William Budgen (1820-1864) and Amy Frith (1826-1921).
My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt.
Baptised in Worth, Sussex, on 6 February 1820, William was the son of William Budgen and Sarah Rice and would meet a gruesome end. But that was some years after he married Amy Frith, the 18-year-old daughter of a gamekeeper, on 6 April 1844 in Headcorn, Kent. Amy (who is sometimes listed in records as ‘Frid’) was born on 25 June 1826 to gamekeeper William Frith and his wife Susannah, and baptised as a Wesleyan Methodist in Headcorn on 27 August that year.
William and Amy raised a family and lived in Marden, Kent – a village on the railway line between the towns of Tonbridge and Ashford.
He was described as a labourer at his marriage but census returns in 1851 and 1861 noted that he worked as a platelayer, a job that involved maintaining rail track. And it was on the tracks near his home that he met his untimely death. As the Morning Post of 2 March 1864 reported: “An inquiry was opened yesterday, at Marden, before the coroner for West Kent, into the circumstances attending the death of William Budgen, a platelayer in the service of the South-Eastern Railway Company, who was killed by an express train on Friday night last.”
William and another platelayer, George Russell, had been working on the line about two miles from their homes on 26 February 1864. After leaving work they went to a beer shop and stayed there until about 10pm, but instead of walking home they decided to go back to the tracks and use a trolley to propel themselves along the down line. They hadn’t got more than a few yards when a fast train, which had left London for Dover at 8.55pm, appeared. Both men quickly jumped off the trolley but to try to prevent a collision with the express and a potential disaster, William and George attempted to pull the trolley clear of the rails.
According to the Morning Post: “They had nearly succeeded in doing this but were too late, as the engine came into collision with the trolley, which was shattered to fragments; and the same was the case with the deceased, as the spot where the accident occurred was afterwards found to be literally strewn with pieces of human flesh. The head of the unfortunate man, which was completely severed from his body, was afterwards found in a ditch.
“The train received a severe shock but, fortunately, did not leave the line of rails, which, for 10 miles on either side of Marden station, are particularly straight. George Russell is now in custody to answer the charge of trespassing on the railway before the magistrates at Cranbrook.”
The East Kent Times of 5 March added further details, claiming that the pair had assumed the train had already gone through the district – but they’d been deceived by the fact that the beer house clock was fast. George must’ve been traumatised by what he saw that night but his troubles weren’t over for a few days later he appeared at Cranbrook Petty Sessions charged with obstructing the passage of the line and endangering life.
The Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser reported on 8 March that the prosecution stated that the prisoner might in some measure be excused as he was only a platelayer and somewhat under the control of William, who was the foreman or ganger. George’s lawyer made ‘a most feeling appeal’ on his behalf and presented an extensively signed memorial to his good character and sobriety. He could not deny George’s guilt but hoped that his subordinate position to the deceased would be taken into account. The bench fined him £5 and costs.
Amy married again, in 1873, her husband being Kent-born carpenter and preacher Henry King. They continued to live in the county, moving from Marden to Tenterden, and then settled in Sussex – in Ticehurst and Flimwell. Henry died in 1917, was buried in Ticehurst on 5 September and was celebrated for his 45 years of preaching locally in an obituary (Kent & Sussex Courier 7 September 1917). Amy’s home address was given as Cranbrook at the time of her death in May 1921. She was buried in Ticehurst on 12 May.
Amy and William had a large family and several of the children emigrated to the USA after their father’s death. Their mother’s maiden name often became Fridd rather than Frith in the subsequent records there.
- Eliza Budgen (1846-1888). Eliza was brought up in Marden, Kent, and worked as a domestic servant as a teenager before marrying bricklayer Edward Coomber in 1865 in Luton, Kent. She raised a family with him. They later moved to Kensington in West London, where Edward was described as a builder and greengrocer in the 1881 census. Eliza died there in 1888.
- Thomas Budgen (1848-1849).
- Ellen Budgen (1851-1946). Ellen, who was brought up in Marden, disappears from British records after the 1861 census. She travelled to the United States after her father’s death in the lat 1860s and settled initially with her mother’s brother George (whose surname was given as Fridd) who’d settled as a farmer in New York State. She married Frederick Camp Wood in 1900 in New York State, where they lived for the rest of their lives – much of it Buffalo. He worked in a library and died in 1930. Ellen died in 1946.
- Mary Budgen (1855-1936). Mary came from Marden in Kent and also travelled to the United States in the late 1860s. She married farmer Francis Eugene Derby in his home state of Michigan in 1870. The couple and their children lived and worked in Franklin, Lenawee County, Michigan. He died there in 1926, Mary in 1936.
- Martha Budgen (1857-1945). Martha was brought up in Marden and remained unmarried, living with her mother, step-father and later her sister Elizabeth and her family in Cranbrook, Kent, for many years. The Kent & Sussex Courier of 14 December 1945 reported her death on the 9 December and noted that she had been a Sunday school teacher at Cranbrook Congregational Church and wrote poetry and hymns. It also noted that she’d become incapacitated in her later years.
- Rhoda Budgen (1859-1914). Rhoda came from Marden and married Alfred Edwin Ferguson in Westminster, London, in 1881. He was a musical agent, teacher, composer and arranger who regularly featured in the newspapers and specialist publications of the time, both in adverts for his services and in reviews of productions he was involved in. He also went by the name Felix Dumas. He was often on the road around the UK on tours and engaged for longer periods at venues – for example The Stage of 9 January 1885 noted that he was an assistant manager and conductor at the Theatre Royal in West Bromwich while the Greenwich and Deptford Observer of 3 September 1881 reported that he was manager of the newly opened Windsor Castle Palace of Varieties in Plumstead. However, Alfred died young in 1896 and this was bad news for his family. The Era of 19 December 1896 reported on a fund that had been set up for his widow and four children who had been left unprovided for as a result of his long illness. Rhoda settled in Kent for a time and worked as an elementary school teacher. She died in Sussex in 1914 and was buried in Ticehurst.
- Elizabeth Budgen (1861-1934). Elizabeth came from Marden and settled in Cranbrook in Kent after marrying village resident Daniel Reed in 1890. He worked as a butcher and they raised a family. The Kentish Express of 7 February 1936 noted that he was superintendent of the Cranbrook Congregational Church Sunday School and had just celebrated his 50th year of teaching there. Elizabeth and her sister Martha had also taught at the school until ill health took over. Elizabeth and Daniel had both been awarded the Diploma of Honour from the National Sunday School Union on reaching the 40th anniversary of their teaching at the school. Elizabeth died in 1934, Daniel in 1946, and both were buried in Cranbrook.
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 Sussex Family History Group. American census and BMDs are also on Ancestry. Newspapers quoted in text from the British Newspaper Archive.