A-Z Challenge 2016: J is for Jerom Murch 1807-1895

Jerom Murch was born in Honiton in 1807.  He married Anne Taylor in 1830 and on the 1841 census he has been enumerated as a 'Dissenting Minister' (this was Unitarianism), living in the Parade in Bath, Somerset, England with his wife, three children, and four servants.

By the 1851 census, none of the children is recorded as being at home (although the four servants are still there), and Jerom is now recorded as a 'Unitarian Minister of Lewins Mead Chapel, Bristol'.

By the 1861 census, he has now become 'Magistrate for Somerset'.  On the 1871 census he is recorded as a 'Landowner Magistrate', and his servants, instead of being merely 'male' or 'female', are now recorded as 'Butler', 'Lady's Maid', 'Cook', and 'Housemaid'.  He became Mayor of Bath 1863, 1864, 1876, 1877, 1886, 1890, 1892.

On the 1881 census, now aged 73, he has added a footman to his staff, and Jerom is described not only as a Magistrate, but also Deputy Lieutenant and Alderman.  When aged 83, he is now described as 'living on own means' on the 1891 census.  Jerom was knighted on 21 May 1894.

Sir Jerom died in 1895.  There is an excellent (short) article on his life at Murch Family Worldwide

Sir Jerom features in the Murch Surname Study

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