Elizabeth Dolamore (1836-1904) and William Bushby (1835-1880).
My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncle.
Elizabeth Dolamore was born to my 3rd great-grandparents David Dolamore and Mary Ann Walker. She was baptised on 30 October 1836 at St Lawrence’s in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, and grew up in the Watford area.
She married William Bushby on 15 May 1860 at All Saints’ Church in nearby Leavesden but how they met is unclear as William was from Sussex and had been baptised on 4 October 1835 at St James’s Church in Lancing to parents George Bushby, a gardener, and his wife Elizabeth. William and Elizabeth went to live in Lancing, where William was listed as a miller in the 1861 and 1871 censuses.
He died young, however, drowning in April 1880. The Brighton Times of 9 April that year reported on the inquest held at the Three Horseshoes Inn in Lancing. The court heard that William’s body had been found in the Wide Waters, a saline lagoon between Lancing and Shoreham. Witness Frederick Goldsmith said he’d seen William in the morning crossing a bridge in the direction of Worthing. The Chief Boatman at the Coastguard Station told the jury that he’d been tipped off by a boy who’d found a pile of clothes lying beside the Wide Waters and seen something dark lying in the water some way from shore. Going to the scene, the coastguard used a hook to pull the object in and found that it was a body. He knew William and realised it was him. A razor was found in the coat left on the bank, along with a knife and some money in a purse. The jury returned a verdict of death by drowning but could come to no conclusion as to how he’d ended up in the water. But reading between the lines, allbeit with minimal evidence, this sounds suspiciously like a suicide…
William was buried in Lancing on 5 April but said to be a resident of Shoreham. Elizabeth and the family continued to live in Shoreham after the shock of his death. In 1881 she was in Brunswick Road and, later, in Church Street in 1891 and 1901. Elizabeth died in 1904 and was buried in Shoreham on 13 January.
The couple’s children were:
- Clara Bushby (1861-1935). Baptised in Lancing on 5 May 1861, Clara was working as a nursery governess in Rogate, Sussex, at the time of the 1881 and 1891 censuses. She married farmer Stephen Challen in Rogate on 24 June 1893. He came from Rogate, where he’d worked as a grocer and coal merchant before moving into farming. The couple lived in the village and farmed at Fyning Manor Farm, raising a family, and were shown there until the 1911 Census. The 1921 Census showed them farming at Horndean in Hampshire but soon after they were back farming in Sussex, at Kirdford, according to electoral rolls from the 1920s. Stephen died on 15 December 1929, his address at the time given as Cocking Causeway in Sussex. Clara died in Hampshire in 1935.
- Emily Bushby (1862-1942) was born on 28 August 1862 and baptised in Lancing on 2 November that year. She was working as a governess in Hove, Sussex at the 1881 Census and 10 years later was in Abbotts Langley, Hertfordshire, living with her widowed aunt and farmer Ann Toovey. She married fishmonger and widower Arthur William Cave on 22 September 1894 in Ifield, Sussex – where Emily was living at the time. Arthur had, however, lived in Abbots Langley for some years and they settled there and raised a family. The couple suffered a tragedy in 1898 when their young son Arthur died the day after his clothes caught fire at home (Watford Observer 12 March 1898). The Watford Observer of 9 March 1901 reported Arthur Snr’s election as a parish councillor, a position he held for some years. He died on 31 August 1931, Emily in 1942.
- Georgina Bushby (1866-1942) was born on 22 June 1866 and baptised at Lancing, Sussex, on 3 July that year. In 1884 she married Herbert Albert Glover, who came originally from Marylebone in Middlesex. They settled in Hove, Sussex, where he worked as a photographer and they had children. However, Herbert died young in 1896 and Georgina went on to marry Kent-born widower and commercial traveller Owen William Wood in London in 1899. In 1901 they were recorded in Aldrington, Sussex, but future census returns placed them in Hove. They had a son. The 1911 Census showed Georgina working as a boarding house keeper. Owen died on 5 July 1941, Georgina on 5 August 1942. Both were buried at St Nicholas’s in Old Shoreham.
- Annie Bushby (1868-1947) was baptised on 25 July 1868 in Lancing and worked as a servant in Brighton (1891 Census) before marrying Edmund Alty in London in 1892. They settled in Kensington, Middlesex, where he was brought up, and had several children. Edmund had worked as a bricklayer but then moved into the tile trade but he died in 1906. There was a dispute over the costs of supporting the family under the Poor Laws between the parishes of Kensington and Paddington, where two of Annie’s children had been placed in an orphanage in Southall (doubtless following the death of Edmund). Annie was rehoused a few times as she recovered from her husband’s death but the 1911 Census showed the family back together in Kensington, with her working as a needlewoman. From 1921 she was listed in Acton, Middlesex, with her grown-up children, and then in Watford, Hertfordshire (1939). She died in Middlesex in 1947.
- Bessie Bushby (1871-1940) was born on 10 March 1871 and baptised in Lancing on 7 May that year. She worked as a teacher in an elementary school (1891 and 1901 censuses) before her marriage to Kent native James Arthur Wenham in Old Shoreham, Sussex, on 4 September 1901. He had been working for the General Post Office in Warwickshire before their wedding and the couple settled there, in Yardley (1911 Census). In 1921 they were shown in Smethwick, Worcestershire, but then moved to Carshalton in Surrey, where James died on 17 January 1929. Bessie moved to Hove to live with her sister Georgina, as shown in electoral rolls in the 1930s and the 1939 Register. She died in Sussex on 11 November 1940. She was buried back at All Saints in Carshalton with her late husband.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk, Sussex Family History Group and Hertfordshire County Archives.
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.
Poor Law Removal and Settlement Records, 1698-1922, for London. London Metropolitan Archives.