George Finmore was born about 1759 and married Catherine Griffin on 5 January 1791 at St Martin in the Fields Church, Westminster. A surprising venue perhaps, for a Thames fisherman from Clewer in Berkshire; but then the Finmore family has proved to be rather unusual in several respects.

Clewer Church from the river

When George died in 1834 he left a will that had been witnessed by three masters from Eton College.  At the time of his death he had freehold property in both Clewer and nearby Bray. After disposal, the value of the estate was to be shared equally between his sons and daughters, although his son Henry had the option to inherit the property at Clewer so long as he paid a fair share to the rest of the family. His other effects were also to be shared between his children except for “the bed given to me by Mrs Hawtry and which I hereby give to my daughter Elizabeth.” Hawtrey was the name of the Headmaster at Eton College at the time.

The reason for this close relationship with the college can be found in the census of 1841 where Henry Finmore’s occupation is given as Servant to the Headmaster. Ten years later he described himself as butler and had a house in Weston’s Yard, next to the headmaster’s house. However the headmaster was single, as were his two sisters who were staying with him, so it is unclear quite who the donor of the bed was. Fortunately, working close to the headmaster brought him to the attention of Eton boys and he was remembered in their published memoirs, even rating an illustration in one. To see this and to learn something of his life at Eton look at the page for Henry Finmore.

George and Catherine had eleven children between 1790 and 1810.  The eldest son, William, took up his father's occupation and is probably the Thames fisherman featured in one chapter of a book entitled “Curiosities in Natural History”. The author, Francis T Buckland, described a fishing trip on the Thames at Windsor “in August last”. As the Preface is dated 30 November 1857 and George Finmore died in 1834, it seems likely that the fisherman described as an old man was William, who would have been nearly sixty when the book was written.

The fisherman is only named once as Finmore, and thereafter is referred to as Charon: the aged ferryman of Greek mythology who takes the dead across the Styx. There are extracts from the book quoting the fisherman's opinions on a page for William Finmore.

Henry FinmoreWilliam Finmore

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