Isaac Finch (1837-1896) and Phoebe Ann Ward (1836-1921)

Isaac Finch (1837-1896) and Phoebe Ann Ward (1836-1921).
My 2nd great-grandparents.

Isaac Finch was one of the triplets born to parents Henry Finch and Jane Bashford on 29 June 1837. Isaac, Abraham and Jacob Finch were baptised on 20 August that year at St Mary’s Parish Church in Reigate, Surrey – the church record states ‘these three children were of the same birth’. While Isaac’s birth date isn’t explicitly given anywhere, his brothers’ were recorded on their Royal Navy records. 

As an adult, at the 1861 census, Isaac was working as a labourer and living as a boarder in Reigate with bricklayer George Harman and his family. He too would eventually work as bricklayer.

Isaac married Phoebe Ann Ward in Reigate on 2 September 1865. She came from Tottenham, where she was born on 28 November 1836. She was baptised at the parish church of All Hallows on 26 February 1837 but went on to work as a servant in Reigate, where she must’ve first met Isaac.

In both the 1871 and 1881 census returns the family was living in Chart Road, Reigate, (probably Chart Lane). By 1891 Isaac, his wife and three of their children were at 4 Glovers Road. Isaac died relatively young, aged 59, in September 1896 and was buried on the 12th.

Phoebe died in Dover, Kent, on 17 November 1921 after moving to the town to live with her daughter Mary Ann and her family.

Isaac and Phoebe had at least 6 children:

• Jacob Finch (1866–1935), my great-grand uncle. Jacob served in the military before being discharged as unfit, married twice and was killed in a grim accident at work.
• Mary Ann Finch (1867–1954), my great-grand aunt. Mary married and moved to Dover in Kent. She lost her eldest son in the First World War.
• Agnes Louisa Finch (1869–1952), my great-grand aunt. Agnes married a Scotsman and lived in Glasgow.
• Walter Alfred Finch (1872–1949), my great-grandfather. He set up the family bakery business in Croydon.
• William Henry Finch (1874–1949), my great-grand uncle. William was listed at various times as a gardener and labourer, and lived and worked in Reigate.
• Ellen Phoebe Finch (1878–1888), my great-grand aunt. Ellen was baptised on 6 February 1878 at St Mary’s Church in Reigate, when her parents were living in nearby Chart Lane. She died as a child aged 11 in 1888 but I have not found out how.

Sources: All data has been gathered from Ancestry.co.uk, FindMyPast.co.uk, the British Newspaper Archive and visits to Surrey Family History Centre in Woking.