Peter Hunnisett

Joseph & Louisa Chapman of Romsey, Hampshire

Joseph Chapman, a son of John & Hannah, was probably born in Hursley in about 1822.

Louisa Effamey, the youngest daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Effamy, was baptised in Romsey on 23 November 1828.

Joseph married Louisa in the Abbey Church, Romsey on 15 November 1846. They are known to have had four children baptised in Romsey:

Joseph worked on the railway and the 1851 census and Kate's birth certificate in 1859 show that he lived at Crampmoore, Romsey. In 1861 they were staying in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and had Fanny and Kate with them.  However, they seem to have returned to Romsey by 1863, when Bessie was baptised and in 1871 they were living in Latermore Street with Kate and Bessie. Fanny has not been traced at this census but she is known to have married in 1877.

Joseph’s death certificate shows him as a Railway Ganger of Station Road, Romsey, and gives his age as 56. Joseph died of 'malignant disease of the parotid gland' in St Georges Hospital, London on 16 February 1881, probably at the age of 58.

In April 1881 Louisa was a laundress living in Latimer Street, Romsey with her daughter Kate who was a milliner. Bessie was a housemaid in Chiswick and Fanny and her family had recently moved to Croydon. In 1883 Kate married and settled in Redhill and by 1891 Louisa was working as a monthly nurse (a midwife) in a Reigate solicitor’s house. By 1901 she was staying in Redhill with her daughter Kate and Andrew Woods and still working as a nurse. She continued to live with Kate and Andrew until she died in 1913.

Of their children:

• Fanny married Albert Tibble, a blacksmith from Romsey, in 1877 and they are believed to have had the following children:

  Edith Emily

  Q1 1877

  Romsey

  Linda Kate

  Q3 1878

  Romsey

  Mabel Ellen

  Q2 1880

  Romsey

  William Charles

  Q2 1882

  Pancras (died 1883 aged 1)

  Florence Mary

  Q4 1883

  St Olave

  Albert Frank

  Q4 1886

  Pancras

  Gertrude Hilda

  Q2 1889

  Pancras (died?)

  Harry

  Q1 1891

  Pancras (died Q2 1892)

  Charles Thomas

  Q2 1893

  Pancras

  Cecil Edward

  Q2 1895

  Pancras

  Ronald Chapman

  Q1 1897

  Pancras

  In 1881 they were living in Croydon with their daughters Edith, Linda and Mabel. By 1891 they were living at 9 Roderick Road, just south of Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath in London, with Linda, Mabel, Florence, Albert and Harry. In 1901 they were still at 9 Roderick Rd. with Edith, Linda, Mabel, Florence, Albert, Charles, Cecil and Ronald. They were there again in 1911 with Mabel, Charles, Cecil and Ronald. Fanny died in 1927, aged 72.

  • Ronald served in the 16^th Battalion the Sherwood Foresters and the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in the trenches at Poelcappel, Flanders on 5 January 1918.

• Kate married Andrew Woods, a tanner, in 1883 and they lived in Redhill (see Andrew & Kate Woods).

• In 1881 Bessie was a housemaid to Lieut. Col. Henry Hornsby at Fairfax House, Burlington Lane, Chiswick. She appears to have had an illegitimate daughter in 1888:

  Lillian Louise CHAPMAN

  Q4 1888

  Epsom

  In 1891 (Q1 Reigate) she married Albert Edward Collins, a tramway conductor from Mansfield, Notts, and at the 1891 census they were in Willesden and with them was Lilian, recorded as 2-year-old niece, Lillian L Woods, born in Redhill. Their children were:

  Thomas Nelson

  ca. 1891

  London

  Grace

  Q4 1894

  Redhill

  Bessie Louisa

  Q3 1896

  Redhill

  Mabel Primrose

  Q2 1899

  Redhill

  They are believed to have lived in Redhill not far from Bessie’s sister Kate. By 1901 Albert had become a photographic artist and at the 1901 census they were staying in Sparkhill, Worcestershire, with Lilian and their four children. In 1911 they were living at 12 Wilford Grove, Nottingham.

  According to Marjorie Woods one of the daughters was crippled with a hump back (Bessie according to the 1911 census) and another was looked after by Kate Woods.

  • Thomas is believed to have married in Romsey after leaving the army at the end of World War I.