The Pickering Axe Murder

 

 

The Pickering Axe Murder

 

While Peabee was collecting material for his recent blog post – The Cousins – or where they? – he stumbled on the tale of a domestic murder in Yorkshire in 1888. Rather than confuse the original blog’s story, he decided to put together some of the newspaper reports of the time into a separate blog. The perpetrator of the crime had not been found when most of the reports appeared. The suspect was the husband who was believed to be either on the run or had committed suicide. If he had lived, been caught and gone for trial, goodness knows what the trial judge would have made of these stories. Perhaps such explicit and prejudicial reporting was allowed in the 19th century, but certainly today most of the reporters, editors and publishers would have had to stand trial themselves for perverting the course of justice!

 

First some family background:

James Pennock was born on 12 March 1848 in Cropton, Yorkshire, the eldest of ten children born to William Pennock, a farmer worker, and his wife Elizabeth (nee Carr) .

James married Hannah Bielby on 6 December 1869 in Pickering. Hannah had been born in Marishes, Yorkshire, in 1851, the daughter of William Bielby, a farmer, and his wife Jane (nee Pratt). Hannah was the fifth of 11 children in that family.

James and Hannah had nine children: Ellen (born 1869), William (1870), Jane (1873), Elizabeth (1876), Harry (1877), Hannah (1881), James (1883), Charles (1886), and Mary Pennock (1887).

The rest of the story is told in the following newspaper articles:           

The York Herald 9 November 1888

THE WIFE MURDER NEAR PICKERING.

EXCITEMENT IN THE DISTRICT.

THE CAUSE OF THE CRIME.

(From our own Reporter.)

 Some most erroneous reports having appeared as to the particulars of the horrible tragedy enacted at a gatehouse on a crossing of the Malton and Whitby line on Tuesday night, the following facts, verified by our own reporter yesterday, will clear the matter up, and also show that the tragedy, in its horrible details, is almost as shocking and exciting as the sensational Cropton murders which, about 15 years ago, alarmed the whole of north-east Yorkshire. The murdered woman’s name is Hannah Pennock, nee Bielby, about 43 years of age, who with her husband James Pennock, the supposed murderer, had for some time past lived at a crossing near the Black Bull beerhouse on the Malton and Whitby line. Pennock himself had been in the employ of the North Eastern Railway Comppany, about 20 years, and was generally looked upon as a quiet, mild, industrious fellow, yet withal at time peculiar in his ways as regards his social characteristics. He was about the same age as his wife, and they had a family of eight children, five of whom lived with the father and mother at the gatehouse, and the others were in service. The house where the couple lived is a substantial commodious building, which in the earlier years of the railway was used as a station, and all the rooms are on the ground floor. The first room is a kitchen; at an angle was the bedroom of the husband and wife, and next to this the children’s bedroom, in which slept several young children, and also a lame youth of 17 or 18 years of age. Singularly, not one of these had heard any noise during the night, nor the slightest indication of the terrible tragedy being enacted near them. On Tuesday night the children went to bed at their usual hour, the mother followed them, leaving the father and the eldest son up. Pennock himself had to “light” the nine o’clock train past the crossing, and previous to doing this he had arranged with his son to take a parcel of books for him down to Marishes Station. The son went to bed after the mother, and when the father had done his work, he entered the childrens’ (sic) bedroom, carefully wrapped them up, and asked them if they were all right. Nothing more was – nor has been since – heard or seen of Pennock. Nothing was heard during the night, but at seven next morning, when a little girl, Hannah Pennock, entered the bedroom, she found her mother weltering in her blood. An alarm was at once raised; two doctors and the police were sent for, and Dr. Donald Robertson, of Pickering, got there just before Mrs. Pennock died. Pennock had disappeared, but his watch, daubed with blood, was found in the house, and a hatchet, also covered with blood, was found in the place where it was usually kept. With this instrument the bloody deed was evidently committed, for on the right temple of the deceased is a fearful wound, jagged and deep, as if caused by the blunt end of the axe, and her right jaw is smashed. The walls of the bedroom are splashed with blood. The body was laid athwart the bed, with the arms under the bedclothes, and the fatal blows had evidently been struck when the poor creature was asleep, so that all the tales of quarrels during the night are purely mythical. Yesterday a post-mortem was made by Dr. Walker, of Pickering. Nothing has up to the time of writing been heard of Pennock, who, it is confidently believed, has committed suicide, and Supt. Spence has a force of police labourers out dragging the ponds in the vicinity and searching the rivers Rye and Derwent. The affair has caused the greatest excitement in the district. There is only too much reason to fear that jealously (sic) was the cause of the crime, as the statements of the eldest son of the deceased and the neighbours to our reporter show that frequent quarrels have of late taken place between the unfortunate couple, and the husband had been heard to threaten his wife, who was far advanced in pregnancy when she was so ruthlessly killed.

 Whitby Gazette 9 November 1888 

WIFE MURDER AT PICKERING.

LATEST PARTICULARS.

(By Our Own Reporter.)

 On Wednesday morning the people of the usually quiet neighbourhood of the market town of Pickering were startled by the report that a shocking murder had been committed on one of the neighbours during the dark hours of the previous night. The reports, wild and exaggerated at first, had substance in fact, insomuch that inquiries immediately prosecuted on the spot, revealed the awful circumstances that a woman, living in a house less than two miles from Pickering, had been murdered during the night by her husband. The victim is Mrs. Pennock, wife of James Pennock, employed by the North Eastern Railway Company, in whose employment he has been for 16 or 17 years. They occupied a house known as the Black Bull Old Station, which was formerly used as a road-side station on the Kirby Misperton line, but has been discontinued as such for about thirty years. Pennock and his wife were allowed to occupy the house free the return for the privilege being that Pennock looked after the gates there, which protect the high road from passing trains. It would appear from inquiries made by our reporter, that for some time the relations between Pennock and his wife have not been anything like of a felicitous character from causes which, whether well-founded or not, Pennock himself did  not hesitate to talk about. Anyhow, he professed to be jealous of his wife, and to many of those with whom he was personally acquainted he related what he represented as his domestic and marital troubles. Whether he actually believed in all that he represented need not be the cause of much speculation, though by some persons it is believed that he was not sincere in this respect, and that his quarrels with his wife had their offspring in his own individual peculiarities. It is quite certain, however, that his wife during her lifetime, and particularly within the last month or so, was frequently subjected to coarse sneers, jeering remarks, and corporeal ill-usage. Only a week or two back he severely maltreated the woman, bruising her severely on several parts of her body which was outwardly testified to by subsequent lameness and blackened eyes. It would appear that the last serious quarrel was never made up, the wife, it is said, refusing to be conciliated. That he was exasperated by this is quite probable, and it may have been the immediate cause which led up to the awful crime which he committed. Between nine and ten o’clock, on Tuesday night, the house was observed to be in darkness, and presumably all the occupants – Pennock, his wife, and four young children – had gone to bed. During the night no sound was heard, and, from what anyone outside knew, the lonely house was wrapped in perfect repose. But early in the morning, the flickering dawn of a winter day, revealed a spectacle which demonstrated that a horrid work had been enacted during the dark hours of the night. One of the children going into a bedroom was paralysed to see there, partially laid on the bed and tumbled in a heap, the unclothed bleeding form of her mother, apparently lifeless. The poor child was sickened at the sight of so much blood, which was oozing from a gaping wound in the skull of the prostrate and dying woman. Terrified as the girl was, benumbed as she was with the horrible spectacle which met her young eyes, it was some time before she could realise anything like what had happened. As she recovered from the shock, she screamed aloud for help, and the other children rushed to see the cause. They, too, were painfully shocked. An alarm was speedily raised, and a docter (sic) sent for, and in course of time Dr. Robertson, who is in practice at Pickering, was on the spot. He found the woman as we have described. She was not quite dead, but absolutely unconscious, and life was very obviously fast ebbing away. In a few moments all was over – the woman lay dead, the victim of anger and murderous passion. A search of the premises was afterwards made by the police under the direction of Supt. Spence, of Pickering, and the result seems to leave no doubt that the murder was committed by the husband, who was missing. An axe used for the purpose of chopping wood and such like domestic offices, was found besmeared with blood, sticking to which were small streaks of human hair, corresponding in colour and texture with that on the dead woman’s head. An examination of the wound on the head of the corpse left no doubt that it had been inflicted with a blow by this instrument, administered with a heavy hand. There were other wounds and bruises about the body, but none of them in itself likely to have caused death. Turning away at last from the scene of the awful crime, the children were removed and the house locked up, its only occupant being the body of the lifeless woman.

During the whole of Wednesday and yesterday diligent search was made all over the countryside to discover the missing man. A rumour gained credence that he had committed suicide, and it was held probable that he had drowned himself in the waters of the river Derwent, which runs close by. The river was dragged for a considerable distance, the pools were sounded or run clear, but in vain. The immediate district was scoured, and enquiries were especially made at houses which Pennock was accustomed to visit, but with no result – the man had disappeared, leaving no trace behind him except his bloody work. The police have officially communicated with all the outlying districts and centres of population, and give the following description of the missing man :

“Wanted, at Pickering, for the murder of his wife, at Black Bull, near Pickering, on the 7th inst., James Pennock, railway platelayer, 42 to 45 years of age, 5 feet 8 or nine inches high, rather stout built, grey eyes, dark complexion, bushy dark ginger beard and whiskers, moustache cut short, lump about the size of a marble on the top of his head. Dressed in an old blue cloth jacket and vest, which had belonged to a signalman, buttons stamped N E R, moleskin trousers, with linings, black soft billy-cock hat, and strong laced boots.”

The murdered woman was about 42 years of age. She is the daughter of a farmer named Beilby (sic), of Marishes, and she was married to Pennock about 18 years ago. James Pennock himself is the son of Mr. Pennock, of Cropton, who for some years was Parish Clerk there as also was his uncle. The murderer is the son of Mr. Pennock by his first wife. The father married a second time, but his wife separated from him some years ago, and is now living in Whitby. The murderer, before he went into the service of the North Eastern Railway Company was a farmer’s servant. By his wife he had nine children, the eldest of whom, born before marriage, being 18 or 19 years old. There were four children at home, all young. At the time of her murder, Mrs. Pennock promised to become the mother of another. The man of whom Pennock appears to have been the most jealous resides at Cropton, but, from all accounts, there would appear to be little or no cause for it. Anyhow, the man was so angry at Pennock so frequently mentioning his name in connection with his wife’s misconduct that he had frequently threatened to take legal proceedings against him, and it is stated that he had actually instructed a solicitor to serve Pennock with a writ charging him with slander in this connection, and it is further stated that this reached Pennock’s ears on the day preceding the committal of the crime. Pennock himself bore outside the character of a steady, quiet man, and was generally respected by those who knew him, despite some few individual singularities. He was a teetotaller and a local preacher on the Primitive Methodist Plan, and regularly and diligently went the circuit allotted to him. On the occasions of the Railway Servants annual gathering at Whitby, Pennock was one of the principal speakers, and, having a fine, sonorous voice, invariably led the singing both in camp and in the processions through the public thoroughfares of the town. It is said, however, that recently he has not been in very high favour with the leaders of the Primitive Methodist body, because of the frequent charges which he brought against his wife and which he was unable to prove. When investigation were made as to his statements, and he was brought face to face with the parties whom he had mentioned, he discovered himself incapable of remembering the particulars which he had previously given, and, indeed, so shuffled and prevaricated as to induce the belief that he had either grossly exaggerated minor circumstances of that he was labouring under some unfortunate delusion.

Yesterday, Dr. Robertson made a formal post mortem examination of the body of the murdered woman.

LATEST

The inquest will be held at 12 o’clock, at noon, to-day (Friday.)

The murderer is still at large.

 The York Herald 10 November 1888 

WIFE MURDER NEAR PICKERING.

THE INQUEST.

Yesterday morning, at the Black Bull Gatehouse, about two miles from Pickering, Mr. Arthur Wood, coroner, of Kirbymoorside, held an inquest on the body of Hannah Pennock, aged 43, wife of James Pennock, platelayer in the employ of the North-Eastern Railway Company, who was ruthlessly murdered on Tuesday night. The body was laid at the Gatehouse, which was kept by the husband of the murdered woman. Mr. Baines, of Malton, represented the North-Eastern Railway Company, and Superintendent Space watched the case on behalf of the police. The first witness called was

William Pennock (17), son of the deceased, who deposed that on Tuesday night he was at home. Four of his little brothers and sisters went to bed about eight, and his mother went about half an hour afterwards. He and a little sister went later, leaving his father up in the house. After he had gone to bed his father went into the bedroom for a hand lamp to put on the railway. That was about nine o’clock. He heard no noise, nor any talking in the house during the night. If there had been he could have heard it, as his bedroom was near to his father’s, on the ground floor. He got up about 7.15 on Wednesday morning. His sister Hannah, a child of seven years, had then gone into the mother’s room, and she went screaming back to the witness, who went into the bedroom and found the bed all covered with blood. He examined her head, and when he saw the wounds he searched for anything “he” had done it with. (Witness said by “he” he meant his father, as he at once thought his father had done it.) Had not heard his father and mother quarrelling that night, but had heard them previously. He found an axe belonging to the house in a tub, where they usually kept it. His father and mother did not speak to each other on Tuesday evening whilst he was there. They often quarrelled. Never saw his father strike deceased, but he once saw him push her out of doors. That was about fourteen weeks ago. Had seen marks on his mother’s person caused by his father. When the father put her out of the house she had thrown several plates in his face. The axe, produced by Supt. Spence, was like the one he found in the tub, and the thick end of the head was then all blood. The watch produced was also his father’s. It was found on the kitchen table, and had blood on it. His mother was alive when he first went into the room, because she was breathing and “ruttling” in the throat. She could not speak. Did not think his mother was afraid his father would do something of the sort, but had heard her say she should stop till she was killed. Had seen his mother strike his father. That was last week. She was forced to do it because he told a great lie, and witness and his mother proved it to be such.

William Hardwick, platelayer, employed near the scene of the murder, spoke to hearing the children call to him on Wednesday morning when at work. He went in and found deceased on the bed with her head all covered with blood. She was not dead, and witness went off to Pickering for a doctor. Sometimes Pennock did not speak to them, appearing as if there was something on his mind. Could not say he was “in a low way.” Had not heard him quarrelling with his wife lately.

Charles Bustard, signalman, deposed that when he passed Pennock’s house at 5.30am on Wednesday morning he heard no noise, nor were there lights in the house, which there usually were at that hour, as Pennock had to be at work at six. He noticed the bed, and the pillows were quite straight. Did not think the bed had been occupied by two persons, as the pillow on the other side of the body seemed untouched. (This observation was made by Hardwick, according to the report in The North Eastern Daily Gazette of 10 November)

Superintendent James Spence, of Pickering, spoke to going to the scene along with Dr. Walker, of Pickering. Witness examined the house and found the axe produced in a tub at the back entrance. The axe was covered with blood on one side.

Elizabeth Pennock, a daughter of the deceased, said that at dinner time on Tuesday, the day before the murder, her father and mother were quarrelling, and her mother threw a basin full of broth into her father’s face. Her father also once “bunched” her mother on the leg. The reason she threw the broth was because her father charged her with having been with another [whom witness named.] There had been frequent quarrels between her father and mother. When her mother threw the broth at him he “brayed” her over the head.

Dr. John Harrison Walker, of Pickering, deposed to being called by the police to the Black Bull Gatehouse. Saw the deceased woman in bed. She was dead when he arrived, but the body was warm. Could not, from what he saw, say how long the wounds on deceased had been inflicted, but they must have been very recent – perhaps some hours before. On making a post-mortem he found on the head of the decease a triangular would in the temporal region, on the right side, about an inch long. In it witness found a loose piece of bone, and some brain substance escaped from the wound. There was another contused wound on the right side of the head, of irregular shape. It was filled with coagulated blood. The bone beneath was found fractured. There was a bruise on the right jaw, the bone of which was fractured. Blood escaped from the left ear, the nose, and the mouth. The skull over the left ear was extensively fractured, the whole of the bones except the occipital being broken. There was another fracture at the base of the skull, which extended from the frontal bone across the base of the skull nearly from left to right. The molar bone was fractured, and laid loose. Witness had no doubt but that the deceased died from fracture of the skull and extensive injuries to the brain. The axe produced was a very likely instrument to cause those injuries, and great force must have been used in causing them. – By the Jury: There had been at least three blows struck. She had a very thick skull. He never saw but one thicker, and that was the case of a woman also. The hair he found on the axe closely resembled that on the head of the deceased. Could not say that the blood was human blood.

The Coroner the summed up. He referred to the doctor’s evidence as to the fearful injuries inflicted upon the deceased, which were undoubtedly the immediate cause of death. Who had inflicted them was another matter, and was solely for their consideration. They had heard what the witnesses had said about the frequent quarrellings between the deceased and her husband. No other person had been seen about the house. The husband had absconded, and could not be found, notwithstanding the closest search made by the police. The jury were then left alone to consider their verdict, and just as the police and reporters left the room, a telegram was handed to Supt. Spence to say that Pennock had been captured at Yedingham, only a few miles away, and an officer was at once despatched for him. The fact of this opportune capture of the missing man shortened their deliberations, and they at once returned a verdict of “Wilful murder” simply, leaving it to another court to decide who is the guilty party.

                                            THE REPORTED CAPTURE OF PENNOCK A HOAX

The telegram sent to Supt. Spence announcing the capture proved to be a hoax, for which the perpetrators will be taken severely to task. Supt. Spence drove off at once from the inquest to the place indicated, and found the rumour originated on nothing but gossip, and had been wired from one signal-box to one close by where the inquest was held. Pennock had not been seen at all in Yeddingham (sic). The rumour has got such good hold that large crowds of people assembled there and in villages near, and the excitement became intense while waiting for the arrival of Supt. Spence and his expected prisoner. He had a constable in the conveyance with him, and the crowd were actually under the impression that he was taking Pennock to the cells. It was not till a long time after that the real fact became known.

 The Northern Echo 12 November 1888 

THE SHOCKING WIFE MURDER NEAR PICKERING,

FUNERAL OF THE VICTIM.

On Saturday, the remains of Hannah Pennock, the unfortunate victim of the murder committed at Black Bull Gatehouse, between Malton and Pickering, on Tuesday night last, were interred at Pickering, in the presence of a large company, who expressed the deepest commiseration at her sad fate. The poor woman had left eight children behind her (the youngest but two years old and the eldest son a cripple, having recently lost a leg), and these all followed in the sad funeral procession. The husband, James Pennock, who is suspected of having so brutally murdered his wife, is still at large, notwithstanding the most zealous efforts of the police to capture him. Since nine o’clock on the night of the murder not the slightest trace of him has been seen or heard. The police believe he has committed suicide, but a thorough search of the Rye and Derwent and of all the ponds in the district, has so far yielded nothing. Th search was continued up to Saturday night. The sympathy of the neighbours seems to be with the fugitive, who state that he “had a deal to put up with.” He seems, however, to have been outrageously jealous of the deceased.

 Bradford Weekly Telegraph 8 December 1888 

The Pickering Murder.

A Queenstown correspondent telegraphed on Sunday night – The latest American papers of the 23rd ult. just received state that a mysterious man, who admits that he is travelling incognito, was arrested at Castle Garden, New York, on the previous evening, after alighting from the Guion steamer Wyoming, from Liverpool. The police were armed with a cablegram from the Chief of Police of Northallerton, England, asking them to take into custody a passenger who was registered as James Shaw. The prisoner, who gives his name as Mr Pennock, of Pickering, North Riding, Yorkshire, was then charged with the murder of his wife on the 7th ult. He declared that his name was James Shaw, and he came from Leeds. He says he parted with his wife and three children at the Leeds railway station on the 9th ult., and has no reason to believe his wife is not alive. He came to America to better his prospects, and left his wife and family with a widow, named Chapman, in Dyer Street, St. Peter’s Square, Leeds. He further states that wife’s name is Alice, whereas the name of the murdered woman was Hannah. The American papers further say that Shaw fully answers the description of “Jack the Ripper,” and there was in his pocket a paper containing the illustrated account of the Whitechapel horror, and the rumour spread that the Whitechapel murderer was a prisoner in New York. The prisoner having complained of being hungry, was then taken to a restaurant by the police, where he ate ravenously, and was apparently unconcerned about the charge of murder.

The report that the Pickering murderer had been arrested in New York has proved to be nothing more than a false alarm, and that the man travelling under the name James Shaw is not the man Pennock who is wanted for the murder of his wife near Pickering. It seems that on the 8th November a girl (a native of Cropton, near Pickering), who is in the service of Dr Wills, near Leeds, made a statement to her mistress that she had seen the man Pennock in Leeds. The police at Pickering were communicated with, and after making careful inquiry in conjunction with the Leeds police it was found that a man answering the description given by the girl took out a passage for New York on board the Wyoming on November 8 under the name of James Shaw, of Swinton, near Malton. Further inquiry showed that there was no person of that name and address, and the police felt confident that this was the man they wanted. They communicated with the authorities at New York to detain this man, and arrangements made for his extradition. The man was arrested as reported, but the authorities, after careful inquiry, were satisfied that he was not the man, and having explained his reasons for travelling under an assumed name, he was discharged. 

Yorkshire Evening Post 6 April 1889 

THE PICKERING MURDER.

DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF PENNOCK THIS DAY.

(From our own Correspondent.) 

This morning, the body of James Pennock, the man accused of the murder of his wife at Black Bull Gatehouse, near Pickering, on November 7th last year, was discovered in the beck near Pickering Low Mill. The body was found by Robert Sellars, son of the occupier of the mill, whilst clearing away some rubbish to allow the water to pass into the mill race. He saw something floating on the surface of the water, and on turning it over saw the man’s face. The body was found to be in an advanced stage of decomposition owing to the length of time it had been in the water, and it had on the jacket, bearing the initials “N.E.R.,” the letters being covered with a piece of cloth stitched over. The boots were also on the feet, but trousers were minus. It is supposed that the body had been lodged in another part of the beck for some time, but had been removed by the present pressure of water. The place is about a mile and a half distant from the scene of the murder. Capt. Spence at once communicated with the coroner. 

Yorkshire Gazette 13 April 1889 

THE PICKERING MURDER.

DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF THE MURDERER. 

Early last November a horrible murder was committed at Pickering, the victim being Mrs. Pennock, the wife of James Pennock, a labourer employed on the North-Eastern Railway, and living at the Old Station, between Pickering and Malton. The unfortunate woman went to bed as usual on the evening of Tuesday, the 6th November, and nothing of an unusual character was heard by the family during the night. On the following morning, one of the children went into the bedroom, and was horrified to find the mother lying on the bed, her clothes being saturated with blood. Her head was much bruised and cut, and life appeared to be extinct. The crime, it was believed, was committed by the husband, an axe, stained with blood being found in the house, and the medical gentlemen were agreed that the wounds had been inflicted with this instrument. The deed was attributed to motives of jealousy. The husband was well known in the district as a local preacher in connection with one of the local religious bodies. The police had failed to find any clue to his whereabouts, he having decamped immediately afterwards; but his dead body was found in the river at Pickering on Saturday. It will be recollected that a man was wrongly arrested in America on this charge. The finding of the body caused excitement in the district.

Dr Arthur Wood, coroner, of Kirbymoorside, held an inquest at Law (sic) Mills, Pickering, on the body of James Pennock, railway labourer, who was found dead in the mill-race. Evidence of identification was given, and also the condition of the deceased before death, and the Coroner, thinking that there was not sufficient evidence to show the man’s real state of mind, suggested an adjournment, but the jury considered the man was sane when he committed the foul deeds, and, consequently, returned a verdict of felo-de-se. The body of the murderer was subsequently interred at ten o’clock on Saturday night in the graveyard attached to the Wesleyan Chapel, Pickering, and close by the body of his victim.

                                                                                                       

 

The Cousins - or were they?

 

The Cousins – or were they?

 

This story has to start in the middle and work backwards, following the route Peabee had to take to solve a problem. Then came all sorts of revelations which has meant there will be second blog about a fairly gruesome murder! The original problem arose after the following marriage announcement was discovered in The Western Gazette of 21 September 1945:

GALE–BATHE – On Saturday, September 8th, at Chirton Parish Church Ft/Sgt Ambrose James Gale of Aldbourne, to Ivy Bathe, of Corner House, Chirton

There was evidence that Ambrose and Ivy were first cousins – a rather close blood relationship for a marriage. However, in the Civil Registration Marriage Index for the third quarter of 1945, Ambrose J Gale is stated as having married someone called “Bathe or Pennock”. Cross-referencing the entries in the index for these two names, Ambrose’s wife was either Ivy L Bathe or Ivy L Pennock.

To cap it all, there were no records of either Ivy L Bathe or Ivy L Pennock having been born in England or Wales…The plot thickened.

 The first port of call for Peabee was the 1939 England and Wales Register, taken at the onset of war with the purpose of producing National Identity Cards, and, from 1948, as the basis for the National Health Service Register. In its role for the NHS, the surnames of women who had married since the original register was taken have been deleted and their married names inserted.

The Register revealed the residents of Corner House, Chirton, as:

·        Edward James Bathe, born 31 July 1888, married, a poultry keeper, temporarily employed by the Government Building Contractor as a Camp Policeman

·        Florence Maud Bathe, born 31 January 1889, married, unpaid domestic duties

·        Ivy Lilian Bathe Gale, born 23 September 1920, single, poultry assistant to father

·        Sarah Ann Bathe, born 13 February 1850, widow, Old Age Pensioner (retired)

·        Isaac James Gale, born 8 April 1871, widower, Old Age Pensioner (retired)

Clearly Ivy was a Bathe, the daughter of Edward and Florence, so where did the name Pennock come in? And why wasn’t Ivy’s birth registered in 1920?

Going back further, Edward James Bathe was the son of Jesse Bathe and Sarah Ann (nee New), born in Winterbourne Monkton, Wiltshire. Jesse Bathe died in 1923 but Edward’s mother, Sarah Ann, was one of the two old age pensioners living in Corner House in 1939. She died at the start of 1941 and The North Wilts Herald published the following obituary in its edition of 24 January 1941:

CHIRTON’S “GRAND OLD WOMAN”

Death of Mrs. J. Bathe at age of 90

By the death of Mrs. J. Bathe, at the age of 90 – she would have been 91 had she lived until 13 February – Chirton has lost one of its best known and well beloved figures. “Granny” Bathe, as she was known to old and young, was out walking on Tuesday of last week, paying calls (she dearly loved to chat), and when asked how she liked the cold replied “I don't feel it, I am quite warm”. On the following day she was in her usual good health when she retired to bed. On Thursday morning, at 8.30, her grand-daughter, Miss Ivy Bathe, called her as usual with her breakfast tray, and was shocked to find that she had passed away in her sleep. Not an article of bed clothing was disarranged, so she had “just slept to wake no more.” Mrs. Bathe had not made any complaint of feeling ill lately, but her son and daughter-in-law with whom she lived, had noticed how sleepy she had appeared recently. Beyond deafness and failing eyesight, “Granny” retained her faculties perfectly, and her memory was amazing.

Mrs. Bathe as Sarah Ann New, was born at Winterbourne Monkton in 1850, and there she lived until 1926. She married Mr. Jesse Bathe, who was seven years her junior, and became the mother of six children – four daughters and two sons – all of whom are living except one daughter. Mrs. Bathe became a widow in 1923, and in 1926 she went to live with her son, Mr. C. Bathe, and his wife, at Tidcombe. In 1932 she moved to Chirton to live with Mr. and Mrs. E. Bathe (her son and daughter-in-law), and there, except for short visits to her other children, she made her last home and was very happy. She was no stranger to hard work, and in her young days lots of it was in the fields. She lived to recount how she once won a wager with a man as to who could cut more corn in a day with a sickle. With a chuckle and a twinkling eye she would tell: “I put the six little ones to bed and just after 12 midnight I got up, and as it was bright moonlight I could see quite well, and started cutting.” When her opponent arrived soon after dawn she had got well away with the job and easily won the bet. It can with truth be said of Mrs. Bathe that she had not an enemy in the world, and the world is the poorer for the passing of such a grand old personality.

The funeral took place at Chirton on Monday, the Rev. C. R. Cottell (Vicar) assisted by Rev. P. R. Ormsby, officiating, with Miss Jones at the organ. The hymn “Jesus lover of my soul” was sung. The mourners were: Mr. E. Bathe and Mr. C. Bathe (sons), Mr. C. Brown (grandson), Mr. Brown, Beechingstoke (son-in-law), Mrs. E. Bathe and Mrs. C. Bathe (daughters-in-law). Mrs. Bathe’s daughters, all of whom live at a great distance from Chirton, were prevented from attending. Among those who attended the service were Mrs Child, Mrs. Hule, Mrs. Rowles, and Mrs B. Smith.

The Father of the Bride?

Edward James Bathe had married Florence Maud Elizabeth Gale on 28 March 1910. Florence was the daughter of Ambrose Gale and his wife Elizabeth (nee Marsh). Florence had two older brothers – Isaac James Gale (the other pensioner in Corner House in 1939) and Gilbert Edward Gale, who happened to be the father of Ambrose James Gale. This is the link that showed Ambrose and Ivy were first cousins.

The Wiltshire Times of 6 February 1943 had the brief announcement of a death:

Bathe – Jan 30, at Devizes Hospital, Edward James (Ted) Bathe, aged 54 years

The following week, the same newspaper printed a more detailed obituary:

EX.-R.S.M. E.J.BATHE

Death of Wiltshire Regiment Veteran

Mr. Edward James Bathe, who served for 26 years in the Wiltshire Regiment and retired in 1931 with the rank of Regimental-Sergeant-Major, died last week at Devizes Hospital and was buried at Chirton, near Devizes, in which village he had resided since his retirement. He was 54 years of age.

Mr. Bathe joined the Wiltshire Regiment in 1905. When war broke out in 1914 he was at Gibraltar, and in September was in action in France. He was taken prisoner, and was not released until after the Armistice, arriving back in England in December of 1918. From April until October of 1919 he served in Russia, and was then appointed R.S.M of the 4th (Territorial) Battalion, which position he retained until his retirement. During these eleven years he resided in Trowbridge, where he made many friends who remember him with affection. At Chirton he built up a successful poultry farm. Since the outbreak of the present war he had been a Sergeant of the Home Guard and had also done duty at the Recruiting Depot at Devizes until recently.

Mr. Bathe leaves a widow, two sons and one daughter. One son is serving in the Middle East with the Royal Engineers.

This confirms that Edward and Florence had just one daughter and that must have been Ivy. And Edward’s term as a PoW would explain why there was a gap between the birth of his two sons – Andrew Edward Keen Bathe (1911) and Jesse Claude Bathe (1914) – and that of Ivy in 1920. 

New clues

The puzzle was still not solved, and Peabee had to wait for an answer to the Pennock conundrum until this year, when the 1921 census was published. It was here that he found this entry for a household in Avebury:

·        Elizabeth Gale; head; age 72 years 11 months; widow; born Avebury, Wilts; home duties

·        Florence M. E. Bathe; daughter visitor; age 32 years 5 months; born Avebury, Wilts; home duties

·        Ambrose E. K. Bathe; grandson visitor; age 9 years 10 months; both parents alive; born Avebury, Wilts; whole time at school

·        Jesse C. Bathe; grandson visitor; age 7 years 5 months; both parents alive; born Colony of Gibraltar; whole time at school

·        Ivy Lillian Pennock; visitor; age 9 months; mother dead; born Dublin, Ireland

So Ivy wasn’t Edward and Florence’s daughter after all – and the name Pennock appears linked to her.

The next step was to look at Irish records and sure enough the Irish Civil Registration of Births Index shows the birth of an Ivy Pennock in Dublin South registered in the last quarter of 1920. In the same quarter, the death of a Lilian Pennock, born about 1891, was also registered in Dublin South.

Peabee then tried to find the marriage of anyone called Pennock to anyone with the first name Lilian and what he found was the marriage in the last quarter of 1918 of a Charles Pennock to a Lilian Emily Maslin (or Maslen) in Devizes, Wiltshire. The coincidence of a Wiltshire marriage with Ivy’s residence in the same county was too good to ignore and further research showed much more.

Charles Pennock

To say that Charles Pennock had a fairly traumatic life might be considered an understatement.

He was born near Pickering, North Yorkshire, on 19 March 1885, the seventh of eight children born to James and Hannah Pennock. But when he was just over three years old, his father took an axe and murdered his wife in her bed while the children slept in neighbouring rooms. Soon afterwards, before the police could catch the murderer, James drowned himself.

The newspaper reports of the time will be included in a later Peabee History Blog.

After a period in the local workhouse with two of his siblings, Charles was sent far away from his Yorkshire relatives and in his teens he was apprenticed to Henry Seamall, a tailor in Great Wishford, not far from Salisbury.

He was living in Seamall’s house in 1901, but a few years later he joined the army and was serving with the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, in 1911. His service records have not survived but he was with the regiment when they sailed for the Western Front in August 1914. However, during the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, he was among a number of soldiers from the 1st Wiltshires who were captured and held in prisoner of war camps until after the Armistice in 1918.

After his repatriation and marriage, Charles took his wife to Dublin when he was posted there in 1919 as part of the British forces trying to put down the Irish rebellion. When Lilian died soon after giving birth to Ivy, Charles was in no position to look after the child and so Ivy was given to another military family – the Bathes – to care for her.

It is not known how Charles got to know Edward Bathe, if indeed he did. Although their histories were similar – both regular soldiers who had joined the Wiltshire Regiment long before the First World War; both spending most of the war as PoWs – they were in different battalions: Charles was in the 1st Battalion and Edward the 2nd; they were captured on different days and after different engagements in October 1914 and – as far as can be ascertained – were never held in the same PoW camp. It is possible that Ivy’s transfer to the care of Edward and Florence was arranged by someone within the Wiltshire Regiment’s English depot, without Charles and Edward ever meeting.

On returning to England, Charles married for a second time but his new wife also died when she was relatively young, after just 13 years of marriage. She did give Charles three more children, but the eldest of these died when he was 14 years old.

The Maslens

Lilian Emily Maslen was born in the summer of 1891, and baptised at Southbroom, Devizes, on 23 August that year. She was the daughter of a former soldier, Joseph Pyke Maslen, who was born in Devies in 1842. Originally a volunteer in the Royal Wiltshire Militia, when he joined the regular army in August 1864, it was as a private in the 5th Regiment of Foot, known as Northumberland Fusiliers. Joseph Maslen was with the regiment for over 16 years and spent most his service – more than 13 years – in India. He was, however, invalided out of the army in January 1881 and the following April married a woman 20 years his junior, Emily Edwards.

Lilian, the youngest of five children of this marriage, was only two years old when her father died. Although her mother remarried, that was not unlike 1906, when Lilian was 15 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

Could it be the Lyfords of Pangbourne?

 

Sometimes there is not enough information about people to be able to trace their families back further. There might be an approximate year of birth, but no indication of where that may have happened. Searching for possible matches if the surname is fairly common borders on the impossible. But on occasions a ray of light – a clue in a descendant’s name, for example – may help solve the puzzle.  Pea-Bee thinks he may have crack the code to trace back – at least on one side - a couple called John and Elizabeth Bradley. To show his workings, Pea-Bee will start in the middle of the story.

John and Elizabeth Bradley were living in Fulham, south west of London, from at least 1810, when their first known child, Henry, was born there on 26 June 1810 and baptised at All Saints’, Fulham, 19 days later. Over the next decade, Henry was joined by two siblings that we know of for sure – Mary Bradley, baptised at All Saints’ on 3 December 1815, and Jane, baptised 20 September 1818.

Their father’s occupation on both occasions was listed as labourer.

There is a possible fourth child, John, baptised at All Saints’ on 4 February 1821 but his father’s occupation is given as maltman and no further records have been found.

Sometime before 1824, John and Elizabeth moved their family down the Thames to the Deptford and Greenwich area. This is where their next child, William, was born on 5 August 1824. However, he was not baptised until the following Easter – 3 April 1825 – and he had been taken back to All Saints’, Fulham, for this event. Once again, his father was listed as a labourer.

On 30 March 1827, another son was born to John and Elizabeth and he was baptised George at St Alfege’s, Greenwich, on 10 August 1828. The family’s home was given as Greenwich Road and John was described as a coal porter.

Young George died when he was just two years old and was buried at St Alfege’s on 19 April 1829 when the Bradleys were living in Blackheath Road.

The next recorded event effecting the Bradley family was the marriage of Henry to Mary Ann Briant from Greenwich. The marriage took place at St Luke’s, Charlton, on 19 February 1837. The church of St Luke in Charlton became a popular venue for marriages in the Bradley family: certainly William was married there in 1850 and it is believed that Jane was wed there in 1841.

The 1841 census reveals much about the Bradley family – but sadly not quite enough as will be seen later.

Most of the family were living in Lewisham Road and the household comprised: John Bradley, aged 55, coal porter; Elizabeth, also 55; Mary, 25; Jane, 20, dressmaker; William, 15, coal porter; and Lydia, 7 months. John, Elizabeth, Mary and Jane were all said to have been born outside the county of Kent, while William and Lydia were born in the county.

The three roads – Greenwich Road, Blackheath Road and Lewisham Road – converge at the foot of Blackheath Hill in the area known then as Limekilns.

Henry and his new bride Mary Ann were just round the corner in Friendly Place and Henry, like his father and brother, was a coal porter.

Lydia Matilda Bradley was the illegitimate daughter of Jane, born on 27 October 1840 and baptised at St Paul’s, Deptford, on 24 January 1841. In the baptismal records, the “father” was recorded as William Bradley, coal heaver of Lewisham Road, Limekilns. In fact, this was Jane’s teenage brother who was probably acting as Lydia’s godfather.

The 1841 census was taken on 6 June and Mary Bradley was listed without an occupation, probably because she was unwell: she died shortly after the census, on 17 June, and was buried at St Alfege’s on 27 June.

In the third quarter of 1841, Jane married George Mayze, a horse keeper from Great Stoughton in Essex, and Lydia was to take his surname.

More about the Mayze family and the later life of Lydia can be found in a series of blogs written several years ago and published by Pea-Bee under the title The Barham Saga.

During the 1840s Henry and Mary Ann moved to Westminster. In 1851, they were at 47 Peter Street, between the Millbank Penitentiary and Westminster Abbey. Henry was described as a labourer at a wharf and Mary was a laundress.

Ten years later, they were still in the same area, at 44 Charles Street, and Henry was a horse keeper but no occupation was given for Mary.

A decade further on, they had crossed the river and were living just the other side of Lambeth Bridge, at 15 Little Canterbury Place. Henry was by then a carman.

It would appear that Henry and Mary Ann never had any children – or, if they did, none survived to be recorded in any census. It is not known when Henry or Mary Ann died.

William Bradley remained in the Deptford/Greenwich area, working as a carman, coal heaver, and eventually as a coal wharf manager. He married Tabitha Morton in at St Luke’s, Charlton, on 14 January 1850. Tabitha already had an illegitimate daughter, Sarah Ann, who was born on 23 January 1847 in Bucklebury, Berkshire. After the marriage, Sarah Ann was given the Bradley surname, and William and Tabitha had another four children, all born in Deptford:

Evangeline Bradley, born 3 March 1854

John Morton Bradley, born 3 February 1857

Henry Liford Bradley, born 2 March 1861

Albert Edward Bradley, born late summer 1867

 

Going back in time

 

At the beginning of this blog, Pea-Bee said he was starting this story in the middle – and it has been fairly easy to trace the descendants of John and Elizabeth Bradley. It is their origins which are harder to ascertain.

John Bradley died on 6 July 1846 and was buried at St Alfege’s on 12 July. His age was given as 64, putting his birth as 1782.

His widow Elizabeth died two years later on 2 October 1848. She buried at St Alfege’s on 8 October and her age was stated to be 62 – putting her year of birth as 1786.

The only other information we have on them is from the 1841 census which tells us that neither was born in Kent. Great! That just leaves the leaves the rest of England – plus Wales. (The census would have noted if either were born in Ireland, Scotland or overseas).

However, it is known that they were in Fulham region when their first child was born in 1810. Looking at possible marriages in the 10 years prior to 1810 of a John Bradley to anyone called Elizabeth, there were 89 entries in Findmypast. Of course, many of these were duplicate transcriptions of the same event made by different organisations. Some were records of the banns or the issue of licences as well as the actual marriages themselves, but all in all, there were dozens of possibilities. However, the Bradley surname was more common in Northern England and so Pea-Bee concentrated on those in the south and the ones close to the end of the decade.

 

The Lyford Possibilty

Of all the various possible brides, the most likely is “Elizabeth Lyverd” who was married to John Bradley on 23 July 1809 at St Marylebone.

However, it is most unlikely that her surname was Lyverd – the marriage is the only record of anyone with this name – and it is more likely that her name was Lyford, sometimes spelt Liford, the error occurring because the clerk making the entries in the parish records misheard the name. Both bride and groom could only make their marks in the register and so would not have seen the error.

If she was Elizabeth Lyford or Liford, it would explain why one of her grandchildren was named Henry Liford Bradley.

There are only two other instances of anyone with the Lyverd spelling in either Ancestry or Findmypast databases – one, an Ann Lyverd who was married in Tring, Hertfordshire, in 1598; the other Sebastian Lyverd who was married in Reading, Berks in 1609/10. These published records are transcriptions, and therefore suspect – and indeed Sebastian appears as Lyverd in one transcription and as Lyvord in another. While the spelling Lyvord sometimes appears in census returns for Farnborough in Berkshire, the parish records record the same people as Lyford.

 

The Pangbourne Possibility

The Elizabeth Lyford who most closely matches the bride of John Bradley was born in Pangbourne, Berkshire, early in 1786 – she was baptised on 15 January, the second daughter of John and Mary Lyford. Her elder sister was Jane who was baptised on 2 March 1784.

John Lyford was baptised on 12 February 1748. His parents were John Lyford and Martha (nee Wells) who had married in Pangbourne on 19 December 1746.

There is no record of the younger John’s marriage to Mary, and so her maiden name is not known, but they did have a third child, Richard, who was baptised on 6 May 1788, just four days before his mother was buried (10 May 1788). Richard himself only survived a few months and was buried on 16 August 1788.

With two young daughters, aged 2 and 4, to look after, John remarried on 6 December 1788. His new wife was Anne Mitchell, who was born in about 1753, but her origins are as mysterious as so many others in this tale.

John died in Pangbourne in 1813 and was buried on 12 September. Anne survived until 1841 and was buried on 3 January.

It is possible that John and Anne had a late addition to the family. In 1800, when Anne would have been about 47, a child called Martha Lyford was baptised on at Pangbourne with the parents given as John and Anne Lyford. There were no other Lyfords in the parish at that time but it could have been that John and Anne were claiming parentage to protect one of John’s daughters – Jane would have been 16 and Elizabeth 14 at that time.

Martha stayed in Pangbourne and married Jeremiah Pidgett there on 2 December 1820. Nothing more is known about Jeremiah – or indeed anyone else with that surname, but Martha Pidgett was buried at Pangbourne on 25 May 1826.

So if Elizabeth Lyford was the person who married John Bradley in Marylebone in 1809, what happened to her sister Jane? There is no record her in Pangbourne but there was a Jane Lyford who married Joseph Burgess in St Andrew’s, Holborn, on 10 October 1811. Unfortunately it has not been possible to trace either Jane or her husband after then.

 

Was the name Warren or Waring?

Or even Warring or Wareing or Wearing?

 

According to the register of marriages at Holy Trinity, Derby, on 1 August 1880 George Bathe married a woman called Elizabeth Warren, whose father was Joseph Warren, a dyer.

A misreading of the marriage certificate at the time of Elizabeth’s death in Queensland 40 years later meant that the local authorities recorded her father as Joseph Warren Dyer.

But this was not the only confusion over Elizabeth’s maiden name.

 

Elizabeth was just 18 years old when she got married, meaning there would have been only one census taken between the time of her birth and when she was married. That was in 1871 when she was nine years old and living with an aunt and uncle, Ann and William Keene, in John Street, Derby.

The census states she was born in Coventry, Warwickshire. Calculating back for the ages given in the census and at the time of her marriage, her year of birth would have been 1862. However, no birth of an Elizabeth Warren was registered in Coventry that year, or the any year either side.

Not only that, but none of the census records include a Joseph Warren in the region. There are, however, records of a Joseph in Coventry whose surname is variously spelt Waring, Warring, Wareing, Wearing and, on one occasion, Waren.

That this Joseph was the father of Elizabeth can be confirmed from a number of clues.

 

The Keene Family

First, the uncle and aunt with whom Elizabeth was living in 1871 – William and Ann Keene.

William Keene had been born in Coventry in about 1794. When he was 23 and living in the parish of Holy Trinity, Coventry, he married Elizabeth Sadler, also born in Coventry, but a year older. The marriage took place at Elizabeth’s parish church of St John the Baptist, Coventry, on 3 August 1817. The couple had at least seven children, three of whom are known to have died in infancy.

From the baptismal records of these children it is known that William was working as a weaver.

The first child, born in March 1820 in St John’s Bridge, part of the parish of Holy Trinity, was baptised William, after his father, in the parish church on 29 March but then buried there, when 6 weeks old, on 16 May 1820.

A little under a year later, when the second child Mary was baptised on 25 March 1821, the family were in Spon Street, in the parish of St John the Baptist. There they remained for at least 12 years.

The other children born to William and Elizabeth were all baptised at St John the Baptist:

Sarah, on 23 February 1823

A second William, baptised 3 October 1824 but buried 22 August 1826

Emma, 4 March 1827 buried 18 November 1846

Thomas, 16 November 1828

Samuel, 20 March 1831 buried 5 February 1832

It was soon after the birth of Samuel that the children’s mother died and was buried on 22 May 1831. Their father quickly got a new carer for them, and on 2 October 1831, widower William Keene married Ann Waring at St Martin, Birmingham.

Ann gave William another child, a son who was baptised William on 14 January 1833. This William survived into adulthood.

By the time of the 1841 census, William and Ann Keene, with their two youngest surviving sons, had moved to St Alkmund parish in Derby. Both William and Ann were described as silk weavers.

Sisters Mary and Sarah Keene were both silk winders and living together in a house in Full Street, in the parish of All Saints, Derby, and it was from Full Street that Sarah married fellmonger Joseph Gregson on 13 September 1841, with Mary as one witness.

In 1851, William and Ann were still in St Alkmund parish, at 42 Erasmus Street, with their son William, a 9-year-old granddaughter – Sarah Ann Gregson – and a 21-year-old visitor called James Stain. All four adults in the house were described as power loom silk weavers.

By 1861, William and Ann had moved into the parish of St Werburgh in Derby and were living at 236 Abbey Terrace. Also in the house was James Stain. Both William and James were still silk weavers, but Ann was now referred to as a seamstress.

The 1871 census shows that William and Ann were at 31 John Street, St Werburgh. With them in the house was Elizabeth Warren, Ann’s 9-year-old niece – and James Stain, the lodger. The males had left the silk weaving trade: William was now a provisions dealer and James Stain, a lamplighter. Ann continued as a dress maker.

William Keene died a year later in the spring of 1872. On 16 June 1873, Ann married the lodger, James Stain, and continued to live at 31 John Street – they were still there at the time of the 1881 census. However, the marriage took place back in Coventry, at St John the Baptist church, and both bride and groom gave their address as Spon Street. The witnesses to this marriage were Ann’s brother Joseph Waring and his wife Elizabeth. James Stain had been born in Foleshill, near Coventry, in about 1829 and so was some 16 years younger than Ann.

The Stains were still in Derby in 1891, at 32 Nun Street, with a new lodger, a 20-year-old general labourer called Henry Wright and Ann died at the beginning of 1894, aged 87. It is not known what happened to James Stain.

 

The Waring Family

Ann Waring, who became Ann Keene, and then Ann Stain, was born in Leicestershire in about 1813, by Elizabeth, the wife of William Waring. Ann had at least three brothers, William, James and Joseph, all born in Coventry between 1818 and 1825. Their father, William Waring, was described as a gardener when the children got married but had been listed as a labourer at the time of their baptisms.

The marriage certificates of the 1840s provide the next set of clues.

Ann Keene acted as a witness to at least three marriages in Coventry in the 1840s, each also involving members of the Waring family:

On 9 December 1844 James Waring married Eliza Muddeman, and the two witnesses were Joseph Waring and Ann Keene.

On 25 May 1845 Ann Keene’s stepdaughter, Mary Keene, married John Rollason and again the witnesses were Joseph, who signed his name Warring, and Ann Keene.

On 15 June 1846 Joseph himself was married to Elizabeth Oughton. He again signed his name Joseph Warring. The witnesses on this occasion were James Waring, who signed his name with one R, and Ann Keene.

Joseph and Elizabeth had seven children born between 1851 and 1868. One died in infancy but of the others, three called themselves Warren in later life.

The first four children were all baptised together on 26 December 1860 with the surname Waring, although the birth registrations varied: the eldest, Joseph, appears in the register as Warring in 1851, John as Wareing in 1854, Sarah Ann as Warren in 1856 and Eliza as Waring when she was born in 1859 and as Wearing when she was buried in 1862.

There are no records of the last three children ever being baptised, but the birth registrations were all with the name Waring.

Their mother Elizabeth died in the spring of 1878 and her death was registered with the name Waring.

Meanwhile, as the eldest boys got married, they were using the name Warren and not Waring. Joseph junior, for example, married Harriet Dowswell on 15 June 1873 at St John the Baptist, Coventry, and gave his name, and that of his father, as Warren. He continue to use that name until his death on 16 October 1917 and gave it to all his six children.

When his younger brother John married Elizabeth Samuels on 19 November 1877 at St Thomas, Coventry, the family name was given as Warren: for the groom, the father and for the two witnesses – Joseph junior and a sister, Sarah Ann, although she only made her mark and the name was written by the vicar.

When Sarah Ann herself got married, on 5 October 1879, to Thomas Olorenshaw, both her name and that of her father were given as Waring, although her brother Joseph signed his name Warren as one of the witnesses.

And when another sister, Emily, was married to Frederick Williams on 2 August 1884, she again was called Waring, as was her father.

While her sisters may have used Waring as their maiden names when they were married, Elizabeth, like her older brothers, used the name Warren when she married George Bathe on 1 August 1880 at Holy Trinity, Derby.

The final conclusive clue comes from the marriage on Christmas Day 1881, again at Holy Trinity, Derby, when their father, the widower Joseph Waring, married Elizabeth Marks. The register shows that the two witnesses to the marriage were George Bathe and Elizabeth Bathe.

Joseph retained the name Waring until his death at the end of 1901 – and gave it to the five daughters he had by Elizabeth Marks.

 

The Oughton Family

Elizabeth Oughton who married Joseph Waring was the eldest child of William Oughton and Mary Hollingshead.

William Oughton was baptised at St John the Baptist, Coventry, on 7 February 1803, the youngest child of Francis and Elizabeth. So far it has not proved possible to trace this couple back further beyond the fact that they were married on 16 February 1791 – the register has been damaged so badly that all that is known of Elizabeth’s surname is that it began with a B.

William married Mary Hollingshead at Holy Trinity, Coventry, on 31 August 1822 when he was 19 and Mary just 18. It would appear that she had been baptised on 21 November 1804 at Great Dalby in Leicestershire, the daughter of William and Ann Hollingshead. Again, it has not been possible to trace this family back further.

William was a watchmaker but he died when he was just 32. He was buried at St Michael, Coventry, on 6 August 1835.

William and Mary had had five children in all, with the youngest, Sarah, having been born the year before William’s death. Mary was to remarry, a ribbon weaver called Thomas Dowell, on 27 April 1837, and had three more children by him before she died eleven years later. She was buried at St John the Baptist on 12 March 1848.

Hammond, Gurnell and Fox business links

Hammond, Gurnell and Fox

– the business links

This section is the culmination of the previous Hammond, Gurnell and Fox blogs. Whereas the previous blogs outlined the family histories, this one looks at the complex business links between those members of the family who were chemists and druggist and/or oil seed crushers.

 

Until the development of the petrochemical industry, there were two sources of oil for everything from lubricants to paint to soaps: either whales or various seeds. Today, we think of vegetables oils as those refined for cooking: olive oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, sesame seed oil, etc. However, there were many other uses for oils from crushed seeds, including probably the biggest use: oil for lamps. Even today, linseed oil is used for a variety of applications while castor oil has its medicinal (laxative) properties. There are many more examples.

§1 Simmons Hammond

Simmons Hammond was a chemist and druggist in High Street, Dartford[1], for all his professional life, but he did have other business interests.

Not long after he married Mary Ann Essenhigh in 1800[2] he either invested in his brother-in-law’s business, or at least lent him some money. John Essenhigh ran Dartford’s main coaching inn, The Bull, but was also a dealer in various goods, However, he was declared bankrupt on 19 November 1816, with Simmons Hammond a major creditor[3].

Simmons Hammond continued with his pharmacy in Dartford but also acted as agent for various insurance companies: Globe Insurance in 1826[4] and Sun Insurance by 1840.

Towards the end of his life, Simmons Hammond was also a seed crusher and oil refiner, coal merchant and lime burner, and wharfinger and barge owner[5].

His interest in coal appears to have started in the 1830s.

William Wilks was a coal merchant in Dartford in 1826[6] and by 1832 had formed a partnership with Thomas Coyler to run the business from Nisbett’s Wharf. This partnership was dissolved on 16 June 1832, leaving William Wilks once more in control[7].

William Wilks then went into partnership with Simmons Hammond, but this partnership was dissolved on 8 May 1837, leaving the business in Simmons Hammond’s hands[8].

About the time of his daughter’s marriage to Thomas Gurnell in 1838[9], Simmons Hammond took his son-in-law into partnership in the High Street chemist and druggist business.

An 1840 directory styles the firm Hammond & Gurnell and lists them as oilmen as well as chemists and druggists. In this directory Simmons Hammond was also listed as coal merchant & lime burner; Sun Insurance agent; and wharfinger & barge owner at Hammond’s Wharf, Dartford[10].

In 1841, Simmons Hammond’s youngest son, Frederick, was working as a coal merchant in Dartford, probably in his father’s business[11].

Although there had been a seed crushing mill and oil refinery in Dartford for many years, Simmons Hammond’s interest in this trade may have started in London in 1825/7 when he was in partnership with his eldest son, William Essenhigh Hammond in a business that included castor oil seed crushing (§2).

Certainly from 1841, Simmons Hammond was in control of a medical seed crushing mill and oil refinery at Ordnance Wharf, 133 Rotherhithe Street, in London, while his son was a linseed oil crusher in the same premises[12].

The seed oil mills at Ordnance Wharf appear to have been transferred to Thomas Gurnell following the dissolution of a partnership between him and Simmons Hammond, trading as chemists and druggists, on 8 March 1845[13], although the business name of the Rotherhithe mills may not have changed immediately: in the 1848 edition of the directory, Simmons Hammond was an oil refiner at Ordnance Wharf, 133 Rotherhithe Street[14].

There is no mention in the directory of William Essenhigh Hammond, who went bankrupt that year (see §2 below) but another of Simmons Hammond’s son, Edward, was working in the business at that time[15] (§3)

Simmons Hammond died in 1849[16] and it appears that Thomas Gurnell took over most of his father-in-law’s businesses (§5).

§ 2 William Essenhigh Hammond

Like his father, William Essenhigh Hammond was a chemist and druggist, but he too had other interests. The first was a London firm of wholesale chemists and druggists and seed crushers which was originally a partnership between James Vallance and Richard Hamilton Anderson. This operated from premises at Garlick Hill, Upper Thames Street, and Maiden Lane, Queen Street. The partnership was dissolved on 5 February 1818[17], and the following year, a directory has T & H Vallance, wholesale druggists and pressers of castor oil, at 19 Garlick Hill, Upper Thames Street[18]. [It is presumed the “T” is a misprint for “J” (see next paragraph).]

James and Henry Vallance had a partnership under the name J & H Vallance, as druggists, and when this partnership was dissolved on 1 January 1823, with James left running the business, it was trading from Warner Street, St James, Clerkenwell[19].

James then went into a short-lived partnership with William Essenhigh Hammond, called Messrs Vallance & Hammond, as druggists at Little Warner Street, Clerkenwell. This partnership was dissolved in 5 October 1824, leaving William Hammond to run the business[20].

A London directory of 1825 had J & H Vallance as chemists at 6 Little Warner Street and wholesale tea dealers at 1 Baker’s Row, Clerkenwell[21].

It would appear that both parts of James Vallance’s business had been taken over by William Hammond who then went into partnership with his father, Simmons Hammond, but this partnership too was relatively short lived and dissolved on 30 October 1827, again leaving William to run the businesses – as a druggist in Little Warner Street and tea dealer in nearby Baker’s Row[22].

The wholesale tea dealing side of William Hammond’s business seems to have gone by 1839 when Pigot’s London directory has two entries for Hammond & Co, both at 1 Baker’s Row, Coppice Row, Clerkenwell – the first as a manufacturing “chymist” of castor oil, the second as a seed crusher[23].

Pigot’s Middlesex directory of the same year also had William Hammond operating in three trades: as a chemist & druggist, a grocer & tea dealer and an oil & colourman in New Brentford[24]. He had had a chemist’s shop in Brentford since at least 1837 when, on 27 November, Robert Skitter, who kept the shop for Hammond, accused John Baptist Hennet of stealing a comb, value 3d, the property of William Essenhigh Hammond[25].

In 1841 William Hammond was living in an area of New Brentford called The Butts. Also in the house were his wife Lucy, brother Edward Hammond and uncle John Essenhigh[26].

William was described as a stout merchant and Edward as an oil presser. John Essenhigh was described as “assistant” but to which brother is not clear.

William continued in the seed crushing business expanded. Not only was he a linseed oil crusher, at Ordnance Wharf, near Pageant’s stairs, Rotherhithe, but it is believed he also had an oil mill in Uxbridge.

On 5 June 1848, William Essenhigh Hammond of Uxbridge, trading under the firm of Sexton & Co [a later record gave the name as Lexton & Co] seed crusher, dealer and chapman, was made bankrupt[27]. He was not discharged until 4 November 1850[28].

The 1851 census had William Hammond, together with Lucy and a young son, also called William, living at the oil mills in Rotherhithe Street[29]; William was a clerk to a seed crusher, presumably his brother-in-law, Thomas Gurnell.

The 1851 and 1856 London directories list Thomas Gurnell as seed crusher and chemical manure manufacture at Ordnance Wharf, 133 Rotherhithe Street[30].

William Essenhigh Hammond died in 1857[31].

§3 Edward Hammond

The first mention of Edward being involved in the seed crushing and oil refining business was in 1841[32]. He was then living with his brother William in Brentford and was described as an oil presser (see §2 above). When he married Emily Jones on 10 November 1843, he was described as an oil merchant and his father Simmons Hammond as an oil presser. His home address was given as Cripplegate in the City of London[33].

Edward and Emily’s first child, named Gurnell Edward Hammond, was baptised in Rotherhithe on 31 March 1846[34]. [The record is seriously damaged but dates, first name and parents’ first names are clearly visible, although not Edward’s profession]

Two years later, their second child, Emily Blanche Hammond, was born in Islington on 19 June 1848 but then baptised at St Alfege, Greenwich, on 20 September[35]. Edward was described then as an oil-cake merchant of Islington but on 24 August that year – very much like his elder brother – he had gone bankrupt. Edward was described as “late of Kingston, and also now or late of Rotherhithe-street, Rotherhithe, in the county of Surrey, oil crusher and manufacturer of superphosphate of lime, dealer and chapman.”[36]

It is not know if the two bankruptcies – William’s in June 1848, Edward’s in the August – were in any way connected, nor if these bankruptcies were the occasion for Thomas Gurnell’s involvement in the Rotherhithe business.

Edward Hammond was discharged from his bankruptcy a year later[37] and the 1851 census has Edward as a gelatine manufacturer living in Tooting[38]. However, by the time his daughter Louisa Hammond was baptised, in 1853, the family was back living in Rotherhithe, at Plough Bridge Road, and Edward was described as a seed crusher[39].

Edward later become a chemist in East Wickham, Kent – by 1857[40] – and was still there in 1861[41]. Ten years later, however, he was in Godstone, Surrey, living off rents and dividends[42].

§4 Frederick Hammond

Frederick Hammond had been a coal merchant in Dartford in 1841[43] but he later became a beer and wine merchant in Brentford End, Isleworth. In 1851, he was described as a stout agent in Isleworth[44] – it is possible that he took over his brother William’s agency. In 1861, he was a beer merchant[45] and in 1871, a wine and spirit merchant[46]. He was then living in a house at “Hammond’s Wharf” on Grand Union Canal, Isleworth.

In 1872, Frederick Hammond suffered a bad debt, which probably affected his own financial position the following year.

Charles John Brownjohn, wine, spirit, and bottle beer merchant, of 1 Clifton-villas, Upper Richmond Road, Putney, instituted “proceedings for liquidation by arrangement or composition with creditors” and Frederick Hammond, wine merchant of Brentford, and George Phillips, wine merchant of 69 High Holborn, were appointed trustees of Brownjohn’s property by the County Court on 25 June 1872[47].

By 28 May 1873, Frederick Hammond was having to institute similar proceedings for liquidation[48].

It has not proved possible to track Frederick’s life after this until his death in 1885[49].

§5 Thomas Gurnell

Having taken over two of his father-in-law’s businesses – the chemist and druggist shop in High Street, Dartford[50], and the seed crushing operation in Rotherhithe[51], Thomas Gurnell went into partnership with his nephew, Edward Fox (§6), as chemists and druggists in Dartford.

This partnership was dissolved on 19 August 1864, with Thomas Gurnell responsible for any debts[52]. Then, ten days later, Thomas Gurnell died[53] and on 1 November 1864, probate of his will was granted to his widow, Mary Ann Gurnell. The estate was valued at under £3,000[54].

Clearly, Thomas Gurnell’s death so soon after the dissolution of the partnership meant that not all the creditors had been paid and on 28 March 1865, Edward Fox had to take out a suit in Chancery against Mary Ann Gurnell[55].

Less than a year after starting the action and before the situation could be resolved, Edward Fox himself died.

 

§6 Edward Fox

Edward Fox was a relatively young man when he died, on 12 March 1866 – just 29 years old[56]. However, at the time of the 1861 census, he was a patient in Guy’s Hospital[57]. Despite being recorded as a draper’s assistant at this time, Edward was to become a chemist, first with his uncle in Dartford, but later in Westerham. He made his brother William Fox (§7) his executor for an estate valued at under £450[58].

 §7 William Fox

William Fox also became a chemist and druggist. In 1851, aged 18, he was visiting his uncle §5 Thomas Gurnell at Dartford[59] and by 1860, when he married Ellen Maria Brookes in Birmingham, he was working as a chemist and druggist in York[60]. He took his wife there and his daughter was born in York in 1861[61], but by 1862 he had his shop in Chapel Place, Tunbridge Wells[62]. He was, apparently, still there in 1866 when he was granted probate on his brother’s estate and then moved into his brother’s shop in Market Place, Westerham, where he was from 1867 until he died in 1907[63].

Ellen Fox died in 1867[64] and William remarried two years later[65]. His new wife was Frances Caroline Atherford and she gave him a son, Ernest Edward Fox, born in 1872.[66]

When William Fox died, his widow Frances was granted probate of his estate, valued at £538 1s 1d[67]. The Westerham shop was, however, taken over by a distant cousin, William Gurnell[68], whose sister, Minnie Gurnell, had married Ernest Edward Fox in 1898[69].

§8 William Gurnell

William and Minnie Gurnell were the grandchildren of George Gurnell, brother of §5 Thomas Gurnell. Their father, William Gurnell, was a chemist who left Lincolnshire and moved south to work in a long-established chemist’s shop at 34 Union Street, Ryde, on the Isle of Wight where he lived for more than 20 years[70].

This shop had been run by William Gibbs, who was originally from Tewkesbury, from at least 1851. His sister Elizabeth ran a bookseller’s shop next door at 33 Union Street[71].  The business later traded as Gibbs & Gurnell (as it still does in 2014)[72]. At some point between 1891 and 1901, William Gurnell senior moved with his family to Waterlooville on the Hampshire mainland, where he continued his business as a dispensing chemist and (in 1901) his son William was manager of the shop[73].

William and Minnie Gurnell were also second cousins of Edward and William Fox (see §6 and §7 above) and so when Minnie was married to Ernest Fox, it was to her second cousin once removed. When William Fox died in 1907, his second cousin and brother of his daughter-in-law William Gurnell junior took over the Westerham chemist’s shop and was there until at least 1938.[74]

 

 

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[1] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Kent 1824 p386 (via www.historicaldirectories.org Pigot’s Directory of Kent 1824 image 11)

[2] London Metropolitan Archives, Church of England Parish Registers, St Peter Cornhill, Register of marriages 1781-1812 P69/PET1/A/01/Ms 8823/2 p67 No 265 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 City of London, St Peter Cornhill 1801 image 1)

[3] London Gazette 9 November 1816 Issue No 17193 p2210; London Gazette 7 December 1816 Issue No 17198 p2324

[4] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Kent 1826 p609 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, Kent > Pigot’s Directory 1826 image 19)

[5] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Kent 1840 pp270,271 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s,Kent > Pigot’s Directory 1840 images 32 and 33)

[6] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Kent 1826 p609 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s,Kent > Pigot’s Directory 1826 image 19)

[7] London Gazette 19 June 1832 Issue No 18946 p1411

[8] London Gazette 9 May 1837 Issue No 19493 p1198

[9] Medway Council Archives: P110 Dartford Holy Trinity 1363-1988/P110 01 58: Holy Trinity Dartford, Register of Marriages 1837-1856 p16 No31

[10] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Kent 1840 pp270,271 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s,Kent > Pigot’s Directory 1840 images 32 and 33)

[11] National Archives, 1841 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 482 Book 4 Dartford, Kent, Enumeration District 5 Folio 6 Page 8 Line 25 GSU 306875 (via Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Dartford, Kent District 5 image 4)

[12] Post Office London Directory, 1841. (Part 1: Street, Commercial, & Trades Directories) p219, p247 (via historicaldirectories.org Post Office London Directory 1841 images 417 and 445); Post Office London Directory, 1843 p212 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1843 image 204)

[13] London Gazette 21 August 1846 Issue No 20634 p 3041

[14] Post Office London Directory, 1848 p834 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1848 image 287)

[15] London Metropolitan Archives, Bermondsey Holy Trinity Register of Baptism, P71/TRI, Item 001 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Bermondsey Holy Trinity 1846 image 8)

[16] FreeBMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index 1837-1915 Q1 1849 Dartford Vol 5 p81; Medway Council Archives: P110 Dartford Holy Trinity 1363-1988/P110 01 11: Holy Trinity Dartford, Register of Burials 1843-1856 p86 No686

[17] London Gazette 21 July 1818 Issue No 17381 p 1320

[18] Post Office London Directory 1819 p351 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1819 image 179)

[19] London Gazette 26 July 1823 Issue No 17943 p 1225

[20] London Gazette 9 October 1824 Issue No 18069 p 1657

[21] Pigot & Co’s Commercial Directory of London 1825 p94, p242 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > Pigot’s Directory 1825 images 100 and 253)

[22] London Gazette 20 November 1827 Issue No 18416 p 2394

[23] Pigot & Co’s Directory of London 1839 p87, p194 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s,London > Pigot’s Directory 1839 images 97 and 206)

[24] Pigot & Co’s Directory of Middlesex 1839, pp391 & 392 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, Middlesex >1839 Pigot’s Directory images 6 and 7)

[25] Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court, 27th November 1837, p59 (via www.oldbaileyonline.org ref t18371127-81)

[26] National Archives, 1841 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 655 Book 1 Brentford, Middlesex, Enumeration District 1 Folio 9 Page 11 Line 25 GSU 438773 (via Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Brentford, Middlesex District 1 image 7)

[27] London Gazette 16 June 1848 Issue No 20868 p 2288; London Gazette 10 November 1848 Issue No 20914 p 4055

[28] London Gazette 5 November 1850 Issue No 21150 p 2898

[29] National Archives, 1851 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 1583 Folio 507 Page 46 GSU 174819 (via Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Rotherhithe, Surrey District 15 image 47)

[30] Post Office London Directory 1851 p463 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1853 image 468); Post Office London Directory 1852 p768; (via historicaldirectories.org Post Office London Directory 1852 image 264); Post Office London Directory, 1856 p650 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1856 image 679)

[31] FreeBMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index 1837-1915 Q3 1857 Dartford Vol 2a p141

[32] National Archives, 1841 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 655 Book 1 Brentford, Middlesex, Enumeration District 1 Folio 9 Page 11 Line 25 GSU 438773 (via Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Brentford, Middlesex District 1 image 7)

[33] Surrey Record Centre; Anglican Parish Registers P33/1/27 All Saints, Kingston-upon-Thames Register of marriages 1837-1859 p46, no92 (via Ancestry.com Surrey, England, Marriages, 1754-1937 Kingston-upon-Thames All Saints 1837-1859 image 25)

[34] London Metropolitan Archives, Bermondsey Holy Trinity Register of Baptism, P71/TRI, Item 001 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Bermondsey Holy Trinity 1846 image 8)

[35] London Metropolitan Archives, Greenwich St Alfege, Register of Baptism, P78/ALF, Item 015 p204 No1632 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Greenwich St Alfege 1848 image 35)

[36] London Gazette 12 September 1848 Issue number 20896 page 3368; London Gazette 19 June 1849 Issue number 20990 page 2003

[37] London Gazette 24 August 1849 Issue number 21012 page 2664

[38] National Archives, 1851 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 1579 Folio 238 Page 12 GSU 174815 (via Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Tooting Graveney, Surrey District 1c image 27)

[39] London Metropolitan Archives, Rotherhithe All Saints, Register of Baptism, P71/ALL, Item 001 p33 No258 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Rotherhithe All Saints 1853 image 2)

[40] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 Q4 1854 Rotherhithe Vol 1d p443; London Metropolitan Archives, Wickham, Register of Baptism, DL/T/103, Item 019 p94 No748 (via Ancestry.com London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 Wickham, Kent 1857 image 2); Melville’s Directory and Gazetteer 1858 p434 (via Ancestry,com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, Kent > Melville’s Directory 1858 image 448)

[41] National Archives, 1861 Census of England & Wales, Class RG9 Piece 465 Folio 144 Page 24 GSU 542643 (via Ancestry.com 1861 England Census East Wickham, Kent District 8 image 25)

[42] National Archives, 1871 Census of England & Wales, Class RG10 Piece 837 Folio 18 Page 28 GSU 827752 (via Ancestry.com 1871 England Census Godstone, Surrey District 7 image 29)

[43] National Archives, 1841 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 482 Book 4 Dartford, Kent, Enumeration District 5 Folio 6 Page 8 Line 25 GSU 306875 (via Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Dartford, Kent District 5 image 4)

[44] National Archives, 1861 Census of England & Wales, Class RG9 Piece 465 Folio 144 Page 24 GSU 542643 (via Ancestry.com 1861 England Census East Wickham, Kent District 8 image 25)

[45] National Archives, 1861 Census of England & Wales, Class RG9 Piece 772 Folio 85 Page 31 GSU 542698 (via Ancestry.com 1861 England Census Isleworth, Middlesex District 10 image 32)

[46] National Archives, 1871 Census of England & Wales, Class RG10 Piece 1313 Folio 70 Page 12 GSU 838781 (via Ancestry.com 1871 England Census Isleworth, Middlesex District 10 image 13)

[47] London Gazette 28 June 1872 Issue No 23871 p 3007’ London Gazette 5 July 1872 Issue No 23873 p 3093

[48] London Gazette 16 May 1873 Issue No 23976 p 2477; London Gazette 17 March 1874 Issue No 24076 p 1723; London Gazette 7 April 1874 Issue No 24084 p 2048

[49] FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q1 1885 Brentford Vol 3a p72

[50] Post Office Directory of Kent 1851 p290 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, Kent > PO Directory 1851 image 52)

[51] Post Office London Directory 1851 p463 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1851 image 468); Post Office London Directory 1852 p768; (via historicaldirectories.org Post Office London Directory 1852 image 264); Post Office London Directory, 1856 p650 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, London > PO Directory 1856 image 679)

[52] London Gazette 30 August 1864 Issue No 22889 p 4253

[53] FreeBMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index 1837-1915 Q3 1864 Dartford Vol 2a p180; Medway Council Archives: P110 Dartford Holy Trinity 1363-1988/P110 01 12: Holy Trinity Dartford, Register of Burials 1836-1877 p105 No836

[54] National Archives, Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England  1864 p233 (via Ancestry.com England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 1864 G>Gu image 9)

[55] London Gazette 31 March 1865 Issue No 22953 p 1822; London Gazette 13 July 1866 Issue No 23137 p 4002

[56] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q1 1866 Sevenoaks Vol 2a p321

[57] National Archives, 1861 Census of England & Wales, Class RG9 Piece 316 Folio 154 Page 5 GSU 542613 (via Ancestry.com 1861 England Census Southwark St Thomas District Guy’s Hospital image 6)

[58] National Archives, Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England  1866 p305 (via Ancestry.com England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 1866 F>Fo image 34)

[59] National Archives, 1851 Census of England & Wales, Class HO107 Piece 1607 Folio 371 Page 10 GSU 193506-193507 (via Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Dartford, Kent District 1b image 11)

[60] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Q1 1860 Birmingham Vol 6d p197; National Archives. General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commission of 1857, and other registers and church records; Class: RG 8; Piece: 98 Birmingham, Church of the Saviour, Edward Street: Marriages (pt 2), 1848-1894 p19 No9 (via Ancestry.com Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970 Piece 98 Birmingham, Church of the Saviour, Edward Street: Marriages (pt 2), 1848-1894 image 20)

[61] National Archives, 1861 Census of England & Wales, Class RG9 Piece 3546 Folio 44 Page 15 GSU 543149 (via Ancestry.com 1861 England Census York St Sampson District 18 image 16)

[62] Kelly’s Directory of Kent 1862 p1037 (via Ancestry.com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s, Kent > Kelly’s Directory, 1862 image 323)

[63] Post Office Directory of Kent 1867 p1181 (via Ancestry,com UK City & County Directories 1600s-1900s,Kent > PO Directory 1867 371): Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q3 1907 Sevenoaks Vol 2a p367

[64] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Q2 1867 Sevenoaks Vol 2a p267

[65] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Q1 1869 Kensington Vol 1a p240; London Metropolitan Archives, Saint James, Paddington, Register of marriages, P87/JS, Item 039 1869 p62 No121 (via Ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921, Saint James, Paddington 1869 image 8)

[66] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 Q4 1872 Sevenoaks Vol 2a p528

[67] National Archives, Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England  1907 p153 (via Ancestry.com England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 1907 F>Fo image 24)

[68] National Archives, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Class RG14 Piece 4024 Schedule No 30 (via Ancestry.com 1911 England Census Westerham, Kent District 17 image 60)

[69] Free BMD England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Q3 1898 Havant Vol 2b p837

[70] National Archives, 1871 Census of England & Wales, Class RG10 Piece 1165 Folio 66 Page 11 GS roll 827797 (via Ancestry.com 1871 England Census Ryde, Hampshire District 3 image 12)

[71] White’s Directory of Hanpshire & Isle of Wight 1859 p659 (via www.historicaldirectories.org White’s Directory of Hampshire 1859 image 662); Harrod’s Co Directory of Hanpshire & Isle of Wight 1865 p1149 p659 (via www.historicaldirectories.org Harrod’s Directory of Hampshire 1865 image 601)

[72] Post Office Directory of Hampshire, Wiltshire & Isle of Wight 1875 p298 (via www.historicaldirectories.org Post Office Directory of Hampshire, Wiltshire & Isle of Wight 1875 image 326); www.gibbsandgurnell.co.uk (accessed 7 March 2014)

[73] National Archives, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Class RG13 Piece 976 Folio 31 Page 22 (via Ancestry.com 1901 England Census Farlington, Hampshire District 2 image 23)

[74] National Archives, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Class RG14 Piece 4024 Schedule No 30 (via Ancestry.com 1911 England Census Westerham, Kent District 17 image 60); Kelly’s Directory of Kent 1938 p717 (via Ancestry.com Kent > 1938 Kelly’s Directory image 774)