20.2 The children of William Pearce and his wife Alice? 1788-1800

 As I haven’t been able to find out more about the marriage and early lives of my 5xgreat grandparents William Pearce and Alice, I decided to find out more about the lives of their children to see if this would help with piecing together earlier records.

As far as I have been able to find out, they baptised six children between 1788-1800 at St John Horsleydown, Bermondsey, London. This is an area where a Wool Stapler like William Pearce would have found ready work, and where leather workers of all kinds would also have plied their trades. This is probably how my 3xgreat grandparents Catherine Alice Stoney (granddaughter of William Pearce) and Aaron Wales, (a harness maker who moved to London from Norfolk) would have met.

1. Catherine Pearce (1788-1843?): Married to Merryweather then disappears

My 4xgreat grandmother’s oldest known sibling was Catherine, born on 23 February 1788, and baptised at St John Horsleydown on 24 March that year, daughter of William Pearce, Wool Stapler, and his wife Alice.

She next appears when she marries widower John Merryweather at St Giles Cripplegate on 21 October 1811.

They are both said to be ‘of this parish’. One of the witnesses is an Alice Pearce – could this be Catherine’s mother? St Giles Cripplegate church is on the North bank of the Thames, about 40 minutes’ walk across London Bridge to St John Horsleydown where Catherine and her siblings were baptised.

She was a witness to the marriage of her sister Mary Ann Pearce to her first husband James Rowney at St Mary Newington in 1819. Her husband John was also a witness. Two years later, she also witnesses her youngest sister Amy Pearce’s marriage to William Rowe.

I have not found an earlier marriage for John Merryweather, nor have I found the couple in the 1841 or 1851 census, when Catherine would have been in her 50s or 60s. There do not appear to be any likely baptisms for their children. There is a death index entry at the GRO for Catherine Merryweather, who died in Camberwell in 1843, aged 55, which could be her. So apart from her fleeting role as witness to her sisters’ marriages, Catherine Pearce has made little mark in the (currently available online) records.

2. William John Pearce (1789-?): Serial marriage witness, maybe a publican?

William was baptised at St John Horsleydown on 6 September 1789 – his birth date (13 August 1789) helpfully included in the Register. He is shown as the son of William Pearce, Wool Sorter, and his wife Alice. On Boxing Day 1825, with his sister Amy he is witness to their widowed sister Mary Ann Rowney’s marriage to William Moorhouse Stoney. He also witnessed his nephew’s wedding in 1848; Henry Thomas Rowe was the eldest son of William’s youngest sister Amy. As he was alive and able to stand witness in 1848, he should appear on the 1841 census but I failed to find him at first. In the 1851 census there is a William J Pearse, a widower, aged 63 (b1788) at the Grey Hound public house, shown as ‘Victualler’. His birthplace is given as Bermondsey, and he has three adult children at home: Martha, 29, Susannah, 27, and Eliza, 16. I finally found this family in the 1841 census. William Pierse is a Publican at Upper Grange Road, and is already a widower. As well as the daughters shown in the 1851 census, he has an older daughter Mary, aged 25. Also in the household is a William Pearce, aged 10, although his relationship to the rest of the family was initially unclear. Here, though, research comes to an end. I have not found a marriage for this William John Pearce (Pierse), nor baptisms or marriages for his children.

3. Mary Ann Pearce (1793-1863)

Mary Ann Pearce was my 4xgreat grandmother, her story and that of her husband are told elsewhere.

4. Joseph Pearce (1796-?). A mystery

Joseph Pearce was born 8 April 1796 and baptised on 1 May 1796, the same day as his two year old sister Mary Ann Pearce. Why, out of all their children, Mary Ann was not baptised within a month or so of her birth is unknown. I have not found any further records for Joseph to date.

5. Richard Pearce (1798-1861?)

Richard Pearce was baptised at St John Horsleydown 23 September 1798 (born 2 September 1798), son of William Pearce, Wool Stapler, and his wife Alice. It is possible that Richard married Mary Beckenham at St George the Martyr, London, on 30 August 1824. Both are said to be ‘of this parish’; their witnesses do not seem to be Pearce family members, but a couple with the surname Taylor. However, by the 1851 census, Richard and wife Mary are living at Cottage Row, Newington, a few doors along from his married sisters Mary Ann Stoney and her family, and Amy Rowe and family. Richard Pearce is a leather dresser. They have a son, William Pearce, 22, a leather dyer. This may be the William Pearce, aged ten, who was living or staying with his uncle William John Pearce at the time of the 1841 census.

The couple are still at Cottage Row by the time of the 1861 census, although son William is no longer at home. Richard is still working as a Leather Dresser, now aged 62. In the 1871 census, there is a Richard Pearce, married, formerly a Leather Dresser, aged 73, listed as an inmate at the Kensington Workhouse, born in London. It seems odd that he would have moved from Bermondsey to Kensington for poor relief or treatment for an illness, but I have not found another Richard Pearce record after 1861 – neither burial nor other census record.

6. Amy Pearce (1800-1863)

Amy Pearce was the youngest of my 5xgreat grandparents’ children. She was born on 3 July 1800 and baptised at St John Horsleydown on Boxing Day that year, daughter of William Pearce, Wool Stapler, and his wife Alice. She married two days before her 21^st birthday, on 1 July 1821, to William Rowe. Her sister Catherine Merryweather was a witness to the event. Amy herself was witness to both weddings of her older sister Mary Ann Pearce, first in 1819 and then again in 1825. At the time of the 1841 census, they are living at Cottage Row, Newington, with three children aged 5-14. William is not shown as having any occupation. The 1851 census sees them still at Cottage Row, with some of her siblings living in the same street. They have had another child – a daughter, Elizabeth – and William now has an occupation: Painter (presumably of the house decorating kind). Son Thomas is a leather shaver and daughter Rebecca is a Hat Trimmer.

A search of the baptism records at Ancestry show that they also had a son, William Henry Rowe, baptised in 1824 at St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey. At that time they were living at Bermondsey New Road, and William was working as a Plumber. When son Henry was baptised in 1827, William is described as a Plumber & Glazier. It seems that they had moved to Cottage Row by 1836, when son Thomas Edward was baptised (his father still described as a Plumber). When their youngest daughter Elizabeth Catherine Mary was baptised at St Peter Walworth in 1842, her father was a Painter, as he was still in the 1851 census.

By the 1861 census, the couple is in their early 60s and still at Cottage Row. William is a Painter, and only their youngest daughter Elizabeth is at home with them, aged 19. Next door is Aaron Wales, my 3xgreat grandfather and his wife Catherine Alice Stoney, who would have been Amy’s niece, daughter of her older sister Mary Ann Pearce. This was definitely a family that kept close to each other and witnessed each others’ many family events.

Amy died, aged 62, in 1863 and was buried at Tower Hamlets Cemetery, in a 2ft wide coffin, on 8 February 1863. She is shown as ‘of Cottage Row, Newington’. On 13 July 1868, a William Rowe b1799 was admitted to the St Mary Newington Workhouse. There is a death index entry for a William Rowe about that time, although neither record is firmly proved.

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