Help me solve my family mystery! (1850s, London, Hobbs/Laurance)

[QueenoftheWest]

I have just joined RootsChat and this is my first post so I’m sorry if I do anything wrong. I’m excited to join the community and hope to help others in future but right now I am in need of some advice!

Finally, after 10 years of searching I have found my GG Grandfather Lawrence John Hobbs’ real name.

I found him on every census from 1871 to 1911 and he was always listed as Lawrence John or John Hobbs b. 1856 in Hampstead, London. On his marriage certificate (12th December 1881) to my GG Grandmother Eleanor Palmer, he listed his father as Benjamin Hobbs (deceased), labourer. My grandfather also remembered that he came from a large family, with 4 brothers and 1 sister, Mary. This is all the information I had to go on and I had no reason to believe it was false. I searched for quite a few years for a boy born in London to a Benjamin Hobbs but couldn’t find anything.

Eventually, a friend of my uncle’s found an 1861 census:

Head: Benjamin Hobbs b. 1805 (Ancestry has a transcription error) in Wiltshire, shearer
Wife: Elizabeth Hobbs b. 1813 in Marylebone, Middlesex, sempstress
Nephew: Laurance John Laurance b.1856 in Hampstead, London

Finally I had his real name: Laurance John Laurance. I already had his full birth date (28th February 1856) as my GG Grandmother Eleanor had a locket with their photos in it and on the back of the photos were their birth dates (thank you, Grandma!).

This led me to his birth certificate (Kentish Town, St Pancras), which reads as follows:

28th February 1856
31 Ferdinand Street, Camden Town

Name: Laurance John Laurance

Father: Laurance John Laurance

Mother: Sarah Laurance formerly Ecolstone

Father’s Occupation: Teacher of Foreign Languages

Signed by mother, Sarah Laurance.

I will refer to my GG Grandfather as Lawrence and his father as Laurance. The biggest shock was obviously his father’s profession: Teacher of Foreign Languages. From this I could conclude only one thing… that he was foreign himself. I’m thinking French because of his name but if anyone knows anything about language pedagogy in the 1850s and the type of people who taught I would be really interested.

This is where I ask for help. I’ve searched and searched for any further information about his biological and adoptive parents but it has been fruitless:
•   I cannot find a baptism record for Lawrence, nor did his biological parents have any other children.
•   I cannot find a marriage certificate for his parents or his adoptive parents.
•   I cannot find a Sarah Ecolstone/Ecclestone born in London or any of London’s surrounding counties with a plausible birth date.
•   I have no idea who Laurance is but this could be explained by his not being born in this country.
•   There are a few John Lawrence and Sarah Lawrence deaths but none of them stands out.
•   I cannot find Benjamin Hobbs on any other census, nor can I find a birth record for him. Strangely enough there is an Elizabeth Hobbs that appears on a few other censuses with the same birth date and location but she lists herself as single and if this is she then it means that she and Benjamin might have been cousins (?) because they shared the same surname.
•   Benjamin and Elizabeth do not appear to have had any other children; was my grandfather mistaken or was Lawrence not telling the truth?
•   I cannot find a connection between Benjamin and Elizabeth Hobbs and Laurance John and Sarah Laurance. I’m assuming the connection is between Sarah and either Benjamin or Elizabeth.

To be honest, a large part of me wonders whether Lawrence ever knew that he was adopted. He certainly never mentioned it to his wife or his grandson and my grandfather could have been mistaken re his siblings.

I would be so grateful if anyone could help clear up any part of the mystery behind why Lawrence was given to another family and how they are related to his biological parents.

Thank you!

[CaroleW]

Welcome to Rootschat

Just posting the link to the 1861 entry for starters

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MG-N7SP

[tazzie]

Hello and welcome...

 I have found this to add...

 Louisa Mary Julia Laurance mmn Eclestone 1857 but she sadly died the same year.


 Tazzie

[Spidermonkey]

It could be suggested that Benjamin was aged 36, not 56 (the 1861 census has a beautiful thick line through the age, neatly obliterating all distinguishing features!) so don't take for granted his age!

[Mabel Bagshawe]

I'd say that he may not be from another country just because he taught foreign languages. There were many educated young people who needed to earn a living and teaching whatever their skill was was one way of doing this - whether as a private tutor or governess or offering lessons

I've found a potential for Laurence jnr - b 1833 in London to Moses and Rayner, also from London. Moses was a merchant.

In 1841 he's in a school in May Place, Northfleet,  Kent with some of his siblings. The surnames of many of the pupils suggest this establishment might have jewish connections (and then a google suggests this was the first jewish boarding school in England)

[Spidermonkey]

There is a death record for a Benjamin Hobbs in the nonconformist records on Ancestry. Gives his address as 14 New Gravel Lane, Shadwell and his age as 58 (burial 27 Feb 1870)

[QueenoftheWest]

Hello and welcome...

 I have found this to add...

 Louisa Mary Julia Laurance mmn Eclestone 1857 but she sadly died the same year.


 Tazzie

Thank you so much! I tried to find a sibling but I only looked in St Pancras where Lawrence was born. I have ordered the birth certificate; hopefully it will give me some new information such as whether he was still teaching when Louisa was born or if he had moved on to something else and will also give me their new address.

Such a shame she passed so young although it does explain why Lawrence was alone with his adoptive parents. I have found her burial record and her gravestone in Camberwell Old Cemetery. I actually live in London so I might go for a walk down there and visit her grave.

[QueenoftheWest]

It could be suggested that Benjamin was aged 36, not 56 (the 1861 census has a beautiful thick line through the age, neatly obliterating all distinguishing features!) so don't take for granted his age!

There is a death record for a Benjamin Hobbs in the nonconformist records on Ancestry. Gives his address as 14 New Gravel Lane, Shadwell and his age as 58 (burial 27 Feb 1870)

Thank you for your reply! It is very hard to read the census, to me it looks like a 5 and then either a 0 or a 6 so maybe he was 50 b. 1811? Would make sense as his wife was born in 1813.

Also thank you for the death record. It is definitely a possibility and would explain why he did not appear on the 1871 census. I did a google maps search and Gravel Lane is very close to where he lived in 1861. The family were clearly not Church of England as neither of their children was baptised and they did not get married in a C of E Church and maybe Benjamin wasn't either, could they have known each other through their church? My great-grandmother (Lawrence's daughter) was Baptist, as was my grandfather but she was baptised in a C of E Church so it looks like she converted at a later date.

[QueenoftheWest]

I'd say that he may not be from another country just because he taught foreign languages. There were many educated young people who needed to earn a living and teaching whatever their skill was was one way of doing this - whether as a private tutor or governess or offering lessons

I've found a potential for Laurence jnr - b 1833 in London to Moses and Rayner, also from London. Moses was a merchant.

In 1841 he's in a school in May Place, Northfleet,  Kent with some of his siblings. The surnames of many of the pupils suggest this establishment might have jewish connections (and then a google suggests this was the first jewish boarding school in England)

Thank you for your reply! That's certainly an interesting theory. I have looked into this Laurance and can neither prove nor disprove that he was my ancestor. His parents are in a lot of public trees on Ancestry but no one seems to know what happened to him. Would also explain how he was able to teach foreign languages. As I mentioned in one of my other replies, the family were not Church of England so it is not impossible...

I suppose I have two theories now: he was foreign himself or he was this Laurance and received a good education at a boarding school.