04/04/1958 –08/01/1948
Wife of boatbuilder Henry Gent
Relatives
Research:
Plot 924 Martha Maria Gent (née Middleton) (1858-1948)
Martha was born 4 April 1858 at Greenford Green, Middlesex, a hamlet north of the village of Greenford which lies between Perivale and Northolt, NW of London. Both The Green and the village have now been swallowed up into the London conurbation. On the 1822 map the Green is not named and it appears to have developed as a settlement when the Grand Junction Canal was constructed and a “colour factory” and wharf built.
Martha’s father William was an agricultural labourer who had been born in the hamlet, her mother, Mary Ann (née Howe) had been born in Bushey. She was baptised in Perivale, the nearest church, in June 1858.
She married Henry Thomas Gent, canal boat builder, 26 May 1878 in the parish church of Harrow-on-the-Hill. It seems very likely that they met at the canal wharf.
The first of their ten children, Henry William, was born in 1880 in Berkhamsted. Incredibly, for the period, all of their children survived to adulthood.
Between at least 1881 and 1891 they were living in Bridge Street, convenient for the canal and the boat yards. Albert J was born in 1882 followed by Walter George (1883), Martha Maryam (1885), Bertie J (1888), Archibald Arthur (1890) Stanley Frederick (1895), Lily (1898) and Arthur Edward (1900).
In 1901 the family lived at 6, Station Road. All ten children were at home plus her widowed father. Because Henry answered the question on the 1911 census about the number of rooms very fully we know that these thirteen people were occupying a “Front room, kitchen, 4 bedrooms”.
In 1904 their final child, Cecil Gresham, was born
Martha and Henry were still at 6, Station Road in 1911. Six of the children at home – Martha, a shop assistant; Archibald, a butcher; Stanley, a labourer at the chemical works and Lily, Arthur and Cecil, all at school. They also had a lodger, a young butcher, possibly a work mate of Archibald.
By June 1921 Henry and Martha were living at 51, Wing Road, Linslade, Bedfordshire with the three of their children who were still unmarried: Lily, Stanley and Cecil. Lily was a shorthand typist, Stanley had followed his father into boat building and Cecil was a grocer’s assistant. Both Henry and Stanley were employed by a canal crying company based in Linslade, as was their brother Walter George who was married and had been living in Linslade since at least 1911.
Henry and Martha moved back to Berkhamsted where he died 14 September 1929 at 62, Shrublands Avenue aged 73.
In 1939 Martha was living at 6, Chapel Street with her unmarried son Cecil. She died 8 January 1948 aged 90 and was buried here with Henry.
His youngest brother Arthur William and his wife Lizzie lie in plot 528. Two of their sons are also buried in this cemetery: Henry William, his wife Annie and son Harry in plot 925 and Walter George in plot 477.