Paternal family history for Frank (Francis) Leslie Jeffs, born 1946, to

around 1921

The furthest point back currently traced on my paternal side is that to John
Jeffs, my fifth great grandfather, born 1740 in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire,
and on my maternal side that to
John Rimington, born 1786 in Sipton, Suffolk. Up until about 1871 the Jeffs
family were essentially agricultural labourers in and around Hillsden, a hamlet
about four miles south-west of Buckingham, with the men working on the land
and the women often involved extensively in domestic lacemaking. Around the
late 1860s there was an abandonment of this life to take up occupation and
employment in Camberwell, in south London, with work in local gas works and
milk delivery. From the first decade of the twentieth century members of the
extended Jeffs and associated Follwell family emigrated to Canada; however, for
various reasons which still remain unclear, my father Leslie William Jeffs
(originally McDonough) remained in London and was raised in my grandfathers
household.
The direct connections to family in Canada are via my paternal grandmother,
Rose Alice Jeffs, who emigrated as Rose Alice Knight in 1921 (page 6); Charles
James Jeffs, my great-uncle, who emigrated with his wife Daisy Elizabeth Conner
in 1924; and previously, with Edwin John Follwell, my second removed greatuncle, who emigrated in 1906.
In reverse order, these are my antecedents on my paternal side. The detail of all
this can be viewed via Ancestry:

John Jeffs, b. 1740, Buckingham, fifth great grandfather

Buckingham Parish baptisms records show John Jeffs having two children in
Buckingham before marriage, one to Jane Markham in 1762, John, born 24 March
1762, followed by Martha on 18 January 1765, born to (presumably) Janes sister,
Sarah. John then goes on to marry Sarah in Buckingham in August 1766; banns
are dated 10 August. They then go on to have a further son, James, in
Buckingham on 7 May 1767 before apparently moving to Hillesden.
This all assumes that the records relating to John Jeffs are all the same John Jeffs
living in Buckingham at this time. There is no indication in parish records of their
status in life, or how John came to be involved with two different sisters in the
Markham family. Buckingham in the 1760s was still recovering from a disastrous
fire in March 1725, which destroyed 138 houses out of some 387 that constituted
the town. The town regained some status in 1748 with the building of a county
gaol (still standing) allowing it to hold both summer and winter assizes; however
the Victoria County History suggests that the towns residents did little to restore
the town or tackle the decay in the material prosperity of the town evident in
the first half of the century. Buckingham remained a quiet country town and

centre of an important rural district. Tanning, wool, and Buckingham lace were
among the towns industries; records of craft guilds suggest a wide range of
trades operated here.
For some reason the family left Buckingham and settled in Hillesden; the
Hillesden parish baptisms records show that nine further children were born to
John & Sarah JUFFS, beginning with Richard, baptised on 29 March 1772. This
gap of almost five years is a concern if trying to prove that this is the same John
and Sarah from Buckingham, other than the confirmation from Johns burial
record (for John JUFFS) of 29 December 1831 giving his age as 91 and thereby
his birth in 1740. The sequence of offspring possibly attributable to John is
thereafter 1762, 1765, 1767, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1778, 1781, 1784, 1786, 1768,
and 1791. There is no other John Jeffs in any other Buckingham parish records
fitting this profile of born 1740, died 1831, offspring 1762-1791, so we assume
that this is the same person throughout.
Of the offspring, the second John born to John Jeffs (after the baseborn
conceived by Jane Markham) in 1774 is the line forward.

John Jeffs b. 9 January 1779, Hillesden, fourth great grandfather

Believed to have been married to Ann Litton, b. 1783. No evidence has been
found so far of the wedding, or the surname for Ann. They had nine children:
Zelpha, b. 1809; Thomas, b. 1811; Richard, b. 1813 and apparently dying a year
later in 1814; William, b. 1813 and dying in 1890, his gravestone is in Hillesden
churchyard; another Richard, b. 1816; George, b. 1818; James, b. 1819; Mary
Ann, b. 1823; and Benjamin, b. 1826. Evidence for these births is in the Hillesden
Parish records of All Saints; John Jeffs is always described as a Labourer. Richard
and William born in 1813 were twins.
The line forward is that of Thomas, born in 1811.

Thomas Jeffs, b. 1811, Hillesden, third great grandfather

This is the first relative with online primary source evidence: the 1841 Census
shows him living in Church Street, Gawcott, aged 25 (born 1816) and an
agricultural labourer. He was married to Elizabeth, also born in 1816, with three
children, Mary, age 6, William, age 4 and George age 1.
The 1851 Census shows him now aged 38, ie born 1813 (should be 35 if 1841
was correct) but now a Widower. Children tie in with 1841 Census, Mary Ann 16,
William 14, (both born Preston Bissett), George 12, plus James, 10, (both born
Gawcott) and Thomas age 2, born Hillesden. He is still an agricultural labourer,
as are William and George. Mary Ann is a lace maker, and James aged 10 shown
as a scholar. (James is the line forward).

The 1861 Census gives his age as 50 (born 1811). So we have a very broad
range of given birth dates; is this a case of bad memory or are we muddling up
the Thomas Jeffses? In this Census he is shown as a widower, agricultural
labourer/shepherd, living with son Thomas age 13 (ie born 1848 or 1849?, ties in
with being 2 in the previous census), born Hillesden. Also in the household is
Hannah Mills, daughter in law, age 16, lace maker, born Hillesden. Who is she? If
age 16 too young to have been married and widowed; was her husband
elsewhere that night? Whose wife is she William married a Jane, George
married Martha, James would go on to marry Jane Stevens. Plus two lodgers, man
and wife, how large was this cottage? (They presumably required four bedrooms!
Or three if Thomas shared either with his father or sister in law).
In the 1871 Census he is now living with his son William and wife Jane Emma
Jeffs. His age is shown as 59 (ie born 1811), and still an agricultural labourer.
William is now 34, plus son James age 12, plough boy, William, 9, scholar, and
Richard age 2.
He is next found in the 1881 census, shown as age 60 (therefore born in 1821,
not 1816), living as Father-in-Law in his son Williams household. (Transcript
shows 69, giving birth date therefore as 1812, so this ties in with 1861 and 1871
censuses). That this is the correct William is confirmed by William shown as
being 42 (but should have been 44 in 1881).
He does not appear so far to be in the 1891 Census, so we assume he died
somewhere between 1881 and 1891, aged therefore between 69 and 79.
An unsourced reference gives his birth date as being 24 June 1811, married to
Elizabeth in 1835 in Preston Bissett. This birth date ties in roughly with the later
censuses. Overall therefore we have birth dates given variously as: 1841: 1816;
1851: 1813; 1861: 1811; 1871: 1811; 1881: 1812 if we read his age as 69.

James Jeffs, b. April 1843, Gawcott, second great grandfather

James is first seen in the 1851 Census, age 10, born Gawcott, in the household
of his father Thomas Jeffs, by that point a widower. As he was not in the 1841
Census, he presumably was born shortly after April 1841. Also in the household is
his sister Mary Ann, then aged 16 and a lace maker. As Thomas was widowed
somewhere around two years earlier, April 1849, there is also a housekeeper,
one Elizabeth George, age 77 and born in Padbury.
In the 1861 Census he is living with his by then married sister Mary Ann, now
Mary Ann Stuchbury. Her husband John is an agricultural labourer and her
profession is still given as lace maker. They have a son George age 3 and
daughter Martha age 1. Jamess age is confusingly given as 18, brother,
unmarried, birthplace Gawcott (as in 1851 Census). Marys birthplace is correctly
given as Preston Bissett. His given age of 18 is however only one year out, if born
June 1841, just after 1841 Census, he would have been 19 by 7 April 1861, date
of 1861 Census. The address of the household is a Cottage, and the entry is next

to that of the public house in Hillesden, thought to be The Plough, landlord

Thomas A Thorpe, 39, publican and butcher.
Between October and December 1863 he marries Jane Stevens. (Registration
district Buckingham, 3a, 821). They move to Camberwell, Surrey (London),
possibly immediately to 12 Devonshire Street (now Devon Street) at some point
after 1868. By the time of the 1871 Census, 2 April 1871, he has died. At the
1871 Census their daughter Kate is shown as being 2 months old; presumably
therefore conceived around May 1870, he died between April 1870 and 1 April
1871. A FreeBMD Death Index record shows a James Jeffs age 28 dying Jan-March
1871 (Lambeth, 1d 367).
Between 1865 and 1871 in Hillesden and then Camberwell they have however
had four children, Anne, Harry, James, (all born Hillesden) and Kate. (This
James is the line forward.)
So at 2 April 1871, the time of the 1871 Census, the household consists of: Jane
Jeffs, widow, Anne, 6, Harry, 5, James, 3 and Kate, aged two months. They live at
12 Devonshire Street, Peckham, civil parish of Camberwell, parliamentary
borough Lambeth. Jane Jeffs is shown as having been born in Twyford, close by
Gawcott and Hillesden in Buckinghamshire. Also there is Janes mother,
Susannah, Janes sister and brother Sarah and Harry. Another sister, Ann(e), lives
nearby at 14 Asylum Road, having left Twyford by 1861 to work as a Nursemaid
in Deptford St Paul.
Why did so many of the Stevens family leave Buckinghamshire after 1868? Why
go to Camberwell was there a relative already in that part of London for
example, Ann? Were others in Hillesden and surrounding villages leaving around
that time? James Jeffs brother Thomas (born 1848) may have also been working
in Lambeth by 1871. See note on Lacemaking in Buckinghamshire in Appendix I.

James Jeffs b. 1867, Hillesden, great grandfather

James was born in 1867 to his father James Jeffs and mother Jane Jeffs (nee
Stevens) and is first seen in the 1871 Census at 12 Devonshire Street,
Peckham, Camberwell.
By the time of the 1881 Census his mother has remarried. Some 21 to 23
months after the death of her first husband, on 25 December 1871 (Christmas
Day!) she marries George Stephen Follwell, a horse keeper, in St Giles,
Camberwell. She has three children with George Follwell, Edwin John, born 25
May 1873, Jane born March 1876, and Emmanuel, born 1894. Between April and
June 1877 George Stephen Follwell dies in Barnet, Hertfordshire (FreeBMD Death
Index Barnet, Middlesex, 3a, 103). An undocumented source gives his place of
death as Friern Hospital (as an inmate? Or was he working there? Whichever,
some way from Camberwell.)

So at 3 April 1881 James lives with his mother Jane Follwell, a widow described as
Annuitant, his older brother Harry, 15, his sister Kate, 10, and step-brothers and
sister Edwin John Follwell, 7, Jane Follwell, 5, and Emmanuel Follwell, 3, still at 12
Devonshire Street. Both James and Harry work as milkmen. Edwin will eventually
emigrate to Canada in 1906, the beginning of the connection to still existing
family links in that country.
In 1886 James marries a Jane (or Janet) Fullarton (or Fullerton), born in Islington
in 1868. (This is my great grandmother).
In 1888 they were living somewhere in Lewisham, where their first child, Jessie,
was born. By 1890 they had moved to Islington (a connection with Janes roots?),
where Edith and Harry were born.
The 1891 Census finds them living at 11 James Street, Islington. James is a
Dairyman Milk. The children are Jessie, 3, born Lewisham, Edith Christine, 1 and
Harry, two months, both born in Islington.
By 1895 they have moved back to Jamess roots in Camberwell.
At the 1901 Census four more children have been born: Rose Alice, born July 5
1893 in Brondesbury (Islington), Esther, 5, born North Peckham, Charles, 3, born
North Peckham, and Kathleen, age 1. (Rose Alice is the line forward, being
my paternal grandmother). Records exist for the baptisms of Rose Alice and
Elizabeth Hester on 13 October 1895 and Charles James on 3 April 1898, at St
Jude, Peckham. They now live at 21 Ruby Street, Peckham (off the Old Kent Road
opposite Christ Church church.) Ruby Street, Devonshire Street, Devonshire
Grove and Commercial Way (Road) are all close together.
At some point around 1908 (?) the family is photographed and a copy has been
found via the Jeffs Family Tree Facebook site. At this time James is 41, Jane 39,
Jessie 20, Edith 18, Harry 16, Rose 14, Esther 12, Charles 10. A further daughter
Alice May born around 1904 is 4 years old. Kathleen died age 2 in 1902.
By the 1911 Census only three children remain at home, Esther Elizabeth, 15,
Charles James, 13, and Alice May, 7. They have now moved to 10 Pomeroy
Street, New Cross. Jessie appears to be a servant at an address in Hendon. Edith
Christine married a William Morgan, a police constable, in July-September 1909,
and lives at 17 Epirus Road. Harry may be the Boarder at 21 High Street,
Peckham. Rose Alice may be the Rosie Jeffs, 18, hospital laundrymaid,
Metropolitan Asylum Board, Deptford St Paul, Deptford North. Her birthplace is
given wrongly as London, Clapham.
On January 4 1915 James Jeffs is present at the marriage of his daughter Rose
Alice Jeffs to Herbert Richard McDonough, a driver in the Royal Field Artillery, at
St Dionis Church, Parsons Green, Fulham. Jamess profession is described as Gas
Fitter. Witnesses include his daughter Edith Christine (now Morgan), and
Herberts sister Rose Ellen Hills, also married to a police constable. Esther has
also married the year before, in July-September 1914, to Russell.

He can be found on the 1918 Electoral Register along with his wife (given as
Janet), now at 260 Commercial Road, Old Kent Road. He can be found at the
same address on electoral registers from 1921 right up to 1939.
In 1921 Rose Alice (as Alice R.) emigrates to Canada with her second husband,
Albert Knight, followed in 1924 by her brother Charles. Her sister Alice May
marries Nix in 1925.
In 1932 his wife Jane dies.
At some time in the late 1920s or 1930s James Jeffs travels to visit his son
Charles in Canada. A photo taken at the time of his visit is on the Jeffs Family
Tree Facebook page.
In the 1933 Electoral Register, at the same address of 260 Commercial Road,
there are also a Lucy Hughes and a Richard William Hughes. In the 1936 register
there is just James Jeffs and Lucy Hughes.
In October December 1940 James Jeffs marries Lucy Hughes.
On 30 September 1943 they are both present at the marriage of Leslie William
Jeffs (otherwise McDonough) and Doris Margaret Murphy (otherwise Rimington),
in Barnet Register Office.
James Jeffs dies 1945 in Camberwell. Lucy Jeffs (nee Hughes) carries on living at
260 Commercial Road until her death in 1960.
In 1933 and 1935 James Jeffs and Lucy Hughes had bought burial plots at the
New Cemetery Burial Ground, Honor Oak, Camberwell, plot numbers 2349,
square 108 and 3678, square 110 respectively. The parchment ownership
certificates for these plots still exist.

Rose Alice Jeffs, b. 5 July 1893, Islington, my paternal grandmother

Rose Alice was born in Brondesbury, Islington, to James and Jane Jeffs. She first
appears on the 1901 Census at 7 years old, living at 21 Ruby Street, Peckham,
Camberwell.
By the 1911 Census she has left the family home (now 10 Pomeroy Street) and
may be the Rosie Jeffs, 18, hospital laundrymaid, Metropolitan Asylum Board,
Deptford St Paul, Deptford North in the Census page for that address. Her
birthplace is given wrongly as London, Clapham. This is the South Eastern
Hospital, Avonley Road, just north of Pomeroy Street and the New Cross Road;
marked as the South Eastern Hospital (Infectious Diseases) on the 1914 Deptford
North map.
On 4 January 1915 Rose Alice marries Herbert Richard McDonough at St Dionis
Church, Parsons Green, Fulham. Her profession is given as Asylum Maid, so
presumably she was still working at the South Eastern Hospital. However her

address is given as 23 Rectory Road, Parsons Green, close by the church. Her
husbands address is 13 Rectory Road, known to be the address of Herberts
sister, Rose Ellen Hills. Why 23 Rectory Road? The 1911 Census does not help;
two families live there: the Witts and the Carters. The Metropolitan Asylum Board
required single women to leave their jobs on marriage, so presumably after this
date Rose was unemployed or working elsewhere.
At this point Herbert Richard McDonough has joined the army and his profession
is given as Driver in Royal Field Artillery; as he was on army service presumably
he gave his sisters address? He may previously have been living with his father
Edward John McDonough at 29 Canterbury Road, Peckham (the western side of
the South Eastern Hospital site), but does not appear on the 1911 Census (his
father is then living alone in South Bermondsey, close to his son Edward
McDonough).
In October 1915 Rose gives birth to Stella Rosetta McDonough, in Camberwell.
The name Rosetta derives from Herberts mothers name. Where was Rose living
throughout her pregnancy?
On 28 February 1917 Rose Alice McDonough gives birth to Leslie William
McDonough, at 3 Maynard Road, Leicester. Herberts profession is given as
Driver Royal Field Artillery (Provision Stores Porter), but we have no indication of
whether he was in Leicester at the time of the birth or on service in France. Why
is Leslie born in Leicester? Was Herbert based in Leicester in a non-combatant UK
base? Was he in France and Rose Alice was working at an armaments factory in
Leicester? Was Rose Alice sent to Leicester for some special reason to give birth?
Where was Herbert around the end of May 1916, the time of Leslies conception?
The 1911 Census entry for 3 Maynard Road does not provide any clues. Resident
at that time were Frank W Drinkwater, Head, 38, Married; Mary A Drinkwater,
Wife, 40; Fanny (?) E Bloxsom, Sister, 44, Single; Sarah (?) Bloxsom, Sister, 35,
Single. They worked respectively as a Draper on own account; the sisters were in
the Hosiery Trade, Linker (?); born in York and Leicester. So no obvious
Camberwell links.

Leslie William McDonough is my father.

In July-September 1919 Rose Alice gives birth to Daisy Helene Knight (Knight
surname given at birth, before her marriage to Albert Knight in Jan-Mar 1921.) So
at this point Rose Alice is presumably living with Albert Knight. The war has
ended and Herbert is presumably back in England.
7 July 1920 Herbert makes an Attestation (availability for army service after
active service) giving personal details that omit any reference to Rose Alice or his
son or daughter. He gives his address as his sisters house, 13 Rectory Road,
Parsons Green.

On 3 January 1921 Rose Alice marries an Albert Knight as Alice Rose in the
Camberwell Register Office, describing herself as 27 years old, without
profession, and a Widow. Albert Knight is Training for Agricultural Work, with his
father given as deceased, former profession Printer. James Jeffs is Alices father,
a Gas Fitter; all are resident at 260 Commercial Road. The witnesses appear to
be given as G.J. Jeffs and D.E. Connor; this must however be Charles J. Jeffs,
Roses brother, and Charless wife, Daisy E Connor.
How is Rose able to describe herself as Widow on 3 January 1921? Herbert
McDonough is known to have been alive on 7 July 1920 when he signed his
military service Attestation, resident then with his sister Rose Hills as 13 Rectory
Road. We find a Herbert Richard McDonough in the 1921 Electoral Register for
1921 for that address (along with Leonard Watkin Hills), published in the autumn
of that year, with a publication date of 15 October 1921. In theory the qualifying
date for inclusion in the register is residence at the given address in July or July
of that year, so if the registers data is genuinely sourced from evidence of
Herberts presence at 13 Rectory Road in June or July 1921, Rose contracts a
bigamous marriage, confusing matters by reversing her given names. Charles
Jeffs also witnesses as G. J. Jeffs rather than C.J. Jeffs; the G is quite distinct
on the certificate.
On 11 April 1921 Rose Alice emigrates to Canada with Albert, taking with them
Roses daughter with Herbert, Stella Rosetta McDonough, and Daisy Helene
Knight, her daughter conceived before her marriage with Albert, leaving behind
Leslie William McDonough in the care of her father, James Jeffs.
Rose goes on to have six further children with Albert in Canada before dying in
Niagara Falls, Canada, in February 1939. As far as we know she never saw her
son Leslie William again.
Was there a divorce between Rose Alice and Herbert Richard McDonough? No
apparent record can be found. Did she deliberately re-marry as Alice R. and
emigrate with the same name to conceal a previous marriage? Where did
Herbert go after 1921 (he is on the electoral register with his brother-in-law in
1921).
Searches for any evidence of a Herbert McDonough born 1890 after this date
bring up just two possibilities; a marriage April-June 1938 with Kathleen M (May?)
Dimmock, Lambeth 1d 734. A Kathleen Dimmock lived with her parents (?) at 49
Dawlish Street, SW8 (now Luscombe Way) in 1934; along with Edwin William
Dimmock and John Henry Dimmock.
When the 1921 Census records are released, we will be able to see exactly where
my father was staying, and under what name. It may be by that time he has
taken the surname Jeffs (but by then only being four years old would not have
been going to school?), and lives in the James Jeffs household at 260 Commercial
Road with his grandfather and grandmother. By 1921 the aunts and uncles had
moved on: Esther married in July 1914, Charles would marry in June 1921; only
Alice (then aged 17) may still have lived at home.

It is astonishing that it is in some ways easier to find out about family history up
until around 1911 via online sources than it is to trace what happened to my
father up until my birth in 1946. The UK 1921 Census is still locked; the 1931
Census was lost during the second world war; there was no 1941 Census, and
then of course many other records are inaccessible due to the 100-year rule.
In brief, I believe my father lived in the Camberwell area up until around 1939;
he served in the Second World War, and met and married my mother Doris
Margaret Murphy (Rimington) in September 1943. I was born in August 1946, and
he continued to work and live in the Barnet, north London area until his death in
May 1980. I can recollect visiting the 260 Commercial Road house where my
great grandfather James Jeffs (1867-1945) had lived, to visit his second wife Lucy
Hughes.

Frank Jeffs
Last updated 11 March 2016

Appendix I
Lacemaking in Buckinghamshire
Lacemaking (pillow lace) and straw plait making were extremely significant
home-based rural industries in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire up to the
1870s and 1880s. Mechanisation and imports led to a significant level of
competition from the 1870s, and the lacemaking industry became the focus of
philanthropic movements to protect the industry, particularly in the 1880s
onwards.
Rural households in Hillesden, Twyford and adjoining areas often had the wife
described as Lace Maker in mid-19th century censuses. In reality all the
daughters of the household, down to as young as four or five, would be similarly
employed. Children had to learn lacemaking in so-called lace schools from as
young as five or six. Virtually every lacemaking community would have at least
one lace school, run by the female head of a household. Conditions in these
schools were appalling; there is a reference to 20-30 children working in a room
12 feet square.
The income from lacemaking could easily equal that of the male head of
household employed as an agricultural labourer, and also would not have been
subject to the same kind of seasonal variance and harvest uncertainties. A farm
labourer would treat it as a matter of course that his daughters would be sent to
a lace school from four or five years old, and that they would work as long a day
as the farm labourer himself. Younger children worked some four to eight hours a
day; 12 to 15 year olds worked possibly between 6am and 10pm. They were bent
over the lacemaking cushion in cramped and stuffy surroundings, and the close
nature of the work damaged their sight.

From the late 1860s a number of pieces of legislation may have contributed to
the decline of the industry that was already occurring as a result of
mechanisation and imported competition. The 1867 Workshop Regulation Act
stipulated that no child was to be employed in any handicraft below the age of
eight; 8-13 year olds could work only half-time, and had to attend elementary
school 10 hours a week. How effectively this was implemented is another matter.
The 1870 Education Act stipulated that all children should attend a proper
school; the scattered nature of these settlements and the distances involved
would have made this also very difficult to achieve. The Elementary Education
Acts of 1876 and 1880 potentially led to further declines in child labour. Hillesden
Church End did have a school however; the older part of the schoolhouse has an
external date plaque of 18**.
There was a distinct decline in the numbers of female lacemakers aged 5-9 in
Buckinghamshire: in 1851, 621 could be totalled; in 1861, 351; by 1871 as few
as 178. The total of female pillow lacemakers in Buckinghamshire declined from
8077 in 1871 to 4482 in 1881. Lacemaking was also taught in Buckinghamshire
workhouses; by 1872 this had ended.
Was this significant decline in household income a factor in families leaving
Hillesden and the surrounding districts from the late 1860s and into the 1870s?
Other factors can be added in: in 1868 the Verney Junction station opened a few
miles to the south-east of Hillesden, giving easier access to Aylesbury, Oxford
and beyond. In 1867 the Second Reform Act extended the vote to working men.
The early 1870s saw the advent of cheap American grain. Industry was growing
nearby: the printing industry in Aylesbury was growing, needing apprentices in
1867. A condensed milk company set up by the canal in Tring in 1870.
When James Jeffs at age 18 or 19 was resident in his sisters house (that of John
Stuchbury) in Hillesden in 1861, his sister is recorded as a Lace Maker; all the
households either side of the entry for the Stuchbury household similarly have
lace makers, and it can be assumed that any daughter described as Scholar in
these census entries is more likely to be involved in the household lacemaking
activity than attending school. James then married Jane Stevens, also from a
lacemaking household, where her mother and five sisters can all be assumed to
have worked in that trade at the time of the 1861 Census. By 1871 everything
had changed; James married Jane in 1863; they had three children in Hillesden
and then left by 1869 for Camberwell, together with Janes widowed mother, her
sister Elizabeth and her brother Henry. In 1871 James dies, leaving the eight
Hillesden-born (except Kate, born in London) survivors presumably without any
bread-winner. Lacemaking experience was not likely to have been of any use in
1871 Camberwell, so exactly how did they manage? There were however other
relatives nearby. Were Jane, her mother (51) and her siblings (14 and 10 years
old) able to easily find work around the Old Kent Road in the early 1870s?