Monday, July 22, 2013

William GILES Senior, a Peripatetic Dissenting Minister.



[A portrait of Rev William GILES, probably painted in Manchester about 1832.
Now in the possession of Helen GILES of London.]


[In 1910, A.E. GILES sourced this, and another of his wife Elizabeth, as: 
"Portraits in oils... painted by WARREN (brother of the author of 'Ten Thousand a year')..."  
See his "AEGIDIANA, or Gleanings Among Gileses at Home and Abroad," page 23, footnote b.]


[A signature which is probably that of William GILES Senior, as a witness to 
the marriage registration of John Eustace GILES and Ann LEESE, dated December 1832
His signature has been described as being plainer than that of his son William Junior (see below).
Image courtesy of Manchester City Archives through ancestry.library.]


William GILES was born at Horrabridge, near Tavistock, South Devonshire, on 1 May 1771, and was baptised at Whitchurch Parish Church, on 5 May.
During a busy and evangelical life, he moved around frequently, spending time in Tavistock, London, Sierra Leone, Devonport, Dartmouth, Lymington, Wantage, Chatham, Preston, Liverpool, Manchester and finally Ashton-under Lyne, where he died in 1846.



[Whitchurch Parish Church, photographed by the author in 1983.]


FAMILY ORIGINS IN DEVONSHIRE.

William was a younger son of John GILES (1736-1774), a Farmer in Buckland Monochorum Parish, by his wife Sarah GRAY, of Buckfastleigh.

Details of this family may be found at this link:
http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/the-giles-family-of-tavistock-in-devon.html

William's siblings, baptised at Buckland Monochorum (except as noted), were George GILES (baptised 28 August 1763, and buried 17 December 1765), George GILES (no baptismal record - recorded by Bertram S. GILES, without supporting evidence, as having "... inherited the family estate at Totnes"), John GILES (baptised 19 April 1766 - no further particulars), Elizabeth GILES (baptised 8 March 1767, and buried there on 17 March 1767, an infant ), Sarah GILES (baptised 20 April 1768), and Mary GILES (baptised at Whitchurch, 25 September 1774) - the younger two of which sisters may have been the wives of Mr GOSNEY and/or Mr MORTIMER.

Concerning this alleged "... family estate in Totnes," William's eldest daughter (Mary) Eliza would later write the following:
"My paternal grandfather died many years before my birth. He held an estate in Totnes, Devon, leaving his estate to his eldest son, my father's eldest brother. Their mother, therefore, with her young family, left Totnes and took them to Horrabridge where her own family resided."
[Notes by Mary Eliza GODFERY, Belvidere House, Prince's Park, Liverpool, dated 19 April 1884, courtesy of her great-grand-daughter Mrs S. CLARKE of Sutton Coldfield.]

My research into the family origins suggests that some of (Mary) Eliza's information, as can happen in early family pedigree details, may be a little astray.
Her father's elder brother was probably the second George GILES, born at Monochorum, about 1765; her grandparents were almost certainly married at Buckfastleigh, not far from Totnes, on 28 April 1760; the grandfather, John GILES, was probably baptised at Buckland Monochorum, 8 October 1736, eldest son of George GILES of Buckland Monochorum, by Elizabeth MILLER; and the grandmother, Sarah GRAY, was probably baptised at Buckfastleigh on 3 September 1728, daughter of William GRAY of Buckfastleigh (who died there in December 1761).




[View of the Parish Church of Buckland Monochorum, south of Tavistock, South Devonshire.
Photgraphed by the author in 1983.]

If all this information is correct, then it appears that it was (Mary) Eliza's grandmother who was from near Totnes, and that she came to "Horrabridge" between Tavistock and Buckland Monochorum (the Parish in which Buckland Abbey was located, and granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Frances DRAKE), where the GILES family lived, probably shortly after her marriage, and before she had children.

But, there was a GILES family associated with Bowden, near Totnes, and there may be a link to that family, although such a link is not immediately evident in available pedigrees.

Sir Edward GILES of Bowden, created Knight at the coronation of James I, and the M.P. for Totnes, died in December 1637, aged 72; he had no issue by his wife Mary, widow of Walter NORTHCOTT of Utton, and daughter of Edmund DREW of Haire; the family estates at Bowden were then inherited by his nephew Richard GILES, who died at Totnes in 1648, leaving, by his wife Dorothy CAREW, a third son, John GILES (born about 1623 and sole executor of his father's will), who may have been the progenitor of the Buckland Monochorum GILES family.


See the separate blog-page on this family, at this link:
http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/giles-family-of-totnes-in-devon.html

Unless the estates near Totnes were instead those of William GRAY (died 1761). Further research will be necessary to resolve this apparent difficulty.


EARLY LIFE IN DEVONSHIRE.

William was educated at the Grammar School in Tavistock, and after what appears to have been a period learning the shoemaker's trade (his marriage registration and the baptismal registration of his first child, Mary Eliza, both recorded him as cordwainer), saw John WESLEY preach, encountered the ministry of Dr COKE in Tavistock, and with the encouragement of his sister, was admitted to Membership of the Methodist Society by Mr PADDON at the Old Tabernacle in Plymouth.

In Tavistock, William also made the acquaintance of his future father-in-law, Eustace PIKE, a former officer in the Royal Navy, who served, with his only son as a midshipman, on a ship commanded by Prince William, Duke of Clarence, and later King William VI - whose Naval commands were H.M.'s Ships Pegasus (24 guns), 1786-88, Andromeda (32 guns), 1788, and Valiant (74 guns), 1788-90), one of which may have been the ship on which PIKE and son served.
William also met his future mother-in-law Elizabeth PIKE alias PHILLIPS (whom Eustace had married at St Mary's, Portsea, Hampshire, on 15 December 1758), and her children, including his own future wife Elizabeth PIKE (baptised at Tavistock on 12 January 1765) and her two sisters Mary (later Mrs Richard PARFORD) and Martha (later Mrs George BRYANT). See further below.


A BRIEF EXCURSION TO WEST AFRICA.

William was appointed to learn the rudiments of Medicine, for which he went to London, about 1792-93, in order to equip him with useful skills in the Methodist expedition being set up by Dr Thomas COKE (John WESLEY's appointed successor) to go to the Sierra Leone Company settlement at Freetown on the Windward Coast of West Africa; there the largest component of the population was a group of 1,100 African Americans, formerly slaves, who had fought for their freedom alongside the British in the Revolutionary War of American Independence, and had become strongly influenced by the Baptists during their intermediate sojourn in Nova Scotia before being resettled in Freetown; but their specific destination was eventually settled as the Foulah country, and its capital Timbo (or Teembo), a round journey of about 300 miles from Freetown.

William embarked at Portsmouth, on the Sierra Leone Company ship, Calypso (Captain COLE), on 17 February 1796, with 5 other Missionaries. These five Methodists have been identified as John PINE, John EVANS and John POOLE (all of London), William EDNEY (of Portsea), and Robert YELLALY (of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) [see "An Account of the Mission at Teembo, in the Foulah Country, in Africa," printed in Dublin, 1796, for E. DUGDALE by Robert DAPPER, Ref U.4.6. V.26, Pamphlet #167, Special Collections, Cork University College Library] - the last-named, YELLALY, had been instructed in Farriery and ordained by COKE shortly before departure ["Letters of Dr COKE," 1795].
Also aboard the Calypso was the returning Zachary MacAULAY (having gone back home six months prior for the sake of his health, he had just been appointed as the new Governor), and another 8 passengers bound for Company employment in Freetown.
Awaiting favourable winds, the Calypso did not set sail until the 24th.

Despite conventional wisdom that there were a total of six Missionary men, there may have been seven. Alexander Peter KUP, in his "Adam Afzelius - Sierra Leone Journal, 1795-1796" (published by the "Inst. för alim. och jämförande etnografi", 1967), wrote of MacAULAY and the Methodists, in footnotes, as follows:
"The governor arrived in the Calypso at Freetown, 18th March [KNUTSFORD, p.120] with seven Methodist Missionaries intended for Timbo..." [P.165]
"GILES and YELLILI, two ordained ministers, and certain craftsmen who were to preach and teach the Fula their particular trades... All refused to go, and they left for England, 17th May, on the ship 'Eliza,' with AFZELIUS. YELLILI had already gone to America, however." [P.166]

It would appear that the wives of the Missionary party were supposed to have waited until their menfolk had settled; John Ashly VICKERS recorded as much in his "Thomas COKE; Apostle of Methodism," 1969, at page 293:
"The wives, they thought, might be employed as teachers. Of the six men chosen, four were married, two single; and though it had originally been intended that the men should go out alone, to be joined by their wives when a settlement had been established, in the event they all sailed together. The two single men, GILES and YELLALEE, both local preachers..."
But VICKERS was clearly unaware that GILES alone had done as intended, and had left his wife Elizabeth back in England, and that their 12 months old daughter Mary was at this time left in the care of her PIKE grandparents in Tavistock; Elizabeth GILES, pending her joining William later in Sierra Leone, was being trained in midwifery, probably in London. However, her training was about to get very first-hand, as she was pregnant again, and their second daughter Sarah was born in about March 1796, shortly after William had embarked for Africa - which alone may well account for her not travelling to that harsh climate.

After a speedy passage, the Calypso arrived in Freetown on 18 March.


[View of Freetown, about 1798. Image courtesy of the zmblackhistorymonth2011.blogspot.com.]

But despite high hopes, the mission quickly ended in failure, after inter-personal dissension which began on the voyage out, and manifested itself on arrival in behaviour which "...excited the derision and contempt of all who had the opportunity of observing them."
This made the trek from Freetown to the proposed Foulah mission field impossible, especially as the greater part of the menfolk had actually brought their wives with them, were then berated by those wives for bringing them there, and followed their wives lead by refusing to go further [see "A brief history of the Wesleyan missions on the west coast of Africa," by William FOX, London, 1851].

Had the missionaries seen first-hand what that trek was likely to involve, they would probably have been quietly grateful that it did not go ahead. As can be seen from the map below, Teembo lay about 95 miles direct to the N.E. of Freetown, on the plateau known as Fuuta Jaloo, which rose above the Windward Coast; but the safe (or Foulah controlled) route at that time involved an arduous round trip of nearly 300 miles, by way of the newly opened Sierra Leone Company factory (or trading post) at Freeport, about 15 miles from the coast up the Rio Pongo, itself about 120 miles north of Freetown; the voyage there was the easy part. Thereafter lay a gruelling 160 mile trek along the caravan path up the escarpment, through Timbi Tunmi, into Teembo, one of apparently two Foulah capitals - probably having to stand to one side to allow the coast-bound porters with the loads of goods bound for western markets, which for many (those surplus to the number required to carry the western goods back, to start with) was destined to be their own fate as well.


[Part of the map used by Bruce Lee MOUSER to illustrate his excellent paper entitled 
"Trade, Coasters, and Conflict in the Rio Pongo from 1790 to 1808";
 published in the Journal of African History, Volume 14 (1), 1973, at p.47.
Viewable on the www-tubmaninstitute.ca web-site.]

Zachary MacAULAY, who on arrival quickly superseded as Governor his predecessor, William DAWES (a Marines Officer who had sailed to Botany Bay with the First Fleet in the ship Sirius, 1787-88, and for whom Dawes Point was named), and deciding that he himself would accompany the group inland, explained the failure away by suggesting that:
"...they had either not rightly understood the engagement, or had not fully counted the costs."
As soon as  DAWES had sailed (on the Company ship, Mohawk, departing Freetown on 25 April 1796), MacAULAY posted notices imposing new taxes and land rents, and prohibiting marriages other than those performed in the parish church by the chaplain, or by someone approved by him, much to the chagrin of the Baptist Missionaries (GRIGG and RODWAY - see further below).

William was forced, by this refusal of the other missionaries to proceed, and perhaps against his will, to abandon the mission, and requested they be returned to England, just two months after their arrival.
The decision was made on 30 March, the day appointed for the party to leave Freetown by sea on the first leg of their journey to Teembo (and shortly before the start of the rainy season).
Two hours before the scheduled mid-day sailing, William"...seemingly much cast down," went to see MacAULAY, who made a record of their conversation for the benefit of the Company Chairman in England:
GILES - "Oh, sir, I do not know what I shall do; every one of the Missionaries declares against going a step farther. The women were so alarmed by what happened yesterday (*), that they are determined their husbands shall not leave them here exposed to the fury of the enemy."
MacAULAY - "And what do the husbands say?"
GILES - "Say, sir? Why, in such a case what can a man say? As Christians they were obliged to yield."
(* - There were frequent "alarums" in Freetown of imminent and occasionally unfolding French attacks on the small settlement.)
MacAULAY requested GILES to provide him with a written copy of their decision; GILES did so, and attached to it was a further request to be returned to England by the first vessel.
But William did not sign the letter himself, and MacAULAY broached him on the omission, asking whether it was an indication that he intended to continue alone. GILES replied, a little ashamedly:
"Sir, you'll excuse me. I have no such intention."

MacAULAY had been distinctly unimpressed with the Foulah Missionaries from the very outset of the voyage from England; the more so when he discovered that they carried a letter written by Dr COKE addressed directly to the King of the Foulahs, which, it appears, was intended he (MacAULAY) should not see; he was less concerned about the effect the letter would have upon the Africans, injudicious as he considered it, as he was with the effect he saw it having on the bearers, whom he judged to be "...already imbued with absurdly lofty ideas of their personal importance" - the letter began by stating that they "...will set forth an example of all the virtues and all the graces, and are qualified to instruct subjects in all the important arts of Europe" which, according to COKE, included medical skill; but as to the account of the "eminent" attainments of one of their number in surgery and medicine, MacAULAY appended a sarcastic annotation that "...GILES attended the London Hospital for one month."

MacAULAY wrote further about the Methodist Missionaries in general, and about William GILES in particular; he noted:
"GILES, of whom so much is said, is, I think, one of the steadiest in his principles. He has been ordained a Minister of the Colony, and is certainly more fit for that office than any of the others. He is indolent and inactive, and has been led by the Doctor [COKE] to expect that he may be supported at Teembo without the labour of his hands. I should have expected more of GILES had not his views been so improperly elevated."
["Life and Letters of Zachary MacAULAY," Edited by his grand-daughter the Viscountess Knutsford, London, 1900, page 117.]

During his time in Freetown, William met up with a number of Baptists, who convinced him of the efficacy of adult baptism. Two of these were young Englishmen who had been sent out by the infant Baptist Missionary Society about 3-4 months earlier, and their mission too had failed - due to the illness of the one (James RODWAY, who had been a student at the Bristol Baptist College, the assistant; he returned to England in September 1796) and the expulsion of the other (Jacob GRIGG, aged about 26, the missionary; he opposed Zachary MacAULAY on several issues, including the imposition of new taxes and land rents on the Nova Scotians, and the restriction of marriages to the Established Church).
The "ejected" GRIGG wrote to Rev John SUTCLIFF of Olney, as he was setting sail from Freetown (probably for the station he had "deserted" at Port Locko, further up the Sierra Leone River) on 25 April 1796, and noted the failure of the Foulahs Mission of the recently arrived Methodists:
"...because of alarms of a French landing. 'But that is all to the good, for more unfit persons could not be found. There are constant fierce quarrellings - one man named EVANS called the other a damned villain - and knives were often drawn. They are all going home'."
GRIGG also made mention of:
"...a Mr GILES, 'an exceedingly good man' amongst them."
The Baptist Quarterly, January 1932, recorded abstracted details of GRIGG's letter with commentary by Isaac MANN, in his "Calendar of Letters, 1742-1831" - these are now in the collection of the National Library of Wales (and accessible on the www.biblicalstudies.org.uk web-site).
MANN made the following editorial observation:
"The exceedingly good young man named GILES was in the band of Methodists who had been reporting to Dr COKE from 1792. The one good result of GRIGG and RODWAY's visit was to win this William GILES to Baptist life."

GRIGG eventually left Africa in May 1797, on the ship Augustus Charleston - and on the same voyage was John GARVIN, a Methodist, and a school teacher employed by the Sierra Leone Company, whom GRIGG had hoped would convert to the Baptists and be appointed to succeed RODWAY as his assistant; but GARVIN also remonstrated with MacAULAY, and for his pains was tried by the Company for misdemeanor and sentenced to banishment. They went to America.
Members of the fledgling Baptist Missionary Society who were involved in the original decision to send GRIGGS and RODWAY to Africa included Rev Isaiah BIRT and the Rev Philip GIBBS, both of Plymouth, and both of whom we will meet with very shortly (see next section below).

William sailed for England on the Sierra Leone Company's ship, the Eliza (Captain George SMITH), on 17 May 1796, bound for London; also on board were the other Foulah Missionaries and their families (except for Mr YELLALEE, who had in the meantime gone to America), as well as Mr WITCHELL, Mr Adam AFZELIUS (an eminent Swedish academic employed as the Company botanist), and Mr MILLAR (the Company carpenter); during the voyage, the ship was twice dogged "...by privateers and once exposed to a frightful tornado" [see W.G.'s memorial, The Baptist Manual, 1846].


ANOTHER RELIGIOUS CONVERSION IN DEVONPORT.

The Eliza arrived at Portsmouth on 7 July 1796, and concluded her voyage at Gravesend on the 15th.
On his return to Devonshire, William sought out the Baptist Minister at Devonport (now Plymouth) and was there "dipped" into the Baptist fold by Rev Isaiah BIRT.

For about a year, William assisted the Rev Mr Philip GIBBS (ca1732-1800) at the Baptist Chapel at How Lane, Plymouth; this was towards the end of the time Mr WINTERBOTHAM was in prison.
William WINTERBOTHAM (1763-1829), of London, was assisting Mr GIBBS at Plymouth from late 1789, and settled there in early 1790; in November 1793, he preached two sermons there, the one on 5 November entitled "The Commemoration of National Deliverance" with allusions to the French Revolution, and the second on 12 November alluding to the African Slave Trade; he was tried on two charges of having used seditious words, was found guilty by an allegedly "stacked" jury, and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, with a fine of  £200; he served out his sentence at Newgate Prison, and was released in 1797; he succeeded GIBBS as Pastor at How Lane in 1800.

The Baptists were also "particular" about their terminology, and made the following distinctions:
1. Church - the body of people, baptized, who formed the membership proper of the church body.
2. Chapel - the purpose built structure in which meetings were held .
3. Congregation - the people who met in the Chapel, including the "baptized" church membership, along with the unbaptized family and friends of the church members, and any other visitors.
As William GILES had now become a Baptist, I will attempt to conform to this terminology hereafter.


APPOINTED PASTOR AT DARTMOUTH.

William was appointed to Dartmouth in November 1797, where he was pastor to the congregation that met in the chapel previously run by Thomas NEWCOMEN of steam engine fame.
The church was not a large one, and on 25 August 1798 only numbered 9 members, four men and five women; but:
"...the house is well filled, they have at present a blessed prospect, and think of erecting a gallery this year. Mr William GILES, their minister, preaches constantly at Brixham of a Thursday evening..." [The Annual Baptist Register, 1798].


[The town of Dartmouth. The Baptist Chapel, perhaps of later vintage than the one GILES found there, 
is on the left, with the hipped slate roof  just in contact with the foliage of the tree opposite.
Photo taken by the author in 1983.]

One of the specific difficulties with the location of this chapel, being up the side of a quite steep narrow street, was the filling of the adult full-immersion baptismal font - the local townsfolk apparently were highly entertained by the chain-gang of Baptist loyalists passing buckets of water up from the town pump, prior to one of the baptismal ceremonies during GILES's time there.

William was also involved in "out-reach" work in the surrounding countryside; he was almost uniquely placed among Baptist ministers as having actually gone abroad on missionary work in his early days, albeit as a Methodist (and on a mission that never got off the ground), and here in Dartmouth he began marking out his future reputation as an evangelising minister with a missionary bent.
The Baptist Quarterly (Volume 28, Part 3, 1979) published an article entitled "Particular Baptist Itinerant Preachers During the Late 17th and Early 18th Centuries," by Deryck W. LOVERIDGE; at page 129, he wrote:
"While the national itinerant societies and county associations were able to undertake the evangelisation of more remote areas, most of the expansion that occurred in the period up to 1830 was the result of local itinerant preaching around existing churches. Between 1806 and 1808 the minister of Dartmouth [our William] preached regularly every week to crowded gatherings at houses in the neighbouring villages of Strete and Dittisham (fn 13), and it would appear that limited itinerancy of this kind had by that time become a normal adjunct of pastoral duties, but the scale of operations mounted by some individuals ensured far greater penetration of the surrounding area."


REMOVAL TO LYMINGTON.

From Dartmouth, he went to Lymington, Hampshire, in February 1809; it is said that he sought the move on account of his health; and it was apparent that the Baptist community in Lymington had been divided by factionalism, and that the death of his predecessor, Rev Isaac STRADLING a few years earlier had created a vacancy as well as an opportunity to heal the rift.

William was ordained pastor of the re-united congregation on 4 April 1809; their chapel stood on New Lane, Lymington.

On Wednesday 18 October 1809, William "...engaged in the various exercises" associated with the formation of a new Particular Baptist church at Newport, Isle of Wight; he also preached at and concluded the evening service which marked the occasion.

While at Lymington, he was met by some violent opposition, particularly at the outlying village of Beaulieu Rails, on the border of the New Forest, and where, notwithstanding several musket pot-shots fired at his pulpit (the chapel was built by GILES in 1810) and while he was preaching from it, he established a new church there in October 1817 (see below).
During his time here, he also baptized four Established Church ministers, including Rev J.H. EVANS, M.A., the then Curate of Milford near Lymington.

His activities in Lymington accelerated towards the close of his ministry there, as recorded in the Baptist Magazine of February 1818, at page 80:
"NEW CHURCHES FORMED.
"BEAULIEU RAILS.
"The gospel was introduced hear about 7 years since by Mr GILES and some brethren from Lymington, from whence it is 5 miles distant; it has been attended with considerable success. A place of worship has been erected, which will hold 200 persons, about 30 of whom have been baptized. October 7th [1817], these were dismissed from Lymington, and formed into a separate church. Messrs GILES, LAY and DORE were engaged in the religious services of this pleasing solemnity. The two latter are engaged to supply them until they shall be directed to a pastor.
"ASHLEY.
"This, too, is a village in the vicinity of Lymington, five miles in the opposite direction, in which the gospel began to be preached three years since... about 25 persons have been baptized here... October 29th [1817] Mr RUTTER, a member of the church at Lymington, having received an unanimous invitation to the pastoral office... Mr GILES prayed the ordination prayer...
"Mr GILES, who baptized more than 100 persons within the 7 or 8 years of his residence at Lymington, has since removed to Chatham, where we hope he will be yet more useful."

William left Lymington on 5 November 1817; he preached to the Baptists at Wantage, but declined their pressing invitation for him to settle amongst them, going instead to Chatham, in Kent.


REMOVAL TO CHATHAM.

On 18 December 1817, William was ordained pastor of the Particular Baptist congregation which met in their chapel in Clover Lane, Chatham (south-east side, between numbers 11 and 13, just north of Best Street).
This "particular" congregation had existed since 1741 (there had been a Baptist congregation in Chatham as early as 1630), and had been under the pastoral care of John KNOTT, a Baker from Eythorne, from 1776; he was probably succeeded by his son, John KNOTT Junior, who resigned in 1816; KNOTT (father and/or son) had enlarged the building in Clover Lane in 1793 and 1815.
During William's time here, the chapel was enlarged yet again, and he was instrumental in:
"...originating Baptist churches in Upnor, Dover, Gravesend, and other places in Kent."
[W.G. Memorial, The Baptist Manual, 1846, page 44.]


[Partial Map of Chatham, 1848. Zion Chapel on Clover Street is highlighted in red.]

This congregation having continued to outgrow the chapel accommodation, a new brick chapel was built in 1821, capable of seating 800; this was built on the site of the old chapel.
Well since demolished, photographs of it do still exist - an early one (below) shows the probably original iron fence and gateway, with the name "Zion" and the year "1821" both emblazoned on the top of the facade.


A later photograph, probably 1920s or 1930s, showed a different metal "paling" fence with central gates swung on two  masonry pillars, and the front wall re-painted, with darker highlighted "keystones" over windows and alternating smaller "cornerstones" up the full two storey height of each front corner (see the Medway Archives web-site - the chapel was built of brick, so the features highlighted were not stones, but cement render shaped to look like stone - also see part image under William GILES Junior below).


[A late photo of the Zion Chapel, Clover Street, Chatham, missing the front portico. 
Image courtesy of the www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk web-site.]


[A partial view of the Town of Chatham, 1864. Zion Baptist Chapel is identified on the right side of Clover Street. 
The house on the lower corner of Best and Clover Streets, directly under Zion, is where Wm GILES Junior first ran 
his school; he moved, about 1821, along Best Street to Rhode Street on the extreme right; and Gibraltar Place, on 
New Road, the third location, is shown on the bottom. North points about 35 degrees to the left of vertical.
Image courtesy of the www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk web-site.]

There was undoubtedly a period during the 1821 re-building when the congregation would have met elsewhere; this was probably at Providence Chapel, in St Mary's Place, on the south-west side of The Brook, four blocks away to the north, on the other side of the High Street, and nestling just above the Old Bourne, a natural and partly tidal stream which had long since become the town sewer, the foetid smells making The Brook one of the lesser desirable addresses in town.

But division occurred, and a party of Antinomians formed within the Chatham congregation against him, whereupon William confronted them, but not having the necessary support, resigned his charge.
This resulted in the issuing, by those who had opposed him, "...in the year 1824" of an invitation to William Garrett LEWIS, from Margate, to supply the pulpit at Zion Chapel, and it is recorded that his acceptance of the offered pastorate "...speedily followed" [See W.G. LEWIS's Memorial, Baptist Magazine, 1865, page 355].
In 1826, probably as a direct result of this division, William published "The Antinomian Reclaimed; a series of Dialogues," Wightman and Cramp, London, [British Library Index, Ref 1117 f.7] - the Baptist Magazine of June 1826 published a review of this publication.
And the Baptist Magazine published, on 1 April 1831, a list of all Baptist churches in England; the location was followed by the year the church was founded, the name of the present pastor, and the year of his ordination; for Kent, were recorded two churches in Chatham, as follows:
"...Chatham, 1 ch... 1630, W.G. LEWIS, 1825; Chatham, 2 ch... 1824, W. GILES, 1824..."
This constitutes, I believe, clear evidence from an authoritative source that GILES had vacated Zion by 1824.

I am not entirely sure what an Antinomian was, and do not find anywhere a definition that does not resort to "complex" theological terminology - if I were to chance a simple explanation, I might suggest they were those who were "beguiled" by the notion that since Jesus Christ had died for their sins, they didn't have to obsess about them in life.
I imagine that is not quite what the Rev Mr GILES and the Particular Baptists might have wanted to hear!
I might also be tempted to think that some of his Antinomian opposition might have used that as a cover for having simply tired of their pastor, berating them in 2 hour long sermons every week, reminding them at every opportunity that the were indeed sinners! And not doing enough for their church in atonement thereof.
But I may be wrong.

Whatever the which-way, William GILES, with his attached friends, undoubtedly including his own family, formed a second Particular Baptist church in Chatham.
This church became attached to the Kent and Sussex Association, and:
"...GILES took charge of this new church, on strict communion lines, but not hyper-Calvanist. He was a good evangelist, and preached for the Irish Society." [The Baptist Quarterly, July 1929, pages 333-336].
The meeting-house they occupied was undoubtedly the same one in St Mary's Place, on The Brook, and known as Providence Chapel, which GILES appears to have used in 1821 (on the "evidence" of the young Charles DICKENS), while Zion Chapel was being re-built.
Providence had been erected in 1795, and could accommodate 500 worshippers; it stood next door to No 18 St Mary's Place, the second but short-lived residence in Chatham of the DICKENS family (they had earlier lived at No 2 Ordnance Terrace).


[Providence Chapel (right), in St Mary's Place, on the south-western side of The Brook, Chatham. 
No 18, the house the DICKENS family moved into from No 2 Ordnance Row, is just this side of the Chapel.
Image, unsourced, from the www.dickenslive.com website.]


[Partial Map of Chatham, 1848. Providence Chapel on The Brook is highlighted in red.]

Curiously, and perhaps significantly, the following advertisement appeared in The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, July 1823:
"Wanted immediately, at Providence Chapel, Chatham, a Minister who preaches the Doctrine of Free Grace. His income will be the produce of sittings, deducting the necessary expenses of the chapel, which are moderate. Satisfactory reference will be required. Address to Mr TUCKER, Clover-street, Chatham, Kent."
Perhaps William GILES Senior saw an opportunity here to "resettle" within Chatham, ahead of the looming confrontation with his Antinomianist opponents?
But the dates do not quite add up - perhaps another preacher had been obtained after GILES went back to new Zion in 1821? Perhaps the Particular Baptists merely rented Providence and scheduled their services around those already being offered by the then un-named Pastor who vacated in 1823? Unless the caretaker/trustee Mr TUCKER was one of GILES's supporters at Zion.
However, GILES Senior making application and being accepted certainly fits the date for his eventual successor at Zion being initially invited in 1824 to supply that now vacant pulpit.
But which does not account for GILES family baptisms being recorded in the Providence Register in 1822! Unless GILES Senior took the Register with him from Zion, and when it was surrendered to the P.R.O. after the introduction of Statutory Registration in 1837, it was simply identified as the Providence Register, including the events that had actually taken place earlier at Zion?

And there was yet another of his earlier Chatham listeners who was perhaps not so impressed by the Rev William GILES's preaching; a young Charles DICKENS was taken there by his parents, who were apparently not at all conscientious in their Anglican observances; as Christopher HIBBERT, no doubt citing DICKENS himself, has observed:
"...Charles detested these services, and ever afterwards when he was to write a scene showing children in church or chapel it was nearly always with a hint that it would have been better if they had not been made to go.
"The Minister would sometimes preach for a full two hours, and the bored, impatient, restless, uncomfortable boy soon began to hate him, and to detest his 'big round face', and the infuriating habit he had of 'looking up the outstretched coat-sleeve as if it were a telescope with the stopper on.'
"On warm Sunday evenings in the summer, when he longed to stay outside, he was scrubbed and washed and brushed, as a purification for the Temple, and carried off to be 'steamed like a potato in the unventilated breath' of this hated Minister and his congregation, until what small mind he had was steamed out of him, and he felt himself slowly, slowly falling asleep, only to wake up with a jerk to a new awareness of the Minister's doom-laden prophecies alternating with a lumbering jocularity."
[See HIBBERT's "The Making of Charles Dickens," Harper and Row, New York, 1967, page 31.]

William continued to appear in Baptist Magazine listings in Chatham, as follows:
1 August 1830 - Brother W. GILES was chosen as Moderator of the Fifty-first Anniversary Meeting of the Kent and Sussex Association (of Baptist churches).
1 June 1831 - Collected at Chatham, by W. GILES, between 20 April and 20 May 1831, the sum of £8 5s 6d, received on account of the Baptist Missionary Society.
1 December 1831 - An Alphabetical List of the Baptist Ministers in England:
"... GILES, J.E., Salter's Hall, London, 1830, 1830; GILES, W., Chatham, 1824, 1824; GILES, W., Jun, Manchester;..."
Father and two sons - William Senior and son John Eustace, both attached to churches (or congregations) of which they were "founding" pastors; and son William Junior, already established in Patricroft, but still without a pastorate.

But William had "tired" of Chatham.
The reasons he looked elsewhere are not clear, but it is probable that the Antinomianism dispute and subsequent division of the congregation played a part; and that the stagnation and eventual decline in the fortunes of the Navy, after the successes against the French and the Spanish in the early decades of the 19th century, had an adverse effect on the prosperity of Chatham and its residents, and the ability of the Baptists there to support just one Minister, let alone two; all the while the engine-room of industrial growth was providing expanding opportunities in the north, particularly in Lancashire.
And William had his contacts within the Baptist cause, some now well placed in Manchester - in particular Rev John BIRT, a son of old Rev Isaiah BIRT who had first "dipped" William into the Baptist cause at Devonport after his return from Africa. In 1823, for example, all three of them, Rev Isaiah BIRT (Birmingham), Rev John BIRT (Manchester) and Rev William GILES (Chatham), served on the General Committee of the Baptist Mission's Home Proceedings; the BIRTs would undoubtedly have been well aware of William's "difficulties" in Chatham.
And of further significance to the future of the GILES family, Rev John BIRT was then Pastor of the Particular Baptist Congregation which met at the chapel in York Street, Manchester, to which church belonged, as one of the deacons, Joseph LEESE Senior, one of the wealthiest self-made men in the city, and his family, including his two eldest daughters Mary and Ann, very soon to become the wives of William's two younger sons Samuel and John Eustace.


REMOVAL NORTH TO LANCASHIRE.

In March 1832, William was in Manchester and Liverpool, collecting for the Baptist Irish Society. Word of this reached the Baptists in Preston (who had first begun meetings there 50 years earlier), and that he had serious thoughts of leaving Chatham permanently; so they invited him to preach in Preston, and as they "...thought his ministry likely to revive their dying cause," he was given a unanimous invitation to become their pastor.
He was uncertain, and consented to preach with them for 6 months before making up his mind; during which time he saw a six-fold increase in the congregation.
On 17 February 1833, the Chapel in Leeming Street (now Manchester Road), on the corner of Queen Street (formerly King Street), was re-opened following alterations that had doubled it's seating capacity, by lengthening the body of the building and erecting a gallery within.
The following day, 18 February 1833, William GILES was ordained as their Pastor.


[An "augmented" silhouette of the Rev William GILES in his pulpit at Leeming Street Chapel, Preston.
Published in "Baptists of North West England," by W.T. WHITELY, M.A., London, 1913, page 186.]

In 1837, the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Association met for the last time before dividing - Rev William GILES Senior, and his sons William GILES Junior of Eccles and John Eustace GILES of Leeds, were all present.

In the 1841 Census, William was not residing "at home" with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Martha at Avenham Road, Preston; he was instead enumerated in the house of Mr William RUSHTON, Gent, at Cambridge Street (north side), Abercrombie Square, Liverpool, as William GILES, Baptist Minister, aged 63 (sic), not born in County.

The "...increasing infirmities of life" led him to resign the pastoral charge at Preston in 1842.

The chapel at Leeming Street had been built in 1785, "...a good building, of brick, lighted by five windows to the front, two of which have circular heads, and a neat entrance fronting the small burial ground, which is walled in, and an iron gateway" [A Topographical, Statistical and Historical Account of the Borough of Preston, 1821, page 77]; it continued in use until 1856, when a new chapel was built on Fishersgate, and the Leeming Street chapel was sold,

William's contribution to the Baptist cause was noted much later in the Baptist Quarterly of July 1929 - there he was recorded as having:
"...left a deep mark on Lancashire, prominent among those Strict and Particular Baptists who held by the (Lancashire) Association and supported the missions."
W.F. RICHARDSON, in his "Baptists at Leeming Street and Fishersgate" wrote:
"Mr William GILES was pastor from August 1832, to 1842. On the strength of a donation of £50 and a promised loan of £300, the chapel was lengthened by 20 feet and a gallery installed to accommodate the increasing congregations his preaching attracted. The chapel was re-opened in February 1833. In 1837, he had been the Moderator of the recently formed Lancashire Association which came into being when the Yorkshire and Lancashire Association was divided. At his departure, the membership had increased to 100."


FINAL POSTING AT ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE.

After some time supply preaching in Manchester, William's final settled appointment was at Ashton-under-Lyne, where he went about the middle of 1843, following the resignation, dated 2 March 1843, of his immediate predecessor, Rev S. W. STONE.
The Baptist church there:
"...was unhappily divided; both sections of the church invited him to abide with them for a season, which he did, and had the pleasure of affecting their cordial union."
[W.G. Memorial, The Baptist Magazine, 1846, page 44.]
Another reference was made in the Baptist Quarterly, 1929, beginning at page 333, in an article entitled "GILES, Father and Sons," and referred to William Senior as follows:
"...In nine years he left a deep mark on Lancashire, prominent among the Strict and Particular Baptists who held by the Association and supported missions. Then there was a split in the Home Mission church at Ashton-under-Lyne, so GILES resigned Preston and went there in 1843, having the joy of re-uniting the church, being aided by the Preston church. He resigned in December 1845 and died next month."
Some mentions of the brief history immediately preceding William Senior's arrival appeared in "Baptists of North West England," by W.T. WHITELY (for the Lancashire and Cheshire Association), London, 1913, at page 176:
"The Itinerant Society did not always wait to be asked for help, but had its eye on growing districts. Thus LISTER suggested that Ashton-under-Lyne was too important to depend on Stalybridge, and ALDIS went over from Manchester once a fortnight to Wood Street. James BUCK, a student from Horton, opened the Gas House Theatre in 1835, and a church was formed next year by ALLISON of Ogden and ALDIS. It soon joined the Association, and within nine years had three ministers."

The "chapel" was a rented room in the premises of the Ashton-under-Lyne Gas and Water Works Company (established in 1825) in Oldham Road, being their demonstration theatre; an 1852 O.S. map of Ashton shows that the Gas and Water Works stood on the east side of Oldham Road, between Katherine and Water Streets, probably occupying the whole block back to Gas Street; the Theatre may have been on the south-western corner of that site, on the north side of Katherine Street (where stood an inn named The Theatre and Concert Tavern, which was later the site of the Municipal Baths).
That William GILES Senior was one of these three un-named ministers after 1835 is corroborated in detail by William GLOVER and John ANDREW in their "History of Ashton-under-Lyne and the Surrounding District," 1884, at pages 302-4:
"The society in Welbeck Street was originated by the Lancashire Itinerant Society, which deputed Mr. LISTER, of Liverpool, to visit the town, and report to a subsequent meeting concerning the prospect of establishing a new cause in Ashton. In April, 1835, it was decided that the Rev John ALDIS and others, should visit the friends and endeavour to open a mission room. Previous to the year 1835 a number of people connected with the Independent body held strongly the opinion that believers ought to be baptised... This led to considerable disputation. The controversy was carried on for some time, when the Baptists left, and commenced holding week-evening meetings, conducted by the Rev. John ALDIS. Subsequently Mr. ALDIS commenced preaching once a fortnight on week evenings in the Temperance Coffee House, and many Baptists favourable to the object attended from the surrounding district. Various attempts were made to find a suitable place of worship, but in vain. Search was made for a plot of ground for building upon, but proved a failure, owing to the objectionable clause forbidding the erection of dissenting chapels, which the Lord of the Manor caused to be inserted into his leases.
"At that time there was a small room, known as the theatre, belonging to the Gas Company, in Oldham Road, and the committee entered into negotiations with the agent of the company, with a view to leasing the same. On examination it was found that, by some oversight, the objectionable clause already referred to had been omitted from the lease, and consequently the company let the premises for seven years at a rental of £30 per annum, and on Sunday, September 20th, this place was opened for Divine worship, when Dr. STEADMAN, of Bradford, preached in the morning from 1st John, 3rd ch., 8 v. The Rev. John ALDIS took the afternoon and evening services, his texts being John 3, 30 v., and Luke 10, 42 v. The collections amounted to £50, which, together with £112 subscriptions, placed £162 at the disposal of the little society, their liabilities amounting to £258.
"Mr. BUCK supplied the pulpit as evangelist for six months, during which time letters of dismission were obtained from those churches with which the friends had hitherto been identified, and these with two persons who had withdrawn from the Independents, and a new convert, formed the first communion. On Sunday, January 17th, 1836, after being baptised by Mr. BUCK, they solemnly covenanted together that on the following Sunday they would publicly recognise each other as brethren. They further agreed to receive into fellowship several whose dismissions had not been received, also one of the Scotch Baptists. Thus on the following Sunday, January 24th, they met for the first time as a distinct society. The Rev. J. ALLISON, of Ogden, preached in the morning, and in the afternoon the right hand of fellowship was given to the new church. Having selected the deacons, the Rev. John ALDIS addressed the members, and concluded by administering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
"During the seven years the church met for worship in the theatre, it had three ministers. The Rev. David MARSH held the pastorate from July 3rd, 1836, to January 12th, 1841; Rev. S. W. STONE succeeded him [ordained on 3 November 1841], and resigned March 2nd, 1843, and was followed by the Rev. W. GILES, whose decease in December, 1845, once more caused the pulpit to become vacant."

GILES was succeeded as Pastor at Ashton in February 1847 by Rev Alexander PITT, and he led the congregation into their new home, the chapel on Welbeck Street, which was opened in January 1848 (the foundation stone had been laid in June 1846).

Oldham Road ran north from Stamford Street, roughly dividing the old town of Ashton in two; two blocks to the west along Stamford Street West, Welbeck Street ran northwards, and one block to the north, it intersected with Hodgson Street - probably the corner where the Chapel was built in 1846-47.

In July 1844, William was residing at Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, when his wife Elizabeth died; he preached his last sermon in Ashton in December 1845:
"After labouring for two years and a half, he resigned his trust in December 1845. Two days after preaching his last sermon, he was seized with his last illness, and on the 25th of January 1846, entered into rest."
[W.G. Memorial, The Baptist Magazine, 1846, page 44.]


WILLIAM'S LIFE ENDS.

William died at Dunham Terrace, Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, on 25 January 1846 - his death registration, informed by H. MALONE, also of Dunham Terrace, recorded the cause of his death as "Cystirrhoea, 10 years, Certified."

Death notices were published in several newspapers, including the Manchester Guardian of Wednesday 28 January 1846:
"On the 25th inst, in his 75th year, the Rev William GILES of Ashton-under-Lyne."
Another in the Bristol Mercury, Saturday 31 January 1846:
"January 25, aged 74, in the 54th year of his ministry, the Rev Wm GILES, of Ashton-under-Lyne, father of the Rev J.E. GILES of Broadmead  Chapel, Bristol."
And the Blackburn Standard, Wednesday 4 February 1846:
"On the 25th ult., the Rev W. GILES, of Ashton-under-Lyne, formerly of Manchester, in the 54th year of his ministry, and the 75th year of his age."
But nowhere does there appear to have been published a full public obituary, other than in the Baptist Press.

His remains were buried in the Independent burial ground in George Street, Patricroft [Burial Register, Manchester City Library]. This grave was probably purchased during his son William Junior's tenure of the nearby Barton Hall School; one of his grandsons, an infant son of William GILES Junior, was buried there; although it remains entirely unclear as to why his wife Elizabeth was not buried there before him (clearly it was not then full - perhaps Joseph LEESE took the arrangements in hand).


[Former Independent Burial Ground, corner of Chapel and George Streets, Patricroft.
Photograph taken by the author in 2011.]

Roderick D. CANNON, on his web-page at www.mancuniensis.plus.com concerning Eccles Baptist Church, has furnished a transcription of a Monumental Inscription associated with Grave 27, George Street Independent Burial Ground, Patricroft, as follows:
"Sacred to the memory of 
the infant son of  WILLIAM and HARRIOTT GILES 
who died December 26th 1831 aged 7 months.
"Also of AUSTIN JOHNSON the endeared friend of the above 
who departed this life March 29th 1832 aged 21 years.
"Also of ELIZABETH wife of the Revd. WILLIAM GILES 
Minister of the Baptist Church of Ashton-under-Lyne 
who died 12th July 1844 aged 79 years.
Also of the above WILLIAM GILES of Ashton-under-Lyne 
who died January 25th 1846 aged 74 years."
The pre-1837 Burial Register of the Independent Chapel Patricroft, recorded the un-named GILES infant as buried on 2 January 1831, aged 8 months, abode Patricroft, by J. BRAMALL (the register transcript, on the www.lan-opc.org.uk web-site, records this burial between burials on 15 June 1830 and 1 February 1831 - which indicates that the death date on the M.I. should probably read 26 December 1830); Austin JOHNSON, aged 20, resident of Patricroft, was buried by Mr GILES.


HIS MARRIAGE TO ELIZABETH PIKE.

William GILES was married in the Parish Church of St Eustatius, in Tavistock, on 23 March 1794, to Elizabeth PIKE, the daughter of Eustace PIKE of Tavistock, formerly R.N., and his wife Elizabeth PHILP of Devonport.


[Image from Findmypast.co.uk, courtesy of the South West Heritage Trust and Parochial Church Council.]

Banns were proclaimed in church by the Vicar, Jno JAGO, on Sunday 9, 16 and 23 February 1794, both or the parish; the marriage was performed by the Curate, Richard SLEEMAN, and was witnessed by Eustace PIKE and Richard PARFORD, William being recorded as a "Batchelor and Cordwainer" and Elizabeth as a Spinster.


[A Post Card picture of Tavistock Parish Church, known as St Eustatius's.]

Eustace was baptised at St Eustatius's Parish Church, Tavistock, on 26 December 1730, the elder son of Cornelius PIKE (1698-1765) and Martha LUGGAR (1704-1747), both of Tavistock; he was buried in St Eustatius's Churchyard, on 8 June 1800.
Eustace PIKE and Elizabeth PHILLIPS were married at St Mary's, Portsea, Hampshire, on 15 December 1758; she was buried at St Eustatius's on 13 February 1804, aged 70.
Cornelius was baptised at St Eustatius's, on 16 November 1698, eldest surviving son of Eustace PIKE (1667-?1755), Elector, Portreeve and Inn-holder of West Street, Tavistock, by his wife Susannah ROBBINS.


[Portrait in oils of Elizabeth GILES alias PIKE, probably painted in Manchester about 1832.
Now in possession of Helen GILES of London.]

Rev William's wife Elizabeth had pre-deceased him, on 12 July 1844, at her residence in Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne.
A notice of her death was published in the Manchester Times and Gazette, Saturday 13 July 1844:
"On the 12th inst., after a painful and protracted illness of four years, in her 80th year, Mrs GILES, wife of the Rev William GILES, of Ashton-under-Lyne. Her end was peace."

She was buried by Rev John BIRT, on 17 July, as Cemetery Burial Number 38589, in Grave 1164 (the second interment in it), Rusholme Road Cemetery, Chorlton-on-Medlock, aged 79, Cause of Death "...gradual decay" [Cemetery Register, Findmypast]; the plot had been purchased by Joseph LEESE, father-in-law of her two younger sons. It is not clear why she was not buried in the grave in Patricroft later used for her husband William.


The Rusholme Road cemetery, like Rusholme Road itself, is now defunct; it has been cleared of headstones, and is at present managed by Manchester City Council as a leisure area known as Gartside Gardens.
The above two photographs, courtesy of Helen GILES of London, were taken in 2012 looking South (left) and North (right); they show the area in which her grave is located, as determined from the Cemetery Plan held in Manchester City Library.

A detailed Eulogy was published in the Baptist Magazine, November 1944; the author of the eulogy was unidentified, but was inevitably a close relation, probably her husband William, or perhaps her son Samuel:
"...Our departed friend was seriously inclined in her early life, and her religious emotions were frequently called into exercise by hearing and reading Dr WATTS's 'Hymns for Children' and JANEWAYS's 'Token for Children.'
"Her parents were strictly attached to the established church, and were much opposed to their children attending any other places of worship. When she was about 13 years old, the celebrated John WESLEY visited Tavistock, where she resided, and the announcement of such an event, as might be expected, excited the curiosity of numbers to see and to hear this extraordinary man; and as her parents understood that he was an authorised clergyman, she obtained permission to hear him preach.
"The text from which he preached was, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' and under this sermon her mind was first enlightened to discover the evil of sin, the degeneracy of her nature, and her danger as a sinner. These impressions produced an entire change in her conduct, and she, at an early age, became united with the Methodist society.
"Still, however, she was bigotedly attached to the church of England, and would scarcely ever attend any other place of worship during its public services."

As one her own close PIKE relations had been a Churchwarden in Tavistock, whose duty on Sundays included patrolling the streets to prevent his congregation deviating from the path to the Parish Church, this is hardly surprising.
It should also be noted here that Rev John WESLEY began his career as an Established Church Minister; even after he formed the Methodist Society from within it, he remained loyal to the Established Church for all matters relating to the Sacraments; his death-bed wish was that his adherents should ever continue to do likewise - and in Ireland, this wish led great numbers to separate from the mainstream Society when it introduced its own administration of the sacraments into their chapels (my own PIGOTT-VICKERS-MAGUIRE ancestors in Dublin followed WESLEY's instructions, and became members of this "loyal" Irish faction, known as the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society).
The emphasis implied in this part of the Eulogy therefore tends to represent the much more radically non-conformist views of the Baptists.

The Eulogy continued:
"After her marriage she was, through the importunity of her husband, occasionally prevailed upon to attend the evangelical ministry of Messrs GIBBS and Isaiah BIRT, who were then joint pastors of the Baptist church meeting in Plymouth and Devonport."

If the writer was her husband William GILES, and the intimacy of his knowledge of events this early in her life suggests this is likely, then it is interesting to observe that he makes no mention of his own membership the Methodist Society before his own conversion to the Baptists - the failed Mission to the Foulahs may have been a sore point.

"Under their ministry she learned 'the way of God more perfectly,' and became gradually enlightened in the knowledge of the doctrines of grace, which she most cordially received to the joy and establishment in her mind on the belief of 'the truth as it is in Jesus.'
"Her early prejudices in favour of infant baptism, however, still remained in full force, so that the baptism of her husband was for some time a source of pain to her mind. At length she determined to examine the subject for herself, and for this purpose read the prayer-book and the New Testament; and upon examining the former she found, 'Water, wherein the person is baptised (not wherewith), was enjoined; that the subjects of baptism were called upon to evince 'repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ'; and that this view of baptism was the only one that was sanctioned in the New Testament, where she looked in vain for a single hint regarding infant baptism.
"Conviction followed her sincere inquiry after truth, and being a spectator at the administration of the ordinance by Mr BIRT, the clear scriptural manner in which the subject was discussed in his sermon, as well as the deep solemnity of the administration, removed every doubt from her mind respecting it as divinely instituted and obligatory on all believers. Carrying out this conviction, she was baptised, and united to the Baptist church at Dartmouth, over which her husband was then pastor; and throughout her long life she was enabled to maintain a conduct becoming her holy profession."

Baptist theological proselytising of the first order - and despite her thoughtful research, she appears to have gone for it hook, line and sinker!

"As a minister's wife (a situation on many accounts delicate and trying), she was greatly beloved and esteemed by all who knew her, and most beloved by those who knew her most. As a mother, her maternal affection was strong, ardent, and most self-denying; ever willing to sacrifice her own comfort, or even life itself, for the sake of her children. Through life, her attendance on the means of grace was exemplary; to her it was a source of great delight, and by her considered a high privilege, to be able to leave the cares of the world for a season, and to go up to the house of God with those 'who kept holy-day.' She delighted to sing the praises of God; and possessing as she did, the most refined taste, with considerable skill in music, it was to her a source of indescribable pleasure when this part of divine worship was conducted in a harmonious and becoming manner.
"During the last four years, with very short intermissions, she was called by Him whose designs are mysterious to mortals, to pass through deep waters of affliction; and in many of the paroxysms of her disease her sufferings were excruciating. Through all of them she was divinely strengthened and supported, and not one murmuring expression dropped from her lips. Soon after the commencement of her affliction all fear of death was entirely removed from her mind by a clear, vigorous faith in the perfect sacrifice and atonement of Christ, on whom she placed implicit reliance. When relieved from poignant suffering, most of her time was occupied in devotional exercises, and in the perusal of the word of God, as well as of Robert HALL's sermons, which were for her a never failing spring of comfort and delight.
"On the last Lord's day she spent on earth, one of her sons said to her - 'The veil seems to be getting gradually thinner and thinner, dear mother, which separates you from the vision and realisation of all your hopes.' - 'Yes, my son,' she replied, with a look of unutterable tenderness and delight, and in a very short time, unconscious that anyone was with her, was heard exclaiming - 'Lord, Lord! Dear Lord!'
"The night before she died, she requested that POPE'S Ode, 'The Dying Christian, etc,' might be repeated to her, and when the words 'the pain and bliss of dying' were pronounced, she said 'Not the pain, but the hope, the bliss of dying.' She then requested one of her daughters to call her father, that she might, while she was still able, take her final leave of him. This was, after having been married more than 50 years, a most affecting and solemn adieu.
"The following night, about 1 o'clock, after having previously taken her leave of those of her sorrowing children who were present, and having praised God for the health and happiness of other branches of the family who were absent, she asked, if all were quiet, the last words that dropped from her lips; she then sank into a sweet sleep, and continued in that state until half-past 4 o'clock of the morning of the 12th of July, when, without a groan or a sigh, her spirit took its flight to the vision of her Lord and hope."

Her death certificate does not identify the medical nature of the "...deep waters of affliction" of her last "...painful and protracted" illness - it simply records the cause of death as "...old age"; and the informant was identified as her son Samuel GILES, of Bowden, Cheshire, Present at the death. That there appears to have been a "precise" onset of symptoms four years prior does suggest a specific disease, rather than it being just down to old age; or, as the burial register records - "...gradual decay."
_________________________________________________________________________________


THE CHILDREN AND THE GRANDCHILDREN.

  MARY ELIZA GILES.


(Mary) Eliza GILES was baptised at St Eutatius's Parish Church, Tavistock, 15 January 1795; she went to Dartmouth, aged 3; went to Lymington, aged 14; went to Chatham, aged 22; she recalled her time in Chatham, many years later, with accounts of Charles DICKENS, as mentioned by Robert LANGTON in is "The Childhood of Charles DICKENS," London, 1912:
"Mrs GODFREY, the eldest sister of Mr GILES, a venerable lady, was (1882) in her eighty-ninth year, residing at Liverpool, and she kindly gave me her recollections of Charles DICKENS as a school-boy. She was some fifteen or sixteen years older than Charles, and was consequently well able to form an opinion of the appearance, manners and capabilities of her brother's little pupil. Her recollection of him was, that he was a very handsome boy, with long curly hair of a light colour, and that he was of a very amiable, disposition. He was capital company even then (at nine or 10 years of age), and she saw a great deal of him.
"She clearly remembered both the house at Ordnance Terrace and that at the Brook; she also recognized the drawing of Providence chapel as her father's chapel. She remembered the Mitre Inn very well - had dined there, and had a vivid recollection of the grounds at the back. She remembered that 'Charles was quite at home at all sorts of parties, junkettings, and birthday celebrations, and that he took great delight in Fifth of November festivities round the bonfire.'
"Mrs GODFREY denied with some warmth the statement of Mr FORSTER, that her brother taught his old pupil the bad habit of taking snuff, even 'in very moderate quantities.' She held that the presentation of a silver snuffbox does not necessarily bind the recipient to any such habit...
"Mrs GODFREY believed that when the DICKENS family finally left Chatham, Charles was (almost at the last minute) left with her brother Mr GILES, with whom he remained for some little time longer; and this would appear to be corroborated by his own account of the journey..."

Eliza went to Liverpool, about 1833; she was residing at 3 Heathfield Street, Liverpool, 1841 Census, aged 45+, with husband, step-daughter Martha, and her own seven children; same address, 1851, aged 56, with husband and two sons; at 90 Huskisson Street, Liverpool, 1861, aged 66, with husband and three children; at 2 Belvidere Road, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, 1871, aged 76, Widow, Houses and Dividends, with two daughters and two COLE grandchildren; same address, 1881; she died at her residence, Belvidere House, Prince's Park, Liverpool, on 30 April 1884; she was married at St Mary's Parish Church, Chatham, on 4 June 1821, to Joseph James GODFREY, a Widower with four young children.
Joseph James GODFREY was probably baptised at the Ebenezer Chapel, Clover Street, Chatham, 20 July 1788, son of Thomas GODFREY and Elizabeth JENKINS (married in Chatham, 28 October 1781); he trained in Medicine, and became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (E.) in 1811 [see his entry in the U.K. Medical Register, 1863]; he was practicing as Medical Practitioner in Chatham before 1 August 1815 [ditto]; in March 1833, he advertised his purchase of the Patent Right to the Medicated Vapour Bath at 39 Renshaw Street, Liverpool, which had been established in 1832 by the former proprietors, Messrs WHITLAW and LEWIS [Liverpool Mercury, 1 Mar]; he is also said to have acted as the Port Medical Officer in Liverpool; he died at Belvidere House, Prince's Park, on 14 December 1864, aged 76.
By his first wife Sarah Ann (surname unknown), Joseph had issue - two daughters, Sarah GODFREY (born at Chatham, 1812; married at Liverpool, 1833, George BROWN, Merchant) and Martha GODFREY (born at Chatham, about 1814); and two sons Joseph  James GODFREY Junior (born at Chatham, 1817) and Thomas GODFREY (born at Chatham, 1813).

By Mary Eliza GILES, Joseph had further issue:

1. Eliza Pudner GODFREY, born at Chatham, 4 May 1824 (perhaps named for the wife of Captain John PUDNER, H.E.I.C. Service, who was received into Rev William GILES's congregation at Chatham in 1822); she was at North Street, Leeds, 1841 Census, residing with her uncle Rev John Eustace GILES and his family; at Westham, Plaistow, Essex, 1861, with husband and two children; at Bath Lodge, Kingston-on-Thames, 1871, with husband and four children; at Westergate House, Kingston, 1871 and 1891, with husband and family; she died 12 December 1896, and was buried in Kingston General Cemetery, with M.I.:


Eliza was married at St Bride's Church, Liverpool, 22 July 1848, to John BAYLISS, of Clackheaton, Civil Engineer and Railway Contractor (he was born 30 March 1826, son of Charles Winterton BAYLISS); he died at Ryde, Isle of Wight, 4 December 1900; issue:
  a.  Laura Frances BAYLISS, born at Bradford, March quarter 1850; died 12 February 1936; married at Christ Church, Surbiton, on 11 July 1872, Charles Frederick GRIPPER; he died at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 30 October 1923, aged 79; they had issue:
    i.  John Rupert Joseph GRIPPER, born about 1873; Royal Army Service Corps; died at Haawpoort, South Africa, 27 April 1900, aged 26.
    ii.  Beatrice Evelyn GRIPPER, born at Bradford, about 1874; married in 1899 her cousin Godfrey Hammond COLE, with issue (see below).
    iii.  Mary Eliza Louise "Birdie" GRIPPER, born on 15 September 1875, and baptised at Christchurch, Surbiton, Surrey, 28 December 1876; also known as Joan CONQUEST, the author of, inter alia, "Desert Love" and; "The Hawk of Egypt."
    iv.  Caroline Mabel GRIPPER, born at Mapperley Road, Nottingham, 18 Feb 1878, and baptised at St Andrew's Anglican church, Nottingham, 7 April; died at Ealing, Middlesex, June quarter 1953; married at St George's Anglican Cathedral, Cape Town, 11 September 1902, John Norman ANDREWS, Electrical Engineer (born at Everton, Lancashire, 2 March 1873, son of John Goffin ANDREWS and Elizabeth CHRISTIE); he was at Newin Farm, Fleetwood Road, Southport, 1911 Census, a Farmer, with wife, three children and two general servants; they returned to Durban on the S.S. Inkesi, departing London, 6 Dec 1911, with the three children; he died at Southport, Lancashire, 2 Apr 1950; issue - Dorothy Vida ANDREWS (born at Germiston, Transvaal, 26 July 1903); John Charles Frederick ANDREWS (born Johannesburg, Transvaal, 22 Oct 1905); and Frances Doreen ANDREWS (born at Johannesburg, 11 January 1909 - she married LINDSAY, with issue).
  b.  Godfrey Winterton BAYLISS, born on 25 June 1851; died at Cairo, 2 April 1879.
  c.  Mary Eliza Gertrude BAYLISS, born at Kensington, December quarter 1853; died at Bramshott, Weybridge, Surrey, 5 May 1916; married at Kingston, Surrey, June quarter 1878, Henry William BARNETT, Ship Broker; issue:
    i.  Harold Godfrey BARNETT, born at Kingston, 23 July 1877.
    ii.  Muriel Beatrice Alice BARNETT, born at Kingston, March quarter 1879; died at Bayswater, October 1935; married firstly, April 1906, Fraser George BADDELEY; divorced; married secondly, Devonshire, September 1921, Arnold David KAUFMANN; she had issue by her first marriage - a son Jack Fraser BADDELEY (born 1910).
    iii.  Herbert Longridge BARNETT, born at Kingston, December quarter 1880; died at Weybridge, 4 March 1913.
    iv.  Gladys Evelyn BARNETT, born at Kingston, September quarter 1882; died at Suffolk, October 1938; married at Surbiton, April 1907, Edward Gascoine WILLIAMS, with issue - a daughter Antoinette Rosemary WILLIAMS (born 1908; married firstly, Charles Albert ROSKILL, and Winterton BARNETT, born at Kingston, June quarter 1884; Mining Engineer; died at San Luis Petosi, Mexico, 1966; married firstly, Vera Eleanor KING; issue - a son John Winterton BARNETT (b Mexico, 1906); she died at Texas, 1936; Leslie married secondly Frances K. WILKINS, with issue a daughter.
    vi.  Vivian Charles BARNETT, born at Kingston, June quarter 1885; Mining Engineer; at Burns Street, Forest Hills, Queen's County, New York, 1920 Census, aged 34, arrived U.S. 1907, Importer, with wife and daughter; he died at Paris, 1 April 1933; he married at Manhattan, 22 April 1911 #9294, his probable second cousin Gladys CLARK; she was aged 28 in 1920, born at New York; she arrived in New York on the SS Minnekahda from Boulogne, 23 January 1928, aged 35, with daughter Shirley (14, Student); Gladys died in California, 1967; issue - a daughter Shirley BARNETT (born New Jersey, July 1914; she died at Los Angleles, 1990).
    vii.  Harry Evelyn BARNETT, born at Kingston, September quarter 1889; died India, 3 January 1918.
    viii.  Owen Eustace BARNETT, born at Surbiton, December quarter 1889; Mercantile Clerk; died at Somerset, October 1960; married firstly, Surrey, 1916, Suzie M. WALSHAM; married secondly, London, 1938, Margaret Crawford LINDSAY; issue by first marriage - a son Anthony Henry BARNETT (born 1919; died at Malta, 1979) and a daughter Suzanna BARNETT (born 1922; married at Surrey, 1948, Anthony George BRIGHTMORE).
  d.  Rawlinson Tennant BAYLISS, born at Kensington, 24 December 1855; Civil Engineer; of Reydon Lodge, Newmarket; died on 10 May 1926; married at Lewis and Clark County, Montana, 1886, Marie THOMAS.
  e.  Beatrice Evelyn BAYLISS, born at Willesden, 1859, and baptised at St Marylebone, London, 16 November 1860; married at Kingston-on-Thames, 1884, Alfred Welch MILLER; he died at Esher, Surrey, 13 July 1905; issue:
    i.  Marie Beatrix MILLER, born about 1885; died on 12 February 1904, aged 18, and buried at Kingston Cemetery.
    ii.  John Alfred Tennant MILLER, born on 13 November 1887; died at Frampton-on-Severne, 15 October 1972; married 1932, Adelaide Hilda CLAY.
    iii.  Estelle Constance MILLER, born at Kingston, 1893; died Blackworth, Gloucestershire, 5 April 1965; unmarried.
  f.  Eustace Grenville BAYLISS, born at Plaistow, Essex, 19 April 1862; R.M.C., Sandhurst; Lieutenant, East Sussex Regiment, October 1881; Major, 70th Regiment; Retired; died at London, 10 May 1925; married at St Thomas's, Calcutta, 10 Jun 1890, Frances Emily MACDONALD; issue:
    i.  Robert Godfrey BAYLISS, born at Dum Dum, India, 1891; died Kingston-on-Thames, 1947.
    ii.  Doris Iona BAYLISS, born at Kingston, 1892.
    iii.  Dorothy Frances BAYLISS, born at Hove, Sussex, 1903; married at Birmingham, 1951, Richard Mallory QUILL.

2. Mary Lloyd GODFREY, born at Chatham, 19 July 1825:


Mary was at 5 Waterloo Road, Birkdale, 1881 Census, a Widow, aged 55, Matron at School, with her sons Godfrey, George and Herbert, and daughter Henrietta; Mary died at Norma Road, Waterloo, Lancashire, on 4 October 1895, in her 71st year [Liverpool Mercury, Saturday 5 October].



Mary was married at St Mark's Parish Church, Liverpool, on 4 June 1848, to Dr Domenico Joseph POGGI; the allegations of intent for obtaining a License were made at Chester on 30 December 1847, Domenico then being of Birkenhead, in the county of Chester, aged 35, a Bachelor, and a Doctor of Divinity, and Mary being aged 22, a Spinster, of Heathfield Street, Liverpool, with Dominic certifying that Mary had been residing in the Chester Diocese for the required seven days.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Giuseppe POGGI was born at Montignoso, in Tuscany, on 29 August 1811 (as recorded on his gravestone at Audlem); he was said to have been the eldest son (family lore) of Marco POGGI, Gentleman (as Domenico recorded in his 1848 marriage registration), possibly the "Marco POGGI of Montignoso" who was named in a Decree issued in 1821 under the Ducal Seal of Lucca, and perhaps with a family burial place in the Campo Santo in Pisa; his was an apparently wealthy family, and Giuseppe may have ben educated at the College of San Marco in Firenze (unless this was instead the Florentine Architect of the same name, also born in 1811, a son of Pietro POGGI and Anna MAZONNI).



Giuseppe POGGI probably "took the habit" of the Dominicans (Postulancy) at the Church of Santa Sabina all'Aventino, in Rome (just south-west of the Circus Maximus, near the River Tiber), on 23 January 1828, and then professed his initial or novitiate vows at the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, also in Rome (in the Piazza della Minerva, just south-east of the Pantheon), on 1 February 1829 [see "Gods Predikers: Dominicanen in Nederland (1795-2000)," by Merit MONTEIRO, Hilversum, 2008], both being major churches of the Order of Preachers (the Dominican order); it is likely that on one of those occasions, POGGI also took the additional name of Domenico; from the beginning of 1831 until June 1833, he was residing at the Dominican Convent attached to the church of Santa Maria dei Gradi, in Viterbo (Lazio-Roma Province, about 100 km north of Rome), where Father G.G. ACHILLI was Prior [see POGGI's evidence at ACHILLI's libel action in Westminster, 1852]; POGGI was ordained in 1833, perhaps at Viterbo, and priested in 1834.
POGGI left Italy in 1840 [the ACHILLI trial again] and may have spent several years in France, perhaps with, or under the influence of the Jesuits (who may have been trying to deal with his "crisis" of faith); he also went with the Dominicans to Uden, Nederlands, in the autumn of 1842 [see again "Gods Predikers: Dominicanen in Nederland," page 78, and end-note 152 on page 848], as Pro-vicar and then as Vicar (being superseded briefly by the Dutch Priest, Joannis Dominic RAKEN); in about October 1844 he left Uden and went to Ghent, Belgium, where he was Prior, perhaps of a newly established Novitiate for the Dominican Brotherhood, from January 1845 until January 1847; about this latter time he left the Roman Catholic church, headed for England, and became an evangelical Anglican.
POGGI arrived in Dover, 7 January 1847, on the S.S. Belgium Railway from Ostende, recorded on immigration records as an Ecclesiastic; he went to Liverpool, perhaps to secure a berth to America on one of the many vessels departing that port; he there met with Dr GODFREY, the Port Medical Office of Health, who was so impressed by POGGI that he took him home to meet his family; and one of them appears to have persuaded him to stay in England, where he settled as a Protestant Schoolmaster and Clerk in Holy Orders; he briefly attended St Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead, September-December 1847 (established in early 1847 for the training of Clergy for the Church of England in the north-west, with Dr Joseph BAYLEE as Principal, and at that time located in Cambridge Terrace, Slatey Road, Birkenhead), perhaps also to obtain in England ratification of his Doctor of Divinity degree he brought from Italy; in July 1848, he re-opened "Seacombe House," at Seacombe, Cheshire, the school that had been his uncle-in-law William GILES's; POGGI gave a glowing character reference for his former Prior at Viterbo, Giovanni Giacinto ACHILLA, during his (ACHILLI's) suit for libel against Rev Dr John Henry NEWMAN (head of the Oxford Movement, a convert to Catholicism, and later a Cardinal), which was tried at the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster, in June 1852; in 1853, "...the Queen has been pleased to grant a certificate to Rev D.J. POGGI, D.D., Principal of Seacombe House School, near Liverpool, who was born in Italy, by which he now enjoys the rights and capacities of a natural born British Subject." [Huddersfield Chronicle, Saturday 8 January 1853], which may have been a necessary precursor to him signing the lease mentioned in the next; in 1853, POGGI took "...a long lease of the New Brighton Hotel, situated between Egremont and New Brighton, with the view of converting it into a seminary. It is to be opened at the beginning of 1854" [Liverpool Mercury, Friday 21 October 1853]; POGGI moved his school there and called it New Brighton College - it was scheduled to open for business on 24 January 1854; one of GARIBALDI's sons attended - "...Riciotti GARIBALDI, aged 13, the youngest son of the great Italian patriot, has been for the last 3 years receiving his education under the care of Dr POGGI at the New Brighton College near Liverpool" [Cheshire Observer, Saturday 21 January 1860] - Riciotti, born about 1849, was only 2 when his mother died in the retreat from Rome in 1851, and was brought to England in about 1855; POGGI was at New Brighton College, Liscard, Cheshire, in the 1861 Census, aged 49, with wife Mary, eight children, sister-in-law Martha GODFREY, three staff and 21 Pupils, including his nephew Godfrey BAYLISS, and Ricciotti GARIBALDI; in May 1862, POGGI was elected to the College of Preceptors, London (their activities included conducting "external" examinations of school pupils); New Brighton College, including the POGGI's residence, burnt to the ground on the night of 15 October 1862.
POGGI returned to his native Italy, about January 1863 (family lore), and went to live in Naples, with his wife and all but one of his eight children; he advertised in April 1863 [London Times] that he desired to meet with some pupils to join his sons for lessons, at 100 guineas a year for board and tuition, at his house, the Villa Barbaja, at Mergellina, Naples; he continued to run his English School for day pupils at the Palazza Barbaja, on the Mergellina, offering "...a complete course of an English education" (see MURRAY's "Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy," 1865; and BRADSHAW's "Illustrated Handbook to Italy," 1865); but POGGI's plans were a little more ambitious - in a letter dated at Napoli, 8 July 1866, and published in "Papers and Correspondence of the Joint Committee on the Italian Reform Movement" (New York, 1866), we find a report that "... in 1860, an association of 971 priests and 1192 laymen was formed here, with the object of reforming the Italian Church... notwithstanding the bitter persecutions and long trials it has met with from the Romanists... As to schools, the Rev Dr POGGI - a clergyman of the Church of England, who for many years held the office of Headmaster of New Brighton College, and has represented here the C.K. [probably the Christian Knowledge] Society of London and the Anglo-Italian Continental Society, and is also a useful member of our Association - last November undertook, on his own responsibility, to establish a school for the upper classes, with the view not only to teach the usual branches of education, but also to teach, as far as practicable, the Gospel of Christ as taught by the English and American National Churches"; POGGI, as Agent for the Anglo-Continental Society, wrote a letter dated at Naples, 16 August 1866, addressed to the Rev W.C. LANGDON, in America, "... at the request of our worthy Cav. PROTA, I venture to address you respecting a letter he has forwarded to the Rev Thomas SMITH, Chicago, begging him to insert it in the Mid-Western Church (the American Churchman). The object of this letter is to ask the assistance and sympathy of our American brethren for the support of a school which is helping considerably our church reform, being calculated to unite it to the upper classes; and, as you are one of our best friends, we would recommend it to you and place it under your patronage. We hope and pray you may soon be among us, when the school will be put under a committee, you being the President of it. In the meantime, any help our American brethren would give towards the support of the school will be thankfully received"; the Anglo-Italian Continental Society reported in 1869 that "...our depot, kept by Signor CAPURRO, and superintended by Dr POGGI, was removed... from a back street to 24 Chiatamone, where it will be visible to the many visitors who must daily pass it on their way to the Chiaja"; POGGI and his wife also took in lodgers, at his "Pension" at 23 Via Chiatamone, for 8 and 10 francs a day, board and lodging.
POGGI returned to England about mid 1871; he was appointed Head Master of Audlem Grammar School, 6 November 1871, a post he held until his death; on 16 March 1872 , POGGI was re-elected to membership of the College of Preceptors, London.
Domenico Joseph POGGI died at the School on 13 October 1880 (date recorded in his probate grant), and was buried in Audlem Cemetery; his will, dated at Audlem on 18 February 1875, was proved at Chester on 20 October 1881 by his widow and relict, Mary Lloyd POGGI, the sole executor and beneficiary, the estate valued at £123 10s 6d.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mary Lloyd and Domenico had issue:
  a. Mary Eliza POGGI, born at Seacombe, 28 October 1848; stayed in Boarding school in England when her family went to Naples, joining them there later; she married at Florence, Tuscany, on 1 September 1871, John Spurrell PODE, of Plympton, Devonshire, Plenipotentiary at Florence, Solicitor; he emigrated to the U.S. in 1875, residing at Chicago, Illinois, and at Cheyenne, Wyoming; he died at Chicago on 27 October 1892; Mary Eliza may not have travelled with him to America, as she records in two later Census returns that she emigrated to the U.S. in 1888 (although that detail was changed to 1875 when she applied for a U.S. Passport in 1914, having been unable to locate her late husband's Citizenship papers); she was living with her daughter and son-in-law at Riverside Township, Cook County, Illinois in 1900, and at Main Street, East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York, in 1910; she died at Mount Vernon, New York, 3 November 1928, and was buried at Kenisco Cemetery; they had issue:
     i. Mary Frances PODE, born at Kensington, London, June quarter 1872 [Volume 1a, page 153]; died at East Hampton, Long Island, 5 April 1915; she married about 1894, James Stewart ANDREWS (born Coleraine, County Antrim, 9 April 1864, emigrated to the U.S. in 1880's, and died at Cleveland, Ohio, May 1912), with issue - an only son Thomas S. ANDREWS, born at Riverside, Illinois, 11 August 1895, died Arizona, 10 April 1968, having married 15 June 1921, Rachel SHANKLIN.
     ii. Edith Arscott PODE, born at Chelsea, March quarter 1874 [Volume 1a, page 291], and baptised at St Paul's, Lissom Grove, Marylebone, 8 April; she died Marylebone, June quarter 1874, aged ) [Volume 1a, page 378].
     iii. Stephen Henry PODE, born at Chelsea, June quarter 1875 [Volume 1a, page 286], and baptised at St Luke's, Chelsea, 26 May (his parents abode recorded as Plympton, Devonshire); aged 5, with MILES aunt and PODE grandmother, at Plympton Maurice, Devonshire; arrived in the U.S. from Panama; died in New York, 5 February 1957; married at Utica, Oneida County, New York, 15 December 1915, Sarah Grace BROWN, with issue - a daughter Thelma J. PODE, born at Utica, 23 December 1916.
  b. Charles Godfrey POGGI, born at Seacombe, April 1850 (Registered at Wirral, June quarter, Volume 29, page 428); aged 1, with parents, 1851 Census; with parents in 1861; went to the U.S.; at Kenosha, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, 1880 Census, with wife and three children; in Chicago, 1900 Census; a Lumberman, and Secretary of the Soper Lumber Company in Chicago; he died at Chicago, 19 March 1918, aged 67, and was buried at Forest Home Cemetery, 21 March; he married Olive H. WATSON (born Wisconsin, 1848, daughter of Samuel WATSON and Sarah AMIDON); she was at Berwin City, Cook County, Illinois, 1920 Census, aged 72, Widow, born Wisconsin, and living with her married daughter Mary EDGERTON; she died in 1920; they had issue:
    i.  Joseph Watson POGGI, born at Chicago, 18 December 1875; aged 5, with parents, 1880; at Whitehead, Flathead County, Montana, 1930 Census, with wife; died about 1951; married at Milwaukee, 12 February 1899, Josephine Alice WALSH (born at Chicago, 1875, daughter of David WALSH and Sarah BYRNE); she died at Whitefish, Montana, 1957; issue, living in 1957 - one son Rev Father Joseph POGGI of Los Angeles; and three daughters, Gladys M. POGGI of Los Angeles and Nevada; Olive Sarah POGGI (probably Mrs Arthur BARKER of Riverside, California); and Mrs Josephine McNEILLY (born Chicago, 2 April 1903; died Whitefish, 1971) of Whitefish (wife of John,C. "Slim" McNEILLY, and mother of John Jerome "Jerry" McNEILLY (died 1951), Neil McNEILLY of Spokane, and Michael McNEILLY of Fort Ord, California).
    ii. Mary Florence POGGI, born at Kenosha, Wisconsin  23 July 1877; aged 4, with parents, 1880; died at Chicago, 26 January 1950, and buried in the POGGI family plot, Forest Home cemetery; married at Chicago, 15 June 1898, Morgan Brown EDGERTON (born Little Rock, Arkansas, 1872); he worked for the International Harvester Coy; he died in 1959; with issue 3 sons - Morgan Rollin EDGERTON (born Chicago, 4 December 1900; died Chicago, 28 November 1948), Bradford Poggi EDGERTON (born Berwyn, 5 Oct 1903; died Oak Park, Illinois, 10 Feb 1993) and Kenneth EDGERTON (born Berwyn, 19 June 1907; died Sun City, Arizona, January 1983).
    iii. Lizzie POGGI, born at Kenosha, 1878; aged 2, with parents, 1880.
    iv. Alexander S. POGGI, born at Kenosha, 20 July 1880 (however, this birth was indexed as a female).
    v. Olive G. POGGI, born at Chicago, 18 October 1883; died at Chicago, 1903, and buried in the family plot at Forest Home Cemetery; unmarried.
    vi. Alice G. POGGI, born at Chicago, 15 May 1886; at Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois, 1920 Census, aged 32, with mother, brother, husband and 2 children; married at Oak Park, Illinois, 24 April 1909, William Larrabee CADLE; issue - Robert CADLE, born about 1911; Mary Jane CADLE, born about 1914.
    vii. Charles Godfrey POGGI, born at Chicago, 9 September 1889; married at Chicago, 23 October 1916, May Victoria HUTCHINSON; he was at Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois, 1940 Census, aged 50, Divorced, Hospital Attendant; he died at Pinellas, Florida, 8 June 1963.
  c. Josephine Laura POGGI, born at Seacombe, 1 November 1851, married at Audlem, Cheshire, 2 August 1876, Harrison CLARK, son of Mr Nathan CLARK of New York; they were at 318 West 82nd Street, Manhattan, in the 1900 Census, both aged 52, married for 24 years, with 4 children, all surviving; issue:
     i. Harrison CLARK, born at New York, July 1877; aged 22, with parents, 1900, a Student.
     ii. Ethel M. CLARK, born at New York, September 1878, a twin; aged 21, with parents, 1900.
     iii. Violet E. CLARK, born at New York, September 1879, the other twin; aged 21, with parents, 1900.
     iv. Gladys CLARK, born at New York, March 1884; aged 16, with parents, 1900; died at Inglewood, California, 17 May 1967; married in Manhattan, 22 April 1911 #9294, her second cousin Vivian Charles BARNETT (see above); issue  - a daughter Shirley BARNETT, born at New York, July 1914 (see also above).
  d. Joseph James POGGI, born at Seacombe, 26 May 1853; went to America; in New Jersey, 1880; Member of the New Jersey Grand Lodge of Freemasons, 1891; probably a partner, with Andrews M. TALBOT, Hosiery Commission Merchants, of 57 Green Street, N.Y., who filed for Bankruptcy (partnership debts only) in January 1911; he married at New York, 1874, Alice Florence BARD; she died at Elizabeth, New Jersey, 23 April 1909; with issue:
    i. Charles Godfrey POGGI, born at Rutherford, New Jersey, 1874; Architect in Elizabeth, Union County, N.J., 1912; at Newark Ave, Elizabeth City, 1940 Census, aged 64, with wife and sister-in-law; he died at Elizabeth, N.J., February 1957, aged 81; married Florence A. AFGAR or AGAR (born at New Jersey., about 1891).
    ii. Edmund Howe POGGI, born at New York, 26 September 1877; Architect in Philadelphia; worked for a time in Buenos Aries, returning to the U.S. in 1941; probably died at Kingsbridge, Virginia, 24 November 1952, late of Wilkes-Barre; married on 6 June 1900, Miriam JENKS; issue - a son Edmund Howe POGGI Junior (1912-2008), and daughters Dorothy POGGI (Mrs WILLIAMS) and Ella POGGI (Mrs MORRISSEY).
  e. Harriett Emily POGGI, born at New Brighton, 31 January 1855; as Henrietta E., aged 26, Governess, with her mother, 1881; at Sandymount Drive, New Brighton, Cheshire, 1914; at Seaholme, Bastion Road, Prestatyn, Wales, August 1915; died at Wallasey, June quarter 1937; married at Pretoria Cathedral, Transvaal, 20 April 1883, Henry Butler TOMES (second son of Rev Charles Foster TOMES of Whitegate, County Cork); with issue:
    i. Gerald Forster TOMES, born 1885; in partnership with his brother-in-law George POGGI, as Wine, Spirit and Cigar Merchants, Harley Buildings, 11 Old Hall Street, Liverpool, January 1909, when their partner Algernon Girdlestone TRESTRAIL retired from the firm; Royal Garrison Artillery, Territorial Force, May 1918; died 1965; married at Liverpool, March quarter 1909, Rosa Hermione KEIL (born Chile).
    ii. Lionel Butler TOMES, born at Transvaal, 1887; aged 14, Scholar, Christ's hospital School, Newgate Street, London, 1901 Census; married at Birkenhead, December quarter 1911; sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, C.L.S., 1924, for attempted burglary, possessing housebreaking implements by night, larceny and receiving [The Police Gazette, 22 October]; living at 17 Herbert Street, Spring Hill, 1936, Salesman [Brisbane Division].
    iii. George Eric TOMES, born at Waterloo, West Derby, Lancashire, 13 July 1889; married at Croydon, 8 April 1916, Clara Bastion POCOCK; joint beneficiary in the 1937 will of his uncle, Rev Benjamin Edward TOMES, of Mitchelstown, County Cork.
    iv. Charles Beresford Tennant TOMES, born at Croydon, Surrey, 14 September 1891; arrived in Canada, 21 February 1914, on the S.S. Caledonia, aged 20, Farm Labourer; enlisted at Winnipeg, 24 August 1915, formerly 18 months with West Surrey 1st Volunteers Battalion; joint beneficiary in the 1937 will of his uncle, Rev Benjamin Edward TOMES, of Mitchelstown, County Cork; died at Barios Algericas, Spain, 30 November 1977; married at Wandsworth, Surrey, 1918, Eily Mary LAMBKIN.
    v. Lilian Mary Bianca TOMES, born at Waterloo, West Derby, Lancashire, December quarter 1893; married BINNEY; joint beneficiary in the 1937 will of her uncle, Rev Benjamin Edward TOMES, of Mitchelstown, County Cork.
    vi. Harry Butler TOMES, born at West Derby, March qtr 1896; died at Llanwsd, Denbighshire, 1897.
  f. William Ernest POGGI, born at New Brighton, 16 November 1856; Wine Merchant, of Marsh Lane, Seaforth, 1884; after proclamation of Banns, St James's Church, Birkdale (2, 9 and 16 July), he was married at St George's Church, Newcastle, Staffordshire, 20 July 1882, to Edith Ann HALLAM, daughter of Mr John HALLAM, J.P., of Newcastle, Staffordshire; they had issue:
    i.  Richard Harrison POGGI, born at Chestnut Grove, March Lane, Liverpool, 30 April 1883, and Registered at West Derby.
    ii.  Edith Muriel POGGI, born at Marsh Lane, Seaforth, Lancashire, 8 October 1884, and baptised at St Thomas's, Seaforth.
    (?)  Mary Marguerite POGGI, born West Derby, March qtr 1886.
  g. Mary Beatrice POGGI, born at New Brighton, 27 January 1859; she was at Farm House, Puckwillow, parish of Holy Trinity and St Mary, Cambridgeshire, 1881 Census, aged 23, Unmarried, as Governess and Teacher to the household of Hanslip LONG, his wife Elizabeth, and their family of four sons and four daughters aged 8 months to 15 years; she was aged 30 with her husband, 1891 Census; she was aged 42, with her husband, 1901 Census; she was at Bastion House Preparatory School, Prestatyn, 1911 Census, aged 52, Widow, Matron; she was of Bastion House, March 1914, when her son was granted a commission in the 7th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers [The Chronicle, 12 March]; she was at Fairways, Prestatyn, 1939 Register, Widow, Unpaid Domestic Duties, born on 25 January 1859; she probably died at St Asaph, Denbighshire, September quarter 1949, aged 90 [Volume 8a, page 454]; of Regents Park, Southport, when she was married at St Paul's Church, Liverpool, 24 April 1884, to Henry Blanchard RICHARDSON, B.A., of Westgate-on-Sea (born at Great Barford, Bedfordshire, 1859, fourth son of the Rev Thomas Pierson RICHARDSON, M.A., of Clifton); he was at Doon House, Westgate, Kent, 1891 Census, aged 39, School Master, with Mary, their son, and his brother; he was at Oaklands, Prestatyn, Flintshire, 1901 Census, aged 41, Schoolmaster, with his wife, their son and his cousin Sophia PERCIVAL (aged 52, unmarried, born in Whitby, Yorkshire); of South View, Prestatyn, July 1902, when he identified the body of his son Norman; Henry died at Oswestry, 1 July 1906, aged 46, as a result of head injuries received when he fell of his bicycle on 23 June, while cycling home to Ty Gwyn, Llanymynech from Oswestry; they had issue:
     i. Herbert Henry Pierson RICHARDSON, born at Westgate, Kent, 9 March 1886; aged 5, with his parents, 1891; at Christ's Church School, London, 1901 Census, aged 15, Scholar, born Westgate-on-Sea, Kent; at Brynhyfeyd Dairy Farm, Gwaenysgor, West Prestatyn, 1911 Census, aged 25, Dairy Farmer, with his wife Madge (aged 27, born Waterloo, Lancashire, married under 1 year); he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 7th (Merioneth and Montgomery) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 4 March 1914 [The Chronicle, 12 March]; he served at Gallipoli (from August 1915), Victory Medal and Star (2nd Lieut, R.W. Fus, and Capt, Labour Corps); appointed Lieutenant, Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, 26 August 1940 [Supplement to the London Gazette, 12 November]; he was at Fairways, Prestatyn, 1939 Register, Petrol Pump and Tank Maintenance; he probably died at Holywell, Flintshire, June quarter 1964, aged 78; he was married at St Asaph, June quarter 1910, to Madge EATON [Volume 11b, page 495]; she was at Fairways, Prestatyn, 1939 Register, Married, Unpaid Domestic Duties, born on 21 July 1883; she may have died at Macclesfield, Cheshire, June quarter 1965, aged 81 [Volume 10a, page 341].
     ii. Norman Vernon Percival RICHARDSON, born on 2 October 1892; aged 9, with his parents, 1901; he was accidentally drowned at Prestatyn Beach on 2 July 1902, aged 10 [Rhyl Record and Advertiser, Saturday 5 July].
  h. Godfrey Eustace POGGI, born at New Brighton, 1861; at 7 High Park Gardens, North Sheen, Surrey, 1911 Census, aged 50, Educational Agent, with wife, daughter and BODLEY niece; married at Christ Church, Eaton, 27 December 1883,  Beatrice Mary BODLEY, youngest daughter of the late E.F. BODLEY of Congleton; with issue:
    i.  Edward Gordon POGGI, baptised at St James's, Birkdale, 9 June 1884, Registered at Ormskirk.
    ii.  Dorothy Maude POGGI, baptised at St James's, Birkdale, 2 February 1886, ditto; married at St Peter's, Hammersmith, 19 December 1914, Harry STOTT, a Fine Art Salesman then serving in the Army..
    iii.  Barbara Mary POGGI, baptised at St James's, Birkdale, 21 July 1887, ditto; aged 23, Private Secretary, with father, 1911 Census; as a widow, she emigrated to New Zealand, before 1963; she married at St Alban's, Acton Green, Ealing, 28 October 1916, William Edgar BACKWELL; he died at 5 Marsh Road, Pinner, Hendon, 7 October 1943 - issue a daughter Pauline Betty BACKWELL, born at Hammersmith, 1917, and married at Hendon, 1941, Richard John DONALD.
  j. George Artingstall POGGI, born at Cheshire, 1862; aged 18, Tutor, with mother, 1881; Wine and Spirit Merchant; died at Blundellsands, Lancs, 25 October 1938; married September 1890, Lilian Mary PEARCE, with issue:
    i. Eva Mary POGGI, born at West Derby, March quarter 1891; aged 10 in 1901.
    ii. Mary Lloyd POGGI, born at West Derby, December quarter 1895; aged 5 in 1901.
    iii. Arthur Rupert POGGI, born at West Derby, September quarter 1897; Corporal, London Regiment, 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers; died at Arras, Western Front, 2 April 1918.
  k. Herbert H. POGGI, born at Naples, 1866; aged 14, Scholar, with mother, 1881; washed overboard and "... washed overboard and drowned" off Malta, during a voyage to Smyrna on the S.S. Ararat, 27 March 1874, aged 17 [Cheshire Observer, Saturday 12 April 1874].

3. Josephine Charity GODFREY, born at Chatham, 1 May 1828; a Medical Practitioner; at Rosilen Drive, Glasgow Springburn, 1871 Census, aged 37, with husband and daughter; she died at Birkdale, Lancashire, 9 February 1888; he was married at Liverpool, 28 July 1864, to George Cooper HARRISON, of Bacup, Lancashire (he was born at Nottingham, 30 May 1833, son of John HARRISON and Mary COOPER); he dissolved his partnership with Charles STEWART, as Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers, Bacup, Lancashire, in August 1859; he was at Albion Mill, Vale Street, Bacup 1865; a Cotton Spinner and Manufacturer in Bacup, June 1867, when Gazetted under Bankruptcy Court proceedings; Chemical Manufacturer, of Camlachie, near Glasgow, June 1869; Wax Chandler and Manufacturing Chemist, of Glasgow, February 1872, when he dissolved his partnership with a Mr GRIFFITHS; of York Road, Birkdale, January 1883, Gentleman, when the subject of further bankruptcy proceedings; they had issue:
  a.  Edith Katie HARRISON, born at Glasgow, 1869; with parents, 1871 Census, aged 1; at Hornsey, Middlesex, 1911 Census, aged 41, with husband and son; she married at Islington, Middlesex, December quarter 1899, Walter ROE [Volume 1b, page 359]; he was aged 48 in 1911, born at Canonbury, London; issue:
    i.  Arnold Leslie ROE, born at Highgate, Middlesex, 7 April 1906; with parents, 1911, aged 4; at 9 Millais Gardens, Wembley, Middlesex, 1939 Register, Milk Salesman, with Ruth O. ROE, born 23 July 1808, domestic Duties, both married..

4. Harriet Eliza GODFREY, born at Chatham, 18 November 1829.


Harriet died at Liverpool, 28 September 1898; she was married at St George's, Derby Square, Liverpool, 6 September 1860, to her cousin Edward Henchman COLE, Surgeon, (son of Rev Edward COLE, who married them); they had issue:
  a.  Godfrey Hammond COLE, born at Great Plumstead, Norfolk, 1862; Shipping Company Clerk; married at Toxteth Park, Liverpool, December quarter 1899, his cousin Beatrice Evelyn GRIPPER (see above); issue:
    i.  Esme Beatrice COLE, born at Liverpool, December quarter 1900.
    ii.  Godfrey Henchman COLE, born at Liverpool, March quarter 1906.
  b.  Mary J. COLE, born at Great Plumstead, Norfolk, 1864, and married Thomas A. PATTERSON, with issue:
    i.  Doris M. PATTERSON, born at Liverpool, about 1894.

5. Samuel Giles GODFREY, born at Chatham, 6 March 1832; Commission Merchant, Forwarding Agent  and Insurance Agent in Lancashire; he died at West Derby, Lancashire, 1911; he was married at Sheffield, September qtr 1861, to Helen THOMPSON of Sheffield, with issue:
  a.  Sarah E. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1862; residing with his aunt Mrs Josephine HARRISON, 1881.
  b.  Mary E. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1863.
  c.  Helen GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1864.
  d. Catherine C. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1866.
  e.  William T. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1868.
  f.  Joseph I. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1870.
  g.  George S. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1872.
  h.  Eustace B. GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1874.

6. Ann Eliza GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1833; she was married to her first cousin Samuel GILES Junior; she died Le Havre, France, 23 May 1873, aged 39 years:


[The GILES grave in Brockley Cemetery, Lewisham, with mention of Annie's death details in France. Photograph on the Findagrave web-site, for memorial 144716654, taken by Rosemary (member 4801042).]
See Samuel's details below.

7. Arthur James GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1835.

8. George Brown GODFREY, born at Liverpool, 1837; he was married at Armagh, 1865, to Hester Ann COCHRANE.
____________________________________________


SARAH PIKE GILES.

Sarah GILES, born at Tavistock, about March 1796; she was baptised in Tavistock on 8 May 1796, Non-conformist Baptismal Records, Wesleyan Methodist; she went to Boston, 1835, via Quebec; residing at Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, 1880 Census, aged 84, Widow, with son Eustace; died at Des Moines, Iowa, 25 January 1882; Sarah was married at Holborn St Andrew, London, 30 September 1817, Robert M. COOPER, one time a Colonel in H.M.'s Army, who studied Law while on half-pay; they lived in London until 1835; a Mr COOPER of Romsey read suitable Scripture and prayed at the ordination of Rev William GILES Senior at Lymington in April 1809 - it is not yet known whether this was Robert M. COOPER; they went to Boston, via Quebec (April 1835); they took up residence in Milk Street, Boston (in the house where Benjamin FRANKLIN was born); they also resided in Province House; he died in 1839, while on a return visit to England; they had issue a family of six sons and five daughters, including:

1. Robert M. COOPER Junior, born in England, about 1818; at Ward 4, East Boston, 1850 Census, aged 31, Trunk maker, born England, with wife, and residing with her brother James FARNSWORTH and his family; a prominent businessman in Boston; possibly at Washington Street, Boston, 1880 Census, aged 60, born England, Music Teacher, residing with Henry C. LULL, Physician, and his wife; he married at Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on 6 September 1843, Lavinia P. FARNSWORTH (daughter of Capt Thomas FARNSWORTH and his wife Lavina); she was buried at Groton, Massachusetts, 18 August 1860, aged 35; issue:
  a. Sarah COOPER, born in Massachusetts, about 1850; aged 40, with mother, 1860 Census.

2. Clara E. COOPER; only daughter to live into old age.

3. Emma Maria COOPER, born in England, about 1832; died Boston, Mass, 20 May 1852, aged 19.

4. Eustace John COOPER, born at Chambly, Quebec, 8 April 1835; Real Estate Agent; married at Chelsea, Mass, 14 September 1860, Mary Pratt ATKINS; with issue:
  a.  Anna Mary COOPER, born at Newton Falls, Mass, 7 April 1861, and at Chestnut Street, Arlington, Virginia, 1930 Census; married at Des Moines, 12 June 1884, William Lloyd GUERNSEY; he died before 1900; issue:
    i.  Eustace Jessie GUERNSEY, born 25 June 1887; Salesman, Beef Coy, 1920; died at New Orleans, September 1976; married Amelia SHROPSHIRE; she died at New Orleans, July 1957, aged 57.
    ii.  Lilian A. GUERNSEY, born Kansas, 25 February 1891; Photographer, U.S. Agriculture Department, 1930; died at Falls Church City, Virginia, December 1974.
  b.  Eustice Bolles COOPER, born at Malden, Mass, 28 January 1864; Real Estate, Des Moines, 1900; Credit Coy, Des Moines, 1910; Clerk, U.S. Government, Lyon Street, Arlington, Virginia, 1930; died at Arlington, 26 January 1944; married Ethel DAVIE; issue:
    i.  Eustace Davie COOPER, born Washington, D.C., 28 January 1920; of Falls Church City, Virginia; died November 2004.
  c.  Gertrude Clara COOPER, born at Malden, Mass, 24 August 1865; died there 1 January 1866.
  d.  Grace A. COOPER, born in Wisconsin, 1871 or 1874; died at Des Moines, 1947, and was buried at Webster City, Iowa; married in Des Moines, 19 December 1917, Henry Alfred BRIGGS; probable issue.
  ___________________________________________


WILLIAM GILES Junior.



["Rev William GILES, F.R.S."
Facing page 23 of A.H. GILES's "Aegidiana; or Gleanings Among Gileses At Home and Abroad, by One of Them."
Published for Private Circulation by J.S. Philips, Fleet Street, London, 1910.]


[A signature that is probably that of William GILES Junior, as witness to the marriage of his brother 
Samuel GILES in 1832, and partially obscured by the one immediately above it of his brother John Eustace.
His signature has been described as more ornate than that of his father, William GILES Senior (see at top).]

William GILES was born at Dartmouth, Devon, on 30 December 1798.

William was educated at John HINTON's Academy (St Aldgate's School), Oxford; School Master and Baptist Minister; the novelist Charles DICKENS's first schoolmaster; of Clover Lane, Chatham (about 1817), and he moved his school, about 1821, to larger premises on the corner of Rhode and Best Streets, Chatham, while Charles DICKENS and his sister Fanny DICKENS were pupils; taught both of his younger brothers, John Eustace and Samuel GILES; Charles DICKENS remained with him in Chatham for some months after his family moved to London; it appears that the school may have had a third incarnation in Chatham, at Gibraltar Place, on the southern side of New Road.

Some confusion reigned in the early identification of Charles DICKENS's first schoolmaster - his own "official" biographer, John FORSTER, in his "The Life of Charles DICKENS," 3rd Edition, London, 1872, at Volume 1, pages 3 and 12-13, mistakenly believed that it was Rev William GILES Senior:
"...the house where [DICKENS] lived in Chatham... was in St Mary's Place, otherwise called the Brook, and next door to a Baptist meeting-house called Providence-chapel, of which a Mr GILES to be presently mentioned was minister...
"During the last two years of Charles's residence at Chatham, he was sent to a school kept in Clover-lane by the young Baptist Minister already named..."
However, Thomas WRIGHT, in his "The Life of Charles DICKENS," London, 1935, pages 28 and 123, corrected FORSTER's error:
"...a mean little house, no 18 St Mary's place, next door to a Providence Baptist Chapel, which the family sometimes attended, in a thoroughfare called the Brook. The minister was a Rev William GILES.
"DICKENS and his sister Fanny were sent to an academy in Clover lane kept by William GILES, son of the minister of Providence Chapel, an accomplished and enthusiastic young man who had been ordained after receiving a first-class education at Oxford; and DICKENS retained pleasant memories of him, and a playmate Samuel GILES, his master's ten-year-old brother."
But Thomas J. HARDY, in his "Books on the Shelf," London, 1934, at pages 91-96 (Chapter 5 - 'The Boyhood of Charles Dickens'), repeating FORSTER's error, adds more detail:
"...a small house, the little House on the Brook. Now this house faced the Baptist Chapel presided over by a Mr GILES, who added to his ministerial income by keeping a small school for very small boys. Whether it was by hearing Charlie recite 'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I heard him complain' or whether he was charmed by his voice when he sang 'Long time I've courted you, Miss' to his sister's accompaniment, or because, as Miss GIBSON has recorded, he was '...a lively little boy of open disposition and not quarrelsome' - certain it is that Mr GILES took a fancy to Charlie and offered to receive among his pupils free of charge. To this fact we owe the first pen-portrait of Charles DICKENS we possess, by the hand of Mr GILES's sister: 'He was a very handsome boy, with long curly hair of a light colour; very amiable and agreeable, and capital company even then'."

But back to William GILES - and HARDY continued:
"In the following year [1821] John DICKENS was recalled to Somerset House and Charlie was left for some months as a boarder with Mr GILES. This gives me the opportunity of paying tribute to that prince of illustrators, Hablot K. BROWNE - better known as 'Phiz.' In the illustration to chapter 10 of 'David Copperfield' we find the boy turning up at the house of Miss Betsy TROTWOOD in a white top-hat. Now for some obscure reason all Mr GILES's pupils were provided with hats similar to the one in the illustration. To be sure, it was not from Mr GILES's school that David escaped..."
"Here [4 Gower Street, North London] ... a brass plate displayed the legend - MRS DICKENS'S ESTABLISHMENT FOR YOUNG LADIES - and young Charlie was employed in taking round cards bearing a similar announcement together with the terms. An odd little canvasser he must have looked in his white top hat - to which he clung in a forlorn hope of getting back to Mr GILES."
Hugh KINGSMILL, in his "The Sentimental Journey: A Life of Charles DICKENS," page 14, also cited FORSTER and his error:
"At nine years he went to a school kept by a Mr William GILES, the minister of the Baptist meeting house next door to the DICKENS's home. FORSTER, always a faithful if not flat echo of DICKENS's own feelings, describes Mr GILES in double negatives, with an effect of patronage - 'Nor does the influence of Mr GILES, such as it was, seem other than favourable. Charles had himself a not ungrateful sense that this first of his masters, in his little cared for childhood, had pronounced him to be a boy of capacity.'
"The unvarying repulsiveness of the Dissenters in the novels suggests that DICKENS's gratitude, such as it was, fell far short of his feeling that he was entitled to something better then Mr GILES's little school..."




[Rear view of the house that stood on the corner of Clover Lane and Best Street, Chatham, looking due east, 
with the "front" door opening onto the eastern side of Clover Lane in the foreground.
It has been identified in the files of Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre as the first GILES School.
Part of  Zion Chapel is visible immediately to the left of it, just across Best Street.
Image courtesy of the Medway Archives web-site, from the Couchman Collection, DE 402/16/32(L).]

As to the location of the schools, Robert LANGTON, in his "The Childhood and Youth of Charles DICKENS," London, 1912, and citing some eye-witness evidence of a venerable Mrs GODFREY of Liverpool, appears to have supplied the definitive version:
"Some confusion has arisen as to which of the three houses in which Mr GILES resided at Chatham was the school of Charles DICKENS, but the evidence, that of Mr DICKENS and others, who went to this school, is at once clear and beyond question.
"Mr William GILES, the son of the Rev William GILES, the minister of Providence Chapel on the Brook, commenced school-keeping at a house in Clover Lane, now Clover Street, Chatham, and at that time his scholars consisted of his own younger brothers and sisters, of the children of some of the officers of the garrison, and a few of the children of the neighbours.
"He shortly afterwards moved to the large house still standing on the corner of Rhode Street and Best Street shown in the initial letter of this chapter, and closely adjoining Clover Lane, and here Charles and Fanny DICKENS attended as scholars. Finally he moved to Gibraltar Place on the New Road. The school still lives in the memory of numbers of people resident in these towns (Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Brompton), and a doggerel survives which runs thus:-
"BAKERS's Bull Dogs; GILES's Cats; New-road scrubbers; Troy Town rats.
"And in this rhyme, four of the principal educational establishments of eighty years ago (in these towns) are named."
Even though it seems likely that GILES's Cats and New-road scrubbers both referred to locations in Chatham.
And concerning his move from Rhode and Best Streets, we now know that his daughter, Elizabeth Waring GILES, was born at Gibraltar Place, on 12 October 1822, as recorded in the Providence Chapel Register by her grandfather, Rev William GILES Senior.

Thomas WRIGHT recorded details of another event:
"On returning from Brighton to 48 Doughty Street, DICKENS heard from his old schoolmaster, the Rev William GILES, who had started an academy at Barton Hall near Manchester. Accompanying his letter was a silver snuff box with the inscription 'To the Inimitable Boz.'
"DICKENS when replying sent him copies of the 'Pickwick Papers' in volume form, 'Sunday Under Three Heads' and 'Sketches of Young Gentlemen'. 'Accept with them,' he said, 'all the warm and earnest wishes for your happiness and prosperity which vivid remembrance of your old kindness and excellence can awaken'."
And FORSTER mentioned the same event:
"...and when, about half way through the publication of 'Pickwick,' his old teacher sent a silver snuff box with the admiring inscription to 'The Inimitable Boz' it reminded him of praise far more precious obtained by him at his first year's examination in the Clover-lane academy, when his recitation of a piece out of the 'Humorist's Miscellany' about Doctor BOLUS had received, unless his youthful vanity bewildered him, a double encore. A habit, the only bad one taught him by Mr GILES, of taking for a time, in very moderate quantities, the snuff called Irish Blackguard, was the result of this gift from his old master, but he abandoned it after some years, and it was never resumed."
DICKENS had "Pickwick Papers" published monthly in 20 Volumes between March 1836 and October 1837, the "mid-point" of which would have been December 1836 - and "Sunday Under Three Heads" was published in June 1836, although "Sketches of Young Gentlemen" did not appear in print until February 1838 (perhaps the Inimitable Boz was too snowed under by publication deadlines, and was unable to give GILES a quick acknowledgment of his memento).



[The W. GILES Junior Snuff Box, as offered for sale on 8 March 2012 by Philip SERRELL of Malvern, Worcs, 
Auctioneers and Valuers. It had previously been offered by the same auctioneer in May 2009.
The sale price was anticipated to exceed £8000. Image courtesy of the www.serrell.com web-site.]

The silver snuff box was of rectangular form, measuring 2 inches x 3 inches, with a chased and floral border, made by Nathaniel MILLS, of Birmingham, in 1836 (2012 sale catalogue - an earlier sale catalogue in 2009 gave the date instead as 1834).
The lid was engraved:
                                                        To                                             
CHARLES DICKENS, ESQUIRE.
"The Inimitable Boz."
With no less admiration for his gentleness and
generosity, than for the devotion of his brilliant
talents, to the advancement of literature, and the
melioration of the condition of the distressed.
From his
sincerely attached Friend and former Tutor
                                                          W. Giles



[A detail of the inscription, posted by the 2012 purchaser, Nicholas SHAW. 
Image courtesy of the www.dickensfellowship.org web-site.]

While in Chatham, William was also secretary of the Zion Chapel building committee, 1821.

In 1830, William moved to Lancashire; his infant son died at Patricroft on 26 December 1830, aged 8 months.


[A frontal but slightly "birds-eye" view of Barton Hall, used in an early advertisement published in the Manchester Guardian, 16 October 1830.]


[Another image used by William GILES in the prospectus for his school, replicated in 
a later advertisement published in the Manchester Times and Gazette, 
showing the improved out-of-doors "facilities" on the front lawn.]

On 16 October 1830 he had inserted an advertisement notifying that he would open his second Classical and Mathematical School at Barton Hall, Patricroft on 26 January 1831, and cited Joseph LEESE of the Polygon as a reference; he also asked that mail be addressed to him care of Joseph LEESE at his office, Messrs LEESE and Coy, 56 High Street, Manchester.


[A later image of Barton Old Hall as a farmhouse, believed to have been where William had his school. 
The resemblance to the two earlier images is not strong.
Image from the Manchester Weekly Times, Friday 6 January 1893.]

During his time at Barton Hall, William also served as Pastor of the Eccles Baptist Chapel. He conducted his first christening at his residence in Patricroft on 23 November 1831 (Eccles Baptist Register); he made five interments in the Independent Burial Ground, Patricroft, between March 1832 and May 1836.


[The Particular Baptist Church in Byron Street, Patricroft. Probably now demolished.
Perhaps built after William GILES's time there.]

William opened his third School at 38 Ardwick Green, near Manchester, in January 1839; but the venture did not prosper; he advertised the sale of all movable assets, and moved to Liverpool in December 1840.

William was at Audley Street, Everton, in the 1841 Census, aged 40+, with wife and five children.

William also served as Pastor of the Baptist Chapel in Byrom Street, Liverpool; The Primitive Church Magazine, Vol. 1, for the year 1841 (but clearly printed in or after March 1842), published the following "Intelligence" from a correspondent in Liverpool:
"THE BAPTIST CHURCH, BYROM STREET, LIVERPOOL.
"The readers of the Primitive Church Magazine will be gratified to hear that the original principles of the gospel church are restored in the first baptist church in Liverpool, which has been, for some years, the scene of contention for the doctrines of the gospel and the primitive order of the church, and of which Mr C.M. BIRRELL was obliged to resign the charge on introducing the modern expediency of open communion. Mr THOMAS, the late pastor, having recently resigned, a union has been formed with the particular baptist church, lately meeting in the Templar's-hall, Great George Street, under the pastoral care of Mr William GILES, who is now pastor of the two churches, united as a strict particular baptist church, upon the principles of the truth and church order and contained in the Word of God, and in the articles and deeds of the church, and for many years steadfastly maintained and preached by the late venerable Samuel MEDLEY, the first minister of the place.
"A.Y.B. - Liverpool, March 1842."

Like DICKENS's biographers, some Baptist writers also appear to have confused William GILES Junior with his father, William GILES Senior - W.T. WHITELY, M.A., in his "Baptists of North West England, 1649-1913," London, 1913, at pp.187 et seq, adding some extra detail to the above, wrote:
"FOUR SECESSIONS - ...The historic church at Liverpool lost in 1838 those of its members who desired open communion; they called C.M. BIRRELL to the pastorate and built in Pembroke Place, being at once received into the Association. After a year or two, James H. THOMAS came to take charge of Byrom Street, but on his return to Wales, a stronger leader appeared in GILES from Preston, who at once took it out of the Association. Its fate was hard, for in 1846 a tunnel to the docks had to be driven underneath the chapel, which was therefor bought by the railway. The homeless church also lost its pastor, who retired to Seacombe and resumed the occupation of his youth by opening a school, which seems to have been hardly abreast of the age, for he went on to Chester, where his former flock at Preston remembered his needs...
"The struggling cause at Eccles did not feel in doctrinal harmony with the Association, connection ceasing at the departure of William GILES junior to Ashton...
"CHESHIRE CHURCHES - ...Further to the west, William GILES senior took charge of the Chester church, but his influence was not at all exerted to bring it into association, and it hovered in Hamilton Place between life and death..."

I do believe, and think I am correct in saying that William GILES Junior had no formal church connection either in Preston or in Ashton-under-Lyne; and that William GILES Senior, apart from his being in Abercrombie Square, Liverpool, on Census night of 1841, appears to have had no formal church connection either in Liverpool or in Chester. Which suggests that WHITELY, who does appear to have adopted a distinctly disparaging tone towards the GILES family members named William, had managed to entirely confuse them both (I have highlighted his apparent errors above in red).

William did not last long at Byrom Street; he opened yet another School, across the River Mersey at Seacombe House, in August 1843.


[Nos 1 and 2 Fern Villas, New Street, Seacombe; believed to have been the building used earlier
by William GILES as Seacombe House Boarding School. Demolished in 2003. 
Image courtesy of he History of Wallasey web-page.]

Five years later this school was taken over by his newly married GODFREY niece, Mary Lloyd POGGI, and her husband Dr Domenico POGGI.

On 30 December 1848, William was presented by his family and friends with an inscribed tea service, at a gathering held in the Mayor's Parlour of Manchester Town Hall to mark his 50th birthday; both of his younger brothers made warm-hearted speeches to mark the occasion; and the guest list also included his wife, his son Mr J.L. GILES, his nieces the Misses M.L. and Maria GILES, Mr Joseph LEESE Junior, and Messrs Edward LEESE and Samuel LEES Junior (neither of these last two are known to me).
His younger brother John Eustace GILES addressed the gathering in the following terms:
"...my excellent brother - a brother with whom I have shared some sports in childhood and youth - with whom I have shared many a youthful danger by land and by sea, which we braved together, if I must heartily confess, 'the battle and the breeze'; and whose footsteps I had the honour of tracing at Oxford through the same course of educational training which had led him to the honours of this evening; and in whom in mature life I have found 'a brother born for adversity' - a faithful friend and counsellor in every time of need - and one who has rejoiced with me in every instance of prosperity, and with whom no family difference has ever arisen to sake the bonds of relationship and affection which have bound us so close together..."
I get a distinct impression that William and John probably sailed together in the bays and harbours near their homes in Devonshire and particularly in Hampshire, probably with a view across the Solent.
His youngest brother Samuel GILES added his own tribute:
"...my beloved brother...
"I stand, ladies and gentlemen, in a particular position which no-one else in this room occupies - in the two-fold relation of a brother and a former pupil. For when my brother returned from Oxford, and commenced his professional career, I was entrusted by my late revered and honoured father to his care for my education, and to him I am mainly, if not wholly indebted for the education I received, and for any thirst for knowledge I now possess, ...nearly thirty years ago.
"...it is s great solace to my mind to have my own dear boy now under his care..."
[Extract from the Manchester Times, Tuesday 22 May 1849.]

William opened his fifth and last School at Netherleigh House, in Eaton Street, Parish of St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester, in 1849; he was also, for a time, the Pastor of the Hamilton Place Baptist Chapel, Chester.


He was residing at 39 Eaton Road, St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester, 1851 Census, aged 52, Baptist Minister and Schoolmaster, with wife, son and niece.
In March 1853, William was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

William died at Netherleigh House, near Chester, on 30 September 1856, and was buried at Overleigh Old Cemetery, Chester [Grave P 4174].

[Overleigh Cemetery in 1855.]

Roderick D. CANNON, on his web-page at www.mancuniensis.plus.com concerning Eccles Baptist Church, has furnished a transcription of the Monumental Inscription on his grave in Overleigh Cemetery, Chester, as follows:
"To the memory of
Harriott Miller Giles, 
wife of William Giles
of Netherleigh House, Chester
who departed this life
December 15th 1855, aged 57.
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.
Also the above William Giles
who departed this life
September 30th 1856, aged 57.
He that believeth in me
though he were dead, yet
shall he live.
Also Harriott Emily Giles
third daughter of the above, 
who died July 18th 1878
aged 47."



[Image from www.findagrave.com  courtesy of Chris KEMP.]

There was an added note that:
"This stone is not easy to read.  The written record has death 13 July, interment 16 July 1878, age 44.  Chester Record Office DCE/1/1 Cemetery Register 1850-65, fiche 32/18, item P4174]."

William was married at Chatham, 31 December 1821, to Harriott Miller WARING; she died at Netherleigh House, Chester, 15 December 1855, and was buried in her husband's plot; notice of her death was published in the Baptist Magazine, January 1856:
"Mrs GILES, of Netherleigh House, Chester, peacefully breathed her last, without a struggle or a groan, on 15 December, aged 57 years. Abundant evidence was afforded for years before, and on the death-bed of her every hope for salvation, and her mind was kept in perfect peace to the last moment through manifest union to Him."

William and Harriot had issue:

1. Elizabeth Waring GILES, born at Gibraltar Place, Chatham, on 12 October 1822, her baptism recorded in the Providence Chapel register; died at Wavertree, August 1844, aged 22 [Registered West Derby, Lancashire, September quarter 1844], "...near Liverpool... wife of S.B. MALKIN of Plymouth Grove, and eldest daughter of the Rev William GILES, Jun'r, of Liverpool" [Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 10 August]; she married at Manchester, on 12 April 1840, Samuel Bowes MALKIN, School Master; they were both at Plymouth Grove, Chorlton upon Medlock, 1841 Census; they had probable issue:
  a.  Pauline Waring MALKIN, born at West Derby, June quarter 1844, and died at West Derby, September quarter 1844; inf.

2. Mary Ann GILES, born at Gibraltar Place, Chatham, on 31 December 1823 (ditto, Providence Chapel register); aged 15+, with her parents, 1841 Census; aged 27, at Kidderminster, 1851 Census, with her husband and two children; she died at Whitville, Kidderminster, on 26 January 1852, aged 28 [Liverpool Mercury, Tuesday 3 February]; she was married at the Parish Church, Wallasey, 11 March 1847, to John HUMPHRIES, eldest son of James HUMPHRIES of Kidderminster [Blackburn Standard, Wednesday 17 March]; he was Carpet Manufacturer, and lived for many years at Blakebrook House, Kidderminster.


[Photo of John HUMPHRIES of Kidderminster, taken in London; from the collection of Martin FISHER of N.Z.]

John HUMPHRIES was at Blakebrook House, Kidderminster, 1881 Census, aged 56, Carpet Manufacturer, with his second wife Henriette (aged 36) and their four children (Walter, Clara, Jessie and Minnie, aged 23 to 11); he probably died at Kidderminster, June quarter 1901, aged 76 [Volume 6c, page 131]; he was married secondly, at Halifax, Yorkshire, on 28 February 1855, to Hannah (or ? Harriet) COLLIER, and by her had further issue.
John and Mary Ann had issue:
     a.  Frederick HUMPHRIES, born at Whitville, Kidderminster, 21 January 1848, and registered March quarter 1848 [Volume 18, page 402]; aged 3, with his parents, 1851 Census.


Frederick sailed to Melbourne on the ship Madras from Liverpool, arrived Hobson's Bay 10 May 1870; he then went to New Zealand on the Steamer Hero, from Sydney, arrived Auckland, 9 September 1871; member of the Dunedin Press Amateur Dramatic Society, April 1874; appointed sub-editor of the Otago "Daily Times" in 1874; active in the foundation of the Dunedin Press Club, November 1874; farewell presentation from his staff colleagues at the "Daily Times", 5 March 1876; Editor of the newly established "Evening Mail" in Oamaru, 1876; Editor of the Tuapeka Times, January 1877; Editor of the Poverty Bay "Herald" from 7 December 1877 until 9 December 1878, when he was given his notice, but sued his employers for wrongful dismissal and recovered 2 months termination pay; went to Victoria, early 1879; is said to have worked for David SYME as leader of the reporting staff of the "Age"; as a Journalist, of Fitzroy, Fred was listed as a "New Insolvent" in March 1881; he then went to Tasmania, about mid 1881, and worked on the "Hobart Mercury"; appointed by the Tasmanian Government as their Agent in England for Emigration to Tasmania, January 1883; sailed for England on the S.S. Garonne, departed Melbourne 17 April 1883, arrived in London 4 June; he spent two years in England, returning to Tasmania in April 1885; back in Victoria, November 1886, when he was appointed Secretary of the Victorian Employers' Union and Employers' Union Indemnity Company and Ship-owners' Association; in March 1892, a death notice was published in Melbourne for his "...beloved step-mother" Harriet HUMPHRIES, the wife of John HUMPHRIES, who had died at Blakebrook, Kidderminster, on 15 Apr; Frederick was imprisoned in February 1893 for two years on several charges of forging, uttering and embezzling his employers; he was released from Pentridge Prison in April 1895; he then went to Western Australia; Agent for the Albany "Morning Herald," February 1896; Editor of the Perth "Daily News," April 1898; living in Claremont, W.A., December 1896; in 1903 he opened his own newspaper "The Guardian" in Claremont; he died at his residence, Ivanho, Bay View Terrace, Claremont, on 12 May 1928, aged 80, and was buried in the Anglican Section RA Grave 318, Karrakatta Cemetery.
Frederick married in N.Z., 1871, Amelia Sarah (Minnie) CLARK; she died at Nedlands, W.A., 4 November 1938, aged 88, and was buried with her husband; they had issue:
  i.  Edith Florence HUMPHRIES, born at Beaufort Cottage, Great King Street, Dunedin, 8 February 1874; died at Claremont, 12 February 1961, aged 87, her ashes buried Rose Garden [R 0165], Karakatta; married at Claremont, 9 June 1900, Alfred Kerslake GLOSTER.
  ii.  Reginald Stanley Victor Raymond HUMPHRIES, born at Park Street, Dunedin, 1875; died in Melbourne, 25 March 1879, aged 4 years.
  iii. Reginald Stanley James HUMPHRIES, born at Humber Street, Oamaru, 13 June 1876; died at Sturk Street, Kalamunda, W.A., 12 July 1935, and was buried with his parents.
  iii.  Mabel Constance HUMPHRIES, born in N.Z., 1877; died at Claremont, 27 August 1968, aged 90, her ashes buried Rose Garden [6A, 0006], Karrakatta.
  iv.  Violet Ethel Guilfoyle HUMPHRIES, born at Carlton, Victoria, 1879; died at Nedlands, 10 January 1963, aged 83, her ashes scattered at Karakatta; married at Claremont, 1 August 1903, Arthur Amice RENOUF; he died at Rossmyre, W.A., 20 January 1867, aged 87.
  v.  Ruby Beatrice Fenner HUMPHRIES, born at Bathurst Street, Hobart, 15 November 1881; died at Dalkeith, W.A., 25 May 1965, her ashes scattered at Karakatta; married at Perth, 2 May 1908, John Faulkner TOMLINSON; he died at Dalkeith, 5 September 1958, aged 79.
  vi.  Cecil Digby HUMPHRIES, born at High Street, Armadale, Victoria, 24 November 1887; died Busselton, W.A., 26 June 1971, aged 83, his ashes scattered at Karrakatta.
     b.  Edith Deborah HUMPHRIES, born at Kidderminster, 24 November 1849; aged 2, with her parents, 1851 Census; Edith was baptised on 21 January 1868, by W'm H. HINES, Minister of the Countess of Huntingdon Chapel, Kidderminster; she was at Dunsden, Oxon, in January 1879, when she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, fathered by Walter George PHILLIPS, an Iron Founder's assistant; she was at 3 Connaught Road, Reading, 1881 Census, aged 31, Married, as a boarder at the residence of Walter George MORRIS (aged 33, Clerk unemployed, born Essex - he appears to have been the same person as Walter George PHILLIPS), with her two PARDOE children and Kathleen PHILLIPS (aged 2 years).


[Edith photographed in Dunedin, about 1890s. Image courtesy of Martin FISHER of N.Z.]

Edith, as one of the PHILIPS family, they went to Tasmania on the ship Cape Clear, arriving at Hobart on 26 October 1883 from London (perhaps "recruited" by her brother Fred, then Agent in England for Immigration to Tasmania); in 1892, she informed the police of an alleged assault in 1886 on her daughter Constance by Walter George MORRIS alias PHILIPS; she went to New Zealand about 1894; she appears to have returned to England before 1901; she died at Lambeth, London, March quarter 1902, aged 51 [Volume 1d, page 285]; she was married firstly, at Kidderminster, 1 June 1871, to Herbert PARDOE; it appears that she and Herbert had separated before the 1881 Census, and probably before mid 1878; she was married secondly, in N.Z. (probably in Dunedin), 1894 #2746, to Charles Albert LISTER; issue:
    i.  Constance Mabel PARDOE, born at Chorlton, Lancashire, December quarter 1872; went to Tasmania, 1883; alleged that her mother's de-facto, Walter George MORRIS, criminally assaulted her in Tasmania in 1886-89; she probably went to Queensland where her relation Edgar Howard PARDOE was living, and there had illegitimate issue - Frank PARDOE (born in Queensland, 1902 #C2742; died in Queensland, 1903 #C1179); she went to N.Z. about 1903, and died there in 1954; she married in N.Z. (probably also in Dunedin), 1904 #506, Thomas William MARTIN, with issue.


[Constance Mabel MARTIN and her son Herbert Pardoe MARTIN, before his death in Crete in 1941.
Image courtesy of Martin FISHER of N.Z. ]

    ii.  Hanson Acton PARDOE, born at Horsham, Sussex, 7 February 1875; went to Tasmania in 1883; went to Sydney by 1912; settled in Grafton, N.S.W. before W.W.I; died at Grafton, 5 January 1939 #6543, aged 67 (mother Edith, father not named in Registration); he married at Hobart, 1900, Florence Gladys LANE; she died at Grafton, 13 February 1959; issue - Eustace Acton PARDOE (born and died at Hobart, 1901); Eusie Mary Beth PARDOE (born at Hobart, 1903); Dudley Jack PARDOE (born at Hobart, 1905; of Grafton and Wollongong); and Reginald Kenneth PARDOE (born at Sydney, 11 March 1912; died N.S.W., 1980 #2349, parents named; married at Grafton, 1938, Zena PHILLIS).


[Constance PARDOE (left) and her brother Hanson PARDOE (right), with half-sister Kathleen PHILLIPS (centre).
Photo probably taken in Tasmania, about 1884. Image courtesy of Martin FISHER of N.Z.]
Edith had further issue:
    iii. Kathleen PHILLIPS, born at Dunsden, Oxfordshire, 27 January 1879, and Registered at Play Hatch, March quarter; aged 4 on arrival in Tasmania, 1883; as Kathleen PARDOE, had an "illegitimate daughter" - Olga Northam PARDOE, born at Annandale, N.S.W., 1901 #10183 (she was baptised in London later that year - Olga was later a Stenographer in the Senate (Commonwealth Parliament) , and was later Private Secretary to former Prime Minister W.M. HUGHES until his death in 1952). Kathleen was cited as co-respondent in the May 1901 divorce case, NORTHAM vs NORTHAM, whereby Elsie NORTHAM (formerly COOPER) was granted a decree nisi on the grounds of her husband William NORTHAM's adultery with Kathleen , at the North Shore Hotel, corner of Berry and Miller Streets, North Sydney (of which hotel William NORTHAM was Licensee) and which liaison probably resulted in Olga's conception. Kathleen and William NORTHAM  moved to London, where they were married in Lambeth in December quarter 1901, and had further issue in Devon and N.S.W. - Dudley Charles NORTHAM (born Torquay, 1902; married Eileen Frances Lyndal FERGUSON, then Winifred Lucy SCHUCH); Nita Lillian NORTHAM (born Torquay, 1903; married Ernst August ERMERT, with issue); William Herbert NORTHAM (born Torquay, 1905; married Barbara HERFORD, then Alison Mary DYER, and finally Dulcie Mary STEPHEN alias HILL); Kenneth Hanson NORTHAM (died Caulfield, Vic, 1978; married Eleanor CURNOW); and Kathleen NORTHAM (married Ernest WALLISCH, with issue born in South Africa).
     iv. Harriet PHILLIPS; cited in the Tasmanian News of Wed 18 May 1892, reporting on the sexual abuse charges against Walter George MORRIS alias PHILLIPS, as having been the daughter of Edith Deborah PARDOE, and as having given evidence against her father (see next below). She does not appear anywhere else in the PARDOE family story, so she may have been Walter's daughter by another mother?

Edith's de-facto second husband, Walter George MORRIS (he was born at Walthamstow, Essex, in June quarter 1849, son of Wellington MORRIS and his wife Elizabeth PENN, the widow of William NORTHAM, a Jeweller and Book Seller of Islington), was arrested in Wellington and appeared in the Tasmanian Supreme Court in Hobart, in May 1892, on a charge of Criminal Assault on Constance Mabel PARDOE when she was aged 14; evidence given indicated that Edith and MORRIS lived together as man and wife, under the adopted family name of PHILLIPS, that Constance had always known him as "Papa", and that the alleged assault had taken place in Pontville Prison, where MORRIS was gaol-keeper, while her mother was out giving music lessons and her brother and sister were at school; in about 1892, MORRIS had married another woman and left the PARDOE's to live with his new wife in N.Z.; the jury could not agree on a verdict.
Herbert PARDOE was born at Bewdley, Worcestershire, December quarter 1843, a younger son of Robert Acton PARDOE Senior (1808-1883) and his wife Mary TYMBS (died 1903); he was brought before the Court at Wells, Somerset, in November 1880, on a charge of obtaining money under false pretences from a Mr FOSTER, the Town Clerk, who alleged that PARDOE had pleaded reduced circumstances and appealed for money to assist his emigration to Melbourne, Australia, stating that FOSTER's senior relation in Worcester had agreed to sponsor Herbert's passage - this last statement was proved to be false, but FOSTER did not proceed any further with the prosecution; Herbert was probably the Solicitor residing at Waterford Road, Fulham, in the 1891 Census, aged 48, with wife Annie (aged 38, Born Devonshire); if so, he probably married secondly at Kensington, September quarter 1887, to Annie POTTER; he died at Kidderminster, September quarter 1895, aged 52. If this was the same Herbert PARDOE, and his age and birthplace suggest this is likely, then it is clear that there had probably been a divorce.
Herbert's brother Robert Acton PARDOE Junior went to Queensland, and died in Brisbane in 1876, aged 38; two of his sons, Edgar Howard and Leonard, had families in Qld, and whom Constance Mable may have been "visiting" when she had the illegitimate son Frank in 1902.

(?) Possible other children born 1825-27?

3. An infant son, probably born about May 1829; died at Patricroft, 26 December 1830, and buried at the George Street Independent Burial Ground, 2  January 1831, aged 8 months, abode Patricroft, interment by J. BRAMALL [the M.I., evidently in error, recorded his death on 26 December 1831 aged 7 months].
 
4. John GILES, born in Lancashire, about 1831.

5. Joseph Leese GILES, born at Patricroft, Lancashire, 1 March 1832; died at Rochdale, 30 July 1881; married at Tunbridge, 1858, Fanny SHARMAN; she died at Rochdale, 28 January 1881.

6. Maria GILES, born in Lancashire, about 1833; from the next, apparently dead before 1878.

7. Harriot Emily GILES, born at Patricroft, 2 August 1834; died at Chester, September quarter 1878, aged 44 [Volume 8a, page 253]; buried in her father's grave at Overleigh Cemetery, Chester, although her age as recorded on the M.I. is not consistent with her baptismal record and death registration details:
"Also Harriott Emily Giles, third daughter of the above, who died July 18th 1878, aged 47."
There was a suggestion in the Bertram GILES pedigree that Harriot had married Charles FANNING with issue:
   a.  Charles P. FANNING, born about 1854.
   b.  Walter M. FANNING, born about 1859.
But this appears to have been impossible.

8. William Theophilus GILES, born at Patricroft, 18 September 1836, and baptised at Eccles, 19 September; Schoolmaster and Clergyman; Trinity College, Dublin, B.A.; ordained Deacon at Chester Cathedral, October 1858; Priest, September 1859; took over as Principal of his late father's School at Netherleigh House, and still there in 1859; Curate of St Mary's, Chester; assisted also at Upton Rectory, St John's, Eccleston and Frodsham; appointed Chaplain to the Upton Lunatic Asylum, December 1887.


[Family group, about early to mid 1880s including, from left to right, standing in the back row:
Harold Eustace GILES; William Sharman GILES, Edward Sharman GILES, and Archibald Waring GILES.
From left to right, in the middle row, seated on chairs:
Amy Rebecca GILES, Mrs Rebecca GILES, Rev William Theophilus GILES, Charlotte Christina GILES, and Katherine Sarah GILES.
And, from left to right in the front, sitting on the ground:
Emily Frances GILES, Hilda Mary GILES, Alfred Sharman GILES, and Gustavus Theophilus GILES.
Image courtesy of Susan GALVAN of Washington, D.C.]

Willliam died at Upton Asylum, Cheshire, 5 November 1895, and was buried at Upton Churchyard; he married at Holy Trinity, Tunbridge Wells, on 22 December 1857, Rebecca SHARMAN, youngest daughter of Edward SHARMAN of Huntingdon; she was residing at 13 Bath Street, Chester, 1911 Census, aged 75, Widow, born Huntingdon, of Independent Means, with her daughter Emily; she died at Chester, 2 January 1917.
They had issue, all born at Netherleigh House, Chester, and baptised at St Mary's Parish Church, Chester (unless noted otherwise):
  a.  Charlotte Christina GILES, born 25 December 1858, baptised 5 February 1859; witnessed her sister Amy's marriage, 1890; at 8 Abbey Square, Chester, 1939 Register, Private Means, unmarried, her birth date recorded as 23 December 1858, residing with her two younger sisters; she died about 1948.
  b.  Amy Rebecca GILES, born 7 April 1860, and baptised on 11 May; witnessed her brother William's marriage, 1889; at Cromarty, Shrewsbury Lane, Shooter's Hill, Woolwich, 1911 Census, aged 50, with husband and three children; she died at Aldeburgh, Sussex, 10 September 1927; she married at Upton parish church, Cheshire, 27 December 1890, Charles Oldfield BOOTH, 33, Widower (son of Isaac BOOTH, Civil Engineer); he was aged 53, Manager of the Building Works Department, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, born Warley, Yorkshire, 1911 Census; they had issue:
    i.  Amy Mary BOOTH, born at Plumstead, Kent, 21 November 1891; aged 19, with parents, 1911; she died at Surrey, 1981; married firstly, in Kent, 1911, Arthur Graves LEECH; divorced; she married secondly, in London, 1921, Ernest Henry Stewart BROWNE; married thirdly, at Paddington, 1940, William John SINCLAIR; married fourthly, at Westminster, 1953, Sir Edwin Logie MORRIS; issue by her second marriage - a son John Henry "Jack" BROWNE (killed W.W.2) and a daughter Petronelle Mary Stewart BROWNE.
    ii.  Marjorie Caroline BOOTH, born at Plumstead, 30 October 1893; aged 17, with parents, 1911; at Coast Cottage, Coast Road, West Mersea, Essex, 1939 Register, as Marjorie C. DUCKWORTH (CHAWORTH MUSTERS), Domestic Duties, and married; she died in 1959; married firstly, 1916, Anthony CHAWORTH-MUSTERS; with issue.
    iii.  John Charles William BOOTH, born at Plumstead, 1896; aged 14, Scholar, with parents, 1911 Census.
  c.  William Sharman GILES, born 9 July 1861, and baptised 19 August; Master Mariner, 1889, 1891; Captain of the sailing vessel "Lanarca"; Poultry Farmer at Barton Mills, Mildenhall, Suffolk, 1911 Census; died there on 16 February 1906; married at St Mary's, Chester, 22 July 1889, Edith Eliza BAGNALL, aged 32, spinster, of Curzon (daughter of Freeman Leopold BAGNALL, Gent); she was residing with her brother-in-law Alfred S. GILES, 1911 Census, aged 54, a Widow, born Chester, with her two children; they had issue:
    i.  Francis Eric William GILES, born at San Francisco, California, 13 January 1891, and baptised St Mary's, Chester, 14 June; aged 20, Engineer's Apprentice, with uncle Alfred S. GILES, 1911 Census; killed-in-action at Theipval, Western Front, 10 September 1916; married at Clapham, 4 April 1916, Mary Reeve HENSHAW.
    ii.  Marguerite Rebecca GILES, born at Patpariso, Chile, about 1896; aged 4, with parents, 1901 Census; aged 13, with uncle Alfred S. GILES, 1911; died at Balham, 3 February 1934.
  d.  Edward Sharman GILES, born 7 July 1862, and baptised 2 September; witnessed his brother William's marriage, 1889; Solicitor, and Registrar of the County Court in Chester; at Crowmede, Littleton, Cheshire, 1901 Census, a Law Clerk; married at Lincoln, 1890, Mary Isabel TROTTER; with issue:
    i.  Edmund GILES, born at Chisleton, Cheshire, 1898; St Peter's College, Radley; Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 1918; Recorder of Birds, Romney Marsh; died at Hastings, 1962; married at London, 1929, Ellen KENWARD.
  e.  Frank Sharman GILES, born 20 January 1864, and baptised 26 February; died on 22 September 1874, aged 10, as the result of an accident in the school gymnasium, and was buried at Eccleston, Cheshire, 24 September, aged 10 years 9 months, from Eaton road.
  f.  Katherine Sarah GILES, born 21 July 1865, and baptised 17 October; died 13 September 1892.
  g. Alfred Sharman GILES, born 16 December 1866, and; baptised 3 February 1867; Electrical Engineer; Borough Engineer, Blackburn; went to South Africa, about 1905; General Manager, Cape Town Electric Tramways; at 1 Queen's Park, Chester, 1911 Census, aged 44, with wife, 5 children, sister-in-law, niece and nephew; Director and Chief Engineer, Lisbon electric tramways system; died at Lisbon, 21 October 1913; married at Oxton or Birkenhead, in 1894, Evelyn Annie BAGNALL; with issue:
    i.  Doris Mary GILES, born at Blackburn, 10 November 1898; aged 15, with parents, 1911; died Yeovil, 1985.
    ii.  Evelyn Frances GILES, born at Blackburn, 10 November 1898; aged 12, with parents, 1911; died Hants, 2003.
    iii.  Arthur Leonard Sharman GILES, born at Blackburn, 14 April 1904; aged 6, with parents, 1911.
    iv.  Enid Hope GILES, born at Capetown, 20 December 1906; aged 4, with parents, 1911; died at Chichester, 2004; married in China, 1930's, Brian Thomas FLANAGAN, with issue.
    v.  Edith Helen GILES, born at Capetown, 30 March 1908, aged 3, with parents, 1911.
  h.  Archibald Waring GILES, born 31 January 1869, and baptised 28 February; Insurance Broker, Ontario and British Columbia; died about 1929; married at Barrie, Ontario, 3 February 1893, Gracie Mary CAMPBELL (daughter of Colonel John Hay CAMPBELL); with issue:
    i.  Winifred Catherine GILES, born at Barrie, Ontario, 1894.
    ii.  Hildegarde Grace Campbell GILES, born at Barrie, 1895.
    iii.  Barbara Mary Campbell GILES, born in Canada, 1900.
  j.  Gustave Theophilus GILES, born 8 February 1871, and baptised 8 March; Madras Railways; died at Madura, India, 24 January 1914; unmarried.
  k.  Emily Frances GILES, born 20 March 1872, and baptised 28 April; aged 39, Teacher of Music and Governor of the Queen's School, at home with her mother, 1911 Census; at 8 Abbey Square, Chester, 1939 Register, Music Teacher; she died in 1957; unmarried.
  m. Harold Eustace GILES, born 29 January 1874, and baptised at Eccleston, Cheshire, 5 April; buried at Putney Vale Cemetery, Wandsworth, Surrey, 7 March 1921.
  n.  Hilda Mary GILES, born 24 August 1877 and baptised 30 September; boarding at St George's Hall, Vincent Square, Westminster, 1911 Census, aged 33, Assistant Schoolmistress at St Saviour's and St Olave's School; at 8 Abbey Square, Chester, 1939 Register, Headmistress of Private School; she died in 1957; unmarried.

9. Theodora GILES, born in Lancashire, 1837.
________________________________________________


ELIZABETH MARY GILES.

(Elizabeth) Mary GILES, born at Dartmouth, about 1801; mentioned by her sister M. Eliza, about 1804; at New Kent Road, Islington, 1851 Census, aged 50, Married, born Dartmouth, with her probable step-daughter Ellen GRAY, aged 19 (her husband, Ellen's father, was absent); she was probably buried at Rusholme Road Cemetery, Chorlton near Manchester, in 1858.
Mary married at St Dunstan's in the West, London, on 28 January 1835, Thomas Nicholas GRAY, a widower, the marriage being witnessed by her siblings Martha and Samuel GILES and his daughter Ellen GRAY; he was probably born at Southwark, 1796, son of John GRAY, Ropemaker, by his wife Caroline; he had married firstly, at Whitechapel St Mary, in January 1821, Mary Ann SIMPSON (she was buried at Whitechapel St Mary, 9 July 1832, just after their daughter Ellen was born); he was at Whitecross St Luke, County Middlesex, 1861 Census, aged 65, a widower, assistant Oil Man, born Southwark.
________________________________________________


JOHN GILES.

 John GILES, born at Dartmouth, about February 1803; died there, March 1805, aged 2 years and 1 month; said to have been buried inside the Particular Baptist Chapel in Dartmouth, but this appears somewhat improbable.
_______________________________________________


JOHN EUSTACE GILES.


John Eustace GILES, born at Dartmouth, 20 April 1805.
See his separate blog-page, entitled "Reverend John Eustace GILES, Baptist Minister" and posted in July 2008, at this link:
http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/reverend-john-eustace-giles-baptist.html
_______________________________________________

MARTHA PIKE GILES.

Martha GILES, born at Dartmouth, about 1805 (1841 Census) or 1818 (1851 Census); living with her mother at Preston, 1841 Census, aged 30+; residing at Matley, Cheshire, 1851 Census, aged 32 (sic), with husband Thomas, a Master Printer (Calico), aged 30 (sic), born West Indies; she died at West Derby, Lancashire, 1867; as Martha Pike GILES, Spinster of 13 Brownlow Road, she was married, by Banns, at the parish church of St Mary's, Haggerston, by the Curate John OWEN, on 5 October 1847, to Thomas PARKER, Gent, of 13 Brownlow Road (witnessed by Spencer P. HALL, Ellen GRAY and Elizabeth Mary GRAY), the was the only surviving son of the late George McKenzie and Eliza M. PARKER of Clarendon, Jamaica [Manchester Times, 23 October 1847] - the marriage registered at Shoreditch, London.
Thomas may have emigrated to America, and was possibly involved with the Mineral Point Mining Company, Wisconsin, of which his late wife's nephew, Eustace John COOPER, was President.
_______________________________________________


SAMUEL GILES.


Samuel GILES was born at Dartmouth, 31 October 1809; he was a play-mate and some-time school-mate of the young Charles DICKENS during his time in Chatham; and his brother's early education at Chatham, he followed in the footsteps of both of his elder brothers at the HINTON Academy in Oxford.
And by the early 1830's, he had embarked upon his career as a Cotton Printer in Manchester.

In August 1834, Samuel Birt GILES withdrew from his partnership with Joseph POPE and John HIGGIN, Calico Printers of Horwich Vale Printworks, Manchester and Lad Lane, London - this is the only reference we find in the records of Samuel using this middle name of "Birt" (probably derived from the family name of BIRT - Rev Isaiah BIRT had baptised his father William GILES into the Baptist fold in 1796; and his son Rev John BIRT was Pastor of the Baptist Congregation at York Street, Manchester, where the LEESE family of his future wife Mary were members).
In April 1836, Samuel was appointed to the Committee of Management of the Manchester General Cemetery, which was due to open for interments in July 1837, on Rochdale Road just north of Queen's Park, near Harpurhey, and of which his father-in-law, Joseph LEESE, was the Treasurer.
Later that month, on 26 April 1836, he was elected to membership of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester; and on 1 May 1837, he was appointed as one of two secretaries of the Manchester City Mission, of which his now brother-in-law and business partner, James Francis WATCHURST, was a superintendent.
Samuel had formed another partnership, with John NUTTAL and his brother-in-law James Francis WATCHURST, as Calico Printers, Manchester; they prosecuted John FISHER for bankruptcy in July 1837, and John BATELY likewise in November 1838; Samuel withdrew from this firm, trading under the style of NUTTAL, GILES and WATCHURST, of Bread Street, Manchester, on 23 April 1840.

Samuel was recorded as residing at Stony Knoll, Manchester, in 1838, when he was signatory to a request for the Borough Reeve and Magistrates to convene a public meeting to consider the propriety of petitioning the Queen in Council for a Charter of Incorporation; Manchester had long been denied civic rights as punishment for supporting the Parliamentary side during the Civil War, and the manorial rights were still preserved, under the old feudal arrangements, within the MOSLEY family.

Samuel was residing at Great Cheetham Street, Broughton, on Census night in 1841 Census, aged 30+, with wife Mary and their four children.
He was Directory listed as a Calico and Mousseline de Laine Printer and Commission Agent, 32 George Street, Manchester, 1842-43, house at Devonshire Street, Higher Ardwick.

In October 1843, Samuel's old play-mate and now well-known author Charles DICKENS visited Manchester, to address the Grand Soiree for the Athaneum, to be held at the Free Trade all on 5 October 1843. On the evening before, the 4th, a meeting was arranged between DICKENS and the two joint Honorary Secretaries of the Athaneum, Edward WATKIN and Peter BERLYN; this meeting was arranged by Samuel GILES with DICKENS's sister Fanny, now married to Henry BURNETT and living at 3 Elm Terrace, Higher Ardwick; Samuel accompanied the 2 gentlemen to the meeting, in the BURNETT's drawing room; but when Samuel hinted that DICKENS himself might usefully appeal to the audience for financial contributions, one of the Honorary Secretaries objected that it would be unfair to DICKENS to make such a marketable commodity of him, to which DICKENS agreed.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 2 March 1844, a fire broke out in the basement of No 9 George Street, Manchester; it took hold, and destroyed the whole city block bounded by George, York, and Pine Streets, and the churchyard of St James's Church; Samuel's premises, then known as No 13 George Street, were destroyed in the fire, although he was insured for losses estimated at £3,000.

When he informed the Registrar of his mother's death in July 1844, he recorded himself as Commission Agent of Manchester and London, residing at Bowden, Cheshire; and in May 1845, he was of North Cheshire, when he addressed a meeting of the Anti-Maynooth conference in London.
Later, in October 1845, he was named among published lists as a Director of both the Manchester-Rugby Direct Railway Company and the Sheffield-Macclesfield Direct Railway Coy, as well as a member of the provisional committee of the Lyme Regis and Taunton Railway and Lyme Regis Harbour Improvement Company (together with his brother-in-law Mr J.J. GODFREY of Liverpool).

In May 1849, Samuel attended the testimonial presentation held in the Mayor's Parlour at Manchester Town Hall to mark the occasion of his eldest brother William's 50th birthday; Samuel spoke highly of his brother:
"...my beloved brother...
"I stand, ladies and gentlemen, in a particular position which no-one else in this room occupies - in the two-fold relation of a brother and a former pupil. For when my brother returned from Oxford, and commenced his professional career, I was entrusted by my late revered and honoured father to his care for my education, and to him I am mainly, if not wholly indebted for the education I received, and for any thirst for knowledge I now possess, ...nearly thirty years ago.
"...it is s great solace to my mind to have my own dear boy now under his care..."
Samuel went on to relate his memories of the time when the young Charles DICKENS entered their lives:
"I could not hear that letter from Mr Charles DICKENS read, without going back in memory to the time when, for some years, I was honoured by being his play-fellow, and almost daily companion, and for some time his school-fellow, when he evinced, young as he was, the germs and buds of those noble, manly, generous qualities of head and heart which he has industriously displayed in all his writings.
"...as an illustration of what the man is, ...when, some years ago, Mr DICKENS came down to Manchester to preside at the annual soiree of our Athaneum, he declined, as his stay was necessarily short, all the numerous invitations he received from the nobility and gentry of this neighbourhood; there was, however, one invitation which he accepted, and that was from his old school-fellow who now addresses you, in order that he might at my house meet his old school-master, to whom he and you have so kindly presented this handsome testimonial (Applause)."
[Extracts from the Manchester Times, Tuesday 22 May 1849.]

Despite, or perhaps I should say notwithstanding all of the above, it was reported, in a footnote to the biographical index to "Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library, 1741-1845," edited by Timothy WHALEN, and published in Georgia, U.S., 2003, and at page 391, that:
"For a brief time during 1842, all three GILES's, William Senior, William Junior, and Samuel, all lived in or near Manchester. In fact, in 1843, William Junior and Samuel entertained DICKENS at William's home at Ardwick Green."
Perhaps this was a second DICKENS visit, separate from the meeting Samuel had arranged in association with the grand Soiree for the Athaneum, in October 1843? Unless WHALEN was confusing the details.

Samuel was probably residing at Burgess Terrace, Hyde Road, Ardwick, on census night, 1851, with 5 children; unfortunately, the enumerator's schedules have since been water-damaged, and so formal confirmation is no longer possible - however, on the top of the next page, his three youngest children, Emily GILES (aged 10), Alfred (aged 4) and Ada L. (aged 2) were each recorded as daughter or son of the Head of the Household; and as we know that his wife Mary GILES and their second daughter Maria were absent on Census night (and recorded as visitors at her father's house at Bowden, Cheshire), then it stands to reason that the three lines of undecipherable entries at the bottom of the previous page, for the same family group numbered 27 on the schedule, were probably for Samuel himself, then aged about 41, and his two elder children Mary Leese GILES (aged 18) and Samuel Junior (aged 14).

In July 1851, Charles CLEMENTS, Engraver, prosecuted his suit in the Manchester County Court against Samuel GILES for the recovery of £16 10s costs in engraving four print rollers for Samuel's Print Works, but which had been delivered late, and had been rejected as unusable. Samuel's defence was summarised in the local Press [Manchester Times, 9 July 1855] as follows:
"...After saying how greatly he had been surprised at receiving a county court summons now for the first time in his life, after having been 21 years in the business, without appearing either as plaintiff or defendant, [GILES] said that had he done justice to himself and the trade at large he should certainly have made an example of the Plaintiff by bringing an action for damages, which he is confident he could have recovered before any jury, for the very serious pecuniary losses which had resulted from the dilatoriness and un-business-like conduct of the Plaintiff in this matter.
"His business was a Season business, and his Spring goods would be out of the market  if not printed by about the end of January; but in this instance, he had not obtained the rollers until 4 Feb'y, although the job the Plaintiff had to do was one which could be done with ease in about 4 days by any respectable engraver (the order had been placed in late December); and when he sent them, the men at his Works found that they would not fit."
What Samuel's men had found was that the second, third and fourth roller patterns, for different colour inks, did not accurately overlay the base print of the first colour, and that they had not been etched in the correct printing sequence anyway (I'm not entirely sure as to how this last deficiency manifested itself - but evidently the rollers were not interchangeable within the printing machinery).

Samuel was Superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School, Stalybridge, June 1855; on 2 June, he accompanied a large group of 150 the members, their parents and friends on a picnic to Wortly, and as they awaited the return train at Wortly, it was reported that they were accosted by a young collier, who was afterwards prosecuted for his use of offensive or obscene language in front of the group of home-ward bound young Baptists.

Samuel was at Eastwood Terrace, Mottram Road, Stalybridge, Cheshire, on census night, 1861, aged 52, Commission Agent and Cotton Broker, with his second wife Margaret and his five daughters, two of them by his earlier marriage, and the three younger daughters by Margaret FLETCHER.

In October 1854, Samuel delivered a lecture for the Stalybridge Sunday School Union, at the Particular Baptist School at Leech Street, on the subject of growing plants in closely glazed (or Wardian) cases; the lecture proved very popular, and several requests led to him being invited to repeat it, firstly at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, on 9 January 1855, and secondly, "... in order that the subject might benefit the working classes," at the Royal Institute of Manchester, on 2 February 1855 [Manchester Times, Tuesday 27 January and 7 February].

In 1866-67, Samuel was involved in a case that was heard in the Nisi Prius Court in Manchester, brought on by Messrs PANDORF, KREMELBERG and Company, of New Orleans, New York and Mobile, to recover damages from J.P. and E. WESTHEAD, of Manchester, for their:
"...non-acceptance of 100 bales of cotton which they had contracted to purchase, through the Agency of Samuel GILES, a Commission Agent in Manchester, the order having been given to GILES on 17 November 1865 by Walter WESTHEAD, the junior partner."

Samuel died at 76 Chorlton Road, Manchester, 25 March 1869; he was buried on 30 March, by Rev W.M. McKERROW, in his family plot, grave 8584, in Rusholme Road Cemetery, Chorlton-on-Medlock, from Stretford, aged 60 years, cause of death "... consumption" [Burial Register, Findmypast]. A death notice was published in the Manchester Courier, on Saturday 17 March. His will was proved in Manchester by his executors, Margaret GILES, of 4 Beechmount, Old Trafford, the Widow, and Joseph LEESE of Glenfield, Altrincham, Cheshire, Manufacturer.

[The GILES plot in the old Rusholme Road Cemetery lies in this part of present-day Gartside Gardens.
Photographed in December 2012 by Helen GILES of London.]

Samuel was a Calico Printer of Horwich, Parish of Dean, Lancashire, when he was married firstly, at Manchester Collegiate Church, on 29 March 1832, to Mary LEESE (the eldest daughter of Joseph LEESE, Cotton Merchant in Manchester, by Ann HARRISON).


[Image of the Manchester Collegiate Church Register, courtesy of the P.R.O., London,
by arrangement with Ancestry.Library edition.]

Mary died at Stoke Newington, on 17 March 1852, and was buried in the family plot at Rusholme Road Cemetery.

Samuel and Mary had issue:

1. Mary Leese GILES, born at Harwich, Lancashire, 12 February 1832, and with her parents, 1841; with father and step-mother, 1861; witnessed her grandfather's will, December 1861, and made further oath at H.M.'s Court of Probate, Chester, on 24 March 1862, then a Spinster of Stockport, Cheshire, concerning an error in the date on the signed will; she was residing with her step-mother, 1871; at Kook Vicarage, Surrey, 1911; she died at Upleatham, Yorkshire, 20 September 1919, unmarried.

2. Maria GILES, born at Manchester, 16 May 1835; with her parents, 1841; along with her mother, 1851, residing with her grandfather Joseph LEESE Senior; died at Manchester, 17 September 1852, aged 17 years [Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Saturday 25 September], and buried on 23 September by Rev J. ASH, in the family plot, Rusholme Road Cemetery, cause of death "... consumption" [Burial Register, Findmypast].

3. Samuel GILES Junior, born at Great Cheetham Street, Higher Broughton, Manchester, 31 December 1836; with parents, 1841; with father at Burgess Terrace, 1851; joint Hon. Sec. of the Stalybridge Philharmonic Society, 1856 (unless instead his father); with his GODFREY aunt and uncle, 1861, aged 24, Merchant; a Cotton Merchant in Manchester, London and India; he was at Inglewood, Wellington Road, Heaton Norris, Cheshire, 1881 Census, aged 44, Manufacturer's Cashier, with his second wife, his daughter and three sons, and their two infant daughters; at 86 Tyrwhitt Street, Deptford St Paul, 1891 Census, aged 54, Secretary to a Public Company, with second wife Mary, his son and daughter and their daughter; at 6 Westgate Road, Beckenham, Kent, 1901 Census, aged 64, Secretary to a Public Coy, with his second wife Mary, their 2 daughters, and a grand-daughter (Enid GILES, aged 1); he died at 6 Westgate Road, Beckenham, Kent, on 31 October 1903, Registered at Bromley, December quarter [Volume 2a, page 283], and was buried at Brockley Cemetery, Lewisham [M.I.]


Samuel married firstly, at Bombay Cathedral, 1 December 1862, his cousin Anne Eliza GODFREY; she died at Le Havre, 23 May 1872, aged 39 years [Daily News, Tuesday 27 May 1873; details also recorded on her husband's M.I., Brockley Cemetery]; issue:
  a.  Samuel Godfrey Leese GILES, born at Kurachee, India, 16 October 1863; Decorator and House Furnisher, and Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer, of London; died at Cobham, Surrey, 1938.


Samuel was married at Sunbury-on-Thames, 17 November 1887, to Emily Ann MORGAN; she was with her son Eric, 1939 Register, born 30 October 1864, Widow, Private Means; they had issue:
    i.  Gwladys Mary GILES, born at New Malden, Surrey, 13 Nov 1888; at 5 Wickliffe Avenue, Finchley, Middlesex, 1939 register, with husband; bequest of £100 in her uncle Bertram Sands GILES's will, 1951; died at North Walsham, Norfolk, December quarter 1969; she married St Mary, Harrow, Msx, 30 May 1914, Stanley Rowsell MASTERS; he was with his wife, 1939 Register, born 26 September 1884, Bank manager, married; he died at Norwich, September quarter 1969; they had issue - Marjorie Enid MASTERS, born at Hendon, Middlesex, March quarter 1916 (she married Alfred Howard CUTTINGS in Surrey in 1939, and died in Cambridgeshire on 25 Nov 1958, leaving issue); Peter Rowsell MASTERS, born at Kingston-upon-Thames on 10 April 1921 (he emigrated to Australia in 1948, taught briefly at St Peter's College, Adelaide, and at The King's School, Parramatta, before settling in Melbourne as an Academic and Consultant; he died at Caloundra, Queensland, in 2000, survived by his wife Gwendolen Mary FINNY, who died in 2007, and three sons, two of whom were born in England and returned there to live).
    ii.  Godfrey Morgan GILES, born in Surrey, 1892; Royal Fusiliers, W.W.1, awarded M.C.; Decorating Contractor; at 29 St James's Place, Westminster, 1939 Register, Contractor (Partner), Territorial Army (Colonel), unmarried, with an older housekeeper; bequest of £100 in his uncle Bertram Sands GILES's will, 1951; Colonel, Territorial Army, 1955; a Bugatti afficionado.
    iii. Enid Dorothy GILES, born at Wimbledon, 9 April 1899; at Tylston Lodge, Liphook, Petersfield, Hampshire, 1939 Register, Domestic Duties, Married, with husband; died at Liphook, 1950; married Athol LOCKET; he was with wife, 1939, born 29 May 1874, Engineer and Tea Planter, with two female servants, evidently Ceylonese.
    iv.  Eric Leese GILES, born at Wimbledon, 6 March 1901; Decorating Contractor, London; at Anningsley Cottage, Brox Road, Chertsey, Surrey, 1939 Register, Partner in Godfrey GILES and Coy, Contractor and Furnisher, A.F.S. Woking, with wife, son and mother; bequest of £100 in his uncle Bertram Sands GILES's will, 1951; died 30 April 1987; married 1929, Eileen HAMBLIN; she was with her husband, 1939, born 8 September 1905, Unpaid Domestic Duties, W.V.S., Addlestone; she died in 1985, aged 80; issue - sons John Godfrey GILES (born 1931; died 2009) and Michael Leese GILES (born 24 November 1934; with parents in 1939 Register; died in 2003).
  b. Arthur Edward GILES, born at Colaba, Bombay, 22 December 1864 [Allen's Indian Mail, 21 January 1865]; a distinguished Gynaecologist; he died at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, 26 December 1935, late of 47 Wimpole Street, Marylebone, and of The Elms, Welwyn.


Arthur was married at St John's Parish Church, Deptford, on 8 July 1898, to Mary Hartree TINDALL (daughter of Albert Alfred TINDALL, Publisher), the wedding witnessed by, among others, Bertram S. GILES and Samuel GILES; she died at Broad Oak, Heathfield, Sussex, 28 September 1962, late of Downside, Kingston near Lewes; no issue.
  c.  Annie Gertrude GILES, born at Breach Candy, Bombay, 24 March 1866 [Allen's Indian Mail, 23 April].
  d.  Mary Eliza GILES, born at Peel Street, Prince's Park, 8 April 1867 [Liverpool Mercury, 10 April]; she died in 1940; she was married at St George's, Penny Hill, Catford, in 1901, to William Rowland LOOSE (baptised at Catthorpe, Leicestershire, 19 July 1857, son of James and Eliza LOOSE); they had issue:
    i.  Marjorie Rowland LOOSE; died in 1995; married in 1939, her widower brother-in-law Philip Lawrence JONES.
    ii.  Gertrude Noel Rowland LOOSE; died 1in 938; married at Lewisham, London, 1927, Philip Lawrence JONES; he died at Bromley, Kent, 1987, aged 86.
  e.  Bertram Sands GILES, born at Bandora Hill, Bombay, 31 January 1869 [Allen's Indian Mail, 3 March 1869]; Electrical Engineer; went to N.S.W. in late 1914 or early 1915; lived at "Holm Brae," Vaucluse Road, Vaucluse; left a detailed pedigree of the GILES family.


Bertram died at Rose Bay, 6 February 1952; he married firstly, in Chorlton, Lancashire, June quarter 1903, Jane Emily (Nita) RIDDELL of Carolside, Didsbury, Lancashire; she died at "Montrose," Mulgrave Road, Sutton (near Cheam Railway Station), Surrey, 16 April 1907, aged 31, and was buried at Sutton Cemetery on 19 April; issue:
    i.  Donald Riddell GILES; born at Chorlton, Lancashire, September quarter 1904; went to N.S.W. with his father; a Wool-classer; drowned at Vaucluse, Sydney Harbour, 31 October 1939; unmarried.
Bertram married secondly, at St Marylebone, Middlesex, June quarter 1914, Marjorie LITTLE (born St Leonards, 1888, daughter of Robert LITTLE of St Leonards and Elizabeth Millar TORRANCE, formerly of Dumfries); she died at 18 Vaucluse Road, Rose Bay, 6 March 1932; further issue:
    ii.  Welwyn GILES; born at Darlinghurst, Sydney, 11 August 1915; died at Bowral, N.S.W., 15 August 2012, aged 97; married November 1938, Gordon Avon HAY; he died before her; no issue.
Bertram married thirdly, at Vaucluse, 21 April 1941, his second cousin Ellen Corbett PIGOTT, the widow of Walter ADAMS.
  f.  Walter Edmund GILES, born at Le Havre, 16 March 1870; a Stock Broker; at 29 Worscester Road, Sutton and Cheam, Surrey, 1939 Register, Stockbroker, Married, with wife and sister-in-law; he died at Cedar Court Nursing Home, Cedar Road, Sutton, 27 January 1941, late of 29 Worcester Road, Sutton, and of 125 Old Broad Street, London; he married at St John's Parish Church, Deptford, 1 September 1896, Edith May SAMPSON (born 19 May 1872, daughter of John SAMPSON, Tailor), the wedding witnessed, among others, by Mary Elizabeth GILES; she died at 29 Worcester Road, Sutton, on 10 March 1944, a widow; no issue.


Samuel was married secondly, at the Red Hill Wesleyan Chapel, on 13 November 1877, to Mary Elizabeth DAWSON; she died at 35 St John's Road, Putney, on 16 August 1936 [M.I., Brockley Cemetery], a widow, probate granted to Walter Edmund GILES (step-son), Stockbroker, Caroline Carlton GERE (daughter) and Margaret Noel GILES (daughter); by her he had further issue:
  g. Catherine Dawson GILES, born in Lewisham, Kent, 1878; aged 22, with parents, 1901 Census; aged 32, with widowed mother, 1911 Census; bequest of £250 in her half brother Bertram Sands GILES's will, 1951.
  h.  Caroline Carlton GILES, born at Greenwich, 1880; aged 21, with parents, 1901 Census; aged 31, with widowed mother, 1911 Census; same bequest as her sister, 1951; she died at Holybourne, Alton, Hampshire, 15 July 1955; she married in 1914, Edward Arnold GERE (born Cheltenham, 9 November 1873, son of Edward William GERE and Mary Catherine COOKSEY); he died at Alton, Hants, 20 October 1956; issue:
          i. John Arthur Giles GERE, born 7 October 1921; Winchester School and Balliol College, Oxon; bequest of £100 in Bertram GILE's will, 1951; Art Historian; Curator, British Museum; died in London, 11 January 1995; married with 2 children.
  j. Margaret Noel GILES, born at Stockport, Lancashire, March quarter 1883 [Volume 8a, page 37]; aged 8, with her parents, 1891 Census; aged 28, with her widowed mother, 1911 Census; same bequest as her sister, 1951; she died at Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1967.

4. Emily Gertrude GILES, born at Manchester, 1840; died at Manchester, 1882, unmarried.

5. Alfred GILES, born at Bowdon, Cheshire, 1846, second son; died while skating, 16 February 1860, aged 13, and buried on 21 February, by Rev John ASH, in the family plot, Rusholme Road Cemetery, from Staleybridge, cause of death "... drowning" [Burial Register, Findmypast].

6. Ada Leese GILES, born at Bowdon, 1848; married at Leeds, 1878, Alfred BRAITHWAITE, a Miniature Painter and Portrait Artist; issue:
  a.  Ada Kathleen BRAITHWAITE, born in Leeds, 1879.
  b.  Mary Elizabeth BRAITWAITE, born in Surrey, 1882.
  c.  Rachel BRAITHWAITE, born in Middlesex, 1889.

Samuel was of Matley Vale Printworks when he was married secondly, at Rawcliffe Church, near Goole, Yorkshire, on 10 August 1853, to Margaret FLETCHER (eldest daughter of the late Joseph FLETCHER, Esq, of Rawcliffe).


Margaret died at Leeds, 27 March 1897; by her Samuel had further issue, all three baptised at St Michael's, Headingly, Leeds (Marythorn Ecclesiastical District), on 24 February 1871:

7. Edith Stephanie Fletcher GILES, born at Ashton, 14 January 1856; aged 5, with parents, 1861 Census; School Teacher; aged 50, with her widowed sister-in-law Mary GILES, at Beckenham, Kent, 1911 Census; at Bernard Lodge, Waise Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, 1939 Register, Teacher and Collector, Retired; living at Malvern, 1940; she died at Bernard's Lodge, Malvern Wells, Warwickshire, 3 April 1942, with probate granted to Constance Margaret HARTNELL (niece) and Arthur George WITHINGTON (nephew); unmarried.

8. Elizabeth Margaret Turnbull GILES, born at Stalybridge, Cheshire, 11 September 1857; aged 3, with parents, 1861 Census; at Clysgarth, King Edward Road, Malvern, 1939 Register, Private Means, Widow, with a housekeeper; she died at Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, 4 November 1939; married at All Soul's Church, Leeds, 6 October 1886, Wilson HARTNELL, Civil Engineer; he died at Roundhay, Leeds, November 1920; issue:
  a.  Cuthbert HARTNELL, born at Leeds, 1887, and killed-in-action at Ypres, 16 July 1915.
  b.  Constance Margaret HARTNELL, born at Leeds, 1889; proved her mother's will, 1939.

9. Agnes Ellen Scott GILES, born at Stalybridge, Cheshire, 23 November 1858; aged 2, with parents, 1861 Census; at 18 west Avenue, Saltburn and Marske by Sea, Yorkshire North Riding, 1939 Register, Domestic Duties, Widow, with son; she died at Saltburn-by-Sea, July 1952; she married at Burley, Yorkshire, 1 June 1882, as his second wife, Rev Richard Marsden WITHINGTON, M.A., Rector of Balbey near Doncaster, and after of Upleatham; he died at Upleatham Vicarage, 1922; issue:
  a.  Arthur George WITHINGTON, born at Doncaster, 3 June 1883; with mother, 1939, Engineering Draftsman, not yet married; died London, 1959, married Frances JELLICOE; no issue.
  b.  Reginald M. (Rex) WITHINGTON, born at Great Ayton, Yorkshire, 1885; Farmer in Alberta, Canada; died at Alberta, 1956; no issue.
  c.  Dennis Marsden WITHINGTON, born at Great Ayton, Yorkshire, 3 November 1888; at 1, The Oval, West Hartlepool, Durham, 1939 Register, Coke Oven Manager in Steelworks, Married, with wife and son; married in 1917, Evelyn CORNER (born 31 March 1887); with issue, including a son - Peter D.M. WITHINGTON, born 23 July 1921, a Junior Clerk Assisting, Articles with Accountant, with parents, 1939.
  d.  Richard Eric WITHINGTON, born 1891; went to Alberta, Canada; died in Alberta, 1973, s.p.

1 comment:

catharina clement said...

Of interest to you may be a pamphlet war between Giles sen & John Cundill, the Unitarian minister of Chatham in 1817/1818, which started at Giles ordination service.

Giles jnr had a school at 15 Gibraltar Place, Chatham (Pigott Directory 1824)-this is often disputed location.

If you are interested in titles of the above tracts and locations please email me catharina.clement16@outlook.com