In my last post I established beyond reasonable doubt that my great grandfather George Webb was the son of house decorator George Webb (1844 – 1911) and his wife Elizabeth (1849 – 1910). In this post I want to record what we know about my great grandfather’s siblings.

Susannah Webb, who was born in 1866, married William Hayden on 12 August 1888 at St Thomas’ church, Stepney. William, a labourer, was born in Bridgewater, Somerset, in about 1863, and was the son of John Hayden, also a labourer. At the time of their marriage the couple were living at 9 Perth Street. The witnesses to the marriage were George Webb (presumably Susannah’s father) and Jane Hogwood, whom I mentioned in the last post as a boarder with the Webbs at the time of the 1891 census.

That same census finds William and Susannah living at 46 Prusom Street, Wapping, two doors away from Susannah’s parents. William is now working as a gas stoker and they have two small children, Emma, 2, and Elizabeth, 3 months.  By 1901, the Haydens are living at 10 Ernald Avenue, East Ham, and they now have an additional four children: John, 4, Beatrice, 3, William, 2, and George, 11 months. Over the next six years Susannah would give birth to a further four children: Amy, Edith, Alfred and Sydney.  In 1911 William, Susannah and their children are at 157 Sutton Court Road, Plaistow, where William is now described as a general labourer and daughter Alice is working alongside her mother as a tailoress.

East Ham in 1910

Elizabeth Webb, who was born in 1868, married tailor George Alfred Murr at St George in the East on 31 August 1892. George, born in 1869 in the parish of St. Luke, London, was the son of hat manufacturer Charles Murr, and at the time of his marriage was living at 46 Prusom Street, presumably lodging with Elizabeth’s sister Susannah (see above). At the time of the 1901 census, George and Elizabeth were living at 59 Campbell Road, Bromley by Bow, with their four children: Alfred, 6, Elizabeth, 4, Rosina, 1, and Robert, 2 months.  By 1911, the Murrs had moved to 9 Kensington Avenue, East Ham, and had three more children: Edwin, Lewis and Lily. George now worked as a warehouseman for a clothier, as did his son Alfred. I understand that George Murr died in 1951, but I’m unsure of the date of Elizabeth’s death.

As I mentioned in the last post, Georgina Virtue Webb died in 1874, at the age of four.

Rosina Webb, who was born in 1872, married labourer William John Jacobs on 17 March 1895 at St. Thomas Stepney. William was the son of coffee house keeper David James Jacobs. At the time of their marriage William was living at 9 Gold Street and Rosina at 26 Jamaica Street; both were 22 years of age. The marriage was witnessed by Rosina’s brother in law George Murr (see above) and ‘L. Jacobs’, who was either William’s mother or his sister, both of whom were named Louisa.

At the time of the 1901 census William and Rosina were living at 19 Juniper Street in Shadwell, and William was working as a riverside labourer at the docks. By this time they had four children: William, 5, Alfred David , 4, David James, 1, and Rosina Louisa, 2 months. By 1911 they had moved to Flat 6, 15 High Street, Shadwell, and they had three further children: Sidney George, 8, Louisa May, 6, and Ivy, 10 months. William was now described as a waterside labourer, as was his eldest son William.

A London lighterman

Alice Virtue Webb, who was born in 1876, married barman George Edward Burwood, at St. George in the East on 4 August 1898. George, the son of deceased waterman and lighterman Ralph Burwood, gave his address as 6 Prusom Street. However, in the 1891 census the Burwoods’ address had been 13 Queen’s Head Alley, also in Wapping, which is where Alice and George can be found in 1901, living with the latter’s widowed mother Eliza and his siblings (the record wrongly describes Alice as Eliza’s daughter, rather than her daughter in law). By 1911 Alice and George, the latter now a lighterman watchman, were living at 122a Keppel Road, East Ham. They do not appear to have had any children. I’m not sure of the date of Alice’s death but George appears to have died in East Ham in 1949.

One of the witnesses at Alice and George’s wedding was Virtue Webb. Since ‘Virtue’ was the middle name of both Georgina and Alice Webb, I had assumed it was a girl’s name, but Virtue turns out to have been a boy. I’ve been unable to find the Webbs in the 1901 census so I don’t know where Virtue was at the age of 20. However, the 1911 census finds 28 year old Virtue (the age must be an error: he was definitely born in 1881), a single man and a painter, living with his widowed father George Webb, also a painter, at 50 Prusom Street. I’ve been unable to find any other records for Virtue until his death in Newham in 1968, at the age of 87. It may be that he remained unmarried, or it’s possible that he used a different first name from the rather unusual name with which he had been baptised.

Edwardian policemen

Alfred George Webb, the youngest child of my great great grandparents George and Elizabeth, was born in 1884. He married Lincolnshire-born Ellen Hinson, who was nine years older than him and the daughter of engineer Chapman Hinson, at Holy Trinity Mile End Old Town on 15th April 1909. At the time Alfred, a policeman, was living at 30 Mafeking Avenue, Brentford, while Ellen’s address was 2a South Grove. In 1911 they are living at 46 Orchard Road, Brentford and Alfred is described as constable in the Metropolitan Police. To my knowledge, Alfred and Ellen had only one child: Frank Harold was born in 1914 and later emigrated to Australia. I understand that Alfred Webb died in 1943 and Ellen in 1955.