Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Elizabeth Nash

22/03/1810 –27/07/1901

Dressmaker and milliner; second wife of William Nash.

Relatives

William Nash (298) — husband

Charles Nash — son

• Christopher Dolton

ELIZABETH NASH; 1810 – 1901

Elizabeth was born on 22^nd March 1810 at Aylesbury and she was baptised in St Mary’s church on 6^th May 1810. Her parents were William Burman (1759- 1834) and Elizabeth Burman, née Darby (1766-1850). She was the youngest of six children[1] born to William and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was first married to Thomas Rickard. The marriage took place in Aylesbury on 13^th June 1830. Thomas came from Berkhamsted and was a wood turner. Not surprisingly, the couple settled in Berkhamsted, living on the High Street. Elizabeth gave birth to two children, William in 1831 and Sarah Ann, in 1836. William sadly died in 1835 at the age of four.

In 1841 also living with Thomas, Elizabeth and five year old Sarah, was Elizabeth’s 75 years old widowed mother, two young apprentice dressmakers, Eliza Morton and Sophia Bunn, and 20 year old Robert Lindsey, a tea dealer[2].

Elizabeth’s occupation in 1841 was given as dressmaker and the two apprentices no doubt worked for her. Whereas today we are used to buying ready-made clothes “off the peg”, that was not the case in Victorian and Edwardian times. Clothing was made for the individual wearer. Cloth would be purchased from a draper and then made up into clothing by seamstresses and tailors. The poor who could not afford the cost of newly made clothing bought clothes from second, third, or fourth-hand shops. Dressmaking was one choice of occupation for a working-class girl at a time when choice of occupation was limited. Working conditions varied; at one extreme were those who worked as high-class court dressmakers, at the other extreme were those who worked in “sweat shops”, enduring long working hours for pitiful pay. Others, such as Elizabeth, worked privately, often from home.

Sadly for Elizabeth, having lost her son in 1835, 12 years later in 1847 her husband Thomas died leaving her widowed with a young daughter to care for. She was soon however to remarry. Her second husband was a builder from Leighton Buzzard, William Nash. William was himself a widower and had six children.[3] William and Elizabeth married at St Pancras’ Church in London on 6^th August 1848. William settled in Berkhamsted[4] and soon established a thriving building and construction business. William and Elizabeth had one child together, a daughter, Emma Gilbert Nash, who was born in 1851.

Although William’s business prospered, Elizabeth continued with her own dressmaking business. By 1851, her daughter Sarah Ann, then 15 years old, was working alongside Elizabeth, together with two apprentices and an assistant dressmaker who were all living on the Nash’s premises[5]. Ten years later, Sarah Ann had left the family home, but two of William’s daughters, Eliza, and Caroline were then working alongside their step-mother. Elizabeth had also expanded her business to include hats; Elizabeth and Eliza both described themselves as “Milliner & dressmaker.[6]”At some time between 1861 and 1871 Elizabeth gave up her work as by 1871 no occupation is noted against her name in that year’s census return. However, 19 year old Emma, Elizabeth’s youngest daughter, then living in the family home, had herself become a dressmaker.

The Nash family was sufficiently well off by 1851 to be able to employ a live in domestic servant. No servants were living with the family in 1861 or 1871, but a domestic servant was again employed in 1881, 1891 and 1901[7].

William died in 1899 and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Following William’s death Elizabeth moved from the premises on the High Street where she and William had lived. She moved to 13 Chapel Street where she lived with a grand-daughter, also a dressmaker, and a house keeper[8]. Elizabeth died on the 27^th July 1901 at the age of 91 years. She was laid to rest with William

William Nash (298)

24/03/1815 –08/09/1899

Bricklayer who established a successful building business; Poor Law Guardian and "staunch" Methodist

Relatives

Elizabeth Nash — wife

Charles Nash — son

• Christopher Dolton

WILLIAM NASH; 1815 – 1899         

William was born on 24^th March 1815. He was the second of five children[1] born to Thomas and Sarah (née Franklin) Nash. The Nash family lived in Leighton Buzzard and it was at the parish church in Leighton Buzzard that William was baptised on 20^th July 1817. William’s father was a bricklayer and William went to take up the same occupation and indeed was to work for a time with his father[2] who died in 1839.

William married Eliza Dawson. The date of the marriage is not apparent but presumably it took place before 1836 when the first of the couple’s five children born[3]. All five were born in Leighton Buzzard. In 1841 William and Sarah, with the three children which had been born by that date, Sarah, Eliza and Thomas, were living on North Street in Leighton Buzzard[4]. William gave his occupation at the time as “bricklayer.”

The 1840’s were to see substantial changes to William’s life. In 1847 his wife Eliza died, leaving him with the care of five young children. The following year, 1848, William moved with his children to Berkhamsted.[5]

We can only speculate as to the reasons that prompted William’s move to Berkhamsted, but the fact that on 6^th August that year he remarried maybe significant. The wedding was celebrated at St Pancras’ church in London. His second wife, Elizabeth Rickard (née Burman), had herself been widowed in 1847. She had married Thomas Rickard in 1830 and the couple lived in Berkhamsted. They had two children, William born in 1831, who died at the age of four in 1835 and Sarah Ann Rickard who was born c.1836. The marriage no doubt suited both William and Elizabeth; William gained a wife to look after his young children and Elizabeth and her daughter gained a home and financial security. In 1851 Elizabeth gave birth to the only child she and William were to have together, a daughter, Emma. The Nash family lived at 92 High Street. The Civic Centre now stands on the site of William’s old premises[6].

 Another factor that may have drawn William to Berkhamsted was the fact that in 1846 his younger sister, Harriet, had married one Cornelius North at St Peter’s Church in Berkhamsted. She and Cornelius lived in Ivinghoe and latterly Berkhamsted. Cornelius North was also bricklayer and it may be that Cornelius was able to help William find work in the town.

The move to Berkhamsted saw a change not only to William’s family circumstances but also to a big improvement in his business fortune.

The latter half of the 19^th century saw considerable expansion of the town. In 1801 the population had been 1,690 but by 1851 it had risen to 3,395, the largest increase occurring following the introduction of the railway to the town. Large scale building started in 1852 with the sale of the Pilkington Manor estate east of Castle Street and following the sale of agricultural land at Kitsbury in 1868 housing development started in the west of the town. “By the end of the century the lower slopes of a once-pastoral hillside had been criss-crossed by new roads. In this residential district, many large villas were built for newcomers who were attracted by the town’s schools and a fast train service to London.[7]”

William made the most of the opportunities offered by the development of the town. Whilst a humble bricklayer in 1841, by 1851 he was not only a bricklayer but also a “Master employing 10 men.”  In 1861 he described himself as a builder rather than as bricklayer, then employing ten men and two boys and by 1871 he employed 15 men and one boy[8]. By 1851 William and Elizabeth had become sufficiently affluent to be able to employ a live in domestic servant. 

In August 1854 a fire destroyed Berkhamsted’s old market house. A public meeting was subsequently held to discuss the provision of a new market house. William Hazell, a prominent grocer in the town provided the site and £3,291 was raised by public subscription to cover the cost of the building [9]. The new Town Hall was opened in 1860. William, together with another builder, Matthews, were the builders who undertook the construction of the building[10].

William also worked on the renovation of St Peter’s Church undertaken by William Butterfield in the 1870’s. In 1880 funds provided by the Colonel Smith Dorrien Memorial fund paid for the completion of the restoration of the south aisle of the church and the installation of a stained glass window and William was engaged as builder to carry out Butterfield’s designs[11]. He also built the churches at Potten End and Two Waters, Hemel Hempstead[12].

In addition to his running his construction business, William was nominated in 1876 for election to the Board of Guardians responsible for care of the poor in the parish and the administration of the Berkhamsted Union Workhouse, a position to which he was elected. He was a member of the Board for more than twenty years,[13] “…a regular and assiduous guardian, a trenchant speaker at times and  an able man.” He was also a member of the Town Hall committee and was actively involved with the Mechanic’s Institute.[14]

Wesleyan Methodism was introduced to the town with many of the workman who descended on Berkhamsted in 1837 to construct the railway. Initially they met in local cottages and for a short time at Egerton House before a new chapel, Prospect Place Chapel, was built in Highfield Road. However, in 1854 the Chapel was sold. At that time there was a rival Methodist group in town, “the Primitive Methodists” whose congregation grew in size to the cost of the Wesleyans[15]. William was a staunch member of the Weslyan Methodist congregation and after the sale of Prospect Place Chapel, he provided the remaining Wesleyans with their own small chapel in his yard at the rear of his  premises on the High Street until 1887 when the Wesleyans were able to obtain another church in Cowper Road.[16]

William had retired by 1881 and he and Elizabeth were then living alone save for a live in domestic servant. William’s son Charles took over the running of the business and when the Town Hall was extended in 1890 it was Charles who undertook the work.[17]

William died on 8^th September 1899 and he was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery on 14^th September. His obituary noted that prior to his death, he had become “… gradually enfeebled, but retaining to the last his faculties and interest in various affairs”.[18]As a Methodist one might have expected William’s funeral to have been conducted by the Methodist minister under the provisions of the Burial Act 1880 [19] but the funeral was in fact conducted by Arthur Johnson, the Rector of St Peter’s church[20].

Elizabeth survived William by two years. She died in 1901 and on her death was buried with her husband.