Girl Guide,
If you have an Anc. account, and win the bid, maybe the best option would be to create a basic, public tree for Richard and Mary Ann, and attach digitised images of the menu. Adding a note that you have the original and would pass it on. It might attract the attention of any descendent researchers. And if not, at least others who have Richard and Mary Ann in their tress could copy the digitised version, keeping it 'alive' in some sense.
Also, I've followed up these possible children and there doesn't seem to be that many grandchildren of Richard and Mary Ann, and quite a few didn't marry (I haven't followed them all so can't say for sure).
Children of Richard and Mary Ann (who reached adulthood):
Mary Charlotte & John Alfred
11 children
George & Julia
3 children: 2 sons died young, 1 son still-born
William Henry & Julia
3 children: all survived to adulthood, 2 unmarried, 1 married (Constance, possibly 1 child)
Hannah & Frederick
4 children: all survived to adulthood
Frederick Francis & Alice Mary
5 children: all survived early childhood
Emma Woodhatch & John
1 child: survived to adulthood; Emma and John appear to have emigrated to New Zealand
Laura Ellen
unmarried
Walter James & Bessie
no known children; Walter and Bessie appear to have emigrated to US in 1910s
Jane Florence & Samuel Jonathan
3 children: 1 died in childhood, 1 died in adulthood (unmarried), 1 married (Percy Edward, possibly 1 child)
Richard & Hester Henrietta
no known children
Attached is a fuller picture of the (possible) children. There could be mistakes here.
Also, I found an item for the marriage of son Walter to Bessie Gibberd, which gives some more insight into the family.
South London Press
15 Oct 1892
Marriage of Miss Gibberd
- wedding took place on Wednesday
- of Bessie, only daughter of John Gibberd,
- of 477 Old Kent Road
- to Walter James, son of
- Mr Richard Tilling,
- of Southwark
- the event was one of more than passing interest
- Mr Gibberd is one the largest traders in South London,
- and has numerous branches under his name throughout
- the whole of the metropolis,
- sufficient evidence of his popularity and business influence
- Mr Tilling, too, is equally popular
- he his a gentleman who carries on the extensive printing and
- lithographic business in Great Dover Street
- and whose name almost amounts to a household word in Southwark and Newington
- the alliance of two such well-known and respected families was
- therefore an event which their friends and neighbours took occasion to celebrate
...
- the presents numbered nearly 100
- and the majority were of a costly description, including:
- a house at Clapham from Mr Gibberd
- a magnificent piano from the mother of the bride
[long item]
