Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Amy Meager

Dressmaker, launderess and unmarried mother

Relatives

George Meager — brother

• Karen Evans

Amy Meager (1824-1899)

The earliest record of Amy Meager’s family in the area was when her Great Grandparents John Meager and Sarah Harvey were married at St Albans Abbey on 18^th October 1759. The couple appear to have immediately settled in Little Gaddesden, which is where Amy Meager was born and baptized.

Amy’s father, James Meager was also baptised at the church of St Peter and St Paul, Little Gaddesden on 28^th February 1790 and married Amy’s mother, Elizabeth Scrivener, by banns, on 5^th April 1812 at the same church. James and Elizabeth then had seven children, including Amy, all baptized at Little Gaddesden:

1)      Thomas baptised on 23^rd March 1813

2)      Eleanor (Ellen) baptised on 10^th October 1815

3)      Barbara baptised on 26^th February 1819

4)      Sarah baptised on 27^th January 1822

5)      Amy baptised on 17^th October 1824

6)      George baptised on 4^th November 1827

7)      Ann baptised on 2^nd May 1830

At the start of his married life James Meager was a cordwainer, but by 1819 he was described as a labourer, an occupation that stayed with him for the rest of his life. By 1841 the children had started to leave home and supplement the family’s income. Amy’s eldest brother Thomas was a servant living in at Ashridge House, whilst her sister Sarah was working as a live-in farm servant in Dunstable High Street.

Amy’s parents were living in Little Gaddesden with Amy’s brother George and sisters, Ellen, Barbara and Ann. The affairs of the owners of Ashridge House would have dominated the lives of Little Gaddesden’s villagers. In the 1840’s the estate was owned by Charlotte Catherine Anne, Countess of Bridgewater. After the death of the Earl in 1823, Lady Bridgewater began to take a great interest in the welfare of local people. She established several benevolent initiatives in neighbouring towns and villages, including the Educational Trust in Ivinghoe, a Junior school at Gossoms End, and in 1842 a donation of land to the Parish of Great Berkhamsted to open a new cemetery on Rectory Lane, where Amy, her father James and brother George were buried.

The area around Berkhamsted and Little Gaddesden was still largely rural; farm work was seasonal and at the mercy of the weather, and casual farm labourers often found themselves destitute in winter. When the canal froze during harsh winters, boat-building work ceased for months, and poorly paid cottage industries such as straw-plaiting and lace-making also suffered in the winter months. As a result, many local people fell on hard times with the changing seasons. The Berkhamsted Union workhouse opened in 1835 to provide work and shelter to many, but conditions were harsh. Lady Bridgewater led the establishment of a soup kitchen at Berkhamsted Castle to feed the town’s poor. It is not clear exactly when the soup kitchen was established, but we do know that in 1841 the countess ordered the Soup House to ’be built and fitted up for the use of the charity at the building in the Old Castle.’ Each year, between January and March, hundreds of poor people, including families with children, lined up along the road next to the railway embankment, waiting to be fed. The queue entered through one door, where soup tickets were collected, passing through the kitchen where pints of soup and bread were distributed, before it exited by a second door.

The first of Amy’s siblings to get married was Barbara, who married William Purton on 2nd June 1845 at Watford and then made her home in Castle Street, Berkhamsted. Three months later, on 7^th September 1845 Amy’s eldest brother, Thomas, married Eliza Kirby at Little Gaddesden. Thomas was the only member of the family still living in Little Gaddesden by the time of the 1851 census. James & Elizabeth Meager had moved to Berkhamsted with their unmarried children, including Amy at some time between 1841 and Elizabeth’s death in June 1850. Elizabeth Meager was buried at St Peter’s Berkhamsted on 24^th June 1850.

In 1851 the widowed James Meager was living at Waterside in Berkhamsted with his three daughters Ellen, Amy and Ann. Also living with the family were two young boys, Edwin and Montague Meager, whose relationship to the family was not listed. Nearby in Castle Street Amy’s sister, Sarah was lodging with an infant daughter, Elizabeth, in the home of a widower, Charles Potter. Evidence from the parish registers and census shows that the sisters, Sarah and Amy Meager, were both unmarried mothers.

There are also many instances that show that the Meager sisters were a close family and very supportive of each other. Sarah’s daughter Emily Elizabeth (later called Elizabeth Meager Potter) was born on 10^th October 1849 and baptised at St Peter’s Church on 11^th August 1858 with Barbara’s eldest two children, Walter William Purton, who had been born on 5^th November 1850 and Frances Purton, who had been born on 10^th November 1852. Amy had three sons; Montague Thomas born on 19^th September 1847, Thomas baptised at St Peter’s on 11^th July 1854 and Walter Harry born in 1857.

In 1861 Amy was a dressmaker living in Ellesmere Road with her three sons, Montague, Thomas and Walter. Also with her was her unmarried sister Ellen and her nephew Edwin, the same Edwin who had been living with his grandfather and aunts in 1851. Edwin was actually the son of Amy’s sister Sarah, but he appears to have never lived with his mother. It was his aunts, Amy and Ellen, who seem to have raised him.

Both Amy’s brother George and his family, and her newly married sister Ann, wife of James Holliman were both in Cox Lane/Kings Road, raising their families. The next few years proved to be a very difficult time for Amy and her family. Firstly, her middle son, Thomas, was buried at St Peter’s on 14^th December 1863 aged just 10 years old. Within a month her father, James Meager, died and was buried at St Peter’s on 16^th January 1864. Then four years later Amy’s eldest son Montague died on 13^th June 1868. The decade ended with Amy’s brother-in-law, James Holliman dying in the winter of 1869. James Holliman was buried on 26^th January 1869 at Rectory Lane Cemetery, and he left behind a pregnant widow with three small children, Thomas (born 1861), Caroline (born 1864) and Elizabeth (born 1866). A son, Felix Henry, was born after his father’s death in July 1869, but he lived for only one month and was buried at Rectory Lane on 2^nd August. Amy would have known the grief resulting from the loss of a child and was probably there to support her sister, Ann. But the situation became worse when Ann Holliman died just two months later and was buried on 18^th October 1869 with her husband. Thomas, Caroline and Elizabeth Holliman were now completely orphaned.

In 1871 Amy was living in Manor Street, where she remained for the rest of her life. In the same house was her son remaining son, Walter Harry, her sister, Ellen, and two of the Holliman orphans, Thomas and Caroline. Also living with Amy was Emily Holliman, the daughter of James Holliman from his first wife, Elizabeth. Amy was a laundress, Emily was a dressmaker and Ellen was a straw-plaiter. Emily must have been a great help, not only with another income to supplement the family, but also to help with looking after the children. There was one more resident, a lodger called Tom Clarke. Tom had spent all his life in nearby Castle Street, before moving in, to lodge with Amy. Tom was not a labouring man lodging in cheap accommodation, he was a land surveyor. During the 19th century, land surveying jobs became prominent. The industrial revolution caused an increase in the demand of surveyors because of the rapid expansion in developments. There is speculation that Tom Clarke was the father of at least two of Amy’s sons, Thomas and Walter Harry known as Harry. On 31^st July 1878 21-year-old Harry Meager was baptised at St John’s Church Market Street or Markyate, as it is called today. The baptism states that his parents were “Thomas and Amy Meagher”.

One can only speculate that Tom would not have been allowed to marry a laundress who was the recipient of parish relief. The Watford Observer of 5^th November 1904 sheds some light on Tom Clarke’s standing in the community. “One of the most indefatigable promoters of the Mechanics’ Institute in Berkhamsted was Mr George Clarke, the father of Mr Tom Clarke. He lived in Castle Street, and it was in Mr Clarke’s House that the first meeting was held, which resulted in the formation of the Institute in 1846”.

There is evidence that times were hard for Amy and money was tight. In April 1877 Amy was one of four recipients of the Easter gift which were given from the Clerk’s Charity, by the Vestry of St Peter’s. The Easter Vestry, which was chaired by the Rector, voted for four individuals, each of whom received £1 11s 6d. In December of that same year Amy was also given 4s 11d. relief under the order of the Board of Guardians. On 31^st March 1894 the Bucks Herald reported on yet another of St Peter’s Easter Vestry meetings. The Easter gift from the Clerk’s charity had now increased to £10 2s 6d. The paper reports that one recipient of the gift was “also Amy Meagher, to whom the Rector gave the gift in his award”.

 In 1881 the only residents of 3 Manor Street were Amy, her niece Caroline Holliman and Tom Clarke, her lodger. Amy’s sister, Ellen and nephew, Edwin Meager had emigrated and can be found in the 1881 Census in West Toronto in the Province of Ontario. What an adventure that must have been for a 60 year old spinster such as Ellen.

Amy’s only surviving son, Harry, had married Sarah Jane Brinkler, a girl from Dunstable, in the winter of 1880. Being raised in a family where the women were dressmakers, bonnet-sewers and laundresses may have impacted Harry’s choice of occupation as he became a tailor, living firstly in Market Street (Markyate), before finally settling down on the London Road in St Albans. Amy’s first grand-daughter, Mabel, was born on 4^th June 1881 and baptised at St John’s, Market Street on 21^st August 1881.

Amy’s domestic arrangement at Manor Street seems to have stayed in place for the rest of Amy’s life and beyond, with her spinster niece, Caroline Holliman, and Tom Clarke still living at 3 Manor Street in 1901.

Amy Meager passed away on 7^th December 1899 and was buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery on 16^th December. Despite being the mother of three illegitimate sons and working all her life as a laundress, her death was significant enough to be reported upon in the Bucks Herald (dated 16^th December 1899).