The wedding of Henry John Marten to Frances Anne Dimmack, took place in Snow Hill Congregational Church in Wolverhampton on 10 Aug 1854.
He was the 27 year old pioneering Water engineer, engaged by the Wolverhampton authorities in the mid 1840’s to install a clean water system in the face of several waves of cholera. Frances Dimmack was the only daughter of Edward Bagnall Dimmack, an ironmaster increasingly engaged in educational and civic projects.
The Wolverhampton Chronicle of 16 Aug 1854 records the wedding in some detail. It was presided over by Rev William Bevan.
Henry Marten Wedding, Wolverhampton Chronicle, 16 Aug 1854
The wedding breakfast was evidently held at the residence of Edward Dimmack in Dunstall Hill House. Henry’s younger brother Edward Bindon Marten, who was a close collaborator at the Water Works in Tettenhall, was host of a wedding dinner for Henry’s employees.
The first guest listed in the article was Thomas Thornely Esq. He was one of the two MPs for Wolverhampton and shares the non-conformist and liberal credentials that can be found both in the Dimmack and Marten families.
Sidney Cartwright, a Wolverhampton magistrate, lived in the Lessows not far from Penn Hall, where Henry Marten was already living and where most the children of the very marriage were to be born. Sidney Cartwright was a businessman and maker of Tin Toys, an offshoot of the Japanning and plating trade centred around Wolverhampton and Bilston in the late eighteenth century. Like Edward Dimmack, he showed relatively progressive concerns about regulating child labour and the need for proper education.
Samuel Holden Blackwell was the chair of the South Staffordshire Water Company. John Marshall was also on the board, as indeed were both Henry Marten and Edward Bagnall Dimmack.
William Allen was possibly the banker from Shifnal of that name who was involved in a huge banking fraud in 1855.
Joseph Firmstone was the partner of Edward Bagnall Dimmack and his brother-in-law John Thompson.
Sources and Notes
- Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History (follow links)
- Johann Van Leerzem and Brian Williams: The History of South Staffordshire Waterworks Company
- Bevan, William an English Congregational minister, was born at Islington, London, Sept. 3, 1812. His early training was in the Church of England, but he joined the Congregational Church when quite young, and entered Highbury College to prepare for its ministry. In 1835 he left college, and was ordained pastor at Salem Chapel, Wellingborough, and in 1837 undertook the pastorate at Newington Chapel, Liverpool, where he laboured successfully ten years. At an urgent request, in 1847 he removed to London and became secretary of the Evangelical Alliance. He accepted the pastorate of Snow Hill, Wolverhampton in 1849, which he retained until 1860. In 1862 he removed to Bow, where he preached till his death, June 4, 1874. Mr. Bevan was a grave and earnest preacher; his sermons were solid in style, and rich in instruction and guidance. He had a remarkable gift of prayer. As a pastor, he was the ever accessible resort of the troubled and anxious. Whatever he undertook he did thoroughly. See (Lond.) Cong. Year-book, 1875, p. 312. Source McLintock and Strong Biblicalcyclopedia
- Mrs Bevan would be Mary Ann Gill, daughter of John Gill Esq of Bath (formerly linen draper (?) Reading) married 1838.