My title poses the question because I was quite interested in the size of my Great Grandmothers family.
In the space of twenty years she had given birth to twelve children, two who lived for very short periods of time. Apparently this was not unusual other than the number of births. The National Archives reports that the average number of children a Victorian family had was six, not including two possible infant deaths. My Gt. Grandmother and her husband more than matched this average.
In the mid nineteenth century birth control literature was illegal and childbirth and feeding from wedding day onwards was regarded as a woman’s correct occupation. My Gt. Grandparents certainly reflected that view.
By the mid-19th Century half the population of Britain were living in London. The quality of housing was poor and large families were living in property that might have been two up two down terraced houses.
Only the middle classes could afford to have a servant. My Gt.Grandparents were working class and lived in working class flats and houses all their lives. This could only be achieved by them through the availability of work and London was the right place at the right time for the Wilcox family. There was a major housing boom in the late 19th Century and houses needed decorators. This was my Gt.Grandfather’s occupation. He had arrived in London from Towcester in Northamptonshire at the age of 19 to live with his Uncle James in Golborne Road, Kensington. James Wilcox was a decorator and I can only presume that my Gt.Grandfather was attracted down to the Big Smoke, as London was known to outsiders, to work for or with him. Two years later he was married and the Wilcox Family that I have been researching began its life in 1873.
The children and their dates of birth and death are as follows:
Ethel Maud Mary (1873 – 1955)
Herbert James Thomas (1874- 1974)
Lilian Phoebe Mary (1877 – 1946)
Sydney James John (1880 – 1959)
Bessie Leonora Marie (1880 – 1970)
Frederic William Francis (1881 – c1949 )
Millicent Margaret Mary (1883 – 1884)
Margaret Mildred Marie (1884 -1934)
George Harold Victor (1887 – 1956)
William Arthur Leonard (1890 – 1947)
Charles Robert (1892 – 1892)
John Richard Howard (1893 – 1983)
Ten of the living adult children went on to live hard working, successful and in some cases, heroic, lives. Three of them left London and started new lives in South Wales under a new surname.
So, were they a typical Victorian family? They certainly were larger than average. Their stories were as varied as their occupations and they lived far apart from each other. This might have been one of the reasons that I grew up knowing so little if anything about them. I had not met any of them. My older sister and an older cousin had met two of my Great Aunts when they were younger. Their stories about their lives have been hard to reach and discover.
One daughter moved North and married a Stonemason, two brothers changed careers and jobs to work in a coal mine in South Wales, one brother became a regular Soldier and saw action in South Africa, and France during the First World War, and others became Dairymen and Grocers. Their father remained as a Decorator until he died. You can find more about the brothers and sister who left London for South Wales under a new surname here.