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Philip HURCOMB (1810–1873)
His wife Mrs Jane HURCOMB, née Sanders (1814–1893)
His daughters Miss Jane Sanders HURCOMB (1837–1860)
Mrs Eliza MARTIN née Hurcomb (1840–1871),
and Miss Anna HURCOMB (1842–1883);
and his son-in-law George Thomas MARTIN (1821–1873)
St Paul section: Row 8, Grave A20 [St Paul ref. Q5, R5]

Philip Hurcomb was born in Bampton, Oxfordshire in 1810, but although there were many people with the surname in that parish at the time, he is not recorded as having been baptised there. He became an Oxford printer. (On 20 August 1832 a Philip Hurcomb was apprenticed to Joseph Munday, printer of Oxford; if this is the same person, he would have been aged 22 when he started his apprenticeship, which was very unusual.)

Jane Sanders was born in 1814 at Amsterdam Court (which was on the site of the present Brasenose College new buildings on the High Street) and baptised at All Saints Church on 27 December. She was the daughter of the bookbinder John Sanders and Hannah Godfrey, who were both living in St John the Baptist parish in Oxford when they were married at that church (now Merton College Chapel) on 21 July 1807. Two of her siblings were also baptised at All Saints: Richard Sanders in 1808, and Francis Sanders in 1810.

On 25 March 1835 in London, at St Bridge’s Church, Fleet Street, Philip Hurcomb married Jane Sanders, and they had the following children:

• Philip Frank Hurcomb (born in Oxford on 19 May 1835 and baptised at St Michael's Church on 9 August);
  died aged two
• Jane Sanders Hurcomb (born at St Ebbe’s Street, Oxford on 5 December 1837 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 30 September 1838)
• Philip Hurcomb junior (born at St Ebbe’s Street, Oxford on 1 May 1839 and although his baptism on 4 June is recorded in the St Ebbe’s parish register, he was actually baptised at St Aldate’s Church)
• Eliza Ann Hurcomb (born in Oxford on 10 November 1840)
• Anna Hurcomb (born in Oxford in 1842, reg. fourth quarter)
• Ellen Hurcomb (born in Oxford in 1844, reg. second quarter)
• John Sanders Hurcomb (born in Oxford on 7 June 1848)
• William Hurcomb (born in Oxford in 1850, reg. second quarter).

Philip Hurcomb and his wife returned to Oxford to have their first baby, who was born less than two months after the wedding, and appear to have stayed in St Michael's parish at first, moving to St Ebbe's Street by the end of 1837. Their eldest son Philip Frank died there at the age of 2½ and was buried at All Saints churchyard on 3 December 1837, just two days before their next child Jane was born.

Philip Hurcomb worked as a printer until 1837, but by the time of the second Philip's birth in mid-1839 he was a publican in St Ebbe's Street, and Robson’s Directory for 1839 confirms the name of his pub as the Three Tuns, which was situated at 15 St Ebbe’s Street and closed in 1910: its site is now the rear entrance of Pembroke College.

In 1840 he was elected Guardian of the Poor for St Ebbe’s parish.

At the time of the 1841 census Philip Hurcomb (30) was a victualler/publican, living in St Ebbe’s Street with his wife Jane (26) and Jane (3), Eliza, Philip junior (2), and Eliza (three months).

Philip Hurcomb’s father or grandfather may have been the John Hurcomb whose death was reported thus in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 25 March 1843: “On the 17th instant, at Bampton, in this county, in the 84th year of his age, Mr. John Hurcomb, formerly and for many years landlord of the Fleur-de-Lis Inn, Bampton”; the death of this man’s wife, Maria Hurcomb, at the age of 90 on 3 January 1841 had been reported two years earlier.

By 1850 Philip Hurcomb had ceased to be landlord of the Three Tuns.

On 1 January 1851 at a dinner in the Town Hall a toast was raised to Philip Hurcomb, who had three times served the office of Noble Arch (the name given to the head of a lodge) of the Order of Druids (Lodge 39).

In the 1851 census Philip Hurcomb (40) described himself as a Collector of Poor Rates and was living at Friar’s Wharf in Holy Trinity parish, St Ebbe’s with his wife Jane (36) and their children Jane (13), Eliza (10), Anna (8), Ellen (6), John (2), and William (1). He resigned as Collector of Poor Rates in October that year. Philip junior (12) is hard to find.

From 11 June 1859 Hurcomb took out advertisements in Jackson’s Oxford Journal describing himself as an accountant and house agent of 4 Richmond Road (then 4 Worcester Terrace) in the Jericho area of Oxford.

His eldest daughter Jane died in 1860:

† Miss Jane Sanders Hurcomb died at 4 Richmond Road (then 4 Worcester Terrace) at the age of 22 on 13 September 1860 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 19 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “Sept. 13, aged 22, after a lingering illness, of consumption, Jane Sanders, eldest daughter of Mr. P. Hurcomb, accountant, 4, Worcester-terrace, in this city.” She was the first to be placed in the family vault, which may explain the larger than usual amount of time (six days) between her death and burial.

At the time of the 1861 census Philip Hurcomb (50) was an accountant, living at 4 Richmond Road (then 4 Worcester Terrace) with his wife Jane (46) and their children Ellen (16), John (12), and William (11). Their daughter Eliza (20) was a parlourmaid at the parsonage in Hampstead Lane, Hornsey; but Anna (18) is hard to locate.

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Their second daughter Eliza Ann Hurcomb and her husband George Thomas Martin

Eliza Ann Hurcomb (born 1840) must have married George Thomas Martin (born c.1821) between 1861 and 1868, but it is hard to find their marriage. They had one child:

• George Philip Martin (born in Ramsgate in early 1868 and baptised at St George’s Church there on 18 December).

Eliza and her husband were evidently living in Ramsgate in 1868, but must have returned to Oxford by the beginning of 1871, when Eliza died there:

† Mrs Eliza Martin née Hurcomb died at Observatory Street at the age of 30 on 16 January 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 20 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her husband is hard to find in the 1871 census, but her son George Philip Martin (3) was living with his Hurcomb grandparents in Plantation Road.

By 1873 her husband also appears to have moved in with his Hurcomb parents-in-law to their new home in east Oxford, as he died there that year:

† George Thomas Martin died at 27 Alma Place at the age of 52 on 11 March 1873 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

His effects came to under £3,000, and he was described as a gentleman in his probate record. Probate was granted to his brother-in-law William Hurcomb of the same address, who was described as a commercial clerk, and he was buried with his wife in the Hurcomb vault.

Their only son George Philip Martin continued to be cared for by his grandmother, Mrs Hurcomb. He qualified as a second mate in the Merchant navy on 9 December 1887. He remained in that service until at least 1905, qualifying as Master of a Foreign Going Ship on 4 May 1898.

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Philip & Jane Hurcomb continued

At the time of the 1871 census her father Philip Hurcomb (60) was working as a printer again and living at Plantation Road with his wife Jane (56), their son William (21), who was a clerk to a publisher, and their motherless grandson George Philip Martin (3). Their daughter Ellen (25) was working as a nurse of the Davies-Cooke family at Owston Hall, Skellow, Yorkshire.

By 1873 they had moved to 27 Alma Place off the Cowley Road.

Philip Hurcomb died suddenly in 1873, eight months after his son-in-law George Thomas Martin:

† Philip Hurcomb died at the Queen public house on the corner of Alma Place and the Cowley Road at the age of 63 on 13 November 1873 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

There was an inquest, and his son William, who lived with his parents, said he heard his father trying to unlock the door at midnight on the night of Wednesday 12 November after returning from Oxford (where, according to a neighbour who walked home with him, he had drunk only one pint of beer at the Druids’ Lodge at the Wheatsheaf Inn). William went and opened it, and his father was leaning against the side of the door for support and gasping for breath. He and his mother assisted him to the couch in the back sitting room, and he died five minutes after Dr Mallam arrived. It was concluded that he had died from natural causes. The report added that “the deceased was well known and highly respected by a large circle of friends, and took a lively interest in politics, besides being a zealous guardian of the rights of the Freemen of Oxford.”

At the time of the 1881 census his widow Mrs Jane Hurcomb was paying a visit to John Philip Sanders (32), a bookbinder who was likely to be a nephew, who lived at 11 King Edward Street, Oxford in St Mary-the-Virgin parish. Back home at 1 Walton Villas were her son William (31), who was a bookseller’s clerk, her unmarried daughter Anna (38) and her orphaned grandson George Philip Martin (13).

Her daughter died in 1883:

† Miss Anna Hurcomb died at Alfred Street, Oxford at the age of 40 in March 1883, and was buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 19 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Philip & Jane Hurcomb's son William was married in 1882:

• On 3 February 1882 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, William Hurcomb, a bookseller of 1 Walton Villas, married Sarah Ann Castle (26), the daughter of Joseph & Martha Castle.

In 1891 Mrs Jane Hurcomb (76) was paying a visit to Miss Martha Knight, a housekeeper at Balliol College. She died in 1893:

†Mrs Jane Hurcomb née Sanders died 4 King Edward Street at the age of 78 on 19 April 1893 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 22 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her brief death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “April 19, at 4, King Edward-street, Oxford, Jane, widow of the late Philip Hurcomb, aged 78.”

Mrs Hurcomb was the fifth adult buried here, so it seems likely that this is a double plot.

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Surviving children of Philip & Jane Hurcomb

• Philip Hurcomb junior (born 1839) is hard to find in England after the 1841 census. He emigrated to New York in about 1894. He died at Fredonia, Chautaqua, New York at the age of 90 on 27 August 1929, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Annie D. Mclean Harcomb, and six children: Philip Hurcomb of Buffalo; Catherine Hurcomb of New York City; Agnes Hurcomb of Canada; Robert Hurcomb of California; F. A. Hurcomb of Indiana; and George Douglas Hurcomb of Detroit.
• Ellen Hurcomb (born 1844) never married. By 1891 she was keeping a university lodging house with the help of a general servant at 4 King Edward Street, and was still there in 1899. By 1911 she had gone to live with her brother William Hurcomb and his family at 32 Warnborough Road, and that was still her home when she died at St Gabriel’s Nursing Home at Hill Top Road, Oxford on 22 March 1937. Her effects came to £4,331 8s. 6d., and included bequest of £100 for the general purposes of the church of Ss Philip & James (Oxfordshire History Centre PAR216/13/F1/2): her executors were her nephews Sir Cyril Hurcomb, a civil servant, and Harold Francis Hurcomb, a surveyor.
• John Sanders Hurcomb (born 1848) emigrated to the Waccamaw area of South Carolina in 1871. His future wife Matilda Brooks (born in Longworth in 1849), arrived in New York on 16 October 1871, and they were married in the USA and had five daughters and a son. He died on 18 May 1927.
• William Hurcomb (born 1850): see separate grave.