Pelham Showmen

[jackiepb]

I’m not sure about whether he was the first of the Pelhams to start travelling it’s possible but there were fairs and entertainment venues in London for centuries including at moorfields so they could have been involved in the business within the city before the roads and wagons were improved in mid 1800s.

[jackiepb]

Henry’s daughter my My 3times great grandmother Catherine was interviewed by the worlds fair and she said she was born in a wagon (1837) and never lived a day in a house.

[curtainhooks]

Oh wow, where did you find out about that interview?
I know the person who i'm doing this for's grandmother lived in a caravan most of her life and hated living in houses.
Is it correct that Catherine's sister (mary)'s daughter married the famous Frank Bostock?

[jackiepb]

I’ve got the cutting somewhere it was handed down in the family but you could probably find it on the newspapers online. She was at Mitchum fair the oldest showman in the business at the time (1920s). Catherine’s sister married Francis Bailey and their daughter married a Bostock

[madjan80]

Hi all others researching,
I have been helping the Pelham family to research their family history for several years.  So pleased to find this strand.

It was Henry Randall Pelham (baptised 1806) who married Catherine Ford nee Mills and they were the parents of the famous Isabella Pettigrove nee Pelham, Catherine who married George Bird and Mary Ann who married Francis Bailey. It was their daughters who married into the Fossett family (Isabelle married Robert), Francis Bostock (Susanne)and the Manders menagerie family (Henrietta).

The daughter of the one surviving son of Henry Randall and Catherine the family - Charles was Caroline Pelham who married into the famous Freeman-Biddall family. We have more information about all these women if anyone is interested.

We know that Henry and Catherine were on the road from 1839 at the latest when their firstborn son Henry was born in Hitchin, baptised in Uxbridge (parents shown as living in Lambeth) and died at 18 months (buried in St Georges Southwark). We wonder if Catherine might have been a member of the famous Mills traveller and/or circus family (given the other fairground and circus connections. 

We know that the father of Henry Randall was Joseph as someone pointed out possibly. We also found the baptism in 1780 in St Margaret's church Westminster - the only one we were able to find. The parents of that child were Rachael and Richard Pelham. No marriage for them has been found and it is possible Joseph was illegitimate. We have a couple of other ideas about the identities of the couple as yet unproved.   

We would love to know if anyone has more info about Catherine nee Mills - Henry Randall's wife. We have different years c 1806 and places of birth (Bristol and Bexley) for her. Again we have theories but nothing concrete.

Also if anyone has been able to trace the parents of Joseph Pelham baptised 1780 we would love to hear.   
All best Madeleine