The Eagles Have Landed- in Spittal Street!

 Joseph Eagle or sometimes "Eagles" ran a grocery shop in Spittal Street Marlow. This was close to the old Greyhound Inn. Sadly neither building still exists. Joseph was on the premises by 1833.

He and his wife were worshippers at the Salem Chapel now known as Christ Church (United Reformed) in Quoiting Square. Their daughters Charlotte and Elizabeth were baptised there in 1811 and 1812 respectively (but born 1809 and 1811). There was also a known daughter Harriet born circa 1818. I didn't see her baptism in the microfilm images I was studying but I may have missed it, ditto the son William and daughter Ann who appear on the censuses or other known daughter Keziah. They were probably just on another reel of film.

The register gives Elizabeth and Charlotte's mother as an Elizabeth which is puzzling as their father appears as married to an Ann on the census and a Joseph and Ann Courtney married in 1809, before the births of Charlotte or Elizabeth. 

Daughters Harriet and Elizabeth did not marry and acted as assistants in their father's shop during his lifetime. In 1840 a bad shilling was passed in payment to Harriet but the Marlow constables were already on the trail of the culprit and caught him while he was still in Eagle's shop.

Three years later a boy called Thomas Plumridge was sentenced to three days in jail for stealing a piece of pork from the shop.

Joseph died in 1871. Elizabeth and Harriet took charge of the business in his place. In 1879 Benjamin Green* appeared in court charged with stealing a bottle of sweets and a bottle of sherbet from them while Harriet was on duty behind the counter. He had moments earlier in the same courtroom been jailed for 3 months for poaching so the second charge was not pressed.

Elizabeth died in 1880 after which Harriet carried on with the assistance of her young niece Ann Cheer (daughter of her sister Ann AKA Annie). Harriet died in 1893. 

Her sister Charlotte married James Sawyer the baker at the age of 17. She ran the Sawyer's bakery in West Street for many years as a widow. See an image of the site of those premises and read more about Charlotte  here

Keziah Eagle's husband Jason Povey got into trouble for accepting a bribe to vote a certain way during one of Marlow's many notoriously corrupt elections. More on that and Jason in future.

For other shopkeeping Marlow families see the Biographies Of Families option on the top drop menu. And for other post related to shops see the Specific shops, schools etc option on the same menu.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. 

*Benjamin Green went on something of a one man crime wave in 1879. Early in the year he was acquitted of a charge of stealing a substantial amount of money from his employer Harriett Anthony of the High Street. At the same session he was also acquitted of stealing a pair of boots from Battings. However both the boots and the money were found later, secreted in the stables where Benjamin had worked.  He had claimed to have seen a man run out of the garden at the time of the robbery but it was a lack of footprints on bare soil to support his story that caused the police to be suspicious in the first place. 

Sources:

Bucks Herald 14th March 1840 and Bucks Gazette 11th March 1843. Reading Mercury 1st February 1879. Copies held in the British Library archives and accessed via the BNA March 2021.

My transcription of images of Salem Chapel baptisms on microfilm #007765132. Provided by the LDS church, Intellectual Reserve Inc.

1883 Kelly's Post Office Directory  published by Kelly's Directories Limited

1839 Robson's Commercial Directory. University of Leicester Archives.

1853 Mussons and Cravens Directory. University of Leicester Archives.

1844 Pigotts Commercial Directory.

Census 1841-91

1833 parochial assessment. Original handwritten notebooks held by my family and transcribed by me.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that the sources listed above don't lose credit for contributing.

Royal Chair Makers and Cunning Burglars!

 

William and Edmund Mealing- furniture makers occupied the above Great Marlow High Street premises for many years in the 1800s.

William was born circa 1775  in Penn near High Wycombe. Like so many Wycombe Mealings he went into the furniture trade though he was 10 years in the army first. Wycombe was especially famed at the time for chair making. William was also an upholsterer and cabinet maker while his son William Junior focused on chair making. 

The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers cited below conflates the two William Mealings, "my" William and his son. This they acknowledge is a possibility. After a lot of a research I can confidently sketch out the family and their royal links. 

William Senior was the one listed as being in the High Street High Wycombe in 1823 (near the Market House). The other William would be only a child then. 

William Senior was still by the Market House in 1829 when he went bankrupt. Not only his stock in trade but all his own furniture had to be sold to satisfy his creditors.

After he left the premises, his "large and handsome shop" and home which occupied a single build were put up for offer as well. William must have been doing well as the house had no less than 6 bedrooms, 4 sitting rooms and 2 kitchens not to mention a chaise house, stables and granaries.

His wife was Ann but I have not been able to trace their marriage. She died after 1815 but seemingly well before her husband.

Their son Edmund (in the dictionary mentioned above mistakenly rendered as Edward) married Sarah Stevens in Hedsor in 1828. This marriage like other life events for these Mealings took place in Non-Comformist places of worship. They were of Wycombe in the record. Their two daughters Ann and Jane were baptised at the Easton Street Ebenezer Chapel in High Wycombe.

Circa 1830 the couple moved to the premises in Marlow High Street. 

In 1833 the Mealing's Marlow house shop and yard there had an appraised annual value of £9. Later the family would also use additional, now demolished premises a couple of doors down where Sainsburys local is now.

It is Edmund then who is the listed occupier or head of household. Where his dad was living then is uncertain. William was still in business however as "William Mealing and Sons" with a premises near the Red Lion Hotel in the High Street High Wycombe before a fire damaged the premises. Either because of that or because he needed extra room William had set up chair making premises in the Newlands area of High Wycombe which was awash with other chair and furniture makers.

In 1838 his company provided two gilt and carved music chairs for Royal Pavilion Brighton, and six chairs for Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. In 1839 they supplied 48 carved beech stools for the music room of Buckingham Palace plus more chairs and stools for the Royal Household 1840-41.

At the time of the 1841 census William was living in Marlow with his son Edmund. Presumably due to seniority of age and experience William was then listed as the head of household rather than Edmund as previously. William was also listed as the head of the business in Marlow in other records. William Junior as I say remained as a chair maker in Wycombe while William Senior focused on cabinet making and upholstery.

In 1853 Musson and Craven's Directory William was also listed as a paper hanger. (Early wallpaper that is)

In 1861 at the time of the census another son of William's - a Robert - was also living and working in the family business. Previously Robert had worked for the Excise office. William died in 1863 aged nearly 90, and Robert and Edmund were jointly listed in Kelly's Directory 1864 as running the business. William is buried in All Saints Churchyard Marlow. His estate was valued as less than £800 which was of course still a lot in those days. Son Edmund was the executor of his will.

Sarah Mealing, wife of Edmund died in 1864 and is on the same headstone in Marlow as her father in law. I will upload grave pictures for them as time permits.

By 1871 Edmund had moved to a large and attractive house on the other side of the High Street. Robert and his wife Sarah lived in the old family premises for a few years before the building was given over entirely to use as a showroom. 

On the 1881 census Edmund said he employed 3 men in his business. One was Charles Stark who had married Edmond's daughter Jane. Another was James Stark, brother to Charles. The Stark boys were sons of the Mr Stark who was coachman at Bisham Abbey. 

Edmond died a little later  age 80. The business continued for a few more years as Mealing and Stark under the care of Charles. 

In 1884 the premises were burgled by thieves who managed to squeeze in through a tiny side window they had completely removed. You can still see this window as you enter the Liston Court shopping area. The reports of the robbery tell us that the premises were a house incorporating a two storey showroom for their stock with workshops out back. In the show rooms were glass display cabinets showing the Utrecht velvet and silk plush options for the upholstery plus accessories you could buy at the same time like curtains and tablecloths. It was these items plus a large carpet that the thieves had taken. The carpet had been left outside as perhaps it was too bulky for a quick getaway. What was carried off was to the tune of £60- £70 in value. 

Charles had retired by 1891. (I think in 1889.) Hopefully not because of his losses in the burglary. He sold out to Messrs Hill and Tugwood who had worked as his apprentices. In 1898 many of business goods were sold off by auction. The Hill & Tugwood partnership would shortly be dissolved.  Their shop was taken over by the neighbouring trader George Wood who would continue to sell poultry and game in his old premises, and greengrocery and seeds in his new. However the Hill family carried on as cabinet makers alone in a different premises. 

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. 

Mealing grave here

For a biography of the Mealing's assistant John Adams see Kathryn's post here here

More posts on historic Marlow traders are indexed street by street here.

For every mention of an individual on this blog see the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu which contains thousands of people.

Sources: 

'M' in dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840 ed Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert (Leeds 1986) pp. 563-8. British History Online http://www.britishhistory.ac.uk/no-series/dict-english-furniture-makers/m Accessed March 24 2021.

1833 Great Marlow parochial assessment. Original handwritten notebooks held by my family and transcribed by me.

Bucks Gazette 23rd May 1829. Copy held by the British Library Archives and accessed by via via the BNA March 2021.

Windsor and Eton Express 17th January 1829. As above.

Bucks Herald 26th July and Reading Mercury 19th July 1884. As above.

South Bucks Standard 11 November 1898

1841,51,61,71,81,91 transcribed by Jane Pullinger.

Kelly's Post Office Directory 1864.

Musson and Craven's Commercial Directory 1853 from University of Leicester archives.

GRO Death Index.

Hedsor Independent Chapel marriages transcribed from microfilm images by me from film #007561679 provided by the LDS church, Intellectual Reserve Inc.

National Archives Royal Hospital Chelsea Soldiers Service Documents Ref: WO97. 

Graves Marlow All Saints Churchyard 

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to reuse this research or image for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here so that the sources listed above do not lose credit for their contributions.

Grave and Research for the Wanes of Red Barn Farm

 

Grave is in the graveyard of the United Reform Church, previously the Congregational Church / Salem Chapel. (Christ Church URC)

Uppermost name on grave is Isaac Wane Senior "late of Pinkney's Green in the county of Berkshire" who died 1853.

Further down I can see "Mary Harriet Wane daughter of Isaac and Eliza Mary Wane of Red Barn Farm Great Marlow who died 1851 aged 3".

 Also of Isaac Wane husband of the above aged 71. I couldn't read his date of death. 

Grave photographed March 2021.

Research Notes

Isaac Wane Senior has a death notice in 1854 in a local paper [not 1853 as per the grave date of death. Perhaps they were a bit late putting it in]. He was "of Red Barn Farm" Great Marlow in that notice but originally of Fairford Gloucestershire as per the census. His son Isaac Junior married in 1847 Eliza Mary Brangwin who is on the grave above. Her family ran Barmoor Farm in Marlow.

Isaac Junior had Red Barn by 1851. Both he and his father were still in Fairford in 1841. Isaac Junior was the tenant of Barmoor himself at one point  as an advert in the local press in 1882 said he was then giving up his tenancy of it and was selling off some of his farm stock including 5 cart horses. From this advert we can tell that he raised poultry and had crops of hay, rye and wheat there.

Isaac was one of the strongest supports of his church's minister who faced the wrath of some in the congregation for getting married. Please see our post on Thomas Styles, published a few weeks ago on the blog for more on this and Isaac's involvement.

In 1862 Isaac and Eliza's housemaid Sarah Ann Shepherd aged 23 was attacked by an older cowman who worked for the Brangwins at Barmoor. This must have been deeply distressing both for Sarah and for the Wane/ Brangwin family.

Less seriously a gun toting poacher was after hares on Isaac's land in 1876. The gamekeeper who confronted him was threatened with having his brains blown out by the poacher but managed to have him arrested. That gamekeeper worked for Lady Dashwood who was presumably the landowner with retained shooting rights.

Another press advert tells us that an Isaac gave up Red Barn Farm on account of his retirement from farming in 1892 and a new tenant was sought. It is described as a small farm in a lovely location that could be used as a "pleasure farm" as well as a serious concern! This Isaac died in 1903.

Take a look at the Graves option on the menu for similar posts. You can also choose the Person Index option to search for all mentions of an individual.

**DO YOU HAVE A FAMILY CONNECTION TO THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH LIKE ISAAC WANE? IF SO, YOU MAY LIKE TO BE INVOLVED IN THE MODERN CHRIST CHURCH MARLOW'S WALK OF LIFE, SEE Here FOR MORE INFORMATION. 

Sources:

GRO Marriage Index online.

GRO Death Index online.

Newspapers held at the British Library Archives: South Bucks Standard 30th September 1892. Maidenhead Advertiser 16th August 1882. South Bucks Free Press 12th December 1862. Bucks Gazette 2nd December 1854. Bucks Herald 7th October 1876. All accessed by me via the BNA March 2021.

England and Wales National Census 1841-91. Transcribed from microfilm by me.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to reuse this image, grave transcription or research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here. The link is only required to ensure my listed sources don't lose credit for providing information. Thanks!