The Geyden-Roberts Family

The eldest daughter of the J.L. Kraushaar family, Fanny Adela Jane (known in the family as "Addy" or "Addie"), was born in London on 13 Jul 1848, and died in 1929 in Pondoland, South Africa. On 26 Sep 1867 at the Registry Office, Northampton, she married James Richard Geyden Roberts. They had eight daughters, as follows:

• Fanny Ada ("Ada"), b. 3 Feb 1871, m. James Dearing Maynard in Wellington Registration District, Somerset, in the third quarter of 1898
• Alice b. 6 Apr 1872
• Mary Elizabeth ("May") b. 1873
• Frances Emily b. 1875; spent 52 years as a missionary in Africa
• Bertha Sarah b. 19 Oct 1878
• Rhoda Beatrice b. 1884; died, aged 5, in Kingston Registration District, Surrey in 4Q 1889
• Grace Ermyntrude, b. 26 Sep 1886 at Oak Villa, Richmond Park Rd, Kingston-upon-Thames, m. Edward Clist (bank clerk) on 21 Apr 1909 at Wesleyan Methodist Church, Wellington, Somerset, and had three children (John Geyden b. 1910, Ermyntrude b. 1913, and Edward Noel b. 1921). She documented the family history and died in 1974 in Dorset.
• Gladys Octavia b. c. 1890

In the 1871 census, James Roberts (married, 29, born Walthamstow, Essex) was a "Tailor's Foreman" boarding in the Susan Faircloth household at 4 Ruby Place, Wisbech St. Peter. [It may not be a coincidence that next door at no. 5 were Martha Roberts, widow, 45, Milliner, b. Bethnal Green, and her daughter Kate, 19, b. Shoreditch, Schoolmistress.] James's 22-year-old wife Addy and her 2-month-old daughter Ada, instead, were staying with her parents at Broom Cottage, Shipston Road, in the Parish of Old Stratford. Since Fanny Ada had been born at Stratford, it is likely that Addy had been there some time.

After a brief sojourn in Huntingdon 1871-1872/3 and a rather longer period in Glasgow between 1872/3 and some date between 1875 and 1878, the Robertses settled in Lympstone for at least 3 years 1878-1881 (again while JRGR was working away from home).

In the 1881 census, James was lodging in Sherborne, Dorset, with Henry Stubbings, a master boot maker. James was a tailor's cutter (39, born Walthamstow). Addie and the children were at Rose Cottage, Lympston, Devon: the household consisted of Fanny A. G. Roberts, wife (head), (32, born St Pancras, Middlesex), tailor's foreman's wife, Fanny A. G. (10, born Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire), Alice G. (8, born Huntingdon), Mary E. G. (7, born Scotland), Frances E. G. (5, born Scotland) and Bertha S. G. (2, born Lympston).

The family spent some years in the middle to late 1880s on the western fringes of London, first in Watford and then in Kingston upon Thames, before finally moving to Malvern, Worcestershire, in 1890/91. James Roberts's tailoring must have been a precarious occupation, obliging the family to move around a great deal. Hence, Ada was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Alice in Huntingdon, May and Frances in Glasgow, Bertha in Lympston, Ermyntrude in Kingston-on-Thames, Gladys in Malvern.

In the 1891 census, JRGR, 49, Tailor's Cutter, Addy, 42 (b. Euston Sq., London), and the younger children (Bertha Sarah, 11; Grace Ermyntrude, 4; Glays Octavia, 5 months) are in West Road Cottage, Great Malvern. The elder girls were all in service in the greater London area. Ada was working as a governess in West Hampstead; Alice was a mother's help in South Mimms, Hertfordshire, May was working as a general domestic servant in Forest Hill, south London. Frances is not to be found anywhere.

At the time of the 1901 census, at no. 11 High Path in the town of Wellington in Somerset, we find the Geyden-Roberts sisters running a school. May, 27 years of age, Alice, 28, and Frances, 25, are listed as school principals (though May appears as "head of the household"). Their sisters Ermyntrude, 14, and Gladys, 10, are "attending the school" along with two boarders of 12 and 9. A 19-year-old "governess" completes the number. [Sukie Hunter speculates that this was probably a day school - in a house - and only the boarders were listed. Otherwise it would not seem to be a commercial proposition.]

The eldest daughter, Ada, 30 years old, was by 1901 living with her self-employed 40-year-old farmer husband John Dearing Maynard and their 1-year-old daughter Miriam at Georges (Farm, one presumes) near Wellington, Somerset. Ada is recorded as born in Stratford-on-Avon, her husband in Clovelly, Devon, and their daughter in Bradford, Somerset.

In the same 1901 census, Addy is shown as 52-year-old Frances E.[sic] G. Roberts (b. St. Pancras, Middlesex), living with her 59-year-old husband James R. G. Roberts (b. Walthamstow, Essex), tailor and outfitter, at 3 Sycamore Place, Great Malvern, Worcestershire. Roberts is shown as working "at home" but is the "employer" of a 16-year-old apprentice who lives at the same address.

By the 1922 census Adela Geyden Roberts, 62, Married [not widowed, so perhaps she was only staying over] is at Callers Clayhidon Wellington Som with her daughter Ada Maynard, 40, and son-in-law John Maynerd, 50, Farmer (b. Bratton Clovelly Devon). Maynard's 17-year-old nephew James Latcham, b. Hemyock Devon, is working on the farm and staying with his uncle.

From the census documents, it is not clear at what point the surname was hyphenated. At the time of his marriage, his bride's grandmother refers to JRGR as "dear Roberts" (see various correspondence included in the Thurtell-Murray page). All of Addy's children seem to have been given the name Geyden, and they seem to have used it as though it were hyphenated.

From the inscription on a stone in Chelmsine graveyard, it is not clear whether, after her death at age 80 in South Africa, Adela was brought back for burial in England. One can only suppose that late in life she joined her missionary daughter in South Africa.