Robert Giles Marten was born in 1792, the eldest son of Robert Humphrey Marten. It would be fair to say that he lived his life in the shadow of his father, unfortunately dying three months before him at the age of 47 in 1839.
He went to a school run by Rev William Carver at Melbourne, Cambridgeshire that embodied the high religious ideals of his father characterised by a strong inquisitive and dissenting tradition. At the age of 16 he was introduced to the world of business, shadowing his father’s insurance and shipping activities in the City of London.
In 1811 his mother died and by 1813 his father had remarried. We have a small picture of Robert’s stepmother Emma Maria Marten (nee Martin) inscribed at he bottom from “your affectionate mother”. This offers an insight into the closeness of the family now centred on the family house in Plaistow. The two brothers Robert Giles and Charles were both reputed to be ‘delicate children’ and both were to die in middle age.
In 1814 Robert Giles Marten married Eliza Warmington the daughter of John Warmington a close neighbour in Plaistow. The couple had four sons and four daughters who all grew to adulthood and had distinguished careers in their own right. In 1823 his father reorganized the family business as R H Marten and sons incorporating Robert Giles and his brother Charles as partners. It is difficult to imagine that the presence of their father, Robert Humphrey, was anything other than overwhelming. By this time, Robert Humphrey’s breadth of contacts and status of reputation was enormous, founded on a heady concoction of business, religion and philanthropy.
Robert Giles and his family lived for a time in the City of London by Tower Hill but never far from contact with the family home in Plaistow. However, he seems to have finally left Plaistow some time about 1830, when he moved west to Vauxhall as he became Company Secretary of the Vauxhall Bridge Company, a company that managed the toll bridge to the West of London. Later he appears to have moved to Denmark Hill where he died in 1839 before he could ever emerge from his father’s shadow. His widow Eliza must have been a strong influence on the still young family. She lived on, latterly in the household of her second son, Henry Marten, dying in Wolverhampton in 1865.
Family of Robert Giles MARTEN and Eliza WARMINGTON
| Husband: | Robert Giles MARTEN (1792-1839) |
| Wife: | Eliza WARMINGTON (1793-1865) |
| Children: | Eliza Warmington MARTEN (1815-1877) |
| Emma Maria MARTEN (1817-1897) |
| Caroline Eisdell MARTEN (1819-1885) |
| Robert Humphrey MARTEN (1821-1885) |
| Louisa Sarah MARTEN (1824-1891) |
| Henry John MARTEN (1827-1892) |
| Alfred George MARTEN (1829-1910) |
| Edward Bindon MARTEN (1832-1914) |
| Marriage | 8 Sep 1814 | West Ham Parish Church |
Husband: Robert Giles MARTEN
| Name: | Robert Giles MARTEN |
| Sex: | Male |
| Father: | Robert Humphrey MARTEN (1763-1839) |
| Mother: | Elizabeth GILES (bap.1759, d.1811) |
| Birth | 22 Jun 1792 | Whitechapel1 |
| Baptism | 12 Jul 1792 (age 0) | New Broad Street Independent |
| Graduation | 26 Jun 1814 (age 22) | Admitted to Livery Cooks Co and Freeman of City of London |
| Will | 1 Jul 1839 (age 47) | Names his brother Charles and George Executors (MS7744/O/4 – Marten Papers) |
| Death | 10 Jul 1839 (age 47) | Camberwell, Surrey |
Wife: Eliza WARMINGTON
| Name: | Eliza WARMINGTON |
| Sex: | Female |
| Father: | John WARMINGTON (c. 1766-1845) |
| Mother: | Elizabeth DEVONSHIRE (c. 1763-1833) |
| Birth | 22 Jan 1793 | Cripplegate, London1 |
| Residence | 1841 (age 47-48) | Grove Place, Camberwell recently widowed |
| Residence | 1851 (age 57-58) | DeCrespigny Terrace, Dulwich, Camberwell |
| Residence | 1861 (age 67-68) | Woverhampton with son Henry |
| Death | 4 Jul 1865 (age 72) | Parkfield House, Wolverhampton, Staffs |
Child 1: Eliza Warmington MARTEN
| Name: | Eliza Warmington MARTEN |
| Sex: | Female |
| Spouse: | Alfred PAYNE (1814-1887) |
| Birth | 15 Oct 1815 | |
| Death | 16 Jan 1877 (age 61) | Ettingshall, Warwickshire |
Child 2: Emma Maria MARTEN
| Name: | Emma Maria MARTEN |
| Sex: | Female |
| Spouse: | Charles SPURDEN (1812-1876) |
| Birth | 20 Feb 1817 | |
| Baptism | | All Hallows Barking |
| Death | 29 Dec 1897 (age 80) | Fredericton, New Brunswick |
Child 3: Caroline Eisdell MARTEN
| Name: | Caroline Eisdell MARTEN |
| Sex: | Female |
| Spouse: | Francis TUCKER (1813-1886) |
| Birth | 16 May 1819 | |
| Death | 27 Jul 1885 (age 66) | Hastings Sussex |
Child 4: Robert Humphrey MARTEN
| Name: | Robert Humphrey MARTEN |
| Sex: | Male |
| Spouse: | Rachel Sloane FISHER (1824-1896) |
| Birth | 28 Oct 1821 | Catherine Court, Tower Hill |
| Occupation | 1851 (age 29-30) | Minister at Baptist Chapel; Abingdon, Berkshire |
| Death | 21 Oct 1885 (age 63) | Lewisham, Kent |
Child 5: Louisa Sarah MARTEN
| Name: | Louisa Sarah MARTEN |
| Sex: | Female |
| Spouse: | Richard Francis WEYMOUTH (1822-1902) |
| Birth | 25 Mar 1824 | Catherine Court, Tower Hill |
| Residence | 1851 (age 26-27) | Still living in Camberwell with mother Eliza and brother Alfred George |
| Death | 9 Feb 1891 (age 66) | Acton |
Child 6: Henry John MARTEN
| Name: | Henry John MARTEN2 |
| Sex: | Male |
| Spouse 1: | Frances Anne DIMMACK (1834-1862) |
| Spouse 2: | Martha SHAW (1830-1900) |
| Birth | 3 Feb 1827 | Plaistow, Essex |
| Education | btw 1839 and 1840 (age 11-13) | Mill Hill School3 |
| Education | 1841 (age 13-14) | Church Field Academy, Margate with brother Alfred George |
| Apprenticeship | c. 1843 (age 15-16) | Apprentice to Thomas Wicksteed, Water Pioneer, Wolverhampton, Hull and East London |
| Occupation | 1845 (age 17-18) | -; Working on waterworks in Hull, under apprenticeship to Wickstead |
| Occupation | 1846 (age 18-19) | -; Appointed chief Water engineer in Wolverhampton (aged 19) |
| Graduation | Apr 1852 (age 25) | Associate Member of of the Institute of Civil Engineers |
| Graduation | Nov 1854 (age 27) | Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers |
| Occupation | 1856 (age 28-29) | Resigns as Wolverhanpton water engineer to become EB Dimmack’s partne |
| Residence | 1870 (age 42-43) | Parkfield House Wolverhampton |
| Occupation | 1871 (age 43-44) | Landowner, Iron Founder and Civil Engineer |
| Residence | 1875 (age 47-48) | Business Headquarter at 4 Storey’s Gate |
| Death | 3 Nov 1892 (age 65) | The Birches, Codsall, Staffordshire, buried Wolverhampton |
| Obituary | 1893 (age 65-66) | Electronic ISSN: 1753-7843 |
Child 7: Alfred George MARTEN
| Name: | Alfred George MARTEN |
| Sex: | Male |
| Spouse: | Patricia Barrington KENNET (1841-1918) |
| Birth | 8 Nov 18294 | |
| Title | | Sir |
| Occupation | 1870 (age 40-41) | Fellow of St Johns College Cambridge |
| Occupation | btw 1874 and 1880 (age 44-51) | MP for Cambridge |
| Death | 22 Jun 1910 (age 80) | St Leonards on Sea |
Child 8: Edward Bindon MARTEN
| Name: | Edward Bindon MARTEN |
| Sex: | Male |
| Spouse: | Clara BEST (1842-1907) |
| Birth | 4 Apr 1832 | Vauxhall Bridge House, Middlesex |
| Residence | 1851 (age 18-19) | Living with brother at the ‘Water Works’ Upper Green, Tettenhall |
| Graduation | 1857 (age 24-25) | M Inst CE |
| Death | 8 Jun 1914 (age 82) | Pedmore, Worcestershire |