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Edwin Woodhurst was born around 1832 to parents Edward (1) Woodhurst and his wife Frances. He was christened at Milton-next-Sittingbourne, Kent on July 29th 1832, with his father described as a brick-maker [Milton Parish Register].
In 1837 he resided for two months with his mother in the Union Workhouse in Faversham while his father was in prison. The workhouse register gives his year of birth as 1833 which was clearly inaccurate (in view of the christening record).
The 1841 Census finds him at age "9" living with his mother at Water Lane in Milton.
The 1851 Census finds him at age "18" living with his parents in Greenwood near Hadley Gate in Enfield.
He has not yet been found in the 1861 Census.
His first child Harry (2) was born in 1862. The birth certificate names the mother as "Ann Woodhurst formerly Wilson", but Edwin and Ann were not married to each other at this time.
His next child Frances (2) was born in 1864. Her birth certificate names her mother as "Ann Woodhurst, late Hunt formerly Wilson", but Edwin and Ann were still not yet married to each other.
Edwin and Ann married nearly three years after the birth of Frances (2). Their marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Hackney 1b 651, 1867 (June)] misrepresents Edwin's name as Edward. It states that they married at St. Matthias Parish Church in Stoke Newington on May 20th 1867. He is described as a labourer aged 35 whose father Edward (1) was also a labourer, and his bride as a widow "Ann Hunt" aged 31 whose father James Wilson was a labourer. Both gave their place of residence as 44, Howard Road. The witnesses were Frederick Johnson Lord and Harriet Adah [or Adale] Simpson, whose connections are unknown. Frederick was christened on March 12th 1815 at St. Matthew in Bethnal Green, having parents named Jonathan Lord and Mary [IGI: Batch C046983]. (St. Matthew was severely damaged by a bomb during an air-raid in 1940 but has since been rebuilt.)
This Howard Road may well have been the same Howard Road in South Hornsey where, at No. 31, Edwin's brother William (7) was living in 1872.
The IGI records just one christening in the London area for a daughter Ann Wilson of a James Wilson: this Ann - whose mother was named Hannah - was christened on February 7th 1837 at St. Mary Whitechapel in Stepney [IGI: Batch C006299]. This date fits well with the age of 31 cited on the above certificate. The IGI further records the marriage of Ann Wilson to George William Hunt at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Shoreditch on February 18th 1855 [IGI: Batch M040371], for which the corresponding GRO reference is [Marriage Index: Shoreditch 1c 280, 1855 (March)]. It is not known why Edwin and Ann waited until 1867 to marry. It may be that Ann's husband was still alive in both 1862 and 1864 but that she had left him to be with Edwin and did not become truly widowed until 1867. Another possibility, however, is that Ann married Edwin bigamously.
In 1870 Edwin remarried, but no GRO reference (for any surname variant) has been found to the death or remarriage of his first wife in the period 1867-70. His second - and therefore, again, possibly bigamous - marriage was to a widow Ann Rebecca (nee Harrison) Williams. The marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Bethnal Green 1c 627, 1870 (Sept)] again misrepresents his name as Edward. It states that they married at St. Jude Parish Church in Bethnal Green on September 5th 1870. He is described as a bachelor (which he was not - unless his former marriage had been unlawful) and labourer aged 38 whose father Edward (1) was also a labourer, and she as a widow aged 38 whose father Henry Harrison was a labourer. Both gave their place of residence as 8, Elizabeth Street. The witnesses were Sarah Elizabeth Hartland, whose connection is unknown, and Edward Page. The latter was very probably related to the Ann Page who in 1847 married at Faversham to Edwin's cousin William (4) Woodhurst who, like his own father and grandfather, had also been a brick-maker in Kent. Moreover, he was very probably the Edward Page whom the 1851 Census finds living at Water Lane in Milton.
Elizabeth Street no longer exists as such, but it corresponded to today's Warner Place which runs southwards from Hackney Road to meet Old Bethnal Green Road.
Ann Rebecca was christened to parents Henry Harrison and Mary on November 12th 1832 at St. Leonard in Shoreditch [IGI: Batch C040806]. She first married William George Shaw [Marriage Index: Bethnal Green 1c 541, 1853 (March)]. The 1861 Census finds her living him and two daughters, together with her parents, at 26, Reeves Place in Shoreditch. She was occupied as a laundress and he as a waiter. He died aged "35" in 1866 [Death Index: Shoreditch 1c 139, 1866 (June)]. She evidently remarried - as Ann Rebecca Shaw - to Charles Williams in 1867 [Marrriage Index: Shoreditch 1c 294, 1867 (June)]. He was evidently dead by the time she remarried yet again to Edwin in 1870.
The 1871 Census finds Edwin at age "38" with Ann Rebecca living at 7, Southampton Road, Kentish Town in Pancras. His occupation is given as labourer, and hers as laundress. His two children were at this time inmates of the Whitechapel Union's Industrial School in Forest Gate, West Ham.
The next reference to Edwin appears in the deposition he made at the inquest into his father's death in 1873, details of which are given in the Coroner's Notes. The Coroner recorded Edwin's address as something resembling '14 Rest St' or '14 Rost St', in handwriting now hard to decipher. It is possible that the address was actually 14, Kent Street. Kent Street no longer exists as such, the local area having been redeveloped around the 1960s. It lay in Haggerston, Bethnal Green, about three quarters of a mile due south of Woodland Street where Edwin's father was reported as having been living before he died. However, no Woodhursts were living in Kent Street at the time of the 1871 Census. Another possibility is that the Coroner had recorded Edwin's streetname as an abbreviation of "Rossington Street". This street may have existed under that name in 1873, but it did not in 1871.
The 1881 Census finds Edwin and his wife - with their surname misspelled as Woodhouse - living at 14, Rossington Street, which lies in the Upper Clapton subdistrict of Hackney and connects Upper Clapton Road to Northwold Road. No other persons were living with them. The record describes Edwin as a labourer aged 48 and born in Sittingbourne, and his wife - cited simply as "Ann" - as aged 48 and born in Hoxton (a subdistrict of Shoreditch).
Ann Rebecca died aged 57 on March 7th 1890 at her home address which was then 4, Caroline Cottages in Stamford Hill, Hackney. Her death certificate [Death Index: Hackney 1b 353, 1890 (March)] describes her as the wife of a labourer Edwin Woodhurst. The cause of death was certified as "morbus cordis", a generic term used to denote heart disease (but also often used when no obvious cause was apparent). The informant, present at the death, was her husband.
At the time of the 1891 Census no Woodhursts were living in Caroline Cottages or nearby Caroline Street, both of which no longer exist as such but were originally associated with Northwold Road. Neither Edwin nor anyone seemingly related to him was living at 14, Rossington Street at that time. Extensive and varied searches of the online Ancestry.com database for this census have failed to find Edwin anywhere.
The 1901 Census finds him at age "70" as a pauper inmate in the Hackney Union Workhouse, described as a (former) brickmaker born in Milton, Kent.
The 1911 Census finds him at age "81" in the Hackney Union Workhouse at 2, Sidney Road off Homerton High Street, described as a widowed former bricklayer's [sic - brickmaker's?] labourer.
Edwin died aged "82" in 1912 [Death Index: Hackney 1b 512, 1912 (June)].