Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Henry Lane

d.15/07/1865

Son of Henry Lane the elder, who founded Lane’s Nurseries in Berkhamsted

Relatives

John Edward Lane (senior) — son

Ann Lane (247) — wife

Hervey Lane — son

Lane’s Nurseries was a highly successful plant nursery in Berkhamsted. It was originally established in by Henry Lane’s father, also called Henry Lane, in about 1777. On his death, Henry the younger took over the family business.

After the younger Henry’s death in 1865, his own son,  John Edward Lane Sr took over the nurseries and developed the business greatly.

Henry was clearly a man of good standing in the Parish of Great Berkhamsted. Between 1834 and 1840 he served as a churchwarden of St Peter’s Church, during the incumbency of Rector John Crofts. Lane’s name, along with that of fellow churchwarden Augustus Smith, is inscribed at the base of the cemetery foundation stone in the centre of the cemetery.

Ann Lane (247)

1769 –13/03/1856

Wife of nursery man Henry Lane.

Relatives

Henry Lane — husband

Hervey Lane — son

• Christopher Dolton

ANN LANE; 1769 – 1856

We know from Ann’s memorial that she was 87 years of age when she died in 1856 and that therefore she was born in 1769, but the baptismal records for All Hallows Church in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, tell us she was not christened until about 3 years later on 14^th May 1772. She was the daughter of John and Sarah Vials.

Ann married on 16^th July 1807. The marriage was celebrated in Marylebone in London and her husband was Henry Lane of Berkhamsted. Henry, ten years younger than Ann, had been born in 1779 and his father, also Henry, had established a nursery business in Berkhamsted in 1777, originally specialising in hedging plants which by then had become very fashionable. Henry junior went on to expand the business, as did his son John Edward Lane and later generations of the Lane family, the business continuing until the 1950’s.

Ann and John had four children, the first, a son, John Edward, born 6^th April 1808. He was followed by Hervey, born on 12^th January 1810 and then two daughters, Ann Susannah, 12 July 1813 and youngest, Emily, born on 1^st May 1816.

Prior to 1832 the right to vote was extremely limited. The Reform Act of 1832 gave the vote in towns only to men who occupied property with an annual value of £10, which excluded 6 out of 7 adult males from the right to vote (and all women). The Poll Book & Electoral Register for 1832 reveals that Henry was one of the one in seven who did qualify; he and his family were living in a freehold house on Berkhamsted’s High Street. The Tithe Map of 1839 provides us with the location of the house and garden owned by Henry (and also the nursery and other property that he owned).

The census returns of both 1841 and 1851 also confirm that Henry and Ann continued to live in the High Street. In 1841 their daughters Ann and Emily were still living at home, but by 1851 they had left and Henry and Ann were living on their own, save for 19 year old Mary Blowfield, a domestic servant.

Ann is noted in the 1851 census as a “Nursery Man’s Wife.”

Ann died on 13^th March 1856. She was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery and joined in the grave by Henry when he died in 1865 and also by her son Hervey on his death in 1879.

Hervey Lane

12/01/1810 –21/02/1879

Son of Henry and Ann Lane, railway carriage builder and hotelier; proprietor of the King's Arms

Relatives

Henry Lane — father

Ann Lane (247) — mother

John Edward Lane (senior) — brother

Eliza Jane Lane — wife

• Christopher Dolton

HERVEY LANE; 1810 – 1879

Hervey was the second of four children born to Henry and Ann Lane. He was born on 12^th January 1810 and was baptised in Marylebone, London on 15^th July that year. His older brother was John Edward Lane, born in 1808, and his two younger sisters, Ann and Emily were born in 1813 and 1816 respectively.

Hervey’s father, Henry, had succeeded to the family nursery business which had been set up in Berkhamsted by his father, also called Henry, in 1777. We know from the Poll Book & Electoral Register for 1832 that the family was living in a freehold property on Berkhamsted’s High Street.

Hervey was to be married three time in all. His first wife was Sarah Cain. She was from Berkhamsted and they married in 1833. Hervey and Sarah had four children. The first child, also named Hervey, was born in 1835 and was baptised in Berkhamsted on 16^th August that year. He doesn’t seem to have survived infancy. He is not named on the census return of 1841 with the rest of the family and the death of a Hervey Lane, age 3 was registered in Kensington in 1837 which may well be him.

The next child was a daughter, Sarah, born in 1837, followed by Ann in 1838 and John Talbot Lane, born in 1844.

Although Hervey’s grandfather and father were nursery men, an occupation which Hervey’s brother John Edward was also to take up, Hervey chose a different trade. The baptismal record from 1835 for Hervey junior reveals that Hervey senior was a coachmaker.

The first major railway line, The Liverpool& Manchester opened in 1830 and in 1838 the line from London to Birmingham was completed, with Berkhamsted a station on the route. It was a time of great expansion in the railways and there would have been great demand for new engines and rolling stock. Hervey must have seen an opportunity to use his coachbuilding skills as we find in 1841 that he, Sarah and the their two daughters had moved to St Werburgh in Derbyshire where Hervey was working as a “Railway Carriage Builder.”

Sarah died on 11^th August 1845 in Norfolk and on 16^th August 1845 the Norfolk Chronicle carried notice of her death. Hervey had moved on from Derbyshire and building railway carriages to become a clerk at Yarmouth railway station.  “Thursday se’night, aged 30, after a long and severe illness, Mrs Lane, late of Pimlico and Berkhampstead, Herts, the wife of Mr. Hervey Lane, principal clerk at the Yarmouth Railway terminus.”

The newly widowed Hervey, with three children to care for, did not remain on his own for long. On 20^th April 1847, having returned to Berkhamsted, he married his second wife, Emma Maria Anderson, who came from Bath. Sadly, his marriage to Emma proved to be even shorter than his first marriage to Sarah. Emma died on 8^th March 1851. She died in Paris. There appears to be no record of Hervey in the census of 1851.  However, the census that year was taken on 30^th March, and assuming Hervey had been with Emma when she died in Paris on 8^th of March, he may well have been out of the country when the census was taken later that month.

Following Emma’s death, Hervey decided to sell up in Berkhamsted and move on. In 1852 The Hertford Mercury & Reformer carried the following advertisement:

“GREAT BERKHAMPSTEAD, HERTS.

MODERN HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, handsome black horse, Dog Cart, Stanhope Gig, Chaise Cart, Harness and other effects of Mr. Hervey Lane who is leaving the neighbourhood.”

Where Hervey went is not known, but he returned to Berkhamsted five years later in 1852 as we discover from a notice published in the Bucks Herald of 28^th November that year that Hervey had become the proprietor of the King’s Arms Hotel in Berkhamsted High Street.

“KING’S ARMS HOTEL

COMMERCIAL INN AND POSTING HOUSE

GREAT BERKHAMPSTEAD, HERTS.

HERVEY LANE

HAVING entered upon this well-known First-class HOTEL begs to state it is his intention to conduct it on the most Economical Principles, with comfort, civility and attention in every department.

The neighbourhood is very delightful and healthy. Thirty Miles from London by the London and North-Western Railway.

His Flys meet all trains – distance a Quarter of a Mile.”

It is intriguing that Hervey acquired the King’s Arms in 1852, as earlier that year his brother, then himself a widower, John Edward Lane had married Hannah Foster, the widow of James Foster, who kept the Swan Inn and ran a brewery at the rear of the Swan. John, in addition to running the nurseries also developed a brewing and innkeeping business and it may be that it was John who persuaded Hervey to take on the King’s Arms.

Hervey is recorded as being at the Kings Arms in the 1861 census and was also there in 1866 when some cutlery and a pair of Hervey’s boots were stolen from the inn. In 1866 Hervey married for third time. His bride was Eliza Banning and the marriage took place in Kensington.

By 1867 Hervey moved on again. An advertisement in the London Evening Standard in 1867 explains that Hervey had taken on the Belle Vue Hotel in Hastings, and that same year Eliza gave birth to a son, also called Hervey.  The family evidently did not stay at the Belle Vue Hotel for long, as by the time of the 1871 census Hervey and Eliza are not to be found at the Belle Vue. In 1871 it was occupied by one Louisa Longhurst, Hotel Keeper. There is no evident trace of either Hervey or Eliza in the 1871 census; their whereabouts remain a mystery.

Wherever Hervey was in 1871, we do know that in 1876 he was back in Berkhamsted and that the licence of the King’s Arms had been transferred back to Hervey.

Hervey stayed put in Berkhamsted for the rest of his life. He died on 21^st February 1879. Notice of his death described him as “…well known for many years as the genial proprietor of the King’s Arms Family Hotel.  The mourners included his sons John and Hervey and “…many of the shopkeepers put up shutters and lowered their window blinds during the time of the funeral.”

Like a number of other members of the Lane family, Hervey had been involved in the Masons. He had been initiated into the fellowship in 1850, was Worshipful Master in 1853 but resigned in 1862.

Following his death, Eliza continued to run the King’s Arms. In 1881 she was at the inn with Hervey, then 14 years old and a scholar. Also on the premises were a barmaid, three servants, a waiter and coachman. Eliza died in 1889. She too was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Her memorial was still standing at the beginning of the 20^th century when W Gerish recorded the monumental inscriptions in the cemetery at that date, but it has since been lost.