Sarah Green (1804-54) and John Gilbert (1804-1874).
My 4th great-grand aunt and uncle.
Sarah Green was born on 28 July 1804 and baptised two days later at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Her parents were Edward Green and Mary Bustard.
She grew up in the coastal town, where her father worked as a beachman, and married John Gilbert on 30 May 1827 at St Edmund’s Church in Norwich, Norfolk. He was also a Yarmouth native, born on 11 May 1804 and baptised a day later to parents Michael and Sarah Gilbert.
Sarah and John’s children were all born and baptised in Great Yarmouth but only two of them were living with them in the town at the time of the 1841 Census, along with Sarah’s father.
John was described as a policeman in the census and I suspect he was the officer referred to in a report in the Norfolk Chronicle of 28 December 1844, in which he caught two men – Robert Loudon and Robert Roat – in the act of supposedly stealing a truss of hay from the Angel Inn, Great Yarmouth, on the 6th. Gilbert was making his way home at about 5.15am when he heard unexpected noises coming from the stables. “Suspecting all was not right he secreted himself and soon saw Loudon (who is a cow-keeper and coal-heaver) with a truss of hay on his back. Gilbert stopped him and asked where he got the hay. He said he had borrowed it from the other prisoner,” the newspaper report stated. The men were ultimately found not guilty despite the best efforts of Gilbert’s testimony.
By the time of the 1851 Census, which showed the family living in Regent Road, Great Yarmouth, John had become a rope maker. Living with them at the time was John Jnr, a sailmaker, and James, a bricklayer’s labourer. Sarah died in the summer of 1854, her death registered in Yarmouth, but John lived for another 20 years. In 1861 he was with his son James in George’s Buildings and both were listed as fishermen. It’s likely they were the James and John Gilbert who were, somewhat ironically, sentenced to three months’ hard labour in 1868 for stealing 23 pairs of soles worth 30 shillings. They were boatmen of the carrier-cutter Silver Cloud but were caught leaving it on another boat and throwing something overboard. When this was recovered it was found to contain the property, reported the Norfolk News of 5 September 1868.
In 1871 John Snr was living with son John and his family in Bermondsey Place West, Great Yarmouth, but described as a labourer. He died in the town’s hospital in March 1874 and was buried at the Old Cemetery on the 15th of the month.
- Sarah Gilbert (1830-????), who was baptised on 19 April 1830 at Great Yarmouth. Her absence from the 1841 Census suggests to me that she died young but no burial record has yet been found for her.
- John Michael Gilbert (1832-1915), who was baptised on 24 January 1832 at Great Yarmouth. A merchant seaman record from 1847 shows that he initially worked on the town’s vessels but he later became a sailmaker, at least from the time of the 1851 Census. John married Harriet Louisa Leech of Palling on 18 January 1857 at Great Yarmouth. They had children and continued to live in the town all their lives. John died on 29 June 1915 and was buried on 3 July. Harriet died a year after John and was buried in Yarmouth on 17 June 1916.
- James Gilbert (1835-1869), who was baptised on 2 June 1834 at Great Yarmouth. A fisherman, he got into trouble with his father and served a prison sentence in 1868. He died young and was buried in Yarmouth on 5 December 1869.
- Joseph Gilbert (1836-1838), who was baptised on 20 July 1836 at Great Yarmouth and buried there on 9 May 1838.
Sources. Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations and certificates from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).