15.3 The five known children of Charles James Topper & Susannah Griffin

 Four of her children are living with Susannah Griffin at the time of the 1841 census: Charlotte, Charles, Ellen and Susan. The eldest, Elizabeth Topper, who would have been about 14-15 years old, is not at home on census night and may be working as a female servant to a Coach Builder in James Street, Marylebone.

1. Elizabeth Topper was my 3xgreat grandmother, born in Lambeth in 1826 and married David Windebank, a Smith, at the Baptist Meeting House in Reading in 1847, when she was about 20 years old. The family moved to Dorney, Buckinghamshire – now part of High Wycombe – in the 1850s, before returning to London via Reading again. As her mother was from Loudwater, Bucks, there may have been some family connection that drew them there.

2. Charlotte Sarah Topper was born around 1828 in Lambeth, Surrey. I haven’t found a baptism record for her. She names her father as Charles James Topper, Porter, on her marriage record of 12 July 1853, when she married William Jones, a Labourer, at Norwood, Middlesex. At the time of the 1851 census, she is working as a house servant to ‘House Proprietor and Fund Holder’ Mr White, at nearby Hanwell. They had six known children between 1855 and 1874. Her husband William Jones worked as a Labourer throughout their married life, although in the 1871 census their address, like others in the street, is given as ‘Shop’ on Lindfield Street, Battersea – perhaps they were living above commercial premises. There is a death registration for a Charlotte Jones in the July quarter of 1885, although given the common surname I cannot be certain if this is the right person (likewise, for her husband’s death).

3. Charles James Topper was baptised on 3 October 1830 at St John the Evangelist, Lambeth. His parents are Charles James Topper, a ‘Serjeant of Police’, and his wife Susan, of Montpelier Row. A Charles Topper, aged 28, was admitted to the Dreadnought Seamans’ Hospital on 20 April 1859. His birthplace is given as Lambeth (although on most censuses his birthplace is Knightsbridge), and he is said to have had eight years’ service in the merchant navy, his last ship being the Patent Derrick. In the 1851 census he is described as a Labourer, as he is in the 1861 census. He is said to be 5’5” tall, and to be suffering from a dislocated thumb. He was discharged a week later to convalescence and was living in Greenwich, as a lodger, by the time of the 1861 census.

Five years later, there is a report of a trial at Old Bailey Online which features Charles Topper and five other men who “were indicted for that they, on the high seas, on board the British ship Scotland , did practically and feloniously make a revolt.” However, newspaper accounts of the trial name the man as Charles Tupper, and one gives his age as 23 – whereas Charles James Topper would have been about 36 at the time. At the time of the 1871 census, a Charles J Topper, aged 41, is lodging at Sun Street, Greenwich, close to the Oil and Colour Works, said to be working as a Foreman Stoker. His birthplace is shown as Knightsbridge.

He married Lucy Tull at St George the Martyr, Battersea on 10 September 1876, his age shown as 43. His father is named as Charles James Topper, Foreman Porter. His own occupation is Oil Refiner. His bride is the daughter of Benjamin Tull, a Labourer, and is 25 years old. In 1881, they are living in Bermondsey with their two young children, and a year later, he is probably the ‘son, Oil Refiner residing at Bermondsey Dock Head’ who gave evidence at the inquest on his mother’s death after a fall downstairs. At the time of the 1891 census, he has once again changed occupation, this time working as a Gardener in ‘public gardens’, and living at Rotherhithe with wife Lucy and four children. Ten years later, by then aged 71, he is listed as an inmate at St Olave Union Workhouse, Horsleydown, described as a widower and ‘Retired Ship’s Stoker’. He died three years later in Lewisham, and was buried there on 6 July 1904.

4. Ellen Topper appears with her mother, aged two years, on the 1841 census. I have not found a birth, marriage or death record for her (including variations on her name), nor found her in any other censuses. She may have died young.

5. Susan Selway Topper was baptised 22 February 1841 at Stanford, Berkshire, daughter of Charles James and Susan Topper. She appears with her mother and siblings, aged 4 months, at the time of the 1841 census, in Stanford, and with her parents in Hayes, Middlesex, in 1851. She married John James Archer at St Mary Ealing on 22 February 1863. Her husband was a Lighterman, as her father had been early in his working life. By the time of the 1871 census, they are living at Bromley and have three children, all born in Brentford. They appear in subsequent censuses with their growing family; John’s occupation is usually Lighterman or Lighterman (barge). By 1901 they are living at Devonport Street, Ratcliff, Stepney. The Lost Hamlet Of Ratcliff | Spitalfields Life indicates that this area was once known as ‘Sailor Town’ which had a poor reputation for centuries but which, by the turn of the century, had had its act cleaned up a bit. By 1911, now aged 70, she has been widowed and is living at ‘4 Waterman’s Asylum’ in Penge, Croydon. She says she was married for 48 years, and had six children, five of whom were still living. Royal Watermen’s Almshouses | Penge Heritage (pengeheritagetrail.org.uk) were ‘for aged watermen and lightermen and were built in 1839-40.’ There were 46 Almshouses in all; presumably she moved there with her husband and remained after his death.

Her middle name Selway derives from her paternal grandmother’s maiden name: Elizabeth Selway.

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

15.2 4xgreat grandmother Susannah Griffin (1804?-1882): A Bucks girl, Monthly Nurse, died after a fall

 We know from her entries in the 1851-1881 censuses, that my 4xgreat-grandmother Susannah Griffin was born in Loudwater, Buckinghamshire, 2.5 miles from High Wycombe. Her age in the censuses varies, indicating a year of birth around 1805-1808. By 1824, aged around 20, she had found her way to London, where she married Charles James Topper at St George, Hanover Square. Around the time of their marriage, her husband had stopped working as a Thames Lighterman and started a ten-year career with the London police force.

In the 1841 census, she is enumerated on her own with four young children aged 4 months to ten years; they are living at Stanford in Berkshire and she is described, aged 35, as ‘Independent’. I have yet to find her husband elsewhere in the census, but by then he was already working as a Foreman Porter for the Great Western Railway at Brentford Docks. In the 1851 and 1861 censuses, she is with her husband at Botwell, Hayes, Middlesex.

In 1871, in Hayes Village, she is described as a ‘Monthly Nurse’ to the family of 30 year old brickmaker William Smith and his wife, and their family of seven, including a five year old son, as yet unnamed. She moved with Charles James Topper to 36 Catherine Wheel Yard, near the Brentford Docks, and was still living there in 1881, two years after he died following an accident at work. She is still described as a monthly nurse, but is not living with any particular family at the time. 

Victorian Monthly Nurses, Midwives & Wet Nurses : (genealogystories.co.uk) offers some insights into the nature of the position of Monthly Nurse, the qualities required (according to various books of advice to mothers of the day) and the short-term nature of employment. Presumably Susannah Griffin – by now aged in her mid-late 70s – had a reasonable reputation, but was ‘out of place’ at the time of the 1881 census.

Her death was subject to a coroner’s inquest, like her husband’s, and was reported in the newspapers of the day. On 28 February 1882, it seems that she got out of bed and fell downstairs, fracturing her thigh. The fall proved fatal to the elderly woman, and she died just over a week later on 8 March 1882. The coroner was the same Dr Diplock who oversaw the inquest on her husband three years earlier; it took place, as did his, at the Catherine Wheel Inn, High Street, Brentford.

Her son appears to have given evidence to the effect that she had been able to explain to him how the accident had come about; his name is not given in the newspaper report, but is presumably her only son, Charles James Topper, named after his father.

Her death certificate describes her death as ‘Violent’ and gives the date of the inquest.

Her age at death is shown as 76 years, indicating a birth year – like the censuses – of around 1806. A search for her baptism in Loudwater, Buckinghamshire, five years either side of 1806, finds nothing obvious at Ancestry, but FindMyPast has a Bishop’s Transcript that could be the right one. It is in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and shows that a Susanna Griffin was baptised on 11 March 1804, daughter of Samuel Griffin and his wife Lezey. Loudwater was a ‘chapelry’ within High Wycombe, the brick built St Peter’s church dedicated in 1788 (and still standing), so there may be other registers available that are not online. Buckinghamshire Archives only has Loudwater baptism records from 1866, so earlier records may not have survived. 

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

Susannah Topper (Griffin) b1804 Death certificate 1882

 

Registration district Brentford
1882 DEATH in the sub-district of Brentford in the County of Middlesex
When and where died: Eighth March 1882, 6 Catherine Wheel Yard, New Brentford USD
Name: Susan Topper
Sex: Female
Age: 76 years
Occupation: Widow of the late Charles James Topper Railway Porter
Cause of death: Violent. Fall down the stairs
Informant: Certificate received from Thomas Bramah Diplock Coroner for Middlesex. Inquest held 11th March 1882
Registered: 13th March 1882.

15.1 4xgreat grandfather Charles James Topper (1801-1879): Lighterman, Policeman, Docks Porter, Accidental Death

 When my 3xgreat grandmother Elizabeth Topper was baptised at St Mary Lambeth on 4 October 1826, her parents are named as Charles Topper, Bow Street Officer, and his wife Susan, of Mason Street.

Finding a Bow Street Runner in the family was an exciting discovery; researching him further in the British Newspaper Archive at FindMyPast, The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online and general searches at all the main Family History sites shows that he had an interesting and varied career spanning over 50 years until his accidental death in 1879. His father, brothers and grandfather also all had interesting lives and made their marks – usually on the right side of the law – in the newspapers and criminal records.

He married Susannah Griffin (also known as Susan) at St George Hanover Square on 10 November 1824. The parish register entry shows that the witnesses were Alfred Davey Topper (later found to be his brother) and Elizabeth Topper, probably his mother.

Charles signs the register, as do the two witnesses, but Susannah simply makes her mark.

The couple had four more known children after Elizabeth Topper: Charlotte (1828), Charles (1830), Ellen (1839) and Susan Selway Topper (1841).

Charles James Topper was born on 19 April 1801 in Chelsea, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, on 17 June that year, son of Thomas Topper and his wife Elizabeth. 

He appears to have started his working life as a Lighterman; he was admitted to Greenwich Hospital School aged 8 with his brother Thomas Robert ((according to the transcript of a petition held at TNA). Their father is named as Thomas Topper. He was later shown as master to his brother Alfred David (or Davey), who was apprenticed to him in 1823 (Register of Thames Watermen and Lightermen at FindMyPast).

On 31 August 1824, the Morning Advertiser reports on the Lambeth Regatta (The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk) where competition for the ‘new Wherry and other prizes, given … as an encouragement to the Waterman’, where Charles James Topper, with fellow rower George Maynard, won the Prize Wherry after several exciting heats.

A few months later he has married, and by the time his first child, Elizabeth Topper, was born in 1826, he is employed as a Bow Street Officer. He is also described as a Serjeant of Police on his son's baptism record in 1830.

Keen to find out if there were any records of his time as a Bow Street Officer, I searched the records of The Old Bailey Online. Three years after daughter Elizabeth was born, Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org) has an account of him giving evidence in the trial of James Bagley and George Rider, who were accused of stealing “1 cap, value 9s., the goods of John Morton , from the person of William Morton.” 

The accused were found guilty but recommended to mercy and therefore ‘discharged and whipped’.

In 1833, the same source sees him giving evidence in the trial of 18 year old Charlotte Baker, servant of Elizabeth Bangham of Hammersmith, accused of stealing a ‘reading glass’ from her mistress and exchanging it for a pair of boots at a ‘sale shop’. She was found guilty and ‘confined for one month’.

 

The Bow Street runners were disbanded in 1839 (associated officers had been incorporated into the new Metropolitan Police ten years’ earlier). In 1838, after more than ten years' service with the police, he takes up a role as Porter for the GWR at Brentford Dock. By then he would have been 37 years old.

I have not found him in the 1841 census. His wife Susan Griffin is enumerated at Stanford, Berkshire, with their four youngest children – including Susan, aged just a few months – and is described as ‘Ind[ependent], which is a little odd. However, they are together as a married couple living at Botwell, Hayes, Middlesex, by the time of the 1851 census. His birthplace is confirmed as Chelsea, and his occupation is now shown as Foreman Porter GWR. Son Charles James and daughter Susan are still at home with them:

On 9 May 1853, he is once again on familiar ground at the Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org). He declares himself ‘porter to the Great Western Railway, at Bull's Bridge wharf’ and gives evidence in the case against Thomas Hammond, accused of stealing a box of biscuits which had been loaded onto a truck. The accused’s father had been buried on the day he was finally apprehended; he was recommended to mercy on account of his good character, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

Charles James Topper’s occupation is also given as Porter on his daughter Charlotte’s marriage certificate in the same year. In the 1861 census, he is still described as a Porter for the GWR, still at Botwell, Hayes, Middlesex. Their children have all left home, but their 11 year old granddaughter Elizabeth Windebank (their daughter Elizabeth Topper’s child), is with them on census night. Ten years later, he is living at Catherine Wheel Yard, New Brentford, close to the docks where he worked. His wife isn’t in the household on census night, but their 15 year old grandson Charles Jones is.

Charles James Topper’s service with GWR at Brentford Docks lasts for 41 years until his death – by an accident at work – in 1879, aged 78. The Acton Gazette at The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk reveals some of the gruesome details and the coroner’s reprimand to his employers:

The Middlesex Chronicle of 4 October at The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk reports in more detail: Charles James Topper was ‘better known as ‘Old Topper’, and in the words of his son who gave evidence at the inquest ‘very active and hearty for his age’.

His death certificate echoes the coroner’s verdict: ‘Violent death Run over by Railway Trucks accidentally’.

His occupation is given as ‘Foreman of porters at dock’, and the place of death is ‘At Brentford Dock on Great Western Railway, New Brentford’. The certificate also gives the date of the inquest (1 October 1879). 

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

Charles James Topper b1801 Death certificate 1879

 

Registration district Brentford

1879 DEATHS in the district of Brentford in the County of Middlesex
When and where died: 29 September 1879 at Brentford Dock on Great Western Railway, New Brentford

Name: Charles James Topper

Sex: Male
Age: 77 years
Occupation: Foreman of Porters at dock
Cause of death: Violet Death. Run over by railway trucks, accidentally
Informant: Certificate received from Thomas Bramah Diplock, Coroner for Middlesex. Inquest held 1st October 1879
When registered: 1st October 1879

14.3 The 13 children of Jeremiah & Eleanor Windebank: Education, nursing, smithing and engineering, gamekeeping and innkeeping

This is a necessarily long post, given the number of people covered!

My 4xgreat grandparents Jeremiah Windebank and Ellen/Eleanor Wilson married in August 1810 in Basildon, Berkshire. He had a long career as both gamekeeper and Publican. Nine months after their marriage, they baptised their first child, a daughter. They baptised another 12 children over the next twenty years, between 1812 and 1833. Their first three children were all girls, the next four all boys.

1. Eliza Winterbank [sic] was baptised on 5 May 1811 at Basildon, daughter of Jeremiah Windebank and his wife Eleanor. FindMyPast has a Sarum Marriage Licence Bonds record (jurisdiction of The Bishop of Salisbury in Wiltshire and Berkshire) which shows that Eliza Windebank, aged 19, spinster and daughter of Jeremiah Windebank, of Basildon, was to marry William Shilton (or Shelton), bachelor of Bradfield, Berkshire. The Bond is dated 14 September 1829. They married about a week later, in Basildon, on 28 September 1829. They appear together living at various addresses in Basildon in the 1841-1871 censuses. William is initially described as an Ag. Lab, but by The 1851 census he is working as a ‘Plate Road Man’. Ten years later he is a ‘Disabled Labourer’ and Eliza is working at an Infant School. More information is given in their entry in the 1871 census on Ancestry. Whereas in earlier censuses they are living with their growing family, by now they are on their own.

Aged 64, William Shelton’s entry is annotated with what looks like ‘Rheumatism, Chest Disease, Not able to walk or stand’:

In the occupation column, he is described as ‘Infirm not able to follow any occupation’, while Eliza ‘Keeps a deaf school for children’.

 

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find anything about this school for deaf children and Eliza’s role in ‘keeping’ it. Eliza’s disabled husband clung to life for another seven years, his death aged 70 registered in Bradfield district, Berkshire, in the first quarter of 1878. The couple had at least seven children between 1832 and 1849, before William became disabled. The majority of them went into service, including positions as housemaids, cooks and valets, and settled in places as far away as Lancashire, as well as London. Oddly, two of them (Hannah and George) give their father’s occupation on their marriage certificates in London in 1876 and 1869 respectively as Chemist. These may be the children of a different William Shelton, but their other details in the censuses appear to be consistent with those of the children of William and Eliza Shelton. By the 1881 census, Eliza appears as an inmate at Westminster Union workhouse. She is now aged 70, a Widow. Perhaps she had moved to London to be closer to her children who had moved there for work but then needed care in the infirmary. I have not yet found a record of her death.

2. Ann Winterbank [sic] was baptised on 3 December 1812 at Basildon, daughter of Jeremiah and Eleanor. The records are silent about her until her marriage, aged 17, to Edward Cummins Parsons on 21 December 1829. They baptised 12 children between 1831 and 1852. Her husband Edward was a Smith and at the time of the 1841 census, her younger brother David Windebank is shown as his 13 year old apprentice. In October 1858, he was tried at Reading’s quarter sessions for ‘embezzlement of funds by a servant’, listed under his full name of Edward Cummins Parsons, but was found not guilty. The name of his ‘master’ is not shown in the record at Ancestry. A search for a report of the crime at the British Newspaper Archive at FindMyPast reveals that he was accused of embezzling £2 and £5 8/- and 9d from Robert Toomer and another (Reading Mercury, dated 16 October 1858).

The Berkshire Chronicle of the same date gives a much longer account of the proceedings for committal for trial and the granting of bail, of which the extract below is the first paragraph:

This explains the change from his employment as a Smith to working for Coal Merchants as a Clerk. The account describes how he received payment from customers for his masters’ goods, but did not pass on the payments in the usual timely manner and appears to have gone away around the time of the discovery. However, a week later, the Reading Mercury carried a report of the Not Guilty verdict, recommended by the Recorder (Reading Mercury, 23 October 1858).

 The trial does not seem to have harmed his prospects. By the 1861 census, he is working as a Blacksmith for the GWR. Twenty years later he is described as a ‘Retired Engine Smith’. The couple lived in Berkshire all their lives. All their sons carried on in the Engine Smith trade, and several daughters married Railway Clerks, Engine Smiths and a Railway Station Master. Edward Parsons died in 1888, aged 83. I haven’t yet found a death entry for Ann.

3. Caroline Windebank was born in October 1814 and baptised a month later in Basildon, daughter of Jeremiah and Eleanor Windebank; this time their surname is correctly spelt. On 30 May 1836, she married John Riches, a Gamekeeper from Norfolk. Perhaps they met through her father’s gamekeeping activities. After their marriage, they settled in Norfolk and in the 1841 census they are living at Keeper’s Lodge, Gasthorpe with their three sons, Jeremiah (named after her father), John and George. Ten years later they are living half a mile away at Knettishall, just over the border in Suffolk. John is still described as a Gamekeeper. They are still there, at Keeper’s House, in 1861 and 1871, with John continuing his work as Gamekeeper. John Riches died in October 1878, leaving a will for effects under £300, his widow Caroline being the sole executrix. In the probate record he is described as a Farmer, of Hopton, Suffolk. He was buried in his home parish of Riddlesworth, Norfolk, under two miles away.

Of their five children, eldest son Jeremiah and youngest son David also became Gamekeepers; Samuel John joined the Household Cavalry in 1859, but then disappears from the records; George died young, aged just 14, in 1854 and daughter Ellen Riches, their youngest child, worked as a Cook for the Rector of Brinkley, Cambridgeshire, later married a Farmer, Stephen Howard (originally from Cambs), and raised a family of seven with him on their farm in Hopton, Suffolk. By the 1911 census, she has been widowed and is described as a Farmer in her own right.

The widowed Caroline seems to have returned to her own home county of Berkshire, at least at the time of the 1881 census when she is living with her brother William Windebank at The Bull Inn, Swallowfield Road, Arborfield, where he is the landlord and also widowed. She is described as ‘Sister, Housekeeper’. The Arborfield Local History Society - Properties Bull PH (arborfieldhistory.org.uk) has a page about the chequered history of the pub, which is now a flourishing gastro pub, but dates back to the 17^th century (in parts). She may not have stayed in Berkshire long; her death was registered in Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1882 and she was buried at Riddlesworth on 23 June 1882, her name inscribed on the same gravestone as her husband (a photo is available at FindAGrave).

4. John Windebank was the couple’s first son. He was baptised at just over a week old on 27 October 1816. He does not appear with his parents and younger siblings at the time of the 1841 census, and I have failed to find any further record of a John Windebank born in Berkshire around 1816 on any records. Other family trees on Ancestry suggest he died in 1887, but these are private trees, so sources cannot be examined.

5. George Windebank was baptised on 3 July 1818, son of Jeremiah and Eleanor Windebank. He married Eliza Wilbury at St Mary’s, Reading, 22 May 1843, when he was 25. In the 1851 census, he is described as a Gamekeeper, living with wife Eliza – but no children – at Sulham, Berkshire, about 4 miles from Basildon. Sadly, he died aged 41 in 1859. Eliza, his widow, remarried aged 45 in 1865 to John Bushnell.

6. William Windebank was born on 11 November 1819 and baptised on 9 January 1820 at Basildon.  He was 22 when he married Louisa Smith on 23 May 1842, when his occupation is given as Gamekeeper. At the time of the 1851 census, he and his family are visiting his parents at The Red Lion, Basildon. He is described as ‘Visitor Gamekeeper’ and ‘Son’, with wife Louisa, who comes from Hereford, and their three children, Jeremiah, 7 and Eleanor, 6, both born in Pangbourne, Berks, and Caroline, aged 4, born in Wolverton, Hampshire. Ten years later, William has taken over as publican at The Red Lion, Basildon, after the death of his father in 1856. His widowed mother Eleanor is living with him. As well as the three children listed in the 1851 census, they now have another son, William, aged 6, born in Darrington, Hertfordshire. William’s mother died in 1862, and by the 1871 census he, Louisa and family have moved to Stratfield Mortimer, where he is ‘Innkeeper’ – although the pub’s name on the census page is illegible. By the time of the 1881 census, Louisa has died and his children have left home. He is listed as Publican at The Bull, Arborfield, living with his housekeeper, widowed sister Caroline Riches. Louisa died in 1879 at The Bull. He remarried, aged 60, in September 1881 to Ann Braxton, aged 40. She was a spinster, and daughter of a Millwright. They were still at The Bull Inn, Arborfield in 1883, when the Berkshire Chronicle of 23 September reported fines meted out to two would-be customers who were refused service, being ‘the worse for drink’.

It seems that it was Ann, William’s second wife, who refused to serve the men and her husband who told them to leave. A year later, in September 1884, the same paper recorded a short announcement of the transfer of the licence of The Bull, Arborfield from William Windebank to Charles Malins. 

William’s death, aged 67, was announced in the Reading Mercury on 15 October 1887; he died on the 6^th of that month at the Queen’s Head Inn, Mortimer, where he was Innkeeper, and was buried on the 10^th October at St Bartholomew’s, Arborfield. Of their four children, Jeremiah followed his father’s early career as a Gamekeeper, living and working in Norfolk, and retiring to Dorset; Eleanor, born in 1845, died in her early 20s in 1872; Caroline married her cousin, Elijah Parsons, son of her Aunt Ann Windebank and her husband Edward Cummins Parsons, a Smith, in 1866. After Elijah’s early death, she remarried in 1877, aged 30, to Charles Matthews and ran the Wheelwrights Arms in Hurst, Wokingham, with him. She was only 36 when she died in 1883. Their youngest son William Windebank became an Engine Fitter and married twice, moving in his later years to Ashford, Middlesex.

7. Jeremiah and Eleanor Windebank baptised their seventh child, James, at Basildon on 12 April 1822; he was born on 21 March that year. When he married Mary Ann Allum in 1848, at Moulsford, Berkshire, he was working as a Labourer. At the time of the 1851 census, he is described as a Road Labourer, and by 1854, he has died, aged just 31. They had one daughter, Sarah.

8. Maria Windebank was born in August 1823 but not baptised until January 1824. She married Frederick Noke in 1843, when she was 19 and their first two known children, Charles and Frederick, were born in Basildon in 1844 and 1848. They then appear to move to Cheshire, where two more children are born. By the time of the 1851 census, they are living at Sutton, South of Macclesfield, Cheshire. Frederick is working as a House Carpenter, and was born in Droitwich, Worcs. They had three more children (the youngest, Kate, born in 1858), but by the 1861 census, her husband Frederick has died. She is living at Coventry Street, Birmingham, with five of her children, working as ‘Servant in Hospital’. Two single teenage women lodgers are also in the same household, one of whom has a one-year old son listed as ‘bastard’. Ten years later, she is enumerated amongst the staff at The Queens Hospital, Birmingham as a Nurse, widow. On Boxing Day 1871, she married for a second time, aged 48, to Thomas Glover, aged 52, an Engine Driver. I haven’t found them on the 1881 census yet, although there is a Thomas Glover, aged 60, listed in HM Prison Winson Green, Birmingham at that time. His occupation is Bricklayer’s Labourer, so perhaps not the same man. In any case, he appears to have died before the 1891 census, as Maria is once again listed as a widow, lodging with the family of a shoemaker and his outfitter wife in Birmingham, described as a ‘Retired Hospital Nurse’. By the 1901 census, she is listed as an inmate in Birmingham workhouse, aged 77, a Domestic Nurse. I have not found her death record yet.

9. Sarah Windebank was born in November 1825 and baptised the following January. She appears with her parents at Basildon Park, aged 15, at the time of the 1841 census. She married in the last quarter of 1843, aged 18, to Charles Pocock, who was some 12 years her senior. She probably met him through her father’s trade as publican. At the time of the 1851 census, he is described as ‘Beer Seller’ at ‘The Cunning Man’ inn at Burghfield, Berkshire and he and Sarah have three children at home. The pub sits close to the river and collapsed after repeated flooding. The Cunning Man Pub & Restaurant in Burghfield Bridge - Vintage Inns has now been rebuilt (2001) ‘in the original style’ and looks a very handsome property. Charles is still listed as Beer Seller at The Cunning Man beer house at the time of the 1871 census. They have a seven year old son and two year old grandson living with them. Ten years later, Charles has given up selling beer and is now listed in the 1881 census at Kennetts Cottages, Burghfield, as a General Dealer. Their son Frederick is 17, a ‘Garden Help’. In the 1891 census they are enumerated at Mapledurham, Newbury, Berks, at ‘The Lodge’, where Charles is now working as the lodge keeper. Mapledurham Estate has extensive grounds and a grand house; Geograph has a photo of The Lodge, Mapledurham © Graham Horn :: Geograph Britain and Ireland which echoes the chimneys and gables of the mansion. Her death was registered in the Reading district in Oct-Dec 1892; Charles Pocock had died a few months earlier. They had seven known children.

10. My 3xgreat grandfather David Windebank was his parents’ tenth child, born and baptised in Basildon in 1827. His oldest sister, Eliza, would have been about 16 years old at the time.

11. Georgiana Windebank was born in 1829, the same year that her eldest sister Eliza married. She married Thomas Hands, a Veterinary Surgeon, in July 1850. They are living with – or visiting – her parents at the time of the 1851 census. Ten years later they are living in Yattendon, Berks. Thomas is now working as a Farrier, and they have two young sons. Georgiana died young, aged 41, in 1870. Her widower is still in Yattendon at the time of the 1871 census, once again described as a veterinary surgeon. He has four children aged 4-16 at home with him. He died five years later.

12. Benjamin Windebank was born in 1831 and by the time of the 1851 census is working as a Blacksmith, still at home with his parents. He married Elizabeth Brooker in 1855, daughter of a gamekeeper. They are living or visiting her parents in Basildon at the time of the 1861 census, when Benjamin is described as an Agricultural Labourer; they have two young children. Ten years later, Elizabeth’s widowed father is living with them, ‘an Old Gamekeeper’; Benjamin is still working the land, and they now have four children at home. At the time of the 1881 census, their home has a name: Windebank House. It seems others in Basildon Street also have names rather than numbers. Benjamin is a Farm Labourer, as he still is in the 1891 census. Although he is said to be married, his wife Elizabeth is not with the family on census night. She died in 1887. Their daughter Harriet, aged 26, is shown as ‘Housekeeper’. Benjamin died in 1895, aged 64.

13. The last, thirteenth, child of Jeremiah Windebank and Eleanor Wilson was born on 25 June 1833 and baptised on 21 July that year. Sadly, her burial is also recorded in the parish register on 31 August 1833, aged just two months.

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

14.2 4xgreat grandmother Eleanor Wilson (1792?-1862): early marriage, fleeting records and another brick wall

My 4xgreat grandmother Eleanor Wilson was a spinster when she married widower Jeremiah Windebank in Basildon, Berkshire on 15 August 1810. The Bishops Transcript of their marriage gives no other information, and no other online records have been found for the marriage. In the 1851 census, her age is given as 57 (born 1794), and her birthplace as Oxford, Oxon. 

Ten years later, she has been widowed after 46 years of marriage, and is living at The Red Lion Inn, Basildon, with her son William Windebank, who has taken over as Publican following his father’s death in 1856. Again, her birthplace is shown as Oxford, Oxon, and her age – 68 – is fairly consistent with the previous census. In the 1841 census, her age has been rounded down from a likely 47-48 to 45, in accordance with the instructions to enumerators. This would mean that she was 16-17 years old when she married the 30 year old widower, Jeremiah Windebank.

Her death was registered on 19 September 1862 by an Elizabeth Brooker, ‘Present at the death’ in Basildon. Her death certificate shows that she died two days earlier, on 17 September, of ‘Diseased Uterus and Bowels’, a condition which the doctor certifies that she had suffered for six years. Her name is recorded as Ellen rather than Eleanor, her age is given as 70 (born 1792) and she is described as ‘The Widow of Jeremiah Windebank, formerly Innkeeper’. Elizabeth Brooker may have been a relative of her daughter-in-law, also Elizabeth Brooker, who married Benjamin Windebank in 1855.

Oxford is some 27 miles from Basildon. A search for the baptism of an Ellen or Eleanor Wilson in Oxford/shire around 1792-1794 on the major genealogy websites finds no likely baptism for her; other family trees on Ancestry suggest that her father was Peter Wilson (b1770) and her mother Elizabeth Knight, but no sources are given to support this. So for now her parentage remains a brick wall. Apart from her marriage and appearance in three censuses, she makes little mark in the official records, apart from being named as mother on the baptisms of her thirteen children.

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

Eleanor Windebank (Wilson) b1793 Death Certificate 1862

 

Superintendent Registrar's District: Bradfield
Registrar's District: Bucklebury
1862 DEATHS in the District of Bucklebury in the Counties of Berks and Oxon
When: 17 September 1862, Basildon
Name: Ellen Windebank
Sex: Female
Age: 70 years
Rank or profession: Widow of Jeremiah Windbank formerly Innkeeper
CAuse of death: Diseased uterus and Bowels 6 years Certified
Informant: X The mark of Elizabeth Brooker Present at Death, Basildon
Registered: 19 September 1862

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