Marlow Ancestors: Marlow Place

Showing posts with label Marlow Place. Show all posts

Monday, September 30, 2024

Victorian Trinidadians in Marlow

A report in the South Bucks Free Press of a children's cricket match in the summer of 1862 contains mention of a talented though very young "back stop" on the team of the prestigious Marlow Place Academy who was a "coloured" boy from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. His name was T.M Cadett. Also on the Marlow Place team were 3 other boys with the last name Cadett. Intrigued, I decided to see if I could find out more about these boys. It was far from easy but what an interesting group!

The especially talented little back stop was the youngest of 4 brothers (as they turned out to be). The middle initial M is not mentioned in other record of him (the newspaper did make several mistakes as to initials of the other cricket players) He is most usually referred to as Thomas Cadett Junior. He would have turned 11 in 1862. His brothers and fellow pupils were Thomas James aged 16, James Stuart aged 18 and William James (or William James Henry) aged 14. All were British subjects born in Port Of Spain, Trinidad.

At that time, British references to someone being "coloured" and from the Caribbean were usually to those thought be of mixed black and white heritage and this is the case with the Cadett boys. Their paternal grandparents were an English sugar plantation owner, James Cadett, who died before the boys were born, and his black Trinidadian (unmarried, at least at the time) partner Angelle. He had children with other women too, all of whom he acknowledged and provided for but not all of whom were allowed to have the family name Cadett. This and his will suggest that the children he had with Angelle were favoured above his others. Angelle had her own house in Port of Spain given to her by James along with other property. When he retired to a small house in London, she remained in Trinidad. There had been an estrangement between them and James asked for her to be paid no further maintenance after his death.

James was a significant slave owner. His first sugar plantation was the River Estate but in 1828 he moved to Carapichaima Hall and changed its name to the Waterloo Estate. Compensation for the loss of the slaves when slavery became outlawed was paid to his heirs through their representatives.

One of those heirs of James and Angelle was James, the father of our Marlow Place boys. James had his sons with a woman called Matilda. Her race and background is not known to me nor whether she was legally married to him or not. He was a doctor and remained in Trinidad. His brothers, our Marlow boys' uncles, moved to Scotland and London.

At an early age Dr James Cadett sent his sons to England to be educated. This was almost always done to the sons of the wealthy in Trinidad. Marlow Place Academy was a boarding school which had a high reputation for it's excellence and was located in Station Road Marlow in the former reputed home of a Prince Of Wales. You can see a photo of the building as it is today and read more about the school in https://marlowancestors.blogspot.com/2022/02/marlow-place-history.html. The history of the school is also expanded here

One feature of the school was the importance placed on cricket as a recreation. The school possessed its own meadow used for the sport. An optional extra subject at the school was French which might well have been taken up by the Cadetts, given the fact that the Cadett family is thought to have originally arrived in England as refugees from France many years previously plus the presence of French speakers in general on Trinidad itself.

Just three years after the Cadett boys were enjoying a sunny day's sport in the Marlow meadow, the brothers found themselves in difficulty upon the death of their father. James Stuart Cadett was already back in Trinidad by then, living on his father's Waterloo plantation and working as a civil, agricultural and mechanical engineer as well as millwright. In 1864 he applied for a patent for a steam ploughing machine which he had invented.

William James was still in England when his father died. Thomas James and Thomas Junior may well have been too. Certainly Thomas Junior might have been expected to still be at Marlow Place given that his brothers had remained in education there until their mid - late teens.

Doctor James died indebted to many individual people as well as owing money to a bank. All of these creditors were soon circling and demanding that their claims upon the estate be settled. His executors were a Thomas and a William Cadett, both of whom were living in Britain. These may be his brothers who bore those names and lived in Britain or perhaps his sons William James and Thomas James. The executors didn't at first appear to deal with the estate (but remember how hard it was to get mail from so far away at the time!) and so one of the creditors was granted permission to distribute the estate to the benefit of himself and the other creditors if the executors didn't soon arrive in Trinidad. It looks like the family money had virtually evaporated. In the end William James the son definitely voyaged to the island to help settle his father's affairs. This was either as one of the executors, instead of them or in addition to them. Court cases and disputes about the estate continued for some months and appear complex.

What happened to the inventive James Stuart Cadett can't be discovered by me. At least not yet. He had his own business premises in Port of Spain so hopefully his career as engineer progressed happily even if the hereditary family estate where he had lived was threatened by the creditors. I would love to see a picture of his steam ploughing machine, but search high and low as I have done, I cannot find one.

William James Cadett returned to England with the wish to become a civil engineer like his brother. He first got practical mechanical experience at the Watling Works in Stony Stratford. Following that stint he studied engineering at the Department of Applied Sciences at King's College London. Upon finishing his studies in 1871 he was elected an Associate of the College.

In January 1876 William James set himself up in business in Finsbury Chambers London, while continuing to be the assistant Engineer at the River Conservancy at Lee, Kent. The next month he was elected to the Institute of Civil Engineers. Along with his partner Edward Dudley he won several prizes for their submitted design for various proposed civil engineering projects. In the same year James married at Cookham Dean Helen Clark, daughter of George Clark of Bisham Park Farm near Marlow proving that he had maintained links to our immediate area. The future looked rosy for the couple with William James tipped for much success in his career particularly around river, water and sewage projects which were progressing at a pace in this era, but tragedy struck. Just over three months from his marriage to Helen, William contracted blood poisoning and died after 10 days suffering at Bisham Park Farm. He was only 29 years old.

Helen eventually remarried.

What of the last two brothers who studied at Marlow Place? That is the two Thomases. There is a suggestion that Thomas James Cadett emigrated to Australia and became a grocer (but went bankrupt). Thomas Junior the talented young cricketer is more mysterious. In the 1870s a man of this name was a poet causing some local Trinidadian excitement with his self published work "Timothy Cotton", in the style of Byron. It's sentiments were considered a bit too bohemian by some. Is this our Thomas? The author was said to have travelled the world extensively and used those travels for creative inspiration. Our Thomas was only in his early 20s when the substantial poem was published. Was he sufficiently old to have travelled extensively enough to be that poet? Probably, but without further biographical details for the poet I can't say for certain that they are one and the same person. It's tempting to think tales of the residence in Marlow of Byron's friend Percy Bysshe Shelley and rumours of Byron's visiting him here might just have inspired a young scholar, sitting at his desk in Marlow Place...

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Grave of William Niven, All Saints Marlow

Architect William lived at the impressive Marlow Place in Station Road and died in 1921 age 75. He was passionately interested in the history of the house and the story of Marlow in general. You can read more about Marlow Place here

To find other Marlow, Little Marlow and Hurley grave images see the index here

©Marlow Ancestors. Reproduction of my photos freely allowed for local and family history purposes with credit to this blog.

Friday, September 30, 2022

Alicia Wallop Of Marlow Place

Alicia Wallop née Borlase, born circa 1658, deserves a place in Marlow history as the probable first occupier of Marlow Place.

Alicia's paternal grandfather founded the grammar school in Marlow on a charitable basis as well as a lace making school. One of the first things any writer or commentator wrote about Marlow in the centuries that followed was always the Borlase charity bequest, so Alicia would have reason to have grown up feeling proud of her birth family.

She married John Wallop Esquire of Farleigh Wallop in Hampshire in 1683. In that county they made their home and that of their 7 children.

In 1688 Alicia's mother Joan died and made her and her sisters executors of her will and its residuary legatees. The sisters were also to share their mother's jewelry.

John Wallop's death in 1694 began a decades long widowhood for Alicia. She was the executor of his will. As her the guardian of her children she had to represent their interests in their Hampshire, Devon, Dorset and Somerset estates and inheritances while they were minors. Part of that responsibility was managing political matters in what would be the inherited sphere of influence for her husband's young heirs. As such Alicia strongly supported the Whig political candidate William Guidott. So skilled at persuasion was she that the Corporation of Andover complained that she was making voters break their solemn promises to vote for Guidott's rivals -something which would have been an enormous breach of gentlemanly conduct for those voters. Guidott won but was later found to be embezzling funds from the Duchess of Marlborough's estates leading to supporters distancing themselves from him.

Alicia was busy elsewhere, engaging in some land speculation in the Bond Street area of London as part of a wealthy syndicate. She was the only female member of the syndicate. Other efforts to increase her wealth included her interest in playing the Lottery! There's no evidence that she won anything, sadly.

In 1705 her mother in law Dorothy Wallop left Alicia £100 to buy a ring in her memory.

By 1721, probably not too much before that, Alicia moved to Great Marlow. Her home was probably not yet Marlow Place as it does not seem to have been built for a few years yet but Alicia was resident in that house by 1741, probably by 1734. Her will was written at her St James London home in 1731 but she mentions her Marlow mansion and at other times appears to be back in Hampshire so she was obviously a bit of a floater when it came to residency.

Alicia died on 20th October 1744 and was buried with her husband and other Wallops at the church of St John in Farleigh Wallop. In her will she was one of the many people of the day who simply instructed their executors to bury them decently at their discretion. The memorial to her erected in the church by her only surviving son, the Earl of Portsmouth, stated that Alicia had seen and conversed much with the world in her lifetime but chose to spend her later years in quiet and Christian retirement. She was said to be a constant friend to the poor and one who had approached life with "great decency, prudence and wisdom" as a "very virtuous and exemplary woman".

In the will Alicia left £10 to the poor of Marlow and £10 to those of Farleigh. All servants employed by her at the time of her death were to get £5 each to buy mourning clothes. Black clothes were expensive to produce and had good second hand resale value so the servants were likely well pleased with this bequest.

The main beneficiaries of her will were the only two of her seven children who survived her- daughter Mary and son John.

Related content:

History of Marlow Place here

More posts like this in the biographies Of Individuals Index here

Sources included:

Wills of Alicia Wallop, John Wallop, Dorothy Wallop and Joan Borlase, transcribed by me from wills at the National Archives, Kew.

Hayton, D., Handley, S., Cruickshanks, E. (2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715. United Kingdom: History of Parliament Trust.

Cosmic Rays: Essays on Science and Technology from Royal Institution: Essays in Science and Technology from the Royal Institution. (2001). United Kingdom: OUP/The Royal Institution. [Despite its title this collection contains some London property history].

House of Lords Journal Volume 16. London. Pp 503-504. British History Online.

Property records.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Marlow Place History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A gold ring

A pair of lady's drawers

2 corsets

Some sheets of papers

3 pairs of scissors

A music book

3 table cloths

12 handkerchiefs

Curling tongs for the hair

Buttons

2 tooth brushes

2 gold pins

5 pairs of shoes

Measuring tape

An umbrella

Envelopes

12 photographs (no mention of their frames)

Opera glasses

2 pairs spectacles

Elastic

Button hook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* John Gale retired to Victoria Road Marlow.

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

Related Posts:

Biography of Alicia Wallop here

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

Additional sources I found useful:

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

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

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

GRO death index.

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

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

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

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

Dutton and Allen Commercial Directory 1867.

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, November 22, 2021

Bellows, Bricks and Brandy - Reviving the drowned

People have always bathed in the Thames at Marlow. But many have also lost their lives doing so. The Black Hole, with a reputed depth of 25ft, in the river past Quarry Wood, was an extreme example of a sudden drop in the river bed. But there were other spots where the gently shelving floor fell away, as well as currents, weeds and underwater obstructions.

The task of fetching a body from the river, or looking for a lost swimmer usually fell in practice to someone from one of the boat houses (or the lock keeper) - Shaw's by Marlow Bridge is the one mentioned most frequently. They had a dredger which enabled them to search where human eyes and probes could not. The bodies were usually taken to a nearby inn which would also hold the resulting inquest. The Compleat Angler, and Two Brewers saw a large number of such events. As time passed, the bodies were usually held elsewhere but the inquests were still often in the nearest pub to the place of recovery. (From 1907 the coroner's were requested not to use a public house for an inquest unless absolutely nowhere else suitable could be found.)

Mr Shaw had to use his dredger in 1901 to find the body of one of his own employees, 21 year old William Button of Reading. William was employed as a waterman. He was bathing after work with two colleagues, from a raft under Marlow Bridge. He suddenly disappeared, presumably after suffering from cramp. A "very good" swimmer, he could not be found by his companions and the dredger was called for.

Some of the dead were among Marlow's very many visitors who came to enjoy riverside camping or some gentle punting or fishing. Perhaps the saddest case was that in 1906 of Chiswick/Kew Schoolmaster John S Gilbert, and his two adult sons (Frederick 20, an electrical engineer, and Frank 22, a clerk in the Stock Exchange). They had come to the Marlow area for a short holiday and spent the night camping on the riverbank near Medmenham Abbey. (One source says they were on a small island there.) Frank, a strong swimmer, decided to have a bathe while the others prepared breakfast. But he became tired fighting the current and sank. His dad leapt into the water to save him, but did not resurface. The second son then followed his father into the water - and also failed to come back up. Two friends of the family who had joined them on the trip witnessed the scene, and one (G A Ackerman) entered the water to assist and briefly managed to get the fathers head above water but ultimately needed rescuing himself. The other, Harry Kentfield, on the riverbank could not swim and shouted for help. It came too late however. A quantity of weeds in the water tangling limbs was regarded as a possible explanation for such a tragedy. The farm bailiff from Medmenham who recovered the bodies (Robert Keene) however said he could see no significant weeds and thought the men had panicked "and lost their heads".

Stories of those entering the water and not regaining the surface alive are common. In many cases the reason why could only be guessed at. Some sort of heart attack was a possible cause of death for East Dulwich accountant George Frewin Pinnock who came to Marlow to do some business for grocer A E Howard. George was staying at the Compleat Angler and decided to enjoy a quick swim in the back waters there. He took a dip and almost immediately came up face down in the water. Sadly his wife had died of heart disease just a few weeks before. (1902)

The area to the front of "The Anglers" next to the old Marlow bridge also caught many victims. Another Compleat Angler guest that died there was minor poet and Pigots Directory representative William Rowlinson in 1829. William was from Manchester and was in the area gathering information in order to compile the next Pigots Directory, a listing of businesses etc. He was staying at the Compleat Angler and went swimming with one of the proprietor William Creswell's young sons. It seems Rowlinson got cramp because despite being a strong swimmer, he sank and Creswell could not find him in time. The dead man may not have lived in Marlow but the expression of grief at his accident suggests he had made a strong impression and many friends during his visit (s) here. The Quakers of Wycombe began to raise a subscription for his young widow (he was 24) and his small son and daughter. They also intended to pay for a stone to be erected over his grave at Bisham church. Forty years later it was said the grave was not marked. Perhaps not enough was raised or the money may have been used for a memorial closer to his home. (See note 1 below for more on Rowlinson)

Given the toll of victims, it's not surprising the Royal Life Saving Society visited Marlow Lock in 1910 to give demonstrations about how to save a person from drowning.

Once ashore the methods used to revive someone recovered from the water usually involved rubbing the person over to stimulate circulation and if they came round, issuing them with some alcohol such as brandy. In 1783 the Royal Humane Society issued instructions on how to deal with a person feared drowned. In the accompanying directory of surgeons listed residing within riverside areas, George Trash of Marlow is included. The recommended actions for George to follow include removing the victims clothes should they be wearing any (male river swimmers usually were nude) and then taking the victim to the nearest inn or failing that somewhere else that could offer a warm bed and a large fireplace. A sort of CPR was suggested with artificial respiration and a slight press to the chest when it could be seen the lungs had inflated. The use of small bellows up the nostril in preference to mouth to mouth respiration does date the advice a little! Attempts to stimulate the patient included giving them a vigorous shake of the limbs, applying hot bricks or tiles to the palms and soles of the feet and rubbing the skin with salt or flannels sprinkled with rum or other spirits. You could also try tickling the nose with a feather, rubbing a heated warming pan up the spine, and in the case of a child laying the little soul between two healthy adults in the hope of gently warming them back to life. Another reason to chose a pub to take the victim to was the strong chance they had a brew house (as it was still the era alcohol was made on the premises). This was needed as the last step if all the other methods to revive the swimmer had failed. The body should be surrounded by warm grains or placed in a deep warm bath in the sort of container a brew house might have. They would then wait several hours in the hope of what must really have been a miracle recovery. It's interesting that the Society in local branches raised funds to reward those who made the effort to search for the drowned or drowning and those who took the unfortunates in. The surgeons who were members of the society would attend those retrieved from the water free of charge. This encouraged those in charge of the victim not to delay in summoning medical assistance.

Moving forward a century to 1880 - the Rev Charles Voysey did a demo in Marlow of the New Patent Life Preserver. "For complete convenience in wearing and perfect efficiency in buoyancy power" it was said. This was perhaps not the most quick to use life saver. It relied upon having the opportunity to "carefully" mix an acid and alkali powder which was then put into pockets held within 3 waterproof sacks. These were stitched inside someone's clothes or strapped on to a webbing belt, 2 on the front, the other to the rear of the wearer. When the mixed powders touched water, the reaction released a gas. This inflated the sacks and kept them up for some 50-60 hours or so it was claimed. The set of 3 pouches and powder cost 10s 6d.

A Selected few other victims

NB This post does not include information on suicides in the river, or probable suicides.

1836 - Frank Faulkner, eldest son of school master William Faulkner, age 21. Faulkner senior often took the boys of his school to bathe in the Thames. On this occasion, Frank was visiting Marlow having recently started a physicians practice in London. He went swimming with his brother and a friend. It seems his strength failed, and his two companions very nearly died too trying to save him.

1861 - Ellen Leary, age 59, hawker of cotton, stay laces, needles etc, lodging at Marlow. Her basket was found floating between near Bisham. She is believed to have slipped off the tow path when "not quite sober."

1868 - John Frederick Nolan of Ireland, house painter working for a London builder employed at Thames Villa. He could not swim and intended to bathe only but he did not realise that the gently sloping river bed gave way to a sharp drop and he tumbled out of his depth.

1888 - Helen Frances Warner, married daughter of Mrs Haig of Marlow Place. Drowned near Temple while bathing with her two sisters. She got out of her depth.

Researched and written by Kathryn Day.

Related posts:

Little lives lost in the Thames - Child drowning victims here

Bargemen of Marlow here

Biography of Robert Shaw who recovered a huge number of the drowned here

Floods in Marlow History, and plans to "embank and canalize" the river between Marlow & Henley here

History of Compleat Angler here

Avert your eyes, bathers about! Victorian nude bathing at Marlow and swimming races here here

To find all mentions of an individual here use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu where you will find over 2,700 people currently listed. Other posts about everyday life in old Marlow can be found here

SOURCES

Harland, John (ed) - Lancashire Lyrics, (Whitaker, 1866)

Smith, James - The Mechanic Or Compendium of Practical Inventions vol 2 (Caxton press 1809.)

Royal Humane Society - The reviving of Persons apparently dead by drowning (- RHS London, 1783)

Medical Times Gazette, Vol 2, 1873. Digitised by Google.

GRO Death registration index.

Maidenhead Advertiser August 1 1906, British Library Archive.

Windsor & Eton Express, 26 September 1829 as above

Reading Mercury - 9 November 1861. As above

Berks Chronicle - 27 Jun 1829 As above

Bucks Gazette 20 July 1901. As above

Bucks Herald 14 August 1880, As above

Slough, Windsor and Eton Express August 4 1906

Notes

1. Rowlinson (Rawlinson) had contributed poems to the Literary Gazette and regional publications, including some written in what was described as East Lancashire dialect. One was called "Remember me". He had started work as the clerk in Messrs Cardwell & Co cotton warehouse in Manchester ("Newmarket buildings")

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

World War Two In Marlow Part One 1939

Part One- preparing for war and the first few weeks:

October 1938. Workers were constructing first aid stations and an air raid shelter in the cellars of the Council Offices at Court Garden (*1)

1939 A German Jew, a servant at the house called The Heights on the edge of Marlow (Sentry Hill, Red Pits) fined £1 because as an "alien" she had made a journey of more than 5 miles from her registered address. As a German, she had to register. Her journey had been to London to see her fiancee. More on links to the war for Sentry Hill in future. I will add her name when I find it.

April 1939- Marlow Place, Station Road up to let and advertised as suitable for turning into offices for staff fleeing air raids elsewhere. The war was yet to be declared but the government had implemented protocols in 1937 requiring bodies such as local authorities to make contingency plans for a scenario that Britain was attacked by air and they had to move premises.

May 1939 -

The Marlow company of the Territorials give a display and demonstration in Higginson Park. Visitors can see a Whippet tank, Bren gun and trench mortar. They also witness a display of how infantry can advance under the cover of a smoke screen. Large crowds attend.

- Council give approval for plans to spend £70 on an electrical 4.h.p siren to warn of "emergencies". It will be erected on the roof of the police station in Trinity Rd. The first test of it later this month is success. It's confirmed it can be heard loud and clear throughout the town and for several miles around!

- an Emergency Committee is formed to make decisions at short notice in the event of any "emergency declarations" being made. It consists of the chairman of the ARP committee (Capt. D S Warren), council chairman (Brigadier M L Wilkinson) and councillor V G Kibblewhite (chair of the Finance Committee.)

June 1939 - Bucks Herald reports that Marlow had 7 "report staff" as part of their air raid precautions. (2*)

July 1939- Marlow A.R.P Commitee decided to buy a sandbag filler at a cost of 6 guineas. The council agrees to let them the large room above the stables at Court Garden for the storage of equipment such as sandbags, and emergency beds and bedding.

September 1939- War declared. All Saints evening church services brought forward because they hadn't worked out how to black out the large windows yet.

Above, registration form of Mrs Rolston of Mill Rd for coal supplies, under the Fuel and Lighting Order 1939

First evacuees already in town. A lady who later in the war was evacuated to Marlow from inner London as a small child with her mother and siblings told me how her family adored the clean air and pretty countryside here but were served last no matter where they were in the queue by a couple of different Marlow butchers. She also said evacuee families were routinely given the poorest quality cuts and pieces of meat by these butchers with better pieces put aside and said to be "not available" to them even when they obviously were available. Her mother never recovered from the pain of this treatment, though she told her children they weren't to mind, it was natural to be less welcoming to strangers than to old friends. The majority in Marlow, including other shopkeepers, were nothing but welcoming to the evacuees however, so much so that a number of the evacuee families chose to make Marlow their permanent home after the war. By the end of September 1939 there were in Buckinghamshire 16,000 evacuee children of school age [Bucks Examiner report May 1940]. A social club was quickly set up for evacuee mothers in the Territorials Drill Hall in Institute Road but it was reportedly not much used, at least at first.

October 1939-

- Buckinghamshire branch of the Women's Land Army established by October. The Army had been relaunched in June that year as war was expected if not declared. It had previously operated during the Great War. Headquarters this time in the stables of West Wycombe Park. The organization was not wound up nationally until 1950.

- First prosecution for allowing lights to show from your home at night was bought before the Marlow police court. James Perry of 83 Seymour Court Road escaped without a fine however in view of the fact it was a fairly new restriction to deal with and the offence was accidental. He did however have to pay costs.

- Evacuee Mrs Gregory of Battersea had a frightening experience while staying at a cottage at Westhorpe Farm. An explosion knocked out all of the windows, destroyed the wireless set and inflicted serious damage on the neighbouring unoccupied cottage where the chimney collapsed and fell through the roof and upper floor. The cause turned out to be a lightning strike and not, as initially feared, enemy action! Nobody was hurt, and the family found shelter at Westhorpe Farm.

Part 2 of World War 2 in Marlow here and Part Three here

******

Interested in WW1 in Marlow? Kathryn has a detailed year by year series of posts on it

Other war and conflict related posts can be found on the menu under the General Marlow History option.

Our person index now has thousands of people listed so take a look if you are searching for your Marlow ancestors!

*****

Further Sources for this post:

*1 Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Saturday 29th October 1938. British Library Archives via the BNA.

*2 10th June 1939 as above.

Thanks to Peggy for sharing her family's experience, and to Pam, Bob, Alan, and Barbra for their memories.

Thanks to Jane Pullinger for additional research and material.

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Almswoman Jane Gibbons

This is the latest of a series of posts featuring the widows elected to the (now demolished) almshouses in Oxford Road, or Oxford Lane as it was then known.

Jane Gibbons

Jane Gibbons appears on the 1881 census of Great Marlow in the Oxford Road almshouses for elderly widows.

Ten years previously on the 1871 census she was also at the almshouses but just as a visitor to resident Mary Keats. She was then a needlewoman but most of her widowhood she was a resident nurse in boys' boarding schools.

She was born according to her census entries circa 1794 in either Bisham or Sonning Berkshire. Her husband was James Gibbons but sadly I haven't found their marriage so I can't say what Jane's maiden name was. Their early married life was spent first in Cookham and Bray and then Eton. James died while still in his prime in 1846. On the 1851 census Jane was a widow working as a school nurse in Eton Wick. She lived on site at the halls of residence of the private school for boys Eton College. Her children Margaret and Josiah lived in with her. In 1860 Josiah died at the age of 19. Ann had previously suffered the loss of her 4 year old daughter Miriam in 1847. Within a year of Josiah's death Jane moved to Marlow to take up a job as live in nurse at Marlow Place boarding school for boys. I have a post on the history of Marlow Place already up on the blog if you want to read more about this school or see a picture of the premises. Though not of the status of Eton the school was a big fish locally and was sited in an attractive Georgian house. Jane is one of those minority of people who appear on the same census twice in different places. Her son John put her as living in his household off Chesham High Street in 1861 and her employer at Marlow Place also censused her as living on his premises. It may be she had not yet arrived to take up her post but the head teacher thought he ought to include her anyway or perhaps she was on a temporary visit with John.

Either way by 1871 as already said Jane was working as a needlewoman instead. This was a low paid but common occupation for elderly widows.

By then she had outlived two more of her children as son John passed away aged just 46 in Bow, London while son Leonard died aged 42 also in London.

Jane herself died in 1885.

For other Marlow almswomen see Biographies Of Individuals on the menu. All mentions of someone on this blog can be found on the Person Index.

Census information are from my own microfilm transcriptions but remain Crown Copyright.

Marlow Ancestors

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