Revd John Briggs

Revd John Briggs came to the Congregational Church in Quoiting Square Marlow (now called Christ Church URC) from a previous post in Preston Lancashire late in 1866. The Independent Chapel in Whitby also wanted John but he turned them down.

John originated from the wonderfully named village of Idle near Bradford in Yorkshire. His father was a clothier and by the time he was 13 John was working as a cloth weaver for him. However a change of direction occurred at some point and John graduated from Airedale College, a specialist training college for Congregational ministers, located then at Undercliffe near Bradford. His was a Congregational family like many others in the village of Idle.

The Grimshaw Street Independent Chapel, Preston seems to have been John's first post, from 1861 onwards.

Prior to being appointed there John visited the chapel multiple times as a guest preacher. As was often the case when a man was seen as talented in that way, his future congregation had him pencilled as their preferred new minister when the time came that they had a vacancy, long before that vacancy occurred.

The attraction of John was obvious from reportage on his work, the Preston Chronicle calling him a man "in the first rank of our local orators" to give one example of praise for his sermons.

As well as the usual extra sermons given in aid of Sunday Schools, missionaries and the like the local Preston paper in 1865 advertised a sermon he was to preach on the life and death of Richard Cobden, a politician who had campaigned for the repeal of the Corn Laws, pacifism and the establishment of free non - denominational schools for children. John himself was outspoken in drumming up support for free education for children. 

His other big passion was his opposition to the system of Easter Dues exacted by Church of England clergy. He was the secretary of the Preston Anti-Easter Dues Association and something of a firebrand speaker anywhere and everywhere in that respect. In 1865 he and his associates managed to persuade the local vicar to publicly hand back to two men who had refused on principle to pay their dues some goods seized from them in lieu of cash - two hams and a barometer!

John was also a big supporter of the Young Men's Christian Association in Preston but does not seem to have been involved with that organisation in Marlow. In fact compared to other ministers of the Congregational Church at Marlow in the 1800s, John was very quiet. Whereas others were often to be found at major events in the town and were actively involved in hot local discussions about issues such as tax, the system of education and temperance John seldom appears as a speaker or organiser of events other than those directly related to his work at his own church. That doesn't mean he didn't attend other events, perhaps he preferred to attend in a quieter, less "up on stage"capacity. It was a marked change in his behaviour though between Preston and Marlow, which is puzzling.

John and his wife Sara / Sarah (nee Burrows married at the Grimshaw Street chapel August 1865) lived in the Congregational minister's house in Chapel Street Marlow. There on March 16th 1867 a daughter Mabel Sara was born to them. Sadly she died after just a few weeks as did another child, John Burrows, born to them the next year. 

On a happier note John received 26 new members into his church in 1867. That would average out at one a fortnight across the year. Impressive! Keeping members as active church members apparently wasn't as easy. In The Story of Christ Church, Quoiting Square 1693-1986 Arthur Macurthur writes that in February 1867 it was decided that those who had not attended the Lord's Supper for six months forfeited their church membership.

John resigned in Spring 1868, with the intention of entering the Church of England as a clergyman. This he did indeed do, becoming the curate of St John's Church in the suburb of Tuebrook, Liverpool when it opened in 1870. He served under vicar J.C Reade whose wealthy wife paid for the church to be built. Like many a curate John  performed a large amount of the marriages and other ceremonies at the church. Though obviously dedicated to Tuebrook, the Reades did not actually live there. 

John never lost contact with his old home of Preston. His entry to the Church of England did not go down well at all with some of his old associates there however. In fact a fair amount of venom was directed at him for perceived hypocrisy particularly by those still opposing Easter Dues. A later secretary of the Preston Anti Easter Dues Association was particularly scathing, to the point of publicly insinuating John had never been to University and was falsely claiming to have been sufficiently clever and hardworking to earn a degree. Ouch. There was no substance to this allegation by the way. John was an M.A.

He did not lose contact with Marlow either, returning in 1873 for the funeral of William Wright a prominent worshipper at his old Congregational Church in Quoiting Square. He was considered one of the guests of honour at the funeral so there was no obvious resentment in Marlow stemming from his removing to the Church Of England.

John resigned as a curate of St John's in 1871 to become Honorary Secretary of the Colonial and Continental Church Society. He was credited with being a highly successful fundraiser for that organisation. He remained based in Liverpool though he traveled widely in his role. 

He and Sarah lived at 43 Victoria Road in the suburb of Tuebrook where daughters were born to them in 1873 and 1875.

He died in 1877.

***

Further reading:

An 1870 religious pamphlet written by John is available free and in full here on Google Books.

Christ Church, Quoiting Square website which includes scans of history booklets here.

More biographies of Marlow clergy on this blog including John's successor Revd James Mountain, can be found under the Church Related option on the menu. All mentions of someone on the blog can be found by looking at the Person Index. Over 2,300 people are mentioned so far.

St John the Baptist, Tuebrook church website including photos of the attractive interior here.

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

Some Sources.

Preston Herald 23rd March 1867 and 9th May 1868. Preston Chronicle February 25th 1865. All via the BNA. Copies held in the British Library Archives.

The Story of Christ Church, Quoiting Square 1693-1986 by Arthur Macarthur. Thanks to Martin Ashford for giving us a copy of this.

"England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPMF-VBW : 12 September 2019), William Briggs, , Yorkshire,Yorkshire (West Riding), England; citing , Yorkshire,Yorkshire (West Riding), England, p. 24, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

GRO birth and death registrations, Bucks, Registry Office index.

An African Boy in 1800s Marlow.

Updated December 2023

Some of you may be surprised to know that there are several examples of black residents or visitors to Marlow in the 1800s.

Edward Mazongoo's stay was brief but his story interesting.

Born according to his 1871 census entry in Zanzibar Africa I first find him working as a 14 year old garden boy in Hampshire for a rich widow. He was one of multiple servants in the household. Being a garden boy could lead to a good job if the boy could get enough experience and expertise to become a head gardener. These were senior servants, in charge of other employees and often qualifying for a house along with the job. In its apprentice stages however the job of gardener was very low paid. Though live-in garden boys like Edward would get a bed but an actual bedroom was very unlikely. Most often the position involved sleeping in the kitchen or kitchen passage in an employer's house on a pull up bed or in the potting shed or stables outside, like the stable lads. I have come across no other obvious records of a black boy taking on a gardening role. Most African or Caribbean servants were valets or footmen. Better paid jobs, though with long hours of expected service. To be honest you were never really not on call. As black servants were scarce, managing to find and employ one became a sign of social cachet as well as a talking point. To be a footman you would in addition need to be tall and considered good looking.

Three years after Edward Mazoongoo was entered into the census as a garden boy, he too had become a valet. Now he was living in Marlow and said to be 19, which means his age is out somewhere. His employer was a Mr John Marsham whose main home was in Palace Gardens, Kensington London, but who also stayed at Marlow, presumably as a "country" or weekend retreat. Edward perhaps was unhappy as he stole Marsham's chequebook and filled out two cheques. His enquiries as to the cashing out process and his incorrect rendering of his employer's name sparked suspicion at both the London bank branches he attempted to get to pay him money. A warrant was soon put out for his arrest on the charge of forgery.

Edward got all the way to Lichfield before being caught. The jail there could not hold him- he escaped- and a national alert was put out for police to be on the lookout for him. London Police suspected that he would try to get to Liverpool Docks so police were waiting there for him. To Liverpool Edward did indeed go, on foot all the way it was reported. An awaiting Superintendent soon spotted him and a local detective constable successfully gave chase and seized him. He still had the stolen cheque book on him at the time. Edward was sent back via Lichfield to London for trial.

At the trial, the charge of forgery was dropped in favour of one of stealing the cheque book only. Edward had wrote the name of Marsham on the cheque he tried to cash but had not tried to copy the signature and had not spelt the name correctly on at least one cheque. His uncertainty about the banking process as a whole suggests he did not understand a signature was required, only the provision of the name of the account holder. So on a technicality, the fact that no one could possibly be fooled into cashing a cheque without a signature on it in the right place, Edward was free of the charge of forgery. For the theft of the cheques however he received 6 months in jail with hard labour.

It is possible to tease out a few facts about Edward from the case. He must have been at least partially literate in order to write his employer's name. That the police suspected he would go to Liverpool docks possibly implies they knew that he had a previous connection to the place. Perhaps he had arrived into the country as a very young sailor. His going to Lichfield is puzzling but may just be the result of hitching a ride to wherever he could get as fast as he could.

How he covered large swathes of the country in a short period of time is not obvious. To take 2 (or 3, reports vary) days only to walk to Liverpool seems improbable if he did indeed only travel on his own two legs. He does not seem to have been sighted between Lichfield and Liverpool which is something of an achievement for a man who would stand out from the crowd more than the average man.

He appears on no further censuses, nor do any obvious family members for him.

More about Marlow's any 1800s black residents in the future and about Edward too if anything more can be discovered about either.

 Note added October 2021: see this post about George Alexander Grafton a black child buried in Marlow churchyard in the 1800s.

To find every mention of any person on this blog choose the Person Index option on the drop down menu. See also Biographies Of Individuals here.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Sources:

My transcription of microfilm photographic images of 1871 census pages provided by the LDS at their Family History Centre. You can now easily find census images and transcriptions of them online.

Staffordshire Advertiser 13th September 1873, Huddersfield Daily Chronicle 20th September 1873 via the BNA accessed June 2019.

London Evening Standard, 19th September 1873, Burton Chronicle 18th September 1873 via the BNA accessed August 2020.

The Hour, 23rd September 1873. Accessed 2021. British Library Archives.