The end of Thomas Charles MARCH, his wife and children, apart from one important detail

The story so far:

Thomas Charles MARCH was a lifelong servant of the royal household during Queen Victoria's reign. He rose through the ranks of the Lord Chamberlain's office and by 1881 was Pay-master of the Royal Household. In sequential census returns, and in some of the other public records Ancestry.co.uk (Ancestry.com) has online, as well as what others have posted to the Web, I have been tracing Thomas and his family. The larger context started out with Bram STOKER and is explained in previous posts.

Bram Stoker and family in the 1881 English census

I looked more closely at the three servants:

Emma Barton, Bram Stoker's 15-year-old parlourmaid in 1881

Harriet Daw, Bram Stoker's Cook in 1881. The problem of a small spelling error

and

A brick wall: Elizabeth Jarrald, widow, Nurse to Bram Stoker's baby son in 1881.

Researching Elizabeth led me to the man I think she married:

Charles Jarrald, a well-placed servant indeed.

And then I got on to the MARCH family. I started using the common convention of putting surnames in ALL CAPS when I got to the MARCH family because it's too easy to confuse their name with the month of March.

Thomas Charles MARCH marries

Thomas Charles MARCH married Sarah COOPER in 1867. She brought with her a daughter, Arabella, who went by MARCH for the rest of her life. I think the daughter matches the Arabella MARCH who died in 1944. The probate records for 1944 are not yet available online but when I can get a look at them, I'll be interested to see the size of the fortune, or lack of it, that Arabella had when she died. I haven't found her in the census after 1891. I rather hope she was installed in a nice grace and favour apartment somewhere on the grounds of Buckingham Palace or even Hampton Court Palace for the rest of her days.

MARCH family life in the 1880s and later

Thomas and Sarah had two little brothers for Arabella, Thomas Charles MARCH, b. 1867, and Reginald George MARCH, b. 1874. Sadly, it appears little Thomas died at the age of 8.

By 1881, the MARCH family had decamped from London and were living at a very nice country house called Forest Lodge in Ashtead, Surrey.You can read a bit about it online, courtesy of the Surrey History Centre Archives and their website, Exploring Surrey's Past. They had probably left London for Surrey earlier, in the 1870s, as Reginald was born in Holmwood, Surrey in 1874, and the boy Thomas died, probably at Ashtead (Epsom registration district), in 1876. In 1881, Thomas (the father) was 61 and as mentioned, Pay-master of the Queen's Household.

Reginald was away at school in Cheltenham for the 1891 census. Thomas and the daughter Arabella were the only ones at Forest Lodge. This was Arabella's home until about three years after her father died (he died in 1898), when she sold it to Mr. Augustus MEYERS, who built a beautiful new home there.

Here is what the Surrey History Centre Archives' website says:

"In the early 19th century, the Haunch of Venison inn stood [where Forest Lodge was] but, during the 1860s, Henry Parsons converted it into a house, where, in 1871, he lived with a large household, including five servants. In the 1879 sale of Ashtead Park, Forest Lodge was bought for £3,700 on behalf of Lord Rosebery, although it was occupied at the time by Thomas C March, who held important positions in the royal household and who subsequently purchased the property. After his death, it was sold by his daughter, Arabella.

"Augustus Meyers purchased the estate in 1901 and lived there for nearly fifty years. Soon after he acquired the property, he built the present Forest Lodge, set well back from the road behind the site of the original inn, which had stood near the present entrance. The laying out of the grounds, including the demolition of the earlier house, had been completed by 1911."

Just a side-note about Lord Rosebery: he became Prime Minister of England. He was born in 1847 at No. 20, Charles Street, Berkeley Square. You may recall that Charles Street is what got us here. Thomas Charles MARCH lived at No. 1 in 1861.

There is a privately-published book called Photographic Views of Interior and Gardens, Forest Lodge, Ashtead, Surrey (1911) displayed on the website of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, as part of an exhibit called "Of Making Many Books There is No End", that will close on March 31, 2011. Only the cover and one photograph (the one the cover picture is based on) are pictured on the website. The book was, I assume, prepared for Mr. MEYERS and depicts his new house, but that is just my best guess.

Sarah, Arabella's mother, died at Forest Lodge on July 7, 1888. Probate was granted, not to her husband, but to her spinster daughter Arabella MARCH on August 13, 1888. Sarah's will may have been set up to name Arabella as executrix because, with Thomas being about 20 years her elder, Sarah expected to outlive him. Sarah's personal estate was valued at £633/0/11.

Before her marriage to Thomas, the 1861 census showed Sarah living at 78 Sloane Street, Chelsea with her occupation being "House and Funded Proprietor". If that means she owned the house on Sloane Street, her fortune could have been considerable. Maybe that was invested in Forest Lodge, or maybe she was less wealthy than I imagine. Students of women's history can perhaps shed some light on the situation of a married woman's property in 1888. Did it remain hers, or did it become part of her husband's wealth upon marriage? I would only be guessing if I answered that question either way.


Link to the map and Google Street View of present day 78 Sloane Street. Dorchester Court, the modern red brick building on the left, is No. 77 through 81.The white building with the blue plaques is No. 76 (at the end close to Dorchester Court).


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It appears Thomas worked for Her Majesty's household until his death in 1898. His occupation in the 1891 census was "Secretary of Board of Green Cloth, Queen's Household".  Probate was granted to Reginald George MARCH, his son, who was then a Clerk to the Lord Chamberlain, on August 10, 1898.

Thomas's estate was valued at £15,387/0/8.
 
In the National Probate Calendar (Ref: England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.Original data: Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England © Crown copyright.), Thomas was called Thomas Charles MARCH of 82 Ebury-street Middlesex C.B.

The C.B. was news to me, and stands for Companion of the The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, an honour bestowed by the Queen, to a senior civil servant. I have not been able to find details of when Thomas MARCH was given this honour.

Here is a link to the Google Street View and map for 82 Ebury-street (modern day; the black door on the right, with the two white squares of what looks like paper), in case the embedded map below is not visible. In the 1891 census, this was a lodging house kept by a widow. On census night the widow, two female servants, and one 21-year-old man, an Assistant Engineer in the navy, were there. I would guess this was a convenient place for Thomas MARCH to stay when in London on business, but not likely the sort of place his daughter would have moved to after selling Forest Lodge, if it catered to gentlemen civil servants.


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The two surviving family members, Arabella and Reginald appear, from the scanty collection of records I have seen, to have gone their separate ways. I don't mean they were estranged (who knows?), only that I haven't found them living together. I don't know where Arabella was between about 1901 (the sale of Forest Lodge) and 1944, her death.

I couldn't find Reginald in the 1901 census, either, but I did find a good explanation for that.

In 1914, when the First World War started, Reginald enlisted and gave his occupation as "motor lorry driver". That's rather unexpected for a Clerk to the Lord Chamberlain. The reason comes from his prior military service as a member of Lord Paget's Horse. This was a private regiment raised by Lord Paget to fight in the South African (aka Boer) War. It appears they were in South Africa on census night, 1901.

Lord Paget's Horse recruited gentlemen, and its official initials, PH, were jokingly said to stand for "Piccadilly Heroes".

Also mentioned in Reginald's First World War attestation papers is the fact that he was married, and the papers identify his wife and two children.

Reginald enlisted for "Short Service (One Year With the Colours)" on October 5, 1914 at the age of 30. As mentioned, his stated Trade or Calling was "Motor Lorry Driver". There was also a note "Speaks French fluently and German [illegible]". On November 17, 1917, he was discharged as being medically unfit for service, being over age. His service record shows that he was at Home (i.e., the UK), not sent abroad to fight.

He died in 1918, leaving £2,686/8/1 and naming his wife Ella and two solicitors as executors. It's possible Ella went on to remarry (I found a possible match in 1927 to John MAYLE) and also that she travelled to the U.S.A., and that she died in Winchester in 1973. I haven't tried to check those things out (too remote).

Of his children, the little bit of searching I did suggests (doesn't prove) that his daughter Marjorie Eva went to the U.S.A.  in 1930, for 3 months at the age of 19. The Marjorie MARCH who made that trip listed Mrs. MAYYLE [sic] as her mother on the ship's passenger list, so it all fits.

Reginald's son, Thomas Charles MARCH, matches the age and name of a gentleman who died in Winchester in 1999.

I have a little more information about Reginald that I won't put here; we've strayed rather far from Thomas, his father, already.

The MARCH family into which Thomas Charles MARCH the father was born did very well for themselves. I will show how well in a couple of posts from now.

Next time, I want to show the Six Degrees of Queen Victoria and Six Degrees of Dracula for the MARCH family we've looked at so far.


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If you find these stories interesting, or have a question, please leave a comment. Let me know what catches your fancy and I'll find more.


Thomas March is the first of many interesting people we will meet on Charles Street in 1871. His story starts with Thomas March of 1 Charles Street: One degree from Queen Victoria.


This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

Next: Six degrees of Queen Victoria: How the Thomas Charles March family were connected.

Thomas Charles March, and his rise through the ranks at Queen Victoria's household

In 1871, Thomas Charles MARCH lived at 1 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, in London. (I usually use "London" to describe the modern metropolis. Many places were more properly described as being in Westminster rather than London, in the 19th century.) His career was spent in the service of Queen Victoria, and by the time he died in 1898, he was at the top of her household staff.

Thomas MARCH: One degree from Queen Victoria

I have traced Thomas and his family, mainly through the census returns using Ancestry.co.uk, as well as a few other online sources. At every turn I find something rather unexpected and interesting. Hope you find it so, too.

Where and what Thomas MARCH was in the census

1841: Don't know yet. I have looked, and looked, and looked. More to come about what I know of his family from about 1800 up to 1851.

1851: St. James's Palace, Stable Yard, No. 4, Thomas C. MARCH: unmarried, age 31, (occupation) Lord Chamberlain's Office, living with his two unmarried brothers, William (36, also of the Lord Chamberlain's Office) and George (22, No Occupation), and an unmarried woman servant, Elizabeth BARTLEY, age 70 (or possibly 40).

Census Reference (from Ancestry.com):   Class:  HO107; Piece:  1481; Folio:  10; Page:  12; GSU roll:  87806.

Modern Google Map for Stable Yard Road

The official website of the British Monarchy, "St James's Palace"



1861: St. James's Palace, Thomas C. MARCH, Head, unmarried, 41, [Clerk?] Lord Chamberlain's Office, living in a dwelling (not sure of what sort) with his brother William G. MARCH, unmarred, 43, "Ditto" (i.e., also a clerk in the Lord Chamberlain's office) and a 54-year-old widow, Sarah LOW, as their general servant.

Census Reference (from Ancestry.com): Class:  RG9; Piece:  56; Folio:  17; Page:  29; GSU roll:  542565

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Thomas rose through the ranks of the Royal Household to become what appears to be the top financial manager. The Lord Chamberlain, his boss for most of Thomas's years in service, was a political appointment. There were about 13 of them, some with multiple terms of office, during Thomas's career. I envision Thomas as the Victoria equivalent of Sir Humphrey Appleby.

(Link to video in case the embedded video is not showing.)









Sometime in the 1860s it appears Thomas got married. In the census returns before 1871, he was shown as unmarried. (This is not the same as widowed, which is usually specified.) I hard quite a hard time figuring out the identity of Thomas's wife. That's coming next.

Thomas March is the first of many interesting people we will meet on Charles Street in 1871. His story starts with Thomas March of 1 Charles Street: One degree from Queen Victoria.

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

Next: Applying some Jane Austen logic to the marriage of Thomas Charles March, Queen Victoria's Pay-master

Harriett Daw, Bram Stoker's Cook in 1881. The problem of a small spelling error.

Bram Stoker was the author of Dracula, the famous vampire novel, published in 1897. From the early 1880s he lived in Chelsea, London, with his wife Florence.

Bram Stoker and family in the 1881 census (link)

The household in 1881 included Bram and Florence, their infant son Irving, and three servants. The youngest was Emma Barton, the 15-year-old Housemaid. I posted her story the other day.

The story of Emma Barton, Housemaid to Bram Stoker in 1881 (link)

Today I'll continue with the Cook, Harriet Daw, who was 21 and single in the 1881 census.

The problem with Harriett and spelling

I haven't found a matching Harriett Daw in the census or in the other easy records to find on Ancestry.co.uk. Almost immediately, though, a Harriett Dew appeared. Off by one letter. Matching, sort of, as to place of birth. Matching as to age.

Other people's non-verified family trees have a Harriett Matilda Dew traced from birth to death, including marriage in 1882. Missing: an entry for the 1881 census. These gaps are also suggestive that the two Harrietts are actually one.

So, with a giant flashing red light warning that we may be talking about two different people, here is the story of Harriett Matilda Dew, as found in the public records on Ancestry.co.uk.

Daughter of a Carman

Harriet was named after her mother, Harriett. Sometimes there is one "t" in "Harriett", sometimes two. Harriet Matilda was baptized on June 13, 1858 in St. Paul's District Parish Church, Lisson Grove. Her mother's name was Harriett Eliza, and in the baptism register, although both parents are named, only the occupation "Laundress", a word that would only apply to a woman, is given.

Harriet Matilda had a brother, John (full name, John Thomas Henry Dew), two years older and named for their father, John Thomas Dew. Both John and Harriett were christened at the same church, on the same day.

In 1861 the young family was living at 10 Upper Lisson Street, Marylebone, London. The father was a Carman.They lived reasonably close to Paddington Station, and he worked for the Great Western Railway for a good part of his life, it appears.

I can't get to 10 Upper Lisson Street on Google Maps today; perhaps the street no longer exists, or maybe this part of it has been taken up by later road-building, or destroyed in the Second World War. However, on Lisson Street as it now is, I found this charming Google Street View picture. Possibly the best one I've found to date.

(Link in case picture does not display properly below)


View Larger Map


Ten years later, in 1871 on census night, they had a "Nurse Child" in the house. Her name is hard to read and probably misspelled. Literally, it looks like Lousia Cate, but my guess is Louisa Cole may be closer. She was 6 years old, and the only other thing we know is she was reportedly born in Notting Hill.

I have looked for a connection between Louisa (using either surname, Cole or Cate) and the Dew family. I can't find one strong enough to mention.

The phrase "Nurse Child", in the most general sense, means a child in the care of a woman who is not the child's natural mother. It's more of a fostering arrangement than what we would think of as babysitting. If the child had only been there for a day or two, on the census I would expect her to be called a Visitor.

Women could earn money by looking after children, often while their (not uncommonly unmarried) mothers went out to work. In desperate situations, that was what a mother had to do to feed herself and her child.

This is another piece of social history that would be interesting to know about, but it doesn't advance our understanding of Harriet Dew particularly, since Louisa and Harriet were not in the same house in the next census. Any speculation that there may have been a close relationship between Louisa and the Dew family is just that: speculation.

Marriage in 1882
In 1882, so within about a year of Harriett's appearance in the census as the Stokers' Cook, she left to become the wife of William Edmund Frid. They were married on Christmas Day. On the marriage certificate, Harriet's father is John Dew, deceased. Unverified family trees say her mother had died earlier. Her only sibling, John, was married in 1876 and, like their father, worked as a Carman for the railway.

Mr. Frid was a Carpenter. Before marriage, he was apparently living with an aunt and uncle in London and was unemployed. I am only guessing that his fortunes changed, at least I hope so. In 1891, Harriett and William had four children, three girls and a boy.

Although the Frids lived in Marylebone at the time of Harriett's marriage to William, (both at Welling's Place on the marriage certificate) and were there in Marylebone again in the 1891 census, all four children were born in Mortlake.

That's not how I personally got my vampire bloodline, but it does have a personal connection, because for two years, about a hundred years later, we lived in the same part of town. I hope the Frids liked it as much as I did.

An early death in 1895

Her little children were still young when Harriett died in 1895.

Did William remarry? What became of the motherless children?

It's not far-fetched to speculate that Harriett died in childbirth, given her age. That is pure speculation. The death certificate would give a cause of death, but you have to pay for those.

The family in 1901

Six years after their mother died, Harriett's children and their father were still living together, in Marylebone. William, the father, was a Carpenter Joiner, and his son William working for a Butcher. No occupation is listed for any of the three girls.

Because of the misspelling (or to be more clear, the assumption that there is a misspelling), the descendants of Harriett Dew may not know their ancestor cooked for "Dracula" himself. I hope they see this post and do some further research to see if my hunch about Harriett Dew and Harriett Daw being the same person is correct.

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

Next: A brick wall: Elizabeth Jarrald, widow, Nurse to Bram Stoker's baby son in 1881

After Dracula: Bram Stoker and family in the 1901 English census

In 1881 and 1891, Bran Stoker, the author of Dracula, lived with his small family in Chelsea, a fashionable neighborhood of London then and now. Last seen in 1891 at 17 St Leonards Terrace, I mentioned in my post about that address that it was the property next door, No. 18 St Leonards Terrace, that has the blue plaque honoring Stoker. In the Google Street View picture, you can see the blue plaque.

Here's the picture again. No. 18 is the white house on the end.


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Dracula was published in 1897. It wasn't Stoker's first literary work. In the 1891 census, he listed himself as having three occupations: Theatrical Manager, Barrister, and Author.

Let's look at the 1901 census.

Address: 18 St Leonards Terrace, Chelsea

Name: Bram Stoker
Age: 53
Estimated birth year: about 1848
Relation: Head
Spouse's name: Florence A L Stoker
Gender: Male
Where born: Ireland
Civil Parish: Chelsea
Ecclesiastical parish: St Luke
County/Island: London
Country: England
Street address: 18 St Leonards Terrace, Chelsea, London
Occupation: Barrister
Condition as to marriage: Married
Employment status: Worker


Registration district: Chelsea
Sub-registration district: Chelsea, South
ED, institution, or vessel: 2
Household schedule number: 382
Household Members:
Name Age
Bram Stoker 53
Florence A L Stoker 39, Wife. Occupation is blank. Born Falmouth, Cornwall.
Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. Son, Single, 21. Accountant's Apprentice. Born Chelsea, London.
Maria Mitchell. Servant, Single, 63. Housekeeper (Domestic). Born Dorking, Surrey.
Louisa Driver. Servant, Single, 37. Parlourmaid. Born London.



Source Citation: Class: RG13; Piece: 77; Folio: 68; Page: 47.
Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1901 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives, 1901.

____________________________________________________________

The move into No. 18 St Leonards Terrace took place sometime during the past 10 years.

Bram is now listed as a Barrister, with no mention of his former occupations of Theatrical Manager and Author. Was he still doing both of these things? Other records would indicate, yes. In fact, his work as a Barrister appears to have been secondary throughout his life. Biographies stress his work in the theatre, not in the courts of law.

The Stokers' son, Irving Noel Thornley Stoker, is again with the family. (He was absent in 1891). He's training to become an accountant.

Two servants, Maria Mitchell and Louisa Driver, have replaced the two we saw in 1891. We don't know how many there may have been in between.

A big question now is, what impact did the publication of Dracula have on Stoker during his lifetime? Was it the proceeds from the sale of this book that financed the move to this new house? Somehow I suspect not, but that is only from seeing a passing note saying the book was not an immediate success. It will take a little more research to be sure of that.

I should perhaps repeat that I am working from the primary sources here. There is plenty of information available about Stoker online and in print. Eventually I may turn to it to fill in some gaps. My objective is not to write any kind of biography, but to look at the primary sources I have readily available, and see what they say.

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

Next: Harriet Daw, Bram Stoker's Cook in 1881. The problem of a small spelling error.

17 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea: Bram Stoker's family home in 1891

The 1891 census is the first time we see the Stokers living on St Leonards Terrace. In 1881, they had been on Cheyne Walk. Both places are in Chelsea, both fashionable.

It is at No. 18 St Leonards Terrace where there is a blue plaque for Bram Stoker (link). In 1891, the Stokers lived at No. 17, but in No. 18 there was no one designated the Head of the household. The occupants were two women, referred to as Servant in Charge, in the Occupation column. The open question is whether the Stokers had an interest in No. 18 in 1891, or whether that came later.

St Leonards Terrace is about a block from the Royal Hospital and the grounds of the Chelsea Flower Show. One website lists it as one of the 200 most expensive streets in Britain.

A piece of trivia: Sir Laurence Olivier, in another time and with two different wives, also lived on Cheyne Walk and moved (eventually) to St Leonards Terrace.

Here is a picture of (approximately) No. 17 St Leonards Terrace, Chelsea, courtesy of Google Street View. No. 18 is the white house on the end of its block. We can't tell from this picture whether No. 17 is on the right or the left. My guess would be the right but that is just a guess.


View Larger Map

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).


Next: After Dracula: Bram Stoker and family in the 1901 English census

Dracula's author, Bram Stoker, and family in the 1891 English census

If you have already had a look at the Stoker family in the 1881 census (link), you will know that they were living at 27 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London. Bram and Florence, their son Irving, and Bram's brother George lived there with three servants: a nurse, a cook, and a parlourmaid.

Some changes have come about, which you will quickly notice in the 1891 census.

Reference: Class:  RG12; Piece:  63; Folio  43; Page  12; GSU roll:  6095173.

1891 England Census for London, Chelsea, Chelsea South, District 2, Page 12, Household 103
Link to Ancestry.com image of the census page (may only work if signed in to Ancestry.com. Don't worry, the information is all here.)

Address: 17 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, London
1 inhabited house

Household 103 on census form

Abraham Stoker, Head, Married. Male, age 43. Barrister, Theatrical Manager, Author. Born in Dublin [Ireland].

Florence A. L. Stoker, Wife, Married. Female, age 27. Occupation is blank. Born in Cornwall, Falmouth. [Falmouth, Cornwall].

Mary A. Drinkwater, Servant, Single. Female, age 28. Cook (Domestic Servant). Born in Oxford, Milford. [Milford, Oxfordshire]

Ada V. Howard, Servant, Single. Female, age 22. House parlourmaid (Domestic Servant). Born in London.

That is the end of No. 17. However, at No. 18, there is no new Head of household, only two servants. It may be that the Stokers had both houses, particularly if these were side by side. In case this is of interest later, here are the details.

Address: 18 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, London

Household 104 on census form.

Julia Abbott, Servant, Single. Female, age 25. Servant in charge. Born in Great Yarmouth.

Mary Kerr, Servant, Single. Female, age 22. Servant in charge. Born in Dumfries Lockabie [possibly Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland].

_______________________________________________________

The family has moved from Cheyne Walk to St Leonard's Terrace. Is that a move up or down?

Son Irving and Bram's brother George are both absent. George may very well have set up his own household, but where is the boy? He would be about 11 years old now.

Instead of three servants, there are only two, a Cook and a House parlourmaid. This is the same as in 1881, when the family also had a Nurse to care for the boy. The servants are new, though, not the same people as ten years ago. It makes me wonder whether there were very many others in between.

Bram's occupation was Theatrical Manager M.A. in 1881. Here in 1891, he is Barrister, Theatrical Manager, Author. Perhaps the M.A. is his law degree. Showing his occupation to include Author suggests he's already had some success in publishing his work. What has he written to date, and how well has he done as an author?

Florence was shown as an Artist in 1881. Why not now? Has she given it up? How does she spend her time?

There are the same questions about the servants as in 1881, boiling down to who are they, and how did they get here, and what became of them?

Finally, there is the question of the house next door. Has it got anything to do with the Stokers at all, or are the servants looking after it while the owner is absent?

And, a question that no census is going to tell us, has Bram started to think about Dracula yet?

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula in public records: BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death).

Next: 17 St Leonards Terrace, Chelsea: Bram Stoker's family home in 1891

Emma Barton, Bram Stoker's 15-year-old parlourmaid in 1881

The 1881 census showed the Stokers living in Chelsea, London, at 27 Cheyne Walk. In the household we saw Bram, his wife Florence, their baby son Irving Noel, Bram's brother, George, and three servants: Emma Barton, Harriett Daw, and Elizabeth Jarrald.

Bram Stoker and family in the 1881 census (link)

In a moment, we'll take a closer look at the servants, starting with Emma, the youngest.

Looking at the censuses over the decades, and at the other records that pop up on Ancestry.co.uk without much search effort required, here's what I have pieced together.

Of course there are gaps, but my aim is not to be encyclopedic. It's more to see what we can find out from the primary sources, without much work or expense.

I have access to all the records on Ancestry because I pay for the full meal deal every year as my big Christmas present to myself. Sometimes I link to pages on there that might not be visible unless you're signed in and have access to the records. However, I won't leave you wondering. Where I can't be sure everyone can follow the link, I will include the information here.

OK, on with Emma.

Emma Barton, Housemaid to Bram Stoker and family in 1881, in Chelsea, age 15

Emma Barton was born in late 1865, it appears, in Woodford, Essex. Her birthplace is also listed as Walthamstow sometimes. Her parents were John Barton, a gardener, and his wife Sarah. Family trees that I have not tried to verify show Sarah's last name was Wilby, and that she died in 1880.

Here is the current Google Map showing Walthamstow and to the east of it, Woodford. The City of London is to the south-west.

(Map not visible? Here is a link to the same thing on Google.)


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Emma was christened Emma Louisa, though the name Louisa doesn't come up in the census records I've seen, so I assume she always went by Emma. She had an elder sister, Harriett, and an elder brother, William. The other six children were younger.

What I have found for Emma boils down to this. She apparently lived at home with her parents and all the other children until the 1881 census, which would have occurred just a year after her mother died. At the age of 15, in 1881, Emma was the housemaid for the Stokers in London. How she got that particular job is a mystery to me. I expect there were well-established ways of hiring servants, and I also expect that with a little research on my part, I could probably find books on the topic.

What I imagine, from whatever I've absorbed of English 19th century life by osmosis, is that "good servants are hard to find", that girls in service at this young age had to be trained up, and that the lady of the house would have been to a certain degree responsible for that training. It wasn't necessarily the job of the senior servants, though I imagine they would have had quite a big role. But Florence, Mrs. Stoker, would have been the one to set the standard she expected the servants to maintain.

I don't know for certain that this was Emma's first job. Given her age and the timing of her mother's death, I'm guessing it may well have been.

What happened to Emma?
I can only partly answer this question.

In 1891, she was single, and working as a waitress. My guess is it was at a relative's coffee house in West Ham. On census night, she was a visitor in the household of Thomas Barton and family at 280 Victoria Dock Road, West Ham. Thomas may have been a relative, though in the census, Emma is called a visitor rather than a niece, for example. Thomas was a Coffee House Keeper, hence my speculation.

The census doesn't say where Emma actually lived, only where she was on census night.

Here is a link to the Google Maps Street View for 280 Victoria Dock Road, approximately, today. There is a hotel at that address now. The Street View may open at a slightly different spot, where there are some older buildings. Whether they were there in 1890, though, I can't tell.

Here's the Street View that the link should take you to.


View Larger Map



In the 1902 business directory for the area, Thomas Barton has "dining rooms" at 280 Victoria Dock Road.

Emma Barton in 1901: More responsibility

By ten years later, it looks like Emma has moved on, and who knows how many jobs and homes she may have had in between. The 1901 census shows her as the senior servant, the Cook, in the household of a Jeweller (Leonard Reeder, or Needes, hard to make out) and his wife, in Willesden Green, still in London. There was a younger parlourmaid, age 22, working there too. Emma was still single in 1901, and by now, age 35.

What became of her after that, I don't know. I've seen at least one family tree saying she died some years later in Canning Town. I haven't seen proof of that. There is an Emma Barton who is married to a Mr. Barton, in the 1901 census, living in Canning Town. That's where the Thomas Barton Coffee House was so who knows? But, in 1901, Emma Barton formerly of the Stoker household was single and living in Willesden Green.

What happened to Emma Barton's family?

With such a large family, I took the easy route and didn't try to trace every single person. In broad brush strokes, it looks like the eldest daughter, Harriett, stayed home to care for the other children and the father, but by 1901, she was no longer with him. (In 1891, she is erroneously listed as the mother of the children who are still at home.) Some family trees (unverified) show her as getting married in 1892 and going on to have children with her husband.

The eldest boy, William, married and had a family living in Woodford / Walthamstow in 1901. He was a gardener, just like his father.

In 1891, the sixth child, Emily Mary Barton, then 20, was living in Woodford with an uncle, Frederick Barton, and also a Gardener, his wife, and their 15-year-old son.

Various family trees suggest that most of the children got married, and none died particularly young. The youngest, Florence Rhoda Barton, in 1901 was the housemaid for George Moss, a 44-year-old Jeweller, and his sister, Frances, age 38, both of whom were single. They lived at 35 Addison Road North in Kensington, which is not far from Holland Park and looks like quite a nice neighbourhood.

Emma's father, John Barton, was in 1901 living as a Boarder with an 80-year-old widow named Charlotte Stringer, who kept a confectionery shop. This was in Lancing, Sussex. John, age 63, was working as a Gardener, with none of his children under the same roof.

The Barton family did seem to maintain a presence in the Woodford area.

Emma, however, was on her own it seems, working as a servant and living in other people's homes, perhaps for the rest of her life. Or maybe she got married in her late 30s or later. It's not out of the question.

Dracula was published in 1897, after Emma had long departed the Stoker household. Did she ever dine out on stories of living with the famous author? Who knows, but I expect some of the past servants much surely have enjoyed bragging about their association, at least a little.

This article is one in an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, in public records.

Next: Dracula's author, Bram Stoker, and family in the 1891 English census

27 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, former home of Bram Stoker (1881)

Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, lived with his family at 27 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea in 1881 when the census was taken. Details of the household (the Stokers, Bram's brother George, and three servants) are in this post:

Bram Stoker and family in the 1881 English census (link).

Cheyne Walk is a desirable place to live today, and has been fashionable for a long time. Here's a link to a picture of No. 4 Cheyne Walk (link) in 1881.

The Google Timeline of Cheyne Walk (search "Cheyne Walk" on Google.com, then select the Timeline option for results) gives an interesting perspective on the street over the years. Modern day residents have included Mick Jagger and David Bowie, with their respective partners. Sir Hans Sloane was a prominent figure there in the 1700s.


Link to a picture of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea (London) from about 1800.

And here is how it looks today, courtesy of Google Street View, below (may take a moment to load).


View Larger Map

This article is one of an ongoing series, starting with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, in public records: BMD (birth, marriage, death).

Next:  Emma Barton, Bram Stoker's 15-year-old parlourmaid in 1881
 


 

What does the 1871 census tell us about the family?

What does a census return tell you?

What good is it in doing family history?

The census return is one of the best family history records

I am going to dwell on the 1871 census return for one particular family for a while, to see what information can be coaxed out of it.

With all the resources available on the Internet, not to mention in libraries and in the research others may have done, there is no reason to be too hasty! Of course we all like to get on with the chase and find more ancestors, but it's also important to stop and think about them.

For one thing, this respects them as people and not just names on a page. (In a hundred years, which would you rather be?)

Also, by studying at least a little bit of the context in which our ancestors lived, we can often come up with clues about who, what, where, when, and that marvellous question: Why?

The address of the home in the 1871 census of England and Wales

You would think it would be easy to figure out the family's address if you have been lucky enough to locate them by name in the census returns. In England, and especially in London, I find it rather confusing!

The John VERNELL #2 family is a great example.

Lucky for us, the address is legible. They often aren't. Here it's 23 Fenwick Row, written in the space to the left of the name of the head of the household. But Fenwick Row where?

Up at the top of the census form there are eight different boxes to identify a location:

- Civil Parish (or Township)
- City or Municipal Borough
- Municipal Ward
- Parliamentary Borough
- Town
- Village or Hamlet, etc.
- Local Board (or Improvement Commissioners' District)
- Ecclesiastical District.

Some of these are mutually exclusive. For example, you don't expect a place to be both a town and a village at the same time. (But never rule these things out! Maybe we should have a contest for the first person to find a census return where are eight things are filled out with no repetition.)

In the John VERNELL #2 case, there is no mention in any of the eight boxes of "London", yet that is where we would think this family lived, especially those of us who don't live in the UK and aren't familiar with the twisty, turny, plate of spaghetti that London is and was.

What the census form shows for the VERNELLs is:

- Civil Parish (or Township): St Giles
- City or Municipal Borough: Camberwell
- Municipal Ward: No 6 Ward
- Parliamentary Borough: Lambeth
- Town: (blank)
- Village or Hamlet, etc.: (blank)
- Local Board (or Improvement Commissioners' District): East Dulwich
- Ecclesiastical District: St John [in] the East.

How can you find out where exactly the ancestors lived if you know the address?

That's the next question. I think it's time to talk about a few great resources: maps and reference books.