Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Quincy Edward Dennis Lane

1876 –01/05/1877

Fifth child of Frederick Quincey lane and Eliza Lane, died in infancy

Relatives

Frederick John Lane (270) — brother

Frederick Quincy Lane — father

Eliza Quincey Lane — mother

Henry Vials Lane — brother

• Christopher Dolton

QUINCEY EDWARD DENNIS LANE; 1876 – 1877

Quincey was the fifth of eight children born to Frederick Quincey Lane and his wife Eliza. He was born in July 1876 and was baptised on 4^th November that year. Sadly, he only lived a few months, dying on the 1^st May 1877 at the age of 9 months and 5 days. The Bucks herald published the following notice of his death on 12 May 1877:

“LANE, _ At the Nurseries, Great Berkhampstead, on the 1^st inst., Quincey Edward Dennis, infant son of Mr. F.Q. Lane.”

Infant and child mortality was very high during the Victorian era. High mortality rates among the young were the result of industrialisation, which led to rapid urbanisation, increased pollution, severe impoverishment, and exploitation of child labour. According to Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the City of London in 1849, the death rate for children under 5 years of age was around 33% in some areas in London. Mortality rates were worse in the towns and cities than in rural areas. In 1851 the rate stood 151.38 deaths per 1000 in Berkhamsted, dropping steadily over the years to 87.39 per thousand in 1911.

The first ten years of the twentieth century saw a number of investigations and publications on the subject of infant mortality. The first National Conference on Infant Mortality was held in 1906 followed by the second two years later. This activity was motivated by a growing conviction that a large proportion of the wastage of infant life was preventable.

Frederick Quincy Lane

18/11/1842 –02/06/1907

Nurseryman and brewer, husband of magazine editor Eliza Lane

Relatives

John Edward Lane (senior) — father

Henry Vials Lane — son

Quincy Edward Dennis Lane — son

Eliza Quincey Lane — wife

John Edward Lane junior (241) — brother

• Jenny Sherwood

The Lane family owned a flourishing Nursery business, which at its height was of national, even international, repute. The firm was established by Henry Lane in about 1777 and, taken over at his death by his son, also Henry Lane. It was really the latter’s son, John Edward Lane who developed the business leasing land close to St John’s Well Lane by the present Canal Fields but 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.

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.’ It was not until the 1960s that the firm finally folded. The firm was, perhaps best known for the apple, the Lane’s Prince Albert. This was cultivated by Thomas Squire, a Berkhamsted Quaker of the Homestead, in 1841, the year of the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Berkhamsted on the way to stay with the Duke of Bedford at Woburn. Lane marketed the apple as ‘Lane’s Prince Albert’ to commemorate the visit.

Henry Lane and his wife are to be found in Grave number 247, John Edward Lane junior and his brother Frederick Quincey Lane, both sons of John Edward Lane and Sarah Foster (of the Berkhamsted Brewer family) 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.

From the link with the Fosters it appears that both John Edward Lane and Frederick Quincey Lane had some share in the Foster’s brewery business. In the 1861 census John Edward Lane is listed as Brewer and Maltster and is residing at the Swan with Hannah, his second wife and other members of the family and his son-in-law George Foster, who is a pupil brewer. In the 1891 census Frederick Quincey Lane is listed as a Nurseryman and Brewer and was residing at the George.

It is not, however, only the man of the household who is worthy of notice but also Mrs Quincey Lane who is listed surprisingly in the 1891 census as journalist. The enumerator has additionally written in pencil ‘author’! In 1888 Vol. I of ‘The Hertfordshire Constitutional Magazine’ had appeared, available from G. Loosley of Castle Street, edited by Quincey Lane. In presenting the magazine to the people of Hertfordshire the proprietors aimed to meet a long-felt want, within the reach of the general public. ‘No pains will be spared to make the contents interesting and instructional to the highest degree.’ Frederick Quincey Lane, nurseryman and brewer could hardly be the author, but maybe his wife Eliza Jane was the mysterious Quincey Lane. Both the Hertfordshire Standard and the Journalist confirm this. ‘It is edited by Mrs Quincey Lane ….who was the first lady journalist enrolled on the books of the London District of the National Association of Journalists.’

Throughout the second half of the 19th century and well into the twentieth century members of the Lane family held prominent positions in the Berkhamsted Lodge of Freemasons. In the publication in 1945 to mark the centenary of the Masons in Berkhamsted a family tree of the Lanes is included to help the reader understand the complicated relationships.

Jenny Sherwood

Eliza Quincey Lane

08/02/1847 –18/03/1901

Editor of the Constitutional Magazine, journalist, publican, mother of five

Relatives

Frederick Quincy Lane — husband

Henry Vials Lane — son

Quincy Edward Dennis Lane — son

• Jenny Sherwood

Eliza Quincey Lane [nee Parkins] (1847 – 1901)

‘Edited by Quincey Lane. Vol: I 1888 Berkhamsted. Printed and Published by the Post Newspaper Co. Ltd.’ This title page heralded the arrival of a new magazine in September 1888, aimed at the following readership: ‘In presenting this Magazine to the people of Hertfordshire the Proprietors are assured that they meet a long-felt want… No Pains will be spared to make the contents interesting and instructional in the highest degree,’ The fact that it is a ‘Constitutional Magazine’ should win it a place in every home in Hertfordshire, in which reigns that loyal and conservative spirit, for which the county is so justly celebrated.’ The contents were to be varied to meet all tastes and to include ‘serial tales’ by local authors, scientific and artistic contributions. The ladies were to be especially catered for. ‘All Letters relating to Political, Historical, Archaeological, Astronomical, Geological, Musical and Artistic information … should be addressed to the Editor, Hertfordshire Constitutional Magazine, High Street, Great Berkhamsted, Herts.’ The magazine was available from G. Loosley, Castle Street and A. Slater, High Street, price 1/6. The Editor was one Quincey Lane.

Who was this Quincey Lane, then? There was a Frederick Quincey Lane, who, according to the 1881 census, lived at ‘The George’ in the High Street, but he was a nurseryman and a brewer and an unlikely candidate to produce such a magazine. Examination of the 1891 census shows Frederick living with an ever-growing family and his wife, Eliza, listed not as ‘brewer’s wife’ but as ‘journalist.’ In the same column was written faintly, for explanation, ‘author’.

Various press notices which appeared after the first volume give us further clarification. The Hertfordshire Standard wrote:

‘It must be confessed as surprising that no such effort before has been made or sustained in this Shire, and now a lady at Berkhamsted leads the way… It is edited by Mrs Quincey Lane, who a few months since was the first lady journalist enrolled on the books of the London District of the National Association of Journalists.’

Eliza Quincey Lane was not born in Berkhamsted, but in Marylebone, in 1847. Her father, William Parkins, a stationer, came from Hertfordshire and from the 1851 census we learn that Eliza, aged 6 and her elder sister, Mary, attended Merry Hall School in the High Street in Berkhamsted. In addition to this the two girls were almost certainly related to John Parkins, sexton of the church, who also lived in the High Street. From the 1861 census we learn that Eliza’s father was a widower and Eliza, now 15, is listed still as a scholar, so she was quite an educated young woman.

Frederick Quincey Lane and Eliza Parkins were married on 15th October 1868 at All Saints, St. John’s Wood. The couple lived in the High Street, Berkhamsted, not at The George initially. By the time of the 1871 census they had a one-year-old son, Frederick John Lane. Ten years later they were living at The George and they had five children.

Perhaps because of the success of the Constitutional Magazine, although Quincey Lane remained Editor, Volume III, published in 1889, was no longer printed in Berkhamsted nor published by the Post Newspaper Co. Ltd but printed in London and published by the Counties Constitutional Magazines’ Syndicate. From that time on the magazine seems to have lost some of its individuality and relevance to Hertfordshire and especially Berkhamsted. No issues of the magazine remain extant after 1889, either in the Society’s nor Hertfordshire’s archives.

Eliza died at the comparatively young age of fifty-five in 1901.