Part 3
For the past two weeks I have been tracing my grandfather’s origins and the lives of his brother and sister, two relatives who I never met and who I knew nothing of until I started researching their records.
This week I look at Evelyn Daisy Carver, my grandfather’s only sister and my great aunt.
Evelyn was born in 1888 in Lodsworth, Sussex, the daughter of William Carver and Emily Annie Rapson. Evelyn was the youngest of their three children, sister to William, born in 1884 and Clarence born in 1886.
In the 1901 Census return she was 13 and a scholar. Her father and eldest brother were working as a Stockman and Labourer on a farm. The lack of detail about where they are employed does not matter to the Census enumerator, probably because that was what Lodsworth existed for, farming, and there were several large farms in the village. However, the address tells me that they worked and lived in a tied house on a farm in Smith Brook, which I believe was a farmstead at that time in Lodsworth.
Ten years later, Evelyn is the only one of the three children living at home. She was 23 and the family were still living at Smith Brook. Evelyn’s occupation is described as Laundry, and she is working at home. So, she is working on her own account, taking in laundry at home.
A year later, in 1912, Evelyn at the age of 25, gets married to Edward Vincent, a Plumber (or Plummer as the clergyman has written in the register). They were married in the parish church of Lodsworth. Edward (I wonder if he was called Ted?) was born in Petworth in 1881. His father was a Painter but in 1912 when Edward married Evelyn, his father was described as a Builder.
Evelyn’s marriage register entry. The witnesses were her mother and Edwards younger brother. (via Ancestry.co.uk)
The 1911 Census return offers some more information to research. Edward Vincent was living in the same house as his older brother, Sydney, a self-employed Builder and Decorator, the same trade as his father. Their address was Angel Street, Petworth. A search for “Vincent, plumber, Petworth” brought me to a copy of the Petworth Society Magazine of 2020 and this page at the tail end.
From the Petworth Society Magazine, 2020, Issue 181. I have no image of Edward Vincent but this image of the product he was installing all over Petworth and Lodsworth is worth reproducing. Further evidence that he was known as Leonard.
My previous comment about whether Edward was called Ted now leads me to wonder if he called himself by his middle name, Leonard. The Vincents were obviously a well-connected and long-lasting firm of plumbers in the town.
How Edward met Evelyn must surely be associated with the fact that Edward was a Journeyman Plumber and travelling around the villages about Petworth for his trade. A descendant of the Vincent firm of plumbers is now living in Orkney according to the Petworth Magazine.
It is the earlier Census return of 1901 that completes the profile of the Vincent family for me.
Edward was 19 and described as a Journeyman Plumber. He was not the only Plumber in the family, who were all living at 20 Angel Street in Petworth. The head of the House was Edward’s father; William, and he was described as a Plumber and Builder. Edward’s brother, Sydney was described as a Journeyman Mason. Also listed was Arthur, his brother, who was a Journeyman Painter. It was Arthur who was Edward’s best man and witness at Evelyn and Edwards wedding in 1912.
So, the Vincent family were a well-established firm of Builders, Painters, Plumbers and were all working for each other. When we come to the 1921 Census return, Evelyn and Edward were married and settled in Hillside a house in Smith Brook, Lodsworth. Living with them also was Evelyn’s father, William Carver who at 65 was a widower and described as a Jobbing Gardener. Edward, was then working for his brother Sydney the Builder. At some point Edward, who I now realise was Leonard, was also working in his own right, hence the toilet cistern in the photo in the Petworth Magazine with his name embossed on the side.
I have not found any evidence that Evelyn had any children. The 1939 register shows them living in a house near Petworth House, alone. Edward or Leonard was still a Plumber and a Special Constable. Sadly, he was killed in the Second World War as a civilian.
There is a register of civilian deaths during the war and Edward died in the closing stages, in February 1945. He and Evelyn had moved to Littlehampton. He was only 63. The Burial Register shows that he was buried in Littlehampton Cemetery.
Evelyn died in 1976 at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. She was 89 years old, and her ashes were interred with her husband at Littlehampton Cemetery.
The story of these three Carvers ends there. Her two older brothers had died in 1964 and 1969. Evelyn had no children, but William and Clarence did. They spawned so many other generations that it would be pointless to try and record them all. The village of Lodsworth was a significant part of my family history and yet I know very little about it other than the maps I have seen and the places in and around the village that are associated with the lives of these three family members that I have discovered by searching online.
The sadness of this research is that there is no one to relate the stories of their lives who are still with us, other than this blog posting. I have photos of my grandfather, Clarence but not of his brother and sister. But at least I can find records of their existence and describe them to you and anyone else who finds this site.