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 - 19th century
Samuel Hewett
The second son of Scrymgeour Hewett who, in 1764, founded the
Short Blue Fishing Fleet at Barking in Essex. In 1815 Samuel took over
and introduced the use of ice for preserving fish and installed, at
Barking, the first ice-making plant in the country. He introduced the
fleeting system which allowed vessels to stay at sea and keep fishing
while fast cutters raced the daily catches to market. His various
innovations and enterprise (and that of the family) helped to make 19th
century Barking one of the greatest fishing ports in England.
Information from London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Libraries, Essex Record Office and The Victoria County History of Essex
vol 5.
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Pte. Frederick Corbett V.C.
Born in 1853 at Maldon, Essex, Corbett's real name was David
Embleton. While with the 3rd Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps
in Egypt, the mounted infantry, on 5th August 1882, on reconnaissance
upon Kafra Dowar and advancing under constant enemy fire, he remained
in the open with a mortally wounded officer, Lt. Howard Vyse. He tried
to stop the bleeding and, while still under fire, helped to carry Lt.
Vyse off the field. For this brave action he received the Victoria
Cross and, when he was discharged from the army, he sold his medal.
It was said that he lived for the army but, after this, he
found it difficult to cope and died in the Maldon workhouse on 25th
September 1912 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Maldon cemetery.
In April 2004, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission held a special
memorial service in \Maldon cemetery and unveiled a new headsto0ne to
his memory.
Information from the Commonwealth war Graves Commission, East
Anglian Daily Times 17th April 2004, Kenneth Neale (ed), Essex
Heritage, the National Army Museum, London and the Essex Society for
Family History.
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William Holmes Frogley, 1855-1924
b1855 in Barking, Essex, the son of a captain in the Short
Blue Fleet, which sailed from Barking. He wrote an unpublished history
of the town in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He
takes the reader round the streets introducing many colourful
characters of the time and illustrates it all with his own sketches.
Information from the ERO, the Essex Society for Archaeology
and History, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Libraries and
The Victoria County History of Essex vol 5.
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Isaac Marsden
He was a printer, publisher and bookseller in Colchester
between 1800-1815 and, in the years up to 1823, in both Chelmsford and
Maldon. Primarily a printer of local ephemera and a few pamphlets,
specialising in the difficult process of printing on parchment, hide,
leather and doeskin. In 1805 he printed a masonic apron on doeskin,
when aprons were decorated at the whim of the owner. This apron was
found in the 1900s, still in excellent condition, under the floorboards
of a house which was being restored in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Ten years
after Isaac Marsden printed this apron the United Grand Lodge decided
aprons should be of a standard pattern, indicating the type of lodge
and the position attained by the wearer.
Information from the ERO, Freemasons' Hall Library, Gt Queen
Street, London, The Historical Printing Society and Virtue and Silence,
Masonic Lodge no 332, Hadleigh, Suffolk.
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"Gypsy" Smith, 1860-1947
Rodney "Gypsy" Smith was born one of six children in Wanstead,
Essex. His father, Cornelius Smith, was a true gypsy and made baskets,
clothes pegs and tin ware. Rodney was converted in 1876 and, in 1877,
he contacted William Booth, later General Booth of the Salvation Army,
at the Mission at 227, Whitechapel Road and, in June 1877, became an
evangelist at the Mission. He invested in clothes suitable for a
preacher and, for the first time in his life, lived in a room rather
than a tent. He remained with the Salvation Army until 1882, converting
thousands all over the country. His magnificent singing proved a great
attraction. From then on he preached all over the world, including the
USA and Australia.
Information from Essex County Library, Chelmsford and the
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Libraries.
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Charles Parker d 1931
Son of John Oxley Parker (1812-1887) who was a successful
farmer and land agent living in Woodham Mortimer Place near Maldon, the
family home for nearly 100 years. Charles was also a successful land
agent and his activities stretched as far as India. The family knew the
Strutts, who were also farmers and land agents and, in 1885, Charles
Parker and Edward Strutt combined their resources to become Strutt and
Parker, Estate Agents, Land Agents, Surveytors, Valuers and Farm
Managers.
Information from the ERO, J.O. Parker, The Oxley Papers and
Sir William Gavin, Ninety Years of Family Farming.
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