Henry Finch (1834-1919), Lydia Lambourn (1822-1891) and Eleanor Streeter (1845-1927).
My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunts.
Henry Finch was baptised in St Mary’s Church in Reigate, Surrey, on 9 March 1834, the son of Henry Finch and Jane Bashford.
His father was an agricultural labourer and he grew up with the family in and around Reigate. By 1851 young Henry was also a farm labourer. He married Lydia Lambourn on 9 September 1856 in St Mary’s, Reigate. She’d been born in 1822 in Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, and was the daughter of chair maker William Lambourn and his wife Mary, but how they met is a mystery. In the 1851 Census she was working as a cook at a house in Marylebone, Middlesex, so it’s possible that her job brought her south to Reigate, either with the same family or a new one. Henry and Lydia had at least two children – William and Lydia.
In 1861 the family was living at a house in Wray Common, Reigate, probably in the grounds of a grand Victorian property called Oaklands, where Henry was working as a gardener. Ten years on the census showed the family was living in the gardener’s cottage there. Oaklands was the home of the Wallers (he being a retired solicitor) and one of their servants was Phoebe Ann Ward, who would go on to marry Henry’s brother Isaac Finch.
Census records from 1881 and 1891 also listed Henry as a gardener at Wray Common but whether he was still a servant is unclear. Either way, in the 1880s he was wealthy enough to buy land around Hardwick Road and Lower Road in Reigate. The conveyance document, now at Surrey History Centre and dated 19 March 1883, shows that it included two dwellings and that he bought the property for £305 from local men William Thomas Dixon and Harry Scott.
Henry’s mother and father died soon after, in 1885, and then his wife Lydia passed away in 1891.
Henry married again, his new bride being spinster Eleanor Streeter, who’d been born in 1845 in Croydon, Surrey, to butcher William Streeter and his wife Ann. She’d been baptised at St John’s Church there on 27 April 1845. Henry and Eleanor married in the parish church of St Andrew’s in Croydon on 8 June 1893. By that point Henry had moved and was living at 51 Doods Road, Reigate, which became the family home. Living with the couple in 1901 was eight-year-old Bertha Finch, described as a granddaughter. Henry was still a gardener but was by then working ‘on his own account’. The couple were again listed at Doods Road in the 1911 Census.
Henry died on 1 January 1919 and was buried in Reigate on 8 January, leaving effects worth £1,540. Probate was granted to his son William Henry Finch, a baker, and friend William Edward Wilson, a tea specialist who was responsible for opening a number of tea shops and cafes in the Croydon area. His shop in North End, Croydon, became the first in the town to be lit by electricity. Henry’s son William Henry received his father’s two freehold cottages in South Park and two others in Meadvale (suggesting that he’d bought other property during his lifetime). Eleanor Finch was granted £250, all furnishings and effects in the family home and his life insurance money. His daughter Lydia received £250. His grandchildren, siblings and William Wilson received smaller bequests. Eleanor remained at 51 Doods Road according to the 1921 Census, which showed that she’d taken in three boarders. At the time of her death, however, on 19 February 1927, her address was 21 Glovers Road in Reigate. She left an estate of about £311 and was buried in the town on the 23 February.
Henry and Lydia’s two children were:
- William Henry Finch (1859-1933). William was baptised in Redhill, Surrey, on 20 November 1859. Like his father, William worked for a time as a gardener. He married Reigate local Lydia Bridges in 1882 and in 1891 they were living in Reigate with a daughter, although by now William was working as a baker. Lydia died in 1897 and was buried in Reigate on 12 May that year. He then married spinster Kate Boxall in Reigate on 22 July 1903. The 1911 Census showed that the family had moved to Church Road, Guildford in Surrey, with William listed as a baker and shopkeeper. They were still there in 1921, along with two sons William had had with Kate. He died in Guildford on 2 February 1933, Kate in 1939.
- Lydia Finch (1863-1920). Lydia was baptised in Redhill on 15 February 1863 and married local man and signwriter William Francis on 24 July 1882 in Reigate. In 1891 they were recorded in Camberwell, Surrey, but subsequent census returns placed them and their children in Betchworth, Surrey, and then Reigate. Lydia died in Reigate on 29 June 1920 after collapsing at home. The Surrey Mirror of 9 July 1920 reported on an inquest, which gave the cause of death as apoplexy. William told the court that early in the First World War, Lydia had suffered a fall in which she’d hit her head on some steps. William was most likely the man who died on 19 December 1937 (Surrey Mirror 31 December 1937) – based on the address given in the death notice.
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 and Surrey Family History Centre (Woking).
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.
England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966.
Conveyance ref 8770/5/1 at Surrey History Centre.