Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Harry Potton

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Unmarked grave Harry Potton (1849-1895)

Harry was born in Berkhamsted in late 1849 to tailor John Potton and his wife Ann (née Putnam).

At the time of the 1861 census, when the family was living in the High Street, Harry had three older sisters and one younger. The three older girls were all straw plaiters, which implies that John was not a high-end tailor – plaiting was a form of home work mostly carried out by the women and children of labouring families. The family also had a “nurse child”, new-born George Groves, who John and Ann later adopted.

 Harry became a bench sawyer and did not marry, remaining at home with his family. In 1881 that comprised his parents, an unmarried sister, a widowed sister and, a visitor – George Groves, the adopted son.

The 1891 census recorded Harry as a labourer in a wood yard and living in Highfield Road with his widowed mother and three of George Groves’s children.

Harry died in Victoria Road in April 1895 aged 45.

George Groves and his wife are buried in this cemetery.