Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Eliza Sophia Sarah Skepper Wisby

1845 –01/02/1925

Second wife of tea dealer Albert Wisby.

Relatives

Albert Edward Wisby (699) — husband

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 699 Eliza Sophia Sarah Skepper Wisby (née Murr) (1845-1925)

Eliza was born in 1845 and baptised 7^th November that year in St Mary Magdalen, Lincoln. She was the oldest child of William Skepper Murr (1811-) of Lincoln, an auctioneer, and his wife Eliza (née Foreman), the daughter of a tea dealer.

In the 1851 census William was described as “Ironmonger, auctioneer and valuer to county court” and the family was living at 142, Castle Hill, Lincoln. He and Eliza had three young daughters, one of them newly born, two young “nurse servants” and a housemaid and three very respectable lodgers – a half-pay captain, the cathedral organist and the organist’s pupil.

By 1861 they had moved 185, High Street, Lincoln and Eliza had a brother as well as two sisters. Her father was described as an auctioneer and broker and they kept one servant. Eliza’s maternal grandparents, Josiah and Sophia Foreman were living with them.

By the 1871 census William had died and Eliza was living in Lincoln with her mother, her brother William, a solicitor’s clerk, her nineteen year old sister Georgina and their eighty year old grandmother Sophia Foreman.

On 15th January 1880 Eliza married Albert Edward Wisby at St James’s, Notting Hill. The couple’s first child, Albert Murr Wisby, was born 1883 in Notting Hill. Their two daughters Gladys Murr Wisby (1885) and Margaret Murr Wisby (1887) were both born in Watford.

By 1890 the family had moved to The Laurels, 3 Torrington Road, Berkhamsted where Albert and Eliza remained for the rest of their lives. Albert was described in the censuses for the following years as “living on his own means”.

Albert died 25th February 1921 aged seventy nine and Eliza passed away 1 February 1925, aged eighty, and was buried with him.

Albert Edward Wisby (699)

1842 –25/02/1921

Tea dealer who moved to Berkhamsted and was sufficiently affluent to "live on own means."

Relatives

Eliza Sophia Sarah Skepper Wisby — wife

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 699 Albert Edward Wisby (1842-1921)

Albert was born in Lambeth in 1842 to John Wisby (1797-1870), an auctioneer born in Sutton and Susan (née Babbage). Perhaps John’s most spectacular sale was of animals belonging to Batty’s Olympic Circus as advertised in The Era:

“To the Proprietors of Zoological Gardens, Menageries, Capitalists and others – Important Sale of Animals the property of Mr Batty, by Mr J Wisby on Jan 27 1842 consisting of 25 draught horses, 20 sets of harnesses, 11 front paintings, with Bull, a royal Tigress, Puma Lion, Lioness, …..4 Leopards, two Hyenas, large Polar Bear, .Brown Bear, Ursine Sloth, Jackall, pr Jarn Hares, 15 monkeys pr Macaw….”

In the 1861 census John Wisby, now widowed, styled himself “gentleman” with no other occupation given. Albert, aged nineten was living with his father at 7, Walcot Place West, Lambeth and gave his occupation as “Clerk to tea broker.” It has not been possible to trace him in the 1851 census, probably due to indexing problems.

On January 19^th 1864 Albert married Anne Faulkner, in the parish of St Michael, Oxford. He is described as a tea dealer, the son of a gentleman. Anne’s father was “an appraiser”. This may explain their meeting if their fathers had known each other in the auction trade.

John Wisby died in 1870 at  Holly House, Kennington Road, Lambeth. His probate record describes him as a  “Gentleman” leaving an estate of under £6,000.

It has not been possible to trace the death of Albert’s first wife Anne. In 1871 he was living at Cambridge Villa, Rosmore Road (now Crystal Palace Road), Camberwell. He is described as having “No occupation” and, although he is married, there is no record of his wife. However his sister-in-law was living in the house.

Camberwell is described in Hidden London [https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/camberwell/] as a socially mixed suburb. “Camberwell became a ‘walking suburb’, with clerks tramping north to the City each morning. Those who could afford it took the new horse-drawn omnibuses and for a while the rich lived cheek by jowl with the poor. The arrival of horse-drawn trams in the 1870s made Camberwell even more accessible but less desirable.”

Whatever befell Anne, Albert married again on January 15th 1880. The Pall Mall Gazette for Tuesday 20 January 1880 reported: “WISBY-MURR At St James’s Notting Hill, W. Albert E., son of the late Mr. John Wisby, of Holly House, Kennington, Surrey, to Eliza S., daughter of the Late Mr William S. Murr, of Lincoln.”

Eliza Sophia Sarah Skepper Murr’s maternal grandfather, Josiah Foreman, was a tea dealer and may well have employed, or at least encountered, Albert in his days as a tea broker’s clerk. Her father was an auctioneer and may also have known Albert’s father in his days in the business.

The couple’s first child, Albert Murr Wisby, was born 1883 in Notting Hill. Their two daughters Gladys Murr Wisby (1885) and Margaret Murr Wisby (1887) were both born in Watford.

By 1890 the family were living at The Laurels, 3 Torrington Road, Berkhamsted. (Kelly’s Directory 1890) and the censuses for 1891, 1901 and 1911 show the same address, as does the 1921 Electoral Register. In the censuses Albert is described as “living on own means”.

Albert died 25^th February 1921 aged seventy nine. Eliza died in 1925 and was laid to rest with him.