THAME GAZETTE
Tuesday, September 19, 1899
CHINNOR
OBITUARY.—Villagers were painfully startled last Thursday morning as the news of the decease of the postmaster solemnly passed from one to another. Mr. [Henry John] NEWELL, of Oxford House, was but 30 years of age, and had carried on the business since his father’s decease, not quite two years ago. The sympathy of the whole district will be drawn towards the pathetic figure of his young wife, made a widow, 16 days after being led to the marriage alter in the Parish Church. This latter event, though it created an amount of neighbourly interest, was not recorded in the Press, the deceased, who was of a retiring temperament, expressing no wish for its notice. This will deepen rather than lessen the public sorrow that finds expression on all sides without distinction. The deceased succumbed to rheumatic fever, which, following upon earlier attacks, fatally affected the heart. The funeral took place on Saturday evening in the Parish Churchyard, the Rev. E.J. HOWMAN officiating. The last rites were performed amid manifest and poignant feelings for one so soon cut off from life’s activities.
Note: Henry John NEWELL took over the business when his father William died in 1897. The Chinnor Parish registers record the sad details (below). I found no record of Marion marrying again; in the 1911 census, she is recorded as head of the household, “grocer and postmistress,” with one of my ancestors (a cousin three times removed), Katie May BRAZELL, an orphan.
- Burials 1897 Feb 3 NEWELL William 72
- Marriages 1899 Aug 29 NEWELL Henry John 30 b Grocer s William NEWELL Grocer & SIBLEY Marion 24 sp School Mistress d Alfred Darley SIBLEY, Butcher Wit Alfred Darley SIBLEY William Henry WOODHOUSE
- Burials 1899 Sep 16 NEWELL Henry John 30