My Great Great Grandfather Samuel Walker could, I suppose be called a Bermondsey Boy. Born and brought up there, married in St. Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe. He was ticking some boxes there. He was not a Bermondsey Boy in the traditional sense. That sense would have its roots in the nostalgia of the 20th Century like that of the East End of London.
After marrying Emma, Samuel worked as a Cheesemonger on the north side of the Thames before eventually moving his family to Croydon in Surrey. Croydon is to the south of London and is almost a suburb. I have a 1960’s nostalgia for Croydon where I used to go for music at the weekends and work during the week.
Cheese seems to be an important trade in the Walker family. Samuel Jnr., Samuel Walkers eldest child, went into the trade. His younger brother Cornelius, my Great Grandfather, most certainly lived off the profits of the company that the Walkers ran. How I don’t know but he lived most of his married life near Huntingdon and was described from marriage as living ‘by independent means’. The in-between brother, Frederick, did not go into the business and disappeared to Australia. Samuel Jnr had three sisters and one of them may have married a Walker employee if I can assume correctly from a Census return.
This week I am concentrating on the life of Samuel Henry Walker Junior, the eldest son, my Great Great Uncle. I have no information whatsoever that has been passed down to me about his life and times. All I have to hand are the records that can be found on the regular search sites. I shall try and create an image of his life from these.
Samuel was born in 1852, in one Census return he claims to have been born in the Old Kent Road. The earliest record that I can find is his entry of a Baptism Register.
Samuel and Emma’s entry in the Baptism Register (via Ancestry.com)
My guess is that near the day that Samuel and Emma decided that Emma Naomi should be baptised, they realised that Samuel Jnr. had yet to be Christened. At the age of 5 young Samuel went along to St. Andrew’s Parish Church in Croydon with his baby sister and were baptised together. Their father is described as a Commercial Traveller which is more than a Travelling Salesman. He would have a book of clients that he was regularly receiving orders from and in this case, he was, I suspect, visiting grocery outlets all over the suburbs, taking orders for the various cheeses that he was selling. Samuel Snr. was, I think, working for someone else, but later there is evidence that he was running his own company and Samuel Jnr. was a key player in this.
Apart from being baptised into the Church of England, young Samuel has left very little or no footprint in the archived records of the nation. He did get married though.
Samuel and Louisa’s entry in the Marriage Register of St. Michael and All Angels, South Hackney.
On June 7th, 1877, Samuel married Louisa Mary Martin at St. Michael and All Angels Parish Church in South Hackney. He was 25 and she was 23. He was a Provision Broker and she had no profession. I would be really interested to know what Louisa did when she left school at 15 until she got married eight years later. The register has ‘condition’ and she is a Spinster but under Profession Louisa just has a line through the space. We shall never know. I am sure she had an occupation; her father is described as a Traveller which I am assuming means something like Samuel’s father who was a Commercial Traveller.
The couple have signed the register as has Louisa’s father but the other witness is Samuel’s younger sister, Emma Naomi. Two helpful physical marks from Samuel and Emma.
I was puzzled by Samuel’s profession. He described himself as a Provision Broker by which I presume that he is a Wholesaler, buying from Importers and selling to Retailers. In Samuel’s case I think he was buying imported cheese from the wharves at London Bridge and then ensuring that the Grocers and Cheesemongers in his account book were getting the supplies they needed. This would make sense regarding Samuel’s father-in-law’s occupation which was Traveller. Is this possibly how he met Louisa and was Louisa introduced to Samuel by George Martin?
The next two Census returns help with a lot of information. Their first one from 1881, their very first Census return as a married couple and new family.
Their first home is in Camberwell at Markeaton Villa in Ashbourne Grove where there are some beautiful houses in this leafy road. The household comprises of 6 people on the day of the Census enumeration. With Samuel and Louisa are their two children, Edith aged 3 and George aged 8 months. Also in the house are Ellen Wood, aged 20, a Domestic Servant and Alice Nester aged 19, a Nurse Maid.
A Domestic Servant and a Nurse Maid. This is not a working class household, this is the aspiring middle classes and Samuel, as a Provisions Broker, is earning a good living. Louisa has help with the running of the house and help with the two infant children. Both the children, Edith and George were born in East Dulwich, the registration district. This resonated with me because my son was born a short way from the Walker’s house at East Dulwich Hospital.
There is no Census return for 1891 that I can find online for the Walker family in Camberwell. However, the 1901 Census return reveals that the Walker household have now moved from Camberwell and are living in Clapham, beside the Common in 14 Narbonne Avenue. This is a very similar leafy street to that from which they have moved. Samuel is specific about his occupation and describes himself as a Provision Agent (Butter and Cheese). He is also listed as an Employer. Samuel is aged 49 and Louisa is 46. Still living at home were Edith aged 23 but with no occupation listed. Unlike her brother George who at the age of 20 is described as a Clerk with a firm of general merchants. There are three other people in the house on the day of the count. Lodging with them is Ada Underhill aged 27 and described as a Niece, probably Louisa’s niece. She was a Post Office Clerk. There is a General Servant, Charlotte Howard, aged 30. Lastly, a Visitor, William Young aged 19, a Stationer’s Apprentice. He was born in Camberwell. Perhaps he is a friend of George.
Samuel and his family have done well. A successful businessman in the Provisions trade with an interesting household of active young people. I am still puzzled that Edith has no occupation. Were young women not expected to work? That is not right because Edith’s cousin is lodging with them, and she works in a Post Office.
Ten years later the Narbonne Avenue house is almost empty. No clattering of feet up and down the stairs, or laughter at the tea table at the end of the day with young people full of their stories about work that day or how they were going to spend their spare time at the weekend. The 1911 Census shows just Samuel and Louisa living alone at number 14. Samuel has re-labelled himself as a Provision Broker, working on his own account.
This week’s post ends with Samuel Henry Walker’s death. He is recorded as dying in 1919 in Wandsworth. My trail for him comes to an end and that of his wife and children comes to a pause.
I have a feeling that his work in the provision trade was linked to his father and I also think his brother Cornelius was involved somehow as a sleeping partner because of his life as a man of independent means. As I research further, I shall try and join those links together and also see what happened to Samuel And Louisa’s children.