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 him, 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 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.)

As juxtapositions go, with my last post having been about the workhouse-poor matchgirls, I could not have found a more starkly contrasting one if I'd planned it. I didn't. Whilst looking for an entirely different store, of an entirely different branch of the family, I'd come across Pigot's Directory of Essex 1823, which listed a Henry Wilton as a saddler in Great Dunmow. He was uncle to the matchgirl's father and his older brother, Henry Wilton, who was the father of Henry Staines Wilton. Henry Staines Wilton, my 1st cousin 4 times removed, therefore, is a first cousin to the unfortunate match girl. Just five miles apart in distance, in fortunes it was a whole world away.

In 1861, Henry Staines Wilton (20) was 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, the family 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 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 is 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. 

In 1891, the family were living at Braywick, High Town Road, Bray, Cookham, Berkshire. 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. 

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 bull poop, of course, like so many family stories, 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 further aggrandize himself.

By 1901, the Wilton family had moved back into town to 29, St Johns Wood Park, in the affluent community of Hampstead, where they remained in 1911. 

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. 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. The curious thing is, I cannot find anyone with the initials E. H. in the Wilton family. 

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, aged 77 and was buried, on 17 Dec 1919, in Hampstead Cemetery, along with her husband. 

Con Colleano and Winifred Constance Stanley Trevail

Winifred Constance Stanley Trevail and Con Colleano

My 2nd cousin, twice removed, Winifred Constance Stanley Trevail, daughter of Herbert Fleming Trevail and Alice Maud Stanley Blazey was the wife of Con Colleano (Cornelius Sullivan), who was the most famous and highest paid "swashbuckling circus performer with matinee idol looks" of his time, known as “The Australian Wizard of the Wire”. A member of the Circus Hall of Fame, Con Colleano is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first person to prefect the forward somersault on the tight wire. IMDB is the only source to list a date for their marriage as 10 July 1926, but does not say where.

"Mrs. Winnie Colleano (neé Trevail) was herself a well known Australian Vaudeville Soubrette", dancer and trapeze artist." One article says that Winnie Trevail began appearing on the stage in Sydney as a child, but actually, she was performing before that in New Zealand. There in Lyttelton, New Zealand in 1909 - where her father's aunts, Ellen Higgs and Mary Ann Burn Trevail Bawden then lived - reports in the Lyttelton Times in Oct 1909 detail that Miss Winnie Trevail was appearing in one of the principle roles in a production staged by the Garrick Juvenile Opera Company, at the Opera House there. Trevail abandoned her own career in 1924 to travel with her husband.

Con Colleano on a slack-wire, circa 1920

Con Colleano, born Cornelius Sullivan, on 26 Dec 1899 in Lismore, New South Wales, was of Aboriginal, Anglo-Irish and West Indian descent and adopted a Spanish persona and a costume of a ‘toreador’ or bullfighter.

Colleano’s Indigenous heritage was unknown to his fans – which included one of history’s most infamous racists - "Few people are aware of the fact that in the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler issued an Aboriginal Australian tightrope walker with a German passport so he could come and go as he pleased."

Passenger lists reveal that Cornelius Sullivan and Winifred C. S. Trevail left Southampton, England on 13 Sep 1924, on the RMS Berengaria (former SS Imperator), The first Cunard "Queen". This was their first trip to the US, so their port of arrival was the infamous Ellis Island, New York. Various sources tell us that, in 1924, Con made his debut at the New York Hippodrome before returning to the circus with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

There's also record of Cornelius and Winifred C Sullivan Colleano travelling from Southampton to New York, on the Berengaria, on 24 Feb 1937.

On 7 Jan 1938, Cornelius and Winifred (Sullivan) Colleano, left Sydney, bound for California, on the luxury ocean liner, SS Mariposa (1931).

On 8 Sep 1939, Cornelius and Winifred Sullivan, listed as British, boarded the Italian ocean liner, SS Rex, leaving Genoa, bound for New York.

These, I'm sure are just the tip of a globe-trotting iceberg, but it was finding these records of voyages that led me to discover more of their story.

The former Albion Hotel (pub) at Forbes, New South Wales, Sheba, CC BY-SA 2.0

"Sadly Con and Winnie ultimately lost all their money indulging in a luxurious lifestyle, giving it away to friends and making a disastrous investment in a pub in outback Australia in the 1950s (what were they thinking?)."

Con died, in Miami, on 13 Nov 1973, after which Winnie returned to Australia, where she died, in Sydney, in January 1986. They had no children.

Con Colleano home movie: circus preparations (1928)

Were they really married? Who cares?

IMDB is the only place to list a supposed date, but not place, for their marriage. I've [so far] been unable find a record of a marriage anywhere in the world, which, of course, doesn't mean there wasn't one. However, in all the articles I've read about the couple, including Con's obituary, not once is the date and place of their marriage ever mentioned, which I find strange.

On the other hand, I did find a record of a marriage of a Winifred C Trevail, in Victoria, Australia, in 1919 to a Leonard Mendoza. It would take $20 AUS to obtain the certificate to see if there are enough clues to tell whether this is the same Winifred C Trevail or not, but several things occur to me: Just how many people named Winifred C Trevail are there likely to be? One source claims that Winnie met Con, in Melbourne, which of course is in Victoria, when she was 22. Not hard to imagine she may have been there when she was 19. Someone with the surname Mendoza even sounds like her "type". Who knows?

I'm much amused by self-aggrandising family stories, but this one probably takes the biscuit - although no surprise perhaps among theatrical types. In several articles, it mentions that Winnie "claimed descent from the Earls of Derby" and it appears that the source of that quote is her own brother, Eric, so it may well have been a story perpetuated in the family. A claim doesn't make it true though! And through which side would that be, I wonder? The line we share to the 'illegitimate born' former dyer who downgraded to labourer in Norfolk, or the bankrupted tenant farmer in Cornwall? Lovely people, I'm sure, but Earls or any other type of nobs they were not!

Sources (many of these links contain images):

1. Con Colleano From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. “The Australian Wizard of the Wire”
3. AUSTRALIAN VARIETY THEATRE ARCHIVE
4. Inducted into the Ring of Fame: 1992
5. Meet the true circus wonders
6. Con Colleano: Australia's 'Wizard of the Wire'
7. Con Colleano: Wizard of the Wire
8. Colleano, Con (Cornelius) (1899–1973)
9. Circus pays homage to wire wizard
10. Interview with Eric Trevail, brother of Winnie Colleano
11. The Aboriginal tightrope walker who duped Hitler & Mussolini

Videos:

1. Con Colleano rehearsing his tight wire act at his home, circa 1939
2. COLLEANO, CON, Australia's tightwire wizard (USA, c.1929)
3. COLLEANO, CON, a life commemorated, (Australia, 2005)
4. COLLEANO, CON, mini-doco of tightwire artist (Australia, 1994)
5. Con Colleano home movie: circus preparations (1928)

Further reading: The wizard of the wire : the story of Con Colleano 

Dan Tompson and Sarah Jane Baker

House on the left 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto, Canada

Family stories, at best, usually have a mere grain of truth in them, almost universally contain large measures of exaggeration and "self-aggrandisement" and sometimes, huge amounts of complete fiction. Researching family history, therefore, becomes an exercise in debunking the family myths. Some relatives are more prone to bigging themselves and their forebears up, so you learn to question (read completely disbelieve) their tales, so you could honestly have knocked me down with a feather when I found this one was mostly true.

My mother said that one of the Tompsons had gone to Canada and set up a business. The story wasn't without some exaggeration, as she did make it sound like they'd set up a massive corporation and given the impression that if one were to go to any place in that vast country and mention "Tompsons" everyone would instantly know the household name - when reality was a couple of self-employed brickies - but they do turn up in Canada.

To be fair, she will have got this story too from her grandmother, Eliza Louisa Sweeney (née Tompson), but my mother didn't seem to know who among the Tompsons had gone to Canada and the way the story came across is as if it was some distant relative, not Eliza Louisa's own father, Dan Tompson.

In April 1871, the widowed Dan (22) was lodging in Cable Street, while his daughter Eliza Louisa was staying with her maternal grandparents. However, on 4 June 1871, he remarried to Sarah Jane Baker (19), daughter of Charles Hoile Baker and Amelia Young, at Christ Church, Watney Street, Stepney, making it four of the five Tompson siblings who married in this church.

Dan and Sarah Jane went on to have a further TWELVE children:

1. Amelia Mary Tompson b. 1872 (died 1874, aged 1)
2. Jessie Elizabeth Tompson b. 1874 (died 1876, aged 1)
3. Sarah Sophia Tompson b. 9 Oct 1876
4. Mabel Grace Tompson b. 6 Aug 1878
5. Mary Adcock Tompson b. 1880 (died 2nd quarter of 1881)
6. Dan Baker Tompson b. 1882 (died 1883)
7. Charles Frederick Tompson b. 1884 (died 1887, aged 3)
8. George Daniel Tompson b. 1885
9. Ernest Wilberforce Tompson b. 1888 (died 1890, aged 1)
10. Amelia Mary Tompson b. 14 Nov 1890
11. Ellen Hoile Folville Tompson b. 22 May 1893
12. Ivy Maud Tompson b. 23 Feb 1895

By 1881, Dan and Sarah Jane, living at 27 Watney Street, with Dan's daughter Eliza Louisa (12) - listed as Elizabeth L - also Sarah Sophia (b. 1876), Mabel Grace (b. 1878) and Mary Adcock (b. 1880). Sadly, Mary died in 1881, aged just one year old. Living at the same address that year also was Sarah Jane's younger sister, Sophia and her husband Charles Frederick Burden. Both couples followed similar naming patterns for their children, with Dan and Sarah Jane even naming one son Charles Frederick. It seems to suggest that they close. Burden went to Canada in 1900. Did this have a bearing on Dan and Sarah Jane's decision to emigrate there in 1912?

Mabel Grace (b. 1878), George Daniel (b. 1885) and Amelia Mary (b. 1890), were all baptised on Christmas Day 1890, in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire.

In 1891, the family were living in High Street, Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, although Sarah Sophia was visiting her aunt Mary Thompson, widow of her father's brother, Benjamin, at the Spotted Cow, Hither Green, Lewisham.

St Michael & All Angels,
Waddesdon - Font
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Salmon
geograph.org.uk/p/3267102

Sarah Sophia, Ellen Hoile Folville (b. 1893 in Ashby Folville, Leicestershire and Ivy Maud (b. 1895) were also baptised, in Waddesdon, on 5 Jun 1895. The denomination on all of the baptisms is listed as Anglican, so I assume this was at the church of St Michael & All Angels, Waddesdon. In later documents, Dan lists himself as Wesleyan and indeed there is a Wesleyan Chapel in Waddesdon High Street.

In 1901, Dan (52) and Sarah Jane (49), are listed as living in Gracious Street, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire with son George Daniel (15) bricklayer, daughters; Amelia Mary (10), Ellen T H (7) and Ivy Maud (6), plus a lodger, William Warren (61), described as a 'Draper But Not In Occupation'. 

Gracious Street, Whittlesey (1897) A decorated house on Whittlesey’s Gracious Street during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria in 1897. Image Peterborough Images Archive

Dan's obituary details that, in 1904 he was elected to the Whittlesey Urban District Council and that "Mr Tompson came to Whittlesey in July 1896 and became landlord of the "King's Head" (now in residential use, see image) in, Gracious Street, which he kept until he left for Canada in 1911."

In 1911, Dan (63), Sarah Jane (60), Ellen Thoila Tolnilla (sic) (18), Ivy Maud (16) and William Charles Kritzer (7), Grandson, born "At Sea", were living at Lattersey Field, Whittlesey. Sarah Sophia married Joseph Kritzer in 1905; Mabel Grace Tompson was employed as a Lady's Maid in the household of Sir Philip Hickson Waterlow, 2nd Baronet (Waterlow and Sons).

R.M.S. Corsican Image: Eric Eggertson Some rights reserved

Son George Daniel Tompson, had travelled, initially to the US, in 1908, but on 6 Jul 1912, Dan (63), with daughters Amelia (21) and Ellen (19), embarked in London bound for Montreal on the R.M.S. Corinthian. Strangely, they're on the passenger list under "The Salvation Army Pantel". The Profession, Occupation or Calling listed for Dan is "Farming" (nope, he was a Bricklayer) and of the girls, Domestic. (Presumably some ruse to get themselves cheap passages?) They were travelling 3rd class, or Steerage.

Then separately, on 18 Oct 1912, wife Sarah Jane (listed as 36, was actually 61), youngest daughter, Ivy (17) and Willie Thompson (8) - this has to be the grandchild listed on the 1911 Census as William Charles Kritzer - embarked in Liverpool aboard the SS Corsican, also bound for Montreal.

The family set up home in the Earlscourt neighbourhood in Toronto, settled in 1906 by labourers from the British Isles. Even in 1914 it still had a “shack town” reputation. This article about the area, which talks of a "Building Boom", tells why the Tompsons went there, "The modest sized lots on empty fields appealed to those looking for affordable land, low taxes and lax building regulations." Reading between the lines, my belief is that the family acquired one of the plots and split it between father and son. George Daniel initially lived in the house on the right of the top picture, 133 Morrison Avenue and Dan settled in the house on the left, 131 Morrison Avenue. Given they were bricklayers, there's a good chance they built the houses themselves.

In the 1913 Toronto City Directory, Dan Tompson is listed at 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto, as a bricklayer. In the 1917 directory, Dan is listed at 73 Ashburnham Rd, Toronto, with George at 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto. 

On the 1921 Census of Canada, Dan (72), Sarah Jane (69), Amelia Mary (31), Ellen (29), Ivy Maud (27) and Willie Christie (18) - the grandson with the ever-changing surname - were all living at 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto.

Grave of Dan Tompson at Prospect Cemetery in Toronto

Dan Tompson died on Friday, 1 Aug 1924, at his home of 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto. The record of his death says it was from "Senility", although his obituary contradicts that saying, "He was 77 years of age, but his vigour of mind made him appear younger." Well, he was actually only 75. Dan was buried on 4 Aug 1924 at Prospect Cemetery, Section 17, Plot 509. (Plan) 

Their daughters must have travelled back to the UK, because on 17 Sep 1926, Amelia Mary Thompson (35) and Ellen Hoile Thompson (32), embarked in Liverpool, bound for Montreal on the R.M.S. Regina. Interestingly, they gave their last address in the United Kingdom as c/o Mrs Sweeney, 102 Fore Street, London (my great-grandmother, their half-sister). 

Then on 19 Sep 1931, Ellen (38) and Ivy Maud (36) made the crossing from Liverpool to New York, in transit to Canada, on the R.M.S. Adriatic. They state that they are citizens of Canada. (Until 1947, settlers from Britain were considered citizens of Canada without needing to naturalize.)

The three Tompson girls then all appeared in the Toronto Centennial City Directory of 1934 at 131 Morrison Avenue, Toronto. 

Sarah Jane Tompson died on 4 Aug 1937 and was buried with her husband.

In 1939, the three daughters were back in the UK, living together at Way Homesteads, Broadway, Yaxley, Cambridgeshire. Amelia and Ellen were dressmakers, while Ivy was a School Teacher (Technical). Their brother George Daniel's father-in-in law, George Oldfield's parents were, George Oldfield and Mary Haddon and, in 1851, Mary was listed as having been born in Yaxley, then in Huntingdonshire. This may well explain why the three sisters were living in Yaxley after they returned to the UK from Canada.

 

None of these three sisters ever married and they returned to Whittlesey. 

On 12 Sep 1939, Probate was granted to Amelia Mary Tompson and Ivy Maud Tompson on the estates of both Dan Tompson and Sarah Jane Tompson. They left effects of £400 (worth around £26,000 today), hardly a fortune. 

Ellen died on 14 Jan 1976. She will have been 82. Amelia Mary Tompson of 81 Benwick Road, Whittlesey, died on 4 Mar 1986. She was 95. Ivy Maud Tompson of Keneydon House, 2 Delph Street, Whittlesey (a Residential Dementia care home) died on 12 Feb 1991, just eleven days before her 96th birthday. 

Ellen Hoile Tompson, Amelia Mary Tompson and Ivy Maud Tompson are buried in Whittlesey Cemetery.

James Edmond and Sarah Ann Wood

British Cemetery Graves, St Sever Cemetery Extension Photo: Giogo, Some rights reserved

Sarah Ann Wood, eldest daughter of James Wood and Mary Ann Melhuish, married James Edmond (b. 1888, in Prestonpans, Midlothian, Scotland), son of George Edmond, at St. Mary’s, Kentisbeare on 8 May 1911. At the time of the marriage, James Edmond was a Lodging House Keeper and Sarah was a Domestic Servant. Both gave their address as Ponchydown, Kentisbeare (did they perhaps run the former Ponchydown Inn in Blackborough).

James and Sarah Ann had three children:

1. James Roland George Edmond b. 24 Jul 1912, bap. 29 Dec 1912 at Blackborough, Devon, although the family's address on the baptism record was given as 2 New St, Prestonpans.
2. Arthur Cecil Ronald Edmond born 23 Dec 1914
3. Constance Mary Helen Edmond born 11 May 1917

On 23 Jun 1906, James Edmond enlisted for Short Service in the Scots Guards. He served until 23 Jun 1909 and was transferred to the reserve. However, he was mobilised again on 5 Aug 1914, the day after Britain declared war on Germany. James was promoted to Corporal in 1915 and Sergeant in 1916. His army record states that he embarked on the "SS Queen Alexandria", in Southampton on 9 Aug 1916, arriving in Le Havre the next day.

Admitted to hospital on 14 May 1918, dangerously ill, having received a gunshot wound to the head, James died of his wounds, at the No 5 General Hospital, Rouen, on 25 May 1918. Sgt James Edmond is buried at the St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Plot: Q. I. A. 3.

Devington Park, Exminster
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Sarah Charlesworth - geograph.org.uk/p/990195
A huge complex of apartments, housed in what was once the Devon Mental Hospital.

Sarah Ann Edmond, widow, of The Mental Hospital, Exminster (originally Devon County Lunatic Asylum, Exminster), died on 4 Dec 1933, leaving her effects to her son James Roland George Edmond, Guardsman.

Constance M H Edmond, in 1939, Incapacitated, was resident at the The Royal Western Counties Institution For Training And Treatment Of Mental Defectives, Starcross. "Originally known as the Western Counties Idiot Asylum, this institution opened in 1864 in a house and land, rented from W.R. Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon." "It later became known as the Western Counties Institution, Starcross, and was certified as 'a residential special school for mental defectives'. Residents were trained in carving, weaving, basketry, lace-making and carpentry, and worked on the institution's agricultural holdings." The institution was closed in 1986, and demolished.

Constance M H Edmond had died in 1949, aged 32.

Cornelius Walter Jones

Cornelius Walter Jones, born 2 Jan 1893 in Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, eldest son of David Jones and his second wife, Laura Elizabeth White, was my grandmother's elder brother. We've never been able to find his military record, but know he enlisted in the Army and served during World War I. His first cousin's husband, who was in Queenstown with the US Navy, kept a detailed diary and had written that Cornelius (Con) was leaving for Egypt in 1917. 

The image above, which I will admit that I downloaded some years ago (and have since lost the link), is dated 10.11.1917 EGYPT. The taller man (that makes perfect sense too as his grandfather, Thomas Jones, had been 5' 9½", which was tall for his time), second from right, back row, is so much like my father it's literally like looking straight into his eyes. His stance, his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brow line and, above all, hair, are all identical. It's so close a resemblance that it's eerie and uncanny and, unless someone can prove otherwise, I feel sure this has to be my great-uncle, Cornelius Jones.

Though our cousin had thought that Con didn't return from the war, I now know he did, probably suffering shell-shock, for which one of his younger siblings described him as "daft" - such was the lack of understanding. 

Not expecting to find him there in Ireland, we were quite shocked when we read the listing of his burial at the Old Church Cemetery (Cobh). 

Cornelius Jones, late of Rushbrooke, Cork, died on 21 Apr 1926 at the Cork District Hospital (now St. Finbarr's Hospital, with its origins in the Cork Union Workhouse and Infirmary). He was a bachelor, previously employed as a labourer. The record says 30, but he was 33 and died from Pneumonic Phthisis (tuberculosis, also known as consumption), after 8 months in hospital. The informant was Helena Lynch, "Inmate" Cork Union. 

Cornelius Walter Jones was buried on 24 Apr 1926, in the family plot at Old Church Cemetery (Cobh), along with his mother, who had died in 1917.

Arthur Cecil Ronald Edmond and Mildred Hettie Dunn

Dunkeswell Bridleway
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Derek Harper - geograph.org.uk/p/2785192

Arthur Cecil Ronald Edmond, younger son of James Edmond and Sarah Ann Wood, in 1939, was a Motor Driver, living at 3 Higher Summerlands, Whipton, Exeter. At the end of 1940, he married Mildred Hettie Dunn. 

The Western Times, Friday 10th January, 1941, reports: 

CLAYHIDON WEDDING

The wedding took place at the Blackdown Mission Room, Clayhidon, of Miss Mildred Hettie Dunn (eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs H J Dunn of Ashill, Craddock) and Mr Arthur Cecil Ronald Edmond of Stentwood Farm, Dunkeswell (youngest son of the late Sergeant-Major James Edmond, Scots Guards, and the late Mrs Edmond). Mr D W Brealey officiated. The organist was Mrs Venn of London. The bride, given away by her father, wore a navy striped costume and pink blouse, with a navy hat, shoes and gloves en suite. She carried a bouquet of shaded pink chrysanthemums and fern. There were no bridesmaids. The best man was Mr Ivor Colman, friend of the bridegroom. Mr Escott was usher. There was no reception. Later in the day Mr and Mrs Cecil Edmond went to their future home at Stentwood Farm, Dunkeswell. There were many presents.

In another prime example of how family stories so often contain exaggeration and "self-aggrandisement", the bridegroom's father has managed to progress two ranks, despite having been dead for over 20 years. Neat trick! 

Arthur Cecil Ronald Edmond died in 1974, at 59. Mildred Hettie Edmond died on 5 Jun 2012, in Hampshire. She will have been 93.

David Jones Naval Pensioner

The stern gallery of HMS Implacable, formerly the Duguay-Trouin, on display at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

My great-grandfather, David Jones, made much of the fact that he was a Naval Pensioner, especially when filling out official forms, and it seems very likely it was 'useful' in obtaining him the position of Sexton at the Christ Church, Church of Ireland, Rushbrooke, Cobh (Queenstown, as it was then), Ireland. Family tradition was that David had "lost a hand in battle". 

You gotta love a family story. There's always a grain of truth in them, but usually some embellishment. We searched high and low for a naval battle in the right era and came up with nothing. "In battle" sounds more heroic, clearly. Maybe it also proved handy (pun intended) in attracting him two wives!

My cousin recounted that her older sister had remembered visiting the family in Rushbrooke and seeing David's 'Sunday Best' gloved hand hanging up in the kitchen (such a creepy image) and continued that, apparently, he had a fork attachment for everyday - from which we may deduce that it was his left hand he lost - that attached to a metal pin that was inserted at his wrist. 

Because David always claimed to come from Wales, I almost missed his naval record. In fact, I'd dismissed it twice, because, although many other details were close enough, the boy was born in Lincolnshire, which didn't seem relevant. Then I found his father's posting to Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire and David's birth there and the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.

David Jones enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class, on 7 July 1865, when he would have been just shy of his 15th birthday. His father, Thomas Jones, and mother, Mary, co-signed the papers. David was described as being 4ft 8½in tall, with a sallow complexion, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Once he was 18, his period of engagement was intended to last ten years, obviously intending to follow in his father's footsteps. 

David Jones' Naval Record

The rest of David's naval record fits onto one line. At 14 he was assigned to HMS Implacable, which had become the Royal Navy's first training ship at Devonport in 1855. But instead of continuing his service as planned, David was discharged on 17 Oct 1866, when he will have been just 16. The last item on the line, under the Cause of Discharge, is the abbreviation for Invalided.

There not being more detail, nor medical records we can access, we have to surmise the rest of story. That he lost a hand is not in question. He was still in training, so there was no 'battle'. But, taking into consideration that this was 1866 - general anesthesia was still very much in experimental infancy - my feeling is that the only place that such a procedure as inserting a metal pin into his wrist was likely to be carried out was in a military hospital and at that time there was the the former Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse. That they did this and sent him off with a pension at the tender age of 16, suggests that the Navy was at fault and, my cousin's sister had recalled that this was as a result of an exploding gun, which also seems to confirm this theory.

Former Royal Naval Hospital, High Street, Plymouth
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Stephen Richards - geograph.org.uk/p/6083123
The Royal Naval Hospital, East Stonehouse

David Jones and Laura Elizabeth White

Christ Church Rushbrooke Cobh

My great-grandparents, David Jones, son of Thomas Jones and Mary Harty, and Laura Elizabeth White, daughter of Walter White and Hannah Blazey, married at Christ Church, Church of Ireland, Rushbrooke, Cobh (Queenstown, as it was then), Ireland on 17 Feb 1892. David Jones was then Sexton of the Anglican Christ Church. This was not David's first marriage, however, so we have to rewind for the story that led to this point: David was born at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire on 10 Jul 1850 and baptised, on 1 May 1851, at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Kings Lynn, Norfolk. That last part certainly wasn't ever common knowledge!

After being pensioned off from the Navy in 1866, David Jones was next recorded at Castle Oliver in Limerick at the time of his father's death in 1873. Records of his Dog Licences then place David at Castle Oliver in 1874 to 1877 too and, from 1878 onwards, man and dog were at Rushbrooke.

On 5 Oct 1880, David Jones married Johannah Anne O'Callaghan at the Parish Church in Inchigeelagh, Cork, By Licence. Johannah's father, Cornelius O'Callaghan was a Schools Inspector and on a later census return listed himself as Church of Ireland and made a point of stating that he was a member of the 'Irish Truth Society - Protestant'. Interesting choice of father-in-law for "a nice Catholic boy" and hence probably why, from then on, excessively staunch Protestant views were promoted within the family.

By the time of the baptism of David and Hannah's first child in 1881, David was listed as "Sexton of Church". Rushbrooke had docks, a tradition of ship building and the Irish Naval Service nearby, so I don't suppose it hurt that he was a Naval Pensioner, but the timing and the fact that the pedantically detailed school records were held in the church, lead me to believe that his father-in-law's contacts may have secured David this position. Taking the daughter's hand in marriage, was that a bonus or the price? 

From the records in the church, I was able to ascertain that David and Hannah had five children, all baptised at Christ Church, Rushbrooke: 

1. Thomas Jones born 19 Oct 1881, bap. 19 Nov 1881. (Died 8 Jan 1891.)
2. Marcella Jones born 10 May 1883, bap. 2 Jun 1883
3. Helena Jones born 4 Mar 1885, bap. 14 Mar 1885 [1]
4. Anna Jones born 14 Feb 1887, bap. 19 Mar 1887. (Died in 1902.)
5. Marion Jones born 27 Aug 1889, bap. 21 Sep 1889 (Died 8 Mar 1891.)

And so things might have continued, but Johannah Jones (35), wife of David Jones a Naval Pensioner, died of Typhoid fever, on 18 Feb 1891. 

Johannah was buried, on 20 Feb 1891 in the same plot as David's father, Thomas Jones (Section S, Row 9, Position 76), at the Old Church Cemetery (Cobh), where her son Thomas (9) had been buried little more than a month earlier, on 10 Jan 1891. One assumes from the same cause. Youngest daughter, Marion (2), also died on 8 Mar 1891. There's no record of Marion's burial, but I imagine she'll have been buried with her mother.

The inscription on the grave reads: 

Erected by David Jones In memory of his beloved father Thos. Jones Who died Jan. 8th 1873 aged 56 years Also his beloved son Thomas Who died Jan. 8th 1891 Aged 9 years and 3 months And his beloved wife Johanna Who died Feb 18th 1891 Aged 35 years.

The kitchen at Fota House

And so it was, on 17 Feb 1892 - one day less than a year after Johannah's death - that David Jones married Laura Elizabeth White. Witnesses were Ellen Jones (David's brother Nicholas' wife) and Annie Jones, David's sister. On the marriage certificate, Laura's address is given just as 'Fota', the island in Cork Harbour, just north of Great Island and Fota House & Gardens was (is) probably all there was there, so perhaps Laura was employed at Fota House, which makes sense, because my gran talked about them baking cakes for "the big house". We also know that the family from Fota House attended the Anglican Christ Church, which is obviously where David and Laura met.

David and Laura added yet another six children: 

1. Cornelius Walter Jones (Con) born 2 Jan 1893, bap. 22 Jan 1893
2. Ellen Jones (Nell) born 23 Apr 1894, bap. 13 May 1894
3. Laura Mary Jones (Queenie) born 2 Aug 1896, bap 28 Aug 1896 [2]
4. David Jones (Young Dave) born 10 Nov 1898, bap. 9 Dec 1898
5. Alice Jones born 26 Jul 1903, bap. 14 Aug 1903 [3]
6. Agnes Jones (Daisy) born 27 Feb 1907, bap. 15 Mar 1907

Here I should mention that prior to going to Cobh in 2014, I'd only known that my grandmother had lived in Ireland growing up: we didn't know when or where she was born. There'd been some mention of her father marrying twice and I'd known of a younger sister. Getting to the church and being let loose with all the original records was a huge surprise: finding record after record until I had various marriages, all eleven children, every relevant baptism, school record and, where appropriate, burial, was quite a shock.

It's interesting that the first son by the 2nd wife is named after the 1st wife's father first and the 2nd wife's father second. (Irish logic?) David appears to be - less strictly with the girls - following the traditional naming pattern that was often used by Irish parents until the later 19th century, but it's clear that this is in the order of the father's 1st, 2nd, etc., child irrespective of which wife produced it. Did wives not matter? That's probably rhetorical.

In 1901, David Jones (50), Laura (30), Helena (16), Cornelius (8), Ellen (6), Laura (4) and David (2) were living at Queenstown Urban, Cork. Marcella had already left home and was working as a servant in the household of Edward Gibbings, Rector of Kinsale, at Rampart's Lane (Kinsale Urban, Cork), while Anna (or Annie) (13), was staying with her grandfather O'Callaghan.

Then on 13 Apr 1902, Annie Jones (14), Daughter of a Naval Pensioner, died from Tuberculous meningitis. Her grandfather was present when she died.

In 1911, the household, still at Rushbrooke, included David (58), Laura (40), Cornelius (18), Ellen (16), Laura (14), David (12), Alice (7) and Agnes (4). 

On both census returns, David listed his birthplace - wrongly - as Wales.

Laura Jones, wife of David Jones a Naval Pensioner, died, aged 46, on 17 Jan 1917 from Splenic Leucocythemia (or Leukemia) and Influenza. Laura was buried, on 19 Jan 1917 at the Old Church Cemetery (Cobh), in Section D, Row 6, Position 50. So David was widowed again. Daughter Ellen (Nell), then 23, (resentfully) looked after the house and younger children until she married, after which David's sister, Annie, took over as housekeeper. 

On 7 Aug 1935, David Jones, widower, 79, Sexton of Church, died at Church Lodge from Hemiplegia 2 years (from which I'm reading that he'd probably had a stroke in 1933) and Cardiac failure. David was buried, on 10 Aug 1935, at the Old Church Cemetery (Cobh), in Section D, Row 6, Position 50, along with his second wife, Laura, and their son Cornelius, who had died in 1926.

The Jones Family Church Lodge Rushbrooke at Rest, Section D, Row 6, Position 50
Old Church Cemetery (Cobh). Resting place of David Jones (1850-1935), Laura Elizabeth Jones (1870-1917), Cornelius Walter Jones (1893-1926) and David Jones (1898-1966).

[1] The last record I have that mentions Helena Jones is where she was witness to the marriage of her sister, Marcella to Edward John Bicknell, in Portsmouth, in 1906, so we know she was in England then. There are a couple of records of possible voyages to America for a Helena Jones of the right age, but nothing that confirms this and details on each that make them unlikely.

[2] Laura Mary Jones was alive and unmarried in 1942, when she and her sister Alice were both witnesses at their brother Dave's wedding.

[3] As with her sister, Laura Mary, I've found no records that I can definitely attribute to Alice Jones beyond 1942. My belief is she stayed in Ireland, as when I was a child, my gran used to have shamrocks sent to her for St. Patrick's Day and I'm sure I remember them coming from an Alice, in Ireland. Family stories - we know how reliable those are - alleged that Laura and Alice had been thrown out of the family home and sent to the workhouse as they both had children out of wedlock. We were unable to find records of them entering the Cork workhouse. My late cousin had said they had lived at the Cork County Hospital for years and visited them there in 1946. Unfortunately, without an admission date, the Health Service in Ireland couldn't (wouldn't) make a search of the records for me to be able to confirm.

More about David Jones: 

• Who'd have thunk: out of hours drinking in Ireland
• Have you got a licence for that slut?
• The Tale of the Trespassing Goat
• David Jones Naval Pensioner
• Raid at Queenstown

Press Gangs and the King’s Shilling

Colindale Hospital around 1920

As family stories go, this has to be one of the best (as in the myth is about as far away from the truth as it's possible to get), but also one of the saddest. 

Throughout her life, my mother recounted this story so many times it would be impossible to count: The story went that her grandfather, Job Sweeney, had been "press ganged" into the navy no less than three times. Once would be unlucky, you'd have thought. Anyway, this account, undoubtedly passed down to her by her grandmother, Eliza Louisa Sweeney (née Tompson), was further embellished with the assertion that Job liked his drink rather too much, hence was always in the pub and the worse for wear and, therefore, had been tricked, in serial fashion, into taking the King's Shilling. 

All absolute poppycock, of course, like most family stories are.

As I say, I'd heard and nodded along to the retelling of this story umpteen times, but never really considered or questioned it. It wasn't until I met the current 'him indoors' who knows his military history, who immediately said "wrong century", that it became obvious the whole thing was invention.

With hindsight, I can see where it will have come from. Job's father was a dock labourer (sometimes listed as a stevedore); his great-grandfather a mariner and many of their ancestors were sailors, ship's carpenters and shipwrights. Eliza Louisa's family ran pubs around the London docks. They'll have grown up with 'press gang' stories and other seafaring folklore.

My great-grandfather, Job Sweeney (b. 6 Feb 1870 and bap. 11 May 1871, at St John, Limehouse Fields - bombed on 19 Sep 1940 and subsequently demolished), son of John Henry Charles Sweeney and Susannah Harvey, married Eliza Louisa Tompson at St Anthony, Stepney on 5 Jan 1893. 

My mother won't have known her grandfather, as he had died on 6 December 1924, aged 54, when she would have been only a few months old.

Having spent his entire life in the East End, it was finding that his death had been registered in Hendon that made me dig further in order to solve the mystery. It even crossed my mind that holidays 'At His Majesty's Pleasure' might well have explained these absences that we were all led to believe were when he was 'at sea', but it was not so. Having ordered his death certificate, this confirmed that the actual place of death was Colindale Hospital.

Built originally as the The Central London District Sick Asylum in 1898-1900 - to provide care for the sick poor in London, separate from the workhouse - in 1919, it was taken over by The Metropolitan Asylums Board and used as male TB sanatorium. The cause of Job Sweeney's death was given as 'Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Certified by Marcus Patterson MD.' 

Dr. Marcus Sinclair Paterson (1870–1932) was the medical superintendent of the Colindale Hospital for Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Hendon. "Here Paterson made valuable innovations in the symptomatic treatment of advanced cases", says his obituary in the BMJ. He developed a system of treatment called 'graduated labour'. "He has described how his observations on out-patients led him to the idea of introducing manual work, as well as walking, into the sanatorium regime, with the hope of fitting his patients for immediate return to their work, and of successfully meeting the charge that sanatoriums turned out work-shy loafers." (Not unlike the attitude to the sick today.)

(Looks like we can see who was originally responsible for ideas that led to the much maligned, ineffective and unsafe Graded exercise therapy (GET) too.)

So, we can deduce that the "press gang" story was made up to explain a series of absences, which were probably stays for 'treatment' - forced work when you're already too ill to do your normal work - at the sanatorium. And the saddest part is this tells us that, so strong was the social stigma attached to TB that families preferred to paint their nearest and dearest as 'feckless, drunken, work-shy', etc., rather than admit they had an infectious, then incurable, disease, undoubtedly contracted through no fault of their own.