Charlie Wonder

Before Marlow opened it's own railway station passengers for the town travelled as far as Bourne End or "Marlow Road Station" as it was known and then waited for a connecting horse-drawn omnibus. The driver of this unwieldy contraption was the much loved Charles Burns or "Charlie Wonder" as he was affectionately known as the Omnibus was called the Wonder. It dropped it's passengers three times a day outside the Crown Hotel in Market Square. The roads weren't brilliant and the omnibus rather old so the journey progressed at a pace best described as stately. A few grumpy travellers complained about that but most relished every minute as Charlie regaled them with his stories from a long career as a stagecoach and omnibus driver. Charlie you see was a precious relic of the days of stage coaches and he had seen it all. He clearly had the gift of the gab and as his omnibus passed you on the Marlow road you often heard his passengers roaring with laughter. He treated everyone the same, rich or poor.

At a time when formality in social interaction was the norm everyone nevertheless called him "Charles" or "Charlie". Not only did he get you home but while waiting at the station for the morning train he would help baffled travellers make sense of the railway timetables, which were continually changing and (I've seen them) not exactly user friendly. Grateful for such help, Lavinia Lovelace wrote to the Bucks Free Press in 1864 to praise him while another, Mary Carnegie, said he was not only "sagacious" but had a voice "so mellow and sweet". Mary was less impressed by the management at the Crown saying they failed to notify passengers of changes to their omnibus departure times. She believed this was probably a deliberate ploy to stop passengers from catching the train they didn't want to become a success. This wouldn't make a lot of sense as the train was the main way guests came up from London to the Crown and then from again.

The sweetly voiced, helpful and friendly Charlie was not a Marlow man by birth, but was baptised at Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire in 1811. On one census he indicates a birth in Birmingham (or whoever filled in the census form for that household that night believed him to have been born there) but generally he indicated Wraysbury. 

Charlie's first wife and the mother of his sons George and Owen was Anne (nee Tyler, possibly widow Powell when she married Charlie) as per their birth registrations. The family lived in Cookham. The occupation of Charlie in the 1841 census looks like "house keeper" which seems improbable unless he meant it in the sense of watchman or guardian but perhaps that might be "horse keeper"? Again that's not usual vocabulary. In 1847 Ann passed away.

Charlie first appears on the census in Marlow as a 39 year old widowed stagecoach man with two young sons in Strong Beer Acre, which was off the future Station Road. With the family was a widowed housekeeper Elizabeth Bearfoot or Barefoot. Within a few months Charlie and Elizabeth would marry. The stagecoach Charlie drove was most likely the Lovegrove and Co coach from Marlow to Maidenhead .

By the time of the next census in 1861  Bourne End Station as "Marlow Road" and Charlie had switched to become an omnibus driver as stagecoaches had been rendered obsolete. He lived then with Elizabeth at South Place. In 1871 they were entered on the census at Wycombe Road. 

In 1872 the omnibus overturned after a wheel detached. Charlie was thrown off as was the box passenger but nobody was seriously hurt. 

As well as people Charlie would carry parcels and packages and in one memorable instance a cargo of live swans (strapped on to the top of the omnibus). The swans were being relocated from Marlow where they were thought to be too numerous and a nuisance to anglers there to Bourne End.

The opening of the Marlow station meant that the end of the Bourne End to Marlow omnibus and Charlie's job driving it. The people of Marlow contributed to a fund to help him set himself up with a new living. The idea to buy him a new omnibus and horse which he could use to pick people up from Marlow Station and bring them and their luggage into the town centre (short distance though that was) was reckoned to be the best one. Contributions could be given to, amongst others, Mr Porter the Bourne End station master and Charles Carter the West Street architect and surveyor. Some £90 was collected which would have paid rent on an average house for several years to give you some idea of that sum's value at the time. It was decided to simply hand the cash to Charlie to do with what he will. He took out an ad in the Bucks Free Press to express his thanks to his friends for their kindness.

The owners of the Crown were already planning to run a coach from their hotel to the station so suggested Charlie should drive this, rather than set up another service. This meant that the money raised by Charlie's well-wishers could go directly to him. He welcomed the job but a journey time of less than 5 minutes didn't allow him much opportunity to spin his tales of yesteryear, and it was widely observed that the spark had gone out of him. Within a year he became seriously ill and had to be admitted to Reading Hospital. His faithful passengers again collected money for his aid but sadly on the 11th of June 1874 Charlie died aged of 62.  His estate was wound up by his son Owen who gave a correspondence address of 5 Park Villas, Wycombe Road, Marlow. This may in fact be his father's address as Owen was a live-in servant at Bisham Abbey across the river. He is later specifically described as a "valet de chambre". Now that's posh! His brother George became a steward and then a clerk in London. Elizabeth, the second Mrs Burns, seems to have died in 1880.

Written and research by Charlotte Day.

Much more about the history of stagecoaches in Marlow here and here

©Marlow Ancestors.

England and Wales census 1851, 1861 and 1871 transcribed from microfilm by Charlotte Day. Census information remains Crown copyright.

"England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2D3R-57B : 13 December 2014), Charles Burn, 1851; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1851, quarter 3, vol. 6, p. 407, Windsor, Berkshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

https://www.rootspoint.com/record/1841-UK-Census/Chas-Burn-1811-Out-Of-County/f1697020-e502-4f2f-8e40-55b11793859a/

Bucks Free Press 21st May 1864, 25th April 1873 and 19th June 1874. Bucks Free Press Archives.

So Who Did Eat Puppy Pie Under Marlow Bridge?

If you wanted to hear a choice selection of expletives in Victorian or Edwardian Marlow all you had to do was call out to a passing bargeman "Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?"

You didn't need to be in Marlow- the phrase was used not only upon the whole stretch of the Thames but on other stretches of water in England, and was known in Ireland too.

The angry response came from the question being a reference to an alleged incident where an unwitting bargee had stolen a pie only to discover after he had eaten it up "under Marlow Bridge" that it was made from the flesh of unwanted, drowned puppies. The pie's owners was said to have been fed up with their pies being stolen so set the pie thief up, breaking the news as to the pie contents only when it was too late and the last crumb eaten.

It is likely some such incident did happen as there are too many references to the tale for it to be otherwise but the circumstances are not consistent across different versions of the story and nor is the time period given for the incident.

The nature of the person whose pie had been stolen varies too. Not all versions even agree that it was Marlow Bridge involved though by far the greater number do.

The earliest print reference to this story which I have found dates from 1846 and says that the awful pie was consumed under Maidenhead Bridge, not Marlow (The Era 14th June, British Newspaper Archives). The Pall Mall Budget newspaper in 1872 also set the scene in Maidenhead as did the Saturday Review in 1867. One later Victorian memory recalled bargees being asked who ate the puppy pie under Waterloo Bridge in London.

The earliest reference to Marlow being the scene of the crime was in a newspaper of 1848 but the author there said the pie question was a "hidden taunt" and he did not personally know any particular story behind this odd question routinely thrown at bargees.

Francis Francis the elder (yes that was his name) in 1854 thought the incident had happened at the "beginning of the 18th century" and gives a version not matched by any later versions. He says that a gentleman of Marlow was the pie owner. This cook used part of an unwanted litter of poodle puppies (only in this version is a specific dog breed mentioned) for the pie filling and left it wrapped in a blue cloth down under the bridge where all the bargemen had left their lunches for later, in the expectation that one of them would surely eat it. This version has more detail than most others with the breed of dog which was victimized given, plus the colour of the cloth, and the detail that it was wrapped at all. It was of course normal for working men to carry their lunches in knotted clothes or handkerchiefs, and the different colours and patterns of these helped the men to tell whose lunch was whose. It is possible that the gentleman pie owner had observed that a particular thief used a blue cloth for his lunch and was thus specifically targeting an individual for vengeance. He might even have swapped out the correct lunch for the sabotaged one, rather than left matters to chance.

In 1856 Bell's Life In London thought that the pies stolen by the bargees were the lunches of the men building Marlow's new suspension bridge (which happened between 1829-32). This building was beset with problems which caused Marlow to become not just a local but nationwide laughing stock. People specifically came to Marlow to ask the locals where their new bridge was as it didn't seem to have been built yet and to witness the embarrassed local reactions. You can easily imagine the passing bargees joining in the teasing and becoming resented as a result. A perceived theft (we can't be sure in any scenario that any bargemen were actually guilty of stealing any pies only that they were believed to be guilty. Itinerant people were pretty much always blamed rather than locals for any unsolved crimes in the past) of some lunch by them might have been the final straw and a plan of revenge hatched. Remember too that the effect of the new suspension bridge on river flow was a cause for concern for commercial river users and this would have lead to increased tensions between them and the bridge builders and townspeople responsible for thst. The works themselves must have created disturbance to the nearby wharves too.

The Preston Pilot newspaper in 1860 also  thought the legendary pie owner to be a gentleman. It mentioned that in other parts of the Thames the usual question to annoy bargemen was "Who ate the cats?" with no mention of Marlow Bridge. Was there another historic occurrence of revenge baking this time involving cats????

In the same year the journal Littell's Living Age stated that it was a Marlow publican who had been targeted by light fingered bargemen and that the bargees thought they had stolen a rabbit pie when they picked up his puppy one.

In the magazine Temple Bar of 1865 the aggrieved cook was given as the landlord of the Ferry Inn along the river at Medmenham though the puppy pie was still regarded as having been eaten at Marlow under the bridge.

Various different references to the "who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?" question in the mid Victorian era regarded it as an old or ancient one and the originating story possibly a myth.

In A Drive Through England in 1885 James John Hissey agreed that the pie had been baked by the landlord of an unspecified Medmenham pub. This landlord had heard that some bargees on their way to the village had hatched a plan to raid his larder yet again and placed just the puppy pie in it to teach them a lesson.

Henry Jones in The Way About Buckinghamshire written 13 years later also thought that a landlord was inspired to bake the infamous pie upon hearing that a plan to attack his larder was afoot. But the author thought that the landlord was that of the Compleat Angler in Marlow. I'll deal with that possibility below.

In 1912 the Sunderland Daily Echo attempted to explain the well known Marlow puppy pie question to it's readers. It claimed that the bargees were in the habit of using a Marlow baker's ovens for their own pie baking. When they came to fetch their pies they would falsely claim the biggest pies there as their own, leaving the smaller ones they had in fact baked behind for other customers. It was indeed normal for people to pay to use a bakery's ovens to cook their pies in, as many people had no oven at home, or only a very small one. It is not very believable however that the bargemen could claim other pies as their own as each pie would have had a mark or sign cut into the pastry top in order to distinguish it from others. You also have to wonder if the bargemen really had the capability on their barges to make pastry. It is possible their wives at home had made the pies for their husbands to carry along with them but if so why give them raw uncooked pies which would, unrefrigerated, soon spoil rather than already cooked ones which would last longer?

The Marlow bakery involved was said to be a small one near the river. There would be at least two possibilities for such a bakery in early Victorian or late Georgian Marlow if that is the correct era to be looking at. 

In the 1914 editing of The Gourmet's Guide To London thought that the keeper of the Compleat Angler at Marlow had baked the puppy pie at the time of the old Marlow Bridge which was sited differently to our modern one. The Bisham side of it ended just by the Compleat Angler before it was condemned in 1829.  No time frame is given but the Creswell family had the inn in the early 1800s and were in part barge masters so it may not be particularly credible that they would wish to enrage the bargemen, or that the bargees who wish to enrage a potential employer. 

In 1939 in A Few Naval Customs etc Napier Thomason Beckett thought that the pie thefts had occured from an unnamed, but no longer existing, inn by the bridge, so not the Compleat Angler which still existed. This could be the former Waterman's Arms by the river or the Bowl and Pin which was demolished so that the new church could be built in 1833. Read more about the controversial church build in this post.

Also in the 1930s historian Francis Colmer thought that the pies originally stolen were cooling on a bench at Mr Rolls Wharf which was indeed at the foot of the bridge. He guessed that the pies came from the nearby Waterman's Arms but he probably didn't know about the Bowl and Pin. I'm not sure why they would choose a busy wharf as a place to cool their pie though!

A letter written to the Daily Mirror in 1949 by a Mr Walker of Mitcham Surrey placed the original incident "70 or 80 years" ago which was clearly far too late. He said the puppy pie was baked by the cook of the Compleat Angler and that game pies were the ones previously stolen. 

That's all clear as mud isn't it? Various of the story versions above have some plausibility as to time and place or situation but many have implausible aspects too and none seems without question the right one.

There is one curious thing about all versions of the story. Namely that the prankster pie maker gets the last laugh. As a group bargeman were protective of each other and quick to take offence on behalf of any of their number whether known to them personally or not. When the boys of the Marlow based Royal Military College 1800s annoyed the bargemen it led to months of running battles between the two groups. Bargees angered by a Marlow man's behaviour in the 1760s (seemingly beating a boy, whose relationship to the bargees if any is unknown) rioted and robbed the town over 3 days. There was clearly a secondary motivation of anger at local corn and wheat prices behind that riot, which also involved the ladies of the town. Farmers, millers and bakers were particularly targeted. The bargees took food and either gave it to the women or sold it to them for the price they thought should have been charged in the first place, were it not for the greed of the producers. I wonder if the beaten boy had been caught stealing food in desperation or had complained about Marlow prices. The bargees also joined in with the rioting women of Marlow who, incensed at unaffordable food prices in the town, pulled down three bakeries in 1800. It doesn't seem very credible that anyone could feed a bargeman a trick puppy pie and there be no reaction from their fellow bargemen. Unless the thief stole their pies too and they were also fed up with him!!

Still, those merely mentioning the pie to a bargeman years later were not uncommonly ducked into the water, given a black eye or bombarded with missiles. The pie baker was taking a huge risk in upsetting the bargemen.

It is interesting to note that the 1760s riot incident involved larders in the town being ransacked. Innkeepers were amongst the many targeted. Did this lead to a lingering association in the town between thefts from larders and bargemen? Does the incident of the puppy pie actually come from some misremembered act of revenge after these larder raids? The town was said to have been almost emptied of food by the angry boatmen and the women who supported them at that time.

The question of "who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?" was previously used as an example of a question to which no possible answer could be given. If someone asked you a question anywhere in England which you felt unable to answer you could shrug and say, "Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?". It was equivalent to our "How long is a piece of string?" So clearly very early on the identity of the unfortunate pie thief was forgotten or was never known by anyone but the few people present at the eating.

It was, by the way, believed in Victorian England that Chinese people routinely ate puppy pies, and according to some missionaries puppy pie was also a dish in Zanzibar. I'm not sure about the typical kitchen set up in Zanzibar but Chinese people at that time didn't do any baking so that legend is a non-starter.Nevertheless the unsafeness of puppies if any Chinese visitor was nearby was a running joke in England. 

People would also use the expression "I could eat a puppy pie" to express the fact that they were so hungry that they could eat anything.

In case you are wondering whether anyone could actually eat a puppy pie and not realize that something wasn't quite right, the flavour of dog is apparently just like game. That information comes from those Zanzibar missionaries, we promise. No animals were harmed in the production of this post. 

Honestly, I'm a vegetarian.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Related posts= Creswells of Compleat Angler here  and here. Detailed post about the history of Marlow bargemen here, the 1780s built bridge here and of the current Marlow Bridge here

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

Additional sources quoted above=

The Real Salt by Francis Francis the elder, 1854.

The Gourmet's Guide To London by Nathaniel Newnham Davis.

The Living Age vol 67 . Google Books.

The Preston Pilot 28th January 1860, Sunderland Echo 7th June 1912, Daily Mirror  5th January 1949. British Library Archives. Via the British Newspaper Archive.

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. 

The Battings of Marlow

 Today's post is an overdue one on one of the families that would without question have been known by any Victorian resident of Marlow. Indeed those living here in much more recent times have shared their fond memories of the Battings hardware store in West Street with us. It was replaced by Waitrose and then Sainsbury's supermarkets. 

We will start with Alfred and Ann (d 1892) Batting. Alfred records on his census entries that he was born in Oxford in 1812 but we believe he came to Marlow when quite young. He was a tin man and brazier working and living in West Street.  The Batting's shop and advertising used to bear the legend that the business was established in 1820 and that certainly seems to fit with the records. I can not say that he was definitely in his early life working at one of the premises later associated with his family but he does appear to have rented a yard at least at The Hayes. This is currently known as Hayes Place, adjacent to what is now Platts (petrol pump and car sales part)  in Quoiting Square. And this Platts building was of course later used by one of Alfred's sons as a pawnbrokers and furniture depot, more of which below. He also rented some garden ground further up West Street at West End, where he was a victim of one of the prolific cabbage rustlers that plagued the area in the 1850s (70 were lifted in one night on one occasion). Alfred was also the victim of a theft by long standing Marlow criminal Sarah Bowles, of whom more in Charlotte's post here

By the time of his death, Alfred owned a number of properties in Marlow. This included several shops and cottages as well as cottages at Bovingdon Green and Cookham. Alfred clearly worked himself up to run a very successful business which was inherited by his sons William (b.1846) and Charles (b.1850) who ran it as an "ironmongers etc". The etcetera is very appropriate as ironmongery barely touches the surface of the very many strands of the business the brothers would eventually manage. 

Above the grave marker of Alfred and Ann as well as other members of the Batting family. 

For example, they had an early interest in producing agricultural machinery. It looks like Charles and William were acting as agents and possibly manufacturers of this at least at the time of their inheriting the business from their father upon his death in 1873. I'm trying to trace an early business partnership they had in this area around that time. What is certain is that in 1883, Charles and William bought the Maidenhead agricultural implements business of William Bulstrode. Separately they also bought out Bulstrode's share of Bulstrode and Rogers brass and iron founders business also of Maidenhead. Henceforth the foundry was known as Rogers and Batting (or more generally the Maidenhead Ironworks) until Edwin Rogers retired 2 years later. They now ran a large concern between Maidenhead and Marlow, incorporating the foundry, ironmongers and agricultural engineering business. 

Unsurprisingly the pair decided to split the business up between them in 1893. No doubt this would make it easier to manage. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent. Charles would manage the Maidenhead Ironworks while William remained in Marlow to superintend the ironmongery. They continued in a co operative relationship however. 

Charles Batting 

Charles, like his brothers, had attended Marlow Place school - a day and boarding school for "young gentleman", offering both a technical and classical education. The fees of this school were not cheap, and another indication that their father the tin man Alfred had flourished in his business. He then served an apprenticeship in London with Messrs Beenham, engineers and founders. He had returned home on his father's death to manage the business, as mentioned above, before  moving to Maidenhead to be close to the works that were his focus. He remained there until his death in his late 50s in 1910, less than a year after the death of his wife. During his life Charles won the contracts to put gas in large establishments all over the south east, such a large coastal hotels. He was known for investing in machinery and technology that enabled him to advertise his works as one of the most modern in the country.  The original premises leased by Charles was described as occupying a site on West Street/ High Street Maidenhead but apparently he had to give it up due to a road widening scheme. So he took on a nearby plot and built the extensive premises there. In 1911 it was described as comprising a foundry, motor works, and electrical and ironmongery department store and show room.  

William Batting 

William in Marlow could describe his business in the 1890s (still known as Batting and Sons) as ironmongers, engineers, plumbers, millwrights, smiths, machinists, tin workers, coppersmiths, gas and hit water fitters fitters, agricultural and horticultural implement agents, sanitary engineers, electric and crank bell hangers, and cycle sellers/hirers. They sold everything from nails, varnish, kitchen ranges, "lawn mowing machines" and cattle troughs to ploughs, fishing rods and shot guns. William had helped his father manage the Marlow concern before the latters death so it made sense for him to take on this side of the partnership. He employed quite a number of workers, including mechanics that could travel to local farms to carry out spot repairs and servicing should a fault develop on your threshing machine or hay baler. William also offered repairs to smaller tools and machinery as well as tool sharpening on the premises. 

He supplied the gates and fencing for the new Marlow Cemetery in 1910 and those for Cookham cemetery in 1906. (The chapel of the latter was designed by Marlow's James H Deacon.) In fact you would have been able to see all kinds of Batting supplied articles all over Victorian Marlow. Among these were gas lamp posts and lanterns, and the Baker's Sanitary Cart purchased by the local council for sewage disposal! 

William had another significant role in Marlow's history. He was present at the meeting in 1874 which resulted in a subscription formed to establish a volunteer fire brigade. He was immediately elected to the committee to organise this essential endeavour. Later he'd serve as their engineer, deputy captain and shortly before his retirement in 1890, as their captain. He unsurprisingly earned long service medals and clasps for his hard work. Even after retirement, William sat on the fire brigade commitee  and Batting and Sons were responsible for several repairs to the engine itself. (The engine was stored in the arches under the Crown hotel nearby. AE actually owned the approach to this and so the fire brigade had to pay him a small "rent" for this part for many years.)

Space prevents me from listing all the many committees and organisations William had a role in but I'll mention two evocative ones - the dinner and tea committees of the 1897 Coronation celebrations, and for the parade at the end of South African wars in 1902 - they also supplied vehicles to run in the latter. 

The ironmongers was later taken on by William's nephew Reginald Batting who had lived with him for some time (Son of Walter Batting, see below.)

A E Batting : pawnbroker and furniture dealer

Now to a third son of Alfred and Ann Batting, Alfred Edward, generally known as A E Batting. I'll call him AE to avoid confusion. He also ran a shop but a quite different kind. AE started out in the building we know as Platts in Quoiting Square, as a pawnbroker with a side line in furniture dealing and as a clothier. This had been a pawnbrokers for some time before.  He was at first in partnership with Joseph Evans*, until 1864. In 1880 he moved to West Street / Market Square, the premises until recently occupied by M&Co. The furniture dealing (generally second hand items) became more of the business focus. To read more about Ann Barney, one of the desperate customers who used his pawnbroking business see Charlotte's post here. AE declined to renew his pawnbroking licence in 1898, much to the surprise of everyone it seems. It was the first time anyone could remember a time that Marlow had not had such a business. However, this line of trade did arrive back at this Battings a few years down the line. 

 AE died in 1915 at the age of 77, still continuing in his work. Among the interesting facts about AE given on his death was the information that he had been a member of the church choir for some 61 years! Generally though the Battings were associated with the Congregational Church in Quoiting Square. His son Rupert took over the furniture shop and ran it for decades. 

Walter, Christian and James Batting 

I'd just like to gives quick mention to a some other sons of Alfred and Ann Batting, brothers to William and Charles. Firstly, James was a successful solicitor in Marlow. He served his articles under another familiar Marlow name, William Lakin Ward. James then acted as solicitor for many local organisations. This includes the Marlow Railway Co responsible for bringing  the rail into Marlow itself (resigned 1878), Marlow Gas Company and for the Marlow based Buckinghamshire Chair Co**. He was also an insurance agent. Shortly after the establishment of Marlow's volunteer fire brigade in the 1870s, he secured a large donation to them from one of the fire insurance companies he represented. Married to the daughter of an Italian count, James is in interesting subject in his own right and I'm sorry space means he doesn't get a longer entry. We will try to do more on him in a separate post in the future.

 Another son Christan b 1840 became a draper while Walter pursued a career as a architect and surveyor, working mainly in London. Walter had been articled to Marlow surveyor Charles Carter. Walter died at the sadly young age of 47. Described then as a man of "fine physique and genial manners", there would have been many in Marlow with find memories of Walter rowing at the regatta and other events as a young man. (He is buried in Wandsworth cemetery alongside married sister Emma Hallett. The youngest daughter of Alfred and Ann, she died in Balham 2 years after Walter.) 

Above, Christian Batting on the Batting grave marker at All Saints. 

Written by Kathryn Day, researched by Kathryn and Charlotte. 

More Information:

*More info on the Evans /Batting pawnbrokers shop in Charlotte's post here

** More info on the Bucks Chair co here

Index of posts about other shops/business etc here

To find all references to a family or individual here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

Sources:

Bradshaw's Railway Almanac and Directory (Bradshaw's 1843) 

Hastings, Charles William - Gas and Water Companies Directory, 1884. 

Kelly's directories for Buckinghamshire and Berkshire 1847, 1883, 1896, 1911, 1915, 1920, 1939. 

Kelly's Directory of Merchants, Manufacturers and Shippers. (Kelly's 1907)

Marlow Guide 1903 & 1905

Robson's Directory 1839

Royal County Directory Buckinghamshire, (J G Harrod & Co, 1876)

Census entries ; transcripts from the originals by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day

1833 Parish Assessment as owned by my family, and related letters and workings. 

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 29 August,  14 November 1874, 16 August 1879. British Library. 

Bucks Herald May 15 1875 & 12 Jan 1878, these from British Library Archive, via the BNA

South Bucks Standard 16 April 1897, 3 June 1898,  22 June 1906,  4th March 1910, 13 June 1912. As above. 

© MarlowAncestors

Will of Edmund Stone 1709

 Will of Edmund Stone, mercer of Great Marlow. Written 1705 with a codicil 1706. Proved 1709.

A very long and complex will with plentiful crossings out.

Commits soul to God.

Asks to be buried at Cookham with his family.

Appoints for the period of 12 years two of his friends as trustees for property that is to go afterwards to his grandson. Edmund Stone Austin. Friends are Jonathan Hammond of Great Marlow and John Lee of Cookham. If Edmund Stone Austin has no sons then property to his brother Valentine Stone Austin. If Valentine has no sons then property to his brother John Austin. If John has no sons then property to testator's daughter Elizabeth Austin and her heirs male.

Property involved is:

9 acres of meadow in Bray Meade and Wickets Meade in Bray Berkshire.

Close nearest ....Pond called Long Leys.

Messuage or tenement with appurtenances and 2 acres arable Braywick, side nearest Long Lane.

6 messages or tenements and appurtenances in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Messuage or tenement with appurtenances at North Towne with 2 and a half acres lying dispersed in Cookham Field.

My message or farm with all its closes, land, meadow, pasture and woods in Wooburn Buckinghamshire.

All other messuages he may have.

Son Nathaniel Austin owes testator £200 in bonds for which little interest has been paid. In turn testator owes Nathaniel a £500 mortgage on the above property with 2.5 acres in North Towne. This property was bought in the name of the testators daughter because at the time it was a "troublesome" period for Protestant Dissenters. Though in her name the family understood that it was really the testator's property. Nathaniel has various goods at his house which belong to testator. These are to be sold and the money put towards paying off the £500 mortgage. Nathaniel is the preferred chapman to handle the sale. If he wants to buy the goods himself at full value he can. The rent for that property is to be paid to the trustees. They can ask for it to be given over for sale by them at any time.

Out of all the property wife Dorothy gets an annuity of £20 paid in quarterly installments for the 12 years the properties are under the trustees. Rest of income is to be put out in such way as to get interest. Once Dorothy has her annuity, and enough is raised to pay off the £500 mortgage, £100 is to raised from the property so it can be given as a lump sum to Edmund Stone Austin at 21. If he dies before that money descends to Valentine Austin, or if not to John Austin or to the daughters of testator's daughter or to other heirs of daughter Elizabeth herself in that order of precedence. 

Trustees 1 guinea each. They to reimburse themselves the expense of keeping the properties in good repair.

Household goods in my dwelling house to wife Dorothy for life.

All residual property to wife Dorothy who is made executor.

Witnesses John Welles, Mary Welles and Robert Peck.

Codicil 1706:

Jonathon Hammond and John Lee removed as trustees and testator's friend Nathaniel Micklem the elder and his brother in law Richard Gray also of Hurley made trustees instead.

The profits of his property now to go to his wife Dorothy for the first 6 years of the trusteeship.

Grandson Valentine now gets £100 at 21 too. If he dies before that it to go to his brother Edmund or if not to his brother John .

Transcribed and then summarized  from a PCC will held at the National Archives Kew.

All mentions of any individual on this blog can be found on the Person Index. This included over 4,000 people.

Index to other Great and Little Marlow wills here: here

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this transcription summary for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog.

The Fountains of Dukes Place / Burroughs Grove

 The Fountain family lived in Dukes Place Great Marlow from (at least) 1908 to (at least) 1913. Peter Fountain was born 1868 in Wendover Bucks to Emmanuel, a gamekeeper for Alfred De Rothschild Esq, and Charlotte. Mary Ann his wife was née Clarke and married him in 1895. 

Peter appears on the 1881 census as a 12 year old plough boy. The following year his family suffered the loss of his baby brother Henry. The 16 month old died from convulsions brought on by severe whooping cough.

By 1891 Peter lived at "Dirty Bottom" Marlow Bottom and was an agricultural labourer lodging with a 62 year old widower James Clarke who was presumably a relative of his future wife. In the years prior to his marriage however he was working as a gamekeeper for Lord Carrington. As such he appeared in several court cases as a witness for the prosecution when poachers were bought to justice. That didn't seem to stop Peter taking an interest in poaching himself - he was fined in 1901 for stealing a nest of pheasant eggs from another man's land. At the time this was classed as poaching because pheasants were game birds. This didn't seem to stop Peter being employed in later years as a gamekeeper.

Mary Ann was born around 1869 just outside Marlow at Burroughs Grove. I saw an online tree that gave her parents as William and Mary however on the 1881 and 1891 censuses she was living at Burroughs Grove as the daughter of David and Mary Clarke. David was a farm labourer. 

In 1908 Peter was fined for being drunk in Little Marlow. This was (at least) his second conviction for public drunkenness. (Fine 10s including costs.) By then the family had moved from Burroughs Grove to Dukes Place. Greater trouble came to the family through Mary Ann a few years later. In July 1912 she was fined £1 for stealing a pair of scissors and a hairbrush from Mrs Debbin at Prospect House. Mary Ann was not a very careful thief as after the act she went for a drink at the Horns public house just down the street from Prospect House. Multiple people in the tap room saw the stolen scissors on the floor at Mary Ann's feet and the hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. In December that year she and James Clarke (perhaps her brother) were found guilty of stealing a ferret from the garden of her Dukes Place neighbour Archibald Grainger. Again careful planning was not foremost in Mary Ann's mind. The theft occurred while another neighbour Mrs Ann Tilbury from no 2* Dukes Place was visiting Mary Ann and was thus a witness to her and James disappearing into the garden and coming back with the ferret. When suspicion began to be thrown at Mary Ann and James, Mary Ann told Mrs Tilbury not to admit to having seen them with the ferret, while James tried to get rid of the incriminating animal by offering it for free to a fellow drinker in the bar of the Railway Hotel. The original intent was to sell it. James tried to say he had found the ferret in the garden of the Carpenter's Arms around the corner from Dukes Place but the court dismissed this explanation.

In May 1913 Mary Ann was jailed for two months hard labour for stealing the hand bag of another woman on the train between Cookham and Maidenhead. Her accomplice was another Marlow woman Gladys Edwards. Inside the bag was 2 sovereigns which the women split between themselves and a gold watch and chain. Gladys kept the gold items. She sold the chain to High Street jeweller Frederick Rowe. The bag was thrown down a drain to hide the evidence. When arrested Mary Ann claimed that the bag was found by Gladys on the Maidenhead platform and having asked anyone around if it was their bag, decided to keep it when it was otherwise unclaimed.

Context for this is provided by a newspaper report that later the same year Peter was brought to court for abandoning his wife and family and thus rendering them as paupers dependent on the Parish. Poor Mary Ann may have been desperate when she stole the ferret. Her youngest child Annie was then only two years old. How much of her previous stealing had been acts of desperation caused by an uncommitted breadwinner? Peter said he left his home because it was used for "improper purposes". The Bench said there was no doubt his house was "badly conducted" but that was no excuse to leave. He was sent to prison for a month. 

Four years later Peter, during WW1, was arrested in Marlow as a deserter from the army. More humiliation for Mary Ann. 

Mary Ann knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of theft. When she was six her sixteen year old neighbour Sarah Green and Green's father John were jailed for breaking into the Clarke's home via a window and stealing from a box some shoes, 2 pairs stockings, a bonnet and 2 petticoats. The loot was discovered by a constable under the Green family's kitchen floorboards. Mary Ann was out with her mother at the time. Her brother William discovered the theft.

Above, Dukes Place in 2022 including the row known as Sunlight Villas/Cottages. 

*numbering in Duke's Place seems to have altered since.

Related Posts:

All mentions of a person on this blog can be found on the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu - 4,000 plus individuals are mentioned here. 

A short biography of another, earlier Dukes Place resident Elizabeth Keen is here.

Everyday life in old Marlow post index here

Index of posts relating to specific streets, properties etc here 

Other Borroughs Grove related posts here

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

Sourced included:

Census transcriptions from microfilm. my own.

South Bucks Standard editions 18th July 1912, 11th December 1913. British Library Archives.

Bucks Herald 16th October 1875. As above.

Oaken Grove / Oakengrove Great Marlow Occupiers

 Note: there was a small farmstead at Oakengrove and also other homes. I try in this post to cover both and to distinguish between  them but that is sometimes difficult. Address normally given as off Harleyford Lane, occasionally as Red Pits or Upper Red Pits. Close to Temple. The farmstead doesn't seem to usually have a farmer actually living on site and perhaps in fact had no farm house anyway.

This post focuses on the occupiers of land or property at Oakengrove. These are rarely the actual owners.

Circa 1793 to his death 1853- William Smith. Age 96 or 97 when he died. Wife Mary. Not at the farm. In 1833 occupied a cottage worth £4 a year so a medium sized one. In 1851 this address is given as Pound House, Temple. William then was an agricultural labourer. His son also called William was a gentleman's servant. William Junior later moved to Maidenhead but is buried in Marlow near his parents.

               

Above, grave of William Smith "who lived at Oakengrove in this parish for upwards of 60 years".  Mar 20 1853. Also Mary his wife, died May 27th 18(55?) age 85. At All Saints, Marlow. Note other sources give age at death for William as 97.

1831-1846 William House, under gamekeeper to Sir William Clayton. Wife Ann. In 1833 his home consisted of a house, garden and stable worth £6 a year.

1833- Other residents Oaken Grove= "Jordan" in a cottage worth £5 a year and Thomas Fulton in a £5 house and garden. 

1834-1841 Thomas Holdgate at the farmstead. Owner Alexander Higginson in whose family the land had been for some time. In his will proved 1855 Alexander left Oakengrove to his brother George Stowell Higginson or if George died before him to Alexander's nephew George Wentworth Alexander Higginson.

1860- William Bowles, fruiterer used land at Oakengrove. Went bankrupt that year but survived it. His shop was in Quoiting Square. Bankrupt again 1886 after more than 40 years as fruiterer and farmer. 

1881- residents 1.) Alfred, a carter, and Mary Fidler. They had a lodger William Young, a 17 year old plough boy. 2.) Charlotte and Jacob Mendy and their little daughter Ellen. Jacob and family moved so that  he could be the head carter at Brandy Bottom Farm, Little Marlow and was probably later at Barmoor Farm too.

1901-Households= 1.) Hannah and Joseph Betts and their young son George. The couple had married in 1893. Hannah was nee Pratt. Joseph was a farm carter. The family moved in the next few years to Munday Dean. 2.) Emma and George Simmons. George was a domestic gardener. Perhaps at Harleyford or Temple House.

For more farm occupier posts for Little Marlow and Great Marlow see the Specific Shops, Streets Etc option on the menu. You will also see a Person Index option on the menu to help you find every mention of a person on this blog. For more Little Marlow content in general see Other Places on the menu.

Farm occupancies calculated from wills, adverts, trade journals, censuses, property records, court cases etc. I hope to fill in the gaps in dates as I wade through my Everest sized mountain of research notes.

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

Platts Row / Cannon's Row Marlow

Buildings dated 1846.

Known as Cannon's Row as it was built for and owned by chemist and bookseller George Cannon. (To go virtual shopping in his Victorian premises see this post here)  His initials appear along with the 1846 date on the decorative plaque under the eaves. The properties were sold after his death and then became known as Platts Row, sometimes Platts Road. (Referencing the now gone Platts Farm)  This is within Mill Road Marlow.

Above, part of a fragile plan of Platt's Farm estate when up for sale in 1839. Lot 34 adjacent to "Duck Lane" (St Peter's Street) would soon become St Peter's Catholic Church. NB the St. Peters street on this map is what we would now call Station Rd. 

Open ground opposite the cottages and next to the Prince Of Wales pub in South Place was used by a travelling theatre in 1883, Belmores. One of the actresses performing there, Ada Hall, died of fits considered to have been brought on by a mammoth drinking session in the Prince of Wales. Ada had been in acute distress after hearing that her son was lost at sea. She was also suffering from money troubles and in mourning for the recent death of her aunt. At the inquest Platts Row resident Harriet Warren gave evidence. She had shown kindness to Ada, putting a blanket under her head when she found her sleeping in the taproom and visiting the theatre tent the next day to check on her wellbeing. Harriet was née Smith and married her husband Joseph at the Wesleyan Chapel in 1877.

Resident William Augustus Gill died in Platts Row in 1894 aged 61, having lived there with his wife Elizabeth for some years. His obituary in the South Bucks Standard [3rd August 1894, Via the BNA / British Library Archives] tells us that though a tailor by trade William was mainly interested in being out playing sports. He was a fast long distance runner who challenged others in matches, a cricket player for Marlow and an umpire until his sight failed.

I found evidence of him running a race for money 130 yards down Oxford Road Marlow against Maidenhead man Edward Shalor. William won by 4 yards. As a runner he went by the name of The Shrimp. Not sure why!

The obituary says William had a sharp but witty tongue. It glossed over evidence that he may have been a little short tempered having multiple court summonses for assault. Those who summoned him included hairdresser George Hitchcock and two local constables. William was twice fined for being in a pub drinking during prohibited hours. One of these offences was in the Prince of Wales.

Elizabeth survived William and died in Platts Row in 1900. She was née White and married her husband in 1852.

Another one time resident of Platts Row was Uriah Piggot who for 30 years worked as a gardener at New Court off the High Street.

Photo by Kathryn Day. Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

For other posts about specific roads in Marlow see under "Specific Shops, Streets...etc" on the menu. All mentions of an individual on the blog can be found on the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu - now containing 2,900 names. 

Related posts: 

Travelling theatres such as Ada's were a big part of Marlow Fair - read about this event in the Victorian era here and Edwardian times here. 

The death of a showman in Riley recreation ground in its previous life as Crown Meadow is covered here

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

George Cannon's initials and 1846 date. 

The Sorrow of Mary English

Mary English was nee Sneath, the third daughter of prominent Marlow surgeon and apothecary William Sneath and his wife Elizabeth. Her father was in partnership with George Trash for some time, the two working out of William's home. After William's death, George continued the practice, eventually moving it to his own home. Mary was therefore a member of a respected and comfortably off family. But even so, her life was touched by much sorrow. 

William Sneath would have had a room at home set up as a surgery in the most literal sense, and reports suggest that a room also functioned as the apothecary shop. Surgeon and apothecary was the usual pairing of roles in the Georgian era - for more how this worked in practice see our post Call the Apothecary here.  Her mother ran a boarding school for young ladies from their home too, a common "respectable" occupation for genteel ladies to take up for extra income. Some of these schools took just a handful of pupils - most in Marlow were of this type. 

Young Mary was bought up to attend the parish church, but later became a non conformist. Religion featured heavily in her life, and was it seems both the cause and solace of many of her sorrows. As a young girl, she is said to have been affected by the death of a sister who on her death bed exhorted Mary to be mindful of the scriptures. This sister cautioned 12 year old Mary against novel reading in particular. This may seem an innocent occupation to warn against, but it was not uncommon for it to be considered "unsafe" for young women who it was feared could get "ideas" or become over excited. Others approached novel reading as just an indulgence and waste of time that could be better spent on more improving pursuits such as Bible reading. Still others thought it would make girls look less attractive (hunched shoulders!) or would hurt their eyesight. There were a number of booksellers in Marlow High Street that the Sneath girls could be tempted by. These operated as circulating libraries too, and were open for borrowing by members who paid a subscription. One advertised that all the books he offered had been personally approved as suitable for young women by the vicar! This attitude lingered a long time, and was one of the reasons that when Marlow got its first literary Institute with library, so few of those who borrowed books were female. It does not seem little Mary needed much warning however. A later "memoir" written about Mary described her as a child with "uncorrupted morals" and a mild character. 

Later curiosity led Mary to attend the services of some evangelical and independent ministers, principally Rowland Hill who was visiting Wooburn in 1774. Rowland is an interesting man in his own right, a famous preacher in his day. He was an advocate for the smallpox vaccine amongst other things  His arrival was likely to have attracted lots of those wanting to see a well known speaker in person but in Mary's case, his words were said to have struck a chord. He remained in contact with her ever after. It is likely that Mary attended Marlow's own Salem Chapel at this time. In any case she came in contact with non conformists and Quakers, and through the former she met her future husband pastor Thomas English. 

Thomas was born in 1751 in Oxford, to a family of worshippers at the established church. He also counted his transference to the non conformist community to the experience of hearing a preacher who struck a spiritual cord with him. In his case he was just 14, and sent to live in London to learn a trade. It was later said the young Thomas had experienced physical, emotional and verbal abuse from the family he lodged with at this time. They found his new found piety a source of amusement and an excuse to ridicule him. But he succeeded in becoming ordained in 1775, the same year he married his first wife Susannah Evans. After serving in a number of locations, Thomas & Susannah moved from Gosport in Hampshire to Wooburn. But within weeks tragedy struck, and Susannah died. 

Thomas would go on to marry our Mary Sneath in 1779. Of the couple's 5 children, only two Eliza/Elizabeth and Thomas, survived their mother. Two of the lost children died within days of each other, one while the funeral of the first was ongoing. This terrible loss was difficult for Mary to recover from. "Her countenance very strongly depicted the most affecting expressions of grief." The children had suffered painful lingering deaths, and Mary's faith was tested. She began to question if she had missed something in their care that may have made the difference between life and death. There was nothing any could do, but the poor mother could not rest. It was said that she couldn't stay quiet for long before breaking out in fresh remembrance of the children's suffering. The force of her "accumulated distress" was causing a nervous collapse as they termed it. It seems that Mary's voicing of her anger at God and fear that she was being punished for some unknown sin, was believed by some to be the voice of the devil speaking through her. And Mary began to believe the same. She is said to believe the devil had bargained for her soul, and that God was too disappointed in her to claim it back. It sounds as though she suffered a total mental collapse. Afraid to receive sacrament in case it prompted a "satanic assault", Mary must have been terrified. Poor Thomas did what he could for her, and she also befriended a group of Quakers in Maidenhead who were said to give her some comfort. At last Mary regained enough strength to travel to Brighton to take the sea air and waters. It was a fashionable place for invalids to go although the future city was nothing like the size it is now. The sea cure certainly worked its charm on Mary, and after some time she was able to return home. Of course, such grief as she had experienced as well as her spiritual trauma, could not really disappear overnight, and she continued to suffer some episodes of acute mental distress. But at least she enjoyed one period of "sweet serenity of mind". 

Mary died on the 2nd October 1794. She caught a cold (as they thought it) during a visit to Bristol with her husband. This affected her severely and she scarcely made it home. She never recovered, suffering a broken blood vessel and then a painful final illness. Thomas was said to leave her side as little as possible and he was there, along with her sister, when she finally went to her rest.

***

Her mother Elizabeth's will was published on this blog here. Elizabeth was nee Webb - more about her family here.

Mary's sister Sarah's will is on the blog here

To find all mention of your ancestors here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

More Marlow church, chapel religious history content can be found on the menu under Church Related.

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

©Marlow Ancestors.

Sources include: 

The Evangelical Magazine, May 1795. 

Christian Herald, June 19 1815 - digitised by Google. 

Memoir of Rev Thomas English, digitised by Google. 

The Annual Register (Longman, Green 1801)

 

Charles Miller Foottit And The Scent Of Success?

 

Charles Miller Foottit was born circa 1847 the child of Ann and Robert Foottit (of whom more in future). Robert was a chemist who ran a shop in Marlow High Street close to where the Sainsbury's Local is today. Later the business moved to the opposite side of the High Street. You can see a photo of the site of the original Foottit shop and read about it's inhabitants from the 1810s to the time of the Foottits in this post. Note that the building shown is on the site of the shop but is itself a later Victorian replacement. The family lived on their commercial premises as was the  usual practice at that period and so Charles was born there in the High Street too. 

As a young man he was fined for poaching with a friend - an unusual example of a middle class youth prosecuted for this offence as opposed to a working class one.

This misdemeanor put behind him, Charles grew up to be one of Marlow's pillars of the community. Like his father he trained as a chemist. Initially he helped Robert out but after Robert died in 1870 Charles took over the business as his own. He also operated as a dentist. Busy as his medical services would have kept him Charles still found time to captain the Marlow Fire Brigade for 17 years, found what would become the nationwide Fire Brigade Union and be one of the biggest supporters of the Marlow Institute. Charles donated books to the Institute library and indeed sent some historic medical and pharmaceutical related books much further afield in 1872. The recipient then was the Chicago College of Pharmacy which had suffered the loss of its library and museum contents in a devastating fire. They appealed via the British Pharmaceutical Society to get their library restocked again.  

Charles was passionate about river sports, sponsoring numerous events at Marlow Regatta and elsewhere on the Thames. He was a vice president of the Rowing Club which he helped to found and for whom he rowed for himself. After his death he left money for conducting various events at the Regatta including an aquatic tug o'war.

The riverside Complete Angler hotel was ran by Charles from 1883 and was very popular with rowers, anglers and other leisure users of the Thames. He took over that business from his wife's family the Comperes. Charles was honorary secretary of the Angling Association so an appropriately named business for him! 

He also was one of the founders of and first players for the Marlow Football Club, a wicket keeper for the Cricket Club team and a competitive shooter.

As a firefighter none could know more than Charles the importance of adequate water supplies in the town so it is no surprise he was one of those behind the founding of the Marlow Water Company which bought piped water in for the first time. (Read a more detailed post about Charles and his distinguished work with the fire service here

I might also mention he was one of the founders of the Great Marlow Railway Company which bought trains to the town and the Gas and Coke Company that brought us a gas supply. Oh and the Marlow St John's Ambulance Brigade.

Charles was a prominent Conservative supporter and as such his premises were targeted during the mass election riot in Marlow in 1880. The damage was extensive but he failed in his lengthy legal bid to be awarded much compensation by the authorities. This was on the grounds that the rioters hadn't tried to COMPLETELY pull his shop down (?!?!?), just badly damage it. More about the riot here, including the damage he suffered. 

With his wife Ann née Compere (married Paddington All Saints Church London 1870) he had at least two daughters- Mary and Lillian. Perhaps a third daughter Fanny too who died in infancy.

Charles died in 1896, six years after his wife. He by then lived in Maidenhead, where he moved after he retired from being a chemist and dentist the previous year to concentrate solely on the Compleat Angler. He was by then in failing health. His estate was worth £843 gross.

His legacy in Marlow was enormous when you tot it up- without him there would might not have been the Regatta, Football Club, Rowing Club or railway line at all and any ancestors in the town would have waited even longer for the basics of gas and water supplies without his energy in pressing for their provision.

Foottit's chemist shop was taken over by William Baxters after Charles retired. As executor of the late owner, Charles had also supervised the running of John Dean Hall's former chemist shop in High Wycombe. The man he employed to run that other shop on a day to day basis was a Mr Banbury who would later move to Marlow on his own account. Relations between the two men quickly soured when Charles discovered ingredients he had paid for were being used by Banbury to make perfume sold in the shop under Banbury's name and patent. Part of the job of a chemist was to make up perfume, people would often come with their own recipe for them to make up for instance and for an employee to invent a perfume for the shop was not abnormal either. Banbury was not I think profiting separately from the perfume sales but he was labelling every bottle as coming from him not "Foottits" and wasn't willing to give Charles the recipe. In other words Banbury was using Charles' time and shelf space to build future demand for his personal perfume business, demand which Charles would be beholden to Banbury to meet as could not produce the scent himself without a recipe. Protocol at the time was what you invented in the course of your paid job (Charles had told Banbury to make perfume when he first employed him) was the intellectual property of your employer, not you. The case was complex however. Banbury claimed to have invented the perfume before he was employed by Foottit. When the two parted ways both continued selling the perfume. When he ran out of what Banbury had made up, Charles made up a similar scent of his own invention and labelled them with the name of Banbury's perfume. This was named in honour of Lord Carrington, Charles' landlord. Banbury insisted he had gained permission from Carrington to use that name before he even met Foottit. Charles said no it was afterwards, and Lord Carrington had told him he was giving permission for Charles' employee to make the perfume to sell in Charles' shop on the specific grounds that Charles was his tenant in that shop so deserved the favour.

The matter went to court where it was decided that Charles was entitled to sell what was left in the original scent as it was made with ingredients he paid for on his time. He was also entitled to sell his own version of the scent after Banbury left but not with the labels Banbury had designed before he worked for Charles and had since copyrighted. There was injunction made to stop Charles doing so any more and token compensation was given to Banbury.

You'd think as an inventor of an internationally patented lemon squeezer Charles would be more sensitive to the feelings of other creators!

For a short period Charles ran his own Marlow business in partnership with Charles Dye but that agreement came to an end in 1891. Mr Dye later successfully partnered with Mr Page to run a chemists' shop in the High Street.

Charles died in early 1898 after suffering a long period of ill health, a month or so short of his 50th birthday. He had moved to Glan-Y-Fford, Market Street, Maidenhead the previous summer. His wife had died 6 years before. He is buried with her in Bisham churchyard. 

All mentions of a person on this blog can be found under the person index. To find more sport related history content for Marlow choose "General Marlow History" on the menu and then look under the Sport heading. For links to other pub / hotel landlords featured on this blog see "Pub Related" on the menu.

MORE READING:

You may also be interested in this post about early Compleat Angler landlord William Cres(s)well as  it covers the eventful early history of the inn here

The famed Compleat Angler landlady Mary Ann Parslow here

List of Compleat Angler landlords here

History of Compleat Angler in 1900's here

More sports related posts can be found by looking at the General Marlow History option on the menu and then the Sports subheading. Posts include the 21 other football teams Marlow has had apart from the Marlow F.C team. 

More posts on those men and women involved in the medical side of life- chemists, apothecaries, midwives, surgeons, nurses etc can be found on the General History on the menu under the Medical History subcategory.

Sources Included:

Fishing Gazette, 17th November 1883, London, England via the BNA.

Census my transcription from microfilm.

Death registrations at General Record Office.

South Bucks Standard 7th February 1896. Maidenhead Advertiser February 1896. 

London Metropolitan Archives, parish registers.

US Patents Office.

Contemporary advertising.

The Pharmaceutical Journal 1876, published by J Churchill digitized by Google from a copy in the University Of Chicago.

The Pharmaceutical Journal, January 1872, Vol 2. (John Churchill, 1872) Available via the WellcomeLibrary/InternetArchive. 

The Dentists Register 1880.

Kelly's Directory Of Chemists and Druggists 1885 (Kelly's Directories Ltd)

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

Harris Research and Graves, All Saints and Marlow Cemetery, Great Marlow

 

Above, Grave of Amelia, wife of Ralph Harris d. Aug 2nd 1852 aged 56

ALSO OF:

Ralph Harris husband of the above - d. Feb 24th 1872. Age 82 years. 

Research: Ralph was a cabinet maker with premises High Street Maidenhead from 1822 to 1835 when he sold off all his stock in trade. Probably because his lease was going to be up the next year. He and Amelia lived West Street Marlow by 1851. Ralph was retired by then. He lived on in West Street / West End Gardens after Amelia's death. The couple married at Cookham in 1818. She was née Humphreys.

Above, John Harris Oct 9th 1890 aged 70

Also of :

Margaret Harris d. May 14th 1920 age 85 wife of the above.

Notes:

John may be the son of Ralph and Amelia above, though there is another John Harris the same age as him in Marlow at the same time.

All of the above are located in All Saints. 

Above, grave in Marlow Cemetery. Edith Caroline Harris - June 27 1920 age 33. "Beloved wife and find mother"

NOTE - We try to group graves belonging to individuals of the same surname onto the same page where possible but it does not mean everyone here is related. If graves are adjacent, we will say so. More will be added on a regular basis. We will do our best to upload all readable graves in Marlow that date prior to 1929. 

Use the Graves option on the menu to find more. Some come with research notes on the person buried.

We also are uploading graves from Little Marlow and Hurley gradually plus a few from Bisham.

All mentions of a person on this blog can be found by looking at the Person Index. We are uploading several posts a week so more individuals are listed all the time.

©Marlow Ancestors. Use of these grave images or research is freely allowed for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here. 

Criminal Career Of Sarah Bowles *Updated January 2024*

Sarah was baptized 1847 the eldest daughter of Robert and Eliza Bowles [nee Croxon] of Marlow. Robert was a fruiterer. She grew up in Hatches Row, Dean Street.

1860- 13 years old. Sentenced to two weeks in jail then two years in Bedfordshire reformatory school for stealing a feather bolster, a lace veil and some fake flowers from the shop window of Jane Edmunds in Marlow High Street. Must have got out early from the reform school as in less than two years she was about again in Marlow. The court blamed her situation on bad "home training" and thought it best to remove her from the "pernicious influences with which she had unfortunately been surrounded." 

1861- 13 years old going on 14 and working as a needlewoman. Spent 5 weeks in jail for obtaining 5 cups and other articles from Thomas Dukes, china dealer of West Street in Marlow Buckinghamshire under false pretences. To see these premises as they are today and to read more about the Dukes family see this post.

1862- fined for stealing turnip tops from a field. Age 14 to 15. Plead guilty.  It was stated then she had previously been jailed twice. She was convicted with a number of other teenage girls. 

1866- Acquitted of stealing 4 shillings 9 pence from a Marlow High Street shop till. She was then a needlewoman. Though she had been seen coming out from behind the counter of the unguarded shop and the till had been opened the exact amount supposed to have been stolen could not be sworn to by the shopkeeper Robert Hayes Smith who obviously didn't know what was or wasn't in the till at the time. Sarah had been prosecuted for the amount of coins found in her pocket on the presumption that she must have just stolen them. Sarah was probably up to no good that day behind the counter but that was one poor prosecution case! No wonder she was not found guilty. More on the interesting Robert Hayes Smith in this post.

1866- jailed for four months for stealing two pairs of boots and a flannel petticoat from pawnbroker Alfred Batting of Marlow late the previous year. She apparently hid the articles under her crinoline, and came back twice. Also accused of stealing some silver coins that he'd left on a shelf behind the till. Sarah sold one of the pairs of boots to someone who unfortunately went on to pledge them at the same pawnbroker they'd been stolen from, which lead to Sarah's arrest. Aged about 19 (although one source put her as 15)

1867- charged with stealing a silk cloak and mantle from William Reddington in High Wycombe. Jailed for 9 months.

*Sarah was then absent from Marlow census or other records for some years. She had returned by 1911. Worked as a ironer in a laundry late in life. There were some "Sarah Bowles" convictions during her absence but these were her sister in law of that name or others **

1913- Aged about 66. Jailed for two months for obtaining groceries from two shops in Maidenhead under false pretences. She pretended to be taking the food for a wealthy Maidenhead lady who had an account at the shops On her first visit she obtained salt pork, cheese, bacon, and butter then later the same day she obtained sausages, sugar, tea and cake from a different assistant. She was then of 120 Dean Street. She was arrested while waiting for the Marlow train in the waiting room of Maidenhead station with the goods in her basket. She offered no defence but pleaded her age in mercy. She had however previously been cautioned at the same court for obtaining charitable donations under false pretences. At her trial the policeman says that if only Sarah would give up her stealing some family members in Maidenhead would be pleased to give her a home. 

Notes:

Needle women were very lowly paid. 

The sort of records and resources that survive can tell us a lot about what Sarah did wrong but what she did right in her life may leave no visible trace for us who are looking back at her life today. She was a convicted criminal but if she was also a loving daughter, a loyal friend, a skilled worker or a caring sister we can never know it. Let us just remember she may have been many things.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. 

©Marlow Ancestors.

**To find other people in this blog use the Person Index option on the menu**

Sources:

South Bucks Standard 13th March 1913. Windsor and Eton Express 20th July 1861. Oxford Chronicle 6th January 1866. Latter two in British Library Archives.

South Bucks Free Press 29 December 1865, courtesy of Jane. 

Crime research of Jane Pullinger.

Census, my transcription from microfilm. Census information always remains Crown Copyright.