PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE
MARRIAN/MARRION FAMILY OF TONG, SHROPSHIRE
FOREWORD
This is, we believe, the first attempt at setting down a comprehensive and well-attested Pedigree of our Family back to the early 17th century, together wit an account of our History in so far as we know it.
The first member of the Family to become actively interested in working out our genealogy appears to have been George B Marrian (114) who, during the First World War, interviewed many members of the Family then alive, and established the main framework of the Birmingham and London branches back to the time when they lived in Bobbington. His untiring efforts have provided the basis the present Pedigree.
Subsequently, Horace J Marrian (166) became the Family Archivist. He and his son, Stanley F Marrian (201), in collaboration with F J Morton Marrian (199), have extended the Pedigree to its present form.
A Family’s genealogy turns our to be a never-ending study; and for this reason we feel it desirable to put on record this first account of our researches, rather than wait indefinitely until further information about our even earlier ancestors comes to light.
Various members of the Family have been most helpful in supplying genealogical information about their particular branches; and this help we now gratefully acknowledge, together with the following principal sources of reference which have enabled us to piece together our knowledge of the past eleven generations:
“The History of Tong and Boscobel” by George Griffiths “The History of Tong Church, College and Castle” by G H Boden “Old Taverns of Birmingham” by Eliezer Edwards (1879) “The Records and Pedigree of the Family of Maryon of Essex and Herts” by John Ernest Maryon (1895) The Parish Register of Tong, Shropshire The Parish Register of Bobbington, Staffordshire Various Shropshire and Staffordshire Parish Registers, in particular those for Blymhill, Brewood, Chelmarsh, Tettenhall, Kingswinford and Wombourn Aris’s Birmingham Gazette MSS Calendar of Shropshire Deeds and Charters, edited by R C Purton (Shrewsbury Borough Library) Marrian Family Wills: John (461) John (12) William (24) John (35) Francis (37)
………………………..
Horace Marrian, Glasgow Stanley Marrian, Belfast Morton Marrian, Worcester
Spring 1952
HISTORY (For use in conjunction with the numbered Pedigree)
“Far in a Western Brookland the bred me long ago The poplars stand and tremble By pools I used to know” (AEH) Marrian (with its many spelling variants) is not amongst our most common names, not nearly so frequently found, for instance as our near neighbour in the London Telephone directory, Martin, who claims there some two thousand entries against a mere thirty or so of ours. But neither is it as scarce as some: less scarce, anyway, than the egregious Garrideb, which Sherlock Holmes devotees will remember as a name of such exceeding rarity as to saddle its unfortunate owner with the attentions of a criminal!
All in all, there must be several hundred of the name alive in Great Britain today; and one of us, casually noticing an entry in a directory or on a shop-front, is bound to ask himself, “Now can he be a relation of ours?”.
Such questions this History and accompanying Pedigree attempt to answer. One has to remember at the outset, that differences in the spelling of the same name today do not necessarily debar a close relationship some three or four generations back. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, we have found every conceivable form of spelling in the case of our own Family; and not until the beginning of the 19th century did a hard and fast rule obtain.
Up to the present however it is fact that we have not found any living descendants of the tong family (our own Family) without the double R in the name – whether spelt Marrian or Marrion.
Nevertheless, the converse does not hold good: there are several individual families with the double R flourishing today both here and in the USA, who do not appear to be related to us in any way.
Broadly speaking, there have been in England two main, distinct Families of the name throughout the past 350 years: the Tong Family and the Essex Family. Whilst the Tong Family can be traced with reasonable certainty to the Elizabethan Bartholomew Marrian, who died at Shifnal in 1628, the Essex Family trace theirs to a much earlier date, being freeholders at Braintree, White Roding and elsewhere at least as far back as the 15th century. Their history has been investigated, and “The Records and Pedigree of the Family of Maryon of Essex and Herts” compiled by John Ernest Maryon as long as ago as 1895; a copy of this is available for reference in the British Museum.
To quote the opening paragraph of the account of this Family:
“The Maryon family has been located for centuries in the centre and west of co. Essex, the east of co. Hertford, and the south of co. Cambridge, so that a radius of 20 miles would include nearly every place in which they have held property, or resided before the year 1800.”
Nowadays, members of the Essex Family generally spell the name with the single R, and with a Y rather than an I. The Family includes the Maryan-Wilson baronetcy.
Genealogical study in neither Marrian Family, however, has sufficed to prove any connection between the two, and at this stage in our researches it is impossible even to hazard a guess as to its probability. The name itself would seem to be capable of several derivations; and this fact along adds complexity to the problem of following our lineage back to mediaeval times. Mr John Ernest Maryon believes the Essex Family to be derived from the De Marinis Family, a wealthy and influential Norman Family, who settled in various parts of England from the twelfth century onwards, notably at West Mill in Hertfordshire.
Genealogists are agreed that corruptions of that name survive today in such forms as Marren, Marigny, De Marney, etc; and it is also true that at least one member of the De Marinis Family had the alternative name of De Marryon as late as the 16th century. However, whilst regarding this as certainly a plausible origin of our name, we cannot be positive, as some genealogists prefer to see it as a matronymic of the Christian name Mary; whilst the possibility cannot be ignored of its being cognate with such names as Merrion and Merriam. Merrion Court still exists in Pembrokeshire to this day.
So far as the Tong Family is concerned, our researches show that all living members are descended from the two brothers John (No 12 on the Pedigree) and Richard (13); and that for some reason all of John’s descendants adopted the spelling Marian, whilst those of Richard preferred Marrion. These two branches eventually went separate ways; indeed, in another three or four generations there was hardly a member of either aware that the two spellings embraced, in fact, a single Family. One person only in recent years appeared to realise this: William Marrian (106) of Bobbington, who knew members of both branches.
We now turn to the very earliest records of our Family of which we can be certain. There still exists today the Will of John Maryan (461) who died in the Spring of 1617, and from this very interesting document we learn a number of facts about him and his family.
1. He is described as “of Lisiat in the parish of Shuffnall”. This refers to the district known today as “The Lizard” (comprising Lizard Hill, Lizard Farm, Lizard Grange and Lizard Mill), which lies midway between Shifnal and Tong, and just south of Watling Street. 2. He appears to have been a man of some substance and standing, and is described as a “Fyner” (i.e. a Refiner). We cannot state at present exactly the nature of his trade as a Refiner, but it has been suggested that it may have been tantamount to iron smelting. Iron was already being worked in the Shifnal neighbourhood, even at that early date. The same description, “Fyner”, is given to a Bartholomew Marrian (also of The Lizard) in a certain set of indentures dated 1684; this probably refers to his great-nephew, Bartholomew (4). 3. He mentions no sons or daughters of his own, but speaks of his wife, Eleanor, bequeathing to her “my house wherein I do now dwell, with all lands thereunto belonging, being now in my own possession and granted by the late Earl of Shrewsbury deceased”. This must refer to Gilbert, the 7th Earl, though at present we do not know the reason for this grant. 4. He leased a pasture in the Parish of Tong, and speaks of being in partnership with a Bartholomew Maryan in the matter of some land in Hales (now Sheriffhales) parish. From the way in which he refers to Bartholomew, we gather that they were brothers. He also mentions Richard, Katheren and Frances as the son and daughters of Bartholomew. 5. He had the alternative name of Dipper; and, although he is spoken in the Will proper as Maryan, in the Inventory of his belongings the description is of John Dippure alias Marian. 6. He makes bequests to three other members of his Family, one of whom he refers to as his cousin; and from this we infer that the Family were well established in the neighbourhood by 1617, and had probably been there at least a generation or so earlier. 7. He directs that he is to be buried in Shifnal churchyard.
There seems little doubt that we are in direct descent from the Bartholomew Maryan mentioned in this Will, and that his son Richard is identical with the Richard Marrian recorded in Tong Parish Register as the father of Frances (2), Joan (3), Bartholomew (4), John (5) and Vincent (6). Bartholomew the elder, died in 1628, and also left a Will, but unfortunately this has been lost in recent times. It may be mentioned, incidentally, that Bartholomew is the patron saint of Tong Church.
Up to the present, we have been quite unable to find out why these early ancestors of ours bore the alternative name of Dipper (varied in the records with Dippure, Dippere, Dipperie, Dippard and Dipp). The name is supposed by antiquaries to derive from D’Ypres, and, is of course, a name well-known today, though we search in vain for another family of that name in the Shropshire of the early 17th century. However, it was by no means unusual in those times for a Family to bear an alternative surname; and there are several possible explanations in our own case. Eventually, the name Dipper ceased to be used in connection with our Family, the last mention occurring I Tong Parish Register in 1687.
Of even earlier ancestors that the brothers John and Bartholomew, the only reference to one who was certainly a member of the Family is the baptism in 1590 of a certain Francis Marrian alias Dippard at the village of Brewood, a few miles east of Tong. In former centuries we find many references to the name marrian in various parts of the country, in addition to the authentic records of the ancient Essex Family; but it is impossible, without further research, to say whether they belonged to our own Family, or were entirely distinct. It would seem likely, however, that certain references to the name in and around Shropshire about this period will eventually be identified with our Family.
We now follow the history of the Family from Bartholomew Marrian (462), step by step down to his 20th century descendants, who today number some six score living persons born with the name.
Bartholomew’s son Richard established the Family in Tong, or rather the neighbouring hamlet of Tong Norton, for many generations. Nobody of the name remains there today, but a branch continued in the village until the middle of the 19th century, this branch being interrelated to the Downing family.
Though recorded as a separate hamlet as far back as Norman times, Tong Norton has no church of its one; and for our purposes it is Tong that we may call the Marrian early home. Situated amidst open country three miles south of Watling Street, it is a remarkable and – despite the inroads of 20th century development – still a beautiful place, with its parks and pastures and rich red ploughlands, and its coppices and wooded slopes interspersed with hidden brooks and rush-grown meres. Blue in the distance rise the hills of Wales.
Beloved of Charles Dickens, Tong is said to be the original of the scenes described in Chapter 46 and later chapters of “The Old Curiosity Shop”. Its history has been written more than once; for, although today just a village, it was in mediaeval and Tudor times a place of far greater account, having a noble church (sometimes called the Westminster Abbey of Shropshire), a castle, a college and a hospital. To quote the Shropshire historian, Eyton:
“If there be a place in Shropshire calculated alike to impress the moralist, interest the antiquary and the historian, that place is Tong. It was for centuries the abode or heritage of men great for their wisdom, or their virtues, eminent either from their prosperity or their misfortunes, the retrospect of their annals, alternative between the Palace or the feudal castle, between the halls of Westminster and the Council Chamber of Princes, between the battlefields, the dungeon and the grave. The history of the Lords of this manor is, in fact, the biography of Princes and prelates, Earls and Barons, Statesmen, General and Priests.”
What, then, of the Marrians, and their standing in this unusual Parish? We know all too little about those early generations; but it is evident that they were not amongst the most exalted names in Tong, either by descent or by marriage. Yet they had a well-defined middle status, and were in fact yeomen.
The following extract from the preface to the Tong Volume of the Shropshire Parish Register Society’s Publications makes their position clear:
“The Marrions, who were freeholders at Tong Norton until quite recently, are mentioned among the earliest entries (since 1629), and the name may be said of the Duncalfes, who occupied a similar position at Tong.”
It is not known exactly which was the principal home of the Family in Tong Norton. Very likely the senior branch became identified with one of the farms there; and in 1939 Mr G H Boden, the late verger of Tong, who knew a great deal of the old history of the Parish, gave it as his opinion that they lived at the farm known as the Knoll House. On investigation, however, this seems unlikely; there is no mention of the Knoll in the Parish Register in connection with the Marrians; on the contrary, between the years 1730 and 1758 other names are specifically linked with it.
From old Deed, however, we do know that, late in the 17th century, a Bartholomew Marrian (assumed to be No 4 on the Pedigree) owned a house and land called Holme Close in Tong Norton, a croft adjoining Friar’s Lane (which leads from Tong Norton to Tong), and arable land in “Hollys Fields” and “Hillfield upon the Blacklands”; also that Richard Marrion (13), who is described as a weaver, bought a plot of land in a field in Tong known as Metheridge Field, and built a house on it with a view to his marriage with his first wife, Anne Viccars.
Another scrap of information that we possess (and which we owe to Mr George Griffith’s History of Tong) is that Richard Marrian (evidently No 7) was a member of a jury of seven at the Court Leet and Court Baron held for the Manor of Tong in 1719. This followed a “walking of the boundaries” in the previous year; and a document still exists describing the perambulation stage by stage, to determine the parish-bounds from the memory of its oldest and most trustworthy inhabitants.
But, apart from these slight glimpses, we are left in the dark as to the life and characteristics of these early generations in Tong. One cannot help wondering, for instance, whether in 1651 when the young Charles II was hiding not three miles away in Spring Coppice at Boscobel, Richad Marrian (1) ad his children were in the know, and perhaps (like others in those parts) risked their lives, either with practical aid or by refusing betrayal.
If any of the Family choose to visit Tong today, the old Family gravestones are to be found close to the ancient sundial. The weather of three centuries has taken its toll, and many are legible no longer. But in 1929 memorials could still be identified with these of our ancestors: Jane Marrian (7a); John and Mary Marrian (12 and 12a); Richard Marrian (13); John Marrian (20); Richard and Clare Marrion (27 and 27a); Walter Marrion (40); Sarah Marrion (41); John and Elizabeth Marrion (45 and 45b); Jane Marrion (42); Mary Marrion (44).
And on the stone of Jane Marrian (she that was Jane Brick) we read the touching inscription: “Always a loving wife, a tender mother, an industrious woman and a good neighbour”.
It must not be supposed that throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Family were wholly confined to Tong. Our records are incomplete; and there is little doubt that some of them moved into other parishes, and have been lost sight of. We know for certain that branches flourished at West Bromwich and Bitterley in the 17th century, and at Eastham, Ludlow, Bromfield, Stanton Lacy, Sheriffhales, Blymhill and Shareshill in the 18th. But, although these offshoots existed in some cases for many years, to the best of our belief they eventually died out, leaving no descendants alive at the present time.
About 1740 – 1750, an important change occurred in the Family. John Marrian (12) left Tong Norton and moved with his wife and family to Blacklands Farm at Bobbington, a village several miles to the south and just over the Staffordshire border.
As at Tong, the Marrians made Bobbington their home for many generations, occupying three of the principal farms of the little place, where they did their own milling and brewing. Of John and Mary Marrian’s children, we find that John (20) held the Hay Farm, William (24) succeeded his father at Blacklands, whilst Francis (23) seems to have moved out of Bobbington on reaching manhood, and eventually settled at Chelmarsh (near Bridgnorth), no doubt as a farmer.
Eventually, Blacklands passed to John (35), as his father, William, had meantime purchased the farm at Blakelands, on which he built a Water Corn-Mill. There he died in 1802, one of the most and respected figures in Bobbington. William (39) succeeded to Blakelands; but in the next generation it is the Hay Farm tat again finds a place in the records of the Family at Bobbington, being farmed successively by William (60), buy his son William (71), and finally by his widow and their daughter, Edith Longville Marrian (108), who gave up the Hay in 1914.
In considering these many generations of farmers, we cannot help picturing the kind of folk they were (we have no portraits or character studies to guide us): no doubt, hale, fresh-complexioned, sturdy countrymen, who both at Tong and Bobbington lived happy, hard-working lives, decade after decade, their way of life simple and admirable, their hopes centred in their children and their land. Country pleasures there would be in plenty; and there still remains in the Family an old silver cup with a spirited illustration depicting a farmers’ donkey-race, and inscribed:
Wm Marrian Who by Superior Skill tho’ from his Donkey thrown recover’d then remounted and made this Cup his own. Sepr 27th 1813
Merry times! For:
“it had been the Old England, when they lived down here – the England of pack horses and very little smoke, of peat and wood fires … A static England, that dug and wove, where your parish was your world, and you were a churchwarden if you didn’t take care … In the old time here, without newspapers, with nothing from the outer world, you’d grow up without any sense of the State or that sort of thing. There’d be the church and your bible, and the market some miles away, and you’d work and eat and sleep and breathe the air and drink your cider and embrace your wife and watch your children, from June to June; and a good thing, too!” (Galsworthy: “Swan Song”)
Very much the same may our own family have lived. Churchwardens they certainly were, both at Tong and Bobbington. We also know that some of them were amateur musicians, and assisted at the church services. In addition, they are reputed to have put up other buildings in Bobbington besides such improvements as they may have made to their own farms, notably the house known today as the Red Lion Inn, but which was once the farmhouse of Blacklands.
But, if the Marrians typified so nearly the solid English country-family of olden times, in their history, too, is reflected that great change which came over the face of England towards the close of the 18th century. Nowhere were the forces of the Industrial Revolution more apparent than in the districts lying immediately east and west of the Tong and Bobbington farmlands. To the west, the industrial towns of Oakengates, Dawley and Ironbridge; to the east, Wolverhampton, the Staffordshire Black Country and, above all, Birmingham, grew in ever-increasing importance, and held out to the enterprising promises of wider scope and richer reward.
One by one, the younger sons of the Family began to settle in the neighbouring towns, and, amongst them, Francis Marrian (37). Born at Kingswinford, he spent his youth at Chelmarsh, and later settled in Birmingham, becoming proprietor in 1796 of what was in those times a very remarkable hostelry; “The Sea Horse Tavern” in Buck St., Aston. A full chapter is given to “The Sea Horse” in a little book by Eliezer Edwards: “Old Taverns of Brimingham” (1879); and those of Francis Marrian’s descendants alive today are referred to it for a fuller account than we space for here. However, this unusual place, combining as it did the functions of inn, club, and concert hall, played so considerable a part in the Birmingham life of the early 19th century that this history would hardly be complete without a generous quotation from Mr Edwards’ book:
“Up to the year 1796 the Sea Horse has no particular history. In that year Mr Francis Marrian became the landlord, a position he retained for nearly fifty years, finally retiring in favour of one of his sons. During that period the house became the focus of Birmingham Musical Society. Many men, who became famous, and whose names are familiar in all musical circles, first tried their untrained voices under the hospitable roof of this old hostelry. Hither, in due time, came the “Musical and Amicable Society”, which had been established at “Cooke’s in the Cherry Orchard”. Before, however, going on with the musical history of the house, I will sketch some of the quaint doings, in the old parlour in bygone days, as they were described to me on my first visit by my friend, who was an old habitue of the place.
A framed notice, which was changed every week, hung over the mantlepiece. It had a fixed heading, thus: “BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK”. Under this was a sliding arrangement, containing, on its left, the days of the month within the current week. Some of the spaces opposite were blank, others contained one, two or three names in manuscript. This was the official Register of a “Birthday Society”, formed amongst the regular visitors to the place. The constitution of this curious little club was simple and friendly. Every member was entitled to call for a cup of ale upon the birthday of any other at the expense of the latter. When his turn came, of course, every other member could claim the ale at his expense. This little bond of union existed without a single “hitch” for nearly fifty years.
In the early days of the present century there was no gas. The first evening guest to arrive at the Sea Horse found the parlour in darkness. With his cup of ale was brought a candle, in a highly-polished brass candlestick, and a pair of snuffers. As each succeeding visitor arrived, a candlestick was brought for him, until the total amounted to ten. That number of candles was never exceeded, no matter how numerous the company. At ten o’clock, the landlord, Mr Marrian, came in, and took the principal chair, having brought with him a goblet of gin and water. This goblet many can remember now. It had lost the original leg and foot, but had been mounted upon a tinware substitute. At half-past ten the landlord would ring, and on the servant appearing he would say “Mary, I’ll play another card”, upon which the glass was taken out and replenished. At eleven o’clock the landlady came in, and, no matter how many were there, blew out all the candles but one, and told the visitors it was time to go; a hint, which being backed up by the unsavoury odours from the blown-out candles, was usually very promptly acted upon.
The chairman, for many years, was Mr John Thorpe, a herald painter of Belmont Row, a man of singularly graceful manners, and a great humorist. The “toasts” and “sentiments” given from the chair on these occasions were always original, and often so laughable, as to set the whole company in a roar. His portrait was one of the three that hung in the parlour. Another was that of Mr Atkins, who instituted the Baron of Beef Dinner; and the third was that of Francis Marrian, the landlord, who was represented with the song “Old England’s a Lion” in his hand. He was a man of great capacity, of broad and philosophic views, of most genial manners, and of true benevolence. Two of his sons are still amongst the most respected of our citizens; and another, inheriting his father’s skill, has established a colossal brewery near Sheffield, in which town “Marrian’s Ale” is as famous as was the old “Digbeth Water” of this father, fifty years ago.”
The portrait of Francis Marrian referred to above has been attributed to the Birmingham artist Coleman, and still remains in the possession of a descendant at Rugby, as well as a small copy made from it, which is at Cambridge. This portrait, in addition to its being a fine painting, is of particular interest in that it is the earliest representation left to us of any member of the Family. It is a large canvas; and against a dark background the subject is portrayed full face, seated in a red-upholstered chair, a roll of music in his right hand. Though the picture is supposed to date from 1813, one would take him for a man nearer sixty than fifty. He is dressed in a black coat with white cravat, and appears to have been a fairly heavily built man, with a broad, clean-shaven face of fair, fresh complexion; the head bald except for greying, light-brown hair at the sides; the prominent nose straight and high bridged. The expression of his smile, slightly quizzical, and the sparkle in the bright blue eyes mark him as a man of shrewdness and humour. Perhaps, of living members of the Family, William Lyon-Marrian (154) resembles him the most.
It may be mentioned in passing (since the matter used to arouse the greatest interest in the Family) that Francis Marrian’s father-in-law, Thomas Blakemore, was in some way related to the Jennens family, whose considerable fortune was in dispute for so long.
As for the “Sea Horse” it passed to Francis’ son William (55) in 1840, to his widow Anne Marrian (55a) in 1851, and passed out of the Family at her death in 1863. We still have one of the original invitation cards to the fifty-third (and last) anniversary (1862) of the Baron of Beef Dinner, that was such a memorable institution of the “Sea Horse”: the guests are bidden to sit down to this mammoth feast at four in the afternoon!
To conclude the story of the Tavern: it fell into disrepute in later years, then became a Methodist Mission Hall, and was finally destroyed by enemy action at the beginning of 1941.
The three sons of Francis Marrian referred to by Mr Wards are the younger sons: Francis (56), the silversmith; Thomas (57) the founder of Burton Weir Brewery, Sheffield, and resident of Thurcroft Hall, Rotherham; and Benjamin James Pratt Marrian (58), the brassfounder, who was the patentee of swinging oil lamps for ships. Unfortunately, none of these younger sons have left any descendants to carry on the name today.
Before following the fortunes of Francis Marrian’s grand-children by his elder sons, however, we must turn back to the mid-eighteenth century, and consider the remainder of the Family left at Tong after John Marrian’s (12) exodus to Bobbington.
John’s younger brother William (18) raised a family at Sheriffhales and Blymhill, across Watling Street, though none of these appears to have survived to the present day. Richard (13), however, left many descendants – all spelling the name Marrion; and many of those living today trace their lineage back to his grandson, John (45).
John (45) was a master-joiner, and settled at St George’s (then known as Pain’s Lane) in what is now the heart of industrial Shropshire. At the time of his arrival there towards the close of the 18t century, it must have been an area of intense activity and swift development, affording ample scope for the building and allied trades, to which John and his sons belonged. William (458) of Snedshill, and Thomas Chipps Marrion (253) of Hollins Wood have no descendants alive now; but their brothers, Walter Watkins Marrion (300) and Benjamin Marrion (324) have many grandwhildren and great-children living, in the case of the former principally at Oakengates, Madeley and Wolverhampton.
With Benjamin (324) is associated the Caledonian Hotel at Oakengates. He is said to have built it, with the help of his family, in six weeks; and it remained the Marrion home in Oakengates for many years. Of his two sons, the descendants of Robert (326) now live at Kingston-on-Thames, and of John (329) at Nottingham and near Crewe.
Another branch of the Family that
still flourishes is derived from an earlier generation. About the time that the
Bobbington branch started, a James Richard Marrion became apprenticed to a
Wolverhampton locksmith; and him we can identify with fair certainty as James
(30). For three generations he and his descendants appear to have carried on
their trade at the neighbouring village of Tettenhall, until in the
mid-nineteenth century James (341) became a master-collier. He and his present
day descendants are associated with Bilston and Wolverhampton.
We now turn back to the Bobbington branch. Although John (35) of the Blacklands had five sons, the farm passed out of the Marrian’s hands at this time; and we have been unable to trace any descendants of John (35) alive today. In the case of William’s (39) sons, William (60) – as we have said – continued to farm the Hay; whilst the two youngest, John (63) and Benjamin (64) (the first of the only two pairs of twins to appear in our records), later left Bobbington for town-life. Both John and Benjamin have several generations of descendants; in the case of the former, the largest single branch of the Family alive today.
Benjamin (64) settled in Birmingham as a wholesale grocer, while his youngest son, James A W Marrian (84) was associated with Elkington’s Silver Works, in Birmingham.
It was John Marrian (63) who established the London branch of the Family at Brondesbury, marrying his second cousin, Anne Marrian, of Birmingham. He and his son John (77) in turn resided at Brondesbury House, and were in business in the City as Exporters and Importers; in a later generation, Charles (109) followed the same business. Francis W W Marrian (112) was the principal of a London firm of Insurance Brokers, Marrian, Hardwick and Co; and Frederick Y Marrian (111) was a Railway Engineer.
Harry H B Marrian (120) emigrated to Canada; and at this point we may record particulars of those other members of the Family, from various branches, that we know to have settled permanently abroad. These are: William (327) USA; James Alfred (91) USA; James (266) New Zealand; Francis Marie (131) Argentine; Peter Derek (200) Kenya Colony; Graham (264) South Africa. Possibly there may have been others, but, if so, we have lost trace of them.
Several of the later members of the London branch have found their life’s work in engineering or science. It will have been noticed that throughout this History we have avoided mention of living members of the Family individually, but we cannot forbear to pay a tribute to the work of Guy Frederic Marrian (171) whose researches in bio-chemistry have earned a world-wide renown, and who remains the only member of our Family to be found in the pages of “Who’s Who”.
To return to Birmingham. In the early decades of the 19th century we find recorded the names of several other businesses connected with the Family, in addition to the “Sea Horse Tavern”. Francis’ (37) brother John (405) appears to have come up to Birmingham at a later date, and established the firm of Marrian and Cracklow, of Ashted Brewery, eventually leaving it to his two sons (John Rutter (66) and Fracis William (70). We also find the business of Marrian & Reynolds, stampers and piercers (John Marrian (53) principa0< and Marrian and Tye, which were, no doubt, the businesses of Francis (56) and his son.
At least two of the sons of John (53) left Birmingham, and established branches elsewhere. Francis (90) who settled in Manchester, was a lithographic artist, and the first president of the Lithographic Artists’ Association. Two of his sons, Ernest (144) and Frank (145) were engaged for many years in the textile firm of Lindsay and Marrian Ltd, in Manchester, and this branch of the Family still has many members living in Manchester and other parts of Lancashire today.
Another son John (53) however, went even further afield. When still in his twenties, James Alfred (91) left this country for New England, settling in Baltimore. He married the daughter of the American General Miles, and eventually became Town Clerk of Baltimore. Happily, his children and grandchildren continue to flourish the other side of the Atlantic, principally in Baltimore, New York City and New York State.
Before us now, in thinnest veneer, lies our Family life as far as the living generations. From the early, self-contained families in Tong and Bobbington, and the later ones in Birmingham, London and Oakengates, we have of recent years become widely scattered. In our vocations, too, there are now great differences: besides those already mentioned, such diverse occupations are to be found as schoolmaster, motor-engineer, optician, hotelier and author; whilst one member, alone out of the whole Family, continues to tread the furrows like his forbears.
For the rest, businessmen undoubtedly predominate; we find few professional men and no regular-servicemen; and whilst several daughters of the Family have in recent generations married clergy, or devoted their lives in one way or another to the service of religion, rather strangely none of its sons appear to have entered the Church.
So much for the Family’s past. And now we take our leave of them with the pleasant knowledge that there rises a still younger generation in sufficient numbers to write its future. May their story be a happy one! May they write many a fair page in the Family Book!
F.J.M.M.
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