Joseph Treacher: St Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford

Joseph Skipper TREACHER (1816–1912)
His first wife Mrs Pauline Louise Blanche TREACHER, née Pierret (1822/3–1863)
His second wife Mrs Rosa Lavinia TREACHER, née Evans (1821/2–1904)
Mention of Mrs Mary Pauline GROSS, née Treacher, daughter of Joseph & Pauline (1840/1–1875)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 12, Grave D67

Pauline & Rose Treacher

IN HOLY MEMORY OF / PAULINE LOUISE BLANCHE, WIFE OF REV. J. S. TREACHER, M.A.
CALLED TO HER REST THE 8^TH MAY, 1863

ALSO OF MARY PAULINE DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE AND WIFE OF B.L. GROSS
DIED AT BOURNEMOUTH 11^TH JULY 1875 / INTERRED AT ST. CLEMENT’S, BOSCOMBE

R. I. P.

Bostock was able to make out an inscription on the other side to the Rev. Treacher’s second wife, ROSE LAVINIA,
who died on 26 September 1904 aged 82, but this has now sunk and is no longer visible.
There must also to be an inscription lower down again to JOSEPH SKIPPER TREACHER himself, who died on 19 June 1912 aged 96

This stone is made of Peterhead granite

Joseph Skipper Treacher was born in Holborn, London in 1816, the eldest son of Joseph Treacher and Mary Skipper, who were married at St Dunstan-in-the-East Church in London in 1814. He is probably the Joseph Treacher, son of Joseph and Mary Treacher, who was baptised at St Gregory by St Paul Church, London on 1 March 1820, although he would have been three years old by this date.

Joseph was matriculated at the University of Oxford from Magdalen Hall on 27 October 1842 at the advanced age of 26, and his father was then described as a gentleman of St Andrew’s parish in Holborn. He obtained his B.A. in 1846.

In 1840 in Paris, Joseph Skipper Treacher married his first wife, Pauline Louise Blanche Pierret (born in Paris in 1822). They had the following children:

Mary Pauline Treacher (born in Rome in 1840/1)
Louise J. Treacher (born in London in 1842/3)
Joseph Treacher (born in Oxford in 1843/4, reg. Oxford district first quarter of 1844)
Frederick Temple Treacher (born in Oxford in 1846, reg. Headington district second quarter)
Charles Skipper Treacher (born in Ipplepen, Somerset in 1847, reg. Newton Abbott district fourth quarter)
William Hood Treacher (born in Wellington, Somerset on 1 December 1849).

The couple moved around in the early part of their marriage: they were evidently in Rome in 1840, London in 1842, and Oxford in 1844. Treacher was curate at Ipplepen in 1847 when Charles was born, and at Wellington in 1850 when William was born.

At the time of the 1851 census Joseph Treacher (34) was described as a Clergyman without cure of souls, and he and Pauline (28) were living at 7 Hills Court in Exeter with their six children and three servants.

From 1851 to 1864 Treacher was perpetual curate of the Scilly Isles, and from 1860 to 1879 he was Chaplain of Merton College.

At the time of the 1861 census Joseph Skipper Treacher (44) was living at The Terrace in St Giles, Oxford (part of Park Town), and was described as the Incumbent of the Isles of Scilly. He and his wife Pauline (39) now had just one servant, and the only children at home were Joseph (17) and Frederick (15). Their son Charles Skipper Treacher (13) was a pupil at Christ’s Hospital School, London.

The family was living in Beaumont Street when Joseph’s first wife Pauline died in 1863:

† Mrs Pauline Louise Blanche Treacher née Pierret died at Beaumont Street at the age of 41 on 8 May 1863 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 14 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her death notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal read simply: “May 8, Pauline Louise Blanche, the wife of the Rev. J. S. Treacher, M.A.”

In 1863 Joseph Treacher was appointed Keeper of the Hope Collection of Engravings in the Bodleian Library

On 19 April 1866 his fourth son William Hood Treacher was matriculated at the University of Oxford from St Mary Hall at the age of 16. He obtained his B.A. in 1870.

Their eldest daughter was married in 1869:

On 31 March 1869 in Croydon, Surrey, Mary Pauline Treacher married Benjamin Lilliston Gross.

In 1869 Joseph Treacher was appointed Vicar of the Church of St John the Baptist (Merton College Chapel).

On 5 January 1871 at St Marylebone Church, London Joseph Skipper Treacher married his second wife, Rosa Lavinia Evans, who was born in Stockwell, London in 1821/2, the daughter of the merchant Jeremiah Michael Evans.

At the time of the 1871 census three months later, Joseph and Rosa Treacher were living at 25 St Giles’s Street (one of the houses demolished to make way for the Mathematical Institute) with Joseph’s daughter Louisa Treacher (26) and two servants.

In 1874 he ceased to be Vicar of St John the Baptist Church.

Mrs Mary Pauline Gross, née Treacher, Joseph’s eldest daughter, died in Bournemouth in 1875: she is mentioned on the family grave in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, but was buried at St Clement’s, Boscombe.

From 1876 to 1878 Joseph Treacher was Vicar of Sandford-on-Thames.

By the time of the 1881 census, Joseph Treacher (63), now described as a clergyman without cure of souls, had settled with his second wife Rosa at 24 Norham Gardens. All of Joseph’s children had left home, and they had two servants.

Soon after the 1881 census, he officiated at the marriage of his son William:

On 25 April 1881 at Ss Philip & James’s Church, Oxford, William Hood Treacher married Elizabeth Frances Cornelia Rumsey (known as Leila), the daughter of the Revd James Rumsey: William's address was given as 24 Norham Gardens, and Leila's as St Giles’s Road West (the south end of the Woodstock Road).

Joseph and Rosa were at home again at 24 Norham Gardens in 1891. In 1894 Treacher retired from the Bodleian Library.

They were at the same address in 1901 census and three years later Rosa died there, and was buried in the grave of his first wife in the St Mary Magdalen section of the cemetery:

† Mrs Rosa Lavinia Treacher née Evans died at 24 Norham Gardens at the age of 82 on 26 September 1904 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 30 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £15,042 1s. 10d., and her executors were the stock- and share-broker Frederick Evans Hall and Percy Hall, Esq.

At the time of the 1911 census Joseph Skipper Treacher (95) was living on his own at 24 Norham Gardens with a cook and a parlourmaid. A Miss Mary Elizabeth Bradford (55) was visiting on census night.

Joseph Skipton Treacher died the following year at the age of 96, and as his burial was recorded in the register of St Mary Magdalen Church, he must have been buried in the same vault in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery as his two wives:

† Joseph Skipper Treacher died at 24 Norham Gardens at the age of 96 on 19 June 1912 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 24 June (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

The following short obituary appeared in the Oxford Times of 22 June 1912:

DEATH OF THE REV. J. S. TREACHER.
We regret to record the death of the Rev. J. S. Treacher, which took place at his residence, 24, Norham Gardens, on Wednesday. The deceased gentleman, who was in his 97th year, had lived in retirement for many years, but was formerly a well-known personality in Oxford. He was educated at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), and took his B.A. degree as far back as 1846. He was ordained deacon the following year. He held curacies at Ippleton, Devon; Wellington, Somerset; and the Isles of Scilly successively, and was chaplain of Merton College from 1860 to 1879. He was Vicar of St. John the Baptist, Oxford, 1869–1874, and of Sandford-on-Thames, 1876–1878. He will, however, be more remembered for his work at the Bodleian, where he was Keeper of the Hope Collection of Engraved Portraits and Books from 1863 to 1893.

His effects came to £21,644 7s. 1d., and probate was granted to his sons William and Charles.

Sir William Hood Treacher (born 1849), son of Joseph Skipper Treacher and his first wife Pauline

From 1881 to 1887 William Hood Treacher was the first Governor of North Borneo; and from 1892 to 1896 he was the Resident of Selangor, where he founded the Anglo-Chinese School in Klang on 10 March 1893. From 1896–1902 he was the sixth British Resident of Perak, and from 1901 to 1904 the second Resident-General of British Malaya. He was knighted in 1904.

His daughter Leila Treacher was born in Singapore in 1882, and she married Percy Cobham at St Margaret’s, Westminster in December 1908.

Sir William Hood Treacher died at St Albans on 3 May 1919 at the age of 69, and his daughter Leila in 1957 at the age of 75.