This is a poor copy of a portrait of my great grandparents, Cornelius and Susan Walker.
A scan of a photocopy of a photo. The photocopy was made by my late sister, Janet Walsham, and I don’t know where the original photo is or who is looking after it.
They spent their married life in the village of Offord d’arcy in Huntingdonshire. I have never found out why they lived there and what the purpose was. Most people in the 19th Century were living in places for their employment needs, The Walkers married after the death of Cornelius’s father and so began his career in all the registrations and census records as a man ‘Of Independent Means’. He had inherited a good income from his father’s will. He never had a paid occupation again, that I know of.
However, this post is not about Cornelius this week. It is about Susan. I have been working on her history and now have sufficient information to tell the initial stages of her story, according to the National Archives.
Susan was the daughter of John and Frances Furnell. John started out in life as a carpenter but then became a Builder. He was born and brought up in Gloucester. I cannot find any details of his birth. The first record that I have found are the banns of marriage between him and Frances Wilkins.
If you have been following this blog you will recall an earlier post about the life of my grandmother, Grace Wilcox, the daughter of Susan Furnell, nee Wilkins. At one point in her life, when Grace left home, she went to London and worked as a laundry clerk. She lodged in a house in Acton that was owned and run as a boarding house by someone named Jane Wilkins, a cousin. I shall be returning to her later.
Banns of Marriage, John Furnell and Frances Wilkins,1844 (National Archives via Ancestry.com)
John Furnell came from a family of Carpenter’s and Frances Wilkins was the daughter of a Shoemaker in Gloucester. Banns of Marriage are a way of announcing a forthcoming marriage in the Church of England and inviting anyone who knows of any impediment to that marriage, to come forward and say so. Luckily, for John and Frances, nobody came forward and their wedding was on 21st July 1844.
Walcot Parish Marriage Register. Entry for John and Frances Furnell (National Archives via Ancestry.com)
It was not long after the wedding, when John and Frances left Gloucester to live and work in London. I’m always fascinated by why and how my ancestors moved around the country. In the 1840’s London was developing and there would have been a demand for men in the building trades. The railway line between Gloucester and London was completed in 1845 and this would have been a good enough reason to make the move.
The Furnell’s arrived in the area of London known as St.Pancras. This is synonymous with the railway terminus but in fact it was the parish name for an area that stretched to Kentish Town.
The first record of the Furnell’s as a family is from the 1851 Census return. Here is a transcription.
| Name | Status | Age | Occupation | Where Born |
| John Furnell | Head | 29 | Carpenter, employing 2 men | Gloucester |
| Frances Furnell | Wife | 26 | Bath, Somerset | |
| Grace | Daughter | 5 | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| John | Son | 4 | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Jane | Daughter | 3 | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Job | Son | 4 days | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Mary | daughter | 1 | St Pancras, Middlesex |
The Furnell’s were living in Palace Street. This was renamed and I cannot find a current name for the street. There is an excellent blog that lists everything to do with London history, particularly street name changes. There were a lot in the 19th Century in London. This was probably connected to the Post Office wanting to have less repetition of names which confused their sorting offices.
In the space of six years, Frances had given birth to six children, the youngest, Job, was born four days before the Census enumerator called at the house. The Census also confirmed her age, but this has been no help to me in finding evidence of her birth details in Bath, Somerset.
John Furnell seems to have been an entrepreneur. He was employing two men in his Carpentry trade. Ten years later, he expanded into the Building trade. The 1861 Census return shows that he was then a Builder employing ten men. Here is the transcript of the Census return.
| Name | Status | Age | Condition | Occu-pation | Where Born |
| John Furnell | Head | 39 | Married | Builder 10 men | Gloucester |
| Emma Furnell | Sister | 37 | Unmarried | House-keeper | Gloucester |
| John | Son | 14 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Job | Son | 10 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Samuel | Son | 5 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Joseph | Son | 4 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Sarah | Daughter | 13 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Susan | Daughter | 7 | Unmarried | St Pancras, Middlesex | |
| Thomas Morgan | Lodger | 30 | Married | Gloucester |
The Furnells had moved to Arthur Grove, still in Kentish Town. This changed name over a hundred years ago and is now called Elaine Grove. A look at Google Street View shows some impressive London town houses that have current market prices that seem eye watering to me. John Furnell was very busy and working hard building houses in London.
I am trying to understand the makeup of the household. First, Frances was not listed. This is not unusual. If members of a household are visiting or staying temporarily elsewhere, they will show on another Census return. My searches for her are blank.
Instead, there was another woman, Emma Furnell, sister of John. She was described as Housekeeper. Young John was now aged 14 and Job was 10. Grace, who would have been 15, Jane who would have been 13 and Mary who would have been 11, are not listed. Perhaps they are away with their mother?
There are additions to the family. During the past ten years Frances has given birth to Samuel, aged 5, Joseph aged 4 and Susan aged 7. There is someone called Sarah, a daughter aged 13. The question is why she was not listed in the 1851 Census. My only guess is that she might be Sarah Jane and is the Jane in the 1861 Census. In fact Sarah is Sarah Jane.
I am puzzled by Emma being in the house as a Housekeeper. This does not sound like a sister paying a social visit. She has been asked to come in and look after the family for a while. Some of this might be explained in the next Census return of 1871.
| Name | Status | Age | Cond-ition | Occu-pation | Where Born | Infirm-ity |
| John Furnell | Head | 49 | Married | Builder | Gloucester | |
| Frances Furnell | Wife | 47 | Married | Gloucester | Lunatic | |
| Samuel | Son | 15 | Un-married | Piano Maker | St Pancras Middle-sex | |
| James | Son | 7 | Un-married | Scholar | St Pancras Middle-sex | |
| Mary A | Daught-er | 21 | Un-married | Shop Assistant | St Pancras Middle-sex | |
| Susan | Daught-er | 17 | Un-married | Scholar | St Pancras Middle-sex | |
| Teresa A | Daught-er | 13 | Un-married | Scholar | Colney |
Until 1921, all the previous Census returns had a final column asking for the condition of the person listed. So, under the column “Infirmity” the head of the household would write one of the following: 1 Totally Deaf or Deaf and Dumb; 2 Totally Blind; 3 Lunatic; 4 Imbecile or Feebleminded. These were the acceptable and formal terms of the 19th and early part of 20th Century. It shows how much our thinking and language about ourselves has changed during the past 100 years. The 1921 Census dropped that column, in favour of a column detailing infant mortality, how many children born and how many alive. This was to enable improvements in public health.
Frances was suffering from a mental illness, and she was listed as ‘Lunatic’. Was this recent or had she been receiving treatment somewhere ten years earlier? This would explain perhaps why Emma, John’s sister, was living in the house in 1861 as a Housekeeper.
There is a new name in the family. Teresa was born in Colney and she was aged 13 in the 1871 Census.
Ten years later in 1881 , further transitions had been made. The Furnell family were separated. John Furnell was staying with his daughter Frances in Acton. She was married to Alexander Parish and at the age of 35 she had six children.
He might have been visiting but by this time, I know from his death certificate, he was suffering from cancer. He might have been receiving some care from Frances.
John Furnell died on 6th August 1881 of ‘Carcinoma and Exhaustion’. The only treatment available to him would have been pain relief and so ‘exhaustion’ would have appeared regularly on death certificates. At his time, John was living at 29 Quadrant Grove, Kentish Town. That is on the border of Belsize Park and Chalk Farm. Susan, my great grandmother, was caring for him.
John Furnell, death registration, 1881 (General Registry Office, pdf copy).
When John died, his estate was worth £22 and Susan, his daughter, was the administrator. This surprises me because 29 Quadrant Grove is by today’s standards, a substantial town house in London. Perhaps it was rented. Perhaps the estate was the value of the furniture. Or Perhaps the house belonged to Susan ?
Frances Furnell had been admitted to Colney Asylum in Friern Barnet. At that point of its history towards the end of the 19th Century, it was the largest asylum in Europe with the capacity for 2000 patients. She died there in 1907.
There are a number of loose ends to the story of the Furnells. One of them was Teresa and her birth origins. If she was born in Colney in 1858, I wonder if Frances, her mother, was receiving treatment at that time in the asylum. Teresa, according to her 1911 Census return, was 53 which would confirm the 1858 date.
Before I finish this post I thought it would be helpful to list the family and their birth years.
- John Furnell my great great grandfather 1822
- Frances Furnell (nee Wilkins) my great great grandmother 1825
- Frances Grace named as Grace in the 1851 Census 1845
- John Henry 1846
- Sarah Jane named as Jane in the 1851 Census 1848
- Mary Ann 1850
- Job 1851
- Samuel 1856
- Joseph 1857
- Teresa 1858
- Susan my great grandmother 1861
In the space of 15 years, John and Francis had a family of nine children.
Earlier in the post I mentioned that my grandmother, Grace, daughter of Susan, had lodged in a house in Acton belonging to someone called Jane Wilkins. Grace was described as cousin in the Census return of 1911. I have been checking and searching for Jane who was described as married, in the usual search places but can find no trace of her. I am missing a clue somewhere because I can only think she was a member of Frances Furnell’s birth family, or married to one.
Having mapped out the Furnell family in London, I am sure there will be many more stories and potential photos to come.
John and Frances, marriage register signatures, 1844.