Introduction

Other articles within the website which relate to particular aspects of this story are noted within square brackets in the text. Links to these articles can be found in the table towards the bottom of column 2

The history of the Craxford family can be traced back with some certainty to about the year 1620 in the village of Gretton, Northamptonshire. The origin of the name though is unclear and is probably a corruption of the much older name Croxford in local parish and legal documents of the time through a poorly written first letter "o". Historically, the Craxfords have been of rural stock. Over the generations there has been repeated intermingling with a number of other local families through marriage and otherwise. This will be noticeable in the relationships described in Cottingham later but was also well to the fore in Gretton. Village people tended to remain local and the reservoir of potential partners was restricted by the distance which could be comfortably walked in a day. This meant that marriages tended to be to close neighbours or to a member of another family that was already linked through a prior marriage. Consanguineous marriages were not uncommon including those between first cousins. Families tended to have large numbers of children and infant mortality was high. A casual observer might also conclude that it was almost expected that a young female had at least one baby before she entered marriage given the number of illegitimate births that were recorded.

This article and the next will trace the moves by the brothers Robert and John Craxford who relocated their families to places at a distance beyond Gretton and to the neighbouring village of Cottingham respectively around the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, consideration must be given to the circumstances of their parents and the experience of their family upbringing. Robert was the seventh and John was the youngest of the ten children born to John Craxford and Mary Woodcock. Both their parents were born in Gretton: John about 1733 and Mary about 1734, They were married at the Church of St James the Great in the village on October 29th 1756. Mary's obstetric history was both quite prolific and sadly tragic. Her first born daughter did live to the age of 32, was baptised on October 2nd 1757, did not marry and was buried on January 28th 1790. Then followed four boys and a girl who all died in infancy or early childhood. Robert, the first of these, was baptised on February 7th 1760 and died within four weeks. Next, John was baptised on July 19th 1763 and died just before his fourth birthday. Then came a twin pregnancy: Robert and William, both baptised on March 24th 1765 and both died three weeks later. The girl was baptised Mary on May 10th 1761 and buried on May 1st 1762.

There was perhaps some relief and joy for the family when another son was born and baptised Robert on May 3rd 1767. He survived into adulthood and he and his descendants will be examined below. Another child they named Mary on November 19th 1769 followed her namesake on January 5th 1770. A fourth and final daughter was born and baptised Lucy on April 19th 1771. She survived to marry agricultural laboourer Walter Jones, also from Gretton on February 7th 1796. They remained in Gretton where Walter died on February 5th 1845. Lucy died at the beginning of 1856 in her 85th year. No record of any children has been found. Last born was John, the subject of a separate article [Article A.]..

Mary was not destined to survive into old age. She died in July 1778 when her youngest son was barely four years old. She was buried in the church graveyard on July 19th 1778. John lived on into the new cenury and was buried with his wife on March 23rd 1804.

The family of Robert Craxford and Sarah Spriggs

John and Mary's fifth son was baptised Robert, the third to bear that name, on May 3rd 1767. He married local girl Sarah Spriggs on October 25th 1792 after the publication of banns the three previous Sundays. They were to have seven children: four sons and three daughters. First born Edith was baptised on April 1st 1793 but died just before her thirteenth birthday. She was buried on February 19th 1806. Middle daughter Lucy was baptised on May 11th 1806 but was then lost to the records. Final daughter was baptised on April 3rd 1808 but died aged 11 years and was buried on June 24th 1819. Robert lived into middle age before dying on April 1st 1816. He was buried two days later. Sarah survived him by almost six years and was buried on February 5th 1822.

John (1795 - 1853)

Robert and Sarah's eldest son John was baptised on June 21st 1795. He was to become an agricultural labourer. He married Jane Ashby who was born in 1791 in Horninghold, a village 8 miles to the west of Gretton over the border in Leicestershire. The wedding took place in St Michael's Church, Cranoe, a small village 5 miles on from Horninghold, on October 21st 1816. John took his new bride back to Gretton and it was not long before she could announce that she was expecting a baby. A daughter, Sarah was born in August 1817 but sadly the little girl died and was buried three months later on November 26th 1817. They were to have three sons (Robert, 1818 - 1885; John 1821 - 1890 and David (1823 - 1878). Jane became increasingly infirm as she approached the age of 60 years. She died on October 18th 1851 of what was called "Decay of nature" on her death certificate. John died about eighteen months later of chronic bronchitis on March 30th 1853. They were both buried in St James the Great churchyard. The story of their family is told in greater detail in [Article B.].

Robert

Son Robert married Catherine Waterfield on November 1st 1841. She was one of the eight children of Matthew Waterfield and Elizabeth Stanger. Catherine's older sister, Mary, married William Ingram in 1828. One of their sons, Alfred, married Elizabeth, the daughter of William Craxford and Elizabeth Hull in 1858 (see below). Another of Catherine's sisters, Susannah, married Edward Spence in 1858. Amongst their offspring, son William married Julia, another of William Craxford and Elizabeth Hull's daughters in 1863

Robert and Catherine had eight daughters and a son. Of note, their second daughter Caroline was married twice: first to Jesse Claypole in February 1865 and then to Enos Jackson in May 1873 (See [Article C.]). Their third daughter Mary Ann married Thomas Coles in December 1868. They had three sons and three daughters. Eldest son Edward Coles (1871 - 1938) married Susannah Spence, the daughter of William Spence and Julia Craxford, and hence her second cousin. William Spence was the son of Edward Spence and Susannah Waterfield who in turn was the sister of Catherine who married Robert Craxford. Thomas and Mary Ann's eldest daughter Eliza Ellen Coles married Samuel William Coles and by different lines of descent they were known to be third cousins, third cousins once removed and seventh cousins. Samuel was the son of second cousins once removed John Thomas and Mary Ann Coles.

Robert died of pulmonary tuberculosis on November 15th 1885. Catherine died in Gretton in 1892.

John

John and Jane's second son John was baptised on August 5th 1821. He started his working life as an agricultural labourer employed by farmer William Yeomans in Rothwell near Kettering. He married Susannah Redshaw, a girl from Rockingham, at St Margaret's Church, Leicester on June 11th 1849 but they made their home in Gretton. They had two sons (Joseph, 1851 - 1914 and David 1854 - 1904) and a daughter (Jane 1856 - 1865). All three children were baptised together in a service at St James the Great in Gretton on April 3rd 1860. Son John worked as an agricultural labourer. He appears to have suffered from mitral valve disease of the heart. He contracted pneumonia and after four days died on February 2nd 1914. Son David is of note as he was the husband of Mary Ann Pollard, whose tragic story with her sister Matilda Pollard is told in [Article D.]. Daughter Jane was born on October 2nd 1856. She contracted scarlet fever in the summer of 1865 which also affected her kidneys. She died of this disease and dropsy on September 12th 1865.

John continued labouring in the fields well into his sixties. In the late 1880s, his health failed and he was obliged to move into the Union Workhouse in Uppingham. His condition deteriorated during the winter and just before Christmas he died of chronic bronchitis and exhaustion. He was buried in Gretton on December 26th 1890. Susannah's health progressively deteriorated over the next few years. On February 11th 1895 she in turn was admitted to the Union Workhouse in Uppingham. She died in the Workhouse on March 30th 1898 and was buried in Gretton three days later.

David

David, the last of the three sons of John and Jane, was baptised in Gretton on November 30th 1823. He spent time in London and in the Army. He married Irish born Margaret Sullivan at All Souls Church in Marylebone, London on March 22nd 1852. They had three sons: two they named David in 1853 and 1858 who died in infancy. The first David was born with hydrocephalus and died aged 18 months on December 13th 1855. The second David died at twenty months on March 19th 1860 of "Dentition". Dentition is a term synonymous with teething. It was wrongly considered a cause of death particularly during the middle of the nineteenth century. It became so widespread a diagnosis that in 1842 it accounted for 4.8% of all infants dying in London (5). The underlying cause of death could have been any of the common infantile ailments, including infection, which occurred at the same time that the child was teething. Middle son Robert was born in 1856 and became a musician and porter. He collapsed and died on October 2th 1882 aged 26 years. A inquest convened by the Deputy Coroner for Westminster, Samuel F Langham, on October 17th 1882 declared that the cause of his death was "natural syncope from a clot of blood in the heart". A daughter, Margaret Jane, was born in 1860 and did live to be married to Charles Alfred Wilkes at St John the Evangelist Church in Charlotte Street London. However she was dead within five years from bronchopneumonia and cardiac failure.

David led a particularly troubled life which is described in detail in the section The Failed Infantryman: David (1823 - 1878) of [Article B.].

William (1798 - 1876)

William was the second son of Robert Craxford and Sarah Spriggs. He was baptised in Gretton on February 4th 1798 and spent his working life as a general labourer. He was married twice.

Marriage 1: Sarah Smith

William's first wife, Sarah, was the daughter of William and Hannah Smith, and was baptised in Gretton of April 27th 1807. She had an older brother named Thomas whose own marriage to Mary, born in Barrowden, Rutland in 1801 led to some further family entanglements. Thomas and Mary had a son, William (born 1839) and a daugther, Sarah Ann (1841 - 1874). Son William married Jane Thorpe from Harringworth in 1852. Their daughter Sarah Ann was the first wife of Henry Boon from Gretton, married in November 1876. Their one son was named John Henry Tee Boon. Sarah Ann died in 1881 and then Henry married again to Martha Wymant. Henry's sister, Mary Ann Boon married Charles Wymant in 1877. Charles was the son of William Wymant and Edith Craxford (one of the daughters of William Craxford and Sarah Smith). Charles and Mary Ann Wymant had two daughters who married brothers. Edith Wymant (born 1880) married Charles William Woolley whilst Elizabeth Wymant (1881 - 1918) married Matthew Woolley. Thomas and Mary's daughter married John Stretton in December 1870. After delivering a daughter she died in 1874. John Stretton married again in 1876 to Ruth, the daughter of William Craxford and Elizabeth Hull.

Henry Boon's father Thomas had a brother John (1825 - 1877). John married Rachel Darker from Rockingham in St Leonards Church there on August 9th 1853. Rachel, the daughter of John Darker and Sarah Langley, had six known siblings. A Darker lad from Rockingham has for a long time been assumed to have had an affair with Matilda Tansley, before she married Lewis Binley. This led to the birth of a little girl in 1858 that Matilda named Ann Elizabeth Darker Tansley and had registered John Thomas Darker's name on the birth certificate as the father. Rachel did though have an older married brother named Amos. Is it a coincidence that Amos had spent some time in the late 1850s and up to the date of the 1861 census on Rockingham Road in Cottingham, not far from where Matilda lived on Wood Lane. Could he have been instrumental in facilitating the meeting of John Thomas and Matilda? Amos also had two daughters that he had called Ann and Elizabeth. ([Article E.]). John Thomas reappeared in Gretton and at the date of the 1871 census was lodging with agricultural labourer Frederick Coles, his wife Sarah Ann Fryer and daughter Hephzibah. Frederick's great grandparents were John Coles and Jane Wymant. Jane was the aunt of Thomas Wymant who married Frances Clipson.

William and Sarah had a son and three daughters. Thomas, born in 1851, became a fellmonger (a dealers in hides and sheepskins). He died of "apoplexy" (presumably following a stroke or cerebral haemorrhage). Oldest daughter Lucy was born in 1826 and married William Liquorish from Rockingham. Their story can be found in [Article F.]. Second daughter, Edith born in 1828, married William Wymant, the son of Thomas Wymant and Frances Clipson. Of particular interest to Gretton history are the antics of Fanny Clipson (1845 - 1909) who married Joseph Wymant one of the grandsons of Thomas Wymant and Frances Clipson (Frances and Fanny were also first cousins twice removed). Fanny had nine known children. Joseph died in 1874 midway through Fanny's fourth pregnancy. Fanny did not remarry. The Boon and Wymant connection is explored in greater depth in [Article G.]. William and Sarah's third daughter was conceived in 1830 and was born in February 1831. The little girl was baptised Mary Sarah on February 14th 1831. Sarah died very soon after the delivery possibly the result of a postnatal infection. She was buried on February 18th 1831.

Marriage 2: Elizabeth Hull

William did not stay single for long and less than two months later he had married Elizabeth Hull from Empingham on April 4th 1831. Within a year Elizabeth had presented him with a daughter who was baptised Julia on April 22nd 1832. The little girl survived three and a half years, dying on October 6th 1835 and being buried two days later. Three sons (William, 1834; John, 1838 and Robert, 1841) and three more daughters (Elizabeth, 1835 and twins, Julia and Ruth, 1844) followed. Son William died just before his fourteenth birthday on February 15th 1848. The diagnosis was "inflammation of the bowels", probably caused by one of the recurrent enteric infectious diseases such as cholera or typhoid. William and Elizabeth lived out their days in Gretton. By 1871 William was registered as a pauper and in receipt of parochial relief. He died and was buried on April 8th 1876. Elizabeth died on August 31st 1880. Her death was certified as 'Senectus' (an archaic term for old age). Her death was reported by Sarah, the wife of her son Robert.

Elizabeth

Daughter Elizabeth was baptised on June 25th 1837. On occasions throughout her life she was called Betsy. She married Alfred, the son of William Ingram and Mary Waterfield, on December 2nd 1858. Alfred was about three years younger than Elizabeth. As noted above, his mother's sister Catherine had married Robert Craxford, Elizabeth's first cousin 16 years before. Alfred and Elizabeth were to have nine children: five sons (William, 1859 - 1940; John, 1861 - ; George, 1865 - 1939; Alfred, 1872 - 1956 and Job, 1875) and four daughters (Charlotte, 1863 - 1940; Mary Elizabeth, 1868 - ; Eliza, 1874 - 1954 and Ann 1878 - ). Alfred's health started to deteriorate at the start of the 1870s. He was just 38 years old when he died on November 10th 1877 from pulmonary tuberculosis. Elizabeth was with him when he died and informed of his death. She lived past the turn of the century and died of bronchitis on December 29th 1904. Her death was recorded by her son Alfred. Alfred had married Emma Jane Woolley in Gretton in 1899. Emma was the daughter of Matthew Lemon Woolley and Caroline Ingram and therefore Alfred and Emma were first cousins.

John, Robert

Second son John was baptised on September 16th 1838. His younger brother Robert followed three years later and was born on August 3rd 1841. John married Maria Smith on December 19th 1861 and they had eleven children. By the mid 1860s the family had moved to Warwickshire. Robert married Sarah Jaques from Corby in 1875 and had two sons. They followed John out to Warwickshire around the turn of the century. Their stories will be told in a future article.

Julia

William and Elizabeth named their third daughter born in 1844 Julia. In her teens she was sent into domestic service as a maid with the family of farmer and parchment maker Thomas Myers. (The story of the Myers family in Gretton is told in the section A brief history of Thomas Myers in [Article H.]). As noted above, she married William Spence, the son of Edward Spence and Susannah Waterfield on December 10th 1863. Their first home was next door to his parents. Over a 20 year period they were to have twelve children: six sons and six daughters. First daughter Charlotte was born on February 2nd 1866. The child was subject to convulsions from birth and died during one of these fits on April 19th 1871. A son, Jeffrey, was born in 1872 but disappears from the records after 1891. They both lived long lives in Gretton. By 1911 they still had five of their unmarried offspring (George Edward, 1864; Sarah, 1878; John, 1885; Ruth, 1882 and Mary Ann, 1889) living with them. Julia died on March 30th 1928 aged 84 years. William was 91 years old when he died on April 11th 1929.

First born George Edward was baptised on October 9th 1864. He followed the course of many of the young men in the village starting his working life on the land. By the turn of the century he moved over to one of the ironstone quarries. Towards the end of his life he became a plate layer for the railway and joined the National Union of Railwaymen as member 740846 (8). He did not marry and died in December 1918. Second son William born in 1868 became a tailor's presser at the clothing factory. He married Sarah Bedford in Cogenhoe, a village on the outskirts of Northampton about 28 miles south of Gretton, in 1898. They had one daughter and four sons (including twins in 1903). William also died in December 1918. Third son John Thomas was born on September 12th 1869. He followed his brother George into ironstone labouring. He married Florence Annie King from Woolley near Huntington in Cambridgeshire, in 1900. They were to have five sons and a daughter. John Thomas died on October 1st 1944; Florence on May 26th 1967. Both were buried in the Baptist Church in Gretton. Fifth son Matthew was born on February 23rd 1876 and baptised 10 years later in April 1886 in a combined service with his younger siblings Sarah Ann, Susannah, Ruth and John. In 1892 he moved to Quorn in Leicestershire to take up the post of groom in the stables of Lord Lonsdale (10). He met and married Ada Bramley there and the couple were married at St Bartholomew's Church in Quorn towards the end of 1900. They had two sons and two daughters.

Of the daughters of William Spence and Julia Craxford, third born Sarah Ann, who was born on June 2nd 1878, married Charles Wymant at the Register Office in Uppingham on August 12th 1916. Charles was one of the children of Fanny Clipson Wymant who was born after her husband Joseph had died in 1874. Before the first World War Charles had worked as an ironstone labourer. He enlisted for Army service on March 2nd 1915 with the Northamptonshire Regiment as Private 17514 and saw action on the Western front. He lost the tip of the little finger of his left hand in an accident when he slipped on ice while on coal fatigues at the Northampton depot. For this he received an Army pension. After the war the couple settled in Kirby Road in Gretton. Charles also worked for the railway as a platelayer charge hand. They had no children. Sarah Ann died in the village in the early months of 1944. Charles reached the age of 80 years dying towards the end of 1965.

As noted above, fourth daughter Susannah, born on February 24th 1880, married her second cousin Edward, the son of Thomas Coles and Mary Ann Craxford, on January 22nd 1901. Edward was another of the young men working in the ironstone quarry. The couple had two sons (Thomas, 1903 and Jesse, 1911) and a daughter (Ada, 1912). Edward died on April 24th 1938. At the outbreak of the second World War, Susannah was living in the High Street with Jesse and Ada. She died in the spring of 1959.

Ruth

William and Elizabeth's fourth daughter was Julia's twin, Ruth. The two babies were baptised together on August 4th 1844. She married John Stretton on May 15th 1876. John was 20 years older than her having been born in 1825. He was also a widower, his first wife Sarah Ann Smith who he married on December 27th 1870, had died in 1874, two years after their only daughter named Sarah Ann was born. Sadly their marriage was not destined to last and John died in February 1880. After his death for a time she was lived with her stepdaughter and an elderly nurse, Elizabeth, who was widow of Richard Wymant (and the mother of Joseph Wymant who married Elizabeth Liquorish). Ruth never remarried. In 1884 at the age of forty years she became pregnant and a son she named Richard was born early the next year. At the turn of the century she took a job as a seamstress at the clothing factory. By 1911 Ruth and her son were living in Craxford Lane, Gretton. She died in the spring of 1926 aged 81 years.

Robert (1800 - 1868)

The third son of Robert Craxford and Sarah Spriggs was baptised in Gretton on July 20th 1880. He became a fellmonger and moved over the border to Barrowden, Rutland where he married Harriett Cotterill on December 14th 1823. They had two sons (John, 1831 - 1871 and William born 1834 and died of smallpox in 1871) and five daughters (Sarah, 1824; Mary, 1826; Lucy, 1828; Rachel Kate, 1837 and Elizabeth (1843). Daughter Sarah married Charles Matkin in 1851 and set up home and ran a well known business in Oakham for many years. Daughter Elizabeth married William Goodman who was associated with the manufacture of sanitaryware in Swadlincote. (For more of their stories see [Article I]). Son William married Harriet Wild in Derby. He joined the Royal Marines and was involved in action of the west coast of Canada. Their son Charles William was born in Derby but finally settled in Harrogate, Yorkshire, where he became hairdresser and an avid amateur photographer. (See [Article J.].

Thomas (1803 - 1834)

The final son of Robert Craxford and Sarah Spriggs married Sarah Fielding in 1824. Although both were destined to die young their six offspring had twenty children between them. Their family history will continue in the next section.

The family of Thomas Craxford and Sarah Fielding

Last born Thomas was baptised at St James the Great Church on January 17th 1803. On October 28th 1824 he married Sarah the 22 year old daughter of Joseph Fielding and Mary Bussard. They were to have three sons (William, 1827; Joseph, 1829 and Thomas, 1835) and three daughters (Mary Ann, 1825; Sally, 1831 and Jane, 1833). The sad history of this shortlived couple and their eldest daughter, Mary Ann, is recounted in the section The Tragedy of Thomas in [Article H.].

The family of William Craxford and Mary Ann Hunt

William (1827 - 1885)

The oldest of the sons of Thomas and Sarah was baptised in Gretton on April 27th 1827. After the death of both his parents, he found lodgings at the beginning of the 1840s with Joseph and Mary Fielding, his maternal grandparents. Also in residence was his uncle William Fielding with his wife Eleanor and their two young children Joseph (aged 4 years) and Thomas (aged 12 months). Sometime during that decade, William foresook Northamptonshire and moved south to London where he became a millwright. His first lodgings were in York Street where he met Mary Ann, the daughter of labourer James Hunt. They were married at St Margaret's Church, Westminster on Christmas Day 1848. From there they made their home in Mitre Square, Aldgate. Mary Ann presented William with two sons (William James, 1849 and Alfred, 1859) and five daughters (Emma Jane, 1851; Mary Ann, 1853; Maria, 1863; Alice Evangeline, 1866 and Lizzie Beatrice, 1868). Sadly Mary Ann contracted measles and suffered convulsions for 10 days before she died on May 8th 1855; Alfred died of meningitis on February 1st 1860 and Maria died of pneumonia and convulsions on Christmas Eve 1863. All their deaths were reported to have occurred in Mitre Square.

In 1860, William placed a formal application to the Council to be admitted to the Freedom of the City of London (15). By the early 1880s, William and Mary Ann moved into a property in Bartholomew Close. During the spring of 1885 he suffered a stroke and being rendered paralysed he was admitted to the wards of the City Infirmary in East London where he died on May 30th 1885. He was buried in the City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery, Southern Grove, Tower Hamlets on June 7th 1885. Mary Ann lived for a further eight years. She died at the beginning of 1893 and was buried in the same Cemetery on Monday January 9th 1893.

William James

William and Mary Ann's first son was born in London in September 1849. His life with his wife Rose Margaret Smith is discussed later in the article.

Emma Jane

Daughter Emma was born on June 28th and baptised at the Church of St Botolph Without Aldgate on July 27th 1851. She married William Lowry Cowling at St Mary's Church, Lambeth on March 20th 1875. Their accommodation address was given as Burdett Street, about a quarter of a mile away from the church. They made their home in Chatham Street in the Walworth District. William was an engine turner in a steel works. They were to have three daughters, although two died young. Alice Emily Rosetta was born in 1877 but died on August 25th 1881 from acute meningitis. She had been suffering from this condition for ten days. Mabel Beatrice was baptised at St John the Evangelist Church in Lambeth on April 3rd 1881. Middle daughter Florence Maud Mary was born on March 15th and baptised on July 13th 1879 at St James Garlickhithe Church in College Street on the north bank of the River Thames. She did live to adulthood, marry and have a family of five children. She had suffered for many years with slowly developing pulmonary tuberculosis and died exhausted on November 4th 1898.

Emma Jane was just 38 years old when she died on August 11th 1889. Her symptoms had been terminally acute for two months. It is of note that the disease was widespread in the Victorian community and indeed as it affected so many young women, their sallow face and thin appearance was often viewed as "highly desirable and linked to poetic and aesthetic qualities". (16). Husband William died in the winter months of 1898.

Alice Evangeline

William and Mary Ann's fourth daughter was born on October 3rd 1866 and baptised on May 26th 1867 at St James Clerkenwell whilst the familly were residing in St James Buildings. She married hat salesman Alfred Edward Giles at the Church of St Botolph Without Aldgate on February 3rd 1889. They made a home in Malmesbury Road, Bow, where two sons (Alfred Edward Robert, 1890 and Stanley Lawrence, 1896) and four daughters (Alice Lydia, 1892; Ethel Edith, 1893; Winifred Emily, 1894 and Gladys Beatrice, 1889) were born. Ethel, Winifred and Stanley all died within the first year of life. Son Alfred Edward Robert was born on September 4th and baptised on October 5th 1890 at St Stephen's Church, Bow. Older daughter Alice Lydia was born on January 7th 1892 and baptised two days later also at St Stephen's Church. At the census of 1901, Alice had moved with her three still living children 7 miles north west to Hatley Road, Islington. Husband Alfred was away visiting the family of wine cellarman 11 miles west in Sterndale Road, Battersea. Younger daughter Gladys Beatrice was born in December 1899 but only lived long enough to see in the new century. She died on November 25th 1901. An inquest into her death was held on November 28th 1901 under Coroner for London George Danford Thomas which was certified to be due to acute pneumonia and syncope.

Alice was to become pregnant twice more. On October 16th 1903 she gave birth to another daughter she named Gladys and on August 3rd 1905 she had another son called Claud Evan. Both were registered in the name of Giles and mother's maiden name Craxford, both were attributed to Alfred Edward as their father. Each were born in the City of London Lying In Hospital in Old Street. Her address for the former was given as 49 Goodings Road; for the latter The Cottage, Citizen Road, Holloway. It is apparent that sometime during this decade she formed a relationship and went to live with Royal Mail coachman, Evan Williams. In 1911 they were living as a 12-year married couple with the two youngest children in Baldwin Street, Clerkenwell. Alice's son Alfred Edward became a wire worker at a bedstead factory and in 1911 he was boarding in Everilda Street, Islington. Daughter Alice Lydia went into domestic service with the family of James Nicol, a physics lecturer at London Polytenchic. Early the following year Alice and Evan moved to Brewery Road, Islington. The couple were actually married on February 13th 1912 at Islington Register Office, Alice declaring herself a widow. Alice's oldest son Alfred Edward Richard and daughter Alice Lydia acted as witnesses. She confirmed that her father, now deceased, was Wiliam Craxford.

It appears that Alfred also started a new relationship at the beginning of the century. In 1911 he was living as man and wife with 36 year old Zillah Jane, maiden name Hoare and their three daughters at Ballater Road, Lambeth. The first, named Ethel Zillah was born on November 8th 1905; Mabel Doris in early 1908 and Dorothy Winifred in the spring of 1910. All births were registered in Lambeth as Giles with their mother's maiden name as Hoare. On Ethel's registration Alfred Edward was declared to be her father and Zillah signed the decaration Z.J. Giles. Alfred's given occupation was still as a hatter. Although he declared they had been married for 7 years, no formal marriage is listed either before or after that date. Alfred lived on until 1949, Zillah until 1953. Was Alice's 1912 marriage bigamous? Divorce was very hard to come by and expensive in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Couples whose marriage broke down often simply separated. Without a divorce, Alice's 1912 marriage to Evan would have been void. It would also have been bigamous, unless she had been separated from Alfred for at least seven years and had no reason to believe that he was alive during that time. Two babies were born within three months of each other in 1905 to two different women apparently fathered by Alfred Edward Giles. By definition, Alice's new relationship was therefore bigamous but Alfred's was not. [Further Reading: 1, 2, 3.].

Alice's marriage to Evan Williams was shortlived. He complained of chest pain and shortness of breath when at work on June 18th 1912 and collapsed and died. An inquest was held following a post mortem examination which showed that he had suffered a rupture of an aortic aneurysm (18). He was buried in Islington Cemetery on June 24th 1912. At the beginning of the following year, Alice's son Alfred was taken ill with a chest infection which progressed to pneumonia. He was admitted to University College Hospital where he died on February 20th 1913 from Empyema (a collection of pus in the chest) and heart failure. His death was notified by his mother who signed herself "Mrs A. Williams". Alice married again to Charles William Burrows, a 50 year old railway goods porter and widower, at the Register Office, Islington on December 26th 1914. During the 1920s and early 1930s they lived in Ironmonger Street, Islington and for a time they had Alice's now married son Claud Evan Giles and his wife living with them. Charles died and was buried in Islington Cemetery on January 14th 1933. As yet no formal date of death for Alice has been found.

Lizzie Beatrice

William and Mary Ann's final daughter has presented something of a conundrum and her story is consequently incomplete. She was born in the spring of 1868 and registered as Lizzie Beatrice in the Clerkenwell District. Unlike her sister Alice no record of a baptism has so far been found. To complicate matters as she grew towards adulthood she began to call herself Elizabeth. She entered domestic service in the late 1880s as a house servant in Taviton Street at the home of the Reverend Thomas Moore and his family, Vicar of Christ Church Greyfriars in Newgate Street. She had entered her name in the census of 1891 as Elizabeth but when she married Henry George Carpenter at the same church on December 20th the same year she was again Lizzie. Henry worked as a porter and storesman for a printing firm. At the turn of the century they were living in Little Montagu Court in Marylebone. It is not clear how many children Lizzie actually had. By 1911 she was declared a widow. It seems likely that Henry had died in the early months of 1901. Lizzie reported that she had delivered four children and that one had died. Births have been registered for Dorothea, born on December 29th 1900 and baptised at the Church of St Botolph Without Aldgate on January 20th 1901 and Mildred Louise born in the New Year of 1902. These two girls, and an Edith reportedly 7 years old, were living with Lizzie in Popes Cottages off Bartholomew Close in 1911. No birth registration has been found for Edith and no firm birth or death listing has been found for the fourth child. Lizzie was working as a cleaner at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Continued in column 2...

Added - October 31st 2021
Revised and updated: November 24th 2021

The family of Thomas Craxford and Sarah Fielding (Continued)

Joseph (1829 - 1882)

The second son of Thomas Craxford and Sarah Fielding was baptised Joseph on November 22nd 1829 in Gretton. In his early teenage years he went into domestic service with the family of solicitor William Gilson who lived in the High Street, Uppingham. He married already heavily pregnant Susannah Freeman, who had been in service in Upper Benefield, at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in the village on October 14th 1850. Mistakenly his name was entered as James Craxford on the register. They returned to Gretton to start their family. Their first son Thomas was baptised on December 13th 1850 but died within days. An inquest was held by Kettering Coroner Thomas Marshall which concluded that his sudden death was due to natural causes. He was buried in Gretton on January 5th 1851. Their next three children lived into adulthood and married. A final daughter, Mary, was born in August 1874 but died within months. She was baptised on November 22nd 1874, died on December 2nd and was buried on December 5th 1874. The cause of her death was certified as Erysipelas.

Joseph and Susannah moved around the village during their time together. The census of 1871 found them at the Evenhoe Quarter Lodge and then 10 years later at Kirby Lodge. Joseph was taken ill with severe stomach pains and died on July 26th 1882. A diagnosis of peritonitis following a perforation of the bowel was made. He was buried two days later. In her later years Susannah developed a deteriorating condition of her kidneys which was labelled "Morbus Brightii" or Bright's Disease. This led on to renal failure and chorea from which she died on April 11th 1896. She was buried in Gretton after three days.

First daughter Sarah Jane was baptised on May 30th 1852 in Gretton. By the late 1860s she had moved into domestic service in Granby Street Leicester with the family of ironmonger and gas fitter William Bramley. A near neighbour there was railway goods guard George Smith who hailed from Wolvey in Warwickshire. The couple were married at St Stephen's Church on July 7th 1852. They had two sons and five daughters. They moved out to Wigston Magna where Sarah Jane died on October 29th 1917. George followed her on March 2nd 1935. Both were buried in Wigston Cemetery on the outskirts of Leicester.

Second daughter Betsy was born on August 14th 1855 and baptised on January 6th 1856 in Gretton, She too moved to Leicester during the 1860s. She married James Baker, a shoe pressman who had been born in Stamford Lincolnshire, on October 3rd 1878 at St George's Church. They had three sons (James, 1879; Joseph Thomas, 1883 and Arthur Alfred, 1886) and a daughter (Hannah Craxford, 1881). By the turn of the century they had settled into a relatively recently built property in Clipstone Street in the New Evington area of the city. Daughter Hannah started work as a shoe fitter. Sadly though Hannah was known to have issues with her heart through chronic mitral valve disease and in the summer of 1901 she contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. She was just 20 years old when she died on March 1st 1902 and was buried four days later in what was to become the family plot (Section cO plot 2295) of Welford Road Cemetery. James and Betsy lived out their lives in Clipstone Street which is where he died in September 1931. Betsy lived on at home until just after the start of the second World War. As her health faded she was admitted to Hillcrest Hospital where she died in December 1942. Both parents joined their daughter: James on September 25th 1931, Betsy on December 10th 1942.

Son Thomas was baptised in Gretton on August 19th 1866. He married Betsey Frisby from Weldon, Northamptonshire at St Clement's Church, West Thurrock, Essex on April 19th 1890. At the time Thomas was working as a labourer in a cement works. Their first three children (William Joseph, 1898; Thomas James, 1900 and Elsie Mabel, 1903) were born in the town. After leaving Essex, they spent some time in Stafford where their second daughter, Ena May, was born in 1906. By the end of the decade they had returned to Northamptonshire where Thomas was employed at a blast furnace. They lived in Melton Street, Kettering into the second World War years. Betsey died and was buried in the London Road Cemetery, Kettering on September 24th 1941. Thomas followed her just over three years later and was buried on January 25th 1945.

Sally (1831 - 1885)

Sally was the second daughter of Thomas Craxford and Sarah Fielding. She was baptised on May 8th 1831 in Gretton. After the death of her parents, the 8 year old girl with her two younger siblings were admitted to the Union Workhouse on Leicester Road Uppingham. When she was old enough to be released she made her way to London. Her first known address there was Newcastle Street, Westminster. She married baker Thomas William Franey on January 11th 1857 at the Church of St Clement Danes. They made their home in South Audley Street although Sally was not with him on the day of the census of 1861. Theirs was to be a short union for Thomas was admitted to the Union Workhouse in Marylebone following a collapse and some form of cerebral catastrophe and died there on February 5th 1862. Death was said to be due to Apoplexy. He was 39 years old. He was buried in All Souls Cemetery, Kensall Green, London on February 10th 1862. They had no children. After his death Sally was destitute and within months had been admitted to the Westminster St George Union Workhouse on Hanover Square. That was the pattern of the rest of her life. She suffered a stroke sometime during 1885 which resulted in a hemiplegia (paralysis affecting one half of her body). She was admitted to the St George Union Hospital where she died on October 18th 1885.

Jane (1833 - 1901)

Jane, the third daughter of Thomas Craxford and Sarah Fielding was born in Gretton on April 6th and baptised on May 12th 1833. She was sent with her siblings into the Uppingham Union Workhouse when they were orphaned. Upon leaving the institution she headed south into domestic service in London. By 1851 she was living with the family of carman Richard Davies in Knightrider Court which lies between St Paul's Cathedral and the College of Arms on the north bank of the River Thames. From there she moved a couple of miles east to take up a post as a cook with the family of George Harward who was a customer agent who lived in St Dunstans Hill. On December 25th 1861 Jane married Alfred Powney Bartlett Underhill at Salter's Hall Chapel in the Hoxton District of London. Albert had been born in November 1839 in Clekenwell and worked as a house painter. He came from a family of four brothers and two sisters.

Alfred and Jane had three sons while they were still living in London: George Alfred (born 1863), Frederick Edward (1865) and Arthur Thomas (1867). They then started a journey north stopping in Maidenhead, Berkshire where a fourth son Charles William was born on December 21st 1869. They had a brief stay in Ecclesfield, a suburb of Sheffield, at the time of the 1871 census, before moving to a more settled home in Carlton, Nottingham. Their three daughters (Jane Eliza, 1872; Alice Lydia, 1873 and Agnes Fanny, 1875) were all born there. Sadly Agnes contracted Measles which developed into acute bronchitis from which she died on May 20th 1880. Son George developed an acute infective skin condition called Erysipelas (usually caused by the virulent Group A Streptococcus pyogenes bacterium) over the course of about six months. This spread to his blood stream causing pyaemia from which he died on January 26th 1881. He was not yet 18 years old. By the turn of the century Jane was becoming unwell with chronic heart disease. This caused her death on August 10th 1901.

Daughter Jane married Arthur Keyworth, another house painter, at the Free Church in Carlton Nottingham on Boxing Day 1893. After the first World War the couple moved their family out to Lincolnshire. Alfred ultimately moved out to join them and he died in the county in 1923.

Thomas (1835 - 1859)

Last born son Thomas was baptised in Gretton on July 5th 1835. With his two young sisters he entered the Uppingham Union Workhouse on the death of his mother. He was still in his teens when he left the Workhouse and went south to London. The census of 1851 found him in Sugar Loaf Court, a narrow alley of about fourteen houses off Commercial Street in Tower Hamlets. apprenticed to a millwright. Whilst there he met and married Elizabeth the daughter of lighterman Thomas Knott and his wife Ann. The service took place at St James Church Clerkenwell on May 24th 1858. Wedding bliss was shortlived and they were to have no children. From his history Thomas must have sustained a twisting injury to his knee at some stage which resulted in either a loose body in the joint or a torn cartilage. This caused so many ongoing problems (pain, swelling, the joint locking and giving way) that he was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital. An operation was carried out to open the joint and remove the loose body. Bear in mind this was carried out in the days well before the introduction of anaesthetics, antiseptics and antibiotics. It was also some seven years before the first planned meniscectomy was performed (27). Unfortunately, the wound became infected. The infection spread to his blood stream resulting in pyaemia (septicaemia leading to widespread abscess formation throughout the body). He died in hospital on May 14th 1859 aged 24 years.

Elizabeth did marry again six years later to James Martin on October 8th 1865.

The family of William James Craxford and Rose Margaret Smith

William James, the first of the sons of William Craxford and Mary Ann Hunt was born on September 22nd 1849 in Aldgate, London and baptised in the Church of St Botolph Without Aldgate on December 2nd 1849. It appears that William was rendered blind by an accident in his childhood although the circumstances are not known. In November 1859 he was nominated for admission to the School for the Indigent Blind in St George's Field by a General Meeting of the Members of the Court (28). This school was founded in 1779 (29) to teach trades by which the blind could wholly or in part provide for their own subsistence. The census of 1861 found William in Bramshott, Hampshire, staying with farrier Robert Moore. He was an apprentice to grainer James Dabriel. Grainers were skilled artisans who painted the imitation grain of wood onto decorative surfaces. Sometime during the next decade William was also trained to tune and play keyboard instruments and in 1871 he had made the move north east to Heydour in Lincolnshire, a hamlet 6 miles north east of Grantham. He was lodging with housekeeper Ann Thorpe in the house next door to the vicarage of the Reverend Gordon Deedes and had been appointed orgainst of the church. His next door neighbour on the other side was 23 year old National School Mistress, Rose Margaret Smith.

For some reason William took Rose to London where they were married at St Mary's Church, Islington on February 25th 1873. They gave their accommodation address as Liverpool Road, Islington. The marriage was witnessed by William's father and younger sister Emma. Rose had been born on January 13th and baptised on January 31st 1847 in Umballa a city in the northern state of Haryana in India. She was the daughter of Edward and Eliza Smith. At the time Edward was a Troop Serjeant Major with the 3rd (Prince of Wales) Dragoon Guards. By all accounts Edward and Eliza had at least one more daughter, Emily about 1871, while they were still in India.

After their marriage William and Rose returned to Heydour to take up their respective occupations. Over the space of the next six years they had three sons (William James, 1876; Percy Edward, 1877 and Lionel George, 1880) and two daughters (Rose Emily, 1874 and Agnes Elizabeth, 1879). It appears that William suffered from a stroke in the summer of 1881. He died aged 31 years on November 20th 1881, the certified cause of his death written as apoplexy (incapacity resulting from a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke) for 3 months. He was buried at St Michael's Church, Heydour on November 24th 1881.

After William's death all three sons spent time at the London Orphan Asylum. This institution was founded originally in 1813 by Andrew Reed under an Act of Parliament and under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Wellington and the Marquess of Salisbury to provide relief to destitute orpahns, including children whose fathers had died and whose mothers were unable to provide for them (31). The Asylum was renamed Reed's School in memory of its founder in 1939. At some stage William must have formed an association with the school as their records note him as a Professor of music. The School's annual report for 1887 records the name of eldest son William James and notes that there are "5 children dependent on the mother" (32). Similar annual reports were made in the next three years. The census of 1891 shows both Percy Edward and Lionel George resident in the Asylum.

Rose Margaret continued her teaching activities. In 1889 she had taken up residence in the School House of the National School at Wold Newton near Louth in Lincolnshire. Boarding with her was assistant teacher Jane Hickabottom who would become her son William's wife. At the turn of the century she had moved more than 50 miles south to the tiny hamlet of Pode Hole outside Spalding in Lincolnshire, this time son Lionel was with her. In 1904 the Isle of Ely Education Committee gave her a Headmistress post and an increase in salary. She made her home in Witchford, 2 miles west of Ely. By 1911 she had her two as yet unmarried daughters living with her. Also in residence was her 40 year old unmarried sister, Emily. All three younger women were working as teachers. This 1911 census for England and Wales was different from its predecessors in that the form was the first that the householder filled in himself rather than by the enumerator following an interview. Each married woman also had to enter (1) the total children born alive (2) children still living and (3) children who had died. Oddly Rose has answered "4" (rather than 5) for both columns 1 and 2. In the 1920, Rose moved to Hertford in Hertfordshire firstly in Crane Mead Road and then Foxholes Avenue. She died there on November 6th 1943, her daughter Agnes was with her. Administration of her will published on February 9th the following year was awarded to son William John.

Rose Emily

Rose was born in Heydour on August 9th and baptised on September 27th 1874. As noted above she became a school teacher. She married William Edward Codman in Witchford on April 17th 1911, just over two weeks after the date of the census that year. William was a wheelwright living in Cross Street, Spalding in Lincolnshire at the time. They were to have two sons (William Edward, 1912 and Percy Ambrose, 1914) and a daughter (Margaret Rose, 1916). Their first son was born in Lincolnshire but before the outbreak of the first World War, William moved the family into Hertfordshire. The Electoral Registers for 1919 list them living in Falmer Road, Enfield. Residing with them was Emily Smith, Rose Margaret's sister. In the early 1920s, Rose and William moved to a house on The Green in the village of Thornham on the north Norfolk coast about four miles east of Hunstanton and became involved with All Saints Church there. Their eldest son, William Edward, joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment while he was just 14 years old.

Another move in 1929 took them about 100 miles south to Murcheson Road, Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. That's where they were residing at the time of compilation of the 1939 Register. William was working as a carpenter. Also at home was daughter Margaret, now a librarian, and Eleanor, son William's wife. William became a church warden and Rose Emily a Sunday School teacher and organist at St Cuthberts Church in the town. All three children married: William to Eleanor Mabel Ellison on August 5th 1939 at St John's Church, Ilford, Essex; Percy to Patricia Thelma Hartwell on September 16th 1939 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and Margaret to Arthur Henry Bray in the winter of 1940 in Ware, Hertfordshire.

Immediatety after the second World War, William and Rose Emily moved to Hammersmith in London where William took up a Church post. At this time Agnes Eliza Craxford also left Hertfordshire to lived with William and Rose Emily in Hammersmith. A final move sometime during the 1950s saw William and Rose in the village of Wolverton in Buckinghamshire. Rose died there on December 28th 1958; William in the early months of 1961.

William James

Oldest son William James was born on February 11th and baptised in Heydour on March 12th 1876. After his spell in the London Orphan Asylum he initially became a warehouseman's clerk and was boarded out in Bridgewater Square St Giles Cripplegate, London. By the turn of the century he had become a warehouseman himself for a draper in Long Acre, Camden.He would obviously have been aware of Jane Hickabottom, a young teacher working with his mother. They were married On March 6th 1911 at St James Church, Enfield. They had one son born on April 25th 1912 they named William James who ultimately became a meteorological office clerk. The family moved to Falmer Road, Enfield where they were residing at the outbreak of the second World War. It appears that in 1954 the couple moved again to a cottage called Beggar's Roost on Golf Course Road, Painswick in Gloucestershire. Jane died there on July 17th 1954. William followed on March 28th 1955.

Percy Edward

Middle son Percy Edward was born on September 1st and baptised on October 7th 1877 in Heydour. After his time in the Infant Orphan Asylum much of his life was spent moving around the coountry and changing jobs. He started his working life as a signalman on the railways. At the turn of the century he was with widow Martha Ann Wood and her son on Ilkeston Road, Heanor, Derbyshire. At some stage he met Jane Craig, a girl born on December 17th 1881 in Barrow-in-Furness, a town on the coast in Cumbria. Her father, Hugh Craig had been born in Scotland but by 1891 had moved the family to Rochdale Street, Wallsend in Tyne and Wear where he worked as a plater in the shipyards. Together Percy and Jane travelled north to be with her parents and were married at St Luke's Church, Wallsend on November 8th 1906. He was employed as a railway porter. They soon moved south again, finding a home in Bolyen Road, Islington where their first son, Harold Percy, was born on February 24th 1909. Two years later they were in Enfield where Percy was registered as a dealer in china and glass. They had Jane's 14 year old brother, Hugh Craig, living with them and helping in the business. A daughter Margaret was born on December 22nd 1914. A second son, William George, was born in 1918. At the beginning of the 1920s Percy and Jane were settled in Hertford, Hertfordshire. He had retired from the railways and had taken up gardening. Percy was taken ill and admitted to the County Hospital in Hertford where he died on January 21st 1952. Jane remained in the town until her death there on May 11th 1975.

William George

Although the reason remains something of a mystery, Percy and Jane's second son was born on June 8th 1918, his birth registered in the Tynemouth District. It is possible that Jane had returned to Wallsend to be with her parents for the birth. Hugh Craig continued living in Rochdale Street until his death in June 1931. However the Electoral Register for 1921 shows Percy and Jane to be living at The Acacias, Ware Road, Hertford. William remained at home with his parents until the outbreak of the second World War. By 1939 he had become a nurseyman and cucumber grower. At the outbreak of the war William enrolled for Army service as Private 5951977 in the 5th Battalion, the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment. On August 23rd 1941, William married Nora Marjorie Hicks at the Parish Church of St Catherine and St Paul in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. By the end of the year, Nora was expecting their first child. A daughter, June Nora, was born on June 23rd 1942.

The Battalion was part of the British 18th Division, 55 Brigade. It embarked on the P&O liner Orcades which had been converted as a troopship in Liverpool on October 29th 1941. It was originally intended for the Middle East but was diverted to South East Asia and the defence of Singapore. Progress was via Nova Scotia, Canada, South Africa and India finally arriving in Singapore on January 29th 1942. The Orcades, had been built in Barrow-in-Furness in 1937, did not survive the year and was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-172 on route from Cape Town to London on October 10th 1942 with the loss of 48 passengers.

The colony was overrun by the Japanese and William was captured on February 15th 1942. The captives were shipped off to a number of Japanese Prisoner Of War camps in Singapore and Japan and were also assigned to various work details including the building of the Burma Thailand railway. Conditions were notoriously bad due to overcrowding, poor and limited food, disease and injuries. It appears that William was based in a camp in Singapore. On September 6th 1944 along with over 1300 other prisoners he was loaded on board the troopship Rakuyo Maru scheduled for transfer to mainland Japan. This vessel formed part of a convoy of 13 ships but in contravention to International Law none carried markings to show that they were carrying Prisoners of War. On September 12th 1944, the Rakuyo Maru was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine. William was one of the many prisoners drowned that night (37), [Further Reading: 4.]. He is commemorated on Column 63 of the Singapore Memorial, Kranji, Singapore.

It is most unlikely that William ever heard that he had a daughter or even that his wife was pregnant. Nora married again to Arthur Cresswell in the spring of 1947. She lived on in Hoddesdon until her death on February 27th 2007.

Agnes Elizabeth

William and Rose's younger daughter was baptised on April 24th 1879 in Heydour. After the death of her father she was sent as a boarder to Reedham Asylum for Fatherless Children in Purley near Croydon in Surrey. This school housed 188 such boys and 123 such girls at the time of the 1891 census. After she left the institution she trained as an asistant teacher. She found a posting at the National School in Steeple Morden in Cambridgeshire. For a time she boarded in the village with domestic gardener David Webb and his family in Hay Street. It is noted that the Isle of Ely Education Committee raised her salary from £ 25 to £ 30 per annum on November 1st 1904. Towards the end of the decade she returned to her mother's home alongside her sister Rose in Witchford, Lincolnshire. Then on January 15th 1912 she took up a post as Assistant Teacher at the National School at Sawbridgeworth, a town in Hertfordshire close to its border with Essex. In the 1920s Agnes rejoined her mother in Foxholes Lane, Hertford and remained there after her mother died. Agnes never married. After the second World War, she moved first to Hammersmith and then to Wolverton, Buckinghamshire. She died there on April 10th 1958. In her will she left her effects to her sister Rose.

Lionel George

Lionel was baptised in Heydour on January 2nd 1881. After spending time in the London Orphan Asylum he returned to Lincolnshire as a surveyor's clerk. For a time after the turn of the century he lived with his mother at Pode Hole near Spalding. Sometime during the decade he returned to London to work as a clerk at the Stock Exchange. In 1911 he lodged at a boarding house run by a widow Ann Carolione Rees in Fairbridge Road, Upper Holloway. On September 6th 1913 he married 34 year old Evelyn Helena Coote at Christ Church with St Mary-at-the-Walls in Colchester, Essex. She became an avid lady bowls player ([Article K.]).

During the first World War Lionel served as Private G/23512 with the Middlesex Regiment and then the Royal Defence Corps. After the war he became a tax clerk for the Inland Revenue. By the 1930s the couple were living at Riverway in Palmers Green London. Lionel died there on April 26th 1956. After the death of her husband, Evelyn lived on in Southgate (also the site of her Bowls Club) until 1964. Towards the end of her life she moved south west to the Devon village of Braunton situated near the coast 5 miles west of Barnstable. She died there on July 26th 1966 and was buried in St Brannock's Parish Churchyard about four days later. A headstone was raised to her which also commemorated Lionel.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks for the help, comments and suggestions from the following in the construction of this article: Contributors to the London and Middlesex and Northumberland Forums (including Avm228, Cuffie81, River Tyne Lass and Rosie99) at RootsChat.Com

Further Reading

1: "Marriage Law for Genealogists: the definitive guide. Revised Second Edition"; Rebecca Probert (2016) Takeway Publishing, Kenilworth, Warwickshire. ISBN 978-0-9931896-2-3.
2. "Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved? - The family historian's guide to marital breakdown, separation, widowhood and remarriage from 1600 to the 1970s"; Rebecca Probert (2015) Takeaway Publishing, Kenilworth, Warwickshire. ISBN 978-0-9931896-0-9
3. "The Changing Legal Regulation of Cohabitation: From Fornication to Family, 1600-2010"; Rebecca Probert (2012) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-53630-2.

Rebecca Probert is Professor of Law in the Law School at the University of Exeter. She has interests in both legal history and how the law affects families. She has carried out extensive research into all aspects of cohabitation and marriage. She has written many volumes, both textbooks (books 1 and 2 above are two of several written as aids to the family historian; book 3 appears in the Law in Context series. Of particular interest to this article is the subject of bigamy. Divorce was difficult to obtain and extremely expensive in Victorian times. By definition it requires the guilty part to marry a second time knowing that the first spouse was still alive. It was fairly common for the marriage to break apart and there are several recorded occasions in our magazine pages of one party fleeing the country to marry again elsewhere in the world. The authors would like to thank Professor Probert for her helpful advice and comments in various aspects of our research.

4: The Sinking of Prisoner of War Transport Ships in the Far East The Imperial War Museum has dedicated an article to the sinking of three Japanese steamships in September 1944 which resulted in one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the Second World War. The sinking by Allied submarines of the Rakuyo Maru and its sister ship the Kachidoki Maru which were not known to be transporting prisoners of war and slave labourers resulted in the loss of over 7000 men. William George Craxford perished on board the former on September 12th 1944.

Links to the articles mentioned in the text are in italic capitals below:

Article A: To be announced
Article B: Of John and Jane Craxford, the Pollards and Pridmores The Gretton Craxfords: Chronicles I - The Tangled Trees
Article C: Caroline Craxford's second marriage The Gretton Craxfords: Chronicles II - Enos and Caroline
Article D: David Craxford with Mary Ann and Matilda Pollard The Croxton Conundrum and Other Mysteries: The Pollard Girls
Article E: About David Tansley and Elizabeth Peach The Cottingham Tansleys 2: David and two of his sons who moved to Leicester
Article F: Lucy Craxford's marriage and who came after The Gretton Craxfords: Exodus II - All sorts of Liquorish
Article G: A street in Gretton and who lived there Craxford Lane: A Genealogy
Article H: Of fellmongers, skinners and glovers From Gretton to Barrowden 1: The skin trade
Article I: The branch that moved to Rutland and beyond From Gretton to Barrowden 2: From Craxford to Wainwright and beyond
Article J: The move of a branch to Yorkshire Charles William Craxford: A Victorian photographer
Article K: Lionel's champion wife Mrs Evelyn Craxford

References

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3. St Margaret's Church, Leicester: The Churches of Great Britain and Ireland. From an old print about 1900 in George Weston's collection.
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26. Lithograph: St George's Hanover Square Aquatint by T Malton 1787 Courtesy of the British Library. Wikimedia Commons: Reproduced as the image is in the public domain
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