Uglow Family History

Cheltenham was a market town until the 18 century, when its medicinal waters were discovered. These were regarded as beneficial for a whole range of illnesses and by the late 18 century the town was one of England’s leading spas. In 1788 King George III spent five weeks at Cheltenham, drinking the waters for his health’s sake. His visit ‘set the seal’ on the town’s popularity and during the following years the number of visitors and residents increased dramatically. Among famous visitors were members of the English and Continental Royal families, including Princess (later Queen) Victoria, the Duke of Wellington, and the novelists Jane Austen and Lord Byron.

Visitors to the town would drink the waters at either the original spa or one of the rival spas that were established in the early 19 century, such as Montpellier and Pittville. Several of the spas had tree-lined walks, rides and gardens in which the visitors could ‘promenade’, often with a band of musicians in attendance. Visitors could also attend balls, assemblies and concerts at the Assembly Rooms, plays at the Theatre Royal and horse races at the racecourse. They could also shop for souvenirs along the High Street and, from the 1820s, in the fashionable new shopping areas of Montpellier and the Promenade.

Cheltenham’s heyday as a spa lasted from about 1790 to 1840 and these years saw the building of the town’s many fine Regency terraces, crescents and villas.

Family 1: James and Ann Jordan

James 1813 is born in Plymouth Stonehouse, possibly the illegitimate son of Catherine 1777 but certainly the grandson of James and Mary Spiring from Stratton. He is clearly part of this branch of the family as his children have 'Spiring' as a forename.

Sarah Batchelor has a long reprint from the Gloucester Chronicle. It is undated but seems to have been written after the deaths of James 1770 and Lydia Steel - I had considered them to be James' parents but the article makes it clear that they are his uncle and aunt. The article is very detailed about James' life and seems to have been written with his co-operation. It says that he was born in East Stonehouse and came to Gloucester when he was only four and a half years old and commenced his musical studies with his late uncle (a lay clerk at the cathedral) who bore the same name as himself. He sang in the Gloucester Cathedral Choir and in 1825 was articled to Thomas Wood and organist. When he was 15 he became organist of Trinity Church - this is probably Trinity, Cheltenham.

Possibly he was a music seller - there is a reference in The Times 9th April 1836 to J. Uglow, music seller of Cheltenham, but this could be his uncle.

James is missing from the 1841 census but he is undoubtedly in Cheltenham. He became organist at St James' Church, Cheltenham - the Bristol Mercury on 13th April 1839 reports him presiding at the organ at a music festival at Thornbury Church. He was a talented musician - according to the Daily Era on 12th December 1841, he played a violin concerto at a Cheltenham concert.

He gives up St James temporarily - according to the Daily Era on 23rd January 1842, a new organist has been appointed at St James as James was just off to Dublin, Ireland. Apparently this was to try and make a career as a singer, but the climate did not agree with him and he returned to Cheltenham where he was living at the time the article was written. Apparently he regained his old job - this is confirmed by a book he published in 1847 "Hymns as sung at St James' Cheltenham composed and arranged by James Uglow. He was a composer: see Notes on Hymns A&M 311, tune St. Vincent, by J. Uglow. James becomes a music teacher in Leckhampton, Charlton Kings, close to Cheltenham.

In 1851, the family is in Chaceley. In that year, he is attending Gloucestershire Assizes where Sarah Berry received 2 months in prison for stealing a counterpane, the property of James. By 1856 in the Post Office directory, they are in Cheltenham and in the censuses from 1861-1891, James is living in the area of Leckhampton, Charlton Kings and Cheltenham.

James remains active in the music societies - in August 1856 Jackson's Oxford Journal reported that he conducted the St Johns Choir from Cheltenham at the Chipping Norton music festival - James was also one of the solo vocalists. He sang bass while Madame Greiffenhagen sang soprano and Herr Meyer was the tenor - the latter two hired from Nobility's Concerts in London. The newspaper, The Era, reported on 14th December 1856 that James was conducting St Johns Choir at the Assembly Rooms in their annual concert of sacred music. On 5th April 1857 the members of the Cheltenham Philharmonic and Harmonic Societies gave a concert for charitable purposes. The entertainment was 'satisfactory'. James Uglow conducted.

The marriage: James' wife is Ann Jordan and they married at St Mary's, Chelteham on 30th December, 1833. At the 1851 census, Ann is said to be born in Cheltenham in 1811. But the use of 'Mainger' as a forename suggests that her family was from the north - 'mainger' is a Northumberland/Durham surname. In 1861, Ann is living with her son, Theodore, who is a teacher of maths and a housemaster at the Cheltenham Juvenile Proprietary School at Stamford House. She is helping him run his school and her sisters, Elizabeth and Emma, are also on the workforce!

This appears to have been a formal relationship - in the Bristol Mercury of 25th July 1863, we read of the dissolution of the partnership between T. Uglow and Elizabeth and Emma Jordan. This is obviously an arrangement between Theodore and his two unmarried aunts - the 'F' Jordan is a typo. They were in the business of 'boarding house keepers'. This step seems somewhat draconian - is this normal business or does it indicate friction in the family? We know that Theodore now turns his back on teaching and redirects his ambitions towards the church.

In 1871, Ann is running a 'boarding school for young gentlemen' with her son, Joseph, in Louth, Cheltenham. Ann dies in 1879 in Ulverston, aged 74, visiting or living with her son, Theodore, who is the vicar at St Michaels, Rampside.

In 1881, James is still teaching music in Leckhampton - Harriet Payne, aged 70 and bedridden is visiting. James marries again in 1882 in Cheltenham - he is 69 but his bride is Sarah Jane Hall, aged 23 and born in Dover in Kent. She was the daughter of a grocer, Horatio Hall and his wife, Sarah Ann. Sarah is in Dover with her parents in 1861and 1871 but her father dies in 1874 and her mother remarries in 1878 - the census in 1881 finds Sarah in Margate, step-daughter to Thomas Brown and a dressmaker. A year later, she is in Cheltenham! Sarah Batchelor has looked at the marriage record and James records his father as "James Uglow - miner". This seems unlikely. In 1891, they are living in Cheltenham - James is a professor of music and Sarah is a masseuse. James dies in Cheltenham in 1894. However Sarah pops up again in 1911, living at 20 Mimosa St, Fulham where (as Edith Uglow) she is the housekeeper for Alfred Emmanuel, a manufacturing chemist. The evidence for 'Edith' being 'Sarah Jane' is that she was born in Dover and her mother (Sarah Ann Brown) is visiting....

• son Conrad Spiring 1834 born in Charlton Kings(?). He dies in 1850
• son Theodore Sebastian 1837 born in Charlton Kings. In 1870 he marries Jane Elizabeth Nickless - Family 3 Lancashire.
• son Vincent 1838 born in Charlton Kings. In 1851 he is in Chacely with his parents. In 1861, he is an assistant master at his brother Theodore's school. He travels to New York and dies there in 1868 - there is an inscription to him on his brother Conrad's tomb in St Peters, Leckhampton.
• son Louis Felix 1840 born in Charlton Kings. He is not on the 1851 census in Chacely - perhaps he died in Ireland.
• son Joseph Mainger 1842 born in Charlton Kings. In 1851 he is in Chaceley with his parents. But things get decidedly more interesting [I owe this to Sarah Batchelor] - in February 15 1860 an Ellen Harriet Uglow, formerly Rowland, registered the birth of a daughter Lavinia Agnes Jane Uglow . We can find no proof Ellen and Joseph were married and the baby disappears without trace. Harriet claims that her husband is in the merchant marine and maybe Joseph really did run away to sea to avoid marrying her! But he was definitely back by the time of the census of 1861 and teaching in a grammar school in Ware, Hereford.
  
  
  • daughter Lavinia Agnes Jane born Gloucester 1860
    
    
  After this he follows in brother Theodore's footsteps and obtained a degree form Trinity College Dublin in 1871. In the 1871 census he is helping his mother, Ann to run a 'boarding school for young gentlemen' in Louth, Cheltenham. Later that year, he was made a deacon and was curate of Richmond, Yorkshire between 1871 and 1875. He is ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Ripon at Ripon Cathedral on 22nd September 1872. In the Darlington Times of 7th January 1873, he is at a party for Richmond children to see the illuminated Christmas tree, to sing hymns and to receive a bun and an orange. Later he was at Arlecton and Frizington near Carnworth from 1875 to 1876. In 1876 he moved to Bromley St Leonards as curate. By then, in 1875, he married Caroline Tait in Kensington but the first baby arrives within six months - strange behaviour for a Victorian curate! Caroline was probably born in 1850 in Nottinghamshire - the link is that they must meet in Cheltenham as Caroline's sister, Mary Tait was a professor of music in Cheltenham in 1871 and Caroline was working for her as a governess. Within two years of the wedding, Joseph dies in Poplar, East London in the last quarter of 1876. Caroline seeks refuge with brother-in-law Theodore and his wife, Jane, in Barrow. But they retreat south to Liverpool and West Derby where Caroline dies in 1898 - at about the same time as her sister in law, Jane
  
  
  • son Lionel Percy 1875 born in Fulham. He marries Mary Quirk in 1899 in West Derby - Lancashire Family 5
  • son George Mainger 1876 born in Poplar, just as his father dies. He travels with his mother to stay with his uncle Theodore but dies in Barrow in 1879. The Manchester Times on 24th May 1879 reported that the infant son of Rev T Uglow was drowned in a barrel in the yard - however George's place of birth makes that unlikely as Theodore is working in Cumbria throughout the 1870s

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