JOHN THOMAS MARSH (1857-1942)
John Thomas MARSH was born in Nettleham on 12th February 1857 - the son of Ann Marsh, an unmarried house servant. Ann had been baptised in Nettleham church on 14th April 1833 and was the youngest daughter of John MARSH and Ann SAWYER.
Ann and her son left Nettleham soon after he was born and I don't know where they went. On 29th June 1865 she married Henry GRUNDY, a widower who had been born in Nettleham in 1824 but was now living in Welton village. Henry already had three children of his own but took in John as his son. Ann and Henry went on to have three more children - Henry Herbert was baptised in Welton on 12th July 1868, Ernest Alfred was baptised 17th April 1870 and a daughter Adelaide Livinia was baptised 6th June 1872. The family remained in Welton until Henry died and was buried 2nd December 1883. After this Ann and Adelaide returned to Nettleham where they were living in 1891 - close to Ann's sister Mary and her husband George PRIESTLEY.
On May 14th 1877 John Rebecca BRUCE in the parish church at Dunholme. Rebecca, born in Wigtoft 28th April 1853, was the daughter of Henry BRUCE and Sarah Ann BLACKSHAW and gives her occupation as servant. John gives his occupation as labourer and identifies his father only as a deceased bricklayer.
Their son William was baptised in Welton on 11th January 1880 - no doubt so that they could be close to John's mother and step-father. By the following year they had moved to Somerby-in-Caistor where John was a farm labourer.
In 1889 John and Rebecca had their first daughter Alice who was born at Holton-le-Moor. By 1891 the family had moved again to 16 Carlton Street in Lincoln where they were to stay for many years. John was working as a labourer at the Iron Foundry and they had children, William (11) and Alice (2).
On the 6th August 1893 their younger daughter Ellen was born. Soon after this Rebecca became ill and died of typhoid fever on 1st April 1894 at only 41 years of age. On her death-bed she asked her youngest sister Hannah to look after the baby.
Following Rebecca's death John, finding himself with two young daughters to bring up, married Hannah BRUCE on 28th July 1897 at the Primitive Methodist Chapel on Rasen Lane. This time John names his father as Henry MARSH - a deceased labourer. Certainly his step-father Henry GRUNDY had died by this time and it may have been confusion that led to his name being given as Marsh. At the time it was not legal for a man to marry his dead wife's sister so this marriage was probably invalid. They had no children.
William joined the Lincolnshire Regiment and went to fight in the Boer War in South Africa (possibly in the cavalry). On his return he married Lily HODGSON at the Primitive Methodist Chapel on Rasen Lane on Christmas Eve 1905 and they were to have six children.
John and Rebecca's daughter, Alice (a dressmaker) married Frank FRITH (a journeyman painter) on 29th July 1912 at the Hannah Memorial Chapel on the High Street. The marriage was witnessed by Frank's brother, Arthur and Alice's sister, Ellen. For the occasion Ellen wore a hat trimmed with ostrich feathers brought back from South Africa by her brother William.
Alice and Frank went on to have three children Winifred Margaret (1913-73), Reginald Frank (1915-97) and Eric Stanley (1920-85).
At this time John Marsh gives his occupation as Dairyman. John and Hannah had a dairy shop on Burton Road in Lincoln. In the early days they would fetch the cows back from the common. Later the milk was delivered early in the morning on a pony and trap from a farm in Carleton.
John and Rebecca's other daughter, Ellen, married Horace William SPURR during the summer of 1913. They had two daughters
Alice was widowed on 8th May 1935 when her husband, Frank, died suddenly of a heart attack when he stood up to comb his hair before going to ring the bells at church.
Hannah died on 8th October 1935 having cared for her sister's children as promised and was particularly loved by Ellen.
William continued to attend the annual camp of the Lincoln Army Cadet Corps as a cook until prevented by ill-health. He died on 7th January 1945.
I know little about John Thomas Marsh's character. He played the violin and was obviously a smoker - being photographed with a cigarette late in his life. He died in Lincoln on 22nd June 1942. His daughter Alice died in 1944. Ellen lived to the grand old age of 91 and died in 1984.
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