Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

William Barnes

1835 –1897

A blacksmith

Relatives

Henry John Vercoe — other

William Barnes — son

• Melanie Hilton

Unmarked grave William Henry Barnes (1835-1897) 

William was born in 1835 in Hemel Hempstead to Ann and Samuel Barnes. He was baptised in St Mary’s, Hemel 5 April that year. His father was a labourer.

1841 he and his two younger sisters were recorded in the census with his mother in Piccott’s End, Hemel Hempstead. She was shown as a grocer.

In 1851, aged 16, he was living with his aunt and uncle Joseph and Mary Glenister and their six children in Albion Place, Hemel Hempstead. Joseph was a blacksmith and also living with them was his brother-in-law William Jorden, a journeyman blacksmith. Young William was an errand boy.

William became a blacksmith, probably apprenticed to his uncle.

He married Mary Ann Wakeman in 1858 in Hemel Hempstead.

Elizabeth (1860), Henry (1863) and William (1865) were all born in Hemel but by the time of Thomas’s birth in 1869 they had moved to Berkhamsted where , Mary Ann jnr. was born in 1871.

That year the family was living in Bridge Street. William was a blacksmith, Mary Ann a straw plaiter.

Mary Ann died in June 1874 aged 35. It is likely that she is buried in this cemetery.

William married Cornish-born widow Emma Pasco Vercoe (née Jose) in 1879. Her husband John Vercoe had died in Berkhamsted in 1870 and the youngest of her four children, son Henry John (1866) and daughter Hannah (1863), came with her to live with William.

Emma was born in 1880.

In 1881 the family lived in Ellesmere Road. William was a blacksmith and Emma a straw plaiter, as was her daughter Hannah. Henry was a bricklayer’s labourer, William jnr. and his step-brother Henry were labourers at Cooper’s chemical works, the three youngest children were at school and there was also baby Emma. The house must have been very crowded!

Richard was born in 1884 followed by Amy in 1887 in Northchurch.

By 1891 when William and Emma had moved to Kitsbury Road only the three youngest children were at home.

William died in late June 1897 at Kitsbury Road aged 62.

Son William (died 1935) is also buried in this cemetery with his wife Lizzie.

Step-son Henry John Vercoe and his family are buried in Plot 707.