Alfred Finch (1842-1911) and Ellen Young (1841-1909).
My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunt.
Born in 1842, Alfred Finch was baptised on 1 May that year at St Mary’ Church in Reigate, Surrey. He was one of Henry Finch and Jane Bashford’s many children and was brought up in the town.
By the time of the 1861 census he had moved to live in Croydon, Surrey, and was working as a bricklayer’s labourer, lodging with John and Fanny Wood, but on 4 June 1864 he married Ellen Young at St Mary’s parish church in Lewisham, now in South London. Their address at the time was nearby at Rushey Green in Catford. Ellen was baptised at St John’s Church in Shirley, Surrey, on 10 October 1841 to labourer James Young and his wife Mary.
The census records for 1871 and 1881 show that Alfred was working as a baker, living latterly at 4 Briant Street in New Cross. This had previously been known as Henry Street – the address given for him in 1871. He had switched jobs by the 1891 census and was working as a builder, living at 50 Darfield Road in Brockley. It was doubtless a good place to be working as a builder too as extensive development was going on in the neighbourhood at the time. Maps of the era show nearby Brockley Hall and Brockley Farm being encircled by new streets of housing, so perhaps Alfred was working on those new estates? Ten years later he had moved round the corner to Lindal Road. This part of Brockley came to be known as Crofton Park with the coming of the railway.
Alfred’s wife Ellen died in 1909 and was buried at Brockley Cemetery on 1 September that year. At the 1911 census widower Alfred was retired and living at 41 Brockley Grove with his daughter Ellen and her husband Alfred Harrison, a postal worker who was listed as the head of the house. Also with them on census night were Alfred’s other daughter Edith and his daughter-in-law Hester. As can be seen below, his children did have a complex set of relationships.
Alfred died on 9 July 1911 and was buried in plot 12003 at Brockley Cemetery with his wife. Later his daughters Agnes and Ellen would be buried with them. He left a will and probate was granted to his daughters Edith and Ellen, who were also appointed trustees. He left effects worth £905 17s.
His will is a curious document and hints that all was not well between Alfred and his only son Arthur who, for a start, was not appointed an executor. Alfred left his silver watch to his grandson Harold Harrison, daughter of Ellen, and his iron safe to the wife (Florence) of his nephew Alfred Finch. His estate was divided between his five surviving children so that Ellen received £250, Edith £205, Agnes £250 and Mary Rose £205. Arthur’s share, however, was to be held by his sisters and trustees Ellen and Edith and invested wisely in order to earn an income. Arthur was only to be paid a maximum of £30 a year from the income/and or capital by the trustees, all of which suggests he couldn’t be trusted to look after his inheritance. As noted below, a distant relative on Ancestry.co.uk relates that he was an alcoholic who’d split with his family.
Alfred and Ellen had a large family:
- Ellen Ada Finch (1865-1948) was born in Deptford and married local man and builder’s son Alfred Edwin Harrison at St Mary’s in Lewisham in 1895. They had a family and settled in Lewisham while he worked as a sorter with the Post Office. The 1921 census and 1939 Register recorded them at Everton Road, Croydon. Life must’ve been awkward for Ellen at times as her sister Edith married Alfred’s brother Augustus (see below), but then he ended up with another of her sisters after that marriage went sour. She died on 6 June 1948.
- Agnes Eliza Finch (1869-????) was raised in Deptford and remained unmarried. She was living in Lewisham in 1911 and was then recorded as a visitor at a house in Horsham, Sussex, in the 1921 census, representing the Hospitals Welfare Society. I’ve not confirmed a death date for her.
- Edith Harriet Finch (1872-1940) was raised in Deptford married builder Augustus Robert Harrison in 1896 in Lewisham. They were living at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 1901 but by 1911 he was living in Tring, Hertfordshire, with her sister Mary while Edith was staying with her sister Ellen’s family in Lewisham. As noted below, it appears her marriage failed and her husband had started a relationship with Mary. Edit was a widow and described as incapacitated at the time of the 1939 Register, when she was living with her sister Ellen in Croydon, Surrey. She died in 1940.
- Arthur Henry Finch (1875-????) was born in New Cross and married Hester Elizabeth Prior of Bermondsey in 1897. They had two children and he worked as a bricklayer, the family living in Brockley, Sydenham and Forest Hill in what’s now South London. Arthur was alone in the 1911 census while his wife and children were with relatives. Family comments on Ancestry.co.uk suggest that he had an alcohol problem and that he’d walked out on his young family. Hester died in May 1935, still described as the wife of Arthur and a resident of Trilby Road, Forest Hill. I’ve yet to find a death record for Arthur.
- Mary Rose Finch (1877-1926) was born in New Cross. I’ve traced her to 1901 when she was listed with her sister Edith in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and then to 1911 in Tring, Hertfordshire, when she was with Edith’s husband Augustus Robert Harrison and one of his sons. Ten years later in 1921 she was still with Augustus and staying at the home of her sister Ellen and her husband Alfred – Augustus’s brother! I suspect that Augustus and Edith had split. Could the child who was present in the later two census returns actually have been Mary’s. In the early 1920s several electoral rolls for the Chelmsford district in Essex listed Augustus with Mary Rose, but her surname was given as Harrison. No marriage for the couple has been found. His death was registered in Chelmsford in 1924. The death of a Mary Rose Harrison was registered there in 1926.
- Lily May Finch (1879-1882) was baptised in Deptford and buried in Lewisham.
Many years later, in 2007, I moved to live in Brockley and stayed there for several years. With my partner, we often explored the cemetery looking for Alfred’s grave. To date, I’ve yet to find it or that of his wife Ellen.
Sources: Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk for BMD and census info, Surrey Family History Centre (Woking). Probate office for wills.