Henry Finch (1801-1885) and Jane Bashford (1806-1885).
My 3rd great-grandparents.
Henry Finch was born on 6 February 1801 and christened on 22 March that year at Limpsfield Parish Church in Surrey, the son of Thomas Finch and Ann Burley.
Some of his siblings were also christened in the village but others were baptised in Reigate. Why? Assuming I haven’t muddled two separate families, it could be that Ann was choosing to stay with her mother, who came from Limpsfield, for the birth of at least some of her children. This was not unusual at the time. However, there’s also evidence that Henry’s father Thomas was renting land in the area.
Henry married Chipstead girl Jane Bashford at St Mary’s in Reigate on 8 April 1826. Jane was born on 13 May 1806 in Chipstead, Surrey, and baptised on 15 June that year. Her parents were James Bashford and Jane Harman. She spent much of her life having children, including triplets and twins.
By the 1841 census the family was living in London Lane, Reigate, which later became London Road.
The Tithe Apportionments for Reigate around this time mention a Henry Finch, who could be our man. In 1836 tithes were still payable in the majority of parishes in England and Wales but in that year the government decided to commute them (ie to substitute money payments for payments in kind) throughout the country. Henry was assessed as occupying a cottage and garden of about 18 perches belonging to Samuel Relf, a local businessman who built a brewery on Reffels Bridge and became landlord of the White Hart in Bell Street. Relf was involved in controversy after the election of Reigate’s MP in 1865, when he was interviewed over allegations of bribery. At that time, asked what he was in business, he replied: “Something between a tradesman and a gentleman; neither one nor not quite the other.”
The 1851 census listed Henry as living in ‘the Foreign of Reigate’ as an agricultural labourer. Subsequent censuses show the family switching between London Road and Reigate Hill, Henry described as a labourer.
Henry died on 22 January 1885, the same day as his wife Jane, and while living back on Reigate Hill. According to his death certificate he’d been suffering from diarrhoea for 24 hours but also had senile debility, like his wife. Jane, meanwhile, had been suffering from pneumonia for five days. Their son Henry was with them when they died.
Henry Snr left effects worth £135, which would be worth about £6,500 today according to the National Archives’ converter. His will, dated 1873, left all his property to his wife but in the case of her death it would be divided equally between his surviving children. Probate was granted on 22 February 1885 to his second son Henry, a gardener of the Cottage, Wray Common, Reigate.
Henry and Jane had at least 11 children:
- Maria Finch (1829–1868), my 2nd great-grand aunt. She married and raised a family but died young.
- James Finch (1831–1900), my 2nd great-grand uncle. An agricultural labourer, James married but his wife died in 1881.
- Henry Finch (1834–1919), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Henry lived in Reigate and worked as a gardener.
- Isaac Finch (1837–1896), my 2nd great-grand uncle. My 2nd great-grandfather, he was a bricklayer.
- Abraham Finch (1837–????), my 2nd great-grand uncle. He served with the British Army in India, and apparently emigrated to America.
- Jacob Finch (1837–????), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Jacob signed up to serve in the Royal Navy but I’ve not been able to trace him after this.
- Jane Finch (1839–1884), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Jane was born in 1839 and baptised on 11 August that year at St Mary’s Church in Reigate. By the 1861 census she was living at the home of William and Sarah Linley in Gough Square, London, working as a servant. Linley was in the silver electroplating business. By 1871, she had moved to George Street, Croydon, Surrey, to work as a servant for the Hammans – a retired lieutenant colonel and his two sisters aged in their 70s and 80s. Later in 1871 – on 10 September – Jane married Croydon-born gardener George Lovejoy at St John’s Church in his home town. Ten years later the couple were living in Warwick Road, Redhill, with their daughters and a niece. George was earning a living as a drayman. Jane died in 1884 and George went on to marry a Louisa Stoner and have more children, working as a labourer for the borough council. He died in Reigate in April 1924. Jane and George’s children were:
- Alice Jane Lovejoy. Born in Reigate in 1874, Alice worked as a domestic servant for much of her life and remained single. She died in 1953.
- Louisa Lovejoy. Born in 1877, Louisa worked as a servant and then married William Joseph Gunstone in 1904. He died in 1910 and she then married William Watling in Reigate in 1914. She died in 1934.
- Alfred Finch (1842–1911), my 2nd great-grand uncle. He became a builder and lived and died in Brockley, south east London.
- George Finch (1845–1879), my 2nd great-grand uncle. George was the father of Bertram Finch, who went on to found venerable Reigate business Finch Cycles.
- Peter Finch (1845–1891), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Peter and his family emigrated to Australia and lived in the Sydney suburbs.
- Isabella Finch (1848–1934), my 2nd great-grand aunt. She died after a nasty accident with a cyclist.
Sources: All data has been gathered from Ancestry.co.uk, FindMyPast.co.uk, the British Newspaper Archive and visits to Surrey Family History Centre in Woking.