William Moorhouse Stoney seems to have been in need of money for much of his life. He may have been imprisoned for debt in 1814-15, was convicted of fraud and held on a Prison Hulk from 1819-1823. When his son was baptised in 1828, he was a Coal Merchant of Sion Place, East Street and was in debtors’ prison in 1829, from the same address and similar occupation, around the time his daughter Catherine Alice Stoney was born. Ancestry, The London Gazette and FindMyPast hold records suggesting that he continued in the same vein in later life.
In 1836, there is a criminal
record at Ancestry for a William Stoney, aged 68 (b1767), convicted
of fraud at Surrey Assizes and sentenced to six months in prison; at present, I
have nothing to connect this record to ‘my’ William Moorhouse Stoney, particularly
as the age is out by about ten years, but it could be him.
On 17th May 1843, he is in Horsemonger Lane Gaol
for debt; the London Gazette has his petition for relief, citing his
occupation as Commission and General Agent, late of No.6 Sion Place, Walworth. The
following month, there is another entry where he is shown as:
William Moorhouse Stoney (sued and committed as
W.M.Stoney), late of No.6 Sion-Place, East-street, Walworth, Surrey, General
Dealer, and Commission, Discount and General Agent, twice a Prisoner for Debt
in the County Gaol for Surrey, Horsemonger-lane, my wife a Dress Maker.”
His wife, Mary Ann Pearce, is shown as a Dressmaker
on the 1841-1851 censuses.
By the 1861 census, her much older husband has died,
leaving her a 67-year old widow living with her daughter Catherine Alice
Stoney and husband Aaron Wales (my 3xgreat grandparents) at No.2
Cottage Row, Newington.
An Elizabeth Stoney is the informant – probably his
daughter-in-law. He was buried on 25th January 1857 at City of
London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
Mary Ann Stoney (nee Pearce) died on 14th
March 1863 in the same house as her husband, next door to where she was living with her
daughter and son-in-law at the time of the 1861 census.
Her death
certificate shows the cause of death as Apoplexy, 45 minutes, certified. Her
age is given as 69 (b1794) and she is described as the Widow of William
Moorhouse Stoney, annuitant. Informant: C A Stoney, present at the
death, 1 Cottage Row.
She was buried at The City of London and Tower Hamlets
Cemetery like her husband. There is a note in the burial register that the coffin
was 2ft 2” wide.
For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view
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