Reference
Z1334
Title
Gift from Bedford Archaeological & Local History Society
Date free text
c.1875 - 1940s
Production date
From: 1875 To: 1940
Admin/biog history
John Stock was Bedford’s last Town Crier. He was appointed on the 2nd December, 1875, and served until may 1901, when a disagreement over charges for billposting led to his enforced retirement. He became a market toll collector and died on the 23 April 1902.
John Stock was baptised at St Mary, Bedford on 14 August 1836, the son of James and Elizabeth.
The 1861 census records him resident with his parents at the Bull Inn, Silver Street, where James Stock was the publican. At this time John was a wheelwright. His sister Elizabeth was a milliner, and an older sister, Jane, also lived with them.
He married Martha Negus at Bedford St Peter on 16 Jan 1862. John was 25, his wife 21 at the time of their marriage.
They had the following children:
Arthur c.1863
Martha M c.1865
Annie c.1867
John c.1872
Louisa c.1873
Ethel c.1875
Lizzie c.1877
James c.1879
Emily c.1881
Helen c.1885
From the time of the 1871 Census onward the family lived in Commercial Road. In 1871 he was a ‘Master Carpenter’, by 1881 he was Town Crier, Bill Poster and Toll Collector for the Borough.
As his obituary notes, John was a member of the Moravian Church. ‘For more than a quarter of a century he had appeared in a number of public offices, which brought him in touch with all sorts and conditions of men, and he was ever kindly and courteous. He left a record of work well and faithfully done under a sense of duty. He was diligent in business, seeking divine guidance and not forgetting the higher interests of life. There were those who would remember him as a Sunday School teacher and superintendent. He showed his interest in church affairs by regular attendance and his practical advice. He would be missed in the Church to which he was devoted, and still more in the family where he had been a good husband and father, setting a good example in his household’. [Beds Times 2 May 1902]
Level of description
fonds