The following is a quote from 'Great Marlow - Parish and People in the 19th Century' by Marten.
St Peter's Street
Relatively few well-to-do families lived in St Peter's Street. Thomas GIBBONS was a coal merchant and farmer and was living at the top end of the street. He owned his house and garden, which was rated at £17, and rented an orchard from the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester. He also owned woodland at Spinfield and rented wharfage from the Alms House Trust. A man of sixty-four, he was born in Great Marlow; he lived with his wife Sarah, who came from Aylesbury, and his son William who worked as his father's assistant. On the night of the census they had a visitor, Mary Ann WETHERED, the widow of Charles WETHERED.
The above Thomas GIBBONS was baptised at Great Marlow on 29 June 1786. He was the son of Thomas GIBBONS and Sarah CROCKETT who had married at Great Marlow on 29 Aug 1782. The younger Thomas had married Sarah BELL at Aylesbury on 16 June 1816. Mary Ann WETHERED, visitor in the GIBBONS household in 1851, was Sarah's sister who had married Charles WETHERED at Aylesbury on 13 Oct 1807. Charles was a member of the WETHERED brewing family of Great Marlow.
Thomas GIBBONS and Sarah (nee CROCKETT) had several other children baptised (and buried) at Great Marlow:
18 Sep 1783 John
3 Dec 1784 Jane (she was buried 30 May 1785)
14 Feb 1788 Jane (she was buried 22 Apr 1794, aged 6)
10 Feb 1791 Richard
6 Sep 1792 Charles (he was buried 24 May 1793)
3 Jul 1794 Elizabeth
Two of these are referred to in the book mentioned above:
Further down St Peter's Street, probably on the west side on the corner with Church Passage, lived Richard GIBBONS, who was the town's other brewer. He was probably the younger brother of Thomas, the coal merchant, and John, the grocer and wine merchant in West Street. His two elder sons were in their father's business as brewer'as assistants but Alfred, the youngest son, is described as a wine merchan't assistant and may have been working elsewhere, perhaps for his uncle. Mrs GIBBONS and two daughters completed the family and they had a sixteen-year-old house servant.
In contrast the rest of the street housed several coal porters, who may have worked for Thomas GIBBONS, and at least twelve agricultural labourers.
West Street
John GIBBONS was a grocer and tallow chandler living quite near the Market Square end of West Street. He was sixty-six and employed three man. He lived with his wife, two sons, a daughter and one servant in what was probably a substantial house valued at £35.
Although not mentioned in the above book, Sydney GIBBONS is still in Great Marlow in 1851. He is aged 21, unmarried, described as a farmer and living at Seymours Farm.
Just as a matter of interest 'Great Marlow - Parish and People in the 19th Century' was published by Marten in 1991 and reprinted, with corrections, in 1992. It is now out of print.
Great Marlow Parish Registers can be viewed on microfilm at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury. Great Marlow: All Saints Parish Church Baptisms 1592 to 1907, and Burials 1592 to 1940 have been published in book form by The Eureka Partnership
www.eurekapartnership.com and Great Marlow Marriages 1592 to 1837 have been published on microfiche by Bucklinghamshire Family History Society
www.bucksfhs.org.uk The BELL family appear to have been in Aylesbury for several generations and the registers of this parish have been published on CD by Buckinghamshire Family History Society
