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Charles (2) Woodhurst was born in 1862 to parents Richard William (1) Woodhurst (RWW) and his first wife Susannah Miller. His birth certificate [Birth Index: Shoreditch 1c 221, 1862 (June)] shows that he was born at his parents' residence 11, Essex Place in Haggerston, Shoreditch on March 1st 1862. RWW was the informant and cited his occupation as straw hat maker. The birth was not registered until six weeks later, on April 11th 1862.
Essex Place was situated behind the northern side of, and about half way along, Hackney Road (which joins the Kingsland Road at the latter's southern end) and was reached from Hackney Road through an arched alleyway.
The subsequent life history of Charles (2) is almost entirely unknown, and its determination remains one of the most difficult and enduring problems in this Woodhurst tree. Intense efforts to find him in the online Census indexes from 1871 up to 1901 have not yielded any plausible candidates for him.
It may be that when RWW left Susannah in 1862, Charles (2) was passed to some other family and thereby acquired a new name. Or, he may have simply assumed some other name by his own choice.
He is conjectured to have been the father of Marcella May Woodhurst, born in Shoreditch in 1890. On this child's birth certificate the parents are named clearly as "Charles Woodhurst" and "Annie Woodhurst formerly Riley", but no marriage for these - allowing for diverse surname variants over the period 1878-1890 - has been found in the GRO marriage index. There are no feasible candidates other than Charles (2) for the "Charles Woodhurst" named as Marcella May's father.
The 1871 Census possibly finds Annie living at 19, Leverton Street in Kentish Town, St. Pancras and working as a servant in the household of Caroline Prentice, an unmarried dressmaker with two daughters. This girl's age is given as "15" and her birthplace as St. Pancras. Annie may have been related to the Thomas Riley whom the 1871 Census finds living at 25, Prince's Terrace in Kentish Town. He was a railway clerk and - like his wife Rosa - was born in Ireland. He and Rosa had with them two daughters Marcella (aged "11") and Mary (aged "2") both born in St. Pancras. The GRO birth reference for Mary may be [Birth Index: Pancras 1b 125, 1868 (March)].
Marcella May was born at 28, Flemming Street (near the Kingsland Road) in Haggerston, and the occupation of her father "Charles Woodhurst" is given on her birth certificate as "blacksmith (harnessman)". The 1891 Census for Flemming Street lists the house numbers only up to No. 26, and discloses no apparently relevant persons residing in that street or in those neighbouring it.
Marcella May may have been the accidental product of a brief liaison between Annie and Charles (2). What is certain is that by early 1891 Annie was living with a man named William Henry Hurst. It is wholly coincidental that his surname is a suffix of "Woodhurst". The 1891 Census finds Annie at age "31" living at Stanley House in Stanley Road, Leyton, Essex. She was the head of household and described as a widowed housekeeper born in St. Pancras. With her was William Henry Hurst, described as her brother-in-law and as an unmarried engine smith aged "39" born in London's Cripplegate. Also present were two "sons" George Charles Richard Hurst (aged "11") and Charles William Hurst (aged "9") - both born in St. Pancras - and a girl "Marcella May Wood Hurst" aged 11 months and born in Shoreditch. The record suggests that all three children were Annie's, but that she had reason to insert the word "Wood" only into Marcella's name. No definite GRO birth references have yet been found for the boys.
About a year later Annie married William Henry Hurst. The marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Pancras 1b 253, 1892 (June)] states that they married on May 25th 1892 at the Pancras Register Office. It names her as "Annie Wood Hurst" and describes her as a widow aged 32 whose father Michael Riley was a chimney cleaner. William Henry is described as a bachelor and blacksmith aged 40 whose father George (1) was an engine smith. The bride signed her name as "Annie W. Hurst". By this device she seems to have been contriving to acknowledge an earlier Woodhurst association whilst presenting herself as a Hurst. Their joint address is given as 8, Little George Street. The witnesses were R. Clark and Mary Eliza Clark. This couple were Richard William Clark and Mary Eliza (nee Hazel) who had married in 1873 [Marriage Index: Pancras 1b 57, 1873 (Dec)]. Both the 1881 and 1891 Censuses find them living with their children at 8, Little George Street where Richard, born in St. Luke's, was occupied as a blacksmith.
It is suspected that Annie's father was the Michael Riley described on this page.
The 1901 Census finds Annie with William Henry and the same three children living at 1, Pendleston Road in Walthamstow where he was still occupied as an engine smith. Marcella May, now aged "10", is here named simply as "Marcella M. Hurst". The two sons were now also working as engine smiths.
The 1911 Census finds Annie with William Henry living at 7, Colchester Road in Leyton where he was occupied as a master blacksmith. With them was a 5-year-old grand-daughter named Marian Hurst. Annie's birthplace was entered pretentiously as Hampstead.
Clarification of these events was kindly provided in 2009 by a great-grand-daughter of George (1) Hurst. According to the oral tradition passed down to her, Annie's two sons had been fathered by Charles Richard Hurst, a "handsome but dissolute" man regarded as the black sheep of the family. His lifestyle had ruined his health, resulting in his early death from tuberculosis in 1889. He had asked his brother William Henry to raise the two boys. William Henry agreed to this and, breaking off an existing engagement, instead married Annie who had by then produced a daughter [Marcella] "by another man". Marcella grew up believing that her father was William Henry but on reaching adulthood she learned that this was not the case and became "seriously ill as a result".
None of the above contributes to the open questions about Charles (2) himself. As noted earlier, he has not been found in any census, whilst the GRO indexes appear to contain no references to his marrying or dying. There seems a strong possibility that he emigrated in early 1891. The passenger manifest of the ship Ruapehu of the New Zealand Shipping Company includes a Charles Woodhurst, described as an unmarried salesman aged "27". The ship departed with 94 passengers from London on March 6th 1891 and was destined - as also was this Charles himself - for Wellington, New Zealand. Charles (2) would have just passed his 29th birthday on that date and is the only plausible Woodhurst candidate for being this passenger.
Annie appears to have died as "Annie Hurst" aged "56" in 1916 [Death Index: W. Ham 4a 458, 1916 (March)]. William Henry may have died aged "73" in 1925 [Death Index: St. George in the East 1c 305, 1925 (March)].
There appears to be no convincing GRO birth reference for George Charles Richard. He married Selina Mary Morgan in 1905 [Marriage Index: Epping 4a 437, 1905 (March)]. The National Register for England and Wales 1939 finds them living at the Licensed Victuallers Benevolent Institution in Asylum Road, Peckham, he being described as having retired from work in the retail licensed trade; his birthdate is given as April 24th 1880 and Selina's as June 6th 1883.
There appears to be no convincing GRO birth reference for Charles William either. He married Emily Gobby in 1908 [Marriage Index: W. Ham 4a 426, 1908 (June)] and subsequently emigrated to Australia, dying in 1963.
George (1) Hurst married Ann Reynolds in 1849 [Marriage Index: London E. 2 201, 1849 (June)] on April 8th at St. Botolph without Aldersgate [IGI: Batch M022382]. The marriage register names his father as Thomas Hurst, deceased. The 1851 Census finds George (1) and Annie with their first child at 46, Whitecross Street in Cripplegate. They have not yet been found in the 1861 Census. The 1871 Census finds them in Bunhill Row, St. Luke's in Finsbury. At that time George (1) was a master smith, whilst his son William Henry was also a smith. The 1881 Census finds them at Knotts Green in Leyton, Essex with most of their children. By now George (1) had changed his line of work to manufacturing mineral water.
George Thomas married Agnes Ashley in 1871 [Marriage Index: Holborn 1b 944, 1871 (June)]. He was living with her at 24, Chestnut Walk in Walthamstow, Essex in both 1881 and 1891, occupied as a fruiterer and greengrocer. The 1891 census confirms his birthplace as Whitecross Street.
William Henry was baptised at St Giles Cripplegate on April 4th 1852, the register giving his birth date as January 12th.
The 1881 Census finds Charles Richard lodging at 29, Newton Street in Shoreditch, unmarried and occupied as an engine smith. He died at age "30" in 1889 [Death Index: W. Ham 4a 115, 1889 (Sept)].
Elizabeth Jane married at Leyton on July 27th 1901 to Charles Highley Inman [Marriage Index: W. Ham 4a 175, 1901 (Sept)].