Inherited Craziness
A place to share all the nuts found on my family tree

Saturday 22 July 2023

Charles Richard Baker and Ellen Linklater

Shadwell Basin
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Stephen McKay - geograph.org.uk/p/4625222

Charles Richard Baker, son of Charles Hoile Baker and Amelia Young, married Ellen Linklater, daughter of John Linklater and Ellen Willett, on 22 Jul 1867 at Croydon, St John. Now The Minster Church of St John Baptist at Croydon, the record of the marriage lists that the marriage took place in the Temporary Parish Church. This was because on the night of 5 January 1867, a fire had broken out that had gutted the entire building. "During the period of rebuilding, services were held in a temporary "iron church", with seating for 700, erected in April 1868 in Scarbrook Road." Charles and Ellen's marriage must have taken place in an even more temporary building. Both the bride and groom were 19 and resident in Croydon. Ellen's father was a Mariner.

Charles and Ellen had seven children, of whom four died in infancy:
  1. Frederick Charles Baker b. 1867 D Quarter in STEPNEY Volume 01C Page 472. Died 1867 D Quarter in STEPNEY Volume 01C Page 348.
  2. Ellen Margaret Baker b. 1868 S Quarter in STEPNEY Volume 01C Page 430. Died 1870 M Quarter in STEPNEY Volume 01C Page 351.
  3. George John Baker b. 1870 S Quarter in STEPNEY Vol 01C Page 442.
  4. Amelia Mary Ann Baker b. 1872 D Qtr in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 01C Page 431. Died 1872 D Qtr in ST GEORGE Vol 01C Page 263.
  5. Annie Elizabeth Baker b. 1874 M Qtr in ST GEORGE Vol 01C Page 431
  6. Charles Hoile Baker b. 1876 M Qtr in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 01C Page 442
  7. Amy Baker b. 1877 S Qtr in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 01C Page 371. Died 1877 S Quarter in ST GEORGE Vol 01C Page 277.
(In 1851, the 3 year old Ellen and her mother - presumably her father was at sea - had been living in the household of Maximilian Bates (43) School Master and his wife Amy. Maximilian Bates had married Amy Willett in 1834. The last child, therefore, was almost certainly named for Ellen's aunt.)

In 1871, in Shadwell, Stepney: Charles Baker (23), Ellen Baker (22), George John Baker (8 m), Margaret Horlock (28) and Ann Watt (56), Lodgers.

In 1881, at 26, Lower Shadwell, Shadwell, Stepney, London were Charles Richard Baker (33) Plumber; Ellen Baker (32) born in Greenhithe, Kent; George John Baker (10), Annie E Baker (7) and Charles H Baker (5).

We don't find them again on any census and the next record is for the death of Ellen Baker, wife of Chas Baker on 5 Apr 1907, from Pleurisy, Emphysema and Heart Failure at the Sanatorium, Berea, Durban, South Africa. At that time Charles Richard Baker was her surviving spouse. The record of the death also lists their three surviving children and their address at 164 Old Dutch Road (now 164 Chris Ntuli Rd, Musgrave, Berea, 4001, South Africa).

Charles Richard Baker, returned to England. He died, aged 60, in 1909 M Quarter in WANDSWORTH Volume 01D Page 479.