Edward Sherman (coach Proprietor)

Edward Sherman (1776 – 14 September 1866) was a stagecoach proprietor from Berkshire who became the second largest operator of stagecoaches in England after William Chaplin.

Early life

The son of Edward Staniford icSherman, a farmer and smith, and Mary nee Sawyer, Edward Sherman was born at South Moreton in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) in 1776. Reportedly, an uncle he was living with boxed his ears and as a result in 1793 he made his way from Wantage to London where he gained a poor livelihood in Oxford Market. The market and other early work were abandoned for more lucrative employment and for some time prior to him becoming 1803 onwardan innkeeper and coach proprietor he was closely connected with the Stock Exchange.

Career

He became the second largest operator of stagecoaches in England after William Chaplin, retaining about 17,000 horses t coaching inns along routes from Londonand carrying on a business with an estimated turnover of over £500,000.Allen, Louise. (2014)
Stagecoach Travel
'. Oxford: Shire. p. 13. Circa 1830 Sherman bought the Bull and Mouth Inn and rebuilt it as the Queens Hotel at a cost of £60,000. Sherman had known Lewis Levy, a financier of the City of London who farmed turnpike tolls with an annual income of half-a-million pounds, and was set up by Levy at The Bull and Mouth, St Martin's Le Grand.

With the coming of the railways, Sherman re-invested in this new industry. In July 1845 he travelled to Antwerp with other investors of the English company undertaking the construction of the Louvain euvento Jemappe-sur-Sambre new railway line and it was reported that he was to "reside in Belgium as the managing director of the railroad from Louvain icto Jemappe" Authorisation for the concession for the construction of the Louvain and Jemeppe (sur Sambre) Railway was passed by the Chamber of Deputies, in Brussels, 2nd May 1845

Sherman was also Chairman of the committee for the Southampton and Salisbury Junction Railway, and a Director of the Direct Northern Line Railway He was also 845on the committee for the Manchester and Birmingham Continuation and Welsh Junction Railway and the Remington's Line London and Manchester Direct Independent Railway, with a branch through the Staffordshire Potteries to Crewe Again in 1845, he was also, on the committee - with Lewis Levy - of the Kent and Essex Union Railway onnecting the southern end of Essex with Dover and the Continent, via Sheerness, Faversham and Canterbury, with a junction line to Herne Bay, Margate, Ramsgate and Deal

Personal life

Sherman is consistently stated to have "married three wealthy widows in quick succession". This is not the case. Sherman married twice and his first marriage lasted over forty years. On 6th August 1803 aged 27, Sherman married into the second generation of innholders at the Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane, Dowgate, City of London; marrying by Licence at St Martin, Ludgate, Ann Palmer nee Hunt, aged 49, innholder of the Oxford Arms, being the widowed daughter of its previous innholder. Their marriage was witnessed by five people including Isabella Hunt, Joseph and Mary Hunt, and sisters Ann and Sobieskia Clementina Freanch, neighbours from Oxford Arms Passage. In 1828 Sherman's widowed sister-in-law Margaret Hunt left her estate in her will, witnessed by Sherman, to her daughter Isabella Hunt. Back in 1800 Isabella had also received a substantial legacy from her grandmother Ann Hunt Snr, the Oxford Arms innholder since 1769 when her husband took it over. Sherman's first wife Ann died in 1847 aged 93. In 1849, witnessed by Edward Henry Sanderson, Sherman aged 73, secondly married her niece Isabella Hunt then aged 69. Isabella survived Sherman by less than a year, and during the course of executor Edward Henry Sanderson settling her probate in 1868, the Court of Probate ruled that as Isabella was the niece of Sherman's first wife, their marriage was invalid, and her estate was to be propounded as a single woman.

Death

Sherman died at Manor Farm Asylum, Chiswick, Middlesex, on 14 September 1866. He had been admitted there 1st April 1864, by his relatives due to his bouts of ill temper and some eccentricities. He was described as "late of the Oxford Arms Inn in the City of London". He left effects of less than £80,000 and his will was proved by Edward Henry Sanderson, gentleman, one of the executors, of Manor House, Clapham, Surrey. Sanderson was a former apprentice, and manager for Sherman of the Bull and Mouth Inn aka Queens Hotel.

Edward Sherman was buried at West Brompton cemetery Burial 46461 - in the same grave as his first wife Ann e-interred from Newgate cemetery twenty years after her death in 1847, to be re-interred with Sherman in October 1866, a month after his death and his second wife Isabella Sherman nee Hunt, who died in 1867. Afterwards Mary Sanderson on 12/11/1875, then her husband Edward Henry Sanderson on 22/Apr/1881, having retired to and died in Brighton, were also interred in the same plot. Brompton, London, England, Cemetery Registers, 1840-2012 for Edward Sherman - 1866 Aug 16-1867 Jan 26

References

External links

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English businesspeople
1770s births
Stock traders
People from South Moreton
People from Chiswick
British hoteliers
1866 deaths

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