Biography:
William Thomas Timson (502)
1850 –01/08/1919
William Thomas Timson (502)
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WILLIAM THOMAS TIMSON; 1850-1919
William was the fourth of seven children born to Thomas and Charlotte Timson. He was born in Berkhamsted in the first quarter of 1850. His siblings were Mary, born in 1842; Joseph, 1846; Sarah, 1853; Frederick, 1857; and Walter, 1858. William’s father, Thomas was a butcher and the family lived on Berkhamsted’s High Street at number 232 where Thomas also had his butcher’s shop.
William was one year old at the time the census of 1851. William’s family were sufficiently well to do to be able to employ a domestic servant, 13 year old Hannah Scaldwell, who like many domestic servants at that time had started her working life at a young age and lived with the family with whom she was in service. Ten years later in 1861, 11 years old William was attending school. By 1871 William, then 21 years old, was still living at the family home with his parents. William, like his father, had become a butcher and was working with his father in the family business.
William married on 21st June 1875. His bride was Harriet Letitia Hinton. Harriet had been born in Hatfield in 1845. The wedding took place at the church of St John the Baptist in Shoreditch London. It is not clear how William and Harriet met; whilst William lived in Berkhamsted, Harriet, in 1861, was working as domestic servant in St Pancras and in 1871 as a house maid at the Church Missionary Society’s children’s home in Islington. The address given for William on the marriage certificate is 116 Wenlock Street and for Harriet 114 Wenlock Street. It may be that William, sometime after the 1871 census when he was still in Berkhamsted, had moved to London and became Harriet’s neighbour. William might not, however, actually have been living in Wenlock Street. The cheapest Church of England marriages involved the reading of banns. The banns had to be read over three successive Sundays in a parish church and the parties had to be living in the parish for at least a week before banns were read. Often, therefore, the address on a marriage certificate was no more than an address of convenience.
We do know that when the couple’s only child, Charlotte, was born two years later in 1877, the birth was registered in Berkhamsted. The 1881 census reveals that Joseph, Harriet and Charlotte were then living in Park Street, but by 1891 they were living with William’s father, Thomas, in the High Street. William’s mother, Charlotte, had died in 1884, so it is likely that William and Harriet moved in with Thomas to help care for him and run the butcher’s shop. (Thomas was 68 years old when his wife died.) Thomas died in 1894 and notice of his death published in the Bucks Herald, informs us that Thomas “died suddenly when going upstairs to bed. He had been unwell for a few weeks and Dr Battersby had advised the family that he might be taken suddenly. Deceased was in his 79th year, one of the oldest tradesmen of the town and well known all over the district.”
A report carried by the Bucks Herald in 1892 entitled “Bread v Meat” reported on a cricket match between the town’s butchers and bakers in which William turned out for the butchers. “Ye Merry Butchers have challenged ye Jolly Bakers to a game of ye old English cricket in costume” A procession led by the St Peter’s Brass band paraded from The Crown, the bakers in white caps and aprons, the butchers in blue and wearing aprons. The match was watched by nearly a thousand people and a great amount of fun and genial banter was got out of the proceedings.” The bakers were the victors. Afterwards there was dancing and singing to the band followed by supper for the players and friends at the Crown. William was evidently not a particularly talented cricketer; he scored no runs in either of his two innings!
The census of 1901 confirms that William, age 61 years, was then still at 232 High Street working as a butcher. That was not to continue. At some time after the 1901 census, but before the next census of 1911, William was struck by misfortune. The 1911 census reveals that William, Harriet and Charlotte had moved away from the butcher’s shop at 232 High Street to North Villa, North Road. William is noted as being a “retired butcher” but, more tellingly, the final column of the census return notes the fact he was paralysed. The census return should have been signed by William as the head of the household, but is signed by William’s daughter “Charlotte Letitia Timson for William Thomas Timson.”
William lived on for another 8 years, cared for by Harriet and Charlotte, dying on 1st August 1919 aged 69. His death certificate names the causes of his death as hemiplegia and heart failure. Hemiplegia is the paralysis of the muscles of the lower face, arm, and leg on one side of the body. The most common cause of hemiplegia is stroke, although injuries such as spinal injury can also be a cause. It is likely that William suffered a stroke which caused his paralysis, but it was later heart failure that was the cause his death.
The butcher’s business didn’t pass out of the family altogether. None of William’s brothers were butchers, so his nephew Joseph Timson Osborn became a butcher’s apprentice and he was running the shop in 1911.
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WILLIAM THOMAS TIMSON; 1850-1919
William was the fourth of seven children born to Thomas and Charlotte Timson. He was born in Berkhamsted in the first quarter of 1850. His siblings were Mary, born in 1842; Joseph, 1846; Sarah, 1853; Frederick, 1857; and Walter, 1858. William’s father, Thomas was a butcher and the family lived on Berkhamsted’s High Street at number 232 where Thomas also had his butcher’s shop.
William was one year old at the time the census of 1851. William’s family were sufficiently well to do to be able to employ a domestic servant, 13 year old Hannah Scaldwell, who like many domestic servants at that time had started her working life at a young age and lived with the family with whom she was in service. Ten years later in 1861, 11 years old William was attending school. By 1871 William, then 21 years old, was still living at the family home with his parents. William, like his father, had become a butcher and was working with his father in the family business.
William married on 21st June 1875. His bride was Harriet Letitia Hinton. Harriet had been born in Hatfield in 1845. The wedding took place at the church of St John the Baptist in Shoreditch London. It is not clear how William and Harriet met; whilst William lived in Berkhamsted, Harriet, in 1861, was working as domestic servant in St Pancras and in 1871 as a house maid at the Church Missionary Society’s children’s home in Islington. The address given for William on the marriage certificate is 116 Wenlock Street and for Harriet 114 Wenlock Street. It may be that William, sometime after the 1871 census when he was still in Berkhamsted, had moved to London and became Harriet’s neighbour. William might not, however, actually have been living in Wenlock Street. The cheapest Church of England marriages involved the reading of banns. The banns had to be read over three successive Sundays in a parish church and the parties had to be living in the parish for at least a week before banns were read. Often, therefore, the address on a marriage certificate was no more than an address of convenience.
We do know that when the couple’s only child, Charlotte, was born two years later in 1877, the birth was registered in Berkhamsted. The 1881 census reveals that Joseph, Harriet and Charlotte were then living in Park Street, but by 1891 they were living with William’s father, Thomas, in the High Street. William’s mother, Charlotte, had died in 1884, so it is likely that William and Harriet moved in with Thomas to help care for him and run the butcher’s shop. (Thomas was 68 years old when his wife died.) Thomas died in 1894 and notice of his death published in the Bucks Herald, informs us that Thomas “died suddenly when going upstairs to bed. He had been unwell for a few weeks and Dr Battersby had advised the family that he might be taken suddenly. Deceased was in his 79th year, one of the oldest tradesmen of the town and well known all over the district.”
A report carried by the Bucks Herald in 1892 entitled “Bread v Meat” reported on a cricket match between the town’s butchers and bakers in which William turned out for the butchers. “Ye Merry Butchers have challenged ye Jolly Bakers to a game of ye old English cricket in costume” A procession led by the St Peter’s Brass band paraded from The Crown, the bakers in white caps and aprons, the butchers in blue and wearing aprons. The match was watched by nearly a thousand people and a great amount of fun and genial banter was got out of the proceedings.” The bakers were the victors. Afterwards there was dancing and singing to the band followed by supper for the players and friends at the Crown. William was evidently not a particularly talented cricketer; he scored no runs in either of his two innings!
The census of 1901 confirms that William, age 61 years, was then still at 232 High Street working as a butcher. That was not to continue. At some time after the 1901 census, but before the next census of 1911, William was struck by misfortune. The 1911 census reveals that William, Harriet and Charlotte had moved away from the butcher’s shop at 232 High Street to North Villa, North Road. William is noted as being a “retired butcher” but, more tellingly, the final column of the census return notes the fact he was paralysed. The census return should have been signed by William as the head of the household, but is signed by William’s daughter “Charlotte Letitia Timson for William Thomas Timson.”
William lived on for another 8 years, cared for by Harriet and Charlotte, dying on 1st August 1919 aged 69. His death certificate names the causes of his death as hemiplegia and heart failure. Hemiplegia is the paralysis of the muscles of the lower face, arm, and leg on one side of the body. The most common cause of hemiplegia is stroke, although injuries such as spinal injury can also be a cause. It is likely that William suffered a stroke which caused his paralysis, but it was later heart failure that was the cause his death.
The butcher’s business didn’t pass out of the family altogether. None of William’s brothers were butchers, so his nephew Joseph Timson Osborn became a butcher’s apprentice and he was running the shop in 1911.
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