William Budgen (1873-1916) and Phoebe Jones (1884-1962).
My great-grand uncle and aunt.
Born on 24 January 1873, William Budgen was baptised at St Katharine’s Church, Merstham, Surrey, on 9 March that year to parents Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore.
He was listed as a clerk in the 1891 Census, living with his family in Bell Street, Reigate, but in that year he appeared in court with his brother Edward, charged along with two friends of extinguishing seven lamps in the borough of Reigate. All were described as respectable young men, but PC Turner told the court that he’d seen and heard them late at night in various streets putting the lights out. The defendants pleaded not guilty. Another police officer said he’d visited the Budgens at their father’s Bell Street home after the incident, where Edward told him they’d been in the Elm Shades pub until after 11pm on the night concerned. The court convicted all four of them and fined the defendants 2s 6d and 6s costs each (Surrey Mirror 20 June 1891).
Ironically, perhaps, at the time of the 1901 Census William was working as a solicitor’s clerk and lodging with a family in Farnham, Surrey. On Christmas Day 1909 he married Phoebe Jones at St Augustine’s Church in Croydon while both were lodging with his sister Annie and brother-in-law Walter Finch at 45 Bynes Road, Croydon. Walter was also a witness at the wedding. Phoebe had been baptised in the tiny village of Dolwyddelan in Caernarvonshire, Wales, on 11 May 1884 to Robert Jones – who worked in a slate quarry before becoming a farmer – and his wife Mary. She was still living with her parents at the 1901 Census but how she met William is a mystery.
In 1911 William and Phoebe were living at 34 Helder Street in Croydon with baby Phoebe Mary and William was working as a bread baker, perhaps at Walter Finch’s bakery business.
The death of a William Budgen was recorded late in 1916 in Croydon and it’s likely this was our man judging by his age. In addition, a Phoebe Budgen remarried in the town early in 1917 – just a few months after her husband’s death. Her new husband was Reuben Arthur, born in 1866 in Bermondsey, Surrey, who’d been living in Upland Road, Croydon, and working as a solicitor’s clerk. They had children together but he died in 1937, the event registered in Croydon.
By the time of the 1939 Register Phoebe was working as a domestic servant and living in Farnan Road, Streatham, Surrey. Her death was registered in Croydon in 1962.
William and Phoebe’s child was:
- Phoebe Mary Budgen (1911-1994), who was born in Croydon, Surrey, on 6 January 1911. In Croydon in 1928, she married builder and decorator Cyril George Nurse Walter, who’d been born in Buckinghamshire in 1909. They raised a family in Thornton Heath, Surrey. He died at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, Surrey, in 1960 after falling from a ladder while working in Thornton Heath and suffering serious head injuries (Norwood News 5 August 1960). In 1970 Phoebe married Sidney Reginald Pomeroy in Devon and settled in the seaside town of Sidmouth. She died on 18 May 1994. Sidney had died on 8 August 1982.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, and other records at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk.
British Newspaper Archive – titles in text.
Surrey Family History Centre (Woking).