John Henry Grimwood and Eliza Baity Bromley by Bow

[Nigel Porter]

The birth certificate for my wife's G Grandfather, John Ethelward Grimwood 10/12/1857, shows his parents as John Henry Grimwood and Eliza Baity, but I can't find a marriage in The Genealogist, Ancestry, FreeBMD, etc.  Their first child was born circa 1853 in Poplar district.  I know they may not have got married at all, but I'd appreciate more set's of eye's having a look.

Thanks in anticipation.

[LizzieW]

On the 1841 census there is:

Eliza Baity, aged 8 living at Mary Street, All Saints,  Poplar, Tower Hamlets. 

and

John Grimwood age 15 living at High Street, All Saints, Poplar, Tower Hamlets.

On the 1851 census, Eliza Baity is aged 19, still living at home with her parents at 7, Church Street, All Saints, Poplar.

John and Eliza, shown as married are the 1861 census  living at Cottage, St George Street, Bromley East with 3 children, born 1854, 1856 and 1858 (although this last one is Ethelward who you know was born 10.12.1857).  Ages on early census are not always accurate.

If they did marry, then it was after 1851, but I can't find a marriage.  Unless John Henry Grimwood married between 1841 and 1851 and wasn't free to marry, I don't know why the couple didn't marry.  I can't find him on the 1851 census.

Lizzie

[Nigel Porter]

Hi Lizzie,

Thanks for the reply.  I too had found Eliza Baity, living in Church Street in 1851 and her father Thomas was a shipwright.  However on 26th January 1851 an Elizabeth Baity married William Bennett in Tower Hamlets and her father is listed as Thomas Baity, shipwright?  The 1851 census clearly says Eliza is unmarried, so it appears we have too uncannily similar families?  On further investigation I found Elizabeth Baity baptised in 1828 (born 23/6/1826) at Poplar All Saints with parents Thomas (shipwright) and Elizabeth and then on 18/9/1842 (born 12/3/1833) the baptism of Eliza Baity at the same church, with parents Thomas (shipwright) and Elizabeth.  I can't find the death of Elizabeth, so perhaps they had two daughters with very similar names?

John Henry Grimwood is transcribed as John. H. Greenward on the 1851 census and he is single and living with his widowed mother at No. 1 Henry St, Bromley by Bow. 

I can't find any suitable Grimwood marriages around 1850, so I suspect they did not marry for some reason.

Nigel

[LizzieW]

Looking at the birth records, it seems John and Eliza's first child (a girl) was born Oct-Dec 1853, so I wonder if they didn't marry before the birth of that child, but John accepted it as his (hence the fact she has his name) and that they just never got round to marrying after that.

I have ancestors with two daughters called Eliza and Elizabeth too.  We think of it as a variation on the same name, but it seems that wasn't the case in the past.

Lizzie

[raybradon]

What's even stranger is that by the 1871 census, Eliza is calling herself Elizabeth. I wondered if her sister had died-there are three Elizabeth Bennett deaths in Stepney between 1851 and 1860-was big sister one of those?
Ray (ggs)

[chrisgrim]

Hi,

If you go to this site,

http://grimwoodons.webspace.virginmedia.com/

Then Press FAMILY TREES.

Then Press Tree 33, you will find all you require about John Ethelward Grimwood and His Family.

Yours, Chris Grimwood, Tree 17.

[chrisgrim]

Hi,

If you go to this Site.

http://grimwoodons.webspace.virginmedia.com/

Then Press,  FAMILY TREES.

Then Press,  Tree 33, you will find all you require about John Ethelward Grimwood, and His Family back to 1695.

Your, Chris Grimwood Tree 17

[raybradon]

Many thanks Chris
The problem is not that the individuals cannot be tracked but that they appear not to marry when there seems no reason not to.There is a John Grimwood marriage in Dec 1851 in Bermondsey and I have often wondered if this is our John who later dumps the wife and takes up with Eliza-who knows eh?

[Valda]

Hi


John Grimwood who married in St Mary's Bermondsey in 1851 was a widower and painter by occupation. His father was Thomas Grimwood, a farmer.
There seems a good candidate for him in Bermondsey on the 1851 census aged 28 born Suffolk and married to Sarah. There is a Sarah Grimwood death registration in Bermondsey in the September quarter of 1851.


If a Eliza had had a short lived marriage in 1851 that would clearly be an impediment to a second marriage, though others chose to marry again bigamously. Whatever status is given on a census is not necessarily accurate but often more about propriety.



Regards

Valda