4.3 The eleven children of James Stocking & Mary Ann Collins

 My great great grandfather James Thomas Stocking was one of eleven children. He and his wife had 19 children of their own, almost all of whom survived to maturity, but some of his siblings were close behind, all having large families. Some of their children died in infancy, several of their boys served and were killed in WW1, others lived to old age, founding further dynasties in the Stocking line with large families of their own. In all, I have traced well over 150 of the next two generations descending from James Stocking and Mary Collins.

1. The first child born to my 3xgreat grandparents after their marriage at the end of November 1849 was Mary Ann Susan Stocking, on 15 September 1851. Her birth date is helpfully given in her baptism record in 1855, when she would have been around four years old. At the time of the 1871 census she is shown, aged 19, in her parents’ household, occupation Flagmaker. Perhaps she worked at nearby Edgingtons' Old Kent Road – Works – Southwark Heritage, the famous flag, tent, rope and sailmaker? On 1 June 1873, she married William James Ward, a Packing Case Maker, at St Mary Newington. According to her entry in the 1911 census, they had been married for 40 years (ie 40 years previously) and had had 11 children, only four of whom are still alive in 1911 (I have only found ten of them in the records). William Ward is described as a Pencil Case Maker in the censuses up until 1901. By 1911, Mary Ann Susan is a widow, described as a Laundry Worker and living with her 17 year old son George Frank Ward, a General Labourer. The death of a Mary Ann Susan Ward, aged 71, was registered in Hendon, Middlesex, in March 1921, although this may or may not be the correct person.

2. James Thomas Stocking, my 2xgreat grandfather, was the second child and eldest son of James Stocking and Mary Ann Collins.

3. Their third child was another daughter, Caroline Jane, born 23 May 1855. By the 1871 census she is working as a Servant, aged 18, although still living at home with her parents and siblings. She married Charles Baker, a Carman, on 4 August 1878 at St Mary Newington. By 1911, Caroline has been widowed, like her older sister. Charles died in 1904, aged just 50. His widow says that they were married for 32 years and had 11 children (I have only traced eight), four of whom have died by 1911. She died, aged 62, in 1917. Her place of death is shown as Lambeth Infirmary on her burial record, which may explain why her age is given as 60 (the hospital staff may not have known her exact date of birth).

4. Richard Daniel Stocking was born on 21 August 1857. He married Martha Maria Goodman at St John the Evangelist, Walworth on 22 March 1880, when he was 22. He was working as a Labourer at the time, but a year later he is described as a Tripe Dresser on the 1881 census. His wife is working as a Seamstress, presumably to help make ends meet. On his children’s baptism records and later censuses, he is described as a Labourer, although the 1911 census gives more detail: he is a general labourer for a Tripe Dresser. By then he is a widower, having been married for 19 years and having had eight children, only two of whom are still alive; they are living with him at 7 Bermondsey Buildings, Tower Bridge Road – daughter Louisa, 19, and son Horace, 16, a Biscuit Packer. He appears in the electoral registers at the same address until the mid-1930s, and is there in 1915 when son Horace’s WW1 record shows him (Horace) as ‘struck off the strength as a deserter’ after five weeks in the East Surrey Regiment. Richard is living (probably) with married daughter Louisa Stonestreet and her husband in 1838 (according to the electoral register) and may have died that year, although no death index entry has been found for him. Interestingly, Horace George Thomas Stocking found his way to Norfolk after deserting from the army, and married Mabel Maud Beck in Walsingham in 1919 – although he still appears on the electoral register of 1920 at his father’s address in Bermondsey. They returned to Bermondsey in the 1930s, but must have moved back to Norfolk, as Horace’s death was registered in Norwich in 1976, aged 82.

5. Robert Matthew Stocking was born on 4 June 1859. Just over a year after his father’s death, he married Martha Elizabeth Silverlock at St Peter Walworth on Christmas Day 1884. He is described as a Leather Dresser at the time – and for most of the censuses and his childrens’ baptisms. The couple had six children, all of whom had survived by the 1911 census, and who are all still living at home with their father. Sadly the same cannot be said of Martha, as Robert is shown as a widower. He appears in the 1939 Register with his unmarried youngest daughter Emily at 103 Bevington Street, Bermondsey. He is ‘Retired’, while her occupation is shown as ‘Factory, home washing’. He died in June 1945, just a few months before the end of World War II, aged 86.

6. Frederick James Stocking was born on 10 February 1861, so makes his first census appearance in the 1861 census, aged ‘six months’. He married Rose Waller at All Saints, Stoke Newington, on 5 February 1883, just shy of his 23^rd birthday. They baptised their daughter Marian Rose Stocking on 9 November 1883, although her birthdate is given as 23 July 1882 (seven months before their marriage). He appears to have worked in the building trade, being variously described as a labourer, builder’s labourer and house decorator/painter. By the 1911 census, he and Rose state that they have been married for 30 years and have had ten children, all of whom were still alive. The nine youngest, aged 5-29 years, are still at home at the time. In the 1939 Register, he and Rose are described as Old Age Pensioners; three of their children are still single and living with them, while the youngest, Albert, is shown as married (but with no wife in the household on the night the Register was taken). His death was registered in March 1940, aged 79 years.

7. George Thomas Stocking was born on 12 September 1862. When he married Annie Whicher at All Saints, Walworth, on 11 November 1882, he was working as a Leather Dresser. Their son George was born a month later. The couple lived at 3 Marygold Court, Old Kent Road, for several years, with George continuing work as a Leather Dresser while their family increased. In 1901, aged 37, he was confirmed at St Mary Magdalene, Southwark. By the time of the 1911 census, he is living at 3 Cluny Place, Tower Bridge Road. He and Annie had been married for 27 years and state they have had 17 children, 7 of whom have died (I have only found records for 15 so far). At least five of the children died before their fifth birthdays. He was a witness at all the marriages of his surviving children, so his signature appears on many records. Two of his sons were killed in WW1: Stephen James Stocking was 29 years old, married with five children when he died of pneumonia following a gunshot wound. He was buried at Etaples, Nord-pas-de-Calais, France. George Henry Stocking was just 19 when he was killed in action on 14 March 1916. He was buried at Fleurbaix, France. Annie, George Thomas’ wife, died in 1938. He is shown as a widower on the 1939 Register, described as a Retired Leather Dresser. Living with him is his daughter Fanny and her second husband, Royal Navy pensioner (Stoker) Robert Jarman, now working as a Stoker for a Lift Manufacturer. George Thomas Stocking died in October 1947 and was buried at Manor Park Cemetery, Newham, aged 85.

8. William Thomas Stocking was the sixth son of my 3xgreat grandparents. He was born on 22 October 1864. His baptism record a month later gives his name as James Thomas, but his parents already had a surviving son of that name (my 2xgreat grandfather); all other details about the parents, their address and father’s occupation are correct, so perhaps this was an error on the vicar’s part. He is living at home, age 17, a Shop Boy, at the time of the 1881 census, but by the time he married Elizabeth Ellen Smith at All Saints, Newington, on 25 March 1885, he is working as a Carman. Ten years later, at the baptisms of his younger children, he has turned his hand to bricklaying, and then working as a Decorator during the early 1900s. By the 1911 census, he and Elizabeth state they have been married for 26 years and have had 13 children, five of whom have died by then. He is now working as a Wharf Labourer (Granary) and seven of their eight surviving children are still living at home with them, aged 1 to 20. He continues as a ‘Waterside Labourer’ through the 1910s, and died in 1923, aged 58. I have only found records for eleven of his children. His daughter Elizabeth Jane was buried about three weeks after the 1911 census was taken; her son Stephen, aged 6, is living with his grandparents at the time, so perhaps she was already dying by then. WW1 also touched the family: his daughter Maud Eliza married Albert Dowsett, and had two children with him before he died of wounds received in action, aged 24, in 1917. William’s son Walter Benjamin William also died of wounds (having first been reported as missing) aged 22 in March 1918, in France, leaving a widow and two year old son.  

9. Henry John Stocking was born in 1866 and married Alice Matilda Vidler on 11 April 1887 at St Mary Magdalene, Southwark. He is described as a Tripe Dresser at the time. They had ten children; at the time of the 1911 census they state that six of their children were still alive (four had died before reaching their first birthdays). Their daughter, born in May 1900, was named May Pretoria, presumably in celebration of the capture of the South African city in the Boer War. In 1911, Henry is working as a General Labourer for a Tripe Manufacturer but in the early 1900s he is described as ‘Gas Engineer’ or ‘Engineer’ on his childrens’ marriage certificates. He died before the 1939 Register was taken, in the first quarter of 1938, aged 71.

10. Albert Stocking was born on 28 December 1867, when my 2xgreat grandfather James Thomas Stocking would have been around 14 years old. He married Florence White three days after his 22^nd birthday, on New Year’s Eve 1889. They married at St Mary Magdalene, Southwark; he is described as a Leather Dresser at the time. In the 1891 census, they are living with her parents, William and Meryam White, at Long Lane, Bermondsey, in the Leather Market district. Albert is still working as a Leather Dresser, and they have two children – Esther, aged 2, and Albert, aged 6 months. Esther’s birth was registered in the April-June quarter of 1889, around six months before her parents married, but she was registered with her father’s surname, and her mother’s maiden name is shown as White, so they presumably claimed to be married when registering her birth. Their son Albert was born the following August (1890). They went on to have eleven children, all of whom lived long lives, mostly into their 80s or 90s. At the baptisms of his children in the late 1890s, and the 1901 census, he is described as a Labourer, but by the birth of son Frederick in 1903, he is working as a Carman, and in 1906, as a Horse Keeper. In the 1911 census, they say they have been married for 22 years and have had ten children, all alive. In fact, nine of their children are still living at home with them; the eldest, Esther, has recently left home to marry and is living in Worcestershire. Albert is a Horse Keeper (out of work). Their eldest son Albert, also a Horse Keeper, is listed and then crossed out – he is shown as married and has also presumably left home. Albert senior is variously described as a Horse Keeper, Leather Dresser or Carman on some of his children’s marriage certificates in the 1910s and 1920s. In the 1939 Register, he is described as an OAP, then aged 72, with just his wife Florence at home with him. His death was registered in 1943, when he would have been 76 years old; he was buried on 23 September 1943, in Southwark.

11. Prince Arthur Stocking was the youngest child of my 3xgreat grandparents James Stocking and Mary Ann Collins. His birth was registered in Southwark in 1870. His older brother Albert – and his son Albert – sometimes also used the first name of Prince, but Arthur appears to be the only one who was actually registered with Prince as his first name at birth. He was baptised plain Arthur Stocking, at St Mark’s Camberwell on 12 October 1883, aged 13 years, 12 days after his father’s death. He married, aged 21, at Walworth All Saints, on 14 September 1891. He is described as a Leather Dresser and his bride was Eleanor Annie Young. Their son Richard Daniel Stocking was born a month later (and died aged under six months in 1892). They baptised five children in Bermondsey between 1891-1897, after which they appear to have moved to Godalming in Surrey. By the 1901 census, he is living at The Mint, Godalming, Surrey, working as a Bricklayer’s Labourer, with four children at home. Ten years later, in the 1911 census, he says that he and Eleanor (also known as Ellen), have been married for 21 years and have had 11 children, only four of whom are still alive. Four children are listed with them, aged between 18 months and 7 years. Like his brother Albert, he appears to have interpreted the ‘children alive’ question as ‘children still living with you’, as eldest daughter Eleanor was still alive and working as a Servant elsewhere in Surrey, as was her sister Alice. Of Jane there is no sign, but sons James and William aged 12 and 10 were also living elsewhere and went on to live long lives. The couple had a final daughter, Kitty, in 1915, who died the same year, and son Frank, who was with them in the 1911 census, died in 1913. They had 12 children in total, with 4-5 dying in infancy. By the 1939 Register, he and Eleanor are living with their son Alfred and his family in Godalming, and his death was registered a year later, buried in Godalming on 3 March 1940.

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view