Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Henry Abraham

1841 –23/01/1914

Worked as child in Tring Silk Mill, later became labourer and platelayer.

Relatives

Frederick Abraham — son

Agnes Abraham — daughter

• Melanie Hilton

 Henry Abraham

Henry was born in 1841 and baptised on 16^th May that year at Tring. His mother Elizabeth was 19 and an unmarried straw plaiter at the time. His father is not known.

In 1851 Henry and Elizabeth were living in Frogmore Street, Tring, near the silk factory. Elizabeth is still making straw plait for the hat industry and ten year old Henry is working as a “silk throwster.”

The Wikipedia entry for Silk Throwing states: “Three sorts of [silk] yarn were commonly produced: no-twist which was suitable for weft, tram that had received a slight twist making it easier to handle, and organzine which had a greater twist and was suitable for use as warp. Reeling is the process where the silk that has been wound into skeins is cleaned, receives a twist, and is wound onto bobbins. Silk throwing is the process where the filament from the bobbins is given its full twist. The process where filaments or threads from three or more bobbins are wound together is called doubling. The last two processes can occur more than once and in any order. Tram was wound, thrown and doubled, organzine was wound, doubled then thrown and doubled again. Sewing silk could receive further doubling and throwing. No-twist was often three single filaments doubled together. Many other combinations were possible. Colloquially silk throwing can be used to refer to the whole process: reeling, throwing and doubling, and silk throwsters would speak of throwing as twisting or spinning.”

Meanwhile his mother married in 1853 and again in 1864. At some point between the 1851 and 61 censuses Henry left home and become a labourer. In the 1871 Census he has returned to Tring and is living with his mother and his second step-father Edward Rowe and is shown as unemployed.

In 1872 Henry married Elizabeth Cutler within the Berkhamsted registration district and they had two sons, Frederick (1872-1944) and William (1877-1951) and a daughter Agnes (1880-1922).

Henry found work on the railways, first as a labourer and then as a plate layer, and the family lived in Fog Cottages (now Fox Cottages) next to Tring station where his sons worked as coal carriers.

Eliza died before the 1891 census and Agnes became Henry’s housekeeper. The 1911 census shows them having moved to 12, Highfield road, Berkhamsted where Henry died aged 73 on 23 January 1914.

Frederick and Agnes, two of his three children, are also buried in this cemetery.