The fourth Abraham

The most recent Abraham Garner (that I know of) - my Great Uncle. A man with many addresses, careers, and maybe mysteries.

Abraham John Garner (IV)  was born to Alfred and Mary Ann Garner on May 14th, 1866, and baptised on September 20th in Sunninghill Anglican Church 

 The family home was at 11 The Terrace, next to the school his Grandfather had taught at. His father was Alfred (Alf) Charles Garner, my Great Grandfather, then living as Charles Garner. His mother was Mary Ann Garner, nee Hawthorn.

His older sisters are Clara J, born 1861, Mary Ann born 1862. (There is also William 1868, Florence 1870, Edward Ernest 1875)

By the time of the 1871 census, when Abraham John was 15, they had moved to Twenty Three and a half Lambeth High St, above the Grocers shop of Arthur Dunk, and my great-grandfather, Edward Ernest Garner, was born there on February 4th, 1875. There is lots about this time and place in my previous blog about all the other Abrahams and good old Alf.

Abraham John married Agnes Sophia Clark when he was 20 years old at St Mary's, Lambeth, on 16th May 1886. Her father is a police inspector.

Interestingly, their first child, Agnes Mary had been born on April 17th, 1886, a month

before the wedding. They are living at 1 Medford St in Westminster while he works as a ”clerk”.

The description of their lodgings is “two top-floor rooms, unfurnished at 6/6 per week,

with the landlord a Mr Colivar.”

A map of the area and a similar house still standing in Medford St below.

In 1890, Ruth Garner was born to them, the birth recorded in Islington

 The census in 1891 shows the family living at 16 Birkbeck Road, Hornsey

Abraham J Garner 24, Agnes S Garner 23, Agnes M Garner 4, Lilian S Garner 2, Ruth Garner 1

In 1893, Francis Henry Garner was born in Croydon.

In 1895, William John was born in Leytonstone

In 1897, Ernest Richard was born, also in Leytonstone

On February 12th, 1900, they are living at 1 Waddon New Road in Croydon, which was his father's address, and where Leonard George’s birth is recorded. Abraham was now working as a commercial Traveller “in Paper”.

Sadly, Abraham John’s wife Agnes Sophia died on December 11th, 1900, aged only 32. She was living in West Ham at the time of her death, presumably with the family, and was buried in Newham

April of 1901 shows the family now living at 268 Thorold Road, Ilford, coincidentally or not where there was a large papermill back then

Abraham J Garner, 34 (Widower) with

Agnes M Garner 14, Ruth Garner 11, Francis H Garner 8, William J Garner 6, Ernest R Garner 4, Leonard G Garner 1, and servant Mabel M Shea 30

In November 1901, he married again, to a widow called Mary Ann Esther Lopez, 33.

They are shown as living together at 268 Thorold Road, Ilford, before the wedding. According to the banns, he is again said to

he is still a commercial traveller

Ilford is about 3 miles from Leytonstone, where the family has previously resided.

The father of the bride is a dairyman - Stephen Williams Morrien

The 1911 census, taken in April, finds them at 18 Chatfield Road in Croydon.

This guy moves about a lot! 

In the 1921 census, we find him somewhere completely different. The family is living at Lodge Lees,

Denton, Barholm in Kent, and his occupation is described as a “smallholder, agriculture”.

 

Head Abraham John Garner         Birth Circa 1866

Wife Mary Ann Esther Garner, Birth Circa 1869

Son        Ernest Richard Garner,         Birth Circa 1897

Visitor Agnes Mary Garne,r Birth Circa 1887

Visitor Arthur Garner, Birth Circa 1890

This is Lodge Lees farmhouse, but there may have been smaller cottages in the area.

A Mr Nick Ridley, who lived in the area, wrote this about his childhood in the 1920’s in Denton as a smallholder, perhaps giving us a picture of what Abraham's life may have been like.

Where I grew up:

 Whitehall Farm was a small one, nowadays it would be a smallholding, In the 20s and 30s, we had

upwards of 4000 free-range hens based in several large wooden chicken houses. The eggs had to be

collected by hand, individually "candled", weighed, and boxed, and then were collected by a firm called

Stonegate, I think. We also supplied hotels in Folkestone with eggs and oven-ready chickens. Most of this processing work fell to my mother. To produce a bird ready for the oven, she had to kill the bird, pluck it by hand while it was still warm (easier to pluck), take out the giblets and gizzard and put them in a separate bag, singe off the bits of feather not removed in the plucking, then fold the legs in and truss it

ready for the oven. Towards the end of the 30's, the egg trade died because of cheaper imports from

France. These eggs were sold as "Calais day old". They might have only taken a day to get from Calais,

but three weeks from Poland and eastern Europe, where they had been laid. But they were cheaper!

And in 1924, he is no longer with his family or farming, puzzlingly, he is registered to vote at 37 Circus

Road, NW8, living with Mrs Jane Starkie, who had lived there alone in 1923.

She is a very rich widow, having inherited 2.5 million pounds, equivalent, on the death of her husband

Richard Stringer Starkie, who was 30 years older than her.

 

I have delved more deeply into the life of the Starkies and will post that separately - suffice to say Jane Starkie from Somerset, had an interesting life, from being a barmaid to someone who inherited chemist shops in The Strand and Travalgar Square worth £2.5 million and died only a few years later, having increased the busineses worth to £3.5 million, despite a few prosecutions - the money went to her sisters, sadly not my great uncle.

I lose track of Abraham John from 1924 to 1939, when, now retired, in September 1939, he is at

202, Brigstock Road, Croydon,

Head Abraham J Garner,         May 14, 1866, Traveller (Retired) Paper Trade

Wife Mary A E Garner         July 27  1868 Married Unpaid Domestic Duties

In 1949, Abraham John died aged 82 in "S E Surrey", probably Croydon.

I never heard his name mentioned by my parents or at any Garner gathering, and checking with my

cousin Jayne, she had also never heard of him. He certainly lived a varied and interesting life, though!