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William James Bone was born around 1837-41 in (almost certainly) St. Pancras, Middlesex. His father was Henry (1) Bone but his mother's identity is not yet known.
The 1851 Census possibly finds him - aged "11" and named simply "James Bone" - and his father as inmates of St. Pancras Workhouse. The Henry Bone listed there was aged "55" (or perhaps "53" - hard to read), married, occupied as a coach trimmer and born in Holloway. This Henry evidently died later in 1851 [Death Index: St. Pancras 1 231, 1851 (Dec)] and was buried on December 1st at "St. Pancras Parish Chapel", that is, at the St. Pancras & Islington Cemetery in Finchley, described as aged "60" and having resided at the workhouse.
He has not been found in the 1861 Census.
He married as "William James" to Elizabeth Mary Batchelder on September 22nd 1861. The marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Pancras 1b 192, 1861 (Sept)] describes him as a bootmaker whose father Henry (1) was deceased, and describes Elizabeth's father Thomas Batchelder as also deceased. One of the witnesses was a Mary Ann Bone whose connection is unknown. She may have been the person of that name whose GRO death reference is [Death Index: Pancras 1b 132, 1916 (March)] - this person, who died aged 92, was born around 1824 and so perhaps was an unmarried older sister or an aunt of William James.
Elizabeth Mary was born in Westminster in 1841 [Birth Index: Westminster 1 410, 1841 (June)]. Her father had married Elizabeth Aris [Marriage Index: St. Pancras 1 281, 1839 (Sept)] at the Old Church in St. Pancras on July 7th 1839 [IGI: Batch M047932]. The 1841 Census finds her aged "5 weeks" living with her parents at 81, York Street in St. Margaret Westminster where Thomas was occupied as a plasterer. The 1851 Census finds the family living at 2, Pump Court in St. Margaret Westminster where Thomas, aged "35" and born in Westminster, was still occupied as a plasterer. Thomas may have died in 1852 with his surname indexed by the GRO as "Bachelor" [Death Index: Westminster 1a 171, 1852 (Sept)]. The 1861 Census finds Elizabeth Mary at age "20" occupied as a domestic servant in the household of a chemist and druggist Charles B. Phillipson at 116, Tottenham Court Road, St. Pancras.
In 1867, when his son Thomas Henry was born, William James and his family were living at 1, Hadley Street South in Kentish Town. He was then occupied as a railway shunter.
The 1871 Census finds the family living at 29, Stanhope Street, just west of today's Euston Station, with William James occupied as a railway porter.
Elizabeth Mary died aged "31" in 1872 [Death Index: Pancras 1b 11, 1872 (June)].
William James (1) subsequently remarried on November 11th 1877 at the Old St. Pancras Parish Church to a much younger woman named Eliza (nee) Francis [Marriage Index: Pancras 1b 171, 1877 (Dec)]. The marriage register names him in full and describes him as a widower occupied as a lampman. It describes his father (without naming him) simply as "dead". The father of Eliza, a spinster, was named as William Francis occupied as a saddle tree maker. One of the witnesses was her younger sister Elizabeth Ann Francis, born on April 17th 1857.
Eliza was baptised, together with some of her siblings (including Elizabeth Anne), at St. Pancras on May 15th 1857, the register describing her father as a saddle tree rivetter of Little Camden Street; her date of birth was entered as May 3rd 1855. No clear GRO birth reference has been found for her. The 1861 Census finds her at age "5" living in that same street in Pancras with her family, her birthplace entered as Lambeth. Her mother's name was also Eliza. The 1871 Census finds her at age "15" living in St. Sepulchre, Finsbury in the household of William B. R. Jacobson, the Vicar of St. Mary's in Golden Lane where she was occupied as a domestic servant cook; this record gives her birthplace as Camden Town, probably because she had no memory of being in Lambeth during her infancy.
The 1881 Census finds William James (1) and Eliza living at 6, Haverstock Place, to the west of Kentish Town, he named simply as "James" aged "40" and Eliza aged "26". He was now occupied as a railway lamp trimmer and again gave his birthplace as St. Pancras. With them were his two youngest sons from his first marriage and an infant daughter Emily by his second.
Eliza died aged "33" in 1888 [Death Index: Pancras 1b 102, 1888 (Sept)]. She was buried in Camden on September 11th.
The 1891 Census finds him - again as "James" - at age "53" and widowed, lodging at 21, Peckwater Street in Kentish Town, St. Pancras and described as a railway porter. The record gives his birthplace as Woolwich, but this may be an enumerator's error as many persons above and below him in the schedule have birthplace St. Pancras. Or, he - or whoever supplied the details - may have confused the birthplace with that of his son William James (2) whose birthplace is given as Woolwich in the 1871 Census.
In 1894 he was described as a railway porter on Thomas Henry's marriage certificate, named there as "James William Bone".
The 1901 Census finds him - again as "James" - at age "63" and widowed, living at 204, Arlington Road in the Camden Town district of St. Pancras and described as a railway carman.
His grand-daughter Maud Ethel Bone stated that he had lived with her family from her early childhood up to the time her father died in 1915, but this is refuted by his absence from her family's 1901 and 1911 Census returns. In 1911 he was living in the household of his married daughter Emily at 20, Morley Road off Francis Road in Leyton, described as a widowed railway pensioner "James Bone" aged "73" and born in "London West".
He probably died as "James W. Bone" aged "81" in 1920 [Death Index: Edmonton 3a 593, 1920 (March)].
His great-grand-daughter Hazel Edith possessed a studio photograph showing him in middle age sitting on a chaise-longue. It had been among various possessions returned to her mother from Australia in 1954 after the death there of her father Harold Edward (1) Bone, and was accompanied by William James' original marriage certificate.
The 1881 Census appears to find William James (2) as "James" aged "17" living in the "Castle and Falcon Hotel" at 5, Aldersgate Street, Aldersgate in London where he was occupied as a knife porter. The 1891 Census appears to find him as "James" aged "26" living at the "Tolland Hotel" in Freshwater, Isle of Wight where he was occupied as a porter. He apparently never married. He may have died as "William James" aged "35" in 1901 [Death Index: Lambeth 1d 244, 1901 (March)].
Henry Frederick married Jane Sarah Varley in 1890 [Marriage Index: Pancras 1b 142, 1890 (Sept)]. She was born in 1869 [Birth Index: Pancras 1b 114, 1869 (Sept)]. The 1891 Census finds them living at 81, Pancras Square in St. Pancras. He was occupied as a fitter in an iron foundry. The 1901 Census finds them with three children - "Henry", "Ada" and "Bertie" - living at 22, Queen's Road in Wood Green. He was now occupied as a blacksmith. His first child was Henry George [Birth Index: Pancras 1b 72, 1891 (Sept)], whilst the other two were probably Ada Agnes [Birth Index: Pancras 1b 106, 1894 (June)] and Albert Charles [Birth Index: Islington 1b 288, 1896 (Dec)]. Henry George served as a lance serjeant in the Border Regiment 2nd Battalion with service number 10049 and was killed in action aged "25" in the Great War on July 14th 1916. He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial Cemetery in France with grave/memorial reference "Pier and Face 6A and 7C" [Commonwealth War Graves Commission database]. The latter source describes him as the son of Henry and Jane Sarah Bone of 22, Queen's Road in Bowes Park, London.
Emily has not yet been found in the 1891 or 1901 Censuses - after her mother died she may have been raised by another family, under a different surname. However, in 1909 she married as "Emily Bone" to a railway goods shunter John Henry Peck [Marriage Index: Marylebone 1a 1493, 1909 (Sept)]. By 1911 they had produced a daughter Dorothy M. Peck [Birth Index: W. Ham 4a 399, 1910 (Sept)].