The stowe's
William Stowe, a tailor by trade, was living in Scotland in 1808 when his son Thomas was born. This information has come from the marriage record when Thomas Stowe married his second wife Louisa Jones in 1850. At present, nothing more is known about William or his wife,Thomas's mother, but by 1837 Thomas has married a lass named Elizabeth Borrowman.
I have not been able to find a marriage for them nor a 1841 census which is a great pity because it may have shed a little more light on who Elizabeth was or where she came from but sadly she died 22 January 1850 aged just 36 from cronic bronchitis and emphysema whilst living at 7 Pitt Street, St. Pancras. This puts her date of birth as 1814.
From the information taken from the 1851 census we find that she had a number of children. Margaret, born on 29 August 1837 at Great Boughton, Chester, and christened on 17 September the same year, in the parish of the Holy Trinity in the city of Chester. Margaret's baptism record is shown below, the family address is 'Brittish entry' (I think) which could indicate that they were not residents of the City of Chester however, the General Registry Office (GRO) puts her birth location as Great Boughton.
Their next child was Thomas born at the end of 1839 by which time they had moved to London and were living in St. James, Westminster, but sadly little Thomas died at just a few month old.
Our fore father, William Stowe, was the next to be born on the 13 May 1841 in Berwick Street, St James, Westminster. Below is the entry for Margaret in 1837 and below that, our William in 1841.
I have not been able to find a marriage for them nor a 1841 census which is a great pity because it may have shed a little more light on who Elizabeth was or where she came from but sadly she died 22 January 1850 aged just 36 from cronic bronchitis and emphysema whilst living at 7 Pitt Street, St. Pancras. This puts her date of birth as 1814.
From the information taken from the 1851 census we find that she had a number of children. Margaret, born on 29 August 1837 at Great Boughton, Chester, and christened on 17 September the same year, in the parish of the Holy Trinity in the city of Chester. Margaret's baptism record is shown below, the family address is 'Brittish entry' (I think) which could indicate that they were not residents of the City of Chester however, the General Registry Office (GRO) puts her birth location as Great Boughton.
Their next child was Thomas born at the end of 1839 by which time they had moved to London and were living in St. James, Westminster, but sadly little Thomas died at just a few month old.
Our fore father, William Stowe, was the next to be born on the 13 May 1841 in Berwick Street, St James, Westminster. Below is the entry for Margaret in 1837 and below that, our William in 1841.
Our family line comes through William Stowe, born 13 May 1841 in Berwick Street, St James, Westminster and christened on 27 June the same year.
Other children of Thomas and Elizabeth are Robert born 19 Dec 1843 in St James and Agnes Mary 20 Feb 1846 in St Pancras. Two other children show up on the next couple of census returns, 1851 and 1861, Sarah born 1844 and Joseph born 1847 but interestingly, the GRO have no records for either births!
After the death of Elizabeth in January and with a family to look after, Thomas Stowe wastes no time in remarrying and so on the 30 December the same year he weds Louisa Jones, originally from Birmingham but now in St Pancras London. By the time of the 1851 census the family is living at 15 Crown Street, Westminster. There is no Sarah in this census whereas she is in the next but our William is here.
Marked in blue is Berwick Street where William was born in 1841 and in red is Crown Street where they were in 1851. By the 1861 census they have moved to King Street ( marked in green) which is where they seem to have stayed.
A few facts about Berwick Street where William was born. It was originally built at the beginning of the 18th century and several of the still remaining buildings date from the 1730s. The Green Man pub occupies a site which has been a tavern since 1738 and so must have been known to our Family. The antique lighting shop W. Sitch & Co is the oldest shop in Soho and has been located on Berwick Street since the 1870s. Their fittings have been widely used in films including 'Titanic' and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.
Street trading in Berwick Street probably started in the late 1770s when shopkeepers displayed their wares on the pavements, but it was not officially recognised as a market until 1892. Many French Huguenots, Greeks and Italians lived in the area and by the 1890s many had opened eating houses serving their native cuisines. As the market traders attempted to supply the ingredients, Berwick Street Market earned a reputation for selling a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. It was here in 1880 that the first tomatoes appeared in London and grapefruit followed in 1890. Right, is a picture of Berwick Street and its market in the 1900's.
However, before we allow ourselves to get carried away with any kind of romantic notion of life in Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with 'night soil', graveyards teemed with rotting corpses and the air was choked with smoke. By the 1850's, St James, the district that Berwick Street was in, was the most thickly populated area in London. The overcrowded and unhealthy conditions culminated in several Cholera outbreaks, taking over 700 lives and led to an effort to replace some of the decaying houses with new ones.
Street trading in Berwick Street probably started in the late 1770s when shopkeepers displayed their wares on the pavements, but it was not officially recognised as a market until 1892. Many French Huguenots, Greeks and Italians lived in the area and by the 1890s many had opened eating houses serving their native cuisines. As the market traders attempted to supply the ingredients, Berwick Street Market earned a reputation for selling a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. It was here in 1880 that the first tomatoes appeared in London and grapefruit followed in 1890. Right, is a picture of Berwick Street and its market in the 1900's.
However, before we allow ourselves to get carried away with any kind of romantic notion of life in Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with 'night soil', graveyards teemed with rotting corpses and the air was choked with smoke. By the 1850's, St James, the district that Berwick Street was in, was the most thickly populated area in London. The overcrowded and unhealthy conditions culminated in several Cholera outbreaks, taking over 700 lives and led to an effort to replace some of the decaying houses with new ones.
It was during the cholera outbreak of August 1854 in Soho that one of the leading physicians of the day, John Snow, (pictured left) was able to identify the cause of the disease. After careful investigation, including plotting cases of cholera on a map of the area, he was able to identify a water pump in Broad Street as the source of the disease. He had the handle of the pump removed, and cases of cholera immediately began to diminish.
This is a copy of John Snows cholera map. Ringed with green is Broad Street where the pump was located. In red is Berwick Street where our family lived, right in the heart of the danger zone, and in yellow is Peter Street. I mention Peter Street only because it sat at the end of Berwick Street and in the 1830's it was described as 'a short and dirty street'. So much progress was made during the next sixty years that by the 1890's it was described as a road of ‘wretched hovels, and a disgrace to humanity’! As a result, the land was cleared to make way for the Pulteney School.
Little wonder then that our family should want to move first to Crown Street and then as that area was cleared for redevelopment on to 37 King Street, St Giles, as shown on the 1861 census below. Margaret and William are both missing in this census, Margaret married Henry Brown in 1860 and we know that our William has joined up with Agnes Elizabeth Frew.
This is the 1861 census for William and Agnes and shows them living at 30 Dudley Street and no children.
Now, here comes the tricky bit.
On the 6 November 1826 in Shoreditch Sarah Tuckey and Thomas Frew, a shipwright, married and had at least two daughters, Agnes Elizabeth born 1829 and Mary born 1832.
Agnes Elizabeth Frew married Alfred McElwain, a tailor, on 22 May 1853. They had one son, William Alexander McElwain born April 1853 in St Giles but died of bronchitus October 1858 when he was four years old. The only record that I can find for a Alfred McElwain puts him with the Army as a tailor in India in 1855.
Meanwhile, Agnes's sister Mary Frew married George Henry Latham on 9 April 1855 at Holborn Reg. Office with Agnes Elizabeth McElwain as a witness. Mary and Henry had no children and Henry dies in 1868.
It would seem that Agnes has possibly been left by her husband and following the death of her son has taken up with our William because in this 1861 census they are shown as a married couple, though I don't believe that they ever were. They had three children together, interestingly their first son, born August 1861 just after the census, should also be called William Alexander! Their other children are Thomas Henry Arthur and Jessie Alice Elizabeth.
Between the two census years 1861 and 1871, Agnes moves in with Thomas and Louisa and William marries her sister Mary Latham on 10 July 1870. They would go on to have three children of their own before William dies in 1875 aged just 34 of T.B. and it is Williams older sister Margaret who was present at his death at 29 Kings Street, Long Acre and not his wife Mary!
In 1873 Agnes married Joseph Lucas and she is recorded as a spinster, useing combination of both her maiden name, Frew, and that of her children by William, and calls herself Frewstowe.
Now, here comes the tricky bit.
On the 6 November 1826 in Shoreditch Sarah Tuckey and Thomas Frew, a shipwright, married and had at least two daughters, Agnes Elizabeth born 1829 and Mary born 1832.
Agnes Elizabeth Frew married Alfred McElwain, a tailor, on 22 May 1853. They had one son, William Alexander McElwain born April 1853 in St Giles but died of bronchitus October 1858 when he was four years old. The only record that I can find for a Alfred McElwain puts him with the Army as a tailor in India in 1855.
Meanwhile, Agnes's sister Mary Frew married George Henry Latham on 9 April 1855 at Holborn Reg. Office with Agnes Elizabeth McElwain as a witness. Mary and Henry had no children and Henry dies in 1868.
It would seem that Agnes has possibly been left by her husband and following the death of her son has taken up with our William because in this 1861 census they are shown as a married couple, though I don't believe that they ever were. They had three children together, interestingly their first son, born August 1861 just after the census, should also be called William Alexander! Their other children are Thomas Henry Arthur and Jessie Alice Elizabeth.
Between the two census years 1861 and 1871, Agnes moves in with Thomas and Louisa and William marries her sister Mary Latham on 10 July 1870. They would go on to have three children of their own before William dies in 1875 aged just 34 of T.B. and it is Williams older sister Margaret who was present at his death at 29 Kings Street, Long Acre and not his wife Mary!
In 1873 Agnes married Joseph Lucas and she is recorded as a spinster, useing combination of both her maiden name, Frew, and that of her children by William, and calls herself Frewstowe.
According to the census of 1861, London contained a population of 2.8 million people living in upwards of 10,500 streets. lanes, squares, etc. To provide for so enormous an aggregate of men, women, and children, 24,000 tailors and 42,000 dressmakers and milliners were employed and our little family were part of that great crowd.
The 1871 census (below) shows that Thomas and Louisa are still living in King Street. Young Thomas, son of second wife Louisa, is still at home but now also living with them is our Williams deserted partner Agnes and their three children. Notice how Agnes is described as 'Head' and not widowed!
It appears that both his father and step mother, Thomas and Louisa, died in the year 1877, Louisa in January and Thomas in July. And so our family line continues thus:
Thomas Henry Frew = Sarah Tucky
l
William Stowe = Agnes Elizabeth Frew
b.1841 d.1875 b.1829 d.1882
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William Alexander Thomas H A Jessie Alice
b.1861 b.1863 d.1918 b.1865
The 1871 census (below) shows that Thomas and Louisa are still living in King Street. Young Thomas, son of second wife Louisa, is still at home but now also living with them is our Williams deserted partner Agnes and their three children. Notice how Agnes is described as 'Head' and not widowed!
It appears that both his father and step mother, Thomas and Louisa, died in the year 1877, Louisa in January and Thomas in July. And so our family line continues thus:
Thomas Henry Frew = Sarah Tucky
l
William Stowe = Agnes Elizabeth Frew
b.1841 d.1875 b.1829 d.1882
______________|____________
| | |
William Alexander Thomas H A Jessie Alice
b.1861 b.1863 d.1918 b.1865
Our family line comes through the second child of William and Agnes, Thomas, or to be more correct, Thomas Henry Arthur Stowe, and a copy of his birth certificate is below.
As mentioned earlier, Agnes married in 1873 to her toy boy Joseph Lucas (he is twelve years younger) in St Giles, London. Joseph is also a tailor by trade and was born a British subject in Bohemia, Austria. The census of 1881 puts our little family of five living at 32 Stanhope Street, St Clement Danes. This census is split over two pages and the family is under the surname of 'Lucas'. Number 32 Stanhope Street is home to 8 families, a total of 36 persons!
This is Stanhope Street as it looked in 1907, looking north, with Denzell Street off on the right. I would not had thought that it had changed much in the twenty five intervening years. Number 32 is unfortunately on the side of the street that is not shown in this picture but would probably be opposite the horse and cart. By 1912 this street and a lot of others in this area were cleared away to make way for the new Aldwych and Kingsway redevelopment.
I have found no evidence of any children from this new marriage but sadly by the winter of 1881/2, Agnes dies aged about 53 and therefore never gets to see Thomas marry Eliza McKenzie (Blaksley) just a few months later on 28 May 1882 in the parish church of St Clement Danes. The two witnesses are Eliza's step father Alexander McKenzie and Albertine Brockob who would go on to marry Thomas's elder brother, William Alexander Stowe, a year later.
I have found no evidence of any children from this new marriage but sadly by the winter of 1881/2, Agnes dies aged about 53 and therefore never gets to see Thomas marry Eliza McKenzie (Blaksley) just a few months later on 28 May 1882 in the parish church of St Clement Danes. The two witnesses are Eliza's step father Alexander McKenzie and Albertine Brockob who would go on to marry Thomas's elder brother, William Alexander Stowe, a year later.
And this is the parish church of St Clement Danes as it looked in 1900. It is one of Sir Christopher Wrens church's, built in 1644, but severely damaged by bombing in 1941, only the spire and outer walls were left standing. It was rebuilt to the original plans in the 1950's and is now known as the RAF church.
Elisa had been living with her mother and step father in Marquis Court, a narrow ally running of off Drury Lane and right next to Drury Lane Theatre, (marked in red). Drury Lane and Stanhope Street at this point run parallel to each other and are only a couple of hundred yards apart, (location of 32 Stanhope Street in blue and that of St Clement Danes Church in yellow). Thomas H A Stowe and Eliza will go on to have seven children altogether but their lives are not to be entirely happy ones. Their first child, Alexander, is born in 1883 at 23 Margarets Road but by the time that the next three children arrive, including our grandmother Jessie Elizabeth born 23 October 1885, they are at 15 Clare Street, and this is where we find them in the 1891 census along with Thomas' stepfather Joseph Lucas.
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The family will eventually look like this:
Thomas H A Stowe = Eliza McKenzie
__________|__________________________________________
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Alexander Jessie Augusta Emily Thomas Agnes Arthur
Augustus Elizabeth Helena Florence Grace George
b 1882 b 1885 b 1889 b 1892 b1888 b 1902 b 1904
d 1921 d 1946 d 1962 d 1969 d 1889
Thomas H A Stowe = Eliza McKenzie
__________|__________________________________________
| | | | | | |
Alexander Jessie Augusta Emily Thomas Agnes Arthur
Augustus Elizabeth Helena Florence Grace George
b 1882 b 1885 b 1889 b 1892 b1888 b 1902 b 1904
d 1921 d 1946 d 1962 d 1969 d 1889
The Blakesley's ( and Mckenzie's)
I always new my paternal g.grandmother to be Eliza McKenzie and have based my research on that premise. From the 1920's till her death Eliza lived with her daughter Jessie, my grandmother, and therefore with my father so I was aware that her birthday was in February and census records indicated 1866 but I had never been able to locate until now a birth certificate for her.
The widower Alexander McKenzie married a widow named Mary Blakesley (nee Stacey) in 1870 and it now transpires that my g.grandmother was a child from her mothers first marriage to John Atkinson Blakesley and just adopted her stepfathers name.
Working backwards through the census records of 1911, 1901, 1891 and 1881 from a known entity, my grandmother, we get to the census of 1871 when Eliza is just 5 years old.
On the 26 December the previous year, 1870, the widower Alexander McKenzie married the widow Mary Blakesley.