Following my post a couple of days ago about the family of Henry Hedges, I have actively searched for them in the 1871 census.
Knowing that they were living at 2 Orcus Street in Marylebone in 1866 when Henry was born was a starting point. So first, I needed to know where Orcus Street was. Searching Multimap didn’t return any answers. Next, I tried searching online lists such as London Street name changes to see if the street had been renamed, again no Orcus Street.
My next approach was to find old London maps of the era. Motco is a website with a database of maps and prints of London. On their website they have some maps with the indexes. One of these was Edward Stanford’s 1862 map of London and its suburbs. The online index only contains 5,000 names instead of the 18,000 in the full version on their CD, but importantly for me it contained Orcus Street, so I had finally confirmed when it existed. I may eventually get a copy of the CD as it may make life a lot easier in the future for London addresses.
I found a website, http://www.mappalondon.com, which had the same map available online. There was no index, so I just started area by area searching the map for Orcus Street. I eventually, after several hours, found it in the St. John’s Wood area. This allowed me to go back to Ancestry and browse the 1871 Census. I was able to select London for County, St Marylebone for Civil Parish and St John for Sub-registration District. I then worked my way through the descriptions of the registration districts until I found District 4:
‘The part of the Parish of Marylebone which is bounded on the North by North Street, on the East by Grove Road, on the South by Princess Street, on the West by Sailsbury Street including Grove Road (No 34 to No 42), Upper Capland Street (from Princess Street to North Street), Orcus Street, North Street (22 to 40), Salisbury Street (No 28 to 44), Princess Street, Lisson Grove No 1 to 19, Princess Mews all numbers (included)’
I didn’t find Lisson Grove, but it does also contain Little North Street. More importantly, on page 44 was 2 Orcus Street.
- John Hedges, Head, Married, 58, Cabdriver, Berks White Waltham
- Eliza Hedges, Wife, Married, 35, U K – unknown – note from Ian
- Frederick Hedges, Unmarried, Son, 13, Shop Boy, Marylebone
- Henry Hedges, Unmarried, Son, 14, Shop Boy, Marylebone
- Amy Hedges, Unmarried, Daughter, 1, Marylebone
- Ralp Hedges, Unmarried, Son, 3 months, Marylebone
Got him! Although the age is wrong, I know Henry was born at this address 4 years previously and as he follows 13 year old Frederick on the census, I am taking this as a recording error. The family is transcribed as Hedge on Ancestry for this Census, but I still don’t know why I never turned them up before.
So, not only have I found my great grandfather, I have found 3 siblings.
I searched the marriage records for John Hedges and Eliza Hardinge and found one record in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 1866. There would have been no doubt as to the reason for marriage then as Henry was born in December. Here Ancestry came up trumps again as they have the London registers of marriage online. I was able to find John and Eliza’s marriage record and confirm they were married on 1st October 1866.
- John Hedges, 52, Widower, Cabdriver, 2 Orcus Street, father – James Hedges, Farmer’s Man
- Eliza Hardinge, 30, Spinster, 2 Orcus Street, father – Thomas Francis Hardinge, Corn Merchant
So this has now pushed me back another generation to James Hedges.
I had already found John Hedges, a cabman from White Waltham in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, but as he was married to Mary Ann, I had discounted him when I found it was Eliza I was looking for. I am now wondering if this was his first marriage.