March Family
Sacred to the memory of William March
who died November 4th 1815 aged 47 years
also
of William, his son,
who died June 1st 1815
aged 8 months
also
Mary, wife of the above
who died December 1st 1829
aged 47 years
This stone has been restored by the ...........daughter ......Ann ....
.....
.......
July .......
“Brewers moving up in the world”
When we first hear of William March, in the 1790s, he is working as a cordwainer (shoemaker) in York. He married Ann Durham in St Michael le Belfry on 16th April 1793 and by 1795 they had two children, Ann and Mary. Unfortunately, daughter Ann perished in a smallpox epidemic in 1798. The family moved to Goodramgate and began to attend Holy Trinity. They had a third daughter who was baptised at Holy Trinity in June 1799. She was also named Ann – possibly in remembrance of her sister. Tragedy soon struck again for William. Only a few months after the birth of his third daughter, William’s wife died and both his remaining children passed away, leaving him alone.
Forced to rebuild his life, William established March’s Brewery. By 1805, the pub was up and running. He also found a new wife, Mary Ormerod, from Giggleswick.
William and Mary went on to have 5 children – Catherine, John, Ann, Alice and William – who were all baptised at Holy Trinity between 1806 and 1814. Their fifth child, to whom William had given his name, died in infancy and William himself passed away soon after, in November 1815.
But the family business had continued to thrive. The Marches now owned the Golden Slipper, a pub with an attached brewery. Was the name a reference to William’s start in the shoe trade? And did William himself make the shoe later found in the fabric of the building?
After William’s death, Mary took on the licence of the pub herself. After her death in 1829, her three daughters, Catherine, Ann and Alice, lived on as brewers at the Golden Slipper. Mary’s son, John, a publican, brewer and wine and spirits merchant, became president of the Licensed Victuallers Association in York. He served as a councillor for Monk Ward and was an Alderman of the city from 1871 until his death in 1880. In 1873 – 4, he was Lord Mayor of the City, just one term before the role was taken by Sir Joseph Terry. When John was buried in York cemetery, his estate was worth £12,000.
William and Mary’s business thrived well into the 19th century before becoming “Thackwrays Brewery” and finally ceasing production in 1940. It was converted in to flats in 2009
No wonder Ann March, whose name we can see at bottom of the memorial stone, decided to restore the stone as a tribute to her hardworking parents and infant brother.