Charles Thompson & Children
Charles was one of the 3 of Richard’s children still alive when Richard died. His life cannot be easily understood from the records; he lived in at least 2 places for which there is no explanation and his first marriage looks suspiciously like a failure. He was born in 1845, lived with his parents at Bails Farm and then at Rails Farm but by 1861 was a wheelwright’s apprentice, living in Wood Green, Worplesdon. He had returned to Rails Farm by 1871, now described as a wheelwright. But in September, 1869 he had married Lucy Luff (born 1850), whose parents, William and Harriet Luff, were the tenants of Wickhams Farm since 1852 or 53 and their youngest son was born there in 1855. Although Lucy’s life appears to be relatively uneventful, that of her parents is both colourful and tragic. The effect on Lucy must have been immense, but can only be guessed at.
Lucy had been born in Kirdford in late 1849 and baptised there in January 1850. She moved with her parents to Wickhams and probably helped manage the household, because of her mother’s addiction to alcohol. However this did not prevent her from forming a relationship with Charles Thompson and when they were married in September 1869 in Pirbright she was already in an advanced state of pregnancy. Their daughter, Lily, was born soon after the marriage in December, but baptised in Richmond,Surrey in February 1870. Perhaps Charles was working there.
But in 1871 Lucy and Lily were at Wickhams Farm with her parents and Charles was with his at Rails Farm. It is possible that Lucy was needed to look after the household, but it is also possible that the marriage of Charles and Lucy was not going well. The couple had no more children and Lucy died in January 1876 and was buried in Pirbright churchyard. The church burial register describes her initially as Lucy Luff, but Luff is crossed out and Thompson written above it, as though she was known as Luff to the minister and church officials. But on her gravestone – the oldest surviving Thompson memorial in the churchyard - it is written that she was the wife of Charles Thompson. Did Charles arrange and pay for it or was it provided by her brothers? Lucy stayed in Pirbright after her father gave up the farm, though where she lived and if she looked after Lily until she died is unknown. She might have stayed with her in-laws at Rails Farm or possibly with her brother at Hode Farm. Or even with the Boyletts, future in-laws of her brother Lewis. Lewis and Rhoda Boylett named their second child Ethel Lucy. The full story of Lucy and her family can be read in the section below.
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By July 1876, just 6 months after Lucy’s death, Charles had married again, to Annie Turner (born 1846) in Paddington, London. The register says they were both living at at Edbrook Road, in the parish. The Census records provide no help in suggesting how Charles met Annie. She was born in Westerham, Kent and can be traced in 1851 and 1861 living with her mother in, respectively, Potters Bar and Lambeth, where her mother was a housekeeper. Annie’s father, Thomas, was a butler and it looks as though he lived in his place of work and his wife and children moved around to keep in contact. In 1871, before his daughter’s marriage, Thomas was working as a butler in Connaught Place, Paddington. So it’s possible he or his wife had moved to accommodation nearby by 1876. In 1871, although Annie was not living with her father, she cannot be located with any certainty. She was probably working as a domestic servant in one of several places in or around London and the most likely is Pirbright, though there is no record to suggest this. But it is hard, otherwise, to believe that Charles moved to London in the spring of 1876, met Annie and went to live with her in Edbrook Road by July. It is far more likely they met in Pirbright and formed a relationship before Lucy died.
Charles and Annie did not remain in Paddington as probably the location of the marriage was for the benefit of Annie’s father who worked nearby. By 1881 they were living on Pirbright Green, near brother William and his family, but at Vynes Cottage (once the Red Lion pub) on the other side of the Old School House. We have shown a photo of Vynes Cottage from 1908, below.
Charles now described himself as a builder. By then, they had 2 daughters, Clara Ada,1878 and Edith Anne,1881. Lily also lived with them. Later they had 2 more - Charles, 1881 and Charlotte, known as Lottie, 1884. In 1883 Henry Halsey rebuilt the cottage at Cove Bridge, where Elijah Gosden had lived, renamed it Brook House and Charles and Annie became its first tenants.
In November 1889 Annie died and soon after, in October 1890 Lily married George Parsons, recorded as an engineer in the marriage register. He gave the same occupation when their first daughter, Lily, was born in March 1891 and also their son, John, in 1893. However he was not living with Lily at Brook House at the 1891 Census so possibly he was stationed at Pirbright Camp. He came from Portland, Dorset and the family had moved there by 1903 when another son, Reginald, was born. By 1911 George worked as a quarryman, not an engineer. By 1921 he was running the Crown Inn in Portland but Lily died in 1923. George died in 1955 and both are buried in Portland.
By 1901 Clara and Edith had both moved to London and Charles had moved to Weymouth where he joined the Navy. Clara married Donald McDonald in Southwark in 1904 but cannot be traced later. Donald described himself as a quartermaster in the marriage register, so was presumably in the forces and perhaps they moved abroad. Edith died in 1903 and was buried in Pirbright. All of Charles’ service was as a coastguard and he was stationed in Weymouth, West Mersea and Gorleston where his sons were born, and Kilkee, Ireland. The latter was in 1921 and at that time his wife, Mabel and the children lived in Clacton. Later they all moved back to Dorset where Charles died in 1931 and Mabel in 1973.
So in 1901 Charles was alone apart from Lottie. For the first time in a Census Charles described himself as a wheelwright, though he had been listed as a carpenter in 1882 when his son Charles was born. By 1911, Lottie had also left but Charles was now providing a home for his nephew, Alex, his wife and their 2 foster children. We have shown a photo of Charles, right.
Lottie had married Robert Wood in 1907, a soldier at the time but who had trained as a plumber. Lottie continued to live in Brook House when their children Winifred, known as Win (1907), and Robert (1909) were born but by 1911 the family had moved to Robert’s home county of Lincolnshire. He was now an insurance agent, working in Spalding, but like many men was called into the services in 1914. He served in the Grenadier Guards but was killed shortly after arriving in France in September.
Lottie returned to Brook House but then her son, Robert, also died in 1916. Charles, her father, died in January 1919, completing a tragic 5 years for Lottie. By 1921 Lottie was still a tenant at Brook House with Winifred. But during the next 15 years the Woods created their own community at the northern end of Whites Lane, close to where it joins Chapel Lane.
Lottie purchased a plot near the corner and with Win’s help they applied for and built a house in 1931, known as Brownhatch. 2 years later, Mark Woods, Lottie’s brother in law, who was the manager of a wine and spirits company, built Woodcot next door. It is now known as Pirbright House. In 1935, Win married Derrig Gibbs, a photographer working for the army at Pirbright Camp and they were able to purchase the house opposite Brownhatch within a few months of the wedding. The house known as Bellevue had been built in 1922 and they changed its name to Roughways. Lottie moved to Roughways in 1960, aged 76 and lived there until the 1980s. She died in 1984, aged 101.
Charles is the most enigmatic of Richard’s children. Although trained as a wheelwright, he described himself up until 1901 as a builder or carpenter. Like his brother William there is no record of any involvement in village life. A photograph of him in later life shows a man who looks a bit of a rebel, with a long, unruly beard and smart cloth cap. Although all his children moved away from Pirbright he appears to have been a generous father, providing a home to 2 of his daughters when their first children were born and later to his nephew Alex. Finally, when her husband was killed in WW1, his youngest daughter moved back home and stayed until he died. But there are many queries about his first marriage to Lucy Luff. They only married when she was 6 months pregnant, lived for a short while in Pirbright, then Richmond but may never have shared a home again. His second marriage to Annie Turner was more successful but being so soon after Lucy’s death and in a part of London where neither lived leaves a lot unexplained. When he died in 1919 he was buried in Pirbright churchyard. But if he ever had a gravestone it has disappeared, leaving no trace of his existence. Maybe he would not have cared.
Lucy Thompson & Family
The oldest Thompson gravestone in Pirbright churchyard, that is still standing and legible, is that of Lucy Thompson. Lucy’s short life raises several queries but was relatively uneventful. Certainly it was nothing like as dramatic as those of her parents, William and Harriet Luff. Unfortunately the effect on Lucy of her upbringing will never be known.
William Luff (1827-1893)
Lucy’s father was William Luff, born into a farming family at Quinnell House, Kirdford, Sussex in 1827. Kirdford lies within a triangle of villages astride the Surrey/ Sussex border of Lurgashall, Alfold and Wisborough Green, each about 6 miles from each other; Loxwood is a hamlet within Wisborough Green and 2 miles south of Alfold. In the mid 1800s at least 20 heads of household in this triangle were named Luff, though the majority were in Lurgashall.
William was married in June 1844 to Harriet Saunders, when both had just turned 17 and Harriet was already 8 months pregnant with their first child, Charles. Harriet had been born in Lurgashall but worked in a grocer’s shop in Kirdford in 1841, which was very close to Quinnell House. After their marriage the couple moved to the inauspiciously named Winefield Wood Common on the edge of Lurgashall. Their son Charles was baptised in the village in July. During the next 2 years William’s father, James Luff, moved to a bigger farm in nearby Dunsfold and William was able to move back to Quinnell House, where his second son, William, was born in 1847. Quinnell House was a farm with 160 acres and employed 3 men and 2 boys according to the 1851 Census by which time a third child, Lucy had been born.
In late 1852 or 1853 William and Harriet moved to Pirbright. Another son, Lewis, was baptised in Kirdford in September 1852 but William was on the electoral roll in Pirbright in 1853 occupying buildings and land in West Heath, which were almost certainly Wickhams Farm, where he is recorded in the 1861 Census.
The mobility of farmers in the 1850s, though unusual today, was quite common in those days. In the 1851 Census Pirbright had 21 farmers, but only 4 of those had been born in Pirbright with a further 5 from the neighbouring villages of Worplesdon and Frimley. Another 8 came from within 15 miles but there was also one from Berkshire and one from Sussex. The latter was William White at Mill Farm, who had also been born in Kirdford and his sons and grandchildren in the neighbouring villages of Dunsfold and Wisborough Green. Almost certainly William White would have known William Luff’s father, and their sons would have been acquainted too. So it would seem very likely that it was William White who passed the information to William Luff that Henry Halsey was looking for a new tenant for Wickhams because Richard Honer was moving to Chobham. What prompted William and Harriet to move is less clear. But Quinnell House was no longer a farm in 1861 so it could have been that the landowner was reorganising the tenancies. Possibly, in the light of subsequent events, there might have been other issues, like debts, which made them want to leave Kirdford far behind. Certainly Wickhams was a much smaller farm (80 acres) though it also employed 3 men. So it was not a step up.
The land which formed Wickhams in 1841 is coloured yellow on the 1873 OS Map (with thanks) reproduced below. In 1841 Richard Honer, the copyholder, was the occupier and the farm was owned by the Lord of the Manor, Henry Halsey 2.
In 1865 the Pirbright Parish Officers decided to sell off various plots of land including a one-acre field next to Wickhams, shown blue on the map. See the advertisement, left, from the Surrey Advertiser (with thanks). The land must have been bought by Henry Halsey as it was part of the estate in 1919 and William Luff was already the tenant. The same year Halsey bought other land, as Wickhams was enlarged by a total of 20 acres and William Luff was granted a new 14-year tenancy.
By then the eldest sons, Charles and William had left home. Both married Pirbright women but, after a stay in Lurgashall, William (the son) was married in Wandsworth in 1872 to Harriet Harding, who had lived near Wickhams as a teenager. William stayed in West London for the rest of his life. Charles married in 1870 and he and his wife, Jane, took on a small holding of 6 acres called Hode Farm at the junction of the B4305 (Stanley Hill) and the road to Mychett (Grange Road). It was also known as Hodge or Hodds Farm and had been a farm since at least 1841. We have shown an extract from the Tithe Map of 1841 below. The farm lay on the east side of the junction and probably in 1871 comprised the fields shaded green, ie numbers 480, 482 and 483 (which are just over 6 acres in total). The farm burnt down in 1884 and as a result Charles and his family moved to his father-in-law’s on Dawneys Hill and stayed there until he died in 1901. But he must have continued to work the land at Hode Farm - and perhaps owned it. My mother and her sister, Amy, both referred to the location as “up at Charlie Luff’s.”
But some time during the next 2 years William (the father), in effect, ended his marriage to Harriet by forming a relationship with Catherine Keddie, a widow of about 35. How she came to be in Pirbright can only be guessed. She was born in 1836 in Loxwood, Sussex to Elizabeth and George Chapman. Loxwood is about 5 miles from Kirdford, but given their age difference it is unlikely that she and William knew each other from childhood. But her father, a saddler, could have had business with the Luffs.
Catherine married Peter Keddie, a gardener, born in Scotland, in Wisborough Green in 1856 and went to live in Alfold. During the 1860s they moved first to Shinfield, Berks and then to Shiplake, near Henley, Oxfordshire. Peter died in 1869, leaving Catherine with 5 children. By 1871 she was working as a paper sorter in Henley and her eldest son, William had gone to live with her parents and subsequently became a saddler.
Later that year or 1872 she decided to change her life. She arranged for her youngest son to move to her parents as well and her 2 eldest daughters to move to Scotland to live with their uncle. But her youngest daughter (aged 2) seems to have stayed with colleagues or friends in Henley. This is where she was in 1881 when she was living with Thomas Rogers, a machine operator in a paper mill, and his family. Catherine was then free to move herself and probably became a domestic servant, presumably in Pirbright and possibly at Wickhams itself. However she might have moved back to Loxwood and by chance met William at some social event in the area where both had relatives or friends.
William and Catherine’s relationship soon produced a child, Walter, who was born in Pirbright and registered in Guildford in April 1873. But they arranged for him to be baptised in Cold Waltham, Sussex in May. William must have decided at the last minute that he did not want to be recorded in the Baptism Register. In the column for parents’ Christian names was written William and Catherine, living in Pirbright. In the column for parents’ surname was written Keddie. But William was then crossed out together with some now illegible letters, which might have said Luff. In the column for occupation of father was just a squiggly line.
In July William auctioned all his livestock, farming equipment and some household furniture and some time that year assigned his tenancy to Albert Thompson. See attached Notice (right) from The Surrey Advertiser, 5 July 1873. He must have moved out immediately if the household furniture was sold. By the end of 1874 he and Catherine were in Fisherton, (in the middle of Salisbury) where they were married on 16 December. Catherine gave birth to their second son, Ernest, 2 weeks later and William is recorded erroneously as a farmer.
But the family did not stay in Salisbury as by April 1875 they were living in Battersea where Ernest was baptised. William was said to be a corn and coal merchant It is possible they were staying with William’s son, Lewis, who was probably working there by then as a gardener. However, the family did not stay long in Battersea either, as by the next baptism (Anne) in 1878, William was a grocer and licensed victualler at the Bell and Bottle in Shinfield, where Catherine had lived with her first husband 10 years earlier. Each of William’s 3 children by his first marriage who married after 1873 - the first of which was in 1876 - gave their father’s occupation in the Marriage Register as grocer or greengrocer. So he was probably at the Bell and Bottle by then. But the children clearly stayed in touch with their father. Indeed his new wife, now calling herself Kate, was (years later) a witness at the wedding of her stepdaughter, Ada.
By 1891 William and Kate had moved to a different pub in Shinfield, the Royal Oak. William died in 1893 and his gravestone can still be seen in Shinfield churchyard. Kate may have stayed in Shinfield for a while but by 1901 she was living with her stepson, William, in Teddington. 10 years later she had her own flat in the Guinness Buildings in Hammersmith. She died in Greenwich Hospital in 1922.
In 1871 William’s 2 younger sons Lewis and Arthur, were working on the farm. There was also his second daughter Ada. So his abandonment of the farm would have made them all, as well as Harriet, homeless. Lewis, by then 21, may have moved to Battersea and he was certainly living there in 1876. But he would have needed time to find work and, unless he moved in with Charles, he may have had a short stay at Duchies Cottage next to Rails Farm, the home of Henry Boylett. Henry may have worked for Richard Thompson on Rails Farm. His daughter, Rhoda, certainly knew Lewis and they were married in Battersea in September 1876. The couple maintained their link with Pirbright as both their first 2 children were not only baptised there but their births were recorded at the Guildford register. Lewis remained a gardener in Battersea for the rest of his life and died there in 1901.
Arthur Luff, 18 in 1873, was also old enough to fend for himself and he too became a gardener in London. By 1901 he was running his own business, Heathersett Nursery, in Wimbledon. He had been a witness at his brother’s wedding in 1876 together with his future wife, Emily Turner. Perhaps he and Lewis stayed somewhere together until both had work. Emily was from Norfolk but had been working as a servant in Lambeth in 1871 and married Arthur in 1881.
But Ada was only 14, though old enough to be employed as a domestic servant. If so, this could have been in Guildford, where, in 1879 she married Edward Harnes. They were living together at Edward’s parents and as mentioned above, Ada’s stepmother, Kate, was a witness. By 1881 however, they had their own home nearby and a son, Frederick, had been born in 1880. Also with them was a Jessie Thompson, born in Guildford, aged 3 and therefore born before Ada was married. Jessie was listed as a boarder not a daughter, though the word “stepdaughter” appears against Ada’s name. Clearly Edward had trouble completing the Census form accurately, as he had in signing the Marriage register 2 years earlier.
By 1891 Jessie had become the couple’s daughter and was called Harnes. It is possible that Jessie had been born to a Thompson family in Guildford, became an orphan and was then adopted by Ada and Edward just after their son was born. But it is more likely that Jessie’s father was a Pirbright Thompson, possibly someone with whom Ada had stayed after she had to leave Wickhams in 1873. An obvious candidate was John Thompson, youngest son of Richard Thompson of Rails Farm, as Ada may have stayed there or next door at Duchies Cottage. However, his brother, Charles, who was also living there, could not be ruled out. Jessie’s birth was never registered under either Thompson or Harnes and she was not baptised either. Ada went on to have other children with Edward, lived in various places in Guildford and Worplesdon and died in 1922.
But the effect was greatest on Harriet. She probably went to live either with Charles or Lucy as she definitely stayed in the village. But dependence for survival on her children meant she had no money for alcohol, unless William had given her some of the proceeds of the sale of Wickham’s assets. If so the money had run out by the autumn of 1874 and, in despair, Harriet drowned herself in the Basingstoke Canal. See report from the Surrey Advertiser, left.
Lucy Thompson
Finally, to Lucy herself. She was born Lucy Luff in Kirdford in late 1849 and baptised in January 1850. After moving with her parents to Wickhams, she married Charles Thompson in September 1869 when already in a late stage of pregnancy. Their daughter, Lily, was born on 28 December 1869 but was baptised in Richmond, Surrey, where perhaps Charles was working. By 1871 Lucy and Lily were at Wickhams, possibly on a semi- permanent basis, and Charles was back with his parents at Rails Farm. Lucy had no more children so there is no evidence that she ever lived with Charles again. However, she must have needed a new home after July 1873 and this could have been Rails Farm or with her brother at Hode Farm.
Lucy died in January 1876 and was buried in Pirbright on the 25th. The Burial Register recorded her as Lucy Luff, but later Luff was crossed out and Thompson written above it. It would seem that she was known as Luff even to the minister or church officials. Charles Thompson remarried only 6 months after Lucy’s burial to Annie Turner. The wedding was in Edbrook Road, Paddington, where, it is recorded, both were living. But it seems unlikely that Charles moved to London in February 1876, met Annie, moved in with her and married in July. They did not stay at Edbrook Road but moved back to Pirbright and it is more likely that Annie had been working as a servant in Pirbright, met Charles there and that their relationship began before Lucy’s death. The wedding in Paddington was to make it easy for Annie’s father to attend as he was a live-in butler nearby. However it is also possible that Lucy was ill in her final 5 years and this is why she was at Wickhams in 1871 and why she and Charles had no more children. Another straw in the wind is that Lewis and Rhoda did not get married until after she died. If Lucy had been staying with the Boyletts at Duchies Cottage, not Rails Farm, then Rhoda might have been looking after her.
So many possibilities and queries, none of them answerable 150 years later.