The Munday family

Eliza (1835-1841)

Elizabeth (1833-

Emma (1832-1909)

Jane (1836-1921)

Samuel (1838-1910)

Reproduced with the kind permission of Geoff Gwatkin

Thomas Munday rented number 52 (circled in blue), on the corner of the Square and Barrs Lane. No matter how poor a family were, they would rent a house and garden, even if the garden was detached from their house, so the fact that Thomas only rented a house shows the level of deprivation in the family.

Thomas and Ann, both aged 65, lived there with their daughter Lucy and son Matthew. Also in the household were their grandchildren David (the illegitimate son of their daughter Mary) and Eliza (the illegitimate daughter of their daughter Selina).

The first record we have of Eliza is a Removal Order, dated 21st September 1836, in which it was stated that the 13 month old Eliza, daughter of Selina Munday, deceased, was to be removed to Breadstone. Up to 1836, parishes could, and would, remove individuals who they believed had no right to live in the parish, and would be a financial drain on the parish. Eliza would have been born in Breadstone, so off she had to go. One wonder how effective the Order was, though, as she was baptized in Nibley a fortnight later.

Her mother Selina had previously been removed to Alkington on 9th November 1832, because she was pregnant and, if the child was born in Nibley, it would have a right to live in the parish. Unfortunately I can find no trace of that child.

The sad life of Eliza ended in 1841, when she was buried in St Martins churchyard.

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Selina’s cousin Ann Monday also had an illegitimate child – Elizabeth. Ann had married in 1837 to Edward Iles, and was living in Wotton in 1841 with her husband and four more children, before dying in Dursley Workhouse in 1884. Elizabeth was living in a cottage on Nibley Green with her grandmother Sophia Munday, who was to die the following year. In 1851, she was a servant in the household of Richard Hooper, a farmer in Stinchcombe and, in the 1861 Census, she was a live-in servant for Joseph Orman in Nibley Cottage, on the Street. Then – nothing.

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Selina’s sister Mary had 4 illegitimate children. There is no way of knowing what the attitude of the village was to the family. Were they shunned, or accepted? The only constant, sadly, is that the death rate for these children was much higher. Two of Mary’s children died before they were one year old.

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Selina and Mary’s brother James led a more respectable life. In 1841 he and his wife Bella were living in a cottage rented from Henry Gazard at Crowel Brook Mill. It has now disappeared, but it is circled on the map below.

Reproduced with permission of the National Library of Scotland

James was a woollen weaver and Bella a cloth picker. Their two daughters, Emma and Jane, and their son Samuel, were all baptised in the Tabernacle in the village.

Ten years later, they had moved to Kingswood and James had become a tin plate worker. Emma was a power loom silk weaver and her sister was a silk spinner. New Mills in Kingswood had become a silk mill, partly due to the damp climate in the area. Samuel was an errand boy. They also had another brother and sister.

Samuel was living with his parents in Kingwood in 1861. He had become a tinman like his father. He had also married in 1860, when he was 22. Their first child (of an eventual 12) was also in the household. In 1891, he was recorded as being a painter and Glazier. He died in 1910, aged 72.

A photograph of Samuel, taken from Ancestry

Emma married Ephraim Bendall, who was twenty years her senior, and blind, when she was 21. They lived in Woodmancote, Dursley, and had no children. James’ daughter Bella came to live with them. Emma was recorded as being a cloth worker in 1881 and 1891, when Ephraim had died and she was joined by her widowed mother. In 1901, Emma was living alone in Rowley, the other side of Dursley and working (aged 68) as a mill worker. She died in 1909, aged 77.

Jane married Walter Malby, a photographer, in 1857, in Shoreditch, London.

In 1861, they were living with their two sons on City Road, Shoreditch, London. In 1881, the couple had moved to Rumbolds Wyke, just outside Chichester. Ten years later, Jane is living with her son Albert (recorded as being an artist) and his family in York. Walter is boarding in Newcastle upon Tyne and working as a photographer’s assistant. Both of their sons – Albert and Walter – became photographers.

These are links with more information on their work as photographers. http://www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/ChichMalby.htm

Petworth / Pulborough Photograph (photohistory-sussex.co.uk)

In 1901 and 1911, Walter and Jane are living in Thorn Grove, Altrincham. As the Census’ have proceeded, more details are asked for, so we can see that the couple had another child who had died.

In 1921, the widowed Jane was an inmate at the Workhouse in Knutsford, Cheshire, where she died later that year, aged 85.