The Winter Family of Dial House

When Stephen Winter / Winters was given the job of curate of Marlow's parish church he and his widowed mother Selina immediately took Dial House in St Peter's Street, a stone's throw from the church. This was in 1897. With them were Stephen's younger sister Lucy Agnes.

Selina, Lucy and Stephen had been living at the historic Long Crendon Manor prior to the Marlow move. There was another son in the family, Lawrence, who worked as a doctor in Kent.

Selina Winter /s was a lady of independent means thanks to wealth inherited from her dead husband Lewis and her dead father John Amos. She had grown up in Hackney and Shoreditch London where her father was a merchant and agent for those with business and property interests in Jamaica. He has been identified as a significant slave owner based on the fact that he was paid out multiple times after putting in claims for compensation following the abolition of slavery in Jamaica. Researchers into these compensation claims routinely presume (understandably) that those who filed claims were themselves the owners of the relevant slaves but further research frequently shows that this is incorrect and that the person filing the claims was acting as an agent, executor or administrator for the true owner or owners. To date I can find John Amos as an agent and executor for slave owners only. There is therefore no question that he profited from the misery of enslaved people but it remains an open question as to whether he was specifically, personally a slave owner. In his 1855 will which can be obtained from the National Archives, Kew he mentions no foreign property or assets. 

His wife Selina survived him. Their daughter Selina, the future Selina Winters, born in 1834 was their only child and thus came into much wealth and property, especially in London upon her father's death from chronic bronchitis in 1855.

In 1868 Selina aged 34 married Lewis Winter /s , an accountant, at St John's church Hackney. Within a few months of the marriage her mother passed away but the birth the next year of the couple's first child, Lawrence, meant a new beginning for the family. Selina and her household seem to have lived a quiet and comfortable life with a couple of servants in Wanstead Essex until the death of Lewis in 1887. He was just short of his 50th birthday at the time.

Selina made her home in the house "Clements" at Snaresbrook but the news that Stephen had won the Marlow curacy position uprooted the family. Selina set up the new Marlow household with a live in parlour maid and cook plus a live out coachman and gardener. Retaining staff was never easy even before the first world war and Selina appears many times in local newspapers advertising for new servants with a promise of good pay for the successful candidates.

All members of the Winters household were religious people and deeply interested in the provision of both Sunday Schools and other education for children in Marlow. 

Stephen's wife Florence (nee Scott, m 1899 St George's Bloomsbury*) was the superintendent of the Girls National School. This was a voluntary position and did not involve teaching. Stephen, Selina and Lucy all acted as fundraisers, and promotors for the parish Sunday schools. Lucy acted as honorary secretary for the local Sunday Schools association and for the Managers of the various church schools. Praise was heaped upon her for her diligence and ability to persuade others to help the cause. She is a good example of the young women who came of age in the early 1900s and began to carve out  their own place in public affairs. She served in committees where she 

might have been the only female presence at every meeting. Even serving as an secretary for a charitable cause, and giving speeches to committees or writing reports and letters in that capacity for the local newspapers was still an unusual thing for a woman to do at that time, especially one who was not an aristocrat. It is interesting to see that Lucy often styled herself in official letters as the simple and authoritative (because masculine style) "L.A Winters", not the more expected Miss Lucy Winters" or "Miss L.A Winters".

If you attended Holy Trinity School in Wethered Road, or your children do so now, then one of the reasons that is possible was the fundraising efforts of Lucy Winters.

For an example of an active woman Lucy had her own mother who was president of the Provident Nursing Club in Marlow. A post about this club which mentions Selina's involvement is already on the blog here.

Late in 1906 it was announced that Stephen Winters was to take over as vicar of the nearby village of Medmenham early the next year. He and his wife left Marlow after receiving a testimonial from parishioners. Mrs Winters received two silver candlesticks as a farewell gift from the senior girls of the National School.

Selina continued to live at Dial House until her death on February 15th 1913. In her will she left over £27,000 to good causes and her children who acted as her executors. In lieu of flowers for the funeral they asked friends and family to contribute to the funds being raised for the Marlow church schools.

Lucy appears to have remained at Dial House for at least a period of time before moving in with her brother Stephen. In 1918 their older brother Lawrence died of pneumonia that had developed out of flu contracted while he was serving as a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France.

Stephen became vicar of Wargrave Berkshire in 1914. He held this position for many years.

*The couple had a reception at the Langham Hotel London and a honeymoon in Paris and Switzerland. Stephen's sister Lucy was bridesmaid at the wedding.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

All mentions of any individual can be found on the A-Z Person Index.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research with credit to this blog.

Sources included:

P.C.C Will of John Amos 1855, National Archives, Kew.

"England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL1R-Q3Z : 22 February 2021), Selina Winter, Wanstead, Essex, England, United Kingdom; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Essex county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

 "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M2-V1K5 : 3 March 2021), Selina Amos in household of Selina Amos, Hackney, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

Henley Standard 23rd Nov 1906, Berkshire Chronicle 16th Aug 1902, Oxfordshire Weekly News 25th September 1901. British Library Archives via the BNA.

Oxford and Cambridge Yearbook 1904.

England and Wales Census, 1911," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-6LR : 22 July 2019), Mrs Selina Winter, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

London Gazette 25th April 1913.

Universities at War - http://www.universitiesatwar.org.uk/explore/winter-laurence-amos

"England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPLW-QHTR : Wed Dec 13 21:23:23 UTC 2023), Entry for Lewis Miller Wilmot Winter and Selina Winter, 16 Feb 1888.

Slavery And Its Abolition

Updated June 2024- more to come

Involved With The Trade

Daniel Moore (born circa 1701)- was an American with British ancestry. He emigrated to his ancestral homeland of England about 1747 when he bought Widmere Manor in Marlow. He was M.P, though apparently a largely inactive one, for Marlow 1754 to 1761. He shortly after that moved back to the Caribbean. He is usually given as a merchant however I believe he was also the Daniel Moore who owned a plantation in Jamaica and had on it over 100 enslaved people.

Charles John Bloxam- lawyer of the High Street was one of those who did the paperwork for some slave owners when they were granted financial compensation for the abolition of the slave trade. The two people he acted for were not locals.

John Ashley - buried aged 73 in Little Marlow churchyard. Grave says he of Ashley Hall in the parish of Vere, Jamaica. This was a sugar plantation with slaves. His ownership of this property seems to have become complicated and disputed. He certainly however owned slaves, at least 10 of them. He died while on a visit to Little Marlow, hence his burial there. The Ashley family were from Gloucestershire and Jamaica, not locals. Transporting bodies at that time was difficult so many people had to be buried wherever they died, not where they would have wanted. John lived York Crescent, Clifton, Gloucestershire having moved there from Jamaica.

Above: John Ashley's grave in Little Marlow churchyard.

Involved With Abolition Of Slavery

Pascoe Grenfell (born 1761)- M.P for Marlow 1802-20 was "on every ground of  humanity, justice and policy" a vocal supporter of the abolition of slavery and Wilberforce's efforts to get that done. Pascoe's son appears to have grown up to have financial investments partly dependent on the slave trade, something which must have disappointed him. The son also possibly owned a slave personally.

In 1792 residents of Marlow met in the Vestry at the behest of the Reverend Richard Hunt to discuss slavery. It was unanimously agreed to send a petition to parliament from the town calling for the "abolition or reform of the slave trade". This was part of a nationwide push by abolitionists to get local people from around the country to come together and petition parliament on the issue. Similar meetings took place in Wallingford and Newbury for example. The "abolition or reform" wording was a template for the petition. Those at Marlow unanimously passed an additional vote of support for Wilberforce who wanted full abolition.

The Wesleyan congregation of Marlow sent a petition to Parliament again calling for full Abolition in 1831.

A local emancipation committee to promote anti-slavery sentiment was being set up in Marlow in 1861. James Carson of Spinfield House was instrumental in this. In October 1861 he presided over a lecture meeting in Marlow where African American Reverend J Sella Martin and Canadian Reverend T.M Kinnaird who had himself been a slave spoke of the Civil War in America and the anti - slavery movement in general. The speakers, praised Simpson for his efforts to remove slavery from plantations he had any business connection to in Jamaica. His family had never had any slaves themselves he later said. A lot more on James Carson in this post 

Other

Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria lived for a while at Westhorpe House, Little Marlow. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. They left Jamaica for England in 1806. American-born Maria kept a journal of her time in Jamaica which was published posthumously. This is considered a key text in Jamaican history and is an interesting read. Her attitude to the slaves she encountered was bafflingly contradictory. She was willing to dance with a slave and continually asserted that slaves had souls just like anyone else and so were worth saving in the religious sense. She criticized the enslaved population for laziness and immorality but thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example of their lazy and immoral masters. Overall she thought most slaves well treated, being willfully oblivious to the fact someone declared a slave [e.g a non person] is by definition being appallingly treated even if no additional suffering is heaped upon them by violence etc. It also stretches credibility when Maria tells us that a boatload of newly arrived slaves which she examined to see if they looked sad and in need of spiritual succour surprised her by looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings or circumstances.

For more about this family and the general history of Westhorpe too see a dedicated post here

Enslaved People

George Alexander Gratton, born into slavery in St Vincents, stage name the "Spotted Boy" is buried in Marlow and has a dedicated post of his own here

In 1861 "fugitive slave" John Jackson was on a local speaking tour describing how he escaped from slavery and bringing to the people a first hand account of life under its grip. I do not believe John came to Marlow but interested Marlovians may have travelled to sites like Chesham Town Hall, or had friends and family who told them about his testimony. His appearances were widely advertised in advance. The following year, fellow escaped slave Washington Duff did reach Marlow on his lecture tour. He spoke in the Lecture Room (aka The Music Room, now the Masonic Centre, St Peters Str.) Washington spoke about the cruelty he and others had recieved at the hands of their "masters", including sadistic punishments which left the audience shocked and revolted. Washington bore the scars of one such assault on his legs. He was from Kentucky and had escaped to Canada. 

***

June 2022 for more Marlow slavery links see here

All mentions of someone on this blog can be found on the Person Index.

To find other content about every day life in old Marlow see the post listing here

***

Sources:

Bucks Herald, 27th April 1861. Copy held British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA March 2021.

Reading Mercury 17th March 1792. As above.

South Bucks Free Press 28 November 1862

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/moore-daniel-1701. Accessed March 2021.

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/grenfell-pascoe-1761-1838 Accessed March 2021.

'Charles John Bloxam' Legacies of British Slave Ownership database , http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk./lbs/person/view/46245 Accessed March 26th 2021.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that my sources listed above retain credit.

The People Of Westhorpe House, Little Marlow

Westhorpe House is a Georgian mansion by Little Marlow. It previously sat in around 100 acres of parkland and was often sold and occupied in conjunction with nearby Westhorpe Farm and Little Marlow Manor. In this post I aim to shine a light on some of the people who made the house their home above or below stairs.

The house was built in the late 1600s by the Chase family.

Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria were perhaps the most prominent residents of the house. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. American-born Maria kept a journal of her time in Jamaica which was published posthumously. This is considered a key text in Jamaican history and is an interesting read. Her attitude to the slaves she encountered was bafflingly contradictory. She was willing to dance with a slave and continually asserted that slaves had souls just like anyone else and so were worth saving in the religious sense. Also while she criticized the slave population for laziness and immorality she thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example set by their lazy and immoral masters. At the same time she thought most slaves well treated, being willfully oblivious to the fact someone declared a slave [e.g a non person] is by definition being appallingly treated even if no additional suffering is heaped upon them by violence etc. It also stretches credibility when Maria tells us that a boatload of newly arrived slaves which she examined to see if they looked sad and in need of spiritual succour surprised her by actually looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings.

Maria and George left Jamaica in 1806 and were at Westhorpe by 1819. Four years later they threw a party at the house to celebrate the 21st birthday of their son George junior.

Maria was the driving force behind the couple gifting 100 blankets as well as items of warm clothing to the poor of Little Marlow every year. England had seemed particularly cold to her she said after her time abroad in Jamaica, India and the USA.  

Maria became suddenly ill while taking the air in her carriage in 1834 and died shortly afterwards.

At the time of the 1841 census the widowed George lived at Westhorpe with his married daughter Maria [sometimes given as Mary] and her husband Rice Richard Clayton AKA Richard Clayton for company, not to mention a whole pack of servants.

George died in 1849 aged 91 and was buried at Little Marlow. Following his death the contents of the house were sold including a large library of quality books and a cellar full of expensive wines. 

Maria's sudden demise was not the only unexpected death at Westhorpe. In 1859 occupier Sir Arthur Buller's butler William Forward committed suicide by shooting himself in the face in the cellar of the house. He had been complaining of ill health and acting in a subdued manner. The jury at the inquest [which took place at the house!] thought that his long time separation from his wife Sarah was a key factor in his low spirits. It seems that this marriage was not known of by his fellow workers. Only when going through his personal papers did they discover evidence of it. 

Arthur Buller was born in India in 1808 and worked for the British state there, in Sri Lanka and in Canada before moving back to England, his family's ancestral home.

It is not certain how long Arthur had been at Westhorpe when his butler died. Certainly not quite as far back as the time of the 1851 census when Lt Edward and Eliza Simeon lived there, but probably soon afterwards. Edward and Eliza had moved in in 1849 after George Nugent's death. With them in 1851 were 10 servants including two footmen MJ Rogers and Phillip Eaton. One of the female servants F Hinzel had come all the way from Switzerland. 

Both Edward and Eliza were the  survivor's of their previous marriages. Her parents resided at Leeds Castle, Kent. His was a Berkshire and Oxfordshire family.

A few months after the census Edward died and was buried in Reading. It is likely that Arthur Buller moved into Westhorpe soon afterwards.

He moved to London eventually and the house was sold in 1859 to George Jackson Esquire. George put the house up to let in 1862 for a minimum period of 7 years but perhaps there were no takers as he apparently continued to live at Westhorpe until his death in 1896. He had previously resided at Little Marlow Manor. 

The 1863 property to let adverts say that the house and gardens had both recently been overhauled. The house interior, prospective tenants were reassured, was decorated with "taste and simple elegance". Outside were the luxuries of hot houses, melon pits and  an expanse of ornamental water not to mention a trendy rock garden [The gardener from at least 1869 to at least 1890 was George Davis].

During George Jackson's time at Westhorpe there was another sudden death in the house- an unnamed nursery maid aged just 22 whose heart gave out as she changed her clothes after coming back from a walk with her charges.

The 1861 census shows George a widower with 11 children from just a year old up to 19 years old. 

One of those children Felix, away working at a brewery in Burton Upon Trent when in his 20s, fell into some machinery and was killed instantly.

Keeping the Jackson family going in 1861 was a group of 10 live in servants. 

By 1871 with the number of children at home reduced, only 7 servants were kept.

The 1871 cook Ann Chaplin had had an impressive rise from being the 16 year old sole servant in a London household on the 1861 census, to the cook in the large household at Westhorpe in 1871. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Chaplin and was born circa 1840 in Easthampstead Berkshire. I was not able to find her in 1881. The cook at Westhorpe then was Fanny Gilbert, and Eliza Humphrey in 1891.

1871 footman Enoch Watts, born circa 1827 had risen to butler by 1881. Enoch was a married man whose wife Theresa and family did not live with him at Westhorpe though, they were staying in the village of Little Marlow.  This was quite an unusual situation for a butler who tended to be unmarried or married to the cook/ housekeeper of the same household. He continued to live in Little Marlow after his retirement with his married daughter Sarah Piggott. Theresa died 1881. She worked as a laundress, as did Sarah before marriage. (To see the grave of Enoch and Theresa see here)

Westhorpe House was sold in 1896 following George Jackson's death. He left an estate worth over £100,000.  A Mr Gordon was the resident in 1899.

The estate was again sold in 1917.

The 1917 sale guide said that the house had 19 bed and dressing rooms, 2 bathrooms, a billiards room and library amongst other things. In a sign of changing times some of the stabling had given way to motor garages.

Our blog primarily deals with Marlow people pre 1920s so with that I will bid farewell to this handsome house.

For more on Marlow's links to both slavery and its abolition see here . More Little Marlow content can be found listed under Other Places on the menu. All mentions of an individual on the blog can be found on the Person Index.

To find posts about everyday life in old Marlow, see the listing here

Sources:

Reading Mercury 31st December 1849 [suicide], 18th April 1863 [nursery maid death] and 19th August 1882 [Felix Jackson death]. Bucks Herald 17th May 1862 [property description] Copies at the British Library accessed via the BNA October 2020.

Little Marlow Parish Registers.

1841, 61, 71 and 91 censuses transcribed from microfilm by Jane Pullinger. 1851 and 1881 census my own transcription from microfilm.

Wikipedia articles on Sir George Nugent, Sir Arthur Buller and Sir John Simeon [father of Edward] all accessed October 13th-15th 2020.

Lady Nugent's Journal, reprinted 1907 by the Institute of Jamaica. Can be purchased on Amazon if you want to read it.

Auction sale guide, 1917. Loose. Poor condition. Partial.

GRO Death Index online. Accessed February 2021.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. If reusing this research (which you are very welcome to do for family or local history purposes) please give credit to this blog and link here.