Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Jemima Gower

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JEMIMA GOWER; 1857 – 1938

Jemima, known as “Minnie” to her family and friends,[1] was born in Northchurch in 1857. She was the fifth of five children[2] born to Joseph and Elizabeth Saunders (née Osborn). Her father was a grocer but Jemima never knew him as he died before Jemima was born.

We know from a newspaper report in 1860, and the 1861 census, that Jemima’s widowed mother ran her husband’s grocery shop following his death.[3] Although three of Jemima’s older siblings continued to live with their mother, in 1861 three years old Jemima was living with William Richardson, a wheelwright, and his wife Mary who also lived in Northchurch. The 1861 census describes Jemima’s relationship to the Richardsons as that of cousin.[4] The Richardsons had no children of their own and the arrangement no doubt suited both Jemima’s widowed mother, who had three other children to care for, and the otherwise childless Richardsons. Jemima’s mother, Elizabeth, remarried by 1871. Her second husband was John Richbell, a dealer in eggs and poultry, and Elizabeth herself continued her grocery business. Jemima, 13 years old and attending school, returned to her mother’s care, living with her mother, her older sister Emily, and John Richbell in Northchurch.[5]

Jemima married on the 2^nd August 1880. She was 23 years old. Her husband was Samuel Gower. Samuel came from Tring and in 1871 worked as a silk winder in Tring’s Silk Mill. Jemima had moved from Northchurch to Tring at some date after 1871, as notice of the wedding stated that Samuel and she were “…both of Tring.” The same notice also tells us that the wedding was celebrated “…at Hope Hall, Berkhamsted by Mr Alexander,...” Hope Hall had been opened in 1875 in Kings Road[6] as a meeting place for the Evangelists, a religious group which began its life in Berkhamsted as part of the Plymouth Brethren and  which traditionally had always been a lay ministry with no ordained minister. Samuel Alexander, a gifted teacher and lay preacher, had led the community since 1870.[7]

According to the 1911 census Jemima gave birth to 11 children, 6 of whom had died by 1911. It has only been possible to trace 9 of those children: Samuel Edward, 1881-1881; Nellie Emily, 1882-1963; Carrie Zilpah, 1884 – 1899; Bessie Edna, 1888 – 1946; Ashbel Edward, 1890-1963; Laurence Joseph, 1892 -1892;  Laurence Fred, 1894 -1964; Eva May, 1896 – 1896; Phyllis Josephine, 1900 -1988.

When the census of 1881 was taken on 3^rd April that year, Samuel and Jemima were living in High Street, Tring, next to Samuel’s brother John. Samuel was no longer working at the Silk Mill, his occupation being recorded as “bootmaker.” Jemima worked as a dressmaker and the couple’s first child, Samuel was under one month old. Also living with Samuel and Jemina was Jemima’s sister, Emily, who is recorded in the census as being a “Nurse dom” i.e. a domestic nurse. She was probably helping Jemima and her newly born son. Sadly, however, infant Samuel did not survive long. He died shortly after birth.

Perhaps prompted by the death of their firstborn, Jemima and Samuel decided to make new lives for themselves in America. They set sail aboard the steamship Greece, arriving in New York on 30^th September 1881. Their next child, a daughter, Nellie, was born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Whether life in America proved to be harder than expected, or perhaps feeling homesick, by 1884 they had returned to Tring where their next child, Carrie, was born that year. [8] By the time their fourth child, Bessie, was born in 1888, they had moved again, this time to Chesham[9] and it is on Chesham’s High Street that the family was living when the 1891 census was taken. Samuel had set up in business as a “Gardener and seedsman”[10] and later as “florist and seedsman” whilst Jemima worked as an assistant in Samuel’s shop.[11]

By 1911 Jemima and Samuel, together with their three youngest surviving children, Ashbel, Laurence and Phyllis, had moved to 79 Queens Road, Watford where Samuel opened a grocery shop, whilst also working as a jobbing gardener. All three of the younger children worked as assistants in the grocery shop. Jemima and Samuel supplemented their income by taking in boarders. In 1911 three elderly women were boarding with them at 79 Queens Road.[12]

A further move, this time to Berkhamsted, was made before 1919, the year that Samuel died. His address at the time of his death was 27 Queens Road, Berkhamsted[13] and Jemima was to live at that address for the rest of her life. In 1921 the widowed Jemima, age 63 years, was living at Queens Road with her eldest daughter, Nellie.

Jemima died on 6^th April 1938 at the age of 80 years. Having been married in Hope Hall 58 years earlier, it is fitting that on 11^th April her funeral was conducted by Edwin Cook of Hope Hall.[14]  She was buried with her husband Samuel.