Joseph Marfleet

Joseph, son of John Leake MARFLEET and Elizabeth was baptised at New Sleaford on Thursday 29th March 1827. He was the eldest of seven children who were born between 1827 and 1841. Although there were five boys in the family, one of them, named Frederic, only lived for fifteen months. He was baptised on tuesday 3rd March 1835 and died on thursday 16th June 1838.

At the time of the 1841 census Joseph was 14 years of age and was at boarding school in Boston, Lincolnshire, under the instruction of 40 year-old David JONES, the schoolmaster.

Joseph was later a student at Culham College and was briefly at Chichester. He was an influential cog in the development of Teacher training in the 19th century (In fact, as we shall see, education played a big part in the family.)

Tuesday April 3rd 1849 was the day of Joseph's wedding to Mary Jane BECK (known as Jane) at St George the Martyr, Southwark. The marriage certificate gives her father's name and it looks like David BECK. However, her father was Daniel BECK and it is possible that the name was transcribed wrongly on the copy marriage certificate - an easy mistake! Daniel BECK also had an important part to play in early education. He, too, was a schoolmaster and he kept a diary between 1813 and 1842. Although scant in detail, these diaries give an interesting insight into his daily life and also give details of some of his teaching methods. He implemented, not without a great deal of opposition, the method of teaching children to write using a tray of sand in which the outline of the letters were traced with a finger.

The marriage of Joseph was registered during the second quarter of 1849 in the district of St. George Southwark (Ref: IV 495). At the time of their marriage, both Joseph and Jane gave their residence as Hunter Street. According to the marriage certificate Jane was ten years older than Joseph, she being 32 years of age to his 22 years, and was born around 1817. Unfortunately the event of her birth at Ewhurst is not recorded in her father's diaries but 1817 was the same year that a son, Peter, was born (20th January 1817 - Lucy was put to bed at 8 o'clock of a Boy). Previously, on September 13th 1816 Daniel recorded his devastation at the loss of his thirteen month old son, Daniel Colgate BECK, "My dear Boy this day breathed his last at about a quarter before one o'clock. My God how hard it is to die, how hard to part with one I loved so dear - this is like a dagger to my heart." Witnesses to the marriage ceremony were Zachariah FRICKER and Mary Ann MOSS.

As noted above, by 1851 Joseph and Jane were schoolmaster and mistress at Cuckfield Workhouse.

They did not remain at Cuckfield for very long. Their first son, Charles William MARFLEET, was born on the 29th March 1852 at 31 Charles Street, Westminster. Sadly Mary died seven and a half years later aged about 42 years. She died on the 6th November 1859 and her death was registered during the last quarter of that year in the district of Amersham (Ref: 3a 231). It is not yet known when or why the family moved to Buckinghamshire.

It was to be twenty-three years before Jane's estate could be settled. On the 20th October 1882, Administration of the Personal Eastate of Jane MARFLEET (wife of Joseph MARFLEET) late of Chalfont St. Peter's in the county of Buckinghamshire who died 8th Novcember 1859 at Chalfont St. Peter's, was granted at the Principal Registry to the said Joseph MARFLEET of Litchborough Weedon in the County of Northampton, Schoolmaster. Personal Estate £118 2s.

Joseph's second marriage, at St. Margaret's Westminster on the 21st June 1860 was to Eliza Ann COLEMAN. His bride was 29 years of age (four years younger than Joseph) she having been baptised at Chalfont St. Giles' on the 19th June 1831, a daughter of Luke COLEMAN and his wife Mary Ann (SNOW). Witnesses to the marriage were the bride's father and William NEEDHAM. (There is a recorded baptism of one Luke COLEMAN, son of Joseph COLEMAN and Mary, at Chalfond St. Giles' on the 29th November 1806). The COLEMAN family were builders in the area of the Chalfonts.

After their marriage Joseph and Eliza moved back to Buckinghamshire. The births of their five children between 1862 and 1871 were all recorded in the registration district of Amersham. Their first-born child, a son, died without being named in 1862 and another sojn, Archibald, was born in 1866 but died in 1867. Ernest, the youngest of the children, was born in 1871 after the census.

By 1864 Joseph was schoolmaster at the National School, Chalfont St. Peter, living in the schoolmaster's house which was part of the main school building. His wife, Eliza, was also employed at the school teaching needlework. It was here that their other children were born, viz. Louise on the 20th August 1863, Edith on 9th January 1865, Archibald (see above) and Ernest on the 9th June 1871.

The 1871 census shows that Joseph, 43 years of age, and his wife Eliza Ann, 39 years of age, and their two daughters, Louise (7) and Edith Maud (6) were living at the Master's House of the National School, Chalfont St. Peter. Joseph was a schoolmaster and Eliza described as "Teacher of Needlework".

Joseph and his family move to Litchborough, Northamptonshire, in 1873. It was on the 5th May that year that Edith Maud started school at Litchborough. Joseph became Master of Litchborough C.E. School and his gravestone records he had been master for 14 years when he died in 1887.

In 1881 when Joseph was granted probate of the will of this father, he was described as a schoolmaster of Litchborough, Northamptonshire. The 1881 census records the family at Litchborough and Joseph as a 53 year-old schoolmaster, Eliza a 49 year-old school mistress, Louise (17), Edith (16) and Ernest (9) the only sibling described as a scholar.

Kelly's Directory for Northamptonshire, 1885, relating to Litchborough School reads:
Church of England School (mixed). Erected 1870
The master of the school is paid £35 a year from charities in the parish.
It will hold 70 children, average attendance 50.
Joseph Marfleet certified master, Mrs. J. Marfleet sewing mistress.

Joseph died on Monday 7th February 1887 at the age of 59 years. His death was regfistered in the first quarter of 1887 in the district of Towcester (Ref: 3b 8). The will of Joseph MARFLEET late of Litchborough in the County of Northampton, Schoolmaster, who died 7th February, 1887, at Litchboro' was proved on the 4th April 1887 at Northampton by Eliza Ann MARFLEET of Litchboro' Widow the Relict the sole executrix. Personal Estate £553 gross, £498 8s 3d net. He left all his estate to his dear wife, Eliza Ann.

In the 1891 census records Eliza A. MARFLEET a 57 year-old widow living in Chappell Lane, Litchborough. She was of independent means.

By the time of her death in 1899, Eliza had moved to Wolverton. Eliza Ann MARFLEET of 26 Windsor Street, Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, widow, died 25th June 1899. Probate was granted at Oxford on the 13th September to Edith Maud WHITE (wife of James WHITE) and William HOWARD, innkeeper and carpenter. Effects £342 6s 8d. Her death was registered during the third quarter of 1899 in the district of Pottersbury.

Eliza Ann MARFLEET            Died 25th June 1899
This is the last Will and Testament of me ELIZA ANN MARFLEET
of LITCHBOROUGH in the County of NORTHAMPTON. WIDOW.
I appoint my daughter EDITH MAUD MARFLEET and my friend
WILLIAM HOWARD of LITCHBOROUGH aforesaid INNKEEPER and
CARPENTER hereinafter called my Trustees to be Executrix and
Executor and Trustees of this my Will.
I give devise and bequeath all my real, leasehold and
personal property to my trustees upon Trust to convert the
same into money by sale or otherwise and to divide the
proceeds (after paying my funeral and testamentary expenses
and debts) among my three children LOUISE MARFLEET, ETHEL
(sic) MAUD MARFLEET and ERNEST MARFLEET in equal shares.
I revoke all other Wills by me heretofore made and declare
this to be my last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I
have hereunto set my hand this Seventh day of April
Eighteen Hundred and Ninety Four.
            ELIZA ANN MARFLEET
Signed by the named ELIZA ANN MARFLEET
the testatrix and for her last Will and Testament
in the presence of us both present at the same
time who at her request in her presence and
the presence of each other have hereunto
subscribed our names as Witnesses.
          THOS M PERCIVAL Solr NORTHAMPTON
          DAVID REYNOLDS     his CLERK