05/10/1807 –20/10/1864
Wheelwright in Berkhamsted High Street
Relatives
Research:
- Karen Evans
- Melanie Hilton
Plot 138 George Holliday
George was born 5 October 1807 in Berkhamsted, the first child of John Holliday and his wife Mary Ann (née Atkins). His father was a wheelwright and he was to have three brothers and a sister.
To quote the Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society Facebook account: According to the 1839 tithe map for Berkhamsted, a shop in the High Street was owned by executors of Charles Gordon Esq., and wheeler John Holliday was the tenant. On the map, the line of Holliday Street was visible but it was not yet a thoroughfare such as Ravens Lane. It seems likely that when it was developed, Holliday Street was named after the wheeler. In the 1841 census John was a 55-year-old wheelwright with his wife Mary, sons George, Charles and Frederick and daughter Ann.
In 1851, at the age of 45, George was still single and living with his parents and siblings in the High Street. Like their father, George and his brother Charles were wheelwrights.
In his will John had bequeathed “unto my son George Holliday my stock in trade and the business of a wheelwright as now carried on by me”. So it is no surprise that at the time of the 1861 census George was head of the household and a wheelwright in Berkhamsted High Street. Living with him were his wife Mary, and children, George J and Harriot. This census would appear to show that not only had George taken over the family business but he was also looking after his niece, Mary, daughter of the deceased Frederick.
George’s son was baptised George James Holliday on 24th April 1853 at St Peter’s, making him the eldest of John and Mary’s grandchildren. Harriett (sic) was baptised on 16th August 1857 at St Peter’s. The records of St Peter’s show the baptism of another son, Arthur on 11th February 1855, who died the same year.
The 1862 Post Office Directory has George as a wheelwright of High Street, Berkhamsted. But his running of the business was short-lived as George died on 20th October 1864.
In 1871 Mary was a widow living in the High Street with her children George James and Harriot/Harriet, but the wheelwright business was no longer listed in the trade directories. In fact no Holliday was listed in the Trade Directory until 1882, then this listing appears:-
Holliday & Lusted, coach builders & wheel wrights, High Street
In 1877 Stephen Alexander Lusted from Lewes in Sussex married Harriet Holliday at Berkhamsted. The Holliday family ties appear to have been very close as Stephen joined his brother-in-law George in running the family business. The 1881 census shows how close the family was: George states that he was a “Master Coach Painter” while Stephen gives himself as being a “Master Wheelwright”. It must have been a great comfort to George Holliday’s widow, Mary, to see the both the business and her family flourishing. Mary probably remained with her daughter and family until her death in 1888.
Stephen and Harriet Lusted had eight children all baptised at St Peter’s as follows:
- William Stephen on 14th May 1882
- Frederick Henry on 13th January 1884
- Mary Martha on 8th February 1885
- Beatrice on 25th July 1886. Beatrice died on 21st October 1888 aged 2 ½ and was buried with her grandparents.
- Horace on 22nd July 1888
- Ethel Catherine on 27th July 1890. Sadly she died 14th October 1891 and was buried with her grandparents and sister.
- Arthur Stanley on 27th December 1891
- David Thomas on 25th March 1894
With the growing family Stephen and Harriet moved across the town to Charles Street where they were living at the time of the 1891 census. Life in Charles Street did not last long as Harriet died before youngest son was even baptised on 14th October 1893. It could be that Harriet was the bond that held the partnership of Holliday and Lusted together, and that her death with that of his two daughters was too much for Stephen as he appears to have taken his family and moved back to the Sussex village of Glynde on the outskirts of Lewes. Harriet was buried with her two infant daughters and her parents, as detailed earlier.
Stephen remained a widower living in Glynde where he is enumerated in 1901 and 1911 census. Then in 1919 the year before his death it was all-change. He married Sarah Hawes in Berkhamsted in 1919 and stayed in the town until death on 21st March 1920. He died at 9 Park Street, Berkhamsted with effects of the value of £449 12s 3d. Administration of his estate was given to his widow and wife of just one year, Sara.