 1903.)

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/029d5a54-d882-43b0-ae1d-9399f135df68

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to reuse this research for family and local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Fleming / Strang Grave Hurley

 

In Hurley churchyard. On grave:

Alexander Fleming of Dean Place. Died 23rd March 1926 aged 76.

Janet Strang wife of the above died 17th Jan 1931.

Photographed and read by Charlotte Day.

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