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)

 

South Place, Great Marlow

South Place seems to have been first developed in the 1850s. It was formerly the rick yard for Platt's Farm whose farm house you would have found off Mill Rd a little further towards the river and on the other side of the road. It was purchased by George Cannon in 1839. 

South Place is one of those Marlow Streets that if you lived there your address was likely to be described in a bewildering variety of ways in its early days. If you believe your ancestor lived in South Place watch for them being stated as being in Mill Road/Lane (which is the road that South Place leads off), Strong Beer Acre (a vanished area of Marlow previously adjoining the location of South Place), Mill Lane, Platts Road (alternative early name for parts of Mill Road) or Marlow Fields. Census records usually give South Place correctly but other records are very wayward. By the 1890s you should be alright with little variance of address to confuse things.

The earliest residents of South Place lived on the edge of the then built up area of town. Once the nearby railway station arrived in the early 1870s development of the surrounding area picked up pace. The people of South Place however remained easily able to walk out onto open fields and down to the River Thames. 

Being close to the river could have disadvantages of course - the little street was badly flooded in 1894, 1896,1903,1908 and again in the 1940s.

The Prince Of Wales pub on the corner of South Place and Mill Road was often used by barge men for lodgings. The pub started as a beer house. It was there by 1861, getting a full licence in 1864. For a list of the historic landlords of the Prince Of Wales see this post.

As well as the pub lodgers other residents worked on the Thames. One such example was George Picton who lived in South Place with his wife Ann by 1881. In 1893 George was labouring for the Thames Conservancy when the punt he was using overturned near Oxford, drowning him. It was some time before his body was recovered. Ann's first husband James Rockell also drowned in the river. To help manage financially after the death of her husband she took in lodgers at her South Place home but emotional recovery from her double widowhood proved impossible for Ann. Six years after George's death she slit her throat with a razor that had belonged to him. Her married daughter Jane Cox who also lived in South Place and the local surgeon Francis Culhane tried unsuccessfully to save her life after Jane discovered her dying mother. 

For another sad case of a South Place resident drowning in the Thames see Kathryn's post here. 

Ann was not the only suicide in South Place history- twenty two years earlier resident John Ford, a gardener, hung himself in his bedroom. His wife had left him taking his 4 young children and many of their possessions with her. He had gone to Coventry for a while in an unsuccessful attempt to find them. He was described as very depressed upon his return. He had also been physically ill and was living off money raised by selling what remained of his furniture. His body was discovered by his sister Sarah Sparks who had been keeping an eye on him and trying to lift his spirits.

The cottages in the street were generally very small- two rooms up and two down was the standard. In 1897 two such cottages with each their own wash house, outside toilet and garden were rented out to two different families at a collective rent of 17 shillings a year. Bargain!

Small houses didn't deter larger families from settling there. Francis and Prudence Corby present on the 1861 census had six children aged from one year old Harriet up to 18 year old journeyman plasterer Henry at home. Francis was a journeyman bricklayer. Journeymen were skilled labourers who had finished training in their trade but worked for others rather than on their own account. The family still lived in South Place a decade later.

Thomas and Annie Croxon meanwhile squeezed 8 children into their home at the time of the 1881 census. Thomas then was a servant. Later he is censused as a general labourer and an army pensioner.

The couple were still in South Place in the 1910s.

A new and better well and pump were provided for the residents to share in 1866. Other mod cons like street lighting and a proper paved street took longer to arrive in South Place. The road was labelled unsanitary in 1896 so more improvements were still needed then.

Additional notes:

Francis Corby was the born 1817 son of Ambrose and Sarah Corby. He and Prudence Martin married in West Wycombe in 1838. Before they lived at South Place the couple lived at Dean Street [under its original name Well End, not to be confused with Well End Little Marlow] with Prudence's parents.

Thomas Croxon and Anne "Annie" Edwards married in 1866. Their daughter Alice had an illegitimate baby girl who died soon after her birth in South Place.

More information: 

See the "Specific Shops, Streets Etc" menu here  to look for other Marlow addresses and check the Person Index in the top drop down menu to look for all mentions of any individual here. 

Thousands of people are listed!

Posts about everyday life for your ancestor in old Great Marlow: here

©Marlow Ancestors. .

Photo snapped September 2020 by Kathryn Day. Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Sources:

Censuses, my transcription from microfilm. Census content always remains Crown Copyright.

Property records 

Pub and beer house research of Kathryn Day.

Maidenhead Advertiser 8th Feb 1893 and South Bucks Standard 6th January 1899, British Library Archives.

"Particulars and Conditions of Sale of a very valuable and highly productive freehold estate called Platts Farm" 1839. 

Theophilus Clifford - stonemason

Updated December 2023

If you have ever crossed Marlow Bridge you have seen the stonework of he wonderfully named Theophilus Clifford. His first name is from the Bible and though a bit old fashioned for a man born as he was circa 1796 it would have been a familiar first name to most people in his day.

Theophilus married in his native Oxford in 1817 to fellow local Sarah Goodall. At some point in the early 1820s the couple moved to Marlow after Theophilus bought a stonemason's business there from Mrs Smith. In 1823 Theophilus sued his neighbour Mr Allum for £300 for slander after Allum publicly accused him of stealing a leaden pump from the yard they shared. 

A great opportunity for the young stonemason presented itself with the 1829 decision of the town to replace it's wooden bridge with a new iron suspension bridge.

Theophilus, in partnership with Marlow builder Thomas Corby, won the contract to do the stonemasonry and brickwork for the bridge's pillars. The bridge building process was a painful and fraught one. I have a post on the blog which goes into detail about this if you want to learn more - see link below. Suffice to say money was in short supply. Theophilus and Thomas found themselves being asked to take a pay cut from their contract price, with the threat of being replaced if they refused. They had already started work, and Theophilus had had to procure the stone from suppliers pressing continually to be paid themselves so such a request seems unfair.

There was growing unease about the bridge project per se and Theophilus and other contractors came to realise that they had to agree to lower and later payments or risk the whole project.

So it was perhaps with mingled feelings Theophilus gazed upon the finished project in the Autumn of 1832. His early pride in the suspension bridge is evidenced however by the naming of his and Sarah's daughter with the middle name Suspensiana in 1829. You can read about the extraordinary struggles to complete the Suspension Bridge here.

Other places that Theophilus is known to have worked include Cromwell House in Marlow High Street and in Little Marlow Church.

Theophilus and his family lived in the High Street. In the 1833 parochial assessment notebooks the property he occupied was described as a dwelling house, workshop, garden and yard with an annual value of £10.

The year of the assessment Theophilus was burgled and a copper boiler and some pots and pans were stolen from his home.

Later in the 1830s he had to pay £70 compensation to a Mr Strange for allegedly maliciously and falsely prosecuting him for allegedly stealing marble offcuts from him. Strange said that Theophilus was trying to crush him as he wanted to set up his own business in rivalry to Theophilus who had previously had no rival in the town of Marlow. 

In the early 1840s Theophilus and Sarah returned to Oxford. They lived in St Aldgates in the city centre. Tragically Theophilus died aged only 55 in 1845. His will left all he had to his "dear wife" Sarah in her lifetime then to all his children equally. He wanted three of his children in particular- Jane, Charlotte and James- to have his furniture. Sarah was the sole executor of the will and guardian of their children. The 1841 census also shows children William and Mary to the couple. Mary became a straw hat manufacturer. She married Henry Quarterman and had several children before dying at the age of 40. More on her and other straw hat makers in Marlow here

William became a stone mason like his father but died of consumption aged 27 a year after Theophilus.

Daughter Jane also died of consumption in 1846. Other daughters died prematurely too- Sarah aged 23 in 1841 and Elizabeth aged 19 in 1842.

Sarah died after a long illness at Rose Place, St Aldates Oxford in 1863 aged 65. She was buried at Marlow with several of her children. See the grave here.

For other grave pictures see under Graves on the menu. All mentions of someone on the blog can be found by searching for them on the Person Index.

See:

Original will from Oxfordshire Record Office.

Oxfordshire marriage bonds and allegations, Find My Past, accessed October 2020.

1841 census, transcribed from microfilm image by me.

Quarter Session Records, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies.

1833 original parochial assessment notebooks and corrections in possession of my family and transcribed by me.

Grave transcription by Kathryn.

Windsor and Eaton Express 27th July 1833. British Library Archives.

Jane's death notice= Oxford Chronicle 28th March 1846. Copy held at the British Library and accessed by me online via the BNA September 2020.

© Marlow Ancestors. If quoting from this material credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain linked to the information they provided.

Straw Bonnet / Hat Manufacturers Marlow

Not as well known as the lace trade but a Great Marlow industry nevertheless. It was a trade subject to the whims of fashion and rose and fell over time. Straw plait was traditionally stitched together by females, often little girls before child labour laws forbade it. The wholesale price of straw plait in 1849 locally was £1 for 100 yards of it. The biggest centres for straw plait manufacture in the area were Chesham and Luton. A market for it was held in Aylesbury.

Some of the straw hat or bonnet makers I found in Marlow were:

Mary Clifford, High Street. Pigot's Directory 1842. Born 1824. Daughter of Sarah and Theophilus Clifford. To read about Theophilus see the post here and the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu for all mentions of the family.) Mary and her family lived within a few doors of Matilda Newell, straw hat manufacturer below. Later in 1844 Mary returned with her parents to Theophilus's native Oxford. Mary married Henry Quarterman a carpenter and builder. She died aged 40. The Oxford Journal reported that she was "respected by all who knew her". [December 5th 1863].

Elizabeth Hawes "Oxford Terrace" [in Oxford Road] 1842 Pigot's Directory.

Charlotte Hobson, straw hat maker, High Street 1839 Robson's Directory and 1844 Pigot's Directory. Not in her own premises at least 1833 +. Age 30 and living in the High Street 1841 census though ages on that census are rounded and only approximate. Had also lived in Cookham Berkshire. Widow of John.

Matilda Newell- Pigot's Directory 1831, Robson's Directory 1839, Pigot's Directory 1844. All High Street. In 1833 property she occupied was on the Pound Lane / Brewery side of the High Street and consisted of a house and garden with an estimated value of £8 a year. She had not been in the same property in 1826. She was a straw bonnet maker aged "25" on the 1841 census apparently in the same property. Ages were rounded on the 1841 census. Matilda was actually 28 in 1841. She was the daughter of Hannah (née Hester) and William Newell and moved to Marlow with them as an infant. She was born in Bledlow in 1813. It is interesting to see Matilda occupying property on her own account and being in business ditto aged just 20 in 1833. Unusual for a young woman with living parents (they were in West Street). By 1851 she was back with them however, listed just as a farmer's daughter and living in West Wycombe. After their deaths Matilda was able to live as an annuitant rather than work. She died eventually at Naphill, Buckinghamshire on the 25th April 1883.

Elizabeth East Pusey- 1852 Slater's Royal Commercial and County Directory, Chapel Street. On 1841 census Spittal Street [these two streets run into each other and the boundaries of neither were ever consistent. I haven't yet analysed property occupations in this street but feel it possible at least Elizabeth was in the same premises in fact 1839 and 1841]. Born circa 1793. The wife and eventual widow of Samuel, a chair maker. Samuel was the brother of William Pusey straw hat maker come straw plait dealer come chair maker below. Elizabeth and Samuel moved from Marlow to High Wycombe where Elizabeth East Pusey died in 1888 aged 95 on the 15th April. Samuel had died in 1867. Elizabeth does not seem to have continued in her own trade in Wycombe.

Elizabeth Pusey, 1852 Slater's Royal Commercial and County Directory, High Street. Born 1796 on 1851 census. She was the wife of chair turner come straw hat maker William Pusey. See below. Elizabeth is censused as having been born in Rye Sussex.

William Pusey- straw hat maker, West Street 1839 Robson's Directory., Pigots Directory 1842. In 1833 a William Pusey was in Quoiting Square where his property consisted of a house, washhouse, shop, yard and large garden worth an estimated £11 a year. The parish tax assessors got into a right pickle in the vicinity of Quoiting Square so while the description of this William's occupied property in 1833 will be accurate it is very possible that like several other properties his was listed as Quoiting Square but was actually in West Street. That street is where they were 1841 and 1844. William was married to Elizabeth Pusey, straw bonnet maker above. He was listed as a chair turner by 1830 and continually thereafter but was also in joint enterprise with his wife in straw hat making at least 1839-44. They lived in the High Street 1851. He was then censused as being born 1787 in Penn Buckinghamshire. Brother in law of straw hat maker Elizabeth East Pusey above and brother of Samuel Pusey also above.

Charlotte Rose- West Street, Pilot's Directory 1831 and 1842. Lived on 1841 and 1851 census at the West Street Post Office with her sister Ann Tyler, William Tyler the post master and Ann's husband plus Charlotte and Ann's mother Elizabeth who is listed as a milliner. Elizabeth was at other times referred to as a dressmaker as well. Ann was earlier a milliner and dressmaker too. Charlotte, who was also a cambric cap maker, died in 1870. She is buried with her mother at All Saints, Marlow. I will post a photo of her grave in the future.

Ann Sinclair. West Street Pigot's Directory 1842.

Charlotte Suthrey - High Street, 1831 Pigot's Directory. Not in own premises 1833.

Hannah Wright, Chapel Street. 1831 Pigot's Directory.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Sources:

Robson's Directory 1839

Pigot's Directory 1831 and 1844. These both University of Leicester Archives.

1852 Slater's Royal, Commercial and County Directory. 

Property records in my family.

Death certification Matilda Newell and Elizabeth East Pusey.

Censuses my transcription from microfilm except West Wycombe which was from Aidan O'Brien. Census information always remains Crown copyright.

Spade Oak Ferryman William Round

 If in the course of other research I find interesting people from Marlow or it's immediate vicinity I take note. So here's (hopefully) an interesting ancestor for someone. Spade Oak ferry by the way connected Bourne End in Buckinghamshire with the banks of the county of Berkshire near Cookham.

William Round was born in Oxford in 1844, the son of William, a successful coal merchant, and housewife Ann. The family could afford a servant for at least part of William's childhood.

William grew up to assist his father in the business before setting up on his own as a coal, stone and hay merchant. In 1881 two of his carters were found to have creamed off part of the loads they were supposed to be delivering to one person and selling them to other people instead . William was a victim in this of course, not a criminal but it may have undermined trust in his business. Certainly he was declared bankrupt that year. His horse and cart were seized to help pay debts. His father bought them back for him but kept them officially in his own name. Otherwise they could have been seized again. When William Senior died in 1883 he left the horse and cart to Sarah Maria*, William's (2nd) wife, probably to protect them in the same manner. When a new creditor seized them in 1885 over an unpaid £24 debt for oats and hay William successfully argued that as his wife's property they could not be seized for his debts. The creditor complained that the two were clearly in business together and had fraudulently conspired to make people give William credit on the assumption that he had a good security in a horse and cart when they knew full well that that security was invalid. The judge sided with the Rounds on the basis no evidence could be provided to show husband and wife were in an official business partnership. The new Married Women's Property Act entitled Sarah Maria to hold property entirely in her own right.

William Henry did not nevertheless continue long as a coal merchant. On the 1891 census he is a steamship captain.

He became the Spade Oak ferryman in May 1893, succeeding James Sparks. At the ring of a riverside bell he would appear and ferry people and luggage across the Thames. 

By 1901 William was a widower. His cousin Elizabeth Downing came to keep house for him and look after his little son Joseph born 1894. 

At the age of seven Joseph was found floating dead in the Thames near his house. He had been last seen about to head home after playing with a friend on the Bourne End side of the river after school. The coroner recorded an open verdict. There were no signs of violence on the child and some said he had a habit of walking close to the water's edge. The coroner savaged boatman Charles King at the inquest. King had been the first adult to be found by the child who had spotted little Joseph floating in the water. He told the child to fetch a constable but made no effort to comfort him or to look at the body let alone retrieve it from the water. So it remained for twenty minutes before another boatmen went for it (in this case instantly upon hearing what had happened). The coroner called King stupid and unfeeling for his lack of response.

Nothing could have prepared William for the death of his son but finding bodies in the water was an occupational hazard for anyone who worked by the Thames. Death by drowning occurred at an astonishing level at this time period. In 1898 William had himself retrieved the badly decomposed body of one victim from the river. His older son also called William would pull a body out a few years later while home on leave from his role of Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy. The boatman who retrieved Joseph described himself as a veteran of the task.

William remained as the Spade Oak ferryman till at least 1911.

*Sarah Maria married William in West Smethwick 1877. She was née Timmins but at the time of her marriage was the widow of Luke Pope a solicitor.

Post researched and written by Charlotte Day.

More information:

To find people of interest on the blog choose the A-Z  Person Index on the top drop down menu.

Other posts related to the River Thames here

Other posts about the Spade Oak and Bourne End area see this index here

Some research sources:

Census 1881 my transcription from microfilm images of census pages. Other censuses from Jane Pullinger.

Marriage and birth certificates from the GRO.

Newspaper copies held at the British Library Archive and accessed by me via the BNA London February and September 2020: Oxford Weekly News August 25th 1885, South Bucks Standard 26th July 1901.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain credited for the information they provided.