1834 –16/03/1909
Daughter of a Dorset printer, married in Berkhamsted.
Relatives
Research:
In Loving Memory of Robert John Golding who died May 23rd 1905, aged 73 years
Also Martha Louisa, wife of the above, who died at Camberley, March 16th 1909, aged 75 years.
They rest from their labours.
Martha Louisa Golding was not a local girl. She was baptised on the 3rd May 1834 at the Church of St Mary of the Annunciation in Beaminster, Dorset, the daughter of William and Rebecca Sherring. Martha’s father, William Sherring, was a printer and book seller, from Sherbourne in Dorset, who appears to have set up his printshop in the town of Beaminster as early as 1823.
The establishment of the printshop is documented as follows:
” I, Thomas Fox, Deputy Clerk of the Peace for the County of Dorset, Do hereby Certify That William Sherring the Younger of Beaminster in the County of Dorset hath delivered to me a Notice in Writing appearing to be Signed by him and attested by Wm. Sherring the elder as a Witness to his Signing the Same, that he the Said William Sherring the Younger hath a Printing Press and Types for Printing within the Town of Beaminster and which he has required to be entered pursuant to an Act passed in the Thirty-ninth Year of the Reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, intituled ‘ An Act for the more Effectual Suppression of Societies established for Seditious and Treasonable purposes and for better preventing Treasonable and Seditious Practices.’
Witness my Hand the Tenth day of November One thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-three.
Thomas Fox.”
Six years after establishing his business in Beaminster, William Sherring married Rebecca Meech at St Mary’s, Beaminster on 11th March 1829. However, it’s seems that William and Rebecca were already in a relationship at least two years before they were married, as the registers record the following:
17th September 1827 baptised Rebecca Meech, base daughter of Rebecca Meech
In the 1841 census Rebecca Meech. Junior, was enumerated as Rebecca Sherring, as listed as William’s daughter. It is likely that the elder Rebecca was expecting their second child at the time of her marriage, as the baby was baptised just six months later. William and Rebecca’s post-marriage children, all baptised at Church of St Mary of the Annunciation in Beaminster were:
Ann Sheering baptised on 11th August 1829
William Meech Sherring, baptised on 8th November 1830
Henry James Sherring, baptised on 29 Mar 1832
Martha Louisa Sherring baptised on the 3rd May 1834
Frederick Sherring baptised on the 23rd September 1836
Alfred Sherring baptised on the 21st February 1838
Harriet Sherring, baptised on the 4th March 1840 and buried on 12th July 1842, aged 2 years.
Pigot’s 1830 Directory of Beaminster lists William Sherring as being a Bookseller and Printer of East Street, by 1841 William and his family were living in Church Street. William Sherring, printed at that site from 1823 until his death in 1876. His printing office was in Church Street, afterwards the residence of his son, and Martha Louisa’s brother, Henry James Sherring.
By 1851 William had added “auctioneer” to his list of skills, when he entered his family on the census.
Prior to the 1851 census Martha Louisa had left home and was living at 1 South Street, Yeovil, as the housekeeper in the home of Edward Raymond, a glove manufacturer. Mr Raymond’s business enabled him to employ “5 leather dressers, 1 dyer, 7 leather parers, 14 glove cutters, 4 apprentices, 6 boys, 200 women as makers and finishes of gloves.” Glove-making was for hundreds of years the biggest trade in Yeovil, and gave the football team its famous nickname, “The Glovers”. Thousands of people were employed in the countless factories that were scattered across the town in the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s, and a large portion of the leather gloves produced in the UK were made in Yeovil.
Locally Martha Louisa’s employer was a man of influence. Mr Edward Raymond was a member of the Yeovil Vestry during the 1830s, and was later one of the twelve people elected to the new Yeovil Borough Council when it was first formed in 1854. Edward Raymond was elected to the office of mayor and served two terms, the first being from 1864 to 1867 and the second being 1879 to 1880. In 1879 he was appointed as a Borough Magistrate.
Sometime between 1851 and 1856 Martha Louisa travelled from Yeovil to Berkhamsted, as she married Robert John Golding there, at the end of that year. The journey might not have been as difficult as it might appear. The mid 19th century saw a boom in rail travel, engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel were constructing railways across the country. The Yeovil branch line gained Royal Assent in Parliament in July 1845 and was opened on the 1st October 1853. The opening of the branch line was welcomed by the local community and was marked by a visit of the Chairman and Directors of the Bristol and Exeter Railway in an occasion that was attended by thousands.
Martha’s husband, Robert John Golding, was a glazier and plumber from Boxmoor, who settled in Berkhamsted High Street. Within a year of their marriage Martha Louisa and Robert John started their family, having in total 8 children, of whom 6 survived beyond infancy as follows:
1) Martha Louisa born 1857 and died 1858
2) William Robert born on 6th March 1860
3) Annie Mary born 3rd April 1862
4) Sherring born 1864
5) Kate Louisa born 1867
6) Harry Charles born 1869
7) Alice Martha born 1872
8) Frederick John born in 1872 and died the same year
Robert John and Martha Louisa lived in Berkhamsted High Street, amongst Berkhamsted’s tradespeople, not far from Highfield Road. In 1861 their neighbours were Elizabeth Lines, grocer; Walter Grieve, Tea Dealer and William Wilson, a veterinary surgeon. Throughout the years the family remained in the same house in Berkhamsted High Street and the trades around them changed to include drapers, confectioners, dressmakers and a solicitor.
By 1871 Robert John had changed trades, listing himself in the census as a painter. By 1881 his occupation had expanded into being a “House Decorator Master”. Martha was never listed with an occupation once she was married. Her role would have been wife and mother, supporting Robert John in his business and raising their children.
Martha’s mother Rebecca Sherring died in January 1866 and was buried on 29th January 1866 at St Mary’s Beaminster. Her father, William Sherring, died on 20th April 1878 and was buried along with Martha’s mother, Rebecca, and sister Harriet, who had died in infancy. It is impossible to know whether Martha made the journey back to Beaminster to see her family, all we do know is that her brother took over their father’s business in Beaminster.
1889 and 1890 was a busy time for Martha as her adult children left home and established their own families.
The first of Martha’s children to get married was her daughter Kate Louisa. She married Thomas Plater, a coachbuilder from Haddenham, in the spring of 1889. Within a year Martha Louise’s first grandchild, Arthur Thomas Plater was born in Berkhamsted. However, if Martha dreamt of growing old surrounded by grandchildren, growing up in Berkhamsted, it was not to be. Kate and Thomas Plater moved to Camberley, Surrey, where Kate died aged just 28. She was buried in the graveyard of St Michael’s church, Yorktown, a district of Camberley on 29th November 1895.
Martha’s eldest daughter Annie Mary married a schoolmaster from Portsmouth, Thomas Lacey Shepard, a few months after her sister in the autumn of 1889. Annie Mary and her husband settled in Margate, where they raised a son and a daughter.
The following year saw the marriage of Henry Charles in Berkhamsted to Louisa Hurst, a local girl. Martha’s first granddaughter, and Henry Charles’ first child, Ethel Dorothy, was born in March 1891 in Kitsbury Road. Henry Charles followed his father’s trade, probably working with him and his brother, Sherring, as house decorators. Ethel Dorothy was followed in 1894 by Charles Stanley Golding, completing the family of Henry Charles and Louisa.
Martha’s eldest son, William Robert became an Outdoor Officer for HM Customs. Based at Rotherhithe Docks in London, he would have engaged in practical work, visited bonded warehouse etc and supervising cargo. He married Ellen Chapman on 22nd April 1891 at St Stephen’s Church, Upton Park
In October 1893 Martha’s son Sherring, the last child to be living at home, married Sarah Ann Dickins of Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, by banns that were read at both Berkhamsted and Market Deeping. Sherring was the only member of the family who remained living in Berkhamsted. He and his wife Sarah Ann, had six children, Ellen, Frederick Sherring, Margaret Alice, Muriel Martha, Reginald George and Edna.
The last of Martha’s children to get married was her youngest daughter Alice Martha, who married William Joseph Griffin in 1900 in Berkhamsted.
This meant that in 1901 Robert John and Martha Louisa were living alone in their High Street home, which was now recorded on the census as being number 53.
Robert John died in Berkhamsted High Street on 23rd May 1905. His effects were valued at £291 15s 6d and probate was granted to his son Henry Charles, and Ezra Collings, managing clerk. Ezra Collings, lived at Voelas, Doctors Commons Road and was a managing clerk at the Coopers Factory.
Martha Louise Golding of Willington, The Avenue, Camberley, widow, died on 16th March 1909. It is possible that Martha Louise moved to Camberley to be near her grandson, Arthur Thomas Plater.
Probate was granted on 5th May 1909, with her executors being her son Sherring, painter and decorator of Berkhamsted High Street, and Robert King, assistant overseer.
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