1833 Parochial Assessment Great Marlow Part 42

 The next part of my gradual transcription of the original handwritten working notebooks used by the assessors to compile this assessment. These faded notebooks have long been in the possession of my family, and also contain some pencilled in corrections from the later 1830s, though not in these parts.

I am uploading the parts out of order that they appear in the assessment. Instead I transcribe and add them as they chime in with research I am doing for myself or others.

©Marlow Ancestors. Use this transcription with credit to this blog.

Name

Property occupied

Annual worth of that property

Any notes by me in square brackets

Hooks Cottages

Woodrow [no first name]

House and garden

£6

*****

William Stevens

House, garden and shop

£6

*****

Edward Pratt

Cottage and garden

£4

*****

Oakengrove

William Smith

Cottage and garden

£4

*****

Jordan [no first name]

Cottage and garden

£5

*****

William House

House, garden and stable £6

Part of a garden at Lane End 

10 shillings

*****

Thomas ?Fulton

House and garden

£5

*****

Burrough's Grove

John Green

Horse Shoes House [pub], garden, stable, woodhouse and garden

£8

*****

Wymers

Henry Webb

House, lawn, flower garden, stable, chaise house, garden, a cottage and small garden

£21

*****

Handy Cross

William Earies (Earis/Eyres/Ayris)

The Blue Flag house [Pub] shop, shoeing house, cottages, stable and garden

£9

*****

Each occupying a cottage and garden with an annual value of £3:

Jeffrey Sears

John Plumridge

George Wye

*****

Ragman's Castle

William Dance

Cottage and garden

£4

©Marlow Ancestors. Reproduction very welcome for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

1700s High Street Occupiers

 Updated October 2023.

In the days before censuses finding out where your ancestor lived within a town is virtually impossible but that doesn't mean that it is not worth at least trying to find out! I glean every possible will and property record to gather the names of those who lived in the High Street in the 1700s. The date next to each name is the date I find reference to them there but they may have been there earlier and later. This post is for occupiers not owners of property. In most cases in the 1700s the two were not the same thing. The precise buildings cannot usually be identified though they can in a few cases.

Multiple people in the same family can bear the same name so don't automatically presume that a "John Smith" here is your particular "John Smith"!

Market Square and the Causeway are not included here.

Richard Aycott. At the Three Tuns. 1724+ (at least). Still there 1729.

Widow Aycroft, /Aycott. Three Tuns. 1753. Widow of Richard above. (Note Three Tuns is later in West Street)

Richard Barnes, butcher. East Side 1735.

Miss Mary Barnes. Occupier 1718. Unsure if owner.

Bell and Earley - In partnership from 1771. Earley is still in business 1778, with or without Bell. Bell in business before 1771. 

Widow Bird. Tenant house on East side 1782. 

John Brindsconbe. Tenant 1724.

George Buck. Occupier pre 1700 to at least 1700.

Mary Dark. See post on the Lower Crown here and here.

William Dark. See post on history of the Crown Inns here, Lower Crown landlord listing here, Recreated 1700s Trade Directory post here and his will transcription here

Sarah Dennis "A new built brick and tile house" in the centre of the High Street. Died 1794. Read more and see her grave here. "Mrs". 

Ann Duffin, widow. Owner and occupier of a house West side of street. 1718.

John East. A butcher. Occupier West side 1728. Unknown if owner.

John Ells - Grocer and tea dealer, going bankrupt 1795. Also chapman. 

Richard Fellowes. Tenant 1775.

Henry Fletcher, gentleman. Occupier 1730. Unknown if owner.

Susannah Harris, widow. Occupier house East side 1705-21 at least. She was the widow of George Harris, tallow chandler.

Buckle Hawes, draper (yes that was his name) 1775. Property owned by his uncle William Hawes below. Later described as a gent. See his grave here

William Hawes, gent. 1775. Owner and occupier.

George Haycroft, a cordwainer. Owner and occupier 1724. Will proved 172?

William Hooden or Wooden senior, hard to read. Occupier 1718. Unsure if owner. West side.

William Howard. Soap boiler. Tenant 1740.

John Howe. Bookseller etc. See Recreated 1700s Trade Directory post here and more about him and his shop here.

Cornelius Lattemore. Tenant 1700. More on Cornelius in future.

Elizabeth Lattemore. Tenant 1718. West side. Still in occupation there 1728. May be widow of Cornelius above.

Sylvester Law. Innkeeper of various property. See 1700s trade directory here and his will here

Mary Lewis. Late deceased 1797. Unknown if owner.

Thomas Lockwood. Cordwainer. 1782. Late deceased 1791. Wife Ann.

Luke Medwin. Draper. East Side. See Recreated 1700s Trade Directory post here

Robert Morse, brazier. Occupier 1741. Unknown if owner.

George Oxlade. Occupier 1730. Unknown if owner.

John and Mary Phillips. See post on the history of the Crown Inns published here. Mary Phillips was by another marriage Mary Dark, see above.

Joan Pomfret / Pomfrett. Landlady of unnamed pub West Side to 1702. Probably the Three Tuns. See here.

John Pomfrett. Three Tuns. 1717. More here. Probably son of the above.

Aaron Rance. Tenant. 1785? (A grocer) 

William Rivers. Occupier 1730. Unknown if owner.

John Roberts. Tailor. East side. Tenant. 1740.

Ralph Rolls junior. Wheelwright. 1740-46. East side. Note possible marriage: June 29th 1746 Ralph Rolls of Great Marlow married at St George's Chapel, Mayfair (Hyde park corner) Elizabeth Gage of St James, Westminster. 

Widow Russell. Occupier. East Side 1735.

Mary Sawyer, widow. Occupier of a property 1721.

Elizabeth Small. Tenant 1724. 

Henry Smith, East side. Maltster. Died by 1795. 30ft frontage and 150ft depth to property. Had malthouse, dwelling house, "offices", and garden. Premises  leased to George Wethered Senior by 1783 and then to George's son of the same name. Wife of Henry Smith was Sarah. 

Mr Street. Opened a tallow chandler's shop in 1789.

Joseph Streeter. Tenant of land behind High Street buildings. 1775. I would guess this is East side.

Ambrose Thompson. Blacksmith. Occupier. 1741. Unknown if owner. East side.

Mary Walker, widow. Tenant 1775.

William and Elizabeth Weedon. Married couple 1772. William was a carpenter and his will was proved 1773. He owned the property.

George Wethered who died 1783 leased property for his brewing business on both sides of the High Street. He left the East side premises to his son George and the West side premises to his son Thomas. Thomas junior also had the White House by 1791.

John Williams. Tenant. East Side 1700.

Mr Williams. Occupier 1781.

Compiled by Charlotte Day and Kathryn Day. I have a mountain of notes to wade through. There will definitely be more people to add to this list as and when I am able to do so.

More 1700s residents in Marlow posts:

Chapel Street here

Dean Street here

Oxford Road here

Quoiting Square here

Spittal Street here

I am marshalling my notes for West Street and Gun Lane which will appear in the future.

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

John Gidley, Presbyterian Minister

John Gidley was a Presbyterian Minister in Marlow from 1703 until his death in 1711.

He was from a Devon family* and received his MA from Exeter College Oxford University in 1660. In the same year he was ordained in Exeter Cathedral as both deacon and priest "without any subscription or oath or promise of Canonical obedience". John appears on a 1664 list of ejected (because dissenting) ministers in Exeter. He was said then to live with a Mr Clare near Key Gate in that city. This may be the merchant George Clare who went bankrupt in the early 1700s. This George sued John over property in St Thomas in 1700 so relations seem to have taken a downward turn between them. John was sued again a few years later with a large number of others, including apparent relatives of his, in relation to the estate of the same George Clare. Documents relating to this are held in archives in Devon, far from me, so I can't find out exactly what the nub of the issue was. If I am able to find out more I will come back and update this post.

In 1672 John was granted a general licence to preach but he lived on his family estate in Exeter, just occasionally preaching due to his shyness at public speaking. This was said to be so severe he could not say grace in front of others.

His confidence must have increased over time however as 1690-92 he was Independent Minister of Aldborough Hatch in Essex with a 200 strong congregation who must have expected to hear him speak on a regular basis!

I am unsure how he came to Marlow but he was here in 1698 when he witnessed the will of Richard Sawyer the basket maker. In 1703 John was granted licence for his house in Marlow to be used as a dissenting meeting house. He received £4 a year from the Presbyterian Fund 1703-09.

John's will was written in 1711 "considering my time of departure is at hand". In it he refers to himself as a "clerk" which was the term used for all ministers in those days. He mentions no Marlow property only that which he had in Devon, including New Hayes the family home. He however left £50 to any Presbyterian minister who settled in Marlow within 7 years of his death if money owed to him from the estate of a Samuel Clark was paid to his executors. The £50 was to be given to the minister at a rate of £5 a year for ten years. If no Presbyterian did settle in Marlow half the money was to go to Marlow's poor and the other half to the poor of the parish of St Thomas Devon where John's family home was located. This was just outside Exeter. Another £10 was left so that "the most religious persons" of St Thomas parish could be bought books. These were to be "faire bibles" (without any Apocrypha or Book of Common Prayer) Mr Birkett's Poor Man's Helper and Mr Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. The Mr Baxter was Richard Baxter who seems to have been personally known to John.

John asked to be buried in Marlow or some neighbouring parish. The funeral was to take place in the morning "as silently and privately" as possible. He desired a "faire noble marble" headstone be placed upon his grave with the words "Here lies the body of John Gidley Minister of the Gospel", his date of death, age and the line "less than the least of all saints" inscribed. The funeral was to be "managed" by Mr Bartholomew Pane. The placing of the vault was to be the care of John Higgs Senior, Thomas Hayson and James ...ewing. For accommodating his requests the minister of the church where he was buried was to receive 2 guineas and the churchwardens half a guinea each.

John asked that after his death his collection of books be sold with the help of Mr Samuel Cox of Ealing, Samuel Clark of Beaconsfield (perhaps a relative of the deceased Samuel Clark above) and John ?Pownell of Wycombe. John mentions few other personal items- a watch went to his cousin Gidley Burgess and a set of seals on a ring to another cousin Gidley Martin.

The main legatees of his will were various nieces, nephews and cousins of his. There is no mention of any wife of children for John.

The will and two codicils were witnessed between them by Robert Beckford, William Beckford, Robert Rance and Thomas Hobbs. These are all Marlow names. Robert Beckford was a hoop maker in West Street. He had a cousin William Beckford who was a carpenter in Little Marlow. This is likely the William Beckford of John's will. The Rance family at the time were heavily involved in rope making. Thomas Hobbs also witnessed the will of Richard Sawyer mentioned above. These men could just be friends or neighbours to John but this witness list may also offer a glimpse of the names of some of John's congregation, who are thought to be the predecessors of the congregation of the Salem Chapel / Congregational Church in Quoiting Square and thus today's Christ Church in Quoiting Square.

John's financial incentive for another Presbyterian settling in Marlow does not seem to have had immediate effect as the next such minister, John Benson, is not recorded until 1715, four years after John's death (though within the lucky seven years that would see him win that £5 a year allowance for ten years). That does not in any way mean that there were suddenly no dissenters in Marlow when John died. Visiting preachers could have kept his old congregation going until someone could be induced to move here. There was an Independent Chapel building in Marlow before 1724. 

Where John Gidley's house was in Marlow isn't known. As I said above he mentions no property in the town in his will. If therefore he rented rather than owned his Marlow home it is interesting. Whoever rented John a house would very likely have been in religious sympathy with him if they allowed him to use the building for dissenting worship. I have read every will written by any person from Marlow or Little Marlow written between 1698 and 1711 and available from the National Archives in the hope someone would mention property in such and such a street in Marlow occupied by their tenant John Gidley. Sadly no one does. Nor does anyone in describing their property describe it as being next to or opposite another occupied by John Gidley. No property transaction I can find involving any Marlow person mentions him either. I haven't given up hope of locating him within the town though. Because there were no house numbers in the 1700s any mention of a property tends to include a string of locating information telling you who lives in various other nearby properties. So there has to be a chance that John and his location are recorded somewhere. 

*John seems to have been the son of  George Gidley of St Thomas, Exeter and an unknown mother.

Note by Kathryn:

The "Presbyterian dissenter" Lord Wharton left in his will (proved 1692) a sum of 10 shillings a year to a preacher who would speak annually at Marlow on the "truth, usefulness, sufficiency and excellence of the Holy Scriptures". This was a significant sum.  The preacher should also stress the people's right to have these scriptures in their own language (as opposed to Latin). The prayers accompanying this sermon were not to mention Lord Wharton's name, an unusual request. Similar sermons were to be preached at Wycombe and other nearby towns. He also left substantial amounts to be used to purchase 1,500 bibles a year for poor children in various parts of the country ( 10 were sent to Marlow, plus 13 other religious books which were to go to those recieving the bible who'd made most improvement in their studies of it). The bibles were still distributed in the 1830s but I do not know how long the sermons continued. There was some controversy by the 1840s that money left by Wharton was not being used for the proper purposes. In particular the distribution of the bibles was mostly in the hands of the various parish churches. It was argued it would be more in keeping with the dissenting Wharton's wishes for the non conformist chapels to have charge of them. 

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Sources:

Wills of John Gidley and Richard Sawyer. Transcribed by me from  PCC wills held at the National Archives, Kew.

A Short History Of The Ancient Diocese of Exeter From The Conquest To The Church Congress 1894. By Herbert Edward Reynolds. Published 1895 by H Besley and Son.

Book Owners Online, detail of John Gidley. Content CC BY-NC 4.0.

The Non- Conformist Memorial, An Account Of The Ministers Who Were Rejected. Written by Edmund Calamy and Samuel Palmer. Published by W Harris. 1775. New York Public Library copy digitized by Google.

An Abridgement of Mr Baxter's Life And Times Volume 2 by Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy, 1713. Digitized by Google.

Select Remains Of Phillip, Lord Wharton - Rev J Whitridge, published by J Brydons 1849.

Will Summary of George Plucknett of Great Marlow 1692

 ©Marlow Ancestors. Please give credit to this blog if reusing this content but you are welcome to do so.

Transcribed by me from a will at the National Archives, Kew and then summarised here.

GEORGE PLUCKNETT, SCRIVENER OF GREAT MARLOW. WILL BOTH WRITTEN AND PROVED IN 1692.

Says he weak in body but has perfect mind and memory.

Commends soul to God.

To be decently buried at the discretion of his executor which is his "loving wife" Elizabeth.

To wife Elizabeth until son George is 21 then to him and his heirs: House in Jewell Street Moorgate Without ward in London which was then in occupation of printer John ?Lake and the four ?rooms built upon testator's land and joined to the house of Thomas Lane victualler.

Son George and his heirs already have a rental interest for 13 years in a house in Old Palace Yard, White City [London]. The reversion of that property left to George.

 "My loving ..." Mr Thomas Hall of Gilt Spire Street, Newgate Without [London] apothecary is to be responsible for putting that property out for the benefit of George and his heirs once that 13 years is up.

All rest of personal estate to wife Elizabeth after debts, legacies and funeral expenses paid.

Will witnessed by John Saxton, John Ranse [probably Rance], Henry Smalle, and John Gibbons.

Post by Charlotte Day.

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