Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Kate Emily Tompkins

d.14/01/1922

One of 10 born to master baker, ran butcher's business with husband and as widow, five children

Relatives

Charles Tompkins — husband

• Joanne Waugh

Kate Emily Tompkins was born Kate Emily Clarke in Berkhamsted in July 1844 and christened on 16 July 1844.    Her parents were Charles King Clarke (b. 29 May 1800 d. 27 July 1873) and Mary (b. 12 February 1801 – August 1883). Charles King Clarke was a master baker on Berkhamsted’s High Street.  Both are buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery.

She had the following siblings:

• Charles – b.1823 – 6 February 1899
• William – b.1826
• Mary Ann – b.1827 – 11 November 1901
• Thomas – b.1830
• Ellen – b.6 October 1831 d.6 June 1851, aged 19 years. Buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery
• Joseph – b.1836
• Henry – b.1837
• John-  b.1841
• David – b.1841 d. 30 May 1921. Buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery with brother Charles and sister Mary Ann

In 1870, she married Charles Tompkins (born in Newport Market, Middlesex in 1851) who was a butcher by trade.  Together they ran a successful butcher’s business, first in Chapel Street (1871 census) and by 1881 at 157 High Street where they also kept cows *Butcher & Cow Keeper)

Her husband died in 1907 and she continued to run the butchers with her son Ernest and daughter Alice Marion assisting.

John Tompkins and his son Charles also continue to run a butcher’s business a few doors away on the High Street, as well as Thomas Tompkins and wife Emily at 140 High Street.

In 1912’s Kelly’s Directory she is listed as Mrs C Tompkins Butcher, still in charge of the business when she was 66 years old at 157 High Street, Berkhamsted.

Kate Emily and Charles had 5 children:

• Ernest born 1870 – also a butcher. In the 1929 and 1937 Kelly’s directory, he is running the only butchers still located on the High Street.
• Edith A born 1873
• Alice Marion born 1874
• Rose Emmeline born 1875
• Florence born 1877

When she died on 14 January 1922, the butchers shop business and all her effects passed on to her son Ernest Tompkins.

Charles Tompkins

d.14/07/1907

Son of a butcher, carried on in that trade, son followed suit.

Relatives

Kate Emily Tompkins — wife

• Joanne Waugh

Charles Tompkins Jnr was born in Newport Court, Westminster, Middlesex in July 1841.    His parents were Charles Tompkins Snr (b.1808) and Susannah White (b. 1821 in Bath) who married on 25 January 1838 in St Annes, Soho, Westminster, London.

Charles Snr was born in Berkhamsted and his father Humphrey Tompkins (b 25 May 1776) was also a butcher in Berkhamsted.  At some point Charles Snr moved to Newport Market Middlesex, London to trade as a butcher before Charles Jnr was born.

Newport Market consisted of a large central square and operated as one of London’s main meat markets, commonly referred to as ‘Butcher’s Row’.  Number 8 Newport Court, where the family lived and worked was situated within this area. By the mid 19th century, this area had degenerated considerably and was recorded as providing slum living conditions. This is probably why Charles Snr brought his family back to Berkhamsted sometime between 1851 and 1861.

In 1882 Newport Court along with several other streets was demolished. An article in the London Evening Standard of the 26th August 1880 titled “Old Newport Market” records how the market had changed during this period:

“Gone are the glories of Newport Market; gone the glory of its Butchers-row. Fashion has this many a year forsaken its uninviting neighbourhood. Beau and buck know no more of its unsavoury haunts. Filth and squalor reign supreme in its courts and passages. Poverty and vice find within its dingy precincts congenial shelter. The old Market, indeed, exists; its walls are still standing. But how changed, how utterly changed, out of all form and semblance. Its shops and sheds are stables and slaughter-houses, its stalls and stands bricked over and built upon. Its very identity is lost; merged, so to speak, in that of prince’s-row, the narrow lane – foul among the foul – that surrounds and gives access to it. Even the name has been taken from it and applied indiscriminately to the adjoining thoroughfare and the unwholesome butchers court that abuts the southern extremity.”

In 1861, Charles Snr, his wife Susannah and children Charles Jr, Emma and Annie were living on Berkhamsted’s High Street and he continued his trade as a butcher.  His son Charles Jnr was also working with him as a butcher.

Charles Jnr’s siblings were: Emma born 1839, Newport, Middlesex; and Annie E born 1846 Newport, Middlesex

In 1870, Charles Jnr married Kate Emily Clarke (born in Berkhamsted). Together they ran a successful butcher’s business, first in Chapel Street (1871 census) and by 1881 at 157 High Street where they also kept cows (Butcher & Cow Keeper) and by 1871 (the shop at 157 High Street later became The Regal restaurant and currently Tabure restaurant).

Kate Emily and Charles Jnr had 5 children:

• Ernest born 1870, died 29/09/1942 [Plot 1110] – also a butcher. In the 1929 and 1937 Kelly’s directory, he is running the only butchers still located at 157 the High Street.
• Edith A born 1873
• Alice Marion born 1874 died 13/01/1949 [Plot 1110]
• Rose Emmeline born 1875
• Florence born 1877

Charles Jnr died in 1907 and Kate Emily continued to run the butchers with her son Ernest and daughter Alice Marion assisting.  John Tompkins and his son Charles also continue to run a butcher’s business a few doors away on the High Street, as well as Thomas Tompkins and wife Emily at 140 High Street.

In 1912’s Kelly’s Directory Kate Emily is listed as Mrs C Tompkins Butcher, still in charge of the business when she was 66 years old at 157 High Street, Berkhamsted.  When she died in 1922, Ernest continued running the butcher business from the same premises on the high Street.

Footnote:  Charles Snr and his wife Susannah retired between 1871 and 1881 and remained in Berkhamsted, living at Kings Road with daughter Emma Tompkins in 1881.  Charles Snr died in 1881 aged 73 years.  Susannah moved to Cowper Road, living alone on her own means and died in 1906 aged 85 years.  They had been members of the Congregational Church (used to stand on Castle Street on the corner of Chapel Street) and photographs of headstones there confirm that members of the Tomkins family are buried there.