The
Greswell family
The parents and siblings of my maternal
grandmother's father were living in the village of
Drayton
(near Banbury) Oxfordshire at the 1841 Census, the
2-year-old Thomas being my great-grandfather:
Thomas Griswell 30 Plush
Weaver
Elizabeth do 30
Martha 5
Sarah 3
Thomas 2
Mary 1
John 26 Ag Lab
Josiah 20 Ag Lab
At the time of the 1851 Census, living
in Cookham, Berkshire, we find the Tubb family,
Ann being my great-grandmother:
John Tubb (41) Agricultural
Labourer
Sarah (40) born in Bucks Little Marlow
Mary Ann (18) Shoe Binder
Benjamin (16) Ag Lab
Ann (11)
Charlotte (7)
William (4)
Thomas (4)
My
mother’s mother, Louisa Greswell, was born in Cookham,
Berkshire, in the later months of 1875. Her father was
listed in the 1881 Census as Thomas Greswell (42, so
born in 1839, Coal Merchant), born in Drayton Oxon.
and her mother was Ann Greswell (41), born in Cookham
in about 1840 as Ann Tubb. They were married in
Cookham in 1864 (he is called “Griswell” in the
record) and had quite a large family by the 1881
Census, beginning with Albina E(lizabeth) (14); Thomas
(12); Annie (10); Arthur (8); Louisa (5) and William
(2). In the 1891 Census report, three children were
still at home: Louisa (15), William (12, Stable
assistant) and the youngest, May (9). May was later to
emigrate to Australia but came back on a visit in
about 1952, when she came to tea with us. She looked
exactly like her sister Louisa only younger! My
grandmother always claimed to recall playing with the
artist Stanley Spenser, Cookham’s most famous figure,
but since he was only born in 1891, that seems
unlikely.
By
1901, Annie Greswell was living alone with her husband
at 38, The Moor, in Cookham. “Louise” was living as a
children’s maid at The Manor House, Eastbourne, May
was a housemaid in Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
The
Davies-Gilbert family, for whom Louisa Greswell went
to work, were (and remain) one of the main landowners
in Eastbourne. The 1901
Census shows that the head of the Davies-Gilbert
family for whom Louise was working, Carew
Davies-Gilbert (1852-1913), was absent from
Eastbourne; his wife (Grace Katherine Rosa, daughter
of George Staunton King Massey Dawson of
Ballinacourte, Co Tipperary, Ireland, whom he had
married in 1881) was there “living on her own means”
with 5 daughters, ranging from 19 to 6. In fact there
was no son in the family. The youngest daughter, aged
6, was called Honor, the name later given to my
mother’s sister. Above her came Hester, already 9, so
Louise Greswell was almost certainly mainly
responsible for looking after Honor. There was an
unmarried female cousin of 43, too. Also living in the
house were no less than eleven servants, including 2
governesses, a “lady’s maid,” and a “children’s maid”
who was Louise Greswell. This is the origin of her
Cornish destiny. In addition to their Eastbourne
estate, the Davies-Gilbert family owned a splendid
Cornish country house, Trelissick, situated in the
parish of Kea, very near Feock. When Carew died in
1913, Trelissick was sold while the more lucrative
properties were bequeathed to his two eldest
daughters. Gran certainly went at least once with the
family on a visit to Germany, she never forgot the
German word for a 'pillow-case'
(Kopfkissenuberzug) because it sounded so funny. She
had a collection of photos from that time but her
dying wish was that they should be burned, alas.
This little cup survived, however,
despite the mis-spelling.
Born in 1874, my
maternal grandfather James Green seems to have
attracted the attention of someone at Trelissick for,
according to family tradition, he was sent at about 12
years of age to spend a year as an apprentice gardener
in Kew Gardens. He then came back to Trelissick to
work as “Gardener Domestic .“
In September
1907, the marriage of Louisa Greswell and James Green
was recorded at Maidenhead, Berkshire. They had
presumably been married at Cookham, obviously after
meeting (being formally introduced by their
employers?) in Trelissick during one of the visits by
the Davies-Gilbert family. At the Census of 1911 we
find James and Louisa living in one of the row of
estate-owned houses along the left-hand side of the
road going down to King Harry Ferry, probably the
topmost house which was later demolished. It must have
been a small cottage, it only had 4 rooms. By now they
had a son, John Greswell Green, aged 2, (March 27,
1909 - July 12, 2009). In actual fact Louisa was
already pregnant and on July 24, 1911, she gave birth
to a daughter, Nan Albina, my mother. The rather odd
names were almost certainly those of Louisa’s elder
sisters Annie and Albina.
The rest of the story is told in the Green family page.
There is a
problem about the Greswell lineage. My mother told me
that the Greswells came from Boston, Lincolnshire.
There is also a report from John Lamble (my cousin)
that one of our grandmother's brothers went to live in
Boston.
In the 1841 Census, just after “Thomas Greswell” my
grandmother’s father was born in Drayton, there was
indeed a Greswell family living in Boston: But even
more Greswells were found in Cheshire. 'Greswell' is a
far more widespread spelling than Griswell.
Henry Greswell
45
Mary Greswell 40
Juliet Greswell
10
Eliza Greswell
10
Benjamin
Greswell 5
William Greswell
5
Henry Greswell 1
But there is no obvious connection with the Griswells of Drayton that I can see . . . .