Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Sarah Lane

1813 –22/11/1848

Member of the Foster brewing family, first wife of John Edward Lane (senior), nurseryman

Relatives

John Edward Lane (senior) — husband

Rosa Foster — daughter

• Christopher Dolton

Sarah Foster was a  member of the prominent Berkhamsted brewing family. She became widowed with two sons, and later married John Edward Lane (senior), of John Lane Nurseries. He took on the Foster family business as well, and acquired several pubs in Berkhamsted.

Sarah died in 1848 and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery.

SARAH LANE ; 1813 – 1848

Sarah was the third of three children born to James and Mary Foster. Their oldest child, a son, James Charles Foster was born in in 1811 and there was also a daughter Elizabeth. Sarah was born in 1813. The Foster family were not inhabitants of Berkhamsted, but lived in Redbourn. We know from baptismal records that Sarah was baptised in Redbourn on 27^th June 1813. Her father’s occupation is noted in the baptismal record as “victualler.”

Sarah married in Berkhamsted on 1^st January 1833 at the age of 19. Her husband was 25 year old John Edward Lane. The Lane family had been established in Berkhamsted for at least two generations. John’s grandfather had started a nursery business in the town which John’s father, Henry Lane had continued. On Henry’s retirement John was himself to take over the family business and under his stewardship the business grew further and earned a world-wide reputation.

How did Sarah, born in Redbourn and John Lane, in Berkhamsted, meet and marry? The answer may lie with Sarah’s brother James. At some point he moved from Redbourn to Berkhamsted and it may be Sarah came with him. The earliest we can place James in the town in December 1836 when he married Hannah Chilton. He features in the 1839 Tithe records as the owner and occupier of the Swan Inn in Berkhamsted’s High Street and of a meadow to the rear of the inn and in the 1841 census he is to be found at the Swan Inn described, like his father before him, as a victualler. James wasn’t however simply an innkeeper; as well as running the Swan he also ran a brewery to the rear of the premises.

We find Sarah and John in the 1841 census living on the High Street. John is noted as being a gardener, working in the family business. The 1841 census does identify where on the High Street the couple lived, but the 1839 tithe records does identify John Lane as the owner and occupier of two cottages and gardens on the High Street which were opposite John’s Well Lane and the family nursery.

We also learn from the 1841 census that Sarah had given birth to a number of children by that date. Her first child, Henry George had been born in 1834, followed by Mary Ann in 1835; John Edward in 1837; and Sarah Susannah in 1839. Sarah was to give birth to three more children after the date of the census, Frederick Quincey later in 1841 Rosa in 1843 and George Septimus in 1847. Sadly, George died shortly after birth. 

Sarah herself died on 22^nd November 1848 at the age of 36. The cause of death recorded on her death certificate was “diseased lungs.” She was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Burial Records reveal that she was buried on 28^th November 1848.

Sarah’s brother James died the year after Sarah, leaving his wife Hannah widowed with seven children and John Edward Lane married Hannah (his sister in law by marriage) in 1852. He  was to go on to develop a brewery business including the Swan Brewery and a number of other pubs in addition to running the nursery.

When Hannah died in September 1861 she was buried in the same grave as Sarah and John Edward Lane joined both of his wives in that grave when he died in 1868. 

John Edward Lane (senior)

1808 –1889

Horticulturalist and brewer, built up Lane's Nurseries and owned several pubs in Berkhamsted

Relatives

Henry Lane — father

Hannah Lane — wife

Sarah Lane — wife

Edward Foster — other

Rosa Foster — daughter

Frederick Quincy Lane — son

Arthur Lane — son

Mary Ann Lane — daughter

John Edward Lane junior (241) — son

Hervey Lane — brother

George Frederick Foster — other

John Edward Lane is best known for his involvement in the family business, Lane’s Nurseries, a highly successful plant nursery, which at its height was of national and even international repute.

Lane’s Nurseries were originally established by John’s grandfather, Henry Lane, in about 1777 and, taken over on his death by his son and father of John, also called Henry Lane. It was really John Edward Lane Sr who developed the business. He leased land close to St John’s Well Lane (by the present Canal Fields) and also land stretching up to Greenway Common on the south side of the High Street. There were also orchards at Broadway (Bourne End) and the Balshaw Nurseries at Potten End.

Cambridge Independent Press of 1841-2 records:

In the course of the last summer, we had the pleasure to visit Messrs Lane’s nursery, and were highly gratified with the perfection to which they had brought that beautiful flower, the ROSE, of which they have an immense stock and an almost endless variety. In pots alone, Mesrss Lane have nearly 30,000 plants, and the skill and management required for the gathering in of this their harvest, and the continued outlay are so great that nothing but a very extensive sale can compensate.

Special railways were put on:

The great attraction of the bloom of roses this season in the south is beyond all experience, and thousand of persons leave London and its vicinity daily to witness the magnificent collections of Mr Rivers at Sawbridgeworth; Messrs Lane and Son. The influx of the visitor to the nurseries in Hertfordshire is so great, as to have induced the London and Birmingham Railway Company to fix an extra train for the season, which leaves the Euston Square station every morning, for which, as well as for other trains, day tickets are issued at one third the ordinary fares.

Lane’s nurseries exhibited frequently at flower shows and horticultural exhibitions, and won many medals for garden plants, including roses, apples, and grapes – extraordinarily they were even exporting grape vines to Europe!

On the 31st May 1856, at the Grand Horticultural Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, Messrs Lane and son, Nurserymen, Great Berkhampstead won a prize of £10 for their 12 roses in pots, won £4 for 6 distinct kinds of rhododendrons, and £2 for 12 azaleas.

The Garden Index of 1885 writes:

‘For upwards of half a century the name of John Lane of Berkhamsted, the present head of one of the oldest and best-known nursery firms in this country, has been familiar to horticulturists.’

Through his nursery interest, John Lane knew both Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall, and his nephew William, who was agent at the nearby Ashridge Estate.

It was not until the 1960s that the firm finally folded.

Lane’s Prince Albert Apples

Lane’s Nurseries were perhaps best known for introducing a new variety of apple: the Lane’s Prince Albert. This was cultivated by Thomas Squire, a Berkhamsted Quaker of the Homestead. On 26 July 1841, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Berkhamsted en route to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, where they were to visit to the Duke of Bedford. Lane’s marketed this new apple variety as “Lane’s Prince Albert” in honour of the royal visit.

Brewery business

John Edward also impressively developed a secondary business interest. Through marriage into Berkhamsted’s foremost brewing family, the Fosters, he also became the town’s prominent brewer at the Swan (now home to the Swan Youth Project). Here, he brewed his ‘celebrated Berkhampstead India Pale Ale….which as a pure and wholesome family beverage is not to be surpassed.’

He acquired a collection of pubs in and around Berkhamsted, including the Brownlow Arms, the George, The Greyhound and the Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace is of particular historical interest. When Lane acquired it in the early C19th, this was an unassuming beerhouse. In the 1850s Lane rebuilt the pub, adding a new front range, inspired by his acquaintance with Paxton and Paxton’s most magnificent creation, the Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall. The impressive façade of the Crystal Palace Pub was a triumphant expression of all of John’s main interests and an advert for his business successes as both horticulturalist and brewer.

John Lane embraced industrialisation – he was a shareholder in the railways, a promoter of the Great Berkhampstead Gas Light and Coke Company, and also an inventor, taking out Patent 936 in 1868 for an improved heating system.

He was also a significant property developer, owning many buildings in Berkhamsted, and a leading philanthropist and promoter of the town.

‘I am conscious of having always exerted myself for the general good of the town, and endeavoured to do the best I could for my fellow townsmen’

Family

John married Sarah Foster. She died in 1848 and is also buried here.

John’s father, Henry Lane and his wife are to be found in Grave number 247. His sons John Edward Lane junior and Frederick Quincey Lane are to be found in Grave numbers 241 and 245. It is notable that graves of some of the Foster family are nearby, as are also those of the Meeks since Sarah Susannah Lane, daughter of Henry Lane married Richard Meek.

John Edward Lane’s second wife was Hannah, who was born in Chesham, the daughter of William Chilton. They married in Westminster on 12 June 1852. She was a widow also.

Hannah Lane

22/09/1811 –09-1861

Widow of James Foster and second wife of John Edward Lane

Relatives

John Edward Lane (senior) — husband

Daniel Charles Foster — son

Edward Foster — son

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry James Foster — son

Mary Ann Lane — daughter

George Frederick Foster — son

• Christopher Dolton

HANNAH LANE; 1811 – 1861

Hannah was born on 22^nd September 1811 in Chesham Bois and was baptised on 27^th October that year. Her parents were William and Elizabeth Chilton. Hannah was the oldest of six children born to William and Elizabeth. Her siblings were William, born in 1813; Maria 1815; Mary 1817; Carolina 1819 and Eliza 1821.

Hannah was 25 years of age when she married James Foster on 20^th December 1836. The marriage was celebrated in Berkhamsted. James Foster had been born in Redbourn in 1809 and had moved to Berkhamsted where he became the innkeeper of the Swan Inn and he also ran a brewery at the rear of the inn. Malting barley for ale and beer was a major occupation of the town and it is likely that most inns and beer houses brewed their own stock of beer, each having their own small brewhouse; the Swan’s was at the rear located on the Chesham Road side which was known as Grubbs Lane in those days.

Although today the Swan is a youth centre and no longer licensed to sell alcohol, the blue plaque displayed on the building states that it is a sixteenth century coaching inn, but parts of the building are older. The building is timber framed with some of the roof timbers dating back to the fourteenth century.

The Tithe Map of 1839 lists James as the occupier of the Swan and of meadow land to the rear of the inn and three years later the census of 1841 confirms that James, Hannah and two children, George who had been born in 1838 and Charles born 1839 were living there. Hannah and James were to have another five children. Also living at the Swan in 1841was 20 year old Harriet Foster and Hannah’s younger sister, Carolina, also 20 years old, a servant and her daughter and an ostler who looked after the stabling of horses.

James Foster died on 23^rd September 1849 and following his death Hannah continued to run the Swan and its brewery.

It seems that Hannah was successful in continuing the business. We learn from a newspaper article from January 1850 that the Swan was well patronised which it was said Hannah well deserved.

‘the annual free dinner, at the Swan inn, was given by Mrs Foster. The attendance was more numerous than usual. W. Claridge Esq, occupied the chair, and  J.E. Lane, the vice-chair, supported by a host of tradesmen and farmers of the neighbourhood; which seemed to be an earnest that the patronage hitherto bestowed on the house will be continued to the widow and her family, and this, by her uniform kind conduct, she deservedly merits;’

Bucks Chronicle and Bucks gazette 12^th January 1850.

Whilst Hannah is noted in the 1851 census as being a widow, she is also described as “Innkeeper & brewer.”

The widowed Hannah, however, married again in 1852. Her new husband was local nurseryman John Edward Lane (and as noted in the newspaper article referred to above J E Lane was the vice chair at the annual free dinner held at the Swan in 1850). The marriage was celebrated at St Martins in The Fields Church in London.

John, a member of the Lane family and whose father had established nurseries in the town in 1777, had been married to James Foster’s sister, Sarah. He and Sarah had six surviving children and Sarah had died in 1848. John no doubt knew Hannah through this family connection.

The new family was large with Hannah having seven children and John 6. In addition, Hannah gave birth to two more children following her marriage to John; Arthur Lane was born in 1852 and Mary Anne Lane in 1855.

Although John Edward Lane continued his involvement in the family nurseries he also, following his marriage to Hannah, became actively involved in the brewery business. We find him and Hannah in 1861 living in the Swan with a number of their various children. Whereas Hannah in 1851 was noted as an “Innkeeper & brewer”, by 1861, no doubt in keeping with social attitudes prevalent at the time, she was playing second fiddle to John. No occupation is noted against her name – she is now simply “wife” whilst John is the “head” and a “Brewer & Malster (employing 9 men).” One might wonder what Hannah thought about that.

John seems to have been an energetic and successful business man. Not only did the nursery expand and grow under his stewardship, but so too did the brewery business. In addition to the Swan, John acquired the George in the High Street, The Brownlow Arms and was responsible for the construction of the Crystal Palace. John’s Berkhampstead India Pale Ale was a “justly celebrated Ale, which as a pure and wholesome family beverage is not to be surpassed, being brewed from the very best samples of Malt and Hops”

The Burial Records for Rectory Lane Cemetery confirm that Hannah was buried in the cemetery on 9^th September 1861. Hannah was buried in the same grave in which John Edward’s first wife Sarah had been buried and John Edward joined both of his wives in the that grave when he himself died in 1868.