RootsChat.Com

Hello Shaun and thank you for your interest in my greatx2 grandfather's brother.  I've followed your two links to Find my Past, it's interesting that the two tailors mentioned are both in the "Northern Parts".  You imply that you have seen other other occurrences of the phrase "Borough Tailor", were they also from a long way away from Cornwall?  I ask because there is no sign of the Oldham family in Cornwall before Charles Oldham (Thomas' father) married Prudence Davies in December 1789.  Several official documents suggest that Charles was born c 1765 and an elderly member of my extended family believed that he was born in Oldham.  If that is true then possibly it was Charles who introduced the phrase into Cornwall.

About a year ago a cousin acquired, at auction a brass nameplate bearing the name
OLDHAM   TAILOR.    Expert opinion is that the nameplate dates from the 1820's but the auctioneer   had no idea where it had been since then.  We then discovered that the name plate had been sold a couple of years previously, with the auction catalogue stating that it had been the property of John Oldham of Padstow. That is incorrect as John (Thomas' younger brother) settled in Portreath following his marriage to Mary Ann Box in 1821 and didn't return to Padstow until the 1840's.  We suspect that the nameplate belonged to Thomas, about whom we know very little.

I am at a loss to know where to look next, I wonder if trade directories might give a clue.

Apologies for being slow to respond but I didn't get an e/mail telling me of your post, for which renewed thanks!

A gentleman from what is now St. Lawrence's hospital kindly searched the records about the admission, in August 1854, to the County Asylum in Bodmin of Mary Rowe Williams who was the 2nd of the 3 wives of Thomas Davis Oldham. 

He noted that Thomas was registered in the Asylum records as "the Borough of Bodmin Tailor".  I appreciate that this may just have been to prove that Mary had an appropriate residential qualification to receive care in the Asylum.  Please can anyone confirm that this was an official position and, if so, what Thomas' duties would have been.     Thank you

 

Two small bits of information which might help you:

In 1931 Imogen took charge of the music at Citizen House Arts and Education Centre in Bath. 

In 1942 she moved from Bath to Dartington Hall near Totnes in Devon and stayed there until 1951 then moved to Aldeburgh in 1952, which is where she died.

I would imagine that Imogen made frequent visits to Thaxted to see her widowed mother so could well have taught your relative, even if only intermittently.

Alternatively, to a young child such as your relative would have been at the time, the name Imogen was possibly unfamiliar and therefore easily confused with Mrs Holst's name of Isobel!

I wish you well with your searches, please post the results if they have a successful outcome!

Thank you so much for all this information. 

I'm confused about Evelyn Joan as I'm not sure where she fits in, if anywhere, I don't think Flo was her mother.  Incidentally there seems to be some confusion about Flo herself, the G R O Indexes have her being named Edith Florence but she was married as Florence Edith and was always known as Flo.

The disabled girl was Irene Elizabeth Kerrison b 1920/MAR Islington; mmn Stribling.  Her parents were Flo's eldest brother Albert Henry b 1851 and his wife Elizabeth Bartley Stribling, there was also a son, (another Albert) born 1922.  During his war service Albert senior had lost a leg and been left in constant pain which he tried to alleviate by drinking heavily.  Elizabeth doesn't seem to be on the 1939 Register and there is a rumour that she just couldn't cope with everything and simply walked out on her family. 

From what we hear it sounds as though Flo took on responsibility for disabled Irene in addition to continuing to run her "corner shop".  Unsurprisingly this all proved too much and Flo is said to have asked her younger sister, plus her husband, to move to Gravesend to give help.  The younger sister was my cousin's mother, Ruby Alice, and we've been trying to establish the timings of these various matters.

We know that Flo and Harry Wrench were married in Southwark 1939/MAR but had arrived in Gravesend by National Registration Day later that year.  We have official paperwork (A.R.P. Training Certificate!) for my cousin's father, showing his address as Hayles Buildings in Southwark so we know Ruby and her husband were still in Southwark in 1939. 

So the first question is: had Flo and Harry been staying with Ruby when they got married in 1939.  The second question is: was Irene Elizabeth actually living with Ruby when she died - in Southwark 1935/SEP. My cousin has vivid memories of Flo and her little shop but has never heard even the slightest whisper of any children and I cannot find any children surname Wrench mmn Kerrison.

The information about Harry Wrench is interesting and I shall encourage my cousin to investigate further as I think he has the makings of a good genealogist and I'm sure he'll find it easier through having your input to help him!!

Thank you again for your help.