RootsChat.Com

Think we need to establish Samuel Knights / Bloom's birth date and parents to start with.

I have an interest in this thread. I have a Samuel Knights who has changed his name to Bloom, lived in Norwich.  Many of the first names that are mentioned in this thread are familiar. He had a son Stephen Francis Bloom.  My Samuel Knights was a horse hair weaver.
Love to hear from anybody looking at this line.

Heather,

They are almost certainly my ancestors.  A Stephen Francis Bloom (b1779) was my great, great, great grandfather, although I have since found out he was the bastard child of a Stephen Francis and Elizabeth Broom or Brume, which muddy's the waters further!  On the baptism record the mother is listed as Brume and on the bastardy bond as Broom, so he took his father's surname as his middle name and his mother's, albeit slightly changed, as his surname.  Unless of course the Br in the records should have been Bl, but with two instances of that I feel it is unlikely.

Now as I understand it, Stephen Francis Bloom married Lydia Knights, although I believe he had been married before but to date I have found no record of that.  She definitely had been and appeared to have had two children from that first marriage, who I think were Emily and Samuel, in which case Stephen Francis Bloom is not actually related to Samuel but was his stepdad.  Lydia Knights died in childbirth and from what I gather Emily and possibly Samuel continued living with their stepfather, Stephen Francis Bloom.  In fact Emily lived with him for the rest of his life, and I am almost certain that they became an item as the census records then start to list the other younger children after his wife's death, which I believe to be the offspring of Stephen Francis Bloom and Emily Knights.

Also somewhere in the information that I have researched to date is a listing of a Samuel Knights Bloom a victualer in Norwich, which must certainly be he, the son of Lydia Knights and John Knights, and the stepson of Stephen Francis Bloom.  I think he is the one who was a weaver (as was the family tradition) and in later life became a victualer. 

They appeared to interchange the names with Stephen almost certainly fathering Emily's children- one baptism record puts the father as Stephen Knights although she never married.

From the information you have posted it would appear that Samuel Knights not only elected to take his stepfather's surname but then when he had his only son he then chose to name him after his stepfather, just to confuse us all further!

I have heaps more information that I can dig out if you want it.

You can also check what I have on line so far, here:

http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-69036981/bloom?treeMode=immersive


Jerry   

As I am focusing on the Bloom's I want to try and get to the bottom of this.  Firstly I want to establish when Stephen's son Francis established his horsehair business.  I think it was probably in the 1850s, although clearly too late to financially support his father who was clearly quite poor. 

I know that an 1892 Trade directory lists Francis Stephen & Son, horsehair manufacturers at Oak St, St Martins at Oak & Horsham St Faith's.  There is also a map of Norwich dated 1885 showing the factory in St Martin's St (I think it might have been renamed Oak Street).  On the south side of the factory is Queen Caroline Yard and on the north side, what was commonly called White Lion Yard, but on this map is listed as Bloom's Yard, so clearly Francis had become a very succesful business man, unlike his father who if all the theory's are correct was not only poor but something of a rogue as well!  I have had copies of this map made.

Thanks for that information.  His death certificate says he was a weaver so it fits in.  His son Francis Stephen set up a succesful Horsehair Manufacturing business in Norwich, which lasted for well over 50 years.  It's early days yet for me as I have only started researching this, but it would appear that Stephen's poor situation could have been a catalyst for his son to be successful. 

There is a large family memorial in Rosary Cemetery which I presume was instigated by Francis, and an indication of the wealth they would have had then, compared to his father.

I also tend to agree with the earlier comment that Stephen could have fathered the children of his step-daughter Emily Knights.