| Home Page | Root Page | Census Records | GRO Records | Parish Records | Names Directory |
Ada Susannah Woodhurst was born in 1858 to parents Richard William (1) Woodhurst (RWW) and his first wife Susannah. Her birth certificate [Birth Index: Shoreditch 1c 193, 1859 (March)] states that she was born on December 4th 1858 at her parents' home which was then 23, Mill Row, Shoreditch, and it cites RWW's occupation at that time as a "willow bonnet blocker", referring to the making and/or using of wooden blocks for the sizing and shaping of bonnets.
She was christened on December 29th 1858 at the Christ Church in Hoxton [IGI Batch C037611].
The 1871 Census finds her at age "12" living at 18, Blanchard Road in the London Fields area of Hackney - the home of James Cooke Taylor with whom her mother Susannah was then living as common-law wife.
In 1877 she gave birth to an illegitimate child Ernest William Taylor Woodhurst, whose father may have been some member of the Taylor family.
In 1881 she was living at 17, Blanchard Road, occupied as a boot machinist. However, the above-mentioned child is nowhere to be found in this Census, perhaps having been discreetly concealed from officialdom.
Her future husband was Frederick Walter (1) Weldon, born in 1847 [Birth Index: Poplar 2 311, 1847 (June) - indexed as "Welldon"].
Ada Susannah and Frederick Walter (1) married on August 27th 1882 at the Unitarians' London Domestic Mission Chapel in Holborn, London. The marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Holborn 1b 1208, 1882 (Sept)] describes her as a spinster aged "23" and her husband as a bachelor and carpenter aged "34" living at 181, Lever Street in Holborn, being the son of a deceased seaman Frederick Weldon. She was living nearby at 13, St. Clements, Lever Street (St. Clements was the name of a church in Lever Street). The witnesses were H. Taylor and M.A. Taylor, presumably relatives of James Cooke Taylor. On the certificate Ada Susannah described her father RWW as a deceased railway guard, an erroneous account suggesting that she had no first-hand knowledge of her father or his situation, for at that time he was very much alive and occupied as a hatter some miles away. RWW had left the family home when she was less than four years old. Her mother may have told her that he had died rather than admit that their marriage had in fact disintegrated. It is curious that Ada Susannah thought his occupation had been a railway guard. Forty years previously, when he married Susannah, RWW had indeed been a railway conductor for a brief period. Perhaps at some earlier time she had seen, in her mother's possession, the certificate of that marriage and had always assumed thereafter that he had continued working on the railways. Or, she may have remembered once being told that RWW was a railwayman when he married her mother. When she was supplying his details to the officiator of her own wedding in 1882, her mother may not have been immediately to hand to verify them. Or, her mother may have deliberately furnished the erroneous description for purposes of her own. We shall probably never know the fine details of these delicate family matters.
The 1891 Census finds Frederick Walter (1) among a large number of "sick patients" in the Holborn Union Workhouse Infirmary in Upper Holloway, Islington. He is described as a builder aged "42" born in Poplar. Ada Susannah was meanwhile living at 1, Westmoreland House, City Road in St. Luke Parish, Holborn. The census record misspells her surname as "Welden" and describes her as aged "33", born in St. Luke Parish, married and head-of-household. With her were four children fathered by her husband. Her preceding illegitimate child Ernest William was then living (or at least staying) with her mother Susannah at 17, Blanchard Road.
The 1901 Census finds Ada with her husband and seven children living at 52, Glendish Road in Tottenham. He is described as a carpenter aged "51" and born in Poplar, and she as aged "42" and born in Hackney. Their youngest child Henry James, then aged "1", is recorded in the schedule as "deaf and dumb".
Frederick Walter (1) died aged "62" in 1911 [Death Index: Islington 1b 359, 1911 (Dec)]. He was buried on October 25th in the Chingford Mount Cemetery, Waltham Forest [Section B9, Grave No. 89580].
Ada died aged "70" in 1929 [Death Index: Islington 1b 405, 1929 (March)] and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Hackney. The cemetery records name her fully as "Ada Susannah Weldon" and confirms her age 70. She was buried on March 14th 1929 in Section C04 as Burial No. 149606 [Abney Park Cemetery Indexing Project: Source Register Index 7S14].