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George MARGETTS (1812–1866)
His wife Mrs Frances MARGETTS, née Miles (1820–1904)
St Michael section: Row 24, Grave G45½

George Margetts was born in Old Woodstock at the end of 1812 and baptised there on 1 January 1813. He was the son of Thomas Margetts, a servant at Blenheim Palace, and Susannah Tollett, who were married by licence at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster on 8 November 1810. His parents had three other children baptised at Woodstock: Ann (1811), Susannah (1816), and Thomas (1817), and then the family moved to Sandford St Martin, where their last seven children were baptised: John (1819), Henry (1820), Sarah (1822), Jane (1824, died 1830), Elizabeth (1825, died the same year), William (1826, died 1827), and Frederick (1830). By the time of his marriage in 1849, George Margetts was a clothier at 9 Old Town Street in Plymouth, and his father Thomas Margetts was described as a baker.

Frances Miles was born in Southampton in 1820 and baptised at St Mary’s Church there on 13 September. She was the daughter of Charles Miles and his wife Mary Ann. She was living at 29 Herbert Street, east London in 1849.

On 16 August 1849 at Holy Trinity Church, Hoxton, east London, George Margetts, a clothier of Plymouth, married Frances Miles of London. They began their married life in Plymouth, and do not appear to have had any children.

At the time of the 1851 census George Margetts (38) was a clothier at 41A Union Street, Plymouth, where he lived with his wife Frances (29).

By the time of the 1861 census George Margetts was living on the London Road in Headington near the White Horse pub. He and Frances had no children, but his London-born niece Emily Margetts (4) lived with them. He described himself as a woollen draper employing two men, but his shop was not in Headington.

George Margetts was a hatter and woollen draper at 12 Cornmarket Street, on the southern corner of Market Street. He had probably recently started his business here by 1861, when the census enumerator wrote “shop only”, and it was certainly there by October 1861. It appears that he principally worked as an agent to Nicoll’s of Regent Street, Tailors to the Court.

George Margetts only lived another five year, but a relation took it over and so at least his surname remained on the premises until at least 1911, and can be seen over the blind (left). This shop and its neighbour were demolished and rebuilt in 1938.

George Margetts died in Oxford in 1866:

† George Margetts died at 12 Cornmarket Street at the age of 53 on 8 August 1866 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 10 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael’s Church).

A notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal said that all debts owing to the estate should be paid to his widow or to Frederick Margetts (who is likely to have been his nephew and was already ensconced at 12 Cornmarket Street). His effects came to under £1,500, and his widow was his sole executor.

Frederick developed the business that George Margetts had started, and the following advertisement appeared weekly in Jackson’s Oxford Journal from 20 April 1867:

Frederick Margetts later opened a second branch at 1 and 2 Market Street.

Mrs Frances Margetts moved out of the Cornmarket shop after the death of her husband and appears to have lived alone for the rest of her life. In 1871 and 1881 she lived in east Oxford: at 11 Bullingdon Road and then 1 Marston Street. In 1891 she was living at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

In 1901 she was back in Oxford again, aged 81 and living with her servant at 24 Divinity Road. She was in Edgbaston three years later at the time of her death:

† Mrs Frances Margetts née Miles died at 32 Stirling Road, Edgbaston at the age of 84 on 4 December 1904 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael’s Church).

Her effects came to £1,466.