Philip Evans's First Family


From Evans's previous marriage to Elizabeth Clutterbuck, there were also one son (Philip Jr) and two daughters: Mary, who was pregnant late in 1867 (see Anne's letter of 21 Nov 1867); and Sarah Ann(e).

Burleigh Court In the 1901 census, 56-year-old Philip J. Evans ("woollen manufacturer - employer", b. Eastington Glos.) appears with his 51-year-old wife Jessie (nee Hollyer, b. Bridgend), living at Burleigh Court (Parish of Minchinhampton, Stroud), which is now a hotel (see photo). Present were also: his daughters Jessie Mary, 23, Grace Elizabeth, 21, Isabel L., 20; his son Donald S., 18; and his niece, Hilda G. Bomford, 16. The Evans children were all born at Brimscombe, Hilda in Exhall, Warwickshire. There were also four female servants: seamstress, cook, parlourmaid and housemaid.

In the same census, we find Philip's son, 27-year-old Harold Sidney Evans ("woollen cloth manufacturer - employer", b. Brimscombe Glos.), living at "Woodside", Minchinhampton, in the Ecclesiastical Parish of Brimscombe, with his 27-year-old wife Ada F. (b. Peckham Rye, London), and one-year-old daughter Florence R. There are also three servants: a nurse, a cook and a housemaid. This is the same house in which Harold's father Philip was living at the time of the 1881 census. [For what it's worth, we also know from the 1881 census that Harold had an older brother, Philip James, and a younger brother (older than Jessie), Ernest H.]

Mary Evans, who seems to be the daughter of Philip Evans Sr, stepdaughter of Anne Evans, and full sister of Philip Evans Jr, married Henry Butler Bomford (farmer of Exhall, b. Salford, Warwickshire) in Stroud Registration District, Gloucestershire, in the second quarter of 1867 [so it appears two Evans half-sisters married two Bomfords, each of whom has the same middle name - were they looking to hyphenate themselves, too?]. Mary and her husband appear to be misrepresented in the index to the 1881 census as Bowford. Mary's first child, whose imminent arrival is mentioned in her stepmother's letter of Nov. 1867, Theodora Mary Bomford, was born in Exhall, Warwickshire (Alcester Registration District) in the first quarter of 1868. She appears aged 13 in the 1881 census at boarding school in Alcester. We know from the 1881 census that Mary and Henry also had a son Philip (11) who was at boarding school in Edgbaston and was mis-indexed as Durnford; George E. (8), Alfred W. (6), William L. (4) and Richard (8 months). [The 16-year-old Hilda Bomford staying with her uncle Philip Evans Jr at the time of the 1901 census (see above) was also born in Exhall, so she was probably a later addition to this list - not yet born in 1881.]

Sarah Anne was married in May 1870 (as per Sarah Murray's letter of 4 March 1870; Sarah Murray always calls her Sarah Ann, but she herself always spelled it Anne) and the marriage is recorded in the second quarter of 1870 in Stroud Registration District. Her husband was Henry James H. King.

In the 1881 census (RG11/2550/28 p. 2) the family appears at Newmarket House, Horsley, Gloucestershire: Henry James Hogg King (head, 36) Engineer Civil Master employing 8 Men & 1 Boy, born Rodborough, Gloucestershire; S. A. E. King (wife, 39) born Stonehouse, Gloucestershire; Margaret E. King (daur, 9) born Glasgow, Scotland; Henry J. H. King (son, 7), born Boston, United States; Charles E. King (son, 3) born Horsley, Gloucestershire; plus two Domestic Servants.

Henry James H. King died in Stroud Registration District in 4Q 1895, aged 50. In the 1901 census, Sarah A. E. King, 59, was 'living on own means' at Newmarket Court in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire (which is the next parish to Horsley) with her son Henry J. H. King (27, single, born Boston, U.S.A, British subject), a mechanical engineer. There are also a housemaid and cook. Round the corner was her daughter, Margaret Emily, who had married Herbert Maynow Newman in 3Q 1897 in Stroud RD. The family consisted of Herbert, Margaret and Reginald Newman.

We have no subsequent news of Sarah Anne.