d.29/07/1887
Master Coachbuilder on Berkhamsted High Street
Relatives
Research:
John Pethybridge, died 29th July 1887 in his 78th year. Also Sarah [T] Pethybridge, his wife, died 23rd July 1856 aged 40 [41]. Their sons, John died 12th April 1848 aged 4, Alfred died 25th July 1854 aged 1.
John Pethybridge was not a local man, he was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire circa 1811. His wife Sarah Turney nee Cook was born in Piccotts End, parish of Hemel Hempstead. John and Sarah were married by banns on 24th June 1837 at Great Gaddesden. On that day John stated that he was from the Parish of St James, Westminster, whilst Sarah said that she was of Great Gaddesden. Their witnesses were Thomas and Charlotte Cook. It is likely that the witnesses were Sarah’s parents as she was baptised at St Mary’s Hemel Hempstead on 5th February 1815 as the daughter of Thomas and Charlotte Cook. Thomas was the miller of Noak Mill, Great Gaddesden.
John seems to have already established himself as a coachbuilder in 1839 when he appears listed in the Pigot’s Directory as a Coachbuilder in Berkhamsted High Street. In 1973 the Berkhamsted Review wrote a small article on John after the discovery of a Victorian business card that was for “E. Pethybridge, carriage builder, Berkhamsted; established 1832, carriages of every description built and repaired”.
And established is indeed the correct word because John and family are enumerated in the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses as living in Berkhamsted High Street, just three houses down from the Sayer’s Almshouses.
John and Sarah had their first child a year after they were married, and went on to have nine children in total, all baptised at St Peter’s, Great Berkhamsted. However, as can be seen from their gravestone, not all their children survived:
- Sarah Cook born 21st May 1838 and baptised 1st June 1838
- Ann Elizabeth born 13th May 1840 and baptised 14th June 1840
- Jane baptised 3rd July 1842
- John baptised 1st September 1844, died 12th April 1848
- Harriet baptised 6th December 1846
- Edward born 28th February 1849 and baptised 10th June 1849
- Arthur John baptised 17th October 1851
- Alfred baptised 25th January 1854, died 27th July 1854
- George baptised 15th June 1856
In 1851 John employed a servant, Eliza Deacon aged 14, who was living with him and Sarah and their five surviving children. The dates for 1856 seem to suggest that Sarah died as a consequence of her son George’s birth, dying within a month of his baptism. John was now left with seven children and a flourishing business, so the finding of a new wife was a necessity.
On 22nd May 1858, at the church of St Mary Magdalen Denton in Kent, John Pethybridge, widower and Coachbuilder of Great Berkhamsted married Mary Friend of Denton, the daughter of Thomas Friend, bailiff. A new and interesting fact appears on their marriage entry. John was the son of Nicholas Pethybridge, coachbuilder. If John’s father was an established coachbuilder, that may explain how he became established so quickly in Berkhamsted if he was working in the family trade and had connections through his father.
A new wife almost inevitably resulted in the expansion of John’s family. Mary already being in her late 30’s when she married John had just one son and one daughter:
- Alice, baptised on 31st October 1859
- Thomas Philip, baptised on 3rd October 1861
By 1861 John describes himself as a Master Coachbuilder, employing six men. In 1871 this had increased to eight employed men. By this time Edward as the eldest son was learning his father’s trade, probably with a view to having his own family and taking over the family business. On 21st July 1875 Edward married Catherine Hollinshead of Northchurch, daughter of William Hollinshead, by banns that were read at both St Mary’s and St Peter’s on 4th, 11th and 18th July. As the son of a well-to-do tradesman in Berkhamsted, Edward obviously had his eye on finding a wife from a family with money of their own. In 1861 Catherine’s father had a 190-acre farm on Norcot Hill, and employed six men and three boys.
Edward and Catherine had their first child, a daughter called Alice Mary, baptised at St Mary’s on 21st October 1877. In 1881 Edward, Catherine and Alice Mary were still living in Northchurch. Not only was the family expanding, but so was the business. The Bucks Herald reported on 29th July 1876 that “Plans of two shops in the High-Street, by Mr Pethybridge, were ordered to be reported on at the next”.
Edward was the only one of John’s children to stay in Berkhamsted. The eldest daughter Sarah married Henry Raiment, a grocer, in 1881 and lived in the city of Leicester. But she was not his first wife. Henry had married her younger sister, Jane, in 1869. Henry and Jane had a son Edward Henry Raiment, christened at St George’s Church Leicester on 5th February 1871. Making him John Pethybridge’s first grandchild. Jane died just two years later, a mere thirty years old.
It could be that Sarah went to Leicester to look after her brother-in-law and his infant son, and romance blossomed from there. Henry and Sarah had their son Percy Charles baptised at Holy Trinity Leicester on 5th December 1880. This census extract from 1881 shows Sarah with her husband, stepson cum nephew, Edward and her own son Percy. Sarah was 43 when Percy was born and had no other children. She died in Leicester in 1914.
John’s second daughter, Ann Elizabeth married Montague Palmer at St George’s Church, Leicester on 1st March 1881. Leicestershire seems to have been significant for the Pethybridge family, almost more so than Berkhamsted as at least five of John’s children lived there at some time. Montague and Ann lived in High Street, Stewkley. Being 41 when she married Ann was fairly advanced in years for starting a family. She had just one child, a daughter Elizabeth, born in Stewkley in 1883. Montague appears to have been very comfortably off, as by 1907 the family were living at Stewkley Grange and able to employ two servants. Montague was listed as a Private Resident in the Buckinghamshire Directory. He died in Stewkley in 1915, so that in later Directories it was Mrs Palmer who was listed at The Grange.
John’s youngest daughter Harriet married her cousin, Ebenezer Cook in 1874. Ebenezer’s father Alfred Cook was John Pethybridge’s brother-in-law and had followed the Cook family trade of milling. He lived at Moor Mill in Park Street, St Albans as shown in the extract from the 1851 census.
Ebenezer and Harriet had just two daughters:
- Edith Mary baptised at Frogmore, St Albans on 24 Febrruary 1878
- Ada Marian born at St Albans in January 1881.
In 1891 and 1901 the widowed Harriet was living at 45 Collingdon Street, Luton. In place of an occupation was the phrase frequently used for various members of the family when a census was taken: “private means” or “living on her own means”. Harriet was therefore able to live with her daughters without the need to remarry.
In 1887 it was all change back in Berkhamsted, when John Pethybridge, Master Coachbuilder, died on 29th July 1887 probably at the premises where he had spent all his adult life, in Berkhamsted High Street. John was a very well respected and active part of Berkhamsted’s community as can be seen by the Obituary written in the Bucks Herald on Saturday 6th August 1887.
“The death of Mr John Pethybridge, coachbuilder, took place on the 29th ult., at the age of seventy-seven. He succeeded the late Mr. Hervey Lane, and had been a resident of Berkhampstead for more than fifty years. He was one of the very first members of the local Volunteer Corps, a member of the Town Hall and Market committee, of the Cottage Garden Society, also of the Soup Committee, and a Trustee of Sir Henry Atkin’s Charity. On many occasions it fell to the lot of the late Mr. Pethybridge to respond to the toast of “The Town and Trade of Berkhampstead” in which he took much interest, The funeral took place on Tueaday at the cemetery – the Vicar officiating. There were present the deceased’s four sons, the workpeople, Messrs A. Prudames, Raiment, F. Howard, Capt Foster, F.L. Lane, L.E. Thomas, Brown, Lingard, E. Thomas, J. Timson, J.R. Timson, and others”
He was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery on 2nd August 1887 and his son Edward took over the family business. The probate indicates that Edward’s younger brother, Arthur John, also followed in the family business of coachbuilding.
At this point it’s worth looking back at John’s gravestone. He was buried with his first wife, Sarah, and their two infant sons, John and Alfred. His widow, Mary, was not an executrix to his will, neither was she living in Berkhamsted in 1891, which could imply that John’s first wife was more beloved than his second.
So where did the widowed Mary move to? In 1891 she was living in the Leicestershire village of Knighton, just outside Market Harborough. With her was her son, Thomas and her stepson, Arthur. The family were well-enough off to have a housekeeper, Hannah Law. Mary died there in 1897. With the passing of his mother Thomas moved to the West Midlands, marrying Laura Frances Barker in 1902. He never followed in the family business, instead becoming a Grocer.
John’s death started the dispersal of the Pethybridge sons away from Berkhamsted. His widow went to Leicestershire with two of his sons, Arthur and Thomas, and his son George married and settled in Skipton, Yorkshire, giving as his occupation a “Tobacco Manufacturer’s Traveller”.
The Trade Directory’s show that it was indeed Edward who took over the coach-making business in Berkhamsted. This picture shows the Pethybridge business with a selection of carriages available for purchase.
The 1890s were not a good time for the family. Edward, having run the family business for just 10 years, died on 5th January 1891 and was buried on 9th January 1891. Just three years later his eldest daughter Alice died and was buried on 10th January 1894, probably in the Rectory Lane Cemetery.
By the time of the 1901 census the name Pethybridge had completely disappeared from Berkhamsted and west Hertfordshire.
The premises today
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Callard House
Water Lane & Berkhamsted Brewery
Personalities of the Past
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