JOSEPH (b1800) and his son JOHN (b1821) move to Lambeth, a suburb in South London around 1840. They take JOSEPH (b1800)'s youngest children (ROBERT (b circa 1833) and LUCY (b circa 1840)) with them, leaving CHARLES (b circa 1826), HARRY (b circa 1828) and SALLY (b circa1831) all by now of age, in Bury St Edmonds. I haven't followed these lines through but it is likely that there are Gilberts still in Bury St Edmunds that come from this family.
Once in Lambeth, JOHN (b1821) meets and marries a Bethnal Green girl; JANE ELIZABETH REYNOLDS in the Parish Church of St Mary, Lambeth (.Picture of St Mary's) They marry on 11th July 1841. Her father Charles, also an engineer, may have worked with JOSEPH (b1800) and his engineer son, JOHN (b1821) and witnesses the marriage with a J. L. Gassler. JOHN (b1821) is living in Waterloo Road at the time of his marriage. Both are of full age, so one assumes 21 years old, although the ages aren't stated.
By the 1851 Census JOSEPH (b1800) and his son JOHN (b 1821) are living opposite each other (at numbers 43 and 44) respectively in Boston Street, Shoreditch, on the north side of the River Thames. JOSEPH has Mary Ann and their two youngest children and ROBERT (b1833) and LUCY (b1840) living with them. It's not clear from the copy of the census that I have, but it appears that JOSEPH is 50 and Mary Ann 54 at this time.
By now JOHN (b1821) and Jane have three children JOHN (8?) JOSEPH (b1845) aged 6, and ALFRED (b 1848) aged 3.
Old Ordnance Survey Map : Shoreditch 1872
JOHN (b1821) also states they are living in Boston Street at Union Mills in 1854 and the Engine Works, Boston Street (1855). One assumes this is the same place but whether they are living there as owners or employees is unknown. Incredibly at the end of the road according to the map of 1872, there is a Brewery.
Boston Street , Shoreditch, London EC2
showing the Brewery at the Hackney Road end,
now site of the Hackney City Farm
(detail from : Old Ordnance Survey Map : Shoreditch 1872)
I visited the site which is just off Hackney Road. It is now the Hackney City Farm. Much of the surrounding area was waiting to be re-developed in 1997 so I could get a good feeling of what it must have been like. The street sign for Boston Street was still attached to the wall of a school built in 1873.
According to the City Farm website,
“In the early 1800s the site was occupied by farmers and market gardeners supplying fresh produce to the city of London.You can see from the map how, by the 1870s, inner London was typical narrow small terraced housing. However, I am very curious about Union Mills. Was this house free for its workers? Were Joseph and John working for a pre-cursor to the Brewery or did they have their own Engineering works in this area? I hope to find out more about this in the future. I suppose I don't want to believe that, from looking through my 21st C eyes, the family went from what seemed
Later as the area became built up, a brewery occupied the site and beer was brewed from late 1880s until the 1930s. West’s brewery as it was then, supplied beer to its own public houses in Hackney Road and nearby Bethnal Green. The water used in the brewing process was supplied by a well, still present today (although capped) in the front garden. “
to be a comfortable life in a delightful Norfolk village to 'dark satanic mills', especially when you read the description below:
Shoreditch with its mere 640 acres, had grown faster than any other London parish in the first half of the century and by 1851 it had nearly 130,000 inhabitants. Although the numbers declined thereafter, they did so only slowly. Shoreditch in 1870 was still grossly overcrowded.... Many inhabitants were living in impossibly crowded and airless conditions... The New River Company had not yet provided Shoreditch with a constant water supply......The population was constantly shifting....Those who could afford to, moved away from Shoreditch. Those who came in to replace them, uprooted by other clearances and railway development were those who could afford nothing better.....There were, as there had been for decades, public houses galore.” (Old Ordnance Survey Map: Shoreditch 1872)
The Inventor ( The 1850s)
My grandfather (ALBERT EDWARD Gilbert (1904-1998) remembers his great-grandfather (JOHN b 1821) as
“a man of sub-stature, with coach and horse and by profession an engineer. I was told, as a child, that he lost his money at law, fighting cases (with people) who had stolen his inventions. “
In consulting the Patent's Office records, there are many submitted patents that have not been sealed under the name 'Gilbert' which may indicate their originality was challenged. This would have to be verified through court records if they still exist.
However, two patents were sealed:
- Patent No 552 dated 12th September 1855 is An Improved Pump or Pumping Apparatus by John Gilbert of the Engine Works, Boston Street, Hackney.
- Patent No 2029, dated 6th December 1873 by John Gilbert of Raymouth Road, South Bermondsey is :Gilbert's Improvements in Obtaining and Applying Motive Power. This also refers to a Patent No 2568 dated 15th October 1861.
JOHN (b1821) and Jane have 4 sons, the youngest is GEORGE FITZHERBERT born on the 4th of August1854 and is my direct line. Interestingly his birth wasn't registered for over a month. And then by his mother. The origins of the middle name Fitzhertbert are currently a mystery. Normally anyone called Fitz.... is illegitimate. But GEORGE (1854- ) is the youngest son, so this would not be the case here. It may be that Fitzherbert is a name inherited from his mother, Jane's (Reynolds) side.
We believed from ALBERT EDWARD (1904-1998) that two of George's brothers emigrated to the USA. To date there are no records to support, or deny this, but neither JOSEPH (b circa 1845) nor ALFRED (born circa 1848) seem to be on the 1881 census for Middlesex or Surrey. However there was a cholera outbreak in 1866 that took the lives of many living in the crowded inner London districts, To date, I haven't searched for their Death certificates.
Back South of the River (The 1870s)
By 1873 the family are living back south of the River Thames in 30 Raymouth Rd, Rotherhithe SE16. Raymouth Road is right next to the railway line and close to Southwark Park which was opened in 1869.
Raymouth Road is just off the right-hand corner of this map
(Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Bermondsey and Wapping 1894)
“The railway line runs from London Bridge Station and began as the London and Greenwich Railway in 1836.... Bermondsey and Wapping were poor and crowded districts by 1894: poor because much of the local employment was casual and unskilled, and because those who could afford to live in more salubrious districts moved away from the warehouses, factories and railway viaducts; and crowded because the land was entirely developed by 1894, yet commerce and industry needed more space in districts where casual employment compelled large numbers to live very near their places of work.....(Stephen Humphrey 6)
GEORGE FITZHERBERT (1854- ) marries a Bermondsey girl Elizabeth POW on 25th April 1875 in the Parish Church of St John's Southwark. He's 21 and she is 19 years old.
George Fitzherbert and Elizabeth Pow's Marriage Certificate (1875)
Living with the In-Laws (The 1880s)
In 1881 and 1896, GEORGE FITZHERBERT (1854- ) is a Pottery Works Engine Driver – at marriage (1875) he was cited as an Engineer like his father (JOHN b1821) and on the birth of their first son two years later in 1877 he is cited as an Engine Fitter.
Elizabeth's parents William Pow and Ann Rebecca (nee Fudge) lived at 46 Raymouth Road from 1880 -1893, so Elizabeth was 'the girl next door' – ish!
We are not sure which pottery GEORGE FITZHERBERT (b1854) worked at as there were several in the area. However, it could be the Doulton Works at Lambeth, due to a 3 inch (5.5 cm) jug inscribed with his name and the date 1887 that my father has. This doesn't quite make sense however, and needs further research:
Just out of interest, Elizabeth's father was a leather dresser (and later her brother was a Tanner) which fits in with the area they lived in;
“As crucial to the economy of Bermonsey as the river was the leather industry. The tanneries occupied much space south of the railway.” 7
GEORGE FITZHERBERT (1854- ) and Elizabeth have 4 sons and one daughter. Just over 2 years after their marriage, the eldest (and my direct line) WILLIAM GEORGE was born on 16th May 1877 at 53 Silverlock Street, Rotherhithe. I think this is near Warndon St, just round the corner from Raymouth Road. Again it takes over a month to register the birth which was done by Elizabeth.
Four years later, by the 1881 census, GEORGE FITZHERBERT (1854- ), his wife Elizabeth, 2 of their children x and y are living at 46 Raymouth Road, Rotherhithe with Elizabeth's parents (in their 60s) and John Pow, (Elizabeth's brother aged 37 unmarried, unemployed and also born in Bermondsey). This makes a household of seven and I can only speculate whether it was through choice or hard times.
Within the next 10 years, Elizabeth's father William Pow has died. The 1891 census shows us the household still includes Ann Pow, now a widow aged 75 and John Pow, GEORGE FITZHERBERT's brother-in-law aged 47 who is now a Tanner.
By 1904, GEORGE FITZHERBERT (1854) and Elizabeth have moved to 14 Poplar Road, Camberwell. This (and her age) probably indicates that Ann Pow is by now deceased. Maybe John Pow remained at Raymouth Road. This would need to be investigated.
Poplar Road, Camberwell, South London
My grandad (ALBERT EDWARD (1904-1998) remembers having an uncle nicknamed 'Jumbo'. Indeed an elephant called Jumbo was brought for London Zoo by P. T. Barnam in 1882, so 'Jumbo' could conceivably be ALFRED (born about 1882). Grandad remembers his uncle Jumbo being a Stoker in the Royal Navy. I have looked at some ship's records but didn't find anything, however, this may still be traceable. His brother ARTHUR is remembered by grandad as being a "driver of a horse and cart".
ELIZABETH JANE (aka LILLIAN) married JOSEPH KING (1870-1931) a Draper's Collector in 1910. She would have been 24 years old. They had 6 children Katheryn (1912-1985), Joe (1914- ?), Nellie (1916-?), Len (1920-2002), Phyllis (1922-?) and Bernard (1924-1963). LILLIE who died in 1974 at Lewisham Hospital at the age of 61 8.
ELIZABETH POW died of tuberculosis on the 29th May 1904 at 14 Poplar Road in Camberwell. She was only 47 and her husband George was with her at her death. He would have been widowed at the age of 50.
Death Certificate of Elizabeth Pow (1904)
Third Generation Londoners (The 1890s)
Returning back to the eldest son, WILLIAM GEORGE (1877-1933); he started his working life as a printer's machine boy (aged 14 circa 1891) but within five years had become a Stoker by trade. For some unknown reason the marriage certificate states his name as WILLIAM JOHN when he marries SARAH ANNIE ROGERS on the 24th May 1896 in St Crispin's Church, Bermondsey. It is undoubtably the same person. WILLIAM (1877-1933) was 19 and Sarah was 18.
The marriage certificate of William and Sarah Annie Rogers 24th May 1896
(William George is now William John)
Sarah was given a Book of Common Prayer by the officiating minister which I still have.
From the marriage certificate we see that GEORGE FITZHERBERT (b1854) is still an Engine Driver though we don't know if that was still at the Pottery he was working at in 1881. Sarah Annie ROGERS (1878-1933) was living at 28 Southwark Park Road and her father Henry ROGERS was a Lighterman on the Thames.
Mother of Sarah Annie Rogers circa 1900
Sarah Annie Gilbert (nee Rogers) circa 1896
Thought to be at the time of her marriage in 1896
by the wedding ring being clearly shown in the pose and from the clothes.
Sarah Annie circa 1900
Probably a bit later – thinner face, leg o' mutton sleeves and lace cap(?)
– a style she is wearing in the family picture of about 1906
The Turn of the Century (The 1900s)
Sarah and WILLIAM GEORGE (1877-1933) had six children. I am descended from ALBERT EDWARD (1904-1998) their fifth child.
WILLIAM GEORGE (1877-1933) and Sarah Annie with five of their 6 children.
Far right: William George (1897-1916), next right Emily Grace (1898-1990)
Bottom row: on rocking horse, Albert Edward (1904-1998), Alfred Henry (1903-1974) Sarah Annie (1878-1928), Lillian (1900-1974). Thomas (?-?) wasn't born yet, dating the picture at around 1906.
I was able to photocopy this picture just before it disintegrated – hence poor quality. Originally it was sepia, about A3 size and had been framed at one time.
SARAH ANNIE (1878-1928) circa 1910. This a home photograph, and the clothes seem later than those above, so the child she is holding may be Tom.
Footnotes:
1 how we work out John birthdate
2. 1841 Census
3. From the 1881 Census (Middlesex) we find a ROBERT GILBERT, Engine Fitter living at 8 Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green. He is married to CATHERINE borth in North Roode who does somthing will bonnets (writing is unclear). They are both 48 years old. They have five children living with them; HELLEN, Furworker aged 17, SARAH, Trimmer aged 14, MINNIE, Scholar aged 11, ALICE, aged 9 and ROSE aged 5.
4. As shown on GEORGE FITZHERBERT's Birth Certificate, August 1854
5. Patent No 552 dated 12th September 1855 is An Improved Pump or Pumping Apparatus by John Gilbert of the Engine Works, Boston Street, Hackney.
6. Stephen Humphrey (TBA)
7. Leather (TBA)
8. Lillian King (TBA)
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