Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

James Edward Roper

1851 –25/10/1906

Manager of the Berkhamsted gas works

Relatives

Susannah Roper (385) — wife

• Jackie Jones

James Edward Roper was born in October 1851 in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, the son of James Roper and Mary Ann Dawkins.  His father, James, was 36 and his mother was 33, both described as gardeners in the 1881 census. His father died when he was 10.

In April 1884 he married Susannah Hurrel Ruffel.

James Roper was the self-employed manager of the gas works (now the carpark behind Tesco). His address on the 1891 census was the gas works so perhaps a house came with the job. At that time his mother was living with him.  By the time of the 1901 census he, Susannah and their son Edward James were living in Mill Street, Berkhamsted. Because of the constant stink from the gas works it was moved out of town to between Billet Lane and the present Railway Station. 

His wife died the following year, leaving James Roper a widow with a thirteen-year-old son.

Susannah Roper (385)

1854 –03/03/1902

From Lowestoft , wife of James Edward Roper

Relatives

James Edward Roper — husband

• Jackie Jones

Susannah Roper (née Hurrel Ruffel) was born in Oulton, Lowestoft in 1854, but not christened until 1856 by which time the family had moved to live in Cambridgeshire.  She was the sixth child of Susannah Spear from Rickinghall, Suffolk.  Her mother went on to have a further five children until she died in April 1861 while giving birth to her final child, a stillbirth. This left Susannah’s father with nine motherless children and he quickly married again – a Sarah Rudd, with whom he had several more children. Her father was a journeyman miller – travelling to wherever his skills were required.

Susannah had left the family by the 1871 census and her sisters were in service in various households in the country so possibly she did the same.  In 1884 she married James Edward Roper. They only had one child, a son, Edward James, born in 1889 in Berkhamsted.  Unfortunately, she died in 1902, when he was only thirteen years old.