Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Juliana Priscilla Stock (666)

17/01/1825 –16/11/1900

Wife of MP, shipowner and merchant; slipped into genteel poverty from a life of affluence

• Christopher Dolton

JULIANA PRISCILLA STOCK; 1825 – 1900.

Juliana was born in Barnstaple, Devon, on 17^th January 1825. Her father Richard Herring Farmer had been an officer in the 77^th Regiment by 1841 he had retired from the army to take up life farming in Devon. We know little more about Juliana’s early life, but we do know that in 1849 Thomas Osborne Stock, junior, at the Church of Holy Trinity, Brompton, London.

Her husband, Thomas, was born in 1822 and we discover from the 1841 census that Thomas, at that date and 18 years of age was living with his widowed mother and three siblings in Islington. The family must have been reasonably affluent as Thomas’s mother is described as living on her own means and the family were able to employ a live in domestic servant. Also living with the family was 15 year old Peter Rolfe, whose occupation was noted as “clerk.”

Thomas too started out life as clerk, but he did not remain in that humble position for long and seems to have done well for himself.  In 1851, shortly after his marriage to Juliana, his occupation was given as “general merchant.” By 1861 he had become an “underwriter and ship owner” and in 1871, the last census before his death, he is again described as “merchant.”

Although living in London, his business interests lay in Ireland. For many years he was a director of the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company Limited – known as the Galway Line. He was also a director of the London and West of Ireland Fishing and Fish Manure Company Limited and the Dublin Trunk Railway Company. In 1866 he was elected as MP for the constituency of Carlow in Ireland,

We might conclude from contemporary newspaper reports that Thomas was not averse to engaging in sharp practice. Following his election as MP for Carlow, a petition was presented seeking a declaration that the results of the election were null and void on the ground that Thomas had engaged in “bribery and intimidation”. It was alleged that bribes were made on his behalf and that “…force, violence and restraint were resorted to procure Mr Stock’s return…” The petition, however, must ultimately not have been proved as Thomas held the seat until the elections of 1868, when he did not stand for re-election. 

Thomas was also involved in dubious share dealing which became the subject of proceedings before the Court of Appeal in 1874. When the directors of National Bank issued new shares to existing shareholders, a number of the director entered into an agreement with Thomas that any shares not taken up by existing shareholders would be bought by Thomas at £30 per share and that he would in turn sell the shares to the director at £35. The shareholders were not told of the agreement. Thomas acquired 9,778 shares, which he sold to the directors (making him a profit of nearly £50,000) and the directors then sold them on again at an even larger profit. The court dismissed charges of fraud, but ordered the directors to pay to the bank the profits they had made.

In 1851 Thomas and Juliana were living at 10 Chadwell Street in London. The census of that year reveals they employed a domestic servant and a cook and were being visited by 19 year Minnie Knowles. None of four children Juliana was to give birth to had been born by then. Her first child, Thomas was born in 1852, followed by Julia in 1854, Charles in 1856 and Beatrice, 1858.

Ten years later in 1861 Juliana and her three youngest children (Thomas was perhaps at school) were staying at a lodging house in Brighton, presumably on holiday. Thomas had remained in London.

By 1871 the family had moved to Torrington Square in London, its growing affluence demonstrated by the fact that no less than four domestic servants were then employed.

Thomas died in 1875, followed two years later with the death of Juliana’s son Charles in tragic circumstances. On 10^th September 1877 the clipper ship Avalanche left London carrying 63 passengers, of whom Charles was one, and 34 crew. As the ship made its way down the Channel in high seas, drizzling rain and high winds, an American ship, the Forest Queen, struck Avalanche amidships. According to the Law of the Sea, Avalanche ought to have given way to Forest Queen, but it is assumed that because of the darkness and poor visibility, or the neglect of the officer on watch, the approaching ship was not seen. Within five minutes the Avalanche sank.

Forest Queen fared little better. Taking on water, the ship was abandoned, but in heavy seas only one lifeboat made it safely ashore and an hour after the collision, Forest Queen capsized. There were only 12 survivors from the two ships,of which 3 were from Avalanche. Charles was not one of them.

To add to Juliana’s misfortune, Thomas may have suffered a reversal in his fortunes before he died. Following his death his estate was valued at under £500, which seems a remarkably modest sum for a man who four years earlier had employed four servants and following his death Juliana seems to have taken up a peripatetic life moving from large house to house.

In 1881 she was at 103 Eaton Square, the home of two sisters, Ethel and Hilda Moffat, both noted on the 1881 census as “wards in chancery.” It was evidently a well to do household employing two housemaid, a kitchen maid and a lady’s maid. Juliana is noted as being a “companion.” A lady’s companion was a woman of genteel birth who lived with a woman of rank or wealth as retainer. A companion was not regarded as a servant, but neither was she treated as an equal. There were very few other ways in which an upper- or upper-middle-class woman could earn a living which did not result in a complete loss of her class status.

The companion spent her time with her employer, providing company and conversation, helped entertain guests and often to accompany her to social events. In return she would be given a room in the family’s part of the house, rather than the servants’ quarters; all of her meals would be provided, and she would eat with her employer. She would be paid a small salary, which would be called an “allowance” – never “wages”. She would not be expected to perform any domestic duties which her employer might not carry out herself. A companion would also act as a chaperone for a young ladies, such as the Moffat sisters.

In 1891 Juliana and her daughter Julia were visiting the home of 71year old widow Rebecca Cowie in Staffordshire. 

Juliana died on the 16^th November 1900. The notice of her death gives the place at which she died as “Pilkington House, Berkhamsted”. It is not clear whether she was then living at the House or visiting. Pilkington Manor House was then a somewhat unattractive 18^th century building which stood on the High Street close to St Peter’s Church and the corner of Castle Street. It was demolished in the 1950s. Henry Nash noted when writing in 1890 that the house “…now consists of several dwellings, but originally was only one, and was enclosed within high walls, and entered through massive gates, giving it the appearance of a nunnery or some such secluded institution. Chapel Street and the several streets leading therefrom formed part of the estate, a large portion of which was enclosed with high walls effectually securing privacy, and excluding the vulgar gaze of the public. The estate was purchased by the late Mr. Frederick Miller, to whom the town is indebted for many of the improvements and conveniences which the opening up of this estate now affords.” (Nash Reminiscences, 1890).

Following her death in Berkhamsted, Juliana was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery.