The Tradition of the Baldwin Treat

A treat for village children on the 28 June

The Baldwin Grave in the churchyard

The Baldwin Grave

The Baldwin grave is in the southeast part of the Marske churchyard.  The inscription reads “Robert Baldwin late of London who died 1 Sep 1884 aged 78yrs.  Also of Catherine Baldwin his wife who died at Barnard Castle 15 Jun 1888 aged 86 yrs.”  There are other graves in the churchyard for Catherine’s relations (Fryer and Wilkinson) – the Baldwin grave has been given the number 102.  More about the churchyard and other memorials within it can be found here.

Robert and Catherine Baldwin: Park Lane and Mayfair

Catherine had been born in 1802 to Joseph Fryer of Moorhouse, Skelton, Marske.  She and Robert Baldwin, who was born in Norfolk in 1806, married in Marylebone in 18311.  It is likely they were both working “in service” at the time. Robert’s working life was in London as a Coachman for the nobility.  In 1851 he was working at the Marquess of Lansdowne’s stables in Mayfair.  Twenty years later he was working for the Duchess of Somerset on Park Lane.  What would they have made of the Monopoly board? 

Background to the bequest

By 1874 their two sons, and one grandson had all died.  Curiously, their son John, aged 34 in 1871, was listed on the census as a comedian.  Maybe this was his own joke!  A prominent London comedian at the time, albeit much older, was called John Baldwin Buckstone!

By 1881 Robert had retired and the couple moved to Gayles, and then Barnard Castle.  Robert and Catherine died in 1884 and 1888.  Robert left 15 Railway Passenger Assurance Company shares (worth £91) for both the maintenance of the grave, and a treat to be held on the 28th June each year for Marske village children.  The will stipulated that children who participated in the treat had to scatter wildflowers on the grave2.  Had Robert and Catherine’s bequest been motivated by the premature loss of their own offspring?

Marske rectors worry over the proprietry of the treat!

The administration of the bequest fell to the Rector of Marske.  In 1889 Rector Agmondisham Vesey questioned whether there was enough money to pay for looking after the grave, let alone running the children’s treat.  In fact the authorities told Rector Vesey that in fact it would be unlawful for the bequest to pay for the maintenance of the grave, and that all the funds should go to the children’s treat3.

In 1904 the Board of Education took over responsibility for overseeing the bequest.  Eight days before the treat was due Rector Vesey hurriedly wrote to the Board of Education to ask whether the treat could still go ahead3. He must have been a worrier, or perhaps he was trying to get out of it?  The Board of Education responded positively and the 1904 treat went ahead on time.  A photo exists of the treat taking place that very year4.  The Rector stands with over 30 neatly presented children by the exuberantly decorated grave.  The children look suitably appreciative, but one wonders if he the Rector felt a relief after having secured permissions just in time. Did he think it was all a bit of a chore?

Children in 1904 at the annual “Baldwin Treat” ceremony, by the grave of Mr and Mrs Baldwin in Marske churchyard with Rev Vesey4.

The Baldwin treat continued to vex the Rectors at Marske for at least another decade3.  In 1917 the country had begun to bring in food rationing to help with the war effort, administered by the “Food Controller”5.  Marske’s latest Rector, the Reverend Moxon, wrote to check his ground.  Perhaps local confectioners would refuse to sell cakes to the Rector!  Civil servants were challenged to come up with a carefully drafted response to Moxon that noted “the manner in which the treat should be given appears to be one for the Trustees.  It need not necessarily take the form of a tea.”  It is presumed that Moxon stayed on the right side of the Food Controller and the confectioners of Richmond, and that the treat took place as usual on 28 June 1917 but with a diminished spread of cakes.

Moxon, was born in Yorkshire.  After graduating from Oxford he took clerical positions in the north for five years until he was appointed to roles in Croydon and Marylebone from 1911.  His time as Rector of Marske during the War years was an interlude before another London-based posting from 1918 in Westminster.  However his 1917 letter on the consumption of wartime confectionary by local children came from an address on Warwick Avenue, London (the street Duffy made famous). 

During his time at Marske, as well as worrying about cakes, Reverend Moxon was prominent in writing letters to newspapers affirming the church’s role in upholding ethical standards in warfare – he leant towards pacificism.  Towards the end of the War he began to take up the causes of socialism, workers rights and women’s suffrage.  At some point in the 1920s he emigrated to the US where he published several academic papers on religion, psychoanalysis and sexuality6,7,8,9.  Perhaps he thought his socialism might take root there?  He died in Sausalito, in the San Francisco area, in 197310. 

The service at the grave of Mr and Mrs Baldwin, providers of the annual “Baldwin Treat” for local children. Photo perhaps from 19904.

The treat continues for over 100 years

The Baldwin treat outlived both Vesey and Moxon.  In the 1950s school children from the village remember leaving the classroom on the 28th of June in a procession to the grave with the teacher and vicar.  They carried posies to the grave, many of which had been collected the day before and assembled at home.  Some of the posies are remembered as quite elaborate, perhaps emulating those in the photo above from 1904.  The excitement of the Baldwin Treat gave an escape from lessons11. The tradition continued until at least the late 1990s4, over a hundred years after the original bequest.  Doubtless several hundred village children benefited from Baldwin’s generosity, and the careful administration of the local clergy.

August 1997.  The Baldwin Treat, repeated for perhaps the 108th time?  Photo:  Permission of Local Contributor 18.
  1. Ancestry.co.uk.  Subscription website.  Accessed 2025 and 2026.[↩]
  2. Probate Office.  1884 and 1888.  Probate and wills of Robert and Catherine Baldwin.[↩]
  3. National Archives.  Files on Baldwin Charity.  Ref ED 49/8793.[↩][↩][↩]
  4. Rees, David Morgan. 2000.  In the Palm of a Dale.[↩][↩][↩][↩]
  5. Wikipedia.  Minister of Food.  Accessed 2026.[↩]
  6. Moxon, C.  1928.  Religious instinct and psychic conflict.  Journal of Theoretical Psychology.[↩]
  7. Moxon, C.  1932.  Symbol and repression in religious experience.  Review of Religion and Mind.[↩]
  8. Moxon, C.  1938.  Psychoanalysis and the sacred.  International Journal of Psychoanalytic Studies.[↩]
  9. Moxon, C.  1946.  Sexuality and transcendence.  Journal of Religion and Psychology.[↩]
  10. Find a Grave website.  Cavendish Moxon, Mount Tamalpais Cemetery.  Accessed 2026.  Mount Tamalpais Cemetery.[↩]
  11. Local Contributor 18[↩]