Descendants of Francis Owens
Generation 1
Francis may have been born in Kintbury, Chievely or Bucklebury in Berkshire
between 1776 and 1781. He married Elizabeth Fisher in Bucklebury on the
5th June 1804 in Bucklebury church after the banns were read on the 13th, 20th
and 27th of May. The ceremony was taken by John Hamns, Rector of nearby
Padworth. They were probably living in Cold Ash in the parish of Thatcham,
which is where they spent their married life.
They had seven children - William in 1805, Nanny who was born in 1808 and
probably died in 1810, Eliza in 1811, Hannah in 1812, Mary Ann in 1814, Harriet
in 1816 and, lastly, Jonathan in 1819. Francis's wife Elizabeth was the
daughter of Robert and Martha Fisher and was born in the 1770s in Bucklebury.
She died two years after Jonathan was born and was buried in St Marks church,
Thatcham by T Maxwell.
Francis lived on for another twenty years and was still working as an
agricultural labourer when the 1841 census was taken, when he was living with in
Cold Ash with his children Mary Ann and Jonathan. He died at Cold Ash of
bronchial inflammation and his death was registered by Elizabeth, the wife of
his eldest son, William.
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Generation 2
William was born, almost certainly, in the
village of
Cold Ash on the 11th May
1805 and baptised in the parish church at Thatcham on the 2nd June of that year.
He probably moved around the area looking for work when he was in his teens, or
possibly earlier, and met Elizabeth Vince, the daughter of Thomas Vince and
Pleasant Jarvis, in Speen, not far from Cold Ash. They married in Speen on
the 4th August 1828 and must have then moved to Cold Ash where their children
were born.
Their seven children were :- Ellen in 1829, George in 1831, Francis a year
later, Charles in 1834, Ann Mary in 1838, Eliza in 1841 and finally Henry in
1845. In 1841 William and Elizabeth and five of their children were living
in Cold Ash with William working as an agricultural labourer. William
continued to work as an agricultural labourer, or farm labourer, for the rest of
his life and stayed in Cold Ash with Elizabeth. He died on the 20th December 1861
of a skin disease called scrofula, (also known as King's Evil because touching
the clothes worn by the King was supposed to cure it) which he had had for 3
years.
After William's death Elizabeth would have been entitled to live in Cold Ash for
a year, when she was probably removed to Speen under the poor law legislation.
In 1871 she was living on her own in Shaw Road, Speen and 'kept by the parish',
so was living on out-relief provided by poor law rates, a forerunner of social
security. Presumably she became unable to look after herself and was
admitted to the Newbury Union workhouse where she died of bronchitis, apparently
aged 73, on the 3rd July 1874. She was buried four days later in the
parish church at Speen, now aged 77. As she was born on the 14th January
1808 her true age was 66, but life in the workhouse was harsh so this may have
made her look a lot older than her true age.
He was baptised on Boxing Day, 1819, by P Maxwell in Thatcham church. In
1841 he was living with his father, Francis, and sister, Mary, in Cold Ash, but
no occupation is shown for him. I believe that he married Elizabeth,
(possibly Paddick), in summer 1845 in Newbury registration district. He
and Elizabeth only had three children - James in 1847, Eliza in 1849 and John in
1853.
The family were living at Cold Ash Common in 1851 and Jonathan was,
unsurprisingly in a rural area, an agricultural labourer. They then moved
to Ashmore Green near Cold Ash which is where Jonathan was living when the 1871
census was taken, but his wife does not appear to have been at home on that
night, and does not seem to have been recorded anywhere else either.
Jonathan and Elizabeth stayed in Ashmore Green until after the 1891 census was
taken, on which occasion they were living in a house with four rooms. It
is not possible to say if it was the same cottage for all of that period.
Elizabeth died near the end of 1895, and Jonathan about eighteen months later.
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Generation 3
Ellen was christened on 30
th August 1829 and
had not married by the time she was 21 when she was still living with her
parents, although no occupation is given for her in the 1851 census. I
have yet to find a reference to her after the 1851 census.
George Owens was born in Thatcham, Berkshire about 1831,
christened on 27
th March 1831 in Thatcham, and left home to join the
15th Regiment of Foot in Newbury on the 19th October 1850. He was 5 foot
9.5 inches tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion but no marks
or scars, and was 20
years one month old when he entered the army. The first part
of his army service was with the depot battalion based at Sheerness in Kent
whose job would have been to maintain the barracks and obtain recruits for the second battalion, which was in Ceylon during the
Crimean War.
As his conduct was good, (meriting an extra penny per day in addition to his
wages of one shilling per day), he was assigned to a recruiting party consisting of one
sergeant and two privates and they were sent to Bath. Apparently his
health was not good, (disease of the heart, weakly frame and subject to
palpitations), since he was officially discharged on the 7th May 1857, although he was
probably exempt from military duties from the time of his marriage.
His marriage took place in Bath on 20th
November 1856 to Mary Ann Clark of Bristol, the daughter of James Clark a
shoemaker.
They were married in Bathwick, Bath and lived in Grove Street at first. George was
a labourer when he married Mary Ann but became a wheelchairman, (pulling Bath chairs), by
the time his second son John was born in 1871 when the family was living at 10
Villa Place, Bathwick. By 1881 they were living at 4 Kirkham Buildings,
Bathwick but moved to 32 Powlett Road, Bathwick before 1891, which is about 2
years before George died.
He continued to work pulling Bath Chairs for the
rest of his life which suggests that the army doctors may not have been right
about his health. His death, on the 3rd February 1893, was due to Morbus Cordis and Anasarca Gangrene
- heart disease and abnormally large quantities of fluid in the body cavities.
Mary Ann and George had 9 children – Mary Ann Jane, (born
1859, died 1865); George, (born abt 1861); William Frederick in 1862; Elizabeth
in 1863; John, (2nd March 1865); Thomas, (born abt 1867); Mary Ann, (born abt 1869); Emily, (born abt 1871); and Francis who was
born about 1873.
He was christened on 23
rd December 1832 and was
living with his parents at the age of 9 in 1841 but does not appear in the 1851
census. On 26th November 1855 he married Elizabeth May in the parish
church of Thatcham after reading of the banns and the witnesses were Jacob May
and Ellen Willis. The bride's father was Joseph May, a labourer, and both
families were, apparently living in Thatcham, or possibly one of the surrounding
villages such as Cold Ash. Jacob was almost certainly one of Elizabeth's
brothers.
Charles was christened on 14
th September 1834 and had also left home
by 1851. He may have married Sarah Bosley in 1862
and continued to live in the area until 1874, when I think that he died in Cold
Ash. Charles and Sarah probably had three children - Mary, James and
Henry.
Henry was born on 13th September 1845 in Cold Ash and had moved to Bath by 1869
when he married Edith Sartain, who had been born in 1835. In 1871 they
were living at 2 Summerleaze Place,
Bath and henry was working as a Wheelchairman, possibly with his brother
George. The house may have been a bit cramped as there was another household in
the same house. They moved to 10 Sydney Wharf, Bathwick, Bath, (near
the canal and railway line which goes through Sydney Gardens - a fairly large
park and formerly a pleasure garden), before 1881 and had three lodgers, all single men. He continued to
live at Sydney Wharf, still working as a wheelchairman, until his death on 1st
February 1893 of Hepatic Cirrhosis and General Odema. His brother George
died two days later.
Henry and Edith had no children and she died near the
beginning of 1904 in Bath.
^topGeneration 4
George followed his father’s occupation pulling Bath
Chairs according to the 1881 census. By 1891 he had moved to Barnes in
Surrey and was living at 13 West Field Cottages and working as a Police
Constable. He was married by this time to Mary Jane Grimes and they had 6 children –
May E, (born 1882), Emily Louisa, (born 1884), Edith Jessie, (born 1886), Ethel D, (born
1888), their first son who was called George who was born in 1889 and, finally,
Margaret G in 1893. They then moved to Mortlake in Surrey to live at 57
Queens Road and George continued to work in the Metropolitan Police.
He was living at 4 Kirkham
Buildings, Bathwick, Bath with his family in 1871 but then left home to work as
a cellarman, (in a pub?), in Frome, a few miles south of Bath, where he was in
lodgings at 8 Bridge Street. By 1885 he had returned to Bath as he married
Sarah Lintern who was born in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire in the spring of that
year. They had five children - William George in 1886, Frederick in 1889,
Albert Henry in 1890, Leonard in 1891 and Matilda Elizabeth in 1894. It is
probable that his return to Bath was to join his father and uncle in the same
firm of wheelchair men, pulling Bath chairs. William and his family were
still living at 2 Powlett Road, Bathwick and he continued to pull Bath chairs.
He died in the summer of 1909 at the early age of 48. I believe that his
wife, Sarah, lived on to the age of 76 when she died in 1939.
I believe she left Bath after the 1871 census when
she became old enough to go out to work as she appears to have moved to
Cheltenham to work as a general servant in the household of a 74 year old
widower, Thomas Topp, and his sister Eliza, both originally from Manchester.
She met, and married, a printer's compositor called George Smith in the winter
of 1888 in Cheltenham. Shortly after that they moved to Bury Bar Lane,
Newent in Gloucestershire, about 15 miles from Cheltenham and they stayed there
until the 1901 census was taken, having moved again, but only a short distance,
to Station Terrace. They had at least five children between 1890 and 1900
- Hannah, Mary, Emily, Harry and Charles.
John married
Sarah Jane Shurmer, the daughter of
John
Shurmer and
Elizabeth Berry, on 15
th November 1886. Sarah Jane
was born in South Cerney or Cerney Wick in Gloucestershire near the border with
Wiltshire, but she had moved to 5 Gosditch, Latton, Wiltshire by 1881 to live
with her cousin John Berry and his two sisters Maria and Mary A. All three
of the women were laundresses and John was an agricultural labourer. Alice
Mantell, a 13 year old niece of the Berry’s, also lived with them in 1881 and
probably went to the school next door to the church, about 5 minutes walk from
where they lived.
The house does not exist now as there are several large
detached modern houses where the Berry’s once lived
John started his working life as a porter but had become a
wheelchairman by the time of his marriage when he lived at Sidney Wharf, next to
the Bristol to London railway line built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He and his
wife had moved, by 1891, to 8 Edward Street, Bathwick which they ran as a
boarding house. As well as the immediate family the census lists two
servants at that address, Mary J Weston, age 26, and John’s sister Mary Owens,
age 22, which may mean that Mary worked for John at that address.
Within
the next 10 years they moved again, this time to 18 Forester Road, Bathwick, and
John was now working as a self-employed wheelchairman. Some time after
this he either bought some land at Sidney Wharf and started a nursery, or he may
have purchased a going concern which was passed down through the family until at
least the 1960s. The site was then sold for a housing development.
John and Sarah had six children, John, (born late 1887),
Frank, (born Autumn 1889), Daisy Elizabeth, (born Summer 1891), Thomas, (born
early 1896), Jessie Marian, (born Autumn 1889), and Harold in early 1904.
John died on the 19th September 1935 at Forbes Fraser Hospital in Bath of
chronic nephritis, arteriosclerosis and myocardial degeneration.
Thomas worked as a porter in 1881 and was living with his
parents at 4 Kirkham Buildings. He then moved to the London area, marrying
Margaret Lydia Streeter in the first half of 1890 in Kingston, Surrey. In
1891 they lived at 17 Acre Street, East Battersea, London and Thomas's job was
assurance agent. Ten years later he had managed to open his own shop,
running a fruiterer and greengrocer, employing staff. They had five
children - George Thomas, (sometimes called Thomas George), Herbert Harold and Ivy Gladys
before the 1901 census, and two children after this date. Herbert joined
the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War and was promoted to
Lance Bombardier. He was serving with the 60th Siege Battery supporting
Canadian forces when they captured the village of Ramillies village, just
north-east of Cambrai, on the 8th and 9th of October 1918 and died four days
later. He is buried in Ramillies cemetery and was awarded the British and
Victory medals.
She was living with her parents in 1881 and still at
school, but by 1891 she was living in the household of her brother John at 8
Edward Street, Bathwick, Bath and working as a general servant, presumably for
her brother as he was running a boarding house. In the winter of 1897 she
married George Gillard and they moved to 3 Fieldings Road, Twerton, Bath where
they lived in four rooms with their daughter Alice and a boarder called Joseph
Pope. George's occupation was shown as general labourer.
Emily was born just before the census was taken in 1871
but is not listed as part of the family. In 1881 she was at school and
living with her parents at Kirkham Buildings, however she had left home by 1891
and was working as a general servant and lodging at 54 Pulteney Street,
Bathwick, Bath. Also living at same address were Harriet Wood, head of the
household, aged 70, Lodging House Keeper; Elizabeth A Pullen, servant, age 26, a
lady's maid; Sarah Harris, a general servant, age 18; Ellen Reade, lodger, age
65, living on own means. All were single. Harriet Wood & Elizabeth Pullen
were born in Bath, but Sarah Harris was born at Dunkerton which is a small
village a few miles south of Bath, and Ellen Reade born in Ireland.
In 1894 she married Charles Henry Ponfield and they had four children - Charles,
William, Alfred and Emily - between 1896 and 1899. Charles Henry died in
1937 and Emily eleven years later. Charles was a painter's labourer,
possibly working with, or for, his father who was probably another Charles.
The youngest son, Francis, was born early in 1873 and was still living at
home in 1881 and may be the gunner in the Royal Artillery stationed at Egg
Buckland in Devon who was listed as Francis Owen.
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Generation 5
John was born late in 1887 in Bath and he lived with his parents at least until
he was 13 when the 1901 census was taken. In summer 1911 he married Annie Eliza
Collins Hayes and after the birth of their son they moved to Bristol where the
first of their two daughters was born.
Frank married
Rosina Vaughan in 1910 and they had three
daughters. The eldest, Edna May, married my father,
Edwin George Pyner in September 1939. Daisy
Elizabeth, (born 4
th December 1911), did not marry, suffered from poor eyesight and worked as a waitress at
one of the Ministry of Defence sites in Bath for many years. She died on
the 17
th October 1979 at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath of
bronchopneumonia and Parkinsonism after living for some years in a retirement
home called Mulberry House in the Weston district of Bath. The youngest
daughter was Phyllis and she was born in December 1913, married James McKeown
from Glasgow and died in 2006.
Frank became a carpenter in the early years of the twentieth century and joined
117 Regiment Royal Engineers, (a territorial regiment?), at some time, possibly
in 1914. He served in France and was awarded the Victory, British and
1914-15 Star medals, as well as one other which may be a good conduct medal.
Daisy Elizabeth married Thomas Roberts in Portsmouth in 1927 and they had two children.
Thomas married Phyllis Morle on 1st September 1934 in St John Baptist
church, Bathwick, Bath. Thomas's brothers Frank and Harold were witnesses.
Thomas was living at 18 Forester , Bathwick and working at the family nursery by
Sydney Gardens, a short distance from Forester Avenue. His wife, Phyllis
was four years his junior, a cook and the daughter of a farmer called Thomas
Morle. She lived at 41 St John's Road, Bathwick which became their family
home. Phyllis probably died in 1953. From the
1950s until his death in 1963 he lived at 41 St John’s Road, Bathwick, Bath and
for most of that time Eileen Morle, possibly a sister-in-law, also lived in the house. The road
was built alongside the River Avon and as the river quite often rose by 20 feet
or more flooding was a regular occurrence in winter until flood defences were
built in Bath which solved the problem.
Jessie married Arthur Edmund Morris in 1925 and they had two children,
a boy and a girl.
Harold married Muriel Primrose Fear in 1934 and they also had a boy and a girl.
He died in 1970 and Muriel sixteen years later.
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