There were historically many Costers in Marlow. We will feature as many as we can on this blog in the future but for this post I will deal with the children and descendants of a particular couple- Edward Joseph Coster and his wife Elizabeth nee Fleming.
Edward was almost always known by his middle name Joseph. He even married Elizabeth under that name in 1843! He was then 21 years old. Edward was the keeper of Marlow's lock for many years from 1848 onwards. This was not a particularly well paid job (though you did get a house with it) and he also worked as a cordwainer until at least 1863 to supplement the family income. In 1854 it was decided by the powers that be that many Thames lock keepers were to lose their wages entirely, including Edward whose £3 a month was cut off. In return for keeping their homes and the tolls given by pleasure craft he was to work for free! Bear in mind that the pleasure craft traffic could be very low outside of the holiday season. Fortunately several of his daughters remained at home as adults and brought in an income from their "fancy" needlework.
Elizabeth's origins are unclear. On the census she usually says that she was born in Shoreditch London. She might be a relative of the Flemings who had Marlow Place as their country home though there would be a great gulf between that family and that of her future husband in terms of wealth. There was a Fleming connection to the Wyatt family of Marlow not obviously anything to do with the Flemings of Marlow Place and possibly another Fleming family group too so that needs to be born in mind.
Edward grew up in a long gone cottage by the also lost "Tithe Barn" near Marlow Bridge.
Lock keeping was well established in the Coster family. Edward's dad Richard* spent much of his working days as a foreman carpenter and boat repairer at Marlow Wharf for the Thames Commissioners as well as boatbuilding on his own account, but later in life became the lock keeper at Boveney, Bucks. Richard's brother Thomas was the lock keeper at Temple, the next lock along the river from Marlow. Thomas retired in 1883 because of ill health.
Edward and Elizabeth had eleven or twelve children. They raised their family as Congregationalists, attending the church in Quoiting Square. Edward had not been raised that way himself but Elizabeth may have been.
One of their children, 7 year old Willie drowned at the lock in 1868 after apparently falling into the water unseen by any adult. Children of lock keepers were quite frequently lost in this way in the 1800s. The Thames was a generally dangerous place in Victorian times. Few years went by without a drowning, or several, in the vicinity of Marlow. In his position of lock keeper Edward more than once had to assist in the recovery of the bodies. Still, apparently, his job didn't merit any pay!
Another child of Edward and Elizabeth, Edwin also died as a child, though not as a result of an accident. Another son Charles was probably also a child death.
Edward's son Edmund became a prominent Marlow grocer at no 20 High Street (old numbering. In later numbering was no 50, also eventually Edmund was at no 52 as well). It is possible that when he appeared in the 1881 census as a grocer's assistant it was for Noah Bartlett of West Street who married Edmund's sister Ellen, though he also had a relative Richard Coster who had a grocery shop in West Street (that Richard suffered bankruptcy in 1888 and disappeared, his family apparently never seeing him again). Noah Bartlett was also a congregational man. Sadly Ellen died less than a year into her marriage. More about Noah in this post here. The post contains a link to an image of Ellen's grave and a picture of Noah's premises in the modern day.
Above, high class provisions available from Coster & Son.. 1931.
Edmund eventually expanded into a second premises in West Street. This sold grocery and later some hardware. Like most Marlow grocers of Victorian and Edwardian times Edmund suffered multiple thefts from his premises. The lists of items stolen from him give as a flavour of his stock- packets of tea, pots of jam, bottles of sauce, canned fruit and packs of candles. He died in 1930, his wife Mary (nee Carter) in 1933. By 1920 their son Sydney was a partner in the business. After Edmund's death the High Street shop was taken over by their son Sydney who used no 50 for groceries and no 52 as a tobacconist with some lines of "fancy goods" too. Adverts from his early years in charge show that he specialized in the grocery side in Empire butter and bacon. A 1933 advert says an A Coster was also running the shop. Poor Sydney died suddenly when just 54 while acting as goalkeeper for the mens' hockey team. He had played for Marlow for years and was the Captain of the Bucks Hockey Association. I think that he was one of the special constables of Marlow. By 1948 only the tobacconist and fancy goods side of the business at 52 was still running but it was still "Costers" for years to come.
Emily, sister to Edmund, Willie and Ellen married Marlow High Street architect Richard Wellicome of Marlow in 1878 at the Congregational Church. Her sister Alice married West Street grocer Albert G Fleet there 7 years later. Albert both ran his own shop and assisted Edmund Coster in Edmund's secondary West Street premises. When their church needed to raise £300 for renovations in 1889 Alice was amongst the stall holders at the fundraising bazaar (running a Japanese theme stall). Alice also trained the children of the non-conformist teetotal Excelsior Band Of Hope (which was based in the Congregational church) singing and elocution.
Emily Coster as Emily Wellicome operated as a milliner and fancy draper from no 5 High Street (old numbering), eventually assisted by her daughter Florence. Astonishingly, just like Richard Coster, Richard Wellicome disappeared in the midst of a financial cloud. Wellicome had been the parish surveyor and rate collector and a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1907 for falsifying his accounts. The case drew national press attention and the unfortunate Emily was pressed for interview by journalists. She spoke of her distress. A cryptic postcard was sent by him from Gloucester to their 14 year old daughter Mabel saying "We are just off, feeling better, best love to all". A Marlow woman thought she had seen him on a London omnibus with a "wild" look on his face. Some of his account books were discovered abandoned in a bag at a Liverpool quayside but of the man himself neither police nor his family could find any trace then or ever. Later that year Emily's brother Edmund the grocer, who held the mortgage for Richard and Emily's home put a lien on the property so the absent Richard could not sell the property without satisfying the debt. All credit to Emily for picking herself up and carrying on. Mind you, with several young children at home what else could she do? By 1920 Emily had retired from her business. Initially she lived in Claremont Gardens but when she died in 1929 she was of 10 Glade Road.
Another sister Anne "Annie" Coster did not marry and worked as a fancy needlewoman. She also helped out in Congregational fundraising events and was, like her dad and brother in law Noah Bartlett, a long standing Sunday School teacher. After the death of her parents she kept her own household in her parents' old Station Road home, no longer needing to work presumably because of parental inheritance. Her also unmarried sister Julia (another former needlewoman) lived with her as did their uncle William Coster. Another fancy needlewoman their sister Lucy died at the age of 32.
Alfred Coster the eldest son of Edward the lock keeper moved to Devon where he worked as a draper. He married Mary Ann Wish in Newton Abbott.
A Mrs Coster, who could be Edmund's wife, was one of the women who stitched the banners used in the town as part of the one thousand strong children's parade which formed part of the 1887 Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations.
Edward Joseph the lock keeper lost his wife Elizabeth aged 63 in 1886 and shortly afterwards decided to retire on the small pension granted to lock keepers. Well-wishers collected £70 to give him as a leaving present. In 1898 he died at the home in Station Road which he shared with several of his unmarried daughters and was buried with Elizabeth in the churchyard of the Congregational Church. The South Bucks Standard in reporting his death said that Edmund was a lifelong teetotaller (he was on the committee of the Marlow Total Abstinence Society when it formed) who never used "improper words" and had performed his duties "quietly, honestly and industriously". They also said that he was a man known for his kindness to children. Things were probably quite rosy for his 25 grandchildren then! He was also a cricket fan and keen walker.
*his mother was Elizabeth nee Windsor, who lived long enough to celebrate her hundredth birthday in 1889. By this time she lived in Bray. Her brother William Windsor the town postman was said to be a renowned Marlow eccentric.
Post written and researched by Charlotte Day.
Related posts:
Other posts related to those who made their living on or around the river (including other lock keepers, barge men etc) at Marlow can be found in the index here
To look for mentions of a particular person or family see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.
To find information about particular shops, businesses or homes see the index here
Some Sources=
GRO marriage index, GRO online.
England and Wales censuses 1841-81, transcribed from microfilm by me. Census information remains Crown Copyright.
"England and Wales, Census, 1901", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSWG-5KC : Thu Feb 13 06:58:01 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred Coster and Mary A Coster, 31 Mar 1901.
England and Wales census 1891
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGN-LPZ?lang=en
Baptisms of Edward Coster, Richard Coster, Thomas Coster- Great Marlow Bishops Transcripts, Find My Past.
Pigots Directory 1842, Slaters Directory 1852. Kelly's Directory 1899 and 1920 by Kelly's Directories Limited.
Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907, Marlow Printing Company.
Guide to the Crown Hotel Marlow, circle 1934.
Maidenhead Advertiser November 13th 1889, Baylis Media Archives.
South Bucks Standard July 1st 1898
Bucks Free Press. June 1887. Bucks Free Press Archives.
Newspapers from the British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA: Reading Mercury 12th September 1868 and 9th October 1886, South Bucks Standard 12th April 1907, Daily News 11th April 1907.
