Ruth's Blog

This little plaque, “BENJAMIN CROW, for 65 years the Hon Secretary of this Institution, 1852-1917”, is one of the many items we have recently processed while working through our backlog.  It is an engraved brass plaque mounted on wood.  When we found it, it was badly tarnished and almost illegible, but Andy Cooper kindly cleaned it for us.  We realised that the plaque must refer to Mr Crow’s position with the Louth Mechanics Institute, which was based in The Mansion House, now 12 Upgate.

Looking in contemporary newspapers, I found that the plaque had been presented to Mr Crow in 1917, along with a portrait of himself which was reproduced in the newspaper.  His face looked familiar, and searching through the museum collection (which of course I can do on the computer) I found that we have his portrait stored away.  We had catalogued him as an “unknown man”.  Now we can reunite the plaque and the portrait.

Benjamin Crow was a remarkable man who had a very long life of public service in Louth.  Born in Skirbeck in 1831, he was the son of a shoemaker.  The family moved to Louth when he was very young.

Mr Crow’s obituary, when he died in 1918 at the age of 87, gave many details of his life.  “At the time of his retirement from active work in January of this year, he was regarded as the oldest solicitor’s managing clerk in Lincolnshire, being engaged at the office of Messrs Wilson, Bell and Ingoldby [in Louth Cornmarket, it became Wilkin Chapman].  He had been in the employ of the firm and its predecessors since 1848, a period of 70 years.

“For a period of 67 years, he was hon secretary of the Louth Mechanics Institute.  He had also deep interest in the work of the Louth Antiquarian, Naturalists’ and Literary Society, being at one time joint hon secretary and treasurer, and succeeding the late Alderman Cresswell as president in 1909.

“He was a member of Louth Town Council from 1884 to 1907, and initiated a movement which resulted in great improvements being carried out at the Town Hall in 1904.  For over 50 years, he was secretary of Louth General Friendly Society.  He served on Louth Burial Board, was a trustee and life governor of Louth Hospital, a member of Louth Rifle Corps, a manager of Louth Savings Bank, church warden of St Michael’s Church (although in later years he joined the Roman Catholic Church)”.

Benjamin Crow married in 1855.  He and his wife Mary Jane lived first in Aswell Street, and later in Lee Street.  They had a total of eleven children. The eldest, Martha, married well-known Louth printer Thomas Henry Burditt.  Annie Crow married well-known grocer Joseph Larder.  The five sons became a solicitor, a chemist, a Roman catholic priest, and two bankers.