10/04/1847 –16/03/1925
Son of a hoop maker and straw plaiter. Father of 8, baker turned successful furniture broker
Relatives
Research:
EDWIN EAST: 1847-1925
Edwin was born on 10th April 1847. His parents were Henry and Elizabeth East (nee Twitchell) who both came from Chesham. Although Edwin’s birth was registered in Berkhamsted, at the time of the 1851 and 1861 censuses the family was living in Waterside, Chesham.
Henry and Elizabeth had six children of whom Edwin was the fourth: Edgar, born 1838; Jane, 1841; James, 1845, Edwin, 1847; Sarah, 1851 and Jesse, 1854. Edwin’s mother Elizabeth died in 1860. Henry remarried. His second wife was Alice (nee Marriott) and she and Henry had three children, half siblings to Edwin: Kate, born 1878; Alice, born 1880 and Cornelius, born 1885. Edwin’s paternal grandfather was Jas East, the brother of Job, who was in turn the father of Josiah East (plot 406), thus making Edwin Josiah’s first cousin once removed.
Edwin’s father was a wooden hoop maker. Coopers used wooden hoops to bind barrel staves together when constructing barrels. Saplings of hazelnut, chestnut or ash were split and then either soaked in water or steamed. The wooden strips were then passed through a roller turned by hand to bend them. They were bent further by hand around a frame of the requisite size and the ends bound in hemp. Edwin’s mother was a straw plaiter.
On 9th August 1870, at the age of 22 Edwin married Ellen Moore (referred to in subsequent census returns and on her memorial as Helen). Helen, who was born in 1848, also lived in Chesham. The marriage was registered in Amersham, but by the time of the census taken on the night of 2nd April 1871, Edwin, Helen and their first son, Alfred, were living in Back Lane, Berkhamsted. The census tells us that Alfred was then one month old, so it may have been that Helen was already pregnant at the time of her marriage. Edwin’s occupation was noted on the census return as that of baker.
Edwin and Helen went on to have eight children. As well as Alfred, born in 1871, there was Edwin, born in 1873; Herbert, 1875; Jesse, 1877; Frank,1879; Harvey Richard, 1882; Sidney, 1885 and last, Ernest Frederick, born in 1888. The 1911 census confirmed that by the date of the census, Helen had given birth to eight children, but of those eight, two had died. Those two were Jesse who died age 3 years in 1880 and Ernest Frederick who died in 1909 at the age of 20. Ernest was buried in Rectory Lane cemetery in the grave in which his father and mother were to later join him.
By 1881 Edwin, Helen and their growing family had moved out of Back Lane and were then living in the High Street. Ernest’s death certificate from 1909 and the later electoral rolls for the early 1920s give us the address 155 High Street and the probate calendar discloses that Edwin was still living at 155 High Street with Helen and Harvey at the time of his death in 1925.
Edwin must have decided that life as a baker wasn’t for him as his occupation in the 1881 census return was noted as that of “furniture broker”, a dealer in second hand furniture. Rather more prestigiously his occupation is described in 1891 as “House Furnisher” and Alfred was then also working with his father as an upholsterer and polisher. In 1901 Harvey (named Richard in the census return) had also joined the family business as an upholsterer. Both Alfred and Harvey were still working with Edwin in 1911.
Edwin died on the 16th March 1925 at the age of 76. He had done well for himself as the probate calendar tells us that his estate was worth £13,029 3s 2d, the equivalent today of just under £800,000.