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Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

Firstly, this surname has presented the enumerators for the census problems in the nineteenth century, as well as modern transcribers. We’ve got Beeney, Beany, Beeny and Beaney as the names here, just to make things more exciting….

John Beaney and Elizabeth Beaney (nee Candler) married on 18 September 1837 at St. Clement’s Church in Norwich, with Elizabeth having been born in Ringland, Norwich. I can’t find his birth records, although John was born in around 1818. Elizabeth was born on 20 April 1814 and was baptised on 22 May 1814 at Ringland Church, with her parents being James Candler and Ann Candler (nee Collins).

At the 1841 census, the couple were living with William Collins and William Collins (I assume father and son since one was 71 and the other 50) on Cowgate Street in Norwich. Unless it’s by chance, they would have been living with some of Ann’s relatives.

For reasons I cannot quite understand, as this would have been quite a distance to move in the nineteenth century, the couple were listed as living alone at 10 Elizabeth Place, Walsoken near Wisbech at the 1851 census. John was listed as working as a lath render. I’m not really a DIY expert, but he would have been the person who constructed the laths on walls ready for a plasterer to, well, plaster.

Clearly now back in Norwich, John also got himself in the Norwich Mercury in July 1854, although not for fortunate reasons. A Thomas Brooks pinched five bundles of lath from John, which resulted in the offender being sentenced to six months in prison with hard labour. There’s nothing to suggest in the records that John would have had much money, so this would have likely been a significant problem for him.

At the 1861 census, John and Elizabeth lived alone on St. Faith’s Lane in Norwich, with John still working as a lath render. John died on 15 June 1862 and Elizabeth died in the first quarter of 1863.

So, this is another gravestone without a huge amount of back story. I can’t find evidence of any children, so the couple likely just lived a quiet life which has mostly been lost to the record. It’s a little strange that the nearest that we can come to knowing a bit more about John from the newspapers is because he was a victim of crime. The stone, which is a little damaged now, was updated following the death of Elizabeth and I wonder who arranged for that to take place.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This gravestone commemorates the life of Robert Foulger who was born in Harleston on 22 March 1807 and his wife, Mary Foulger (nee Wright). I didn’t notice Mary’s name at first as it’s at the base and it appears that this stone has been damaged and put back in the ground and it’s much shorter than those around it.

The couple married on 17 April 1828 at St. John’s Church in Old Lakenham, and although this is no relevance to anyone, this is a church which I’ve been meaning to visit. At the 1841 census, Robert and Mary were living on Ber Street in Norwich, along with a 20-year old male called James Welch.

There’s a strong chance that the Robert Foulger listed as being the landlord of the Jolly Butchers pub briefly in 1836 is the same person, since this pub (which became known much later on for the landlady Antoinette Hannent) was located on Ber Street and only closed a few years ago. What Robert was doing running this pub, I don’t know…

At the 1851 census, Robert and Mary were still living at a yard located off of Ber Street, where Robert is listed as a gig maker, but I have no idea what that is. He did though employ one other person and he’s listed on the electoral register as operating a shop and owning his own residential property. We also know that at the by-election for the Norwich constituency held on 29 December 1854 that Robert voted for Samuel Bignold, who was the winner (and the youngest son of Thomas Bignold, who founded Norwich Union).

Robert died the day before his birthday, on 21 March 1865, at the age of 57. But there are big gaps in all of this, I can’t find either Robert or Mary on the 1861 census, but Mary is listed as living at St. Catherine Plain in Norwich, as a lodger with Thomas and Elizabeth Lamb, along with their daughter who was also called Elizabeth.

Mary died on 23 August 1885 at the age of 78. Her death was reported in Norfolk News on 29 August 1885, noting that she had died suddenly at her home at 193 Queen’s Road, Norwich. This property still stands, it’s rather a decent home.

This is another situation where I’m sure there’s much more of a story, I just can’t quite work out what it is yet.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This is quite a simple gravestone, commemorating the life of William Fitt, who was born in 1822. Unfortunately, I’ve been able to find out very little about William, nor can I understand why his wife wasn’t listed on the gravestone.

He appears in the 1841 census as living with his parents on Ber Street, Robert and Mary, along with his brothers and sisters Bartholomew (that’s a name that should come back into usage), James, Barnard, Mary and Maria.

Soon after this, he was married in Lakenham Church in 1842 to Susan Fitt (nee Barham) with her father being Stephen Barham. At the 1851 census, William was living with his wife on Ber Street, he listed as a pipe maker, whilst Susan was a shopkeeper. They had two children, Eleanor aged 8 and Stephen, aged 7.

And the next I can find of William, other than him being listed in a city directory as a butcher in 1858 was at the 1861 census, when he was living with his wife and two children from before, as well as new arrival, his daughter Emma, aged 3. That’s a very large gap in ages, William and Susan now had an 18 year old, a 16 year old and a 3 year old. I wonder whether some children died there…. He was also listed as a butcher on the census.

At the 1871 census, William was still in the same place and still working as a butcher, living with daughter Eleanor (called Ellen) and Emma, as well as Laura Hindes, who was his 9-year old niece. William died at the age of 58 on 28 August 1876.

I can’t find out anything to tell a better story here and I can’t work out much about William. I’ve tried to work out where he lived on Ber Street to see if the building is still there, but it appears to be near what is now called Submarine Way, where all of the older buildings have been demolished.

Susan died on 11 April 1897. Her assets of £90 were given to her daughter Eleanor, listed as a spinster.

So, I’m disappointed I can’t tell a more interesting tale here, but maybe someone will know something more and let me know in future years.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This grave  rather stood out given the amount of text on it, including the marriage date which is a little unusual. But, Elizabeth and James Arthurton were married for over fifty years, so I imagine that James was very proud of that and wanted it to be remembered. Those last words spoken by Elizabeth were written by Nicolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, with his works translated by John Wesley.

The details of Elizabeth’s life are handily put onto the gravestone, so we know that she was born on 27 June 1799, that the couple were married on 11 August 1825 and that she died on 26 December 1876 at the age of 77. This makes it easy to discover that she was born in North Walsham as Elizabeth Woodhouse, with the couple being married at St. Stephen’s Church (the one next to the shopping centre formerly known as Chapelfield which a few years ago had a footpath ploughed through the middle of the churchyard to get to it).

At the 1841 census, the couple were living alone on Black Swan Lane in Costessey (which was listed as Cossey in the census, and is still how the location is pronounced) in the Forehoe Hundred. It was a slight faff to find this, the street was named after the now closed Black Swan pub and it took me a while to locate this, but it’s on the main street in the village, roughly where Folgate Close pokes through.

At the 1851 census, the couple were living alone on Mill Lane in New Catton, near to Norwich, and that James was working as a grocer. They were trickier to find at the 1861 census, as the transcriber has mis-spelt their surname, but they were living in Costessey again and James was working as a school-teacher. The couple were now living with two lodgers, William Fuller (a 69-year old retired grocer) and Edwin Garrington (a 66-year old retired clerk).

Just James is listed as living on Palace Street near to Norwich Cathedral in 1871, which is because by this time Elizabeth (listed now as a seamstress) was living as “an inmate” at the Great Hospital, which is a little way down the road on Bishopgate Street. Following her death at the hospital, a notice in the Norfolk News noted that “she was the zealous assistant to her husband in raising the Church Protestant Sunday and Day Schools at Cossey in 1836”.

And the picture unfolds enough here for this gravestone to make a little more sense (I’m sounding like the archaeologists in Time Team now, desperate to find enough of a story here to conclude with). This couple were married for over 52 years and had clearly gone through a long life together. In the final few years of Elizabeth’s life, they were separated and I can imagine James standing by the grave with perhaps no other family members. I’m guessing his wanting the details of their marriage on the gravestone was because he was very proud of their time together.

It’s a bit hidden behind foliage now on the stone, but James lived until 16 June 1882, when he died at the age of 77 at Bethel Hospital in Norwich. The gravestone also notes his date of birth, which was 21 July 1804, although I wonder who arranged to get his details added to the stone. As an aside, James voted for John Parry at the 1847 General Election, although he wasn’t elected. This was an interesting political movement, as Parry was standing for the Radicals, who were important in establishing the new Liberal Party from the Whigs.