Maurice Hill 1858

Maurice Hill MARGRETT 

Ancestral Line as currently established:    Maurice 1858,   William 1829,   William 1801,   Stephen 1765,             Stephen 1719,   Thomas 1682,   Thomas 1658,   ?.................Family Tree number 1

 Born:                       16AUG1858  in Barton Terrace, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England

           Fourth child of seven children of -

Father:                    William Margrett

Mother:                   Phoeby Price

Maurice Married:  08AUG1889 in Cromwell Road, Wallington, London aged 30

Spouse:                   Sarah Jenner

4 Children:             Alice Lilian,       1890

                                 Madeline Ruby,  1892

                                 Dorothy Hilda,    1893

                                 Archibald Cecil,  1896

Died:                      20FEB1944 in School House, Curtisden Green, Goudhurst, Kent, England

Despite many years of Family History research, the origin of the middle name 'Hill' is undiscovered and intriguing.  It may have been the family name of a very good friend of Maurice's parents. It certainly was not the married name of his mother, grandmother, or father's siblings.  The choice of the name 'Maurice' also had no family tradition. The fact that both names were chosen by his parents after living and mixing for about 4 years in the city of Gloucester must suggest the Gloucester community was the source of such a choice.   And despite being only one generation removed from the researcher, there are yet many unanswered questions about the life of Maurice Hill Margrett. 

His father, William, was born and lived in a very rural backwater, a village called Deerhurst (in ancient times the capital of King Odda's kingdom) just 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Tewksbury and 9 (14.5 km) miles north of Gloucester City. It would be interesting to know how William came to meet and court Phoebe Price. She lived 11 miles (17.7 km) away in the small village of Minsterworth in a time when, apart from walking, the river might have been one of the main forms of transport. Both Minsterworth and Deerhurst are on the banks of the River Severn. In Minsterworth, you can even watch the Severn bore run up at the appropriate tides. But they married in 1850 and he moved, into her widowed mothers house, because her mother is shown to live with them in the 1851 Census whilst Maurice's father, William, he worked in local farms. Their first child was born in Minsterworth in 1852, but by 1854 they were in Gloucester as William got work on the railways and in 1858, Maurice was born.. 

Maurice appears in the 1871 census as a scholar aged 12 at a time when many children had to leave school aged about 10.  His brothers aged 16 and 14 were both working that year. But there is a great gap in his history. He has not yet been traced in the records between the ages of 14 and 31 when he married Sarah Jenner in London. How he, unlike his siblings in Gloucestershire, came to be in London, and how he came to be trained as a tailor, how he had sufficient funds to set up his own business even if in a rented shop, are more mysteries.

He married at the Baptist Chapel of Queens Road, Croydon, Surrey in 1889 and he is described as a Master Tailor. (The word 'Master' usually meant that he was an employer.) His wife was 28 and she had come up to 'Town' from the deepest countryside of Kent. The Marriage Certificate records them both living at Cromwell Terrace, Manor Road, Wallington but whether in the same building is not recorded.  Sarah is not recorded as having an occupation and she was not living with parents, so of significance would be how she supported herself because, by 1904 she will become the main family wage earner.

Kellys Directory in 1890 records "Maurice Margrett, tailor, Manor Road, Wallington" and an identical entry appears in the 1895 issue. This entry implies that Maurice was running his own business in that busy thoroughfare. Strangely in 1891 the Census Returns have the family as 'visitors' at an address called Brightlands, Woodcote Road, Wallington, the home of William Evans, a police constable, and his family. Also the listing is odd because it was usual for a man, as head of a family unit to be listed first.  But Sarah, married, age 29, unemployed, is listed first, then her baby daughter age 3 months, then lastly her husband, Maurice, as a tailor denoted as an employer.  If he is running his own business, employing staff, why are they living in someone else's home? A 'worst scenario' might be that they were lodgers because they had to sell their property to support the business, but ownership of a property in the first place seems unlikely.

Family fable has Maurice's wife, Sarah, as responsible for bringing down the business and making him bankrupt by intimidating lady customers. The business entry in Kelly's of 1895 shows it had survived that far but when the business failed and what happened in the intervening time is yet to be discovered.  But on the 1st January 1900, the Petty Sessional Division of Upper South Aylesford register records Maurice as being licensed as the Alehouse keeper at The Star and Garter, Claygate Cross, Wrotham parish, Kent. The detached building, set in gardens, is still standing with a central front door, and a window each side on the ground and first floor level, but must have become a private house long ago. The family moved some 30 miles (48 km) south-east from Wallington where Maurice was in business on his own account to Claygate Cross and become employed.

It looks like the alehouse was opened in 1890, and prior to 1900 had three owners none of whom were the licensed landlord. Maurice took over as the landlord from a Percival Frank Daniels who had been there four years. In all, Maurice's employment lasted just over three years and it is said that he was a very convivial host. Perhaps the job ended because his employer thought the stock was at risk. In any case, Maurice's licence was terminated and issued to an Edward Ford in March 1903. 

Family folklore speaks of eviction and of the family sleeping in hay lofts in the time after the Alehouse and the next source of family income in Kent. In a Kent County Education report on the Church of England School at Leywood 3 miles (4 km) south of Luddesdown, near Gravesend, dated the 21 June 1905, the report lists the school staff as 

"Margrett, Sarah, £68.0s" (an annual salary worth about £8,455 in 2020)

Margrett, Alice" (her daughter aged 14) "£7.16s" (an annual income worth about £920 in 2020)

"School accommodation 70, roll 46, attendance average 39.2, 85.2%. The school was found to be in a moderately satisfactory condition...improvement will be looked for... the staff of the school has undergone a change and the Managers are of the opinion that the school is now in a satisfactory state."

A Kellys Directory, this time of 1905, records "Luddesdown is a village and parish, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Cuxton station on the Strood and Paddock Wood section of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, a mile and a half south-east from Sole Street station, ....." and further directions filling six more lines. But Leywood is described as "near Boghurst Street (today Boughurst Street) about 3 miles south from the parish church (of Luddesdown). Leywood school, erected in 1870, is a building of flint, faced with brick in the gothic style, with a small chancel at the east end erected in 1883, and a turret on the west end gable, containing one bell, and is used on weekdays as a school and on Sundays for Divine worship."

Under the heading "Public Elementary Schools" it records "Leywood (mixed), built 1870 for 70 children; average attendance, 49; Mrs L. Margrett, mistress; this school is attended also by children from the outlying hamlets around Meopham, Snodland, and Birling." The phrase 'truly rural' applies.

And so, from about 1904 or 1905, Maurice's wife, Sarah, became the family breadwinner as the headmistress of the Leywood Church of England school. After family destitution, settling in a secure life with an income that can be relied on, meeting the demands of of a full-time occupation, living in a home that is also a school, must have been difficult. Sarah, if not before, became from this time a domineering head of the family. Certainly her son, Archibald, was frightened of her. Near his death in 1981 aged 84, he confessed that he was scared that he would have to meet his mother again. This level of fear or otherwise was not admitted by Sarah's daughter Dorothy when questioned in later life. However, Maurice, perhaps because of his failure in business, reacted to her dominance. Someone who was at the school in some way at this time recounted in the 1990's "he used to have occasional lapses of memory and they would ring the school bell to remind him who he was and where he came from.  Mrs Margrett searched all day for him. She asked a 'yokel' if he had seen Mr Margrett, but he replied "No, I ain't se'ed nobody. I bin slap over to Harvel, enjoying meself." Now the significance of Harvel might be that there was a beer shop where you would buy beer and take it away rather than drink it there. Since Maurice had run a public house with questionable success previously, it may be an answer. In any case, he would come home to the school house by evening or when he chose. But, being a tailor, the family were always in smart jackets and coats, and the understanding is that he did a little local tailoring business in these days. He must have also helped to a degree in the running of the establishment. There seems to have been a 2-wheel trap pulled by a pony to get about and that was stored in a wooden stable or shed visible on some remaining photos one of which was featured on page 15 of the number 20 Margrett Magazine in 2007.

From this time in the early 1900's their only son, Archibald will grow up from the age of 11, go to school in Maidstone Grammar School then in 1915 enlist aged 18 in the Army at the Royal Military College Camberley. Commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant and sent to France in December 1916. (His life story is also told on this web site).   In 1919, Maurice and family moved. Maurice's wife, Sarah the family breadwinner, was appointed Headmistress at another school in Winchet Hill, Goudhurst.  They had, as before, family accommodation in the school house built in 1872 and were surrounded Monday to Friday by over 110 children. 

We are given a quick snapshot of the family situation on Sunday 19th June 1921 where the school House, in Winchet Hill, Goudhurst holds Maurice aged 63, Sarah 59, daughter Alice 30 unmarried, and son Archibald aged 24.  Sarah remains the Headmistress of the school with Alice the supportive teacher due soon to take over her Mother's job at the moment of retirement. Archibald is described as "Army Lieutenant on half-pay".  He was repatriated from the front lines in France in August 1918 suffering from 'shell-shock' and is under the doctors of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley as he recovers and will be discharged from the Army in a couple of years. 

War is declared at the beginning of September 1939, and the government sets up an immediate alternative to a Census. It needs to establish who is living at each address, their sex, date of birth, marital status, and occupation.  Maurice admits he was born on 16th May 1858, a widower, and was a Master Tailor (retired). Alice, one of his daughters, is the only other person in the School House, aged 49 and single. 

Presumably Maurice was what we would call today a house-husband. There are reports of him again "going walk-about" from a female dominated household, but whether that was for any length of time or overnight is not now known and whereas outsiders previously thought he suffered lapses of memory, there is the possibility that they were by choice and ended in 1937 when Sarah died.  In any case their living accommodation was secured by one of their daughters being appointed headmistress in place of her mother in 1939.

 Maurice outlived his wife and a newspaper report on his death in 1944 gives us some insight of his later years -

 "Mr Maurice Hill Margrett, 85, of the School House, Curtisden Green, died on Sunday. A retired business man, he came to Curtisden Green in 1919, in which year his wife was appointed headmistress at Curtisden Green Church of England School.  She died seven years ago, having retired thee years before. Her daughter, Miss Margrett, a member of the teaching staff, succeeded her mother as headmistress, and still holds the position.  Mr Margrett was at one time a member of Goudhurst Parochial Church Council and also a special constable in the last war.  He leaves one son, three daughters, and two grand-children."   He would have probably been a lot of fun - when he was allowed.

Various parts of Maurice Hill's biography have been previously in Margrett Magazines No:3 in 1988, No:8 in 1993, No:19 in 2006, No:20 in 2007, published and deposited with the British Library in those years under I.S.S.N 0269-0284.