Robert Wetherall (1829-1905) and Charlotte Watering (1829-1917).
My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt.
Like several of his siblings, Robert’s actual birth and baptism dates are a bit of a mystery and it may be that he wasn’t baptised at all. Certainly, I’ve found no records recording it. Earlier census returns suggest he was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in about 1829 or 1830, the illegitimate son of Rebecca Frances Wetherall.
A Robert Weatherall was registered as a seaman in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 22 June 1846 with a birth date of 18 August 1828 and hailing from Yarmouth. Chances are this was our man – the only other by this name who could fit was living on the other side of the county near Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The document noted that Robert couldn’t read, stood 5ft 3ins tall and had blue eyes and a sallow complexion. If this was our man he didn’t stay at sea for long because the 1851 Census listed him as a bricklayer’s labourer, living with his mother and siblings at Jays Buildings in the town. In the same year at Great Yarmouth he married shoemaker’s daughter Charlotte Watering, who was baptised at St Martin at Oak in Norwich on 29 September 1829 to parents Frederick Watering, a dyer, and his wife Hannah. Robert and Charlotte then moved to Marylebone in Middlesex, now a fashionable part of London, where they had at least seven children.
For decades, as recorded in census and electoral roll documents, the family lived at 38 Earl Street in the borough and Robert Snr continued to work as a bricklayer, although he was unemployed at the time of the 1871 Census.
He was probably the “hard working” Robert Wetherall who appeared in front of the local magistrates on a theft charge, as reported in the Marylebone Mercury on 23 December 1871. William Height, a dealer in jewellery who happened to be drunk, was in the Globe pub in Portman Square, London, when he claimed that Robert had made off with his watch after Height had initially offered it to him for 15s. When Robert was searched by PC Edward Vincent the watch was found in his pocket – but he claimed that he had tossed for it along with the victim’s pipe and won. The magistrate discharged the case as there wasn’t enough proof for a jury to convict but he told Robert he thought he’d lied and shouldn’t play such tricks in future.
Robert died in 1905 while still at 38 Earl Street and was buried on 23 February at Hendon Cemetery in Barnet, Middlesex. Charlotte remained at their home, recorded as living there in the 1911 Census with her son Robert Jnr. She died on 13 March 1917 at 99 Earl Street, Marylebone, and was buried at Hendon Cemetery on 20 March.
The couple had at least seven children and quite often the surname both of the children and parents would be spelled Weatherall:
- Robert Wetherall (1852-1916). Robert Jnr was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1852 but grew up in Marylebone, Middlesex. He worked as a porter and later a painter and remained unmarried, living mostly with his parents or other members of his family in Marylebone. There’s a record of a Robert Weatherall aged 57 from Marylebone, a painter, being admitted into the Ladbroke Grove Infirmary in January 1908 and this noted the next of kin as his daughter, listed as a Mrs Francis, but I’ve found no proof of any such birth. It’s possible that this woman was actually his married sister Charlotte Francis. Robert died on 30 March 1916 and was interred at Hendon Park Cemetery in Barnet, Middlesex.
- Charlotte Wetherall (1854-1932). Charlotte was born in Marylebone, Middlesex, and married Cornelius Francis there in 1876. They remained in the area all their lives, raising a family. Her husband, who died in 1919, worked as a boot machinist and closer, a job that involved sewing together the various upper parts of a boot. Charlotte died in 1932.
- Susan Frances Wetherall (1856-1949). Susan was born in Marylebone, Middlesex, in 1856 and sometimes went by the name Susanna and Susanna Fanny Wetherall. She married local man William Cooper in Marylebone in 1874 and raised a family in the area while he worked as a painter/decorator. They later moved a short distance to live in Paddington. He died there in 1933, Susan in 1949.
- James Wetherall (1859-1953). James was born in Marylebone, Middlesex, and worked as a stone mason. He claimed to have married Frances Humphrys in around 1893 but no such record has been found – the only relevant one is dated 1914. So the daughter they brought up together was probably illegitimate. The censuses showed he and his family moved around the capital, living in such districts as Holborn, St Pancras and Finsbury. Frances, who also worked as a shirt machinist, died in 1949 and James in 1953, both in Chelsea.
- Ellen Wetherall (1861-1909). Ellen was born in Marylebone, Middlesex, and married Islington-born packer Jesse Fossey there in 1884. They raised a family in and around Hoxton and Shoreditch, in the east of London, but Ellen, who went by the name Nellie, died in 1909. Jesse later worked as a street news vendor. He died in 1922, living long enough to see one of their children, Rifleman Frank Fredrick Fossey of the London Rifles, killed in action in the First World War on 9 August 1918. He was aged just 19.
- Mary Ann Emma Wetherall (1864-1957). Mary Ann was also born in Marylebone, Middlesex. She married Mayfair-born Whitfield Hall in 1891 and raised a family in South Wimbledon in Surrey and Marylebone. He worked variously as a photographer’s assistant and a hatter’s assistant and rose to be Chief Clerk for posh hatter AJ White in fashionable Jermyn Street, London. By the time of the 1921 Census they were living in Southend on Sea in Essex while the 1939 Register showed they were comfortable enough to employ a servant or two at their home there. By this point Whitfield was describing himself as a retired managing clerk. Mary Ann died in 1957, Whitfield in 1952. Several of their children carried interesting middle names, such as Valkyrie and Boudicea!
- Emma E Wetherall (1866-1960). Emma was born in Marylebone and began working as a domestic servant as a young woman. She was still employed in that capacity in 1911 but in Hastings in Sussex and with a Church Army Mission. By 1921 she was in service for a woman living in Hove, Sussex, while in 1939 she was living with her sister Susan and her family in Paddington, Middlesex. Her death was registered in Wandsworth, Surrey, in 1960.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death, burial, census, hospital, military and other records, including civil registration by the General Register Office, at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).
Commonwealth War Graves Commission for Fossey service.