WM. LANGHAM, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

[MarionL]

Hi!  I'm a new girl.   I've come to a full-stop and can't think where to try next.
I should be so grateful if anyone can get me kick started again.
My query concerns my husband's great grandfather, William Langham, born 1828 at Romford, Essex. William was a ships carpenter at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.   I have details of his parents, his wife and five children but William himself seems to have disappeared at some time between 31st May 1867 (when he, personally,  registered the birth of his fifth child) and 3rd April 1871 (Census day) when his wife calls herself a widow.
In the 1881 census, she refers to herself as separated.
There is no record of William's death in UK and I can find nothing to suggest that he emigrated although some of his siblings had already emigrated to Australia.
It may be significant that he had recently inherited some property, in Essex,  from his mother.
There are, apparently, no surviving records of Royal Arsenal employees.
Ideas/suggestions anybody?   PLEASE??

[The Mc]

Hi Marion......a very warm welcome to Rootschat! Persevere with the site, you will hopefully get some of your answers from some very knowledgeable people on here!

Looking on the FreeBMD.org site I can only find the death of one William Langham in the London/Essex area which ties in roughly with his birth year of 1828......

William Langham Dec Quarter of 1897 in the Edmonton Reg. District. (volume 3a page 171). He was 70.

Edmonton spanned the boundaries of the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex.....

Any chance that could be him?

[Nick29]

Don't forget that deaths are always registered in the county where the death took place, so if William decided to spend some of his inheritance to visit long-lost family, and died whilst travelling, then his death would not be registered in Essex. 

Did William have family in other parts of the country ?

All you can really do is try to sniff out any clues which could point to where William went 

[Plummiegirl]

Also although he worked at the Arsenal which is Sth London, he could easily have lived on the other side of the river.  An early commuter.

This would tie in with him working at the Arsenal and 'dying' in Essex.  Personally I do think this death is his.

At this time the Royal Arsenal would have geographically been in Kent.

You have not said where he married (area) and where the births of his children are.  So we do not know if he lived South or East.  Woolwich is one of those London conundrums being both sides of the river.  North Woolwich would have been in Essex at the time you are talking about. 

update:  There would be no problem of him living in E. London and working S.London.  Although the Woolwich Ferry in its current form originated in 1889, there has actually been a river crossing in this area since the 14th century.
The foot tunnel opened in 1912.

[MarionL]

Many thanks for your input.
I believe I have every other aspect of William Langham's life tracked.  It's just his death that I can't find.
His home was really Romford, Essex.  He was born there and most of his children were born there too.     The whole family was there.  He married at St. Mary Magdalene, Woolwich and one child was born at Plumstead.
It's odd that, in one census return, his wife describes herself as 'widowed' and, in the  next she says she is 'separated'.   I wonder if, having come into some property,  he just upped and left.
None of the suggestions above have borne fruit, I'm afraid.

[Nick29]

Many thanks for your input.
I believe I have every other aspect of William Langham's life tracked..... 

I'm not sure that I could ever confidently say that.   We see a snapshot of people's lives every 10 years, and a lot can happen in 10 years.  I thought I knew all about my own father and mother's whereabouts during their lifetimes until the London Electoral Roll became available on Ancestry, and I found that they had moved around a lot more than I had ever imagined 

[Plummiegirl]

From what you have said about being married in Woolwich and 1 child born in the area, I would suggest that this is where his wife may have either come from or was she in service in the area?

[MarionL]

Well, that's true, Nick.   But, as well as the census returns,  they had children pretty regularly and I can tell where they were by where the children were born and who registered  them.   That nails them down to a certain extent and its how I can say with such certainty that the last sighting of William is on 31st May 1867, in Romford , when he registered his youngest child's birth.   By the time of the 1871 census, he has disappeared.

His wife was born in Romford too and she was from a large family who always seemed to stay close to each other.

[Nick29]

His wife was born in Romford too and she was from a large family who always seemed to stay close to each other.

Not so close to stop her ending up in the Chelsea workhouse ? 

Personally, I'd take a punt and get the death certificate for the William Langham that died in Chelmsford in Q4 1890 (Vol 4a, Page 225).  His DOB is only 3 years out.