The Owen family

Edward (1832-1889) baptised in the Tabernacle

Philip (1939- ) baptised in St Martins Church

Reproduced with the kind permission of Geoff Gwatkin

James Owen lived at the house circled in pink, now 14-16 Barrs Lane. He also leased the land shaded in blue from the Berkeley Estate. He was a blanket weaver, living with his wife Isabella and three of their children, Sydney, Bilhah and Edward. They had eight other children who had left home. Unusually, their children were baptised initially at St Martins Church but later at the Rowland Hill Tabernacle in Wotton under Edge. James’ son, Henry and their son Phillip lived nearby in Nibley Street. In 1841, after the Census had been taken, James and Susannah had a daughter, Mary.

In 1844, both the boys’ mother and grandmother had died and, in the next Census, James and Henry, and Henry’s children – Phillip and Mary – were living together in Nibley. Henry is now listed as being ‘a weaver of woollen cloth’. Previously he had been listed as a labourer, which shows how, although the woollen industry was in decline, people still shifted in and out of the area.

Edward was lodging with the Adey family (who were also from Nibley) and his brother Sidney in the St Pancras area of London. In ’61, he had gained a few years and was recorded as being 35. His wife, Ruth, was 50 years old. Edward was a draper and lived in the Holburn area. In ’71, the couple were living in Beauchamp St, Holborn with Thomas Gabb, Edward’s cousin. Ruth died in January 1876 and, in 1877, Edward married Emily Best, and the couple were living in Leather Lane, St Andrews, London in 1881, with a servant.

Edward died in 1889, aged 56, and is buried at Norwood Cemetery. In 1911 Emily was living in the Workhouse.

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In 1851, Henry remarried and, in the next two Census’, was living on Barrs Lane with Mary Ann, his new wife, and Mary. He is now a carpenter. In the 1867 he is awarded 1 perch of land, because he is the freeholder of 14/16 Barrs Lane. A perch is 160th of an acre (or half a tennis court). He died in 1877.

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Phillip disappears after the 1851 Census.