Sarah Rose and my other Rose ancestors

Sarah Rose (1817-1886).
My 3rd great-grandmother.

Rose is a common surname in Norfolk, which is where my branch of the family come from. The surname’s derivation is hard to pin down but may have related to people who lived near a notable rose bush or in a property covered with a rose. It may also have referred to someone with a rosy complexion, or someone who worked with and sold roses. The first of the Roses to join the family tree was Sarah.

See the Rose family tree and where the family sit in my current family tree.

who married William Stoliday/Stolliday in 1835.

Sarah Rose was born in 1817 to farmer Robert Rose and his wife Hannah Holsworth (see below). She was baptised on 7 September that year at All Saints Church in Salhouse, the village they called home for much of their lives and which relied on agriculture for its prosperity. Sarah married William Stoliday/Stolliday, who came from the nearby village of Rackheath, on 31 March 1835 at All Saints. They settled in Salhouse and raised a large family, Sarah going through at least 12 pregnancies and William working mainly as an agricultural labourer, sometimes as a carter.

Sarah died in 1886 and was buried at All Saints in Salhouse on 4 July. William lived well into his 90s and died in 1903. See details of William’s life and the couple’s family.

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Robert Rose (1790-1842) and Hannah Holsworth (1791-1879).
My 4th great-grandparents.

Robert Rose was born to parents William Rose and Ann Harris (see below) and baptised at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick on 8 August that year. William was described as a pauper on the baptism record and other parish records, a term that usually indicated that he was receiving financial assistance from the parish. So Robert clearly knew poverty as a child.

He married Hannah Holsworth on 9 April 1810 at St Martin at Oak Church in Norwich, Norfolk. She’d been born on 12 January 1791 in Salhouse, Norfolk, to Thomas Holsworth and Ann Parfrey, and was baptised in the village on 16 January.

Hannah and Robert brought up their large family in Salhouse, where he was listed as a husbandman or tenant farmer in various records.

The 1841 and 1842 Tithe Maps and Apportionments for Salhouse (a record designed to show who owned and occupied land and the monetary equivalent of the old tithe) mentioned a Robert Rose on several occasions but I’m unsure whether these men were the same or whether they were father and / or son (Robert Jnr was born in 1815). Robert Rose was shown as occupying land owned by the Great Hospital in Norwich made up of a yard with sheds, four allotments given over to arable and a wooded plantation totalling just over 22 acres. The tithe sum payable to the vicar was 1l 12s 6d in 1842. Robert also occupied four blocks of land owned by a churchman made up of three arable allotments and one cottage and garden of about 10 acres in total, with payments due in 1842 of 12s and 6d to the church.

Robert Snr died in March 1843 many miles from Salhouse in the village of Shelton, Norfolk, where he was buried on the 21st. The Norwich Mercury of 1 April reported on an inquest in which it was found that he’d been thrown into a ditch and crushed when a horse fell on him. He’d been sowing barley in the fields when one of the horses in the drill got away. Robert ended up in the ditch while trying to catch it and was dead before any help could be given.

Robert was a farmer (doubtless as a leaseholder) of 60 acres said to be worth £70 pa in Shelton, as noted in a settlement certificate issued by Salhouse parish to Hannah in December 1843. This stated that she’d been born in the village and that she and Robert had previously farmed 20 acres and lived there for 20 years. How long they’d had the Shelton farm is not clear but the family were listed in Salhouse at the time of the 1841 Census. His livestock and farming equipment and tools, much of which was said to be nearly new, was sold by auction in October 1843 (notice in Norfolk Chronicle 30 September 1843).

Hannah married again, her new husband being shepherd Robert Harmer of Horstead. They wed on 13 January 1845 at Holy Trinity Church in Rackheath but the 1851 Census showed them living some miles away in the village of Intwood, Norfolk, south west of Norwich. Perhaps it was Robert’s job that had taken them there. He died in December 1854 and was buried in Rackheath on 31 December. Hannah was living with her daughter Susanna’s family in the 1861 Census at Strumpshaw, Norfolk, and cropped up in 1871 living with her son Thomas and his family in Salhouse, now described as a pauper. Hannah died on 11 April 1879 and was buried at Salhouse Baptist Church.

Hannah and Robert Rose had at least 11 children:

• Mary Ann Rose (1810-1881), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Mary Ann was baptised on 1 July 1810 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk, just three months after her parents married. Her own wedding was held in Salhouse on 22 September 1829, her groom being widower Edward Leggett. He’d been baptised in South Walsham, Norfolk, on 20 March 1800 to parents John and Elizabeth Leggett. Edward married Charlotte Goffen in 1824 and they had a daughter, Sophia, but Charlotte died and was buried in Salhouse on 9 April 1829. Edward married Mary Ann around six months later. He worked as an agricultural labourer and census and baptism records showed that he and Mary Ann brought up their family in Salhouse. The 1861 Census showed Mary Ann not in Salhouse but in the St Saviour’s district of Norwich, listed as a visitor in the household of travelling draper John Sommerville and his wife Sarah. In 1871 the Leggett family were living in Lower Street, Salhouse, and by 1881 Edward and Mary Ann were listed as paupers – a term usually used to show reliance on the charity of the parish or others. Mary Ann died on 7 April 1881, the death certificate gave the cause of death as paralysis hemiplegia – the type of paralysis down one side of the body that’s often caused by a stroke. She’d suffered with it for two years. Edward died on 16 March 1885, suffering from what the death certificate called senile decay. The couple had a number of children including:
  • Harriet Leggett (1830-1883) was baptised in Salhouse on 7 March 1830. In 1851 the census showed her working as a domestic servant in Norwich. She married widower Benjamin Fox, who was about 10 years her junior, on 24 December 1868 in Buxton, Norfolk – some miles from her home village. The 1871 Census showed them and their children in Buxton, the 1881 in nearby Hellesdon. Benjamin worked as a farm labourer. Harriet died in 1883. Benjamin remarried and was living in Catton, Norfolk, at the 1891 Census and in Norwich in 1901. On both forms he was listed as a carter at a gas works. He died in 1901.
  • Sarah Leggett (1831-1858) was baptised in Salhouse on 2 October 1831. She married labourer Samuel Powles there on 13 February 1851 but she died young, her death registered in 1858. Samuel went on to marry her sister Mary Ann.
  • Mary Ann Leggett (1833-1874) was baptised in Salhouse on 7 July 1833 and working as a house maid in Langley, Norfolk, at the 1851 Census. She became Samuel Powles’ second wife when they married in Norwich St Saviour’s on 24 July 1859. The 1861 and 1871 censuses placed them in Salhouse with her children and those of her late sister Sarah. Mary Ann also died young too, in 1874. Samuel married again and died on 8 December 1912, buried in Salhouse on 12 December.
  • Robert Leggett (1835-1835) was buried in Salhouse on 5 July 1835, said to be three-and-a-half months old.
  • William Leggett (1836-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 25 September 1836 and working as a bricklayer’s labourer at the time of the 1851 Census. I’m unsure what happened to him – I’ve not found him in any later census returns or a death record that’s a clear match.
  • John Leggett (1838-1875) was born in Salhouse on 7 November 1838 and baptised there on 24 March 1839. John married Elizabeth Nobbins on 9 May 1858 at nearby Woodbastwick, raised a family and worked as an agricultural labourer / husbandman until his death in 1875. She remarried – and her new husband was my 3rd great-grand uncle Thomas Rose (see below). He would’ve been her late husband John’s uncle. Elizabeth and Thomas continued to live in Salhouse, where he worked as a butcher and agricultural labourer. He died in 1915. Elizabeth died in 1929.
  • Susannah Leggett (1841-????) was born on 5 January 1841 and baptised in Salhouse on 18 April that year. She was working as a servant in Hampstead, Middlesex, at the time of the 1861 Census and then married Edward Henry Ames, a soldier in the Coldstream Guards, at Bethnal Green in Middlesex on 30 October 1864. Edward served in the Guards from 1858 but was discharged in 1876 with a heart condition that left him unfit for service. He died soon after in 1878 in Norfolk. At some point Susannah ended up in Coldwater, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, and married Norwich-born farmer Robert John Quantrell there on 12 July 1915, curiously using Rose as her surname. His first wife was Susannah’s cousin Mary Ann Rose (see below). Robert died on 29 December 1923 but Susannah’s fate is unknown. She also may have had one or two illegitimate children in the early 1860s – a William Leggett aged nine was living with her and her husband in Battersea, Surrey, at the 1871 Census.
  • Robert Leggett (1842-????) Born in Salhouse, I’ve not been able to trace him with confidence after the 1851 Census but he may have been a soldier based in Colchester Barracks, Essex, at the time of the 1861 Census.
    
• William Rose (1812-1874), my 3rd great-grand uncle. William was born on 12 January 1812 and baptised on 19 January at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. He married Mary Ann Kidd in Salhouse on 25 December 1834. She had been born in the village and baptised on 6 April 1817 to parents John, a husbandman, and Elizabeth. Their whereabouts afterwards is uncertain. It’s most likely that William was the agricultural labourer living and working in the village of Sprowston, Norfolk, as noted in the census records of 1851 and 1861. However, these said he was born in Hoveton, a few miles from Salhouse. It was only at the time of the 1871 Census that he was billed as being from Salhouse, and by this time he was a carter. He died in 1874 and was buried in Sprowston on 1 November. Mary Ann continued to live in Sprowston (in the 1881 Census she was shown as being on parish relief). She died in 1898. They had a large family, including:
  • Robert Rose (1835-1907). Baptised on 8 March 1835 in Salhouse, Robert grew up in Sprowston and was an agricultural labourer at the 1851 Census. He married widow Amy Bateman nee Porter in All Saints, Norwich, on 4 October 1857 and was described at that point as a bricklayer. Census returns from 1861 placed him and his family in the Norwich suburb of Lakenham. By then he had become a labourer at the city’s famous mustard mill. The couple had children but Ann died in 1881 and was buried on 17 November. In 1886 he married Susannah Middleton. Census returns at this point described him as a mustard miller. Robert died on 5 March 1907 and was buried at Rosary Cemetery in Norwich on 9 March. Susannah continued to live in Norwich and died on 9 November 1932 and was buried at the Rosary Cemetery on the 15th.
  • Elizabeth Rose (1837-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 7 February 1837. She was unmarried and living with her parents in Sprowston at the 1861 Census. I haven’t been able to trace her after this.
  • John Rose (1839-1920) was baptised in Salhouse on 28 June 1839. He married blacksmith’s daughter Emily Rayner in Gorleston, Suffolk, on 18 February 1866 and the couple had children. Census returns from 1871 located the family in Salhouse, where John worked as a blacksmith. Emily died in 1909 and was buried on 10 January that year in Salhouse. He died in 1920.
  • Susan Rose (1841-????) was born on 8 April 1841 and baptised on 2 May that year in Sprowston, Norfolk. She was unmarried and living with her parents in 1861. After that I’ve not been able to trace her with any confidence.
  • William Rose (1842-1909) was born on 21 June 1842 and baptised on 3 December 1848 in Sprowston, Norfolk. He was working as an agricultural labourer and living with his parents in Sprowston at the 1861 Census. He was still there 10 years later, working as a carter, but he then moved to Northumberland and married Hannah Faithan there in 1876. He raised a family with her and census returns from 1881 showed them living in Elswick, a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. He worked as a labourer, including in a gas works and a shipyard, but he died in 1909. Hannah continued to live in the city and died on 15 February 1937. Note that it’s thought Hannah was actually born Hannah Bilcliff in 1848. No marriage to a Mr Faithan or similar has been found but she did have children with this surname.
  • Henry Rose (1845-1922) was born on 7 October 1845 and baptised on 3 December 1848 in Sprowston, Norfolk. He was still living there with his parents at the 1871 Census, working as a labourer but he married Acle-born Hannah Rose Manthorpe in Norwich on 9 December 1876. Censuses for 1881 and 1891 showed them in Sprowston with their children, Henry working as a maltster. From 1901 they were listed in Norwich and by 1911 Henry was a labourer at a gas works. Hannah died in 1915 and was buried in Norwich on 23 December that year. Henry died on 30 March 1922 and was buried in Norwich on 6 April.
  • Walter Rose (1848-1918) was born on 7 November 1848 and baptised on 3 December 1848 in Sprowston, Norfolk. He was working as an agricultural labourer at the 1861 Census and a brickmaker 10 years later, living with his parents in Sprowston. He married Norwich-born Harriet Miller in Sprowston on 17 September 1876 and raised a family around Sprowston. He was listed as a maltster from the 1881 Census on, but by 1911 he was a labourer at a brick works and was living in Norwich. He died on 14 December 1918 and was buried in the city on the 19th. Harriet remained in Norwich and died in December 1927.
  • Edward Rose (1857-????). Born in 1857, Edward remained in Sprowston and was recorded there in the 1891 Census with his mother and working as a labourer. He supposedly married in around 1900 and the 1901 Census showed him as a gas stoker with Westminster-born Emma and their young child living in Norwich – but I’ve found no matching marriage record. The 1911 Census listed four children and referred to an 11-year-old marriage. The only record that does fit comes from 1919, when gas stoker Edward married widow Emma Alice Hawkes at St Stephen’s at Walworth Common, Surrey, on 27 January 1919. So it looks as if they were living as a common-law couple for many years before their wedding, perhaps because Emma’s previous husband was still living. They were living in Camberwell, Surrey, at the 1921 Census, Edward now an unemployed labourer. I suspect he was the man whose death was registered in Camberwell in January 1922. Emma died there in 1935.
    
• Robert Rose (1815-1886), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Robert was baptised on 4 June 1815 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. He married Dinah Prudence Hart on 7 January 1838 at St Augustine’s Church in Norwich. She had been baptised on 14 April 1814 at St Edmund’s in Norwich, the daughter of shoemaker John Hart and his wife Prudence. Curiously, the marriage certificate listed her father as John Pryor and added the Pryor to her surname. Why is not known. The 1841 Census showed Robert and Dinah in Salhouse, he working as an agricultural labourer. I mentioned above, in the story of his father, that he may have been the Robert Rose listed on the Salhouse tithe map for 1842 although the balance of probability is that it was his father, a farmer, who died that year. It’s unlikely that Robert Jnr, as a labourer, would’ve leased that much property. The 1851 Census showed the couple in Salhouse with a growing family but Dinah died in the village in 1856 and was buried there on 7 February. Robert remained in Salhouse for the rest of his life, mostly working as an agricultural labourer. The 1861 census, however, listed him as a pork butcher and by 1881 he had a housekeeper living with him. Robert died on 3 May 1886, the date given in a notice in the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 May 1886. He was vuried in Salhouse on 9 May. The couple’s known children are below but many have been hard to trace:
  • Hannah Rose (c1839-1934) was baptised in Salhouse on 5 June 1842 aged about three. She married agricultural labourer John Fox there on 25 September 1859 and raised a family. He died on 18 June 1878 and was buried at Salhouse Baptist Church. Hannah was in Woodbastwick at the 1881 Census but later records placed her mostly in Salhouse. She lived to a grand age and died on 9 November 1934. She too was buried at Salhouse Baptist Church.
  • Robert Rose (1840-1912) was born on 26 March 1840 and baptised in Salhouse on 5 June 1842 aged about two. He cropped up in the 1851 Census but at some point emigrated to Canada, where he settled in Medonte, Simcoe County, Ontario (as did his sibling Mary and his cousin Susannah – see above). I’ve found no emigration records nor a marriage record that clearly fits. The couple were recorded, however, from the 1891 to the 1911 Census in Medonte, where they were farmers. He died on 30 October 1912 and was buried in Vasey Cemetery, Simcoe. I have not located Susan after his death.
  • Susan Rose (1842-1931) was born in Salhouse in 1842 and married farm labourer James Dye in Hemblington, a few miles away. They settled there and raised a family, both of them dying in 1931.
  • Mary Ann Rose (1843-1914) was born on 1 March 1843 and baptised in Salhouse on the 31st. She married shoemaker Robert John Quantrell in Norwich on 28 March 1864. However, at some point they emigrated to Canada and ended up in Medonte, Simcoe County, Ontario, where they were listed in censuses from 1881. They had a family and Robert worked as a farmer and gardener. Mary Ann died on 5 March 1914 and Robert married her cousin Susannah the following year (see above). He died in 1924.
  • William Rose (1846-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 8 February 1846. He was at home in the 1851 and 1861 censuses but then disappears from the records. I wonder if he too emigrated…
  • Sarah Ann Rose (1848-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 18 October 1848 but she’s also been hard to trace after the 1861 Census.
  • Charles Rose (1850-????) was was baptised in Salhouse on 3 March 1850 and by 1871 was working as a mariner and lodging in Great Yarmouth. His fate is unknown.
  • Matilda Rose (1852-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 6 June 1852. She lived in Salhouse until the 1871 Census recorded her working as a silk weaver in Norwich. She married bricklayer Charles Edward Howes in the city in 1873. She had a number of children with him but died in the city on 8 May 1888 at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Charles continued to live in the city with various family members and died on 18 September 1924.
  • John Rose (1854-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 7 May 1854. His trail goes cold after his childhood but he may have been serving time in 1871 in a Norfolk prison. There were so many John Roses in Norfolk at the time that it’s been impossible to find him with confidence.
  • Henry Rose (1855-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 1 June 1855. He too disappears after the 1861 Census.
    
• Sarah Rose (1817-1886), my 3rd great-grandmother. See further up the page for details about her life.
• Eliza Rose (1819-1893), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Eliza was baptised on 29 August 1819 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. She married local boy and agricultural labourer Christmas Rudd there on 15 November 1840 and brought up their family in the village. It’s possible Christmas was actually born Christopher Rudd – one was baptised in Salhouse on 26 December 1817, making it obvious where any ‘Christmas’ nickname would come from. Christmas’s marriage certificate was blank when it came to the name and occupation of his father, suggesting he was illegitimate, yet Christopher was born to Nathaniel and Rebecca. So the mystery remains… The 1851 Census placed Christmas and Eliza in Lower Street, Salhouse, and 10 years later Eliza was head of the household there, as Christmas was in Huntingfield, Suffolk, working as a shepherd. Whether this was a case of him travelling to get work or a sign of something wrong in their relationship will forever be unknown. He died in 1866, his death registered back home in Norfolk, so Eliza was living with her children in Salhouse in 1871 as a widow. Ten years later she was at 7 Thorpe Mews, Kensington, London, with her daughter Jane and her family. I previously muddled Eliza with other Rudds in Norfolk and one in Richmond, Surrey, but she actually died in the Blofield Union Workhouse at Lingwood in Norfolk in January 1893 and was buried in Strumpshaw on the 16th. She had been at the institution at the time of the 1891 Census. A note on the burial record makes it clear this woman was born in Salhouse in 1819 and even gives the baptism date. A report on the infirmary at Lingwood at about the time Eliza was there painted a terrible picture of squalid conditions for the men but rather less awful for the women, although there was a clear lack of trained staff. Eliza and Christmas had a number of children:
  • John Rudd (1840-1853) was born and died in Salhouse.
  • Hannah Rudd (1842-1920) was baptised in Salhouse on 6 February 1842. By 1861 she was a general servant working at a schoolmaster’s house in Bushey, Hertfordshire, but she then married George Covington in his home county of Bedfordshire in 1866. He worked as a groom and coachman so it’s possible that they met while both working as servants. They settled in Bedfordshire, shown there in the 1871 Census with the first of their children. In 1881 they were in Kensington in Middlesex but one of their children had been baptised in Buckinghamshire, so they’d obviously been moving around. By that time George was a porter. The family remained in Kensington but in 1901 George was again a coachman. Ten years later George was a patient at the brutally named Hanwell Lunatic Asylum in Middlesex. He died in 1916. Hannah died in 1920.
  • Jane Rudd (1844-1917) was born in 1844 and baptised in Salhouse on 19 January 1845. Jane was listed as a domestic servant in nearby Rackheath in the 1861 Census but then migrated to Battersea in Surrey, where was she recorded with her cousin Susan Ames nee Leggett in the 1871 Census (see above). She married draper’s assistant James Neary in Battersea on 25 August 1872. By 1881 they were in Kensington, Middlesex, with a young family and he was working as a master cabman. They remained in the area and the 1901 Census described him as a retired coachman. He died on 28 January 1911, Jane on 21 July 1917.
  • Daniel Rudd (1847-1857) was baptised on 13 June 1847 in Salhouse and buried there on 29 December 1857.
  • Margaret Rudd (1851-1922) was born on 31 March 1851 and baptised in Salhouse on 19 June 1859. By 1871 Margaret working as a domestic servant in Hampstead, Middlesex. She was then a cook and servant at Heigham Grove House in Norwich in 1881. In the early 1880s she emigrated to Toronto, Canada, where she married London-born William Thomas Charles Troughton on 31 December 1884. Census returns listed them in various Toronto suburbs with their daughter Margaret. In 1911 William was working as a steward at a golf club but directories for the city also recorded him as a waiter. He died on 19 December 1913, Margaret on 12 October 1922.
  • Robert Rudd (1853-1897) was born in 1853 and baptised in Salhouse on 19 June 1859. He was working as a domestic servant in Wroxham, Norfolk, at the 1871 Census and in 1881 was a coachman at the grand Thickthorn Hall in Hethersett, Norfolk. He married Harriet Lake in her home city of Norwich, Norfolk, on 2 February 1886. They settled there and Robert worked as a coachman and groom while Harriet had a number of children. He died young and was buried in Norwich on 1 May 1897. Censuses showed that Harriet worked as a nurse after his death. She died in February 1945.
    
• Ann Rose (1821-????), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised on 24 June 1821 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. I’ve not been able to trace her after this – there were many women by this name in Norfolk at the same time. An Ann Rose was married in 1847 but her father was a William Rose.
• Thomas Rose (1823-1915), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Thomas gave his date of birth as 12 November 1823 on his merchant navy records, and he was baptised on 4 January 1824 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. He was living at home at the time of the 1841 Census and married Susanna Cunningham in Salhouse on 20 September 1846. She had been baptised on 7 March 1824 in the village, the daughter of husbandman James Cunningham and his wife Hannah. Thomas’s merchant navy record was dated 1846 and issued at Great Yarmouth. It described him as 5ft 4ins tall, with black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. However, all future census records listed him in Salhouse as either an agricultural labourer (1851 and 1861 censuses) or a pork butcher (1871) so it may be that he gave up early on his seafaring adventures or that he split his time between sea and shore. Susanna had at least two children with Thomas but she died in 1879. Thomas then married widow Elizabeth Leggett nee Nobbins in 1880 – she was the widow of my first cousin 4x removed (see above). I’ve not found them in the 1881 Census. In 1891 and 1901 they were back in Lower Street, Salhouse, Thomas as a butcher/agricultural labourer and Elizabeth as a laundress. They were both listed as old age pensioners and he a former pork butcher in the 1911 Census. Thomas died in 1915 and Elizabeth in 1929. Thomas and Susannah had at least two children:
  • Robert Rose (1847-1861) was born in Salhouse. He died on 16 March 1861 and was buried in Salhouse.
  • Sarah Hannah Rose (1858-1919) was baptised in Salhouse on 8 August 1858 and married shoemaker George Dowsing on 15 January 1875 (Eastern Daily Press 28 January 1875). He was 20 years her senior and hailed from Woodbridge in Suffolk but census returns showed they lived in Salhouse and raised a family there. George died in Salhouse on 22 August 1910 (Downham Market Gazette 27 August 1910). Sarah remained in the village and died there on 17 March 1919 (Norfolk News 22 March 1919).
    
• Elizabeth Rose (1825-????), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Elizabeth was baptised on 6 November 1825 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. She married John Blackburn at St Fabian and St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, on 16 December 1845. He was a husbandman and agricultural labourer, born there to parents Thomas and Jemima and baptised on 13 December 1818 with the surname Blackbone. Elizabeth and John had several children in Salhouse, all of them listed in the 1851 Census living on Lower Street. I don’t know what happened to the family after this other than an appearance by John in the 1861 Census lodging with two of his children in Spitalfields, Norwich, Norfolk, when he was listed as an agricultural labourer and still married. The family’s curious disappearance from the records suggests emigration but I’ve found no evidence. Elizabeth’s children with John were:
  • Eleanor Blackburn (1846-????) was baptised on 6 September 1846 in Salhouse. She wasn’t with her father in Norwich in 1861 but I’ve found no evidence of her elsewhere.
  • Robert Blackburn (1848-????) was born on 9 March 1848, baptised in Woodbastwick on 2 April that year and was with his father in Norwich in 1861 – but then disappears from the records.
  • Mary Blackburn (1851-????) was baptised on 21 December 1851 in Salhouse. She was with her father in Norwich in 1861 but then disappears from the records.
    
• John Rose (1828-1916), my 3rd great-grand uncle. John was baptised on 8 June 1828 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. He married Sarah Hall in Salhouse on 16 February 1848. She was from the village and was born on 2 June to parents William and Mary Hall, who had her named at the Salhouse Particular Baptist chapel. The 1851 Census listed John and Sarah living on Upper Street, Salhouse, with John as an agricultural labourer. But by 1861 the couple had moved to Shoreditch in London, John working as a labourer. In 1871 they were in Maidstone Street, Shoreditch, John now listed as a shopkeeper. The couple were missing from the 1881 census but in 1891 were at 43 Brandon Road, Walthamstow, and John was working as a fellowship porter. These were people who carried “measurable goods” such as coal, grain, flour and salt on and off ships and to and from warehouses. If these are the correct John and Elizabeth (and they were both listed from Salhouse), he certainly had a varied working career. But I believe he moved back to Salhouse with Sarah later in the decade for her death was registered in the district late in 1900. John then married widow Mary Ann Goffin early in 1901. She was born Mary Ann Bayfield and baptised to Benjamin and Frances Bayfield at Rackheath, Norfolk, on 24 August 1834. John and Mary Ann were living in Upper Street, Salhouse, at the 1901 Census and John was working as an agricultural labourer. In 1911 he was a yardman on a farm, their address given as The Lodge, Salhouse. John’s death was registered in 1916 and Mary Ann’s in 1921. The 1871 Census suggested that John and Sarah had a child Emma in around 1857 but I’ve found no proof. It may be that the enumerator mistook a relative for daughter.
• Susannah Rose (1830-????), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Susan was baptised on 18 July 1830 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. She married labourer William Thompson at St Peter’s Church in nearby Lingwood on 21 November 1848. He had been baptised on 19 September 1820 in the neighbouring village of Strumpshaw, Norfolk, to parents George and Mary Thompson. Census and baptism records for their children showed that Susannah and William settled in Strumpshaw after their marriage, while he worked as an agricultural labourer. William died on 1 November 1890 and was buried in Strumpshaw on 9 November. Susan continued to live in the village with her family, recorded there in the 1891 Census. The Yarmouth Independent of 12 August 1893 noted her proficiency in the garden in a report on the Acle, Blofield and District Cottage Garden Society annual show. It noted that Susannah “must have uncommon talent for gardening. She took first prize for dahlias, second for autumn onions, carrots, celebrity peas, red currants, raspberries, geraniums, and third for peas, cucumbers (under glass), vegetable marrows, sunflowers and nosegay”. It wasn’t the first time her success at such shows was noted in the newspapers. By 1901 Susannah and her family had moved the short distance to Brundall and Susan was working as a laundress. By 1908, when her son Albert was completing his military papers, she was living at 61 Silver Road, Norwich. She was still there at the 1911 Census, living with several family members. A 1912 death in the registration district of Blofield matches in age but doesn’t work considering the electoral rolls of Norwich were still featurin gher in Silver Road until 1915 – unless this was in error. A 1919 death in the registration district of Forehoe, Norfolk, was probably related to a woman from Wymondham. Susannah’schildren with William were:
  • William Thompson (c1848-????). I’ve not found a baptism or birth record for William but census returns suggest he was born in Lingwood, Norfolk, in around 1848. He worked as an agricultural labourer, noted from the 1871 Census onward. He lived in Strumpshaw and married a woman called Emma at some point in the 1870s. I’ve found no matching record. After the 1881 Census, which showed the couple with two sons, the family disappears from the records.
  • John Thompson (1850-1902) was baptised on 21 July 1850 in Strumpshaw and worked as an agricultural labourer from at least the 1871 Census. He lived in Strumpshaw and then Brundall (from at least the 1901 Census) with his parents and then his widowed mother. The Norwich Argus of 20 September 1902, in a report on him being charged with the theft of two ducks from a farmer in Filby, gave more details of his health. The report noted he was suffering from stomach cancer, but was also “mentally deficient as the result of a long-continued illness”. It also noted that he was still receiving treatment after being kicked in the chest by a horse. This didn’t stop the magistrates committing him for trial at the Quarter Sessions. John died just a few months later, probably before the case could be heard. He was buried back in Strumpshaw on 24 December 1902. He was unmarried.
  • George Thompson (1852-1913) was baptised on 20 June 1852 in Strumpshaw and stayed in the area all his life, marrying Elizabeth Rose in the village on 18 April 1876. They raised a family and census reports showed that he worked as an agricultural labourer and died in 1913. Elizabeth must’ve had a difficult time in the First World War as the Norfolk News of 14 August 1915 noted that she had four sons, a grandson and a son-in-law serving in the army. She was recorded in Brundall with some of her children in 1921 and with her son George in Strumpshaw in the 1939 Register. She died in 1942.
  • Edward James Thompson (1854-1925). Baptised in Strumpshaw on 4 February 1854, Edward was working as an agricultural labourer and living with his parents at the 1871 Census. He married Halvergate native Ann Elizabeth Beck in Strumpshaw on 17 July 1878 and had a family with her, but she died in 1882. In 1891 he was living with his children at his mother’s home. In 1901 he was living in Brundall as a gardener / domestic servant while his youngest children were living with his mother Susannah. Edward married again on 27 January 1906 at Brundall, his new wife being Great Yarmouth-born spinster Caroline Clarke. They settled in Brundall. Edward died in 1925 and was buried in Brundall on 28 January. Caroline died in 1947 and was buried in Brundall on 23 May that year.
  • Henry Thompson (1856-1926). Baptised in Strumpshaw, Norfolk, on 20 April 1856, he was already working as an agricultural labourer at the 1871 Census. He continued to live with his parents and widowed mother, working the land, but was listed as a woodsman at the 1901 and 1911 censuses. In 1921 he was living at 61 Silver Road, Norwich, his mother’s old address, with several siblings. He hadn’t married up to this point. He is probably the Henry Thompson whose death was registered in Norwich in 1926 – his age fits.
  • Sarah Ann Thompson (1858-1858) was baptised in Strumpshaw on 7 April 1858 and buried there just days later on 19 April.
  • Sarah Ann Thompson (1859-????) was baptised in Strumpshaw on 16 December 1859. Subsequent census returns showed her living with her parents / widowed mother but in 1881 she was working as a house maid and in 1901 as a laundress. In 1921 she was living at 61 Silver Road, Norwich, her mother’s old address, with brothers Albert and Henry. She also had a son Edward, 14, and was described as a widow but I suspect this was out of politeness as I’ve found no record to confirm any marriage. I’ve not located her subsequently.
  • Robert Thompson (1861-????) was baptised in Strumpshaw on 21 July 1861. He featured in the censuses until 1881, when he was listed as an agricultural labourer. I’ve found no trace of him after this.
  • Mary Ann Thompson (1863-1932) was baptised in Strumpshaw on 13 September 1863 and married Yorkshire-born labourer William Knights in the village on 25 December 1882. In 1891 they were living in Moulton St Mary, Norfolk, with their children, William working as a gardener. In 1901 he was a drover and they were living in Blofield. They were still there in 1911 and 1921, William listed first as a vermin killer and then a farm labourer. William died there in 1929, Mary Ann in 1932.
  • Albert Thompson (1865-1926). Born in Strumpshaw in 1865, Albert initially lived in the village and worked as an agricultural labourer (1881 and 1891 censuses) but then served as a private in the 4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment. The lack of records means it’s not possible to say what his service entailed. He became a reservist in 1908 and served in the Labour Corps on the home front during the First World War. He was a regular in the newspaper columns during his life for various crimes and misdemeanours including drunken behaviour, trespass, criminal damage and assault, including attacking a one-armed man in Strumpshaw (Norwich Mercury 6 August 1892). In 1921 he was living at 61 Silver Road, Norwich, his mother’s old address, with several siblings. Albert didn’t marry and was likely the man whose death was registered in Norwich in 1926.
  • Walter Thompson (1867-1932) was baptised on 23 June 1867 in Strumpshaw and was already working as an agricultural labourer by the time of the 1881 Census. He appeared on a list of habitual criminals and in the newspapers (Norwich Mercury 20 July 1889) having been sentenced to three months imprisonment at Norwich for burglary on 16 July 1889, and having two previous convictions to his name. There would be other offences in the years to come. He married Hannah Maria Blake in her home village of Rockland St Mary, Norfolk, on 4 April 1896 – at this point he was describing himself as a groom. In 1901 the family were living in Saxthorpe and Walter was an under-gamekeeper. In 1911 they were back in Strumpshaw, Walter a stockman, and in 1921 in Blofield. Walter died in 1932, Hannah in 1939.
  • Hannah Thompson (1870-1923). Born in Strumpshaw in 1870, Hannah married farm labourer John Robert Brown in the village on 21 October 1893. He came from nearby Cantley and worked throughout his life as an agricultural labourer. Censuses from 1901 placed them in Lingwood, Norfolk, where they raised their children. Hannah died in March 1923 and was buried in Lingwood on the 24th. I believe John was the man whose death was registered in nearby Acle in 1953.
  • Clarissa Thompson (1872-1916). Born in Strumpshaw, Norfolk, in 1872, Clarissa normally went by the name Clara. She married Harry Moore in Strumpshaw on 25 December 1893 – at the time he was working in the shoe industry. They lived in Norwich, where he’d spent much of his young life, and raised a family there. The 1901 and 1911 censuses recorded Harry as a railway labourer. Clara died in the city in May 1916. Harry died in February 1921.
    
• Henry Rose (1832-1916), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Henry was baptised on 29 January 1832 at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk, and married Sarah Guymer at St Gervase and St Protase Church in Plumstead Parva/Little Plumstead on 1 April 1851. She was a native of the village, born in 1827 and baptised on 8 April that year to labourer John Guymer and his wife Mary. Henry had been lodging with the family at the time of the 1851 Census. Sarah had already had a child, Robert, by the time of their marriage and he’d been baptised Robert Guymer in the village on 14 March. The couple settled in Salhouse with the baby and Henry worked as an agricultural labourer and as an engine driver on the farms. The family were living some miles away from Salhouse in Cawston, Norfolk, at the time of the 1881 Census, and even further away in Holme Hale in 1891. They were in north Norfolk at Burnham Sutton in 1901. Sarah died in Burnham Westgate in 1905 and was buried there on 27 November. Henry was in the Docking Union Workhouse, to the west of the village of Docking in north Norfolk, at the 1911 Census, perhaps for medical reasons, and died in 1916. Henry and Sarah had a number of children over the years including:
  • John Rose (1853-1854) was baptised in Salhouse on 2 October 1853 and buried in Little Plumstead on 26 March 1854.
  • John Rose (1855-????) was baptised in Salhouse on 15 April 1855 but I’ve not traced him beyond the 1871 Census, when he was living with his parents and working as an agricultural labourer. Some online sources suggest he emigrated to Canada but I have found no conclusive proof – there were several John Roses in Norfolk born around the same time.
  • Edward Rose (1858-????) was born on 6 April 1858 and baptised in Salhouse on 19 June 1864. He was at home with his parents in Cawston at the 1881 Census, working as a farm labourer.
  • Elizabeth Rose (1861-1949) was born on 13 July 1861 in Salhouse and baptised in Salhouse on 19 June 1864. She married farm labourer William Edward Woods Warner in his home village of Cawston, Norfolk, on 27 July 1883 and raised a family with him in the area. In 1911, though, the census recorded them in Ludham and then, in 1921, in Marsham. William died in 1935. She was still living in Marsham in 1939 and died in 1949.
  • Mary Ann Rose (1864-????) was born on 20 May 1864 and baptised in Salhouse on 19 June 1864. She was working as a domestic servant in Swannington, Norfolk, at the 1881 Census and then married William Edward Soames / Soame, a blacksmith from Cawston, on 19 September 1885 in Necton, Norfolk. The census records showed them moving around Norfolk over the following decades, children in tow. In 1891 they were in Burnham Norton, in 1901 Hoveton, in 1911 Sculthorpe and in 1921 Swainsthorpe. He died in 1937 and Mary Ann was living near Kings Lynn by 1939. I’ve not pinned down her death date but she may have died in Yorkshire in 1946.
  • Albert Rose (1867-1947). Born in Salhouse in 1867, he was working as a tram driver and living in Upper Clapton, Middlesex, at the time of the 1901 Census with his wife Jessie and their children. She was Scottish and the couple had married in Greenock, Renfrewshire, on 20 June 1894. In the early 20th century they settled in Dunbartonshire, with Albert working as a labourer in the shipbuilding industry. Jessie died in 1940, Albert in 1947. They were interred at Kilbowie Cemetery in Clydebank.

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William Rose (1759?-1814) and Ann Harris (1755-1836?).
My 5th great-grandparents.

There is a great deal of mystery surrounding William Rose, and also to his wedding to Ann Harris. I don’t know where he came from but his age given on his burial record suggests a birth year of 1759/60. Ann was born in the village of Woodbastwick in Norfolk in 1755 and was baptised at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church there on 6 July. Her parents were Thomas and Ann Harris.

Ann Harris was definitely the mother of my 4th great-grandfather Robert Rose (see above) and his siblings as, helpfully, Norfolk parish records at this time recorded the maiden name of the mother on the baptism records. So the question is who did she marry?

I can find no record of a wedding between a William Rose and Ann Harris in Norfolk, or anywhere else for that matter, that would fit the dates. Curiously, there is a marriage between a William Kelly and an Ann Harris in Woodbastwick on 15 October 1782 and I’m thinking that this is our couple. Does this represent a clerical error or did William change his name for an unknown reason? I doubt it’s the former considering the number of banns that were read before the wedding listing him as ‘Kelly’. There are no records of Kelly baptisms in the areas around Woodbastwick either, which makes him even more mysterious.

The couple raised their family in and around Woodbastwick, the records sometimes describing him as a pauper. I suspect William died in 1814 and Ann in 1836. A William Rose, said to be a resident of neighbouring Salhouse, was buried aged 59 at Woodbastwick on 11 January 1814. An Anne Rose was buried at All Saints in Salhouse on 11 September 1836 but she was described as 85 so this could be someone else

The couple had a number of children, including several sets of twins, but many died as babies:

• Ann Rose (1785-????), my 4th great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised on 17 July 1785 at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk. I’ve found no other records about her.
• William Rose (1787-????), my 4th great-grand uncle. William was baptised on 2 September 1787 at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, but then disappears from the records. His twin was Thomas.
• Thomas Rose (1787-1787), my 4th great-grand uncle. Thomas was baptised on 2 September 1787 at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, and died just a few weeks later. He was buried on 14 October. His twin was William.
• James Rose (1789-1789), my 4th great-grand uncle. James was baptised on 15 March 1789 at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, and died just a couple of months later. He was buried on 12 June on the same day as his twin brother Richard.
• Richard Rose (1789-1789), my 4th great-grand uncle. Richard was baptised on 15 March 1789 at St Fabian & St Sebastian Church in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, and died just a couple of months later. He was buried on 12 June on the same day as his twin brother James.
• Robert Rose (1790-1842), my 4th great-grandfather. See elsewhere on this page for his details.

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Sources: 
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, tithe records, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
Norfolk Record Office: Salhouse tithe map, 1841, and apportionment, 1842 (certified copy 1843), ref PD 625/15. 
National Archives: Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857 records series BT113.
Norfolk Records Office: Norfolk Electoral Registers 1832-1915.
National Archives: Metropolitan Police Criminal Record Office, Registers of Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers, reference: MEPO 6/2.
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.