The Children of Charles (2) Powell & Ann Lewis

Charles and Ann had 4 boys and 1 girl, Charles Glifford, Mary Ann, James Daniel, John Lewis, Alfred William plus mystery William born 3 years after Charles (2) died.  John Lewis, my great grandfather will be discussed in a future post.

Charles(3) Glifford (b. 1847), the first son and only child born in London.  As an adult he had a bakery in Abergavenny, raised his family at #15 Victoria Street and became a baker. 

The 1871 census shows Charles (3) living in a small town called Usk (which is about 10 miles away from Abergavenny).  He was lodging with and working for Ellen Jenkins who was a grocer and baker.  Emma Pinner was a servant in a house in Usk on the same census.  Charles(3) Glifford married Emma Pinner in 1874.  

By the 1881 census Charles and Emma were living at #15 Victoria Street.  He was listed as a baker and confectioner with two children - Charles(4) and Frederick.  In the 1891 census they are still at #15 and he is listed as "baker on own account" (self employed).  Four children are now with them - Charles (4) "bakers assistant", Frederick, William and Florence.

 

#15 & #18 Victoria Street have both been converted to homes

 
 John spoke very highly and humourously about his brother Charley.

“My brother Charley has just come in from the bake-house and tells me to give kind regards to you and says that he would accommodate you with the best room in the house.”

“Charley is very stout and he got a heavy fall full length into a hole.  I told him it was like a lump of dough falling into a bin.  Well we had to get down into a ravine, climb over a gate and wall, and then over another spike-topped gate before we could get into Blaenanon.  There were a few spikes out on the top sufficient for me to get over, but not for my brother.  I got over and there he was walking up and down inside trying to find a place to get over.  I thought I should have split laughing and when he did attempt it was so ludicrous that I was quite sore from laughing at the figure he cut.  He laughed himself also.”

 

 Recipes from Charley Powell

Thanks to a descendant of Charley's I do have a copy of his death certificate and know that he died from diabetes in 1897.  His death was reported by Emma Watkins, the 1895 Kelly's directory of Monmouthsire mentions a Samuel Watkins, a baker of 20 Victoria Street.  Were Emma and Samuel husband and wife?  Was Samuel learning the trade from Charley? or brought in to help as a result of Charley's illness?

Near his mother Ann's grave is Charley's stone:

In loving memory of Charles Glifford Powell

of this town (Baker)

died Nov. 1st 1897 aged 50 years.

"Thy will be done"

 
 
Charles death left Emma, his wife, with the care of their 4 children, a bakery to run and a mother-in-law who was described in the 1901 census as an “imbicile”(1).  The family was now living at #18-20 Victoria Street and Emma was listed as a baker and shopkeeper - her sons Charles and William are both bakers; Fredrick and Florrie are there as well. 

In 1905 Charles(4) John Powell married Lottie Agnes Hill.  The 1911 census shows Charles(4) and Lottie are living at #18-20 Victoria St.  He is a "baker at home" (self employed).

Daughter Mary Ann Powell was born in 1850, in Haverfordwest.  She married William Davies Credginton[2] in 1868.  He was a carpenter from the estate of Ruperra Castle[3].  Ruperra is about 26 miles from Abergavenny.  Mary Ann died in 1870, possibly in childbirth or shortly thereafter.

Name:	Mary Ann Credgington
Gender:	Female
Burial Date:	3 Aug 1870
Burial Place:	Machen, Monmouth, England

By the 1871 census, William was a widow with a very young daughter, Mary Ann.  Fortunately young Mary Ann was with her grandmother, Ann Powell, during the recording of the 1881 census.  With an unusual name like Credlinton I thought the search for Mary Ann and her husband would be simple.  I was wrong – the variation of spelling has been a challenge – Credlinton, Credgington, Credginton, Credjinton, Crudgington.  

 I have not been able to ascertain what eventually happened to Mary Ann, the daughter, but she married John William B. Burns in 1891. 

John Burns WW1 pension records confirm that his wife was Mary Ann Credginton.
 
Mary Ann's father remarried another Ann[4] and raised a large family in the Newport area.

In 1884 John Lewis visited Mary Ann’s daughter and widowed husband, again, this information came from one of John Lewis Powell’s letters back to Sarah Oakley:

“I was down upon Monday to a place called Ruperra Castle, seeing my brother-in-law about my niece, and after that went over to a place called Tydee to see my father's sister.  It was a lovely day and the country was looking very beautiful.  How much I did wish that you were with me that you may enjoy the beautiful scenery of this country.  Ruperra is about 26 miles from my home and it was there my sister used to live and she married a carpenter off the estate.” 

James Daniel Powell was born in Haverfordwest in 1851.  He eventually went to Sheffield, England where he owned and operated a Plumbing and Gas-fitting store.  Both he and his wife passed away in the 1920’s. 

James Daniel in front of his store in Sheffield

     Alfred William Powell was born in 1856 in Haverfordwest.  By the 1871 census Alfred’s occupation was listed as tailors trimmer.  In that same census, Edward Lewis, tailor and his wife Mary, a dressmaker, lived next door.  Edward may have been Ann’s brother and perhaps this is who Alfred was apprenticed to.  In the 1881 census Alfred was still living at home.  I have not been able to find him in later census records, nor did John Lewis mention Alfred in his letters.  A family story related to me was that one of John’s brothers was coming to Canada to see him, but was killed in a train accident.  Could this be what happened to Alfred?

     William Powell, was born in 1861, the only child born in Abergavenny.  He was 1 month old at the time of the 1861 census and his mother was a widow.  Unless this was an error, Charles could not be the father of this child.  William was not listed in any further census returns.  There was a burial for William Powell of Byefield Lane aged 10 months on 11 Jan 1862 at St. Mary's Church.  No gravestone was discovered and chances are Ann was too poor to afford one.  I did send for young Williams death certificate which confirmed that his mother was Ann.  This child remains a mystery.

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[1]Meaning infirmities of old age that make an old person like a child, and was a legal term for physical and mental incapacity in old age. (http://studymore.org.uk/mhhglo.htm#imbecile)

[2] The Crudgingtons take their name from the small village of Crudgington, in Shropshire, England http://websfor.me.uk/crudgington/home/home.asp?A710

[3] Ruperra Castle was built in 1626 by Sir Thomas Morgan, who was knighted by King James 1st.  After being destroyed by fire in 1785 the castle was rebuilt and the original gables replaced by battlements. In 1875 Captain Godfrey Charles Morgan, of the Charge of the Light Brigade fame became Lord Tredegar and during the 19th Century the eldest son of the Tredegar family lived at Ruperra which saw its heyday as a great Victorian country estate with historic gardens and parklands.

[4] Some trees on Ancestry have attached the children from the second Ann to the first Ann.  John’s letter records that his sister died after the birth of her first child.