meadows frost + matilda berend
Meadows was born in Cripplegate, London on 13 May 1819 but his family returned to Chester shortly after his birth and he was baptised at St Mary on the Hill, Chester on 11 June 1819. He grew up on Egerton Street in Chester and apprenticed as a Miller with his father.
by John Atkinson Grimshaw
He married Matilda Berend on 25 May 1842 in Liverpool. Matilda was born in Liverpool on 1 March 1819, the daughter of Samuel Berend who was born in Hanover, Germany. Their first child, Eleanor Matilda, was born in Chester on 17 April 1843 and baptised one month later at the Crooke Street Presbyterian Church. Over the next five years, they had two more children, Frances Amy on 10 February 1845 and Meadows Arnold on 12 August 1848.
In 1851, Meadows and his family were living at 59 Bold Street in Liverpool along with Matilda’s widowed father and four female servants. Meadows’ occupation was listed as Corn Merchant and Matilda’s father was still working as a Dentist. Their youngest son, Francis Aylmer, was born in Chester on 12 August 1856.
Meadows was very active in local politics and was first elected to the Town Council in 1851 and was made Mayor in 1858 and again in 1859. He later served as Alderman and Magistrate in Chester and as a Magistrate and High Sheriff in Flintshire. He also worked to improve the situation of the working class in Chester and funded the first Working Man’s Club in Lower Bridge Street.
Other than son Meadows Arnold, who was at boarding school in Chester, the family has not been located in the 1861 census. When the 1871 was taken, they were staying at their country house, Meadowslea, in Hope north of Wrexham in Flintshire, Wales. Meadows occupation was listed as ‘magistrate, alderman and merchant.’ Son Meadows Arnold was still living with his parents and his occupation was listed as American merchant and daughters Eleanor and Frances were also home but son Francis was not. The family must have lived in a large home as they employed seven house servants.
Eldest son Meadows married Rosalie Russell in Marylebone, London in 1874 and they remained there until 1876 when they moved to Liverpool. Their daughter Frances Amy left home to marry John Rowlands on 14 September 1880 at St John the Baptist in Chester. John was the rector of St Cynfarch’s church in Hope when they married and they remained in Hope for the next ten years before moving to Aberdovey on the west coast. They had two sons, William Aylmer in 1881 and John Martin in 1883.
Meadows expanded his business to include cotton as well as corn; he entered into a partnership and operated the firm Stolterfoht and Company in Liverpool. The partnership was eventually dissolved but he continued to work on his own as a corn and cotton merchant before selling his interests in cotton in the late 1870s to focus solely on trade in corn.
In 1881, Meadows and Matilda had moved to 8 Johns House on Little St Johns Street in Chester where they lived with daughter Eleanor and seven servants. In the summer of 1882, Meadows suffered a fall in the bath and badly injured his back. He never fully recovered from his injuries and died at Meadowslea in Flintshire on 20 January 1883. The exact nature of his injury is not known but a report in the Cheshire Observer on 27 January 1883, contained additional information:
The advice of one of the most eminent medical authorities in London was speedily sought and the best resources of the healing art were employed to remove the effects of the fall. Unfortunately, however, the injury proved to be too deep seated and led to other complications which made a serious inroad in the constitution of the patient who gradually became weaker. Within the last few days alarming symptoms developed themselves and the family of the deceased gentleman prepared for the worst.
Meadows’ body was return to Chester and he was buried four days later at the Chester Cemetery. His will was proved on 15 March 1883 and he left an estate valued at £40 000 - the equivalent of almost two million pounds today. He left Matilda a legacy of an annuity amounting to £1000 per annum and the remainder of his estate was divided amongst his four children with his sons receiving double that of his daughters. Six months later, Matilda died at their home on St Johns Street and she was buried next to Meadows in the Chester Cemetery. Her will was proved on 14 November 1883 but her estate was valued at only £750.
Eleanor Matilda never married and lived with her parents until their deaths in the early 1880s. In 1891, she was living at 6 Aberdeen Road in Islington North London along with two servants and she was ‘living on her own means’ which most likely meant she received an annuity from her father’s estate. By 1901, she had moved to Derbyshire and was living as a Boarder at Rockside in Matlock but her occupation was still ‘own means’. She died on 20 December 1906 in Wirral and was buried at the Overleigh Cemetery in Chester two days after Christmas. Her will was proved on 6 April 1907 and she left an estate valued at £2013. The record notes that her last address as Collin Croft, 10 Hoscote Park, West Kirby, Cheshire and the will was proved by Mathilde Sophie Elisabeth Bodensick, spinster, who previously appeared in the 1901 Census with Eleanor as a ‘Companion’.
Francis Aylmer married Emma Louisa Russell in Marylebone in 1885 but they returned to the north west following their marriage and went on to have two children.