Resume

In the first part of the article (Southward Bound), we traced a branch of the Craxford family from its agricultural roots in rural Northamptonshire to its new home in Southwark, South London. This second episode follows the family through the late Victorian era and onwards into the twentieth century.

A short history of Uxbridge [A]

To the remote observer, the geography and development of Uxbridge can be a confusing one. It has a joint and parallel history with its near neighbour, Hillingdon, which mirrors superficially the situation between Middleton and Cottingham. They both had strong Parliamentary leanings during the Civil War although there was Royalist activity close by. There was even a street called Blind Lane in both places in the 19th century. After the Norman Conquest, an area to the west of London was divided between the manors of Colham and Hillingdon. The first mention of a settlement which was to become Uxbridge was made in 1107 in Colham. The population varied over the centuries but many civic and ecclesiastical functions were overseen from Hillingdon. The boundaries of Uxbridge were not formally defined until 1727. It remained a chapelry of Hillingdon until the 19th century by which time it had far outstripped its mother parish in size and was created a parish in its own right.

Uxbridge sits astride the main road from London to Oxford and was also an important river crossing. Hillingdon was mainly rural and supported much agriculture. Uxbridge opened a market, built mills to process the flour, established breweries and expanded as a regional centre for trade. Its prosperity increased further towards the end of the 18th century with the construction of the Grand Junction Canal which ultimately linked Birmingham to the river Thames. It is estimated that three quarters of the capital's flour passed through the town. As part of this expansion a new Market House was built on the High Street which opened in 1789. The population tripled between 1782 and 1841.

Uxbridge was a strategic halt for travellers to and from London (some two hours distant). Traffic through the town centre became very heavy. At one time, 80 stagecoaches passed through every day. The poor condition of the roads led to the introduction of turnpikes and the imposition of road usage tolls. In the 18th century the town boasted two breweries and it is estimated that 25% of the population worked in the food and drinks trade. By the 1850s, the brewery count had risen to five with a total of 54 public houses and inns.

Trade peaked during the 1830s but then the position of Uxbridge as a major market town collapsed. There were many reasons but the most potent cause was the coming of the railway. The planners of the Great Western Railway (GWR) took the line to West Drayton missing Uxbridge completely. Goods could be transported more quickly and efficiently by rail which led to the demise of the canal. GWR branch lines from the north and south were subsequently built but by that time the damage was done. There had been some development of brick making during the construction of the Canal and iron works produced goods for local consumption However, Uxbridge was not to become an industrial town. There was continued decline through the middle decades of the 19th century. The 1880s were noted for their water shortages, slum housing and lack of sanitation.

The beginning of the 20th century saw Uxbridge described as a sleepy backwater. However, 1904 saw the start of a renaissance with the opening of a branch of the Metropolitan railway line. In 1933 this was joined by the Piccadilly line and a new terminus for the London Underground was built as part of a slum clearence scheme. The town also became a tram and trolleybus terminus from west London. Uxbridge saw increasing traffic and trade, once more becoming an attractive place of residence for people moving out from the capital.

Uxbridge, the final chapter

In the latter half of the 1860s, David and Ann Craxford made the journey west to Uxbridge where it appears they found themselves in the midst of the town's decline. Their first dwelling was No.11, Belmont Road, a side street which opened into the High Street in the centre of town. He established himself as a carrier running his business from his home address. A carrier was the driver of a horse-drawn vehicle used for the transportation goods (23). A trade directory from 1874 (24) documents his daily schedule to the Old Bell Inn Yard in Warwick Street (in the lee of St Paul's Cathedral) in the City of London: a distance of about 18 miles. It does appear that he had a variety of conveyances, both two- and four- horse, available to him as this sale by auction notice would confirm.

By 1881, David and Ann had moved their home and the business to Cowley Road near the junction with Wellington Road. Whether by accident or design, his next door neighbours, the veterinarian practice of Henry and William Hancock, would have been beneficial to his livestock. At the same time, his sister Elizabeth left Geddington, Northamptonshire to live with them. Now aged 51 years, she never married and continued to work as a dressmaker. They were able to employ Ann Vernon, a 22 year old single girl from Buckinghamshire, as a general domestic servant.

After the death of both her parents, Elizabeth (the daughter of Charles Read and Ann Craxford) came to join her aunt and uncle at Cowley Road. She met iron moulder and widower, Job Sparke. He was originally from Leiston, Suffolk, a place not far from the coastal town of Aldeburgh. Job had previously married Elizabeth Weldon from Abdingdon, Oxfordshire, in the winter of 1864 and settled in Uxbridge. She was twelve years his senior. They lived in Foundry Terrace until she died in the Spring of 1888. Elizabeth Craxford and Job Sparke were married at St Andrews Church, Hillingdon, on May 24th 1890. David Craxford was one of the witnesses. They set up home in Grove Road, not far from Uxbridge Iron Works. They had two daughters (Mabel Elizabeth in 1891 and Lilian Gertrude in 1892) and a son (Herbert Job in 1895). Sadly, Herbert died before his second birthday. A little later Job and Elizabeth moved the family to a cottage on St Andrews, the main route into Uxbridge from the south, just before entrance to Bonsey's Yard and opposite the end of Vine Street.

Sometime after the death of her husband, Joseph, Louisa Cox moved to Uxbridge and set up home in an apartment at 8, New Windsor Street very close to the town centre. It seems that her younger daughter Mary Ann moved with her. Mary Ann met compositor James Edward Joynes and they were married in the town in 1890. For a short time they too lived in a house in Foundry Terrace. Towards the end of the decade James undertook theological training and became a Baptist Minister. By the turn of the century, they moved back to Islington where James established his ministry. They had no children of their own but initially looked after the young daughter of James' brother, William Joynes, who was also a Baptist Minister.

Ann had not been in the best of health and had suffered from the effects of chronic rhematism for over 20 years. She died on December 15th 1890 after a short episode of acute bronchitis. Throughout the decade David maintained his carrier business and diversified his activities as a fly proprietor (26) A fly was a two-wheel horse-drawn carriage or light covered vehicle, especially one let out for hire for pleasure purposes.

Towards the turn of the century, now in his mid 70s, David finally retired and turned over the business to William Hancox. He and Elizabeth moved to Windsor Terrace, a row of three houses which had been built on New Windsor Street in 1893, a few doors away from their sister.

With the inevitability of advancing years, the brother and two sisters amalgamated their resources into the Windsor Terrace property which had been renumbered 17, New Windsor Street. To provide some companionship and help around the house, Louisa's granddaughter, Lilian Roberta Fuller, was invited to move to Uxbridge to live with them. Elizabeth's health had been failing for some years too. She suffered a stroke in the early months of 1906 which left her paralysed on her left side. She died after three months on May 6th 1906. Louisa was soon to follow. She had been subject to asthma for some time. She collapsed from an acute pulmonary condition and died on December 29th 1906. She was aged 83 years. Lilian registered her death.

By the same year the Sparke family had moved ten miles to the south east to the London riverside district of Brentford. Job died there in 1907. Both daughters went into service; Edith as a general domestic, Mabel as a house parlour maid. Elizabeth ended her days back in service too. She had her own rooms within the household of Charles Cray, a market garden labourer, at Linkfield Road, Isleworth. She died in the Spring of 1913.

David and Lilian lived on at New Windsor Street for another seven years. He died from bronchitis on January 28th 1914 in his 89th year. Lilian was present when he died. The house where they lived is now managed by an Uxbridge based charitable trust.

Of interments ...

The four main characters of this story remain at rest in Uxbridge. Over a space of fourteen years, Ann, Elizabeth, Louisa and David were buried at the Hillingdon & Uxbridge Cemetery, a large area of land on Hillingdon Hill to the south of Uxbridge. They share gravespace P13 which is part of an unconsecrated plot close to the entrance gate and chapels. The explanation for this is as follows: "When most cemeteries were designed certain parts were formally blessed by dignitaries of the Church of England, thereby consecrating the ground prior to burial. However, it was also recognised that persons from other religious denominations such as Roman Catholics and Methodists would also wish to be buried in the cemeteries, therefore some areas were left unconsecrated by the Church of England. When a burial takes place in an unconsecrated part of the cemetery, the minister representing the religious belief of the deceased will conduct a service at the graveside, thereby blessing that individual grave at the time of burial." (29). Details of the cemetery and a site map can be found by this link to the cemetery page.

Continued in column 2...

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... And testaments

Ann Craxford wrote her will in June 1888, some three years before she died. She used it to reinforce the codicils contained in her own father's last testament dated September 1877 regarding the dispersement of his residuary estate. The beneficiaries were her brothers and their descendents. There is no mention of her own belongings or any bequest to her husband, David, in the document. Indeed, it was her brother, John Cox, to whom probate was granted in March 1891. The terms of her will may reflect the very contemporaneous changes in the status of women brought about in the United Kingdom with the passing through Parliament of the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882 (30, 31). Prior to those Acts, wives had no rights to own property and could not even write wills. It is likely that there was an assumption between David and Ann that their shared assets would pass straight to David on her death.

Elizabeth Craxford had only a small estate (£235.9.9d gross) and her will was correspondingly brief. She wrote the document in 1903 appointing her brother, David, the sole executor. After repayment of a debt to him, the residue was divided between her sister, Louisa, and brother, Solomon. Probate was granted in May 2006. Louisa only survived her by six months; Solomon by two years.

David Craxford's will was drawn up in 1906 just after the death of his sister, Elizabeth, and a full eight years before he died. He left his personal property and the contents of the house to his grandniece, Lilian Roberta Fuller, who had lived with him, and presumably taken increasing care of him, since the death of her grandmother, Louisa. It is clear from the provision and distribution of the legacies that he left to his nephews and nieces that he was aware of their progress and had remained in contact with them. He appointed a local firm of solicitors in Uxbridge as his executors and probate was granted on February 17th 1914. A statutory notice regarding claims against the estate was placed in the London Gazette the following week. (32)

Footnote 1: The Welsh Connection

What of John and Ann Craxford's youngest son, Solomon? In the latter half of the 1850s he followed his siblings south to London but his stay in the capital was to be a short one. There he met Ann Knipe from Lydiard Green, near Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire. They were married in Hackney in 1859.

By the spring of 1861 they had made the long trek west to the town of Pontypool in South Wales were he obtained work as a gardener. Over the next thirty years they had several addresses in the district and had five children. It was the perusal of David's will which clarified an apparent anomaly in the Welsh branch of the family tree. Although Solomon's second son was baptised Henry, he went through life by the name of William. Solomon died in 1908, his wife in 1913. Their descendents live in the area to this day.

Footnote 2: Comfort from the Cox family

We have identified the coincidence of a brother and sister marrying into two entirely different families with the same surname (one from Northamptonshire, the other from Devon) already. We do acknowledge that Cox is a very common surname across the country. However, for completeness, we document here two further, and even more curious, unions between the Craxfords and, as yet, unrelated Cox families.

The earliest Cox in Cottingham linked to our tree was Comfort, born about 1750, the daughter of John Cox and Elizabeth Loak of Desborough, Northamptonshire. She married William Tansley in 1771 and in their six years of marriage they had three sons. She died in February 1777. Only her first born John survived to adulthood.

In due time John Tansley married Elizabeth Bull in Cottingham. Among their eight children, second born daughter (born 1808) was named Comfort. On October 20th 1836, Comfort Tansley married James Craxford (the brother of John who married Ann Wilkinson). Theirs, too, was a short union and Comfort died in 1844 after giving birth to one daughter. Named Comfort Craxford, she married Robert Cox, a farm labourer from Raunds, Northamptonshire. As Comfort Cox, she died in the village in 1904.

Confusingly too, there was a second Comfort Tansley in Cottingham in the 1830s. The second son of John and Elizabeth Tansley, James, married Elizabeth Munton in 1820, naming their third daughter Comfort. Prior to their marriage Elizabeth Munton had given birth to a daughter, Ann, Ultimately, Ann Munton married John Claypole, a publican and blacksmith in the village for whom Comfort worked for a time. This relationship leads into the tragic story recounted in Death for threeha'p'orth of suckers in the RED pages.

... And, in 1841, the next door neighbour of John's widow, Ann, in Middleton was Richard Cox. He was a shepherd then in his 70s. He probably represents a fifth unconnected line ...

Footnote 3: The Rapkin connection

Our researches for this story have unearthed the birth certificate of another child born in the early 1880s which does not fit with the known established family tree. Herbert Samuel was born on November 23rd 1882 at Isabella Street, Lambeth, registered as the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Craxford. Elizabeth's maiden name was given as Rapkin. In all our investigations we have not found a Samuel Craxford of the right age living in the south London area who was a carpenter, an Elizabeth Rapkin or a marriage between the Craxford and Rapkin families.

However, Isabella Street is not far away from Waterloo Road, the home of Charles Read and Ann Craxford. Elizabeth Craxford had already given birth to one illegitimate child in early 1881. Could this be a second and she switched the registered names around to save face? There is no further record of Herbert Samuel to indicate that he survived and was absorbed into either of the families. Could he have been left with the Foundlings Hospital or given to a baby farmer? Elizabeth also appears to have had a fixation with the name Herbert given her confusion with her brother's death certificate and the naming of her legitimate son in 1895. Coincidentally too, the 1891 census shows that the household of Samuel Rapkin included a son "Bertie" aged 9 years. Herbert Walter Rapkin was born in 1883 and died in 1892.

Acknowledgements

[A] Inspiration for the section "A Short History of Uxbridge" was gained from the book "Uxbridge Past" by Carolynne Cotton (1994) Historical Publications Ltd. London. ISBN 0 948667 30 3.

We would like to thank Michael Jonas of Sittingbourne Baptist Church and Paul Appleby, Communications Director for the Melton Mowbray Baptist Church for help with the ministry of George David Cox; the Searchroom Staff, Ipswich Record Office regarding records at the Borough Asylum; Eileen Smith of Christchurch, New Zealand for the photographs of the Cox grave site; the Cemeteries Co-ordinator and Administrator at the London Borough of Hillingdon for their help in tracing the Craxford burial site; and John Symons and Gillian May of Hillingdon Family History Society for their critical review and help in pointing our research in the right direction.

Relationships

John Craxford, who married Ann Wilkinson, was the brother of Alan Craxford's great great grandfather William. Phillipa Andrew is related, by marriage, to Isaac who married Edith Alice Cox. Phillipa's husband is Alan's fourth cousin once removed.

References

1. A Walk Through Time In Gretton: The Rockingham Forest Trust
2. Cottingham - Name, size and location: Cottinghamhistory.co.uk A history of the village of Cottingham, Northamptonshire.
3. Freeware Graphics: Vintage Kin Design Studio Australia
4. Twine spinner Rope making Industrial Southwold
5. Register of Baptisms on the Methodist Circuit of Kettering, Northamptonshire from 1811 to 1837: National Archives Reference RG4/901 The Genealogist
6. For more information on the history of Walworth Infirmary and Newington St Mary, Surrey, London see Peter Higginbotham's web site The Workhouse
7. Charles Read Craxford: Admission and Discharge Records: London Poor Law Records: 1834-1940; Southwark Christ Church Admission and Discharge Register 1869-1870 Page 20
8. Charles Read Craxford: Admission and Discharge (Death) Records: London Poor Law Records: 1834-1940; Southwark Newington Westmoreland Road Admission and Discharge Register 1878-1879 Page 197
9. Female Case Book 1870-1912: Ipswich Asylum: ID408/B10/5: Personal Communication: Ipswich Record Office.
10. "20 patients sent to Ipswich Asylum to make room for alterations, May 1878": House Committee minute book number 8 Warley Hospital Administrative Records October 1876 - September 1879 Seax - Essex Archives Online
11. "Boston Poor Law Union seems to have used Ipswich Asylum " Asylums, Lincolnshire Genuki
12. Richard Cox from Abington: Personal communication: Paul Johnson, Northamptonshire Family History Society. November 3rd 2010
13. William Street to Gambia Street: Old to New Street Names (W) 1857-1929 at maps.thehunthouse
14. Preparing Christians for Mission and Ministry: The history of Spurgeon's College
15. Rev GD Cox, Pastor: Minutes of Church Meetings, Melton Mowbray Baptist Church 1880 to 1886.
16. "A Health Resort for Consumptives": Tuberculosis and Immigration to New Zealand, 1880-1914": Linda Bryder: 453-471 1996 Medical History
17. "Convert old money into new". Find out how yesterday's prices compare with today's: Currency Converter at The National Archives
18. The Old Baptist Church, Melton Mowbray: 141 Years of history, 1867-2008. © Melton Mowbray Baptist Church; reproduced with permission.
19. Oamaru Baptist Church: in New Zealand Electronic Text Centre The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts] Ecclesiatical page 519 1905 and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
20. Springston Cemetery, New Zealand: Selwyn Library
21. Charles Cox, grocer in Business Directory of London 1884 - Alphabetical Section COX 153 Historical Directories a University of Leicester Project
22. Sale of horse trappings by auction: The Times 2A Issue 28485 (November 29th 1875)
23. Carrier / Carman: Old Occupation Names - C Hall Genealogy Website.
24. David Craxford, carrier in Post Office Directory 1874 - Middlesex 859-860 Historical Directories a University of Leicester Project
25. St Andrew, Hillingdon Road, Uxbridge. Photograph: © John Salmon, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
26. David Craxford, carrier & fly proprietor, Cowley Road in Kelly's Directory for Essex, Herts & Middx 1894 [Herts & Middx only] 335 Historical Directories a University of Leicester Project
27. James Edward Joynes, Photograph, reproduced courtesy of Spurgeon's College, London
28. Photograph: Entrance Gate Hillingdon & Uxbridge Cemetery: © Rob Emms, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
29. From "Consecrated/Unconsecrated Sections" Burial and Grave Sections, Deaths, funerals and cremations Newcastle City Council.
30. Married Women's Property Act 1870: wikipedia
31. Married Women's Property Act 1882: wikipedia
32. The Estate of David Craxford, deceased: London Gazette 28807 36 February 27th 1914

Page added December 1st 2010
Last update: March 30th 2012