Edward Stoliday (1849-1938) and Harriet Goulty (1848-1936)

Edward Stoliday (1849-1938) and Harriet Goulty (1848-1936).
My 2nd great-grandparents.

Edward Stoliday was baptised at All Saints’ Church in the Norfolk village of Salhouse on 12 August 1849. His parents were labourer William Stoliday and Sarah Rose.

At the age of 13 he was already working as an agricultural labourer, according to the 1861 Census. But by 1871 he’d left the farms and moved to Norfolk’s east coast, where the census noted that he was working as a fisherman and living as a boarder at No 5 Row 128 in Great Yarmouth.

The Row houses were originally wealthy merchant’s residences located on the South Quay of the town but over time they were sub-divided into tenements, and at times were notorious for their poverty. This network of narrow alleyways linked Yarmouth’s three main thoroughfares but many were badly damaged by World War II bombing or demolished during post-war clearances.

Edward married Harriet Goulty on 25 December 1872 at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth. She’d been born in Salhouse on 19 April 1848 to her carpenter father James Goulty and his wife Mary Pilgrim and in 1851 was living in Lower Street with them. In 1871, the year before her wedding, she was working as a servant for fish merchant William Bateman and his family at Harrisons Buildings in St George’s Road, Great Yarmouth – a property owned by the landowning Harrison family.

At this time Great Yarmouth was one of England’s most important fishing ports and the herring industry was growing in importance, peaking early in the 20th century. Edward clearly did well because by the 1881 census he had become the master of the Princess and its five crewmen.

The 1891 Census showed that he was living with his family at Row 112 (number 7) and was the owner of a smack – a large, traditional fishing boat that filled many British ports in declining numbers up until World War Two. However, the Norfolk Chronicle of 18 September 1897 reported that his smack Young Joseph had been wrecked on the North Sands. The Yarmouth Independent of 4 September 1897 noted that the ship, skippered by Edward, was trying to get into the harbour and avoid another anchored vessel when waves dashed over her. The surf lifeboat was sent out to rescue the men but the crew refused to leave for upwards of three hours until it became clear the Young Joseph was close to breaking up. They were carried to Gorleston, just south of Yarmouth, arriving in the early hours, and were given food and fresh clothes at the Mariners’ Refuge there. The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society paid Edward £4 to cover the loss of his clothes during the incident.

By 1901 the family were living at 46 Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth.

But problems continued to plague Edward. In May 1903 he lost another vessel, the steam drifter Topaz, when it sank during a storm in a small Irish harbour. It had been badly damaged by other Yarmouth steam drifters the Lord Bobs and the Queensborough – see the Norfolk News 9 May 1903 and a follow up Norfolk News 06 June 1903

Edward appeared before Yarmouth County Court in January 1904, claiming £300 in damages from the owners of the two vessels. The court heard that the Topaz and a crew of nine had sailed to Finney* in south-west Ireland for herring and mackerel fishing. On the night in question the vessels were moored in the crowded harbour while the various captains had travelled on business to Tralee, leaving their boats with the mates. When a storm hit the port, the Queensborough and Lord Bobs ended up causing so much damage to the Topaz by bumping and grinding that she sank.

Edward’s lawyer said the captains of the two vessels had been negligent in not taking more strenuous steps to get their vessels away from the pier before too much damage had been done. Edward himself said he had returned from Tralee to winess the storm coming and had visited a nearby pub for a drink, but had quickly responded to the growing chaos and had called on the other captains to move their vessels.

The defendants denied being negligent and said they’d done all they could. The judge, Eardley Wilmot, and his assessors agreed with them and said the sinking had been the result of an accident not negligence. The full hearing report

There was more aggravation in 1910 when his crew deserted his ship Excelsior for another, as reported by the Yarmouth Independent of 24 September 1910. The crew were expected to man the vessel from the date of sailing – 31 August – through to the end of September and the court heard they had prepared the vessel for the voyage on the 30th. The master and his crew claimed they had given sufficient notice to Edward to find a new crew, but he denied it. The magistrates found in his favour this time and ordered the deserters to forfeit what was owed to them in wages.

The 1911 Census showed Edward at 46 Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth, and working as a fisherman. Three of his daughters were living with him and two of them (Marion and Edith) were employed as beatsters – the name given to the skilled workers who mended fishing nets. In the same year bankruptcy proceedings were started against Edward as a fishing boat owner, as reported in the London Gazette of 25 July and 25 August 1911 and 27 February 1912. The Norfolk News of 4 March 1911 reported on one of the hearings. Edward told it that he had had a number of vessels over the years and had recently purchased the Boy’s Own to run alongside his existing boat the Excelsior. He’d lost £300-worth of nets from the Boy’s Own and various equipment worth £100 from the Excelsior. He said that the fishing was poor in 1910 as crews could not be found to man vessels – the Boy’s Own had been laid up for months in the run-up to Christmas – and on occasion he had had to go to sea himself because of the shortages. As well as his earnings having dropped, both boats had also deteriorated in value and he owed money to his suppliers. It’s unclear how matters were resolved.

Various electoral roll documents charted where the couple lived after this, including Admiralty Road butl also 61 Ordnance Road and 34 East Road. They also lived for a time at the Fishermen’s Hospital in Great Yarmouth, built as almshouses in 1702 for poor and “decayed” fishermen of the borough and their wives.

Harriet died on 22 June 1936 and was buried on 26 June at Yarmouth Old Cemetery in grave number 509. Edward died in 1938 and was buried with her on 15 July.

Edward and Harriet had many children:

• Edward Charles Stolliday (1873-1966), my great-grand uncle. Edward married Margaret Elizabeth Bowles in 1896 and had two children who died young.
• Arthur Albert Stolliday (1875-1935), my great grandfather. He moved his family from Norfolk to South London, married Elizabeth Mary Ann Wetherall in 1897 and had children.
• Alice Amelia Stolliday (1877-1929), my great-grand aunt. Alice’s death left husband Robert William Feek, who she married in 1901, so distraught that he took his own life.
• Florence Harriet Stolliday (1879-1973), my great-grand aunt. She married soldier Hugh Gardiner Dalgleish in 1902 and also raised a family.
• Sarah Sophia Stoliday (1880-????), my great-grand aunt. Norfolk Family History Society has a record of a Sarah Sophia Stoliday being born to an Edward and Harriet on 29 December 1880. She was baptised on 26 June 1881 at St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, but I’ve found no other records for her and there is no record of her on Ancestry or Find my Past.
• Gertrude Emma Stolliday (1881-1964), my great-grand aunt. Gertrude married in 1902 but was widowed young when her husband Jonathan George Skipper was killed in the First World War.
• Herbert William Stolliday (1882-1884), my great-grand uncle. Herbert was born on 1 September 1882, baptised on 1 April 1883 and buried in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 7 April 1884.
• Maud Ethel Stolliday (1884-1920), my great-grand aunt. Maud was born on 11 December 1884 and baptised on 5 April 1885 at St Nicholas’s in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. By the age of 16, in 1901, she was working as a shop assistant and living at home with her family in Admiralty Road. On 20 September 1910 she married milkman Arthur George Davy at St Nicholas’s. Arthur had been born on 21 May 1878 in Wells Next The Sea on the north Norfolk coast to parents John Davey, a shopkeeper, and his wife Maria. The 1911 Census showed Maud and Arthur living in No 11, Row 102, Great Yarmouth, but Maud died on 18 August 1920 in Great Yarmouth Hospital, leaving effects worth just over £192. She was buried at Caister Cemetery on 21 August. Arthur remarried in 1922 – a Gertrude Daisy Crow – and the 1939 Register showed them living at 11, Row 102. By that time Arthur had retired and he died on 4 March 1943, his home address at the time given as Swaffham in Norfolk. He was buried on the 10th of the month at Caister Cemetery. Gertrude died on 19 September 1972 at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth. Maud and Arthur had two children:
  • Hilda Maud Davy (1911-1984). Born in Great Yarmouth, she married clerk Reginald Edward Drake in 1934 and the couple settled in Swaffham, Norfolk, where he’d been born in 1904. They had children while Reg became well known in the county as a dialect writer and broadcaster on BBC Radio Norfolk. Hilda died in Swaffham Cottage Hospital in 1984 (Lynn Advertiser 9 March 1984). Reginald died in 1991. His obituary in the Lynn Advertiser of 9 July 1991 noted that he had worked for Eastern Electricity but was also a historian, poet, writer, artist and a member of the local amateur drama group the Phoenix Players. He’d also served on the local councils.
  • Eileen Marion Davy (1913-1998). Born in Great Yarmouth in 1913, she remained in the area all her life. The 1939 Register recorded her as a clothing machinist, living with her father and stepmother. She never married and was buried alongside her stepmother in Gorleston in 1998.
  • Arthur Walter Edward Davy (1916-1918) was born and buried in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
• Blanche Rosina Stolliday (1886-1903), my great-grand aunt. Born on 20 June 1886 and baptised on 17 April 1887 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, she died at home in Admiralty Road aged just 17 in September 1903. She was buried on the 19th of the month.
• Marion Elizabeth Stolliday (1888-1984), my great-grand aunt. Marion was born on 19 January 1888 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and baptised on 6 January 1889 at St Nicholas’s Church. Before her marriage she worked as a beatster – a name given to people who repaired fishing nets – and lived at home with her parents and siblings at Row 112 and then 46 Admiralty Road. Marion married Sidney Gamble at St Nicholas’s Church on 31 October 1917. He was born on 18 January 1894 in Naseby, Northamptionshire, to carpenter George Gamble and his wife Mary Elizabeth. Sidney served during the First World War with the Northamptonshire Regiment but the records are not complete enough to piece together his experiences, other than that he was in France from 1915. At his marriage he was working as a carpenter but he was described as a gardener for Great Yarmouth Corporation in the 1921 census, when the family were living at 6 Row 100, and on the 1939 Register, when Sidney and his wife were living in Micawber Avenue, Great Yarmouth. Sidney died on 9 January 1972 and was buried in Great Yarmouth on the 14th. Marion died aged 96 in Lancashire in 1984 and I believe she’d moved there to live with one of her children. They had at least three:
  • Sidney Gamble (1920-2013) was born in Great Yarmouth in 1920 and married Dorothy Brierley in her home town of Rochdale, Lancashire, in 1946. They had a daughter. Dorothy died in Rochdale in 2009. Sidney lived until a grand age and died in Rochdale in 2013.
  • Derrick Gamble (1921-????) was born in Great Yarmouth.
  • Brenda Gamble (1926-????) was born in Great Yarmouth.
• Ethel May Stolliday (1889-1933), my great-grand aunt. Born on 29 November 1889 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Ethel wasn’t baptised until the 28 May 1898 at the parish church of St Nicholas. She grew up with her family in Admiralty Road and, in the 1911 Census, was listed as a drapery assistant. Ethel married John Edward Balfour French in 1916. He came from Yarmouth, where he was born on 23 February 1889 to upholsterer John French and his wife Emma. John had previously served in the military, first in the reserves but then signing on with the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1903 as a lowly ‘Boy’. He was aged just 14 at the time. He was later appointed Trumpeter, a soldier invovled in signalling to others in his regiment. He was mainly based in Britain but from 1907 to 1909 was posted to Hong Kong. In 1910, however, he had to leave the forces having been declared medically unfit. A note on his records included the condition ‘debility’ but provided no further detail. He returned to live with his parents and siblings in Yarmouth and the 1911 Census listed him as a furniture porter. Newly married, Ethel and John Jnr had two children. John was listed as an upholsterer and french polisher in the 1921 Census, when the family were at Rodney Road in Yarmouth. He also served for many years with the Great Yarmouth Billiards League, including as secretary and treasurer (Yarmouth Independent 26 October 1929). Ethel died young in 1933 at Great Yarmouth General Hospital and was buried on 7 October that year in the town’s New Cemetery. By 1939 John was working as a painter and special constable, and was living with his second wife Beatrice Louise Whibley (nee Thorpe) in Town Wall Road. The marriage record showed the ceremony didn’t take place until 1940, suggesting they were originally living as husband and wife in the common law sense. John lived until 1975, dying on 25 August in Great Yarmouth. Beatrice had died in 1971. Ethel’s children with John were:
  • Frances Emma French (1918-2001). Born on 16 June 1918 in Great Yarmouth, Frances went on to work as a shop assistant. In 1939 she was a patient at the town’s infirmary on Caister Road. She never married and her death was registered in Yarmouth in 2001.
  • Robert Arthur John French (1920-2010) was born on 6 October 1920 in Great Yarmouth. He was working as a baker’s roundsman in the town at the time of the 1939 Register and married Audrey Sarah Gregory in her home county of Leicestershire in 1950. She’d been born in 1930. Electoral roll records placed them in Croydon, Surrey, in the early 21st century. Robert’s death was registered there in 2010, Audrey’s in 2023.
• Edith Clara Stolliday (1893-1975), my great-grand aunt. Edith was born on 23 January 1893 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth on 21 May that year. The 1911 Census listed her working as a beatster, who was someone who mended fishing nets. Edith married William George Pratt on 21 March 1920 at St James’s Church in Gunnersbury, Middlesex. He had been born on 14 November 1890 and baptised the following year in Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, to railway guardian William Pratt and his wife Alice. At the time of his birth and baptism, though, they were living in Chiswick, Middlesex. As a young man William was employed as a cleaner with the Great Western Railway but the 1911 census recorded him as a storekeeper’s assistant at a motor works. His marriage certificate listed him as an engineer. By 1921, the couple were living in Cambridge Road, Chiswick, and William was an inspector’s assistant at a hydraulics company. At the time the 1939 Register was compiled Edith and William were at Shelley Crescent, Heston, Middlesex, and William was working as an aircraft fitter. Ethel described herself as a canvasser and demonstrator. I’ve found no record of them ever having children. William died on 22 March 1971 in Great Yarmouth and was cremated there on the 26th. Ethel died in Great Yarmouth on 21 March 1975 and was cremated on the 26th. At the time of her death she was living at 5 Beaconsfield Road in the town. She left effects worth just over £8,800.

*I’ve not been able to find Finney in Ireland but there is a Finet near Tralee and I suspect this is the actual location.

Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, military and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).
The London Gazette.