WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR FAMILY FROM 1851?
GENERATION FOUR
Ellen
MARY ANN AND WILLIAM ROCHESTER
The generations
One: Patrick? Donoghue (b.c.1745) & an unknown
wife – gggggrandparents
Two: James Donoghue (b.c.1775) & Julia Boyle –
ggggrandparents
Three: Thomas Donoghue (b.1806) & Ellen Connor -
gggrandparents
Four: Julia Donoghue (b.1834) & John Carrington
(b.1830)
James Donoghue (b.1836)
Catherine Donoghue (b.1839) &
James Madden (b.1848?)
John Donoghue (b.1841)
Thomas O’Donoghue (b.1844) &
Mary Sullivan (b.1845) ggrandparents
Ellen
Donoghue (b.1847)
Mary
Ann O’Donoghue (b.1852) & William Rochester (b.c.1852)
Ellen Donoghue
In Irish Ellen is Eibhlín
(Evleen), it is a nice sound. The ending
ín is the diminutive form, for little
people. How appropriate for this child
who died so young. She was clearly named
after her mother.
Ellen, Thomas and Ellen’s third daughter, was born in Ballyduff in
1847. She was baptised on 25 April in
the village church. It is possible that
she died very soon after her birth because the winter of 1846-7 was one of the
worst in memory and Ireland was in the grip of a terrible famine. She did not go to London with her parents;
she disappeared from the records. Deaths
were not dealt with as diligently as births and marriages in the parish registers,
particularly in those years when thousands and thousands of people were dying. Ellen was a tiny mite and it is probable that
Thomas and Ellen, her mother, had struggled to feed their family and keep them warm
under the awful conditions. They were
relatively well off as valued artisans and had an honourable landlord, so imagine
what it was like for those less protected.
Perhaps Ellen lasted longer than I just said and her death may have
been the final straw for Thomas and Ellen, causing them to leave their home for
England in 1850-1. We will just never
know.
In the 19th century all classes were vulnerable to
outbreaks of whooping-cough, cholera, typhus, dysentery, influenza, smallpox,
measles and many other illnesses which were later prevented by
vaccination. Life expectancy was very
low compared to today. I have read that
in the early 1800s a male’s average life span was 38 years. Our next generation, Thomas and Mary, lost
three of their seven children, Mary, Thomas and Gwendoline, within two years of
their births, the girls within a few months.
‘Black’ 1847
I have written about the famine years, 1845-49, before but 1847 was so
central that it is worth repeating some of the history.
The potato crop completely failed in 1845 & 1846. In ‘Black’ 1847 as it is known, there was a
potato crop, but only twenty five percent of normal; however there was a good
grain crop. A laissez-faire trade policy was being followed by the Westminster
government. This allowed the local good
quality grain crop to be exported by absentee landowners rather than it being used
to feed the people, while the government was importing American maize, but
leaving it to the local merchants as to how it was distributed. Only in west Cork, Kerry and Donegal did direct
intervention take place. The result was
that there just was not enough accessible food in Ireland and the people were
weakened by the two prior years’ shortages.
The iconic picture on the left is from the Illustrated London News in
1847. They sent illustrators to Ireland
and began publishing pictures of famine victims, raising awareness of the
unfolding catastrophe in the rest of Britain.
The government's efforts were concentrated primarily on creating
employment and paying people so that they could buy their own food. But the cost had to be met through local
rates. The pay was low and not nearly
enough to support a family. However,
three quarters of a million people had signed up to the work schemes (such as
building roads) by March of 1847. The workhouses,
set up in the previous decade for those who could no longer afford to support
themselves, were feared. But by the end
of 1846 they were full.
Private charity was responsible for keeping hundreds of thousands of
people alive in the winter of 1846 to 1847.
Catholic priests organised food.
Funds were raised in Britain and America to buy and ship maize and to
buy food boilers (for soup kitchens). Clothes
were also brought in as many of the local people had pawned their winter
clothes to buy food.
In the summer of 1847 the government scrapped the relief programmes
and began to organise full-scale food distribution. By the end of the year imports of grain finally
exceeded exports.
So Ellen was born into the worst year of the famine and was almost
certainly a casualty.
Mary Ann O’Donoghue & William Rochester
Mary Ann is the first O’Donoghue of our direct family line to have
been born in England. She was born on 20
March 1852 in Poplar and baptised on 16 May at St Mary & St Joseph’s, the
family church. She would have been
educated at the Wade Street School. In
1861 she was with her mother in Mary Street and in 1863 was godmother to her
cousin Catherine Carrington at the age of 11.
Today the minimum age in the Catholic Church for godparenting is 16; I
have been unable to ascertain if this was different in the 19th
century. This is so young that it makes
me wonder if there was another family member called Mary Ann, whom I have not
yet identified.
By 1881 Mary Ann was a domestic servant living with her elder sister
Julia in Market Street.
On 20 July 1882 she married William Thomas Rochester in Trinity
Independent Chapel, Poplar. Built in
1841, this was of the Congregational or Methodist denomination. It was on the corner of East India Dock Road
and Augusta Street and is described as very architecturally
significant with its large elegant frontage.
Our family was staunch Roman Catholic in those days and yet Julia and
Mary Ann were married outside of that faith: Julia in an Anglican church and
Mary Ann in a Methodist one. Siblings Catherine
and Thomas were both married in the Catholic St Mary & St Josephs. This was the start of the family’s withdrawal
from the Catholic faith which continued for some in the next generation as my
grandmother was a protestant.
Allow me a theory. Normally the
woman would choose the church. I suspect
Julia was diverted by her husband John, who was a Protestant, and that Mary
Ann, being very close to her 18 years older sister, chose an alternative
because of her. Alternatively the
Rochesters were Methodists. Perhaps the
future husbands’ families held sway on these choices.
At the time of the marriage William Rochester was 30 years-old and
Mary Ann 29 – quite late by the standards of the day. His occupation is described as commercial
traveller and he was living in Brockley, Kent.
His father was a Richard, an accountant.
What this occupation really meant we can only surmise, but the
accounting profession was formalising its structure around this time; it could
mean anything from a bookkeeper/clerk to a forensic accountant.
The Rochesters
are a bit of a mystery. I
looked for William, born in 1852, in the 1881 census. There is one boarding in 66 High Street,
Lambeth, born in 1854, whose occupation is shown as general labourer. But I
don’t think you could go from a general labourer to commercial traveller in one
year. I looked for Richard, his father, back
over the decades and there are certainly no accountants. I am very suspicious that there is a lot of
dodgy data here and I could find no records that really gelled. On their marriage certificate the residential
addresses were transposed which does not fill one with confidence. So I am going to move on and perhaps come
back to the Rochesters at a later date…I get bored easily!
The children
In 1883, William Charles Herman Rochester was born. Why Herman? This is a German name. Is there a clue in there somewhere?
Mary Ann, now calling herself Marian or Marion, was living at 20
Rowlett Street, Bromley, Poplar.
William, the father, has become a mariner. Rowlett Street was east from Chrisp Street at
the end of Grundy Street.
Bernard Francis Rochester was born in 1886 in 155 Brunswick Road,
Bromley.
Marie Gertrude Rochester was born in 1888 at 37 Hind Street, Poplar
with Mary Ann’s sister, Catherine, present at the birth and William is shown as
a merchant seaman.
All these streets were in close proximity to the rest of the family
One imagines that the three sisters, Mary Ann, Julia (18 years her
senior) and Catherine (13 years older) were very close. Mary Ann was living with Julia when she got
married in 1882 and Catherine was present at the birth of her third child
By 1891 the family had moved to 88 Caister Park Road, Plaistow,West
Ham, which they shared with another family.
William, the father, was not at home, at sea no doubt. However by 1901 he was dead as Marian is
described as a widow living at 21 Moreton Road, West Ham.
Caister Park Road is just off West Ham Park, a very historic place, as
are most of London’s parks.
In 1873, a petition of inhabitants of West Ham and
Stratford was received by the City of London (the City) asking for assistance
in the purchase of the Park for preservation as an open space. The City agreed to grant the sum of £10,000
for the purpose. Mr. John Gurney, a
grandson of Mr. Samuel Gurney, who had inherited the estate in 1812, was at
that time the owner of the Ham House Estate, which was 77 acres in extent and
valued at £25,000. He and other members
of his family jointly contributed £10,000, the City duly paid £10,000 and the
remaining £5,000 of purchase money was prescribed locally. West Ham Park was officially opened on 20 July
1874. The City undertook to maintain the
Park forever at its own expense. The public park was laid out by 1887, incorporating
features from the earlier park including the pleasure gardens, mature trees,
and the carriage drive. The picture to
left is The Terrace in 1904.
I have not
managed to find Mary Ann in the 1911 census.
Perhaps she married again but I have not found a marriage that fits or a
death in the name of Mary Ann Rochester.
William Charles Herman Rochester b.1883
In 1891 he was
living with his mother in West Ham. By
1901 his father had died and he was shown as head of the household, at age 18, with
the occupation of incandescent (light bulb) fitter.
At some point before 1911 he became a soldier in
the Royal Marine Light Infantry. The
Light Infantry were merged with the Royal Marine Artillery in 1923. Left is the cap badge at that time.
By the 1911 census he had risen to the rank of corporal and was in the
Essex Regiment stationed in Quetta, Baluchistan in India. Right is the cap badge of this regiment
This is the territory that we learnt about at school as the North West
Frontier (of Khyber Pass fame). William
was there between the Second Afghan War which ended in 1880, in which
red-coated British soldiers were perpetually ambushed by local tribesmen, and
the Third which started in 1919. Nothing
much has changed in terms of conflict!
Quetta is now in Pakistan, however.
In 1908 William may have taken part in
two expeditions against the Zakha Zel and Mohmand, two great Pashtun tribal
groups.
He appears to have left the army
sometime between 1911 and 1915, when he re-enlisted in the 1st Battalion
of the Essex Regiment as a sergeant.
The 1st Battalion took part
in the Gallipoli Campaign disembarking on 25 April at Cape Helles. This picture shows the landing. They were engaged in heavy fighting. William was wounded on the 2 June.
This campaign was a complete failure and
the battalion was evacuated on 8 January 1916, moving to Egypt. On the 16 March they sailed from Alexandria
to France.
The 1st Battalion took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. The battalion took
up position in the British trenches at 3:30 am.
At 8:40 am, the battalion received orders
to advance and clear the German first-line trenches. It was delayed by heavy enemy fire and
congestion in the communication trenches. The Newfoundland Regiment advancing to the left of the Essex
battalion was almost entirely wiped out as it advanced towards the German
lines. At 10:50 am, the Essex
companies were in position and received orders to go ‘over the top’. They came under heavy artillery and machine
gun fire almost as soon as they appeared over the parapet, causing heavy
losses. The attack became bogged down in
no man's land. The
battalion received orders from 88th Brigade headquarters to recommence the attack at
12:30 pm, but at 12:20 pm the battalion commander advised brigade HQ
that ‘owing to casualties and disorganisation’, it was impossible to do so. The survivors of the battalion received orders
to hold their position along the line of 'Mary Redan' – 'New Trench' – 'Regent
Street'.
On that first day alone the British Army
lost 57,470
casualties, of whom 19,240 men were killed. William saw out 1916 but was wounded again on
23 April 1917.
He received the 1914-5 Star, Victory and
British medals and appears to have survived the war or, at least, I have not
found a record of his death.
Bernard Francis
Rochester b.1886
Bernard also joined the army in the 2nd
Battalion Essex Regiment in 1904. He was
almost immediately shipped to Malta. In
that year 55% of the regiment contracted a ‘simple continued fever’.
On 4
February 1905 Bernard died of what was then called Malta Fever or brucellosis. It does not actually name this fever but it
seems a reasonable assumption. Here is a
record of his death.
Also known as undulant fever, Gibraltar
fever, Bang's disease,
or Mediterranean fever, brucellosis is most likely
to occur among those
individuals who regularly
work with livestock.
The disease originated
in domestic livestock, on Malta in
particular, goats. In humans, brucellosis
continues to be spread via unpasteurized milk
obtained from infected
cows or through contact
with the discharges
of cattle and goats.
In areas of the world where milk is not pasteurized,
for example in Latin
America and the
Mediterranean, the disease is still contracted
by ingesting unpasteurized dairy products.
Apparently, on Malta, the local
farmers used to walk their goats from customer to customer, milking them at each
place.
The effect of the
disease on the British army in Malta was such that up to the middle of 1906,
the garrison of Malta lost annually the services of some 650 soldiers and
sailors for a period of 120 days each, making a total of some 80,000 days of
illness. Soldiers suffering from the
disease had an average stay in hospital of nearly 90 days within a range of 15
days to two years and although the mortality rate amongst the military was low
at around 2%, the mortality rate for civilians on Malta was much higher.
Bernard was clearly very unlucky.
Poor Mary Ann.
Marie Gertrude Rochester b.1888
Marie was with her mother and brother in 1901 but by 1911, like her
mother, I can find no trace of her, until her death on 26 October 1918 at 135
King’s Road, Brighton. By then she was
known as Elsie Marie. She was working as
a chambermaid in a hotel, perhaps one of the ones in this picture. Mary Ann was present at her daughter’s death. She died from influenza which brought on
pneumonia.
The ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic of
1918 was one of the greatest medical disasters of the 20th century. This was a
global pandemic, an airborne virus which affected every continent.
It was nicknamed ‘Spanish flu’ as
the first reported cases were in Spain. As this was during World War One,
newspapers were censored (Germany, the United States, Britain and France all
had media blackouts on news that might lower morale) so although there were
influenza (flu) cases elsewhere, it was the Spanish cases that hit the
headlines. One of the first casualties was the King of Spain.
Although not caused by World War
I, it is thought that in the UK,
the virus was spread by soldiers returning home from the trenches in northern
France. Soldiers were becoming ill with what was known as ‘la grippe’, the symptoms
of which were sore throats, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although highly
infectious in the cramped, primitive conditions of the trenches, recovery was
usually swift and doctors at first called it ‘three-day fever’.
The outbreak hit the UK in a series
of waves, with its peak at the end of WW1. Returning from Northern France at
the end of the war, the troops travelled home by train.
As they arrived at the railway stations, so the flu spread from the railway
stations to the centre of the cities, then to the suburbs and out into the
countryside. Not restricted to class, anyone could catch it.
Young adults between 20 and 30
years old were particularly affected and the disease struck and progressed
quickly in these cases. Marie was 30. Onset
was devastatingly quick. Those fine and healthy at breakfast could be dead by
tea-time. Within hours of feeling the first symptoms of fatigue, fever and
headache, some victims would rapidly develop pneumonia and start turning blue,
signalling a shortage of oxygen. They would then struggle for air until they
suffocated to death.
Hospitals were overwhelmed and
even medical students were drafted in to help. Doctors and nurses worked to breaking point,
although there was little they could do as there were no treatments for the flu
and no antibiotics to treat the pneumonia.
During the pandemic of 1918/19,
over 50 million people died worldwide and a quarter of the British population
were affected. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain alone.
At the time of Marie’s death,
Mary Ann was living in 352 High Road, Brondesbury in North-West London. I think today it is known as the Kilburn High
Road. What took her there, I wonder…
So many unanswered questions
This project has been a bit frustrating. I would like to know more about William Thomas
Rochester’s family, but have hit blockages.
And Mary Ann, by 1918 she had lost two of her three children. Did she re-marry? When did she die? What happened to her first child, William
Charles, after WW1?
I have, so far, been unable to find answers to these questions. Challenges for another time
Sources and acknowledgements:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=jfifvjuE&id=8EC593C44A1DD518C72C3D8F506B1265B1170825&thid=OIP.jfifvjuEvknmFEM4Go3gkwEsDD&q=caister+park+road+west+ham+history&simid=608051724436637233&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/ (can’t find William C entry
second time!)http://gmic.co.uk/topic/37275-the-royal-marines/
