(also Garrod, Garwood, Garward, Garrard, Grood etc. and seen misread as eg Garrond, Ganwood, Garreed, Wood, Yarrod)
New page written 2014 but uploaded 16 April 2016
This line can be found in the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) in the early 19th century, though it may have been from elsewhere shortly before that, and certainly our branch moved to London and spent the second half of the 19th century and early 20th gradually migrating from the centre of the city into the northern suburbs as they expanded.
Many thanks are due to another researcher related to the line, Norman Torrington, who did the Jersey research before me, put me on to the sources and has been patient with me catching up.
6. Francis (prob b around 1791, d perhaps about 1830s) and Rachel (b early 1790s, living 1841) of St Helier, Jersey (and later St Peter Port, Guernsey). Rachel had been a MALLET More
5. Francis Thomas (b abt 1819, d 1866) and Ellen (b about 1830, d probably 1913). Ellen had been a STEVENS. More
4. Francis Henry (1858-1940) and Lizzie Leah (born 1860, d perhaps 1954) of East Finchley (she had been a COOPER and as a widow lived at St Albans). More
3. Gwendoline Olive (1901-97) of north London, Brighton, Devon and Kent. Gwendoline married Edward Colin ROBINSON. More
Francis GARROOD was born about 1791 (based on an age he gave in 1815, when the men of the island were listed for a military muster). We have been unable to find his exact birth or baptism details, which makes us think it probably happened elsewhere than Jersey.
Francis married Rachel MALLET in 1813 in St Helier, Jersey. We think Rachel may have been a local girl, though we haven't pinned her origins down yet. She was probably about his age, within a few years - census suggests up to 5 years younger, but the most likely baptisms for her that I've spotted so far are a bit older. They had the following children (with baptismal dates, all St Helier):
Esther E. 1814
John Francis 1817
Francis Thomas 1819
Stephen 1821
Rachel Ann 1822
George Henry 1824
Francis, the father, was a carpenter, as described on the marriage certificates of his sons Francis and Stephen in the 1850s.
The family remained on Jersey until at least 1828, when they buried John Francis in St Helier - he can only have been about 11.
Rachel the mother, Esther, Stephen, young Rachel and George are living in 1841 in St Peter Port, Guernsey. Rachel senior is working as a laundress, and Esther an ironer. Stephen is a tailor, young Rachel a shoe binder, and George an apprentice shoe maker. The missing family members are Francis Thomas, then about 22 (he is mysterious as a young man, perhaps with good reason, but turns up again in maturity as discussed in his own section below), and Francis snr (speculation about what became of him is in the research notes at the end of this section).
After 1841 Rachel the mother hasn't been found (again see research notes at the end of this section). Of the children she had lived with in 1841, Esther and Rachel are living together (Esther unmarried and the head of the household, Rachel apparently listed as married but with her maiden name, and at least on census night without any husband or children present) at another address in St Peter Port. They have the same jobs they did in 1841. Esther is still an unmarried ironer in 1861 living as a boarder with another St Peter Port family - she after 1861 and Rachel after 1851 are untraced.
For information on Stephen and George as adults I'm relying very largely on Norman Torrington:
Stephen continued as a tailor, being found in Leeds in 1851. He married Sarah Ann RICE in Bethnal Green, London, in 1853, lived in Camberwell, south London, in 1861 and 71 (at different addresses), and died in central London in 1877. He and Sarah had children of their own.
George Henry married Jane BUDDEN in St Peter Port in 1848, had a son with her very shortly after, and was found in that town in the 1851 census - a shoemaker proper by then. The following year he was in London at least temporarily, witnessing the marriage of his brother Francis Thomas. George and Jane baptised their son in 1860 in Camberwell and by 1861 were living in the parish of St Sepulchre (both in London). George Henry died a couple of years after that. Jane his widow survived him by a good forty years and remarried twice, in Lancashire, dying in Cheshire in 1904.
Research notes:
Francis snr has not been found in the 1841 or any other census, so my guess is that he may well have died by 1841. 1824 is an approximate earlier bound on his death, as he must have been alive to father George and I would think there should have been a note in the register if he had been dead by the baptism. His burial does not appear in the comprehensive online parish register transcripts for Jersey, which makes me think he probably left the island alive. On the assumption that he did so with the rest of his family, that would have been in or after 1828, placing his death in or near the 1830s and probably in Guernsey. However, he may have parted from the family in some way, in which case he could have died anywhere, any time from 1824 onwards. He might have survived past 1841 but evaded the census or become difficult to find in it somehow - his son Francis evidently did.
It also seems a reasonable first guess that Rachel his wife died on Guernsey, though in this case it would have been after 1841. Likewise Rachel junior after 1851 and Esther after 1861. If any of them left the island they may be traceable with wider census searching. Assuming they died on Guernsey, I either need to visit the island, employ a local researcher, or hope some genealogy hero digitises those registers too.
I will look more closely for Rachel senior's baptism on Jersey, perhaps with some clues among her children's godparents. Francis senior's birth seems like a difficult quest, with no birthplace, only a single given age, and all the variant names possible.
I also ought to check up on who the George GARROOD might have been registering Francis Thomas's death in 1866 - FT's brother George Henry is thought to have died before that - look on NT's site for a cousin, check out the address (11 [Sl?]enner's Road, Mile End) in the 1861 and 71 censuses.
As noted above, Francis was born in (or at least by) 1819 in St Helier, Jersey. He would therefore have been over 21 by the time of the 1841 census, and he seems to have left home before then - his mother and siblings appear in Guernsey without him. He hasn't been traced in this or in the 1851 censuses, and what he got up to as a young man is a bit of a mystery. There is a clue that he had at least one early child, either by an unknown first marriage or illegitimately; this is detailed in the research notes at the end of this section.
What we do know is that he married Ellen STEVENS in 1852 in Bethnal Green, east London. Ellen was 23, and originally from Wiltshire. Francis was 33, counting from his baptism, but claimed only 30. The marriage was witnessed by George Henry, Francis's brother; Francis gave his father as Francis Garrood, carpenter, just like his other brother Stephen when he in turn married in Bethnal Green the following year (both of these points tend to make me confident that the 1819 Jersey baptism, part of the sequence to Francis and Rachel, is the right one for our Francis despite the age discrepancy).
I wonder slightly why they married in Bethnal Green - perhaps it was the sort of place they lived as migrants to London and may have been where they met. They don't seem to have had a long-established residence there; both of them gave their addresses at marriage as Austin Street, no number. Neither of them shows up looking through the whole return for Austin Street in the 1851 census, but there are quite a few lodgers (including 9 at the same pub who apparently stayed only a single night and gave none of their details to the census enumerator...), so the demographics are right either for them to have been lodging there for a year or so, or for it to have been just a short stop for them or even just a fictional address conveniently difficult to disprove.
Their first child, Frederick, was born within about a year of the marriage (registered in the first quarter of 1853, either Frederick GARROD, Holborn, 1b 394 or Frederick William GARROOD, Holborn, 1b 405).
By about 1855 they were in the St Pancras district of London (at least in 1858 and 61 at 32 Manchester Street in the Grays Inn Road area), where they had three more children:
Ellen Elizabeth about 1855 (Births Mar 1856 GARROOD Ellen Elizabeth St Pancras 1b 64)
Francis Henry 1858
Ernest Stephen 1863 (Births Sep 1863 GARROOD Ernest Stephen Pancras 1b 69)
Francis Thomas was a shoe maker by trade (also, in various sources, master shoe maker, clog maker, boot maker or master bootmaker). However, he contracted tuberculosis and in 1866 he died of bronchitis caused by the TB, leaving Ellen with four children aged from about thirteen down to about three. He died at 68 Cromer Street so I infer that that is where the family were living at the time; it was also in the Grays Inn Road sub-district.
Ellen and the children seem then to have lived in reduced circumstances: in the 1871 census they are in a house (11 Judd Street, Marylebone ward) occupied by 31 people in at least 4 separate households. Considering some of the other houses in the street were occupied by just a small family, I surmise that this must have been a pretty crowded dwelling and Ellen and her four children (aged 7 to 18) may have shared just a room or two. All but young Ernest had taken jobs - mother and daughter were both cartridge makers (as in ammunition, I think), and the two older lads errand boys.
In 1881 things look a bit better for them. They are in a house (27 Harrison Street) with only half as many people living there, and they are the first-listed household so may have had the main accommodation. They seem to have more skilled jobs: Ellen senior worked now as a percussion cap maker (perhaps reflecting a specialism of her previous industry?), Ellen junior at 25 was a machinist, Francis at 22 a fancy leather worker (portmanteau), and Ernest now 17 a smith. Frederick had left home. They also had a 15-year-old youth as a boarder.
In 1891 the two remaining boys had also left Ellen, and she, and her daughter Ellen Elizabeth who was now 34, were with another family called MATTHEWS at 17 Acton Street, also in the St Pancras district. Richard MATTHEWS was a coach builder; he lived also with his wife, two young adult children with jobs, and an adult nephew also working. Our two were also related to the MATTHEWSes, as detailed in the research notes below.
In 1901 mother and daughter are still together, at 44 Swinton Street (again in the St Pancras district). This is inhabited by a cabinet maker, John Ridley, his wife and two young children, and what look like four other (sub-)tenants, all elderly and/or widowed, and one also with an adult relative of the next generation down, as well as Ellen and Ellen Elizabeth. According to Norman Torrington Ellen Elizabeth died in 1905, and in 1911 Ellen her mother was living in Islington to the north of London proper (43 Huntingdon Street, Barnsbury, in fact) but I don't have access to the details of that census at the moment.
Ellen herself looks likely to have died in 1913 (Deaths Dec 1913 GARREED Ellen 84 Islington 1b 423) - there's no other death registration in the index of the right name and age in London north of the river between 1901 and 1940.
What of the other children? Thanks to Norman Torrington for these: Frederick had become a cabinet maker himself by 1891, settling in Islington and marrying Mary Ann PORTER in 1893. They did not have known children, and seem to have remained in Islington until at least 1905 when Frederick died. Francis Henry is detailed below. Ernest Stephen married Jane MARTIN in 1887, and went into the leather luggage trade like his older brother Francis, being described as fancy leather worker and trunk maker (foreman). He and Jane migrated north to Clerkenwell, then Islington and finally Hendon, where he died in 1926.
Research notes: in 1891, Ellen (Francis' widow) Ellen Elizabeth (his daughter) relate to their landlord Richard MATTHEWS as 'Mother in Law' and 'Wife Sister' respectively. Now, 'in law' can be used for 'step' in old records, so 'mother in law' is a bit vague, but 'wife sister' seems quite specific. Mrs MATTHEWS is Caroline, aged 52 in 1891 - only about 8 years younger than Ellen. So she isn't Ellen's daughter, which suggests she's Francis's daughter by a previous relationship, and therefore technically Ellen Elizabeth's half sister. Ellen would be to Richard his wife's (half) sister's mother, which I guess you could simplify to 'mother in law'.
So I went looking for Caroline's birth, to see if that could shed light on Francis's doings in his youth. The 1891 and earlier censuses suggest she was born between 1837 and 1839 in Holborn/St Pancras, London. There is a Caroline GARWOOD that fits that time frame (Q1 1838, GARWOOD Caroline, Whitechapel 2 431), but censuses for that name, age and birthplace suggest strongly that she's the daughter of a clergyman called John GARWOOD who is no known relation.
So what was Caroline MATTHEWS's maiden name? Searching for her mariage to Richard suggests it was in 1859 and her maiden name was EVANS (Q2 1859, Richard MATTHEWS to Caroline Leah EVANS, Pancras 1b 170). Putting that surname into Caroline's birth search gives one in 1838 in Bloomsbury district (Q3 1838, EVANS Caroline Leah, Bloomsbury 1 72), which is about right for what we were looking for initially and looks perfect for the wife of Richard MATTHEWS. So, ultimately I should get that birth certificate to see if there's any father given.
Francis Henry GARROOD was a leather worker (or fancy leather worker, later a manager in a fancy leather works). I’m told by relatives he was under 5 feet tall.
He married Lizzie Leah COOPER in 1882 in the parish church of St Peter Regents Square in London. Francis had been living in the district with his widowed mother up to this point. Lizzie, though born in Bloomsbury, was living in Dalston, further east in London.
They had the following children - the birthplaces as given in censuses may give clues as to residence at the time of the births, but changes in parish boundaries around South Hornsey/Stoke Newington about this time make it difficult to know quite what they mean:
Francis Henry 1884, Hackney (Births Dec Q 1884 GARROOD Francis Henry, Hackney 1b 535)
Edith Alice 1886, South Hornsey/Stoke Newington (Births Mar Q 1887 GARROOD Edith Alice, Edmonton 3a 256)
Grace Eva 1890, South Hornsey/Stoke Newington (Births Mar Q 1890 GARROOD Grace Eva, Edmonton 3a 289)
(in the 1891 census they appear at 14 Albion Terrace in the civil parish of Edmonton, also with Lizzie's sister, Carry?)
Elsie Leah 1893, Islington (Births Sep Q 1893 GARROOD Elsie Leah, Islington 1b 305)
Evelyn, 1898, Stoke Newington (Dec Q 1898 GARROOD Evelyn, Edmonton 3a 320)
(in the 1901 census they are on Bedford Road in East Finchley)
Gwendoline Olive, later in 1901 at the same address (Births Sep Q 1901 GARROOD Gwendoline Olive, Barnet 3a 360
Frank junior apparently left home on bad terms somehow and became a taboo subject. I think I may have seen him in a search result in the 1911 census in which case his full name was also Francis Henry. At least two of the girls as well as Gwendoline had descendants of their own.
Francis senior lived until 1940 - according to Norman Torrington they were at Bedford Road then as well.
Research notes: Confirm Francis’ death in official records; find Lizzie’s; ultimately get birth certificates
Gwendoline was born on 14 July 1901. She grew up in East Finchley, at 58 Bedford Road. She married when she was 21, to Edward Colin ROBINSON (known as Colin), a commercial clerk living in Kentish Town, 7 years Gwendoline’s senior, on 21 March 1923 at Barnet register office. Colin and Gwendoline, with the two children they had, lived together for about 20 years in the same area (again, perhaps the same house), until Colin died of TB in 1944 – details of their life on his page.
I have some details of Gwendoline’s later life from family members. She did some form of childminding in the early years of her first widowhood. In the early 1950s she and her younger child lived in a flat on the High Road in North Finchley.
After that, I think, she married a Joseph ADAMS, with whom she lived in Muswell Hill, back in East Finchley, and then in Brighton. He died in the early to mid 1960s, and in her second and more elderly widowhood she lived with her sister Gracie in Devon, then in Kent, first in sheltered housing and then a residential home. She died aged 95 on 14 February 1997 and was buried in Brighton, I think with her second husband.
She was described as ‘a neat little lady’.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.