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Previous: Section 31:
Lewis & Mardlin
Section 32 : Wallis,
Gurnett & Huestice
Chapter xx
The siblings of Mary Ann Wallis
Mary Ann WALLIS was my great-great-grandmother and the wife of John Thomas BRUSH. This section looks at her siblings. She was the oldest and had xx younger brothers and sisters, the children of George Gurnett WALLIS, a Dyer, and Mary nee HUESTICE.
The fullest listing of the family is the 1851 census George, wife Mary, and their children are at 10 Graham Street in Westminster.
(a composite image of the 1851 entry from two pages)
This 1851 record shows:
Mary Ann age 19, with no listed occupation, born in Camberwell, Surrey
George age 17, a Shop boy, born in Southwark, Surrey
John age 15, Errand Boy, born Southwark,
Elizabeth age 10 born Blackfriars in Middlesex,
Susanna age 8 born in St Margaret's Westminster,
son Wm (presumably William, as is confirmed in 1861) age 6 born Chelsea,
son James age 3 born Chelsea
Henry age 1 born Pimlico
When this listing is combined with the 1841 census three questions are raised. Neither George nor John appear in the 1841 census - at which time they would have been 7 and 5. >Thomas, age 5 in 1841, does not appear in the 1851 listing.
It is perfectly possible that Thomas had died in the intervening ten years or that he had begun employment by age 15 and was living elsewhere. Another possibility is that Thomas and John are one and the same person. This is the answer reached in some trees published in Ancestry. As discussed below, we know that George had two forenames so he could have been named John Thomas or Thomas John.
George however is more of a puzzle. The same Ancestry trees assert that at 1841 he was living, age , in the Limehouse workhouse with a sister Frances age . In the absence of any other evidence I am doubtful about this suggestion.
Mary Ann is discussed in section 32.A
Elizabeth age 1 in 1841 is baptised on 18 September 1842 at St John the Evangelist's in Lambeth, on the same day as her younger sister Susannah. Their address is given as Greys Inn Place, Pimlico. She married on 4 Jan 1865 at the Register office in Westminster. This information comes from the Ancestry tree of Molly Wallis who clearly has access to the certificate: "Both list their address as 14 Tachbrook Street. His profession is listed as 'Gentleman' she has none listed. Witnesses are Susannah Lydia Wallis and Mary Wallis. He confirms his father as Thomas Waring - Gentleman MXE 883244". More detail about her children, homes and death are at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/10490779/person/-258447509/facts George appears age 17 in the 1851 census which lists him as . He marries in 1857 to Emma Buffett. The certificate shows that his full name, like his father's, was George Gurnett WALLIS. His wife's address at Westbourne street is literally just around the corner from the Wallis home at Graham Street. His address is given as College Street, which was renamed early in the 20th century as Elystan Street.
College Street seems to have been part of a spate of early
19th century building on what had been Chelsea Common.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp51-60 The area was comprehensivly redeveloped sweeping away
'small crowded houses' to create a Sutton Trust estate. We know so little of our ancestors yet, bizarrly, we know from the Vestry report for 1861 that George and family had their Dust, Ashes and other refuse collected by cart on a Thursday. That document also gives us the fascinating piece of trivia that "Each dustman will wear a badge bearing a number, and in case of impropriety of conduct on the part of any of the men employed, notice, with particulars of the circumstances, should be sent to this office: Vestry Hall, King’s-road." A notice issued in October 1860. 'By order' Charles Lahee, Vestry Clerk.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43559/43559-h/43559-h.htm
By 1911 George is living with his son...... This photo, originating from
Patrica Iddom is said to be of George Gurnett
Wallis junior. If it is him and his wife Emma and
two daughters it must be somewhere around 1877-87. John
Henry age 1 in 1851, so born 1849/50
James age 3 in 1851, so born 1847/48
Next: Section 32
Chapter X xxxx
For some reason I do not know, my notes also include the following apparently unconnected piece of information: On 26th July 1860, Thomas CRAPPER married Maria Green at Trinity Church in Chelsea; they were both 23 years of age. Maria was a cousin of Thomas and also a childhood sweetheart who in her young days attended a private residential school for girls in Norfolk. They set up home at 3 Marlborough Cottages, College Street, Chelsea. http://www.plumberscompany.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-Thomas-Crapper-article-pdf.pdf