Essex Upsons

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 21^st 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 11^th 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 27^th 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 21^st May 1888.

Soon after they were married Elizabeth became pregnant and on 1^st 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 24^th February 1919. An inquest was held on 27^th 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 15^th 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.