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

Showing posts with label Berkshire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berkshire. Show all posts

Friday 11 August 2023

Augustus Percival Bartley and Mary Henrietta Wilton

St Michael's Church Nave, Bray
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Len Williams - geograph.org.uk/p/4659618

Augustus Percival Bartley and Mary Henrietta Wilton, daughter of Henry Staines Wilton and Amelia Palmer of Stafferton Lodge, Maidenhead, were married on 11 Aug 1894 at St Michael's Church, Bray, by Rev. T. H. Drake.

The Bartleys had seven children, all born in Marylebone:

  1. Alexander Henry Bartley b. 1895 S Quarter Vol 01A Page 631
  2. Esther Margaret Bartley b. 23 Nov 1896 D Quarter Vol 01A Page 616
  3. Catherine Mary Bartley b. 1899 M Quarter Vol 01A Page 617. Died aged 5 in 1904 J Quarter in EAST PRESTON Vol 02B Page 217
  4. Rosamund Agnes Bartley b. 1901 S Quarter Vol 01A Page 611
  5. Marietta Augusta Bartley b. 3 Nov 1904 D Quarter Vol 01A Page 581
  6. Edward Wilton Bartley b. 1907 S Quarter Vol 01A Page 555
  7. Barbara Betty Bartley b. 1912 M Quarter Vol 01A Page 1076
In 1901, at 20, Hamilton Terrace, St Marylebone, were Augustus P Bartley (35) Hunting and Military Boot Maker, Mary H (30), Alexander H (5), Esther M (4) and Catherine M (2), employing three servants: Annie N Gillespie (23), Housemaid; Ellen E A Lodge (23), Nurse and Margaret Gillespie (21), Cook.

Catherine Mary Bartley (5) died in East Preston, Sussex in 1904.

In 1911, still at 20, Hamilton Terrace, St Marylebone, we find Augustus Percival (45), Mary Henrietta (40), Esther Margaret (14), Rosamund Agnes (9), Marietta Augusta (6) and Edward Wilton (3); Lina Frances Green (14) Visitor, and the three servants: Annie Naomie Gillespie (33), Parlourmaid; Sarah Grace Gillespie (20), Nursemaid and Elizabeth Mayo (33) Cook.

In 1921, again at 20, Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood, were Augustus Percival Bartley (56) Master Boot Maker; Mary Henrietta Bartley (50), Alexander Henry Bartley (25), Rosamond Agnes Bartley (19), Barbara Bartley (9) and three servants: Hannah Peacock (53) Cook; Elsie Edith Grey (20) Parlour Maid and Gertrude May Fillingham (19) Housemaid.

By 1939, the Bartleys had moved to 52 Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood, where there were Augustus P Bartley (74), Master Boot - Maker, Mary H (68), Alexander H (44), Esther M (43), Marietta A (35) and Barbara B (27) with two servants: Elsie E Grey (38) and Norah W Hyland (24).

Mary Henrietta Bartley died on 13 Nov 1946. She will have been 75.

Augustus Percival Bartley died on 14 Jan 1952 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. Probate was granted to Alexander Henry Bartley, boot manufacturer and to Esther Margaret Bartley, spinster. Augustus Percival Bartley left effects of £127,877 10s 9d (worth £3,703,983 in 2020).

In 1953 Peal & Co bought their Oxford Street neighbours, Bartley & Son.

Esther Margaret Bartley died in 1979 in Chichester, Sussex. Marietta Augusta Bartley died, in Sutton, Surrey, in April 2003. She will have been 98. Both had remained spinsters. Alexander H Bartley certainly married, but there are, unfortunately, several marriages to choose from. Rosamund appears to have married in 1929 and Barbara in 1939. Edward W Bartley married Mary Goldsmith in Marylebone in 1944, all of which require further research.

Augustus Percival Bartley inherited Bartley & Sons bootmakers in 1893

Friday 4 August 2023

Champion & Wilton Saddlers and Harness Makers

Bridge Street, Bishop's Stortford
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Bill Boaden - geograph.org.uk/p/6410237

Henry Staines Wilton, (bap. 27 Sep 1840 at St Giles, Mountnessing), son of Henry Wilton and Sarah Staines, Harness Maker, married Amelia Palmer, daughter of William Palmer and Henrietta Crabb of Bridge Street, Bishop's Stortford at St Michael, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 4 Aug 1868. Witnesses were the bride's father, William Palmer, the bridegroom's parents, Henry and Sarah Wilton and Martha Palmer, the bride's older sister.

This looks like a 'beneficial match' for Henry, because Amelia's Great Western Railway shares passed to her husband on their marriage. This is, of course, before the Married Women's Property Act 1882, when anything a woman owned, became her husband's by default, effectively becoming dowry.

Henry Staines Wilton was my 1st cousin, four times removed. 

Henry Staines Wilton and Amelia Palmer had five children:
  1. William Palmer Wilton b. 19 Sep 1869, bap. 28 Nov 1869 at St Michael's, Bishop's Stortford
  2. Mary Henrietta Wilton, bap. 30 Apr 1871 in Bishop's Stortford
  3. Olive Martha Wilton b. 25 Dec 1872, bap. 28 Feb 1873 in Bishop's Stortford. (Olive Martha Wilton, artist, died, aged 45, on 14 Apr 1918 in Ringwood, Hampshire. She is not buried with the family.)
  4. John Staines Wilton bap. 24 Apr 1874 in Bishop's Stortford. (John Staines Wilton didn't marry either. He died on 6 May 1936.)
  5. Margaret Staines Wilton b. 1877 in the district of St. George Hanover Square. (Margaret also remained single. She was buried, on 31 Dec 1957, in Hampstead Cemetery, with her parents and brothers.)
In 1861, Henry Staines Wilton (20) had been staying with his grandparents, Thomas Staines and Sally Hockley at Lord Peters (Sir William Petre) Alms Houses, Stone Field, Ingatestone, Chelmsford. He then set up business next door to his future father-in-law, in Bridge Street, Bishop's Stortford.

By 1871, Henry Staines Wilton (30), Saddler and Harness Maker, Employing 2 men, 2 apprentices and 1 boy in Bridge Street, Bishop's Stortford; Amelia Wilton (29), William P Wilton (1), Mary H Wilton (0). The household was completed with William Thorman (15) Saddler Apprentice; Martha Cornell (24) General Servant and Elizabeth Kitchener (16) Nurse.

As you can see from the location of the birth of their fifth child in 1877 (the same year that Amelia's father died in Bishop's Stortford), they had moved into London. This was because, in 1875, Henry Staines Wilton had bought into an established saddlery company in Oxford Street and became associated with Henry Champion, and from the merger of the names of its two owners, the Champion & Wilton brand officially appeared. [Source]

"Champion and Wilton [its predecessors, clearly] were founded in 1780 and had premises in Oxford Street, opposite Selfridges, in London’s West End. At one time they employed over one hundred saddlers making saddles, harness and other saddlery items and became, as holders of the Royal Warrant, the most highly respected firm in the country and I don’t doubt that many a stately home will still have a Champion and Wilton saddle tucked away somewhere in their tack room." - Keith Jenkin, SMSQF of Minster Saddlery

In The London Gazette of 4 January 1878, there was a notice regarding a Patent application: Henry Staines Wilton, of Bishop's Stortford, in the county of Herts, Saddler, for an invention of "improvements in the construction of saddles and saddle girths."—Dated 24th December, 1874. Then in 1879: 

In addition to the quality of the product, the main peculiarity that distinguished the saddles of this brand, owed much to the invention made in 1879 by Henry Wilton, who patented the well-known safety system, still in use and much appreciated today, which represented a technical revolution. 

In their time, it is said that Champion & Wilton held Royal Warrants to Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as to the German Emperor, Queen Maud of Norway and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. 

A neighbouring firm of saddlers, Samuel Blackwell, also long-established, was taken over by Champion & Wilton in the 1880s. 

At the time of daughter, Mary Henrietta Wilton's marriage to Augustus Percival Bartley (of the equally top-notch Bartley & Sons, Military and Hunting Bootmakers, of 493, Oxford Street), on 11 Aug 1894, at St Michael's Church, Bray, Berkshire, the Wilton family resided at the rather stately Stafferton Lodge, Braywick Road, Maidenhead

In 1891, the family were living at Braywick, High Town Road, Bray, Cookham, Berkshire with Henry S Wilton (50) Sadler & Harness Maker; Amelia Wilton (49), Olive Martha Wilton (18), John S Wilton (17) Saddlers Apprentice; Margaret Wilton (14), along with Sarah Asbridge (28) Cook from Margaret Roding and Kate Maydwell (23) Housemaid from Hornchurch, Essex. William P Wilton (21) Sadler, was that year [so far unaccountably] a Visitor in a household in Wanstead, Essex, along with three female servants. 

Fake news is not a new thing: Apparently, according to this document (PDF), in Vol IV No 5 of 'Saddlery and Harness' November 1894, a spurious claim appears, "p.101 Notable Members of the Trade: Mr H S Wilton (Champion and Wilton) Owner of Champion and Wilton. At 457/459 Oxford Street. One of the leading West End saddlery firms. Made Queen Victoria's first saddle when HSW was only 19 years old, some 63 years ago." [i.e. 1831] Complete and utter horse poop, of course, like so many family stories, and you have to laugh, as he wasn't even born until 1840! My feeling is the Oxford Street company that later became Champion & Wilton probably did make Queen Victoria's first saddle. It was Henry Staines Wilton's personal involvement that got tacked (pun intended) on as an embellishment to aggrandize himself.

In 1901, the family had moved back into town to 29, St Johns Wood Park, in the affluent community of Hampstead, where we find Henry S Wilton (60) Sadler & Harness Maker; Amelia Wilton (59), William P Wilton (31) Sadler & Harness Maker; Olive M Wilton (28), John S Wilton (27) Sadler & Harness Maker; Margaret S Wilton (24), along with Mary J Howlett (23) Cook from Norfolk and Annie Fosbury (21) Housemaid, from Maidenhead.

In 1911, still at 29, St Johns Wood Park, Hampstead, were Henry Staines Wilton (70) Sadler & Harness Maker; Amelia Wilton (69), Olive Martha Wilton (37) Artist; John Staines Wilton (36) Sadler & Harness Maker; Margaret Wilton (33) attended by three servants: Emma Fosbury (61) Widow, Cook Housekeeper; Ellen Gorey (37) Parlourmaid and Alice Fordham (24) Housemaid. The original census schedule also confirms that the couple had been married for 43 years and had five children, all then still living.

The Rebuilding of Oxford Street

"Nos. 453–459 (odd) Oxford Street and Nos. 22 and 23 North Audley Street, a small but elegant set of shops with flats over, were designed by Herbert Read and Robert Falconer Macdonald and built by Holloway Brothers in 1900–2 (Plate 46b). The client was E. H. Wilton of Champion and Wilton, saddlers, of Nos. 457 and 459 Oxford Street. (There was nobody with the initials  E. H. Wilton, so I assume this is H. S. Wilton and an error.) The building had three storeys towards North Audley Street and five on to Oxford Street. The ground floor was of Doulting stone, the upper storeys of red brick with stone dressings, and the style a picturesque and effective Arts and Crafts treatment." This tells us where the Champion and Wilton premises were, on the diagonally opposite corner to where Selfridges was later built. The building is long gone and replaced, with currently, a branch of Zara on that corner

Henry Staines Wilton died on 31 May 1915 and his funeral took place on Thursday 3 Jun 1915. He is interred in Hampstead Cemetery (Camden) grave reference WE/222. He left his fortune to his two sons, William Palmer Wilton and John Staines Wilton, saddlers, and his son-in-law, Augustus Percival Bartley, bootmaker. The Probate record shows that he left £57,256 11s 4d, which is worth just shy of six million pounds today (£5,925,591 in 2020).

Amelia Wilton died four years later, aged 77 and was buried, on 17 Dec 1919, in Hampstead Cemetery, along with her late husband. 

Thursday 25 May 2023

Isaac Horn and Maria Agnes Thaxter

St. George-in-the-East
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © David Williams - geograph.org.uk/p/3844118

Isaac Horn (b. 1803, bap. 3 Aug 1806 in Thatcham, Berkshire), son of John Horn and Lucy Buckeridge, married Maria Agnes Thaxter at Christ Church Watney Street, St George in the East, in 1842. Born 6 Jan 1824 and bap. 21 Mar 1824 at St George in the East, Stepney, Maria was the daughter of William Thaxter, Labourer in the East India Docks and his wife, Maria. 

Isaac and Maria had seven children:

  1. William Horn b. 14 Oct 1842 D Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Volume 02 Page 103, bap. 13 Nov 1842 at St George in the East
  2. John Isaac Horn b. 18 Jul 1845 S Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Volume 02 Page 109, bap. 31 Aug 1845, as John Isaac Robert Horn
  3. George James Horn b. 16 Feb 1848 M Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 02 Page 132, bap. 5 Mar 1848. Died before his 1st birthday in 1849 M Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 02 Page 99
  4. Edmund Horn b. 1851 M Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Volume 02 Page 128. Died, aged 2, in 1853 M Quarter Vol 01C Page 340
  5. Isaac Richard Horn b. 4 July 1856 S Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 01C Page 406, bap. 27 Jul 1856 at St George in the East
  6. Lucy Ann Horn b. 1858 M Qtr in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Vol 01C 452
  7. Maria Lucy Horn b. 1862 J Quarter in ST GEORGE IN THE EAST Volume 01C Page 452. Died in 1862 J Quarter Volume 01C Page 314
On all of the baptisms, Isaac Horn is listed as a Plumber. 

On William's baptism in 1842, their address was 39 Lower Cornwell St and on John's in 1845, 29 Lower Cornwell St. On George's baptism in 1848, their address was 5 Back Road and on Isaac's in 1856, it was 5 China Place. 

In 1851, at China Place, Back Road (so the addresses on George's and Isaac's baptisms was the same place), were Isaac Horn (46) Plumber, although it gave his birthplace a Chippenham, Wiltshire; Maria Horn (27) Coffee Shop Keeper; William Horn (8), John Horn (5) and Edwin [they mean Edmund] (0).

In 1861, at 5, Back Road, St George in the East, were Isaac Horn (56) Plumber and Painter, again with his birthplace listed as Chippenham, Wiltshire; Maria Horn (listed as 51, but she was only 37); William Horn (18) Plumber; John Horn (16) Plumber; Isaac Horn (5) and Lucy Horn (3).

Maria Horn died, at 39, in 1862 D Quarter Volume 01C Page 367.

In 1871, Isaac Horn (67) Widower, was Coffee House Keeper at 333 Cable Street. Living with him were William Horn (24) Plumber; Isaac Horn (15) Plumber and Lucy Horn (14). At one time each part of the street bore different names, with Back Road being one of them, so it seems likely they'd been in the same premises since at least 1848. This time, Isaac's birthplace is listed as Thatcham, Berkshire. Why it had previously been given as Chippenham, Wiltshire, isn't obvious, but twice isn't an error. The two places are around 50 miles apart, so if I had to speculate, perhaps Isaac was born in Chippenham, then (given the delay) baptised and brought up in Thatcham.

Coffee Houses were a thing of the 17th and 18th centuries, places that no “respectable” woman was able to enter and many were haunts for criminals and prostitutes. By the 19th century, coffee houses had declined.

Isaac Horn, age overestimated to 75, died on 20 Mar 1874 (1874 M Quarter in SAINT GEORGE IN THE EAST Volume 01C Page 328).