The following obituary is reprinted in Dartford, Further Historical Notes1.
The 1841 census shows William, aged 22, a shoemaker
living in the house of Robert Goodchild (43, a shoemaker), his wife and six
children in Middle Row, High Street, Maidstone. William married Mary Ann
Bristow on 31st July 1843 at All Saints, Maidstone. He was aged 25, a
son of Henry Cogger, a labourer. She was 23, a daughter of Robert Bristow, a
carpenter. She came from Boughton Monchelsea, a village three miles south of
Maidstone. They went on to have seven children, Mary Ann (b 1843 in Boughton
Monchelsea), Henry (b 1845 in Maidstone), William (b 1851 in Badlesmere), Fanny
(b 1853 in Badlesmere), George Palmer (b 1855 in Southwark), Caroline (b 1857
in Southwark) and Robert (b 1859 in Southwark). The birth of their first child
was registered in Q3 1843, indicating either that the child was born before the
marriage or that Mary Ann was pregnant when she wed (which was quite common
then).
The 1851 census shows William (32, a shoemaker)
living in Badlesmere (a village located between Faversham and Ashford) with his
wife Mary Ann (30) and children Mary Ann (7) and Henry (6). The places of birth
of his children indicate that William moved to Southwark in about 1854. By 1861
he was living at 7 Bridgnorth Cottages in Dartford. This house, which no longer
exists, was in Waterside (now called Hythe Street). Its site was next to the
Kent Curry House, where the Co-op shop building now stands. The family
consisted of William (42, a shoemaker), Mary Ann (40, a shoe binder), Henry
(16, a shoe maker), William (9), George (5), Caroline (3) and Robert (1).
In the United Kingdom, temperance as a mass movement
originated in the 19th century2. The earliest temperance societies,
inspired by a Belfast professor of theology and Presbyterian Church of Ireland
Minister Rev. John Edgar, who poured his stock of whiskey out of his window in
1829, concentrated their fire on spirits rather than wine and beer. A more hard
line attitude dates from March 1832 when Joseph Livesey started his Temperance
Movement in Preston, requiring followers to sign a pledge of total abstinence.
The term Teetotal is derived from a speech by Richard Turner, a follower of
Livesey, in 1833. Livesey opened the first temperance hotel in 1833 and the
next year founded the first temperance magazine, The Preston Temperance
Advocate (1834–37). The British Association for the Promotion of Temperance was
established by 1835. In 1847 the Band of Hope was founded in Leeds, with the
stated aim of saving working class children from the perils of drink. The
members had to pledge to abstain "from all liquors of an intoxicating
quality, whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicine." In 1853, the United Kingdom Alliance led by John
Bartholomew Gough was formed, aimed at promoting a law prohibiting the sale of
alcohol in the UK. This hard-line group of prohibitionists was opposed by other
temperance organisations which preferred moral persuasion to a legal ban. This
division in the ranks limited the effectiveness of the temperance movement as a
whole. The impotence of legislation in this field was demonstrated when the
Sale of Beer Act 1854, which restricted Sunday opening hours, had to be
repealed, following widespread rioting. In 1859 a prototype prohibition bill
was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons. Despite this setback,
various non-conformist groups, including the Methodists, Quakers and the
Salvation Army (founded in 1864), still lobbied parliament to restrict alcohol
sales.
The Independent Order of Good Templars was set up in
America in 1851, as a fraternal organisation to promote temperance or total
abstinence3. In 1868 Joseph Malins, a painter and decorator from Birmingham
who had emigrated with his wife to the USA, returned to this country with
permission to set up the Order here. The first British lodge was instituted on
8th September 1868 in Birmingham. The Order spread throughout the country and
the rest of the world.
The 1871 census shows William and his family living
at 15 East Hill, Dartford. This building no longer exists but was near the
bottom of East Hill on the south side. The site is now an area of grass between
Amar Hall and the Fastrack bus road. The household consisted of William (52, a
boot maker), Mary Ann (50, a factory hand), Henry (26, a factory hand), William
(19, a baker), Fanny (17), George (15), Caroline (13) and Robert (11).
William died on September 12th 1873 aged
55 and was buried in a purchased grave in the SW quarter of East Hill Cemetery,
Dartford. Cemetery records give his address as Spital Street, Dartford and his
occupation as bookseller. The legible parts of the inscription on his
gravestone read
In
loving memory of / Mr WILLIAM COGGER / of Dartford / who died September [12th]
187[3] aged [55] years / There …. ….. … soul / in …. …. …/ and not …. …. roll /
across …. / Also GEORGE [PALMER] COGGER
[son of the above] who died [20th November] 1892 [aged 37 years] / Also…
The full quotation seems to be "There shall I bath my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest, and not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast", which comes from a hymn.
William Cogger's gravestone
Also buried in the grave is Harold George Cogger, a
son of George Palmer Cogger. Harold died 9th September 1895 aged 6.
William’s burial service was conducted by Reverend
John Hay Bowhay, who was the minister of the Independent Chapel in Lowfield
Street (the building no longer exists, it was where the Priory shopping centre
now stands). This church operated from 1819 to 1881, and was presumably where
William worshipped. The building was superseded in 1882 by a new Congregational
Church (which still stands but is now converted to flats) near the bottom of
West Hill.
William’s wife remarried in 1875. Her second husband
was Henry Hartshorn, a newsagent. She died in 1894 aged 73 and is buried with
her second husband in a grave near William’s.
Philip Taylor
References
1. Dartford
Further Historical Notes, S K Keyes (1938), p798
2. Temperance
movement, Wikipedia, viewed 12 Feb 2012.
3. International
Organisation of Good Templars, Wikipedia, viewed 12 Feb 2012.
