Essex Upsons
Mystery
shrouds the origins of my great x2 grandfather, Charles Upson. He was born in
around 1865 yet despite extensive searching, I’ve never found his birth
certificate. Later documents are full of contradictions with regards to his
early life and it seems that Charles himself never knew his father and possibly
his mother neither. It is unfortunate that we do not know what happened during
the first years of young Charles’s life, but what we do know is that he was
eventually sent away to live with his grandparents.
Charles’s
grandparents were George and Charlotte Upson. George was an agricultural
labourer from the Essex village of Fryerning and Charlotte, born Charlotte March,
was from Stock, also in Essex. It is believed the couple had settled in South
Weald in the early 1840s. George was an agricultural labourer, but
must have been a skilled rick thatcher as he won a 10s prize at an agricultural
fair in 1849. The following decade saw a couple of brushes with the law. On 21st
July 1854, he appeared before Mr Walford at the crown court summer assizes accused
of stealing a cart-load of manure. He was acquitted, but he found himself in
trouble again the following year. This time he was accused of stealing a deer
belonging to C.T. Tower, the lord of the manor and resident of Weald Hall. The
article below from the Chelmsford Chronicle describes the case:
He was
found “not guilty”, but the two incidents must have damaged his reputation. Nevertheless,
it appears that life returned to normal. In 1861, he was living at a cottage in
Green Lane with his wife and 6 of their children. According to the 1871 census
the family lived in a cottage in South Weald, Essex. At that time, the
six-year-old Charles was a schoolboy and shared his grandparents’ house with
his uncle James (aged 25) and three other grandchildren: Charlotte Upson (aged
12), William Upson (aged 8) and Charlotte Parry (aged 4). As well as learning to read and write Charles
would have been expected to work in the fields undertaking light physical work
and clearing stones. His grandparents probably brought him up as if he was one
of their own children.
It appears
that by the end of the 1870s George and Charlotte were struggling financially
and had appealed to the Billericay Union for relief. It then appears that the
Union tried to recover some of these costs from two of George’s sons. On 11th
March 1879 magistrates ordered George Upson, a retired police constable and
Joseph Upson, serving in the Metropolitan Police to both pay 2s per week
upkeep. George sadly passed away in December 1879 and was laid to rest at St
Peter’s Church, South Weald on 27th December. With his grandfather’s
death, Charles and his grandmother went to live with his uncle John in nearby
Havering.
According
to the 1881 census; Charles, his uncle John and aunt Eliza lived at a cottage
on the Pyrgo Park estate. Charles lived there with his cousins Emily, Charlotte
and Charles; his grandmother and his younger sister Harriet. Both Charles and
his uncle worked as general labourers and were employed by the then owner of
Pyrgo Park, Lieutenant General Albert Fytche.
The Lieutenant General lived at Pyrgo Park house with his wife and an
army of servants comprising a butler, a footman, a coachman, a groom, a cook,
upper housemaid, under housemaid and kitchen maid.
The house
dated from 1852 and had been built on the site of an earlier house that had
fallen into disrepair. It was built in a neo-classical and Palladian style.
Further alterations in 1862 had given the front of the house a tower that rose
above the roofline. There was also a domed pavilion that was connected to the
left hand side of the house. The house was built in white brick with Portland
stone for the columns and dressings. On the inside the house boasted its own
gasworks and private chapel. The grounds surrounding the house were extensively
landscaped and the surrounding land encompassed several farms which brought the
overall size of the estate to 600 acres.
The 1880s
were a period of hardship in the rural community. A series of wet summers and
bad harvests combined with cheaper grain, meat and wool imports resulted in an
agricultural depression. Essex was one of the worst hit regions. By 1887,
Lieutenant-General Fytche had seen enough and decided to sell up. It seems
probable that the servants, staff, tenant farmers and labourers all lost their
livelihoods and were turned off the land.
Charles,
now aged 22, moved to the nearby town of Ilford and found work as a milk
vendor. It was probably whilst he was out working on his milk round that he met
Elizabeth Crabb. She was from the village of Lambourne and was the daughter of
the parish sexton. Charles and Elizabeth were married at Lambourne parish
church on 21st May 1888.
Soon after
they were married Elizabeth became pregnant and on 1st March 1889
she gave birth to a baby son. They named their son Charles James Upson. At the
time of his birth they were living at 11 Brandon Grove, Ilford and Charles was
still employed as a milk vendor. Three years later, at the time of the 1891
census, they had moved across the River Roding to 7 Southborough Road, Little
Ilford. Charles was still working as a milkman. At that time, Little Ilford was
expanding rapidly and it is likely that they moved into a newly-built house.
Over the next few years the village was eventually absorbed into Manor Park.
During the
rest of the 1890s Charles and Elizabeth’s family grew. Wilfred Owen Upson was
born in spring 1894 and was followed by Arthur Upson in early 1897 and Albert
Edward Upson in summer 1899. Another son, George Upson, was born in 1895 but he
did not survive. By the time of the 1901 census, Charles and his family had
moved to 29 Park Cottages, Ley Street, Ilford. Elizabeth was pregnant once
again and she gave birth to Rose Ellen Upson in the autumn of that year. By now
Charles had ceased to be a milkman and was now working as a jobbing gardener.
Three years
later, in summer 1904, Elsie Maud Upson was born. Charles and his family
remained in Ley Street and according to the 1911 census, they lived at no 63
which may well have been the same house as in 1901 but had been renumbered. The
family of eight shared a house with just four rooms which would have included a
kitchen, living room and bedrooms. Rather cosy, but nothing like as crowded as
some tenements in the East End.
War broke
out in August 1914 and dragged on for over four years. With many young men
overseas fighting in the trenches, there were vacancies in the factories for
women and older men. It seems likely that Charles gave up his gardening work
and went to work in the factories. He may have worked for the war effort
between 1914 and 1918, but what is certain is that he ended up working for
Jurgens. Jurgens manufactured margarine and they had a factory in Purfleet
beside the main London to Southend railway line. Charles was employed there as
a process worker.
Charles
died whilst working at the factory on 24th February 1919. An inquest
was held on 27th February and concluded that the cause of his death
was an attack of angina. Charles wife, Elizabeth, lived on for another decade
before succumbing to bronchial pneumonia on 15th February 1929. She
had spent the last years of her life at 16 Francis Avenue, Ilford and had
suffered from arthritis. Her daughter Ellen Maud Upson was present at her
death.
