1792 –27/02/1861
Carpenter and builder
Relatives
Research:
Plot 266 Joseph Gomm (1792-1862)
Joseph Gomm, a carpenter of Chesham Bois, married Ann Halsey, by licence, at St Leonard’s Chapel, Chesham Bois on 17th July 1817. A number of online genealogies state that Joseph was the son of Joseph Gomm and Elizabeth (nee Bedford) who married at Chesham in 1785. However, as Joseph’s baptism cannot be found in either the registers for St Mary’s Chesham or Chesham Bois, this cannot be proven. All that is known for sure is that there were at least two Gomm families living in Chesham Bois at the time of Joseph’s birth.
In spite of the fact that Joseph was from Chesham Bois, the family immediately settled at Ann’s home town of Berkhamsted and had all but one of their children baptised at St Peter’s as follows:
1) Sarah Ann Halsey Gomm born 1817 in Berkhamsted, died a spinster on 26th January 1873.
2) Ann baptised 1st January 1822. As seen from her grandfather’s tombstone, Ann died on 29th September 1843. She was buried on 5th October 1843. She would have been amongst the first burials in Rectory Lane Cemetery, which was only established the previous year.
3) Emma Elizabeth baptised 12th October 1823 and died 1825
4) Harry born 31st August and baptised 30th October 1825 and buried 16th September 1827.
5) William born 1st October and baptised 25th December 1827.He married Clarissa Smith in 1852 and became a banking clerk living in Hackney. They had two sons, Walter and Lewis. He died in 1889.
6) Emily born 21st August 1829 and baptised 8th November 1829.
7) Fanny born 10th August 1831 and baptised 6th November 1831.
8) Lucy baptised 12 March 1834 and buried on 19th December 1836.
9) Henry Jesse born 6th December 1836 and baptised 29th February 1836. He married Sophia Attride in 1862, had two children and became a licenced victualler and stone carver, ending his days in Frimley, Surrey in 1911.
10) Ellen born 16th January and baptised 10th March 1839. In 1866 Ellen married Walter G Smith, the brother of her sister-in-law, Clarissa.
Joseph was a carpenter at the time of his marriage, an occupation he gave at the time his first three children were baptised. Then in 1825 Joseph gave his occupation as that of “builder”. In 1801, the population of St Peter’s parish was 1,690. By 1831, this had risen to 2,369 (484 houses). An 1835 description of the town found that “the houses are mostly of brick, and irregularly built, but are interspersed with a fair proportion of handsome residences”. As such, this was a perfect time to be a bricklayer or builder, and Joseph Gomm’s father-in-law, William Halsey seems to have taken full advantage of this local prosperity, owning properties and doing business with local gentry.
There exists a document dated 21st July 1818, which is a release by William Halsey, bricklayer of Berkhamsted and John Duncombe, gentleman of Northchurch to Francis Barlow, gentleman of North Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, London. The release was for a messuage (a messuage is a dwelling house with outbuildings and gardens assigned to its use) occupied by Mrs Sarah Barlow, in High Street, Berkhamsted. On 17th October 1833 a receipt was drawn up for payment of a mortgage on another property in Berkhamsted. It is likely that as a carpenter, Joseph would have worked with his father-in-law, adapting his trade from carpenter to builder, as the business required. The family lived in the High Street and the trade directories of the time show both Joseph Gomm, carpenter, and his brother-in-law, William Halsey, junior and her husband, trading in Berkhamsted’s High Street.
On the 29th September 1843 Joseph’s daughter, Ann Gomm, died in Berkhamsted High Street. Present at the time of her death was one Mary Foster, a publican in the High Street. Ann died of chronic peritonitis. An inflammatory condition, peritonitis affects the lining of the abdominal wall, intestines, uterus, or other abdominal organs. In the nineteenth century, peritonitis could be a symptom of cancer, tuberculosis, kidney failure, pancreatitis, stomach ulcer, ruptured appendix, or a gastrointestinal condition. Regardless of the organ affected, however, treatment included opium and morphine; peritonitis was usually fatal.
Ann was buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery within a year of its consecration. But we can not know for sure exactly where she was buried as she appears on the gravestone of both her maternal grandfather, William Halsey, and that of her parents. These gravestones are situated next to each other on the embankment in the cemetery.
In 1852 Joseph’s eldest son, William, married Clarissa Smith, who came from Holborn. William neither followed his father’s occupation or stayed in Berkhamsted. Instead William became a bank clerk and settled in Hackney, where his two sons, Henry Walter and Lewis were born.
London appears to have a pull on members of Joseph’s family, as in 1861 Joseph and Ann had two grandchildren living with them, Fanny and William Rogers, from Knightsbridge. Joseph’s third eldest surviving daughter, Fanny, had married Alfred Joseph Rogers, a widower from Knightsbridge on 27th May 1850, when she was just 18. Alfred appears to have been a very successful man. In 1836 he was received into The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and he had his own practice in London. The 1861 census has Fanny living in Knightsbridge, with her husband, a step-daughter, her spinster sister Sarah and a servant.
Joseph died on 27th February 1862 and was buried at Rectory Lane on the 3rd March 1862. Ann lived to see at least nine grand-children before she died in Berkhamsted on 16th January 1868. She was buried at Rectory Lane with her husband and next to her father, William Halsey.
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