Robert Tritton Whorlow [5880]

  General Notes:

Close to the junction between tow parts of Whitstable's long and busy main street- the high street and Oxford Street-one finds the inconspicuous entrance to the town's Museum and Art Gallery. Opened in 1985, it lies tucked behinds the buildings along the street frontage..
When this building, the old British Legion Hall., was purchased the concerns were for its central location and suitability for conversion into spaces suitable for exhibition. There was no thought that here was a site ands a building which might exemplify much of Whitstable's History.
Old property deeds often contain a recital of the previous owner. The deeds for the Museum are a splendid example, they give details from the beginning of the 18th Century. Then it was a part of a block of land stretching northwards across what is now 1-3 Oxford street to the ground on which Cromwell Road begins..
So, we learn that in 1709 there stood her a "messuage or Tenement lately called or known by the Name or Sign of the Packet Hoy and formerly of The Three Mariners together with the Barn Stables Garden and Yard there-unto....And also of and in One Piece or Parcel or Pasture Land therewith used and enjoyed Containing by Estimation One Acres and three Roods".
This Inn was then, of course, outside the small village of Whitstable Street, on the busy road linking the landing point at the horsebridge to the city of Canterbury.- a road of sufficient importance to be turnpiked in 1726.. The property had been owned by the Reynold's Family since at least the middle of the seventeenth century and was now occupied by Thomas Reynolds. The packet Hot inn seems to have continued for a short time from 1723 as the Canterbury Hoy before closing in 1729. Traditionally, this Thomas Reynolds was known as the leader of a local Smuggling gang,. Most of the men recruited for these sort of gangs were local fisherman and farm workers who welcomed the opportunity to earn money and again a small share of the illicit goods. So, the Inn such as the Packet Hoy could act as a meeting place for the exchange of information on the local revenuer men, some of whom were often in league with the smugglers, and to received instructions when a cargo is due.
A deed of sale in 1799 shows that now there was a property occupied by Redding Pierce, a surgeon...and previously by John Coltrup, one of the wealthier inhabitants. A glimpse of this Georgian-style residence can be seen in the windows and a handsome cornice above the single storey shop extension to No.3 Oxford Street, next to the Museum entrance. As a single house it must have been unusually grand for Whitstable. Was it perhaps built by Thomas Reynolds out of the profit of "Free Trade"?. He died in 1774 at the age of 68.
In 1809 the house and land were sold by the descendants of Thomas Reynolds to John Whorlow, who as "expeditor for the Commission of Sewers" had been in charge of the construction of the new sea wall stretching from Reeves Beach to Tankerton. This Insett Sea Wall replaced the original one to the seaward which had been destroyed by the battering of the sea.
The house now divided into two and in the right hand part John's eldest son Robert Tritton Whorlow lived, at first working as a boot and shoe maker and then from 1825 becoming the town's Postmaster. Later on in his life he acted as Collector of Land Assessed Taxes and Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths. He died still working at the age of 75 on the last day of December 1876: "by his invariable courtesy and obliging manner, (he) gained for himself the respect of all his fellow townsmen", recorded the Whitstable Times.
He was succeeded by hi eldest son, names in the Victorian tradition, after his father, Robert Tritton Whorlow. He ad acted as his fathers clerk for many years and had occupied the other half of the house. In February 1879 the Post Office was moved into the main business part of the High street though times were not good, for Mr. Whorlow, only received an honorarium of 16-6-8d due to the depression of trade and shipping. He continued as Post Master and then just over a year later the Whitstable Times reported that "He left home on Tuesday of last week and has not been heard of since". This disappearance occasioned no further comment, as was the tradition then in this local paper with regard to personal distress, and a replacement was rapidly appointed.
In 1860, Robert Tritton Whorlow together with his younger son Albert Whorlow purchased the house and the adjacent land- the site which was first described in 1709-from William Neame on a mortgage of 500.00 at 6.00 per cent per annum, and to be redeemed after 7 years. This loan came withy the condition that they would "forwith erect and build on part of the land or ground hereby granted a Schoolroom 40 feet in frontage or length and 20 feet in depth, the walls to be of good bricks and the roof slated". This building was tucked in to the rear of the house on one side and a long cottage on the other. Inside it was just one large Schoolroom. To add dignity to the end facing the street there was a crow stepped gable surmounted by a little bell turret.
It was However, at the Trust School Beside St alphege Church that Albert Whorlow learnt the art of School mastering. When it opened in 1845 by the Whitstable Charities, there was either side for the Master and the Mistress, a large School Room and one class room for up to 250 boys and 140 girls. Although, in reality the numbers on roll where somewhat lower, the only assistance the Master an Mistress had were older pupils from about the age of Eleven acting as Monitors, and a few of these moving on to become Pupil Teachers from the age of Fourteen. So in 1852 Albert, presumably a pupil sine the opening of the school, became on of four Pupil Teachers, and then after five years apprenticeship was appointed as an Assistant Teacher at 45.00 per annum (more funds were available by this time in grants under the Government scheme) Albert's contract expired in the summer of 1860 and within a year he had his own School. There are no details available for the "Academy" never advertised nor was it ever mentioned in the local press; the minutes pf the Trust School make no mention of this competing institution. The School closed in 1880 doubtless due to the provision now made by the new "Board School" which had opened in fine buildings in 1877. (Toady this is Whitstable junior school, behind the library, built by one of my ancestors.).
In march of 1881, the Whorlow School- the big schoolroom with an additional classroom and office- was purchased by the local branch of the Ancient order of Forester's, to provide them with their own premises instead of hiring rooms at the Bear and Key. ⁵⁰⁸

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation. Postmaster

• Occupation, 1840, Whitstable, Kent. ⁵⁴ Mentioned in 1840 Pigot's Directory as living High Street, Whitastable as Postmaster & Boot & Shoe Repairer

• Postmaster: Postmaster, 1867, Whitstable, Kent. ⁵⁰⁹ Robert Tritton WHORLOW, postmaster, deputy registrar for births & deaths for Whitstable & Seasalter, & collector of assessed & income taxes, High street

Robert married Charlotte Appleton [5889] [MRIN: 1901] on 18 Jun 1822 in Whitstable, Kent ^78,193.^,404 (Charlotte Appleton [5889] was born in 1804 in Whitstable, Kent ²⁶, christened on 27 May 1804 in Whitstable, Kent ¹⁹³ and died in 1891 ⁷⁹.)

  Marriage Notes:

Surety:1