Biggs / Bristow Family Bakers

 Joseph Biggs, originally of Dinton Bucks, moved to Spittal Street Great Marlow in the very late 1850s or 1860.

He was a middle aged widower with a much younger "servant" Sarah Bristow in tow, by whom he had had 3 children - Ellen, Joseph and Alfred. The children were referred to as both Bristows and Biggs at different times. Sarah had worked for him since at least 1851.

Joseph was a corn dealer and baker with a shop in Spittal Street. After his death in age 71 Sarah, sometimes as Sarah Biggs and calling herself a widow, other times as Sarah Bristow, ran the business herself. In 1868 she was fined for having deficient scales used for weighing out bread and also, interestingly, meat. Such prosecutions occur frequently with shopkeepers whose scales needed to be recalibrated every so often to keep them true but who often forgot to organize this. In 1890 Sarah was again fined this time it was 10 shillings for selling bread without weighing it first, another very common offence. Such prosecutions arose from random test visits by the authorities.

By then Sarah's children were no longer at home. On the 1891 census she had a ten year old servant Nellie Edwards living with her to assist her. She may also have had daily shop staff that didn't live in with her.

Sarah's premises on the left hand side. 

Sarah's son Joseph junior with two of his friends had been hailed as "romantic" and "gallant" heroes for diving into the Thames to rescue an exhausted and capsized rower following a competitive race at Marlow in 1874.

One of those friends, John Langley junior, went on to marry Joseph junior's sister Ellen in 1877. Both Joseph junior and his brother Alfred were successful young rowers at Marlow themselves. Women did row competitively at this time but I have found no evidence of Ellen Biggs also competing. You can see the grave of Ellen Biggs/Langley at Holy Trinity church, Marlow here. 

I think Sarah Biggs may perhaps have died in 1909. She had left these premises by 1907 and they became a cafe.

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Written and researched by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog.

Some Sources:

"England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXS5-G47 : 26 June 2022), Ellen Biggs in entry for Sarah Biggs, 1871.

"England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGB-V6Z : 22 February 2021), Sarah Biggs, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Buckinghamshire county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

1881 census Great Marlow, my transcription from microfilm. 

Bucks Herald 15th August 1874. British Library Archives.

Reading Mercury 26th July 1890. British Library Archives.

Great Marlow Parish Registers, original.

Harman's Chemist

Bernal Harman was a chemist with a shop in Market Square / Spittal Street Marlow in later Victorian and early Edwardian times.

He was born in High Wycombe in 1846. His full name was Bernal Osbourne Ralph Harman. His unusual first name comes from his godfather Wycombe M.P Ralph Bernal Osbourne, who in turn had it in the family as he was paternally of Jewish ancestry. Bernal Harman's father Charles, a solicitor and Mayor of High Wycombe was a political ally of the Liberal M.P.

Our Bernal had a privileged but tragic childhood, losing his mother Ellen (née Tatem) in his third year and his father in his ninth. He appears on the 1851 census living in Easton Street High Wycombe with his widowed father Charles and siblings plus two servants. Bernal still lived in Easton Street in 1861 this time with his older brother John but by 1868 he was married and operated his own "family chemist" in Magdalen Street Glastonbury, Somerset. From there he mixed up his own tooth powder guaranteed to give you a winning smile for life.

Then, by 1870, he moved his shop to Park Street, East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. His advertisements in local papers bear the legend that he was the chemist for the royal household at Osborne at this time. But he must have struggled as he appears in court reports as a debtor and he went into liquidation there in 1871. Finally, in 1881 Bernal and his wife Ellen (née Duckett, married Somerset 1867) and their children moved to Marlow so that Bernal could take over Banbury's Chemist and Druggist in Spittal Street.

As well as being a chemist his shop acted as a parcel agents and Bernal was one of the principle movers and shakers behind the establishment of a Literary and Scientific Institute in the town.

In 1891 Bernal faced serious trouble when the landlady of the nearby Wheelwrights Arms in Spittal Street, Mrs Lucy Jeffs, died after taking an opiate based sleeping draft which he supplied to her. The doctor and surgeon who attended her before her death suspected that the draught contained more opium than Bernal claimed and had poisoned her. A post mortem revealed that taking opium had brought on her death but that she was about to die anyway. She was a consumptive of long standing and very close to death from that. She asked for the draught because she was in too much pain to sleep. The expert opinion was that as her condition had deteriorated significantly the normally safe dose Bernal insisted that he gave her was not a dose she could withstand in her condition and made her exhibit symptoms of overdose. It is likely that he did not realise how much nearer to death she had become in the hours before he handed the sleeping draught to her young son in his shop. The inquest jury recorded a verdict of homicide through misadventure. Bernal seems to have escaped further scrutiny as far as our research can so far find. The verdict meant that Bernal had while acting lawfully and without intent to do harm nevertheless caused death. 

Above 1905 ad. Sole proprietor of the  "Carrington Bouquet" refers to a locally created perfume with a contentious history - see here for more. 

Bernal died in 1906 following a long illness. His wife Ellen survived him and lived later at 15 Claremont Road. She died there in 1921 age 72. Their son Henry "Harry" Harman fully qualified as a chemist and druggist in 1896-7 and had already taken over the day to day running of Bernal's business before Bernal's death though even afterwards for a while afterwards the name above the door still said "Bernal Harman".

Harry supplied bandages and disinfectant to the local council. He continued to act as a parcel agent like his father had done, as well as being a chemist. He was a successful rower for Marlow Rowing Club in his spare time. He married May Flint from West Street. Sadly, he died aged just 45 in 1920.

Written and researched  by Charlotte Day. 

Related posts:

For other posts about specific shops/businesses and other content related to Spittal Street see the index here

Information on other chemists and pharmacists in Great Marlow plus apothecaries, surgeons and other medical related posts see the index here

Index of biographies of other individuals connected to Marlow here

For every mention of an individual or family here see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's more than 4,000 people listed there. 

Some sources:

Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire etc 1883 and 1907. Kelly's Directory of Hampshire 1880. Kelly's Directories Limited.

The Post Office Directory of Chemists and Druggists: Containing Lists of the Chemists and Druggists Throughout England, Manufacturing Chemists, Wholesale Druggists, Patent Medicine Vendors and Manufacturers, and Every Trade in Connection Therewith. (1870). United Kingdom: Kelly. 1885 edition also.

1851 census High Wycombe and 1881 East Cowes via Rootspoint.

The Pharmaceutical Journal Volume 51 printed by J Churchill. 1921.

The Chemist And Druggist. February 10th 1906. 

South Bucks Standard 12th Feb 1897 and 6th March 1891. Bucks Gazette 4th April 1846. British Library Archives via the BNA.

The Weekly Notes. United Kingdom, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, 1877. Via Google Books.

"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DK3-W4K : 13 December 2014), Bernal Osborne R Harman, 1867; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1867, quarter 1, vol. 5C, p. 814, Wells, Somerset, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. 

Bucks Free Press 27 June 1921. 

Hurley Grave Wedderspoon

 Kenneth Gordon Wedderspoon

In Hurley churchyard. Died October 13th 1923. Age 33.

Post by Charlotte Day.

For posts related to the history of Hurley see the index here

Index of other grave images and inscriptions see here

To find every mention of an individual or family here, check the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. Our focus is on Great Marlow and there are over 4,000 individuals listed there. 

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