Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Stephen (1788-1866) was Berkhamsted born and bred, but probably trained as a plasterer and paperhanger in London. It was here that he married his first wife, Mary Bates (from Berkhamsted) in 1814, and they had, it seems, 5 children. Thomas was the eldest and would succeed his father in the house decorating business. Sadly, Mary died young in 1821 and was buried in the churchyard. Lucy Holloway was from Yorkshire. In 1821 she married Stephen, a plasterer and paperhanger from Berkhamsted, Stephen Holloway. This was Stephen's second marriage, his first wife Mary having died earlier that year. Together, Lucy and Stephen had nine children. Stephen owned two houses in the High Street and also for a time ran the Five Bells in Berkhamsted in 1839.  At some point, probably in the 1850’s, Stephen and the family moved into Incent’s House in the High Street– it may have been Stephen who divided the property into two occupations. When Stephen died in 1866 (‘deeply regretted’), Thomas Holloway, Stephen's son from his first marriage, took over the property and lived here until the opening years of the twentieth century.