Henry George 1848

Henry George MARGRETT

Ancestral line as currently established:   Henry 1848,  Henry 1808,                                                                                                                                                               George 1783,   ?............Family Tree number 15

 Birth:                      1848 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

           First of eleven children of -

Father:                   Henry Margrett

Mother:                 Elizabeth Appleton

Henry Married:  1875 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

Spouse:                Mary Jane (maiden name not yet traced)

2 Children:           Gladys/Gladiss 1879, 

                               Pearson Bailey 1886.

Died:                      04JUL1899 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

For Henry George Margrett we have more than a few facts. We have four Census Returns giving us "snapshots" of him over 40 years; and, more amazingly, we have 20 newspaper reports which include him. Here is a life history perhaps showing that money does not buy happiness.

Henry George's father had been married to Mary who had given him 8 children before she died in 1846. On her death his father married Elizabeth in 1847 and Henry George was born in 1848, the first of another ten children.

Our first sight of Henry George is when he was aged 13 in the 1861 Census at 61 High Street, Cheltenham with his father described as a Master Baker, employing 6 men and 2 boys. Only two of the children by the previous marriage (his step-brothers or sisters) remained at home in 1861; Emma and Ellen aged 21 and 18 respectively and they were described as Assistants in the business.

Henry’s father died in 1865 aged only 57 when he was 17 and by some irony we will see that Henry George also suffers an early death.

In the 1871 Census, Henry George was 22 years old and in the house of a lady called Harriet Baker, a widow aged 61 with a resident son and daughter working locally. Also in the house were 3 boarders and a live-in servant, but Henry was described as a lodger employed as a baker. Following his father’s death in 1865, his father’s eldest son (by his first marriage) Charles was running the business living at the business premises of 61 High Street. We don’t know what the relationship was between Henry George and his half-brother Charles, but at least he was being given a job by him.

Five years later, the Bristol Mercury newspaper of 12th August 1876 carried the following story

"Henry Braham Harris, grocer and publican, was charged with fraudulently incurring a certain debt under false pretences with Henry George Margrett at Cheltenham, on June 9th 1876. He was found guilty, and sentenced to four months, without hard labour."

As you will have worked out, in 1876 Henry was aged 27 and seemed to be lending money. It was presumably not a large sum, because a grocer or a publican might not be expected to put up a good case to borrow a large sum. It is unfortunate that more details are not reported because the story begs many questions. Henry could not have been repaid but did not proceed against the debtor in the civil courts. Instead there had been a criminal offence which supported a charge of false pretences. In any case the accused was convicted and punished, but, Henry must have lost his money.

In 1878 his first child, Gladys was born.

In the next Census of 1881, Henry was recorded as 32 years old and married to a "Mary" like his father had been. He already had a three year-old daughter and his wife had a domestic servant to help in the house aged 17. He reported in his Census Return that he was a farmer with 56 acres employing one man. From where did he learn farming when his father was a miller and baker? How did he get the capital to own a farm of 56 acres? Or was it rented which which case his later wealth does not match him as a tenant farmer.

Before the year was out the Bristol Mercury reported in November 1881 about the County Council elections

...the election here in Gloucester, East Ward excited less interest than usual...and Mr Margrett (Liberal) (amongst others) all retiring members, were elected unopposed."  

To be described as a ‘retiring member’ says that Henry George had already served for a period of time as a county councillor.

Then in 1886 Henry's second child was born, a son who they called Pearson Bailey, perhaps suggesting that his mother's maiden name was Bailey. Then in December 1888, aged 39, the Birmingham Daily Post reported that

"The efforts of the leaders of the Liberal and Conservative parties to arrange the representation of Cheltenham on the county council without a contest have failed...... Mr H G Margrett has issued an address for the South ward, this being the only Conservative as yet in the field." Henry has changed political parties.

Henry George Margrett then appeared in two reports on the same day. They are both in the Birmingham Daily Post of 28th December 1888. The first is a repeat of the County Council story about Henry George being ‘already in the field’ for a seat in the elections.

The second story that day was again about money. 

"William Colburn Verity, pawnbroker, was charged with having uttered a forged promissory note for £550 (worth about £71,378 in 2020) and also having forged the signature of the acceptor to a bill of exchange for £1,000  (worth about £132,919 in 2020)  ...Evidence was given that prisoner obtained £537.10/- as a loan on the bill for a fortnight from Mr H.G. Margrett on the faith that the signature to it was a genuine one of Mr T R Jackson, a grocer of Cheltenham.  Mr Jackson declared the signature to be a forgery. Prisoner, before arrested, has alleged that the forgery was committed by a Mr H T Willis, but this Mr Willis went into the box and emphatically denied. In the course of cross-examination, Mr Margrett said hundreds or forged notes had come into his hand during his career as a money-lender and that it was a common thing to see a forged bill in Cheltenham."

If true, Henry’s statement to the court that Cheltenham was a common place to see a forged bill is not complementary to a town which many think of as being a better class of town. In any case there appears to be no fault on the part of Henry unless he should have been put on notice by the amount or conduct of the pawnbroker needing money.

A slightly more spectacular case ensued on 22nd January 1891. The Bristol Mercury & Daily Post reported on a Cheltenham appeal against a Receiving Order against Mr Arthur B Smith of Rodney Terrace, Cheltenham. A Receiving Order is one of the steps to bankruptcy.

By April 1891 Henry and his family were living at 2 Moorend Grove, Cheltenham and he is aged 42 calling himself an accountant with his wife aged a year older. His daughter, Gladys, was 12 and his son, Pearson Bailey had just started school aged 5.  Besides an 18 year-old as a domestic servant they had a nurse aged 20. Who was sickly? Pearson?

In the same year another press appearance reports him appealing against a reduction from £31.0.0d to £22.19.8d in a bankruptcy of a debtor. Whilst the sum of £8.0.4d sounds trivial today it would have been worth some £1,039 in 2020. The Birmingham Daily Post of 8th December has an advertisement

"For Sale, by valuation, the oldest-established Aeriated Water and Ginger Beer Business in Cheltenham, together with horses, vans, book debts, and stock-in-trade.  The premises are large and commodious, and fitted up with all modern appliances for carrying on a large trade. Average yearly takings for the last three years £1,000.  Apply H G Margrett, Accountant, Cambray, Chaltenham."

It might be most likely that Henry is selling the business as agent for the owners. You might feel that the attractive round figure of £1,000 (worth about £129,932 in 2020) for average takings might look too good to be true? Today’s values of those annual receipts by a company would look like £100,000. Some companies would produce gross profits of £30,000 and net profits of £11,000 from that depending on their overheads. Buy it? It depends on how much you might have to pay for the business, whether there was potential for growth, why the owner was selling, and what the local trade conditions were then.

Friday 9th February 1894 the Bristol Mercury reports that Henry is standing to be elected for the South ward, Cheltenham, but since no press report of his election is to hand, the party nominee must hae been elected instead. At the same time Henry had been to court to successfully recover a £400 debt (worth some £39,600 in 2010) in the bankruptcy of a Baronet, Sir Alexander Ramsay. In the autumn of the same year, Henry is twice reported by the Bristol Mercury for outbursts in council meetings for which he stated that he "had no intention of casting the slightest disrespect on Alderman Wethered."

A much bigger and scandalous case appeared in the law courts in February 1895 where a solicitor sued Henry George Margrett for £1,000 damages for alleged slander. Henry had teased the solicitor when they met in the Cafe Continentale by fetching a policeman, accusing him of theft but the constable refused to make an arrest resulting in a fight after he had left. When the solicitor was cross-examined in court, he admitted to drinking before the confrontation. The judge suggested the case be withdrawn and Henry offered to apologise and the solicitor admitted that he had said he would withdraw the case if they go and fight it out. On this admission, the jury concluded no damages would be awarded and the case collapsed. It is an insignificant matter in one sense, but Henry is shown to been lacking in public character that a Town Councillor should display.

After a further bad debt case in which he lost £9 (worth about £1,138 in 2020) The Bristol Mercury and Daily post reports in December 1885 about a Town Council meeting where Henry offers to sell to the town Hampton's Garden for the price he paid at auction £3,900 (worth about £512,500 in 2020) . The news report has councillors debating whether the land could be for allotments, a recreation ground or an athletic centre but no further report has been found.

After a quiet three years Henry again causes trouble in a Town Council meeting in December 1898 where he criticised the Entertainment committee accounts which had overspent. After a heated argument, the Mayor proclaims the accounts perfectly honest and correct. Then the following January in 1899 Henry is in court against a James Otho Taylor for £21.5s.6d (worth about £2,759 in 2020)  over Taylor's tenancy of 2, Moorend, Leckhampton where we had seen Henry and his family living in 1891. The tenant had not left the property in state of tenantable repair by allowing his horse to graze the lawn and turning the greenhouse into a pigeon pen. Henry was cross-examined by the defending counsel who declared him "too clever by half".

But on Wednesday 5 July 1899 the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post records

"Cheltenham. Mr H G Margrett, member of the Town Council and Board of Guardians, died yesterday, after a brief illness, in his 51st year. He had held a seat on the Town Council for nearly five years."

 His death was registered by a J A Gale and not a member of the family, sadly witnessing that the doctor records the death due to "Alcholisms, Delium Tremens, Thrombosis".  His wife Mary might not have been shocked having watched this event approaching over time but she is faced with winding up his estate and business, dismissing staff, and trying to comfort her children, a 21 year-old daughter, and 13 year-old son. She, or she and her helpers, completed the task within four weeks obtaining release of Letters of Administration on Henry's estate in August 1899 for £51,721 (worth about £6,796,610 in 2020) . Oddly, Henry's estate was re-submitted to the Gloucester Probate Registry with slightly different amounts as if things came to light in 1903 and 1932 and needed to be admitted.

Just two years later the Census of 1901 shows Mary J Margrett, the widow aged 53 living "on her own means" in Priory Lodge, Cheltenham but with her sister, also a widow and 9 years younger. But where are her daughter and son?  Gladys had married Patrick Henegan, 'the boy next door' aged 24 at the time,a year after her fathers' death and in the Census was also living"on her own means" in Cheltenham up-market rented accommodation. Her mother was not one of the witnesses on the Marriage Certificate, so did she inherit so much of her father's estate that it turned her head?

Tragedy struck this family again in February 1902 when Pearson Bailey, the son, died of pneumonia whilst studying at the College, St Peters, Marlborough.   His death was registered by his sister, Gladys, and the death certificate says she was present at his death. Later Pearon's mother lodges for Letters of Administration stating his estate was worth £23,213 and then again, at a later date the estate is proved for just £19,020 (worth about £2,390,730 in 2020) . Not many 16year-olds even today can be worth so much.

Finally, the 1911 Census shows Gladys Henegan by then aged 32 living with her mother and claiming to be a widow like her mother whilst in fact her husband is next door living again with his mother and recording himself as married having one child. A soap opera to beat all soap operas perhaps.

Parts of the story of Henry George's biography filled the Margrett Magazine No:25 in 2011, and some aspects were also published in No:17 in 2004, published and deposited with the British Library in those years under I.S.S.N 0269-0284