Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

William Keen (664)

1849 –24/03/1902

An under butler who became caretaker of apartments in London's Hanover Square.

• Jackie Jones

WILLIAM KEEN; 1849 – 1902

 Plot 664

 “William Keen, the beloved husband of Mary Ellen Keen, died suddenly 24^th March 1902 aged 53.”

 William Keen born in Berkhamsted January 1849 to John Keen 23 and mother Elizabeth Wingrove 20 he had 8 siblings, Joseph, Alfred, Edwin John, Robert, Maria, George, Elizabeth and Harry. In 1851 his father was a baker and they lived in St John’s Well Lane. By 1861 they had moved to Holiday Street. His mother was described as a ‘baker’s wife’ – perhaps they worked together.

 In 1871 William was working as a footman at Bayfordbury Hall, a large country mansion near Hertford owned by the Baker family, the last of whom, Sir Lewis-Clinton Baker, died in 1940. The estate was the leased to Dr Barnado’s charity. Eventually it was bought by Hertfordshire County Council in 1967 and became Hatfield Polytechnic. It is now part of the University of Hertfordshire.

In 1881 William was working in the parish of St George Hanover Square, London, as an under butler. He married Mary Ellen Goodman, from Wroxton, Banbury on 14^th August 1890 in St John, Hampstead when he was 41. For a short while Mary had been the licensee of the White Horse in Wroxton, both her mother and father having previously also held the licence of the the premises. William and Mary became caretakers for several apartments in St George Hanover Square. They were still there as caretaker and housekeeper in 1901.

 William and Mary had no children.

 Although he lived and worked in London, William maintained his connection with Berkhamsted. His mother remained living in the town until her death in 1899 and when William died in Hanover square on 24 March 1902, his body was brought to Berkhamsted and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery.

 Following William’s death Mary Ellen became the housekeeper at St Thomas’s Vicarage, Hassard Street, Bethnal Green, but subsequently returned to her hometown of Wroxton where she died in July 1920.