Arthur Wilson Update

For many years we have looked for Arthur and Catherine Wilson the siblings of my Grandfather Benjamin Wilson. We knew many years ago that Arthur had attended Borden School in Sittingbourne and had left about 1905 with good grades. Then the trail went cold.

Recently I put into Google the words Borden School and Arthur Wilson, to my suprise the first result of the search was an Obituary for an Arthur Wilson who had attended Borden School in a Journal for the Royal Society of Chemistry 1925 Vol 6.

This is the obituary.



ARTHUR WILSON, who died at Woldingham, Surrey, in his thirty-seventh year, was educated at Borden Grammar School, Sittingbourne, and at The College, Herne Bay, Kent. He matriculated at the University of London and studied for three years at Finsbury Technical College, under Prof. Meldola, to whom he was junior research assistant for six months before he became assistant to Dr. R. Lessing, with whom he was associated fop five years. During the war he attained the rank of Major in the Leinster Regiment and gained the Military Cross. After demobilisation in December, 1919, he secured an appointment as Assistant-Superintendent, in the Government Harness and Saddlery Factory, Cawnpore. He passed the Intermediate Examination of the Institute in January, 1912, and the Final Examination in Organic Chemistry in July of the same year. He was elected a Fellow in 1919.

Finding Arthur's obituary was an amazing stroke of luck and we hardly believed it could be the same person but after obtaining his death certificate which stated his father in Law, H A Cunis was present at the time of death, we sent for his marriage certificate and this confirmed the correct father's name and ccupation which was William Wilson Cooper.



He married an Ivy Madge Cunis on the 16th October 1917 he was 28 she was 24. On the 1911 census she stated she was a Secretary to Doctor.

(We were told by an aunt that Arthur's sister Catherine had married a Doctor so maybe there is a link here that may lead us to Catherine.)



Ivy Madge was the daughter of a Horace Albert Cunis. He was a member of a family of Barge owners in London

They had over 80 barges and were leading transporters of Sand and Gravel and various commodities along the Thames.

Ivy Madge was awarded an MBE in 1920 ...Mrs. IVY MADGE WILSON.—Aircraft Production Department, Ministry of Munitions. Possibly war work ?

In 1919 Arthur and Ivy had a son Trevor Arnold. This is a passenger list of a sailing from London on 13th August 1920, Ivy and Trevor are listed as disembarking in Bombay India

Click to enlarge image

Sadly three months later Trevor died.

We have several passenger lists where she visited Arthur while he was working in India.

On the 8th November 1925 Arthur died in Woldingham Surrey... Cause of death Carcinoma of Stomach, operation, Secondary deposits in the liver, Jaundice. age 36.
How sad that he had achieved so much after a difficult start in life and then died so young.

In 1930 Ivy was a Managing Director of her father's business Horace A Cunis Ltd a time when female bosses where few and far between.

Ivy Madge died on the 14 Aug 1976 age 83 She is buried with Arthur at a beautiful church called The Church of St Agatha Woldingham it is a very pretty and peaceful location.


Click to enlarge


Her parents Horace and Emily are in an adjacent grave.

After thirty years, in two short weeks we know so much about him which is wonderful.

The search goes on for Catherine.

Mark Lemon

Mark Lemon (1809–1870)

For our Grandchildren...Mark Lemon is your 1st cousin six times removed. That is the number of direct grandparents.)
He was the child of your Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather. George Mark Lemon's, brother Thomas Martin Lemon.



Mark Lemon with the Dickens family. In the article that follows you will see that Charles Dickens and Mark Lemon were great friends.

In The Times newspaper of the 21st March 1849 there is a transcript of a court case where Charles and Mark were accused by a pickpocket of making their living by buying stolen goods !!


Click on the article to get a larger image


Lemon, Mark (1809–1870), magazine editor and playwright, the only child of Martin Lemon (d. 1817) and Alice Collis, was born on 30 November 1809 in Oxford Street, London. Both parents had rural roots.
At the age of eight Mark lost his father and was sent to live with his paternal grandparents Mark and Grace (nee Denyer) at Church House Farm, Hendon, Middlesex.
This is the home in Hendon of our grandchildren's Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents.

His mother, meanwhile, began a new career as a milliner in Oxford Street. Mark became a boarder at Cheam School for a while and came under the influence of its headmaster, James Wilding. Some of his school experiences were woven into his second novel, Loved at Last (1864). The death of Lemon's grandfather in 1820 was the possible reason for the end of Mark's spell at Cheam. Three years later his grandmother died, and at the age of fourteen he was sent to Boston, Lincolnshire, to learn the hops business under the guidance of his uncle, Thomas Collis.
Early career and the foundation of Punch By 1836 Lemon had returned to London and in March of that year was living in Soho. A year later he was working in a Kentish Town brewery run by the brother of his mother's second husband. From 1834 to 1837 his light verse and sketches under the pen-name Tom Moody appeared in the New Sporting Magazine. From September 1837 he also contributed to Bentley's Miscellany while Charles Dickens was the editor. Lemon saw his first play, a farce entitled The P. L., or, 30, Strand, produced at the Strand Theatre on 25 April 1836. This was followed in July by his first melodrama, Arnold of Winkelreid, which was staged at the Surrey Theatre. A meeting with the actor and composer Frank Romer led to their collaboration on Rob of the Fen (an adaptation of the German Des Falkners Braut), which appeared at the English Opera House in July 1838. Lemon was introduced to one of Romer's sisters, Helen (Nelly) Romer (c.1817–1890), whom he eventually married on 28 September 1839, and with whom he had three sons and seven daughters. However, with the closure of the brewery early in the following year Lemon was left without a regular income, though he was soon found a new post as landlord of the Shakespeare's Head in Wych Street, off Drury Lane, London. Although popular with his ‘guests’, as he preferred to call his clientele of mainly poets, playwrights, artists, and journalists, Lemon proved to be an incompetent businessman, and by the close of 1840 had been sacked.In early June 1841 fellow playwright Henry Mayhew introduced Lemon to Joseph Last, a printer, who had already introduced Mayhew to the engraver Ebenezer Landells. The latter wished to finance the launch of a new comic journal modelled on Philipon's Paris Charivari. This was a bold initiative, given that Figaro in London, the comic newspaper with which the nascent Punch was most commonly compared, had folded two years earlier. Its closure was symbolic of a decline in the fortunes of satirical journalism which was due partly to a period of relative political calm, partly to the death of its most obvious target, George IV, and partly also to the growth of Chartist newspapers, which provided an alternative voice for radicalism. Lemon was none the less attracted by the idea, and over the next few weeks became involved in discussions. Eventually a definite plan emerged. Initially Lemon was to share the editorial responsibilities with Mayhew and the Irish dramatist Stirling Coyne. Last was to be the printer, Landells the engraver, and the publisher was to be William Bryant. Several writers were approached for contributions, including Douglas Jerrold, Gilbert à Beckett, and Percival Leigh. Among the artists were to be Archibald Henning, Birket Foster, and John Leech. The title Punch was chosen after some debate, and Lemon set about preparing a prospectus, which was duly circulated throughout the capital. Lemon saw the new comic weekly, which was due to make its début on 17 July 1841, as ‘a refuge for destitute wit’ and an ‘asylum for the thousands of orphan jokes … the millions of perishing puns, which are now wandering about without so much as a shelf to rest upon’ (Adrian, 30–31). However, he also promised features on politics, fashion, police, reviews, fine arts, music and drama, and sport. The first number of Punch appeared on the date set and the leading article by Lemon expanded on the prospectus. The new paper would provide ‘pleasing instruction’ as well as harmless amusement, and would be conducted in a liberal, humanitarian spirit. Despite the investment of money and talent in it, Punch did not take off as expected, and had Lemon not ploughed back a fee of £30 received for his playlet The Silver Thimble the third issue would not have appeared. The proceeds from a farce by Lemon, Punch, also helped to keep the paper going. As a Punch contributor in this period Lemon was kept busy with his serial ‘The Heir of Applebite’, which ran from August to November 1841.
Editor of PunchWith the acquisition of Punch by Bradbury and Evans in December 1842 Lemon became sole editor, possibly in recognition of his financial help. An embittered Henry Mayhew never adjusted himself to a new subservient role under Lemon, and in 1847 he accused his former friend of welshing on an agreement to share the proceeds from certain plays on which they had collaborated. Under the inspired leadership of Lemon, who possessed a genuine gift for getting the best out of his contributors, Punch prospered. In 1842 William Makepeace Thackeray was recruited to the team; Horace Mayhew arrived a year later, and in 1844 Tom Taylor made his début. John Leech, who began his first Punch cartoon in 1842, and Richard Doyle were the two outstanding artists taken on by Lemon in the first decade. Apart from ‘The Heir of Applebite’ Lemon's own contributions to Punch tended to be short fillers, though he also wrote ‘Songs for the Sentimental’ and similar verse effusions, many of which had a keen social emphasis. Lemon's humanitarianism encouraged social and political satirists, most notably the brilliant Jerrold, to submit their best material to Punch, though the magazine's strong radical flavour was tempered somewhat by the more conservative contributions of men like Thackeray, Tom Taylor, and John Leech. It was Lemon who accepted ‘The Song of the Shirt’, a fierce indictment of the harsh working conditions of seamstresses by Thomas Hood, for the 1843 Christmas number, against the advice of his staff. As a result the circulation of Punch was tripled overnight. Yet behind the magazine's social conscience lurked a genuine philistinism, particularly towards the visual arts, and a narrow jingoism. Lemon oversaw a protracted campaign against Prince Albert, who was ridiculed for collecting pre-Renaissance Italian art, for patronizing the German portraitist Winterhalter, and for dabbling, alongside his wife, in etching. The Art Union and the Schools of Design were also satirized, as was the emerging Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which Punch depicted as an unnatural ‘foreign’ departure from the English tradition in genre painting.Lemon's uncanny instinct for discovering fresh talent led Punch towards even greater prosperity in its second and third decades. Doyle's resignation in 1850 (in protest at the magazine's anti-Catholic campaign) opened the door for John Tenniel, a draughtsman with even greater gifts, and in the following year Lemon recruited the equally gifted Charles Keene. The humorist Shirley Brooks was poached by Lemon from Punch's rival the Man in the Moon at about the same time, and eventually became deputy editor. Henry Silver, whose intimate diary recorded the proceedings at the weekly Punch dinners (another Lemon innovation), arrived in 1857. The artist George du Maurier became a regular in 1864, just after the writer F. C. Burnand was taken onto the staff by Lemon. With the death of Jerrold in 1857 Punch lost its only genuinely radical voice, though by this time the magazine's earlier anti-establishment tone had been replaced by one that reflected the views and aspirations of its largely professional middle-class readership. Punch's respectability was acknowledged by Lemon himself when he admitted that his magazine kept ‘to the gentlemanly view of things’ (Adrian, 58). As editor of Britain's leading comic weekly he received £1500 annually, the highest salary ever paid for such a position up to that time. Courted as a celebrity, he was admitted to the Garrick Club and attended Reform Club dinners presided over by the chef Alexis Soyer. Nevertheless, despite his success he did not jettison his liberalism, and at Punch dinners was often the sole voice of humanitarianism in discussions over social policy.
Lemon's circleLemon's friends outside Punch included Herbert Ingram, whom he had first met while living in Boston as a boy. He acted as Ingram's chief adviser during the launching of the Illustrated London News in May 1842, and thereafter was responsible for each Christmas supplement of the magazine until Ingram's death in 1860. He was Ingram's right-hand man during his successful Liberal campaign for the Boston constituency in 1856, during which he was joined by several of his Punch colleagues. In the following year Ingram turned the editorial work of his recently acquired London Journal over to Lemon, but a decision to reprint the Waverley novels in its pages proved disastrous and Lemon resigned. Lemon was also first editor of The Field, which Bradbury and Evans launched in January 1853. In this part-time post he renewed his association with Robert Surtees, who became his principal hunting correspondent and general adviser, but his own contributions consisted largely of surplus material from Punch and the Illustrated London News. He was replaced as editor by J. H. Walsh at the close of 1857.Lemon's friendship with Charles Dickens was a close and long-lasting one. Although he contributed to Bentley's Miscellany while Dickens was editor, it is unlikely that the two men met until after the first issue of Punch appeared. In April 1843 Lemon was formally invited to dinner by Dickens and their friendship grew. Lemon and Punch stalwart Gilbert à Beckett adapted Dickens's Chimes for the Adelphi in February 1844. The Haunted Man followed in 1848. Lemon and Jerrold probably acted as Dickens's sub-editors during the latter's short stint in charge of the Daily News in January 1846. A shared passion for amateur theatricals cemented their friendship. Lemon appeared as Brainworm and Dickens as Bobadil in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, which played at the Royalty and at the St James Theatre in the autumn of 1845. The production was transferred to Manchester and Liverpool in the summer of 1847, and in the following year the play was revived in London, alternating with The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Lemon appeared as Falstaff alongside Dickens. During the more lengthy provincial tour that followed Lemon and Dickens supplemented their Shakespearian repertoire with roles in various farces. In a campaign to raise funds for the Guild of Literature and Art, Lemon and Dickens appeared again in Jonson's play at Lytton's Knebworth in November 1850, and in the following May, after a performance in Lytton's Not So Bad As We Seem, Lemon joined Dickens in Mr Nightingale's Diary, a piece that they had co-written. Further provincial tours followed late in 1851 and in 1852. Lemon also took part in productions at Dickens's small private theatre in Tavistock House, notably in Wilkie Collins's melodramas The Lighthouse (1855) and The Frozen Deep (1857). Lemon and his family had become frequent visitors to Dickens's home since the latter had moved to Tavistock House in November 1851, though the new neighbours were already fellow members of a weekly walking club, had taken nocturnal strolls around London together, and had been on excursions, such as a tour of Salisbury Plain in 1848. In the following year Dickens submitted his one and only contribution to Punch (an attack on the suburban water supply), but Lemon deemed it unsuitable.
Other writings; later lifeThe end of Lemon's long friendship with Dickens came in 1858 when Lemon neglected to publish in Punch his friend's proclamation outlining the reasons for a separation from his wife, Catherine, who had been advised by Lemon. The two men were eventually reconciled in 1867. The break with Dickens coincided with Lemon's move from London to Crawley, Sussex, in May 1858. At the spacious Vine Cottage he entertained his Punch colleagues, including Shirley Brooks, who replaced Dickens in Lemon's affections, and John Tenniel, who modelled his illustrations of Alice in Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland on Lemon's daughter Kate. Lemon also involved himself in parish affairs. He used his influence to bring street lighting to Crawley, helped promote cultural events, resurrected stage-coach travel, and raised money for a new fire engine. At the one-roomed Malthouse, a mile from his home, Lemon wrote prodigiously until his death. He continued to write plays, including the anti-suffragist Women's Suffrage, or, Petticoat Parliament (1867), but the bulk of his output in this period was fiction, and in particular novels. His first book, The Enchanted Doll, a collection of fairy tales, had appeared in 1849, and had been followed by four collections of contributions to periodicals, Prose and Verse (1852), The Heir of Applebite and Our Lodgers (1856), and Betty Morrison's Pocket Book (1856). At Crawley Lemon prepared a collection of Christmas pieces from the Illustrated London News, A Christmas Hamper (1860), which was followed by two novelty items, The Jest Book (1864), a compendium of mainly old jokes, and The New Table Book (1867). He also continued to write for children. The Legends of Number Nip (1864) is a rendering of Johann Karl Musaeus's Rübezahl with illustrations by Punch artist Charles Keene. Tinykin's Transformations (1869) is a fairy tale set in Saxon times. Lemon wrote his first novel in Crawley; Wait for the End (1863) is a moralistic tale centring on the lives of two brothers and their progeny. This was followed by Loved at Last (1864) and the more highly regarded Falkner Lyle (1866), both of which had strong romantic themes. Leyton Hall (1867) was a novella set at the time of Charles I. In the same year appeared a full-length novel, Golden Fetters, which had a contemporary setting. Lemon's final unpublished novel, The Taffeta Petticoat, was completed shortly before his death and drew on years of accumulated knowledge of the theatre, of metropolitan life, and the era of coaching. All Lemon's fiction suffers from unwanted authorial intrusions into the narrative and much of it is marred by a patronizing attitude towards women, extreme prudishness, and a saccharine sentimentality, though his powers of observation and humour are a saving grace.Early in 1862 Lemon delivered a highly successful series of illustrated lectures on the history of London, using as sources such authorities as Stow, Camden, Pepys, and Evelyn. In spring this entertainment toured the provinces, and in 1867 the material was published as Up and Down the London Streets. In 1863 he toured with an adaptation of his own drama Hearts are Trumps. With his heavily bowdlerized interpretation of Shakespeare's Falstaff from Henry IV, Lemon realized a personal ambition to rescue the reputation of a favourite character. On opening in London in October 1868 his Falstaff performances were well received, but provincial tours in the following year resulted in heavy financial losses and were a strain on his declining health. Lemon died at Vine Cottage, Crawley, on 23 May 1870 after a series of short illnesses, and was buried at Ifield church on 27 May.
Mark Lemon's grave Ifield Church

Wealth at death under £800: probate, 14 Jan 1871,

The Hoffmann and Routledge Origins

This is the family of Mike's mother Gladys Ellen Hoffmann.

(Pictured here with her husband William Edward John Wilson)

The Hoffmann family story states that an Ernst Karl Hoffmann arrived in England at the age of nineteen.

He had been born in Germany in about 1858.

We know from Ernst's Marriage certificate that his father was called Gottlieb Hoffmann and that his occupation was a Baker.

Ernst married (at the age of thirty) a Frances Mary Emily Ann Routledge on the 13 March 1888 at the Parish Church at Forest Gate Essex. He had changed his name by this time to Ernest Charles.

Ernest's occupation was Master Baker and Confectioner, he had his own shops in Bermondsey and later in Junction Road Holloway.

In his later years he moved with his wife to Pitsea in Essex where Frances later died in 1937 at the age of 70. Ernest died at the age of 84 in 1942. Both died at The Retreat in Great Burstead/Billericay in Essex

These photographs were taken at Pitsea.

This one with his Granddaughters, Gladys, Winifred and Eileen.

Frances with her granddaughter Eileen in 1920

Frances Mary Emily Ann Nee Routledge

Ernest and Frances (she preferred to use her third christian name, Emily) had four children, William Ernest, Herbert Henry, Stanley George and Gladys Annie.

William was born in 1889 at 81 Junction Road Holloway in North London.

Two photographs of William as a child.

He married Helen Anderson on the 17th September 1910 at the Register Office in Islington. William was 21 years old and Helen was just eighteen.

William Ernest was a Carpenter/Cabinet maker and in his later years became a Tram driver.

William pictured in his Tram drivers uniform

William with his Father Ernest

William and Helen had three daughters, Gladys Ellen, Winifred May and Eileen.

These three daughters would tell us how when they were little girls their Uncle Jumbo would send to their parents photographs of his daughter Patricia in many dancing poses. They believed this cousin was Patricia Routledge the actress.

William and Helen. He was called Grumps by his five grandchildren.

William died in 1966 at the Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill.

Helen died on the 7th March 1979.

They were a very devoted couple.

Nanna Hoffman with her first Great Granddaughter Karen in 1967.

Frances Mary Emily Ann Routledge (The wife of Charles Ernest Hoffmann) was the eldest of the seven children born to Henry Robert Routledge and his wife Fanny Maria, Nee Crane. They had married on the 22 April 1865 at The Parish Church in Stoke Newington.

Their seven children were Frances M E A, Edith May, Clara A, Florence A and Amy. The boys were Henry H and Charles E.

Henry's occupation is given on the various census as Commercial/Merchants and Shipping Merchants Clerk.

Henry was born on the 24th February 1839 at Rotherhithe, the sixth child of the eleven born to John Isaac Routledge and Mary Ann Petts, they had married about 1828 at St Annes in Limehouse.

Their children were five boys, John Isaac, George Petts, William, Henry Robert and Charles Alfred, the six daughters were Mary Ann, Amelia Elizabeth, Emily Jessamine, Alice Mary, Cordelia and Clara Isabelle.

On the 1841 census John Isaac gave his occupation as Haberdasher but in subsequent census he was stated as having the occupations of Shipping Broker, Commercial agent and Gentleman. We like that !

He died on 9th Oct 1879.

John Isaac was the second of four boys born to of Isaac Routledge and Jessamine. He was born on the 5th August 1803. The names of the other three boys were Isaac, George and Thomas.

Isaac was born about 1777 in St George in the East. Jessamine was born about 1781 in Bethnal Green.

The Wilson Family Roots

Robert Wilson born about 1830 is the first of the direct line of the Wilson Ancestors that we have Located.

Robert had married on the 5th August 1849 at St Mary's Whitechapel to a Catherine Beattie. The marriage certificate states that his father was William Wilson and that his Occupation was a Sugar Baker. William was living in Size Yard in Whitechapel at the time of his Marriage.

From the census we know that Robert was a Cooper and that he had been born in Scotland.

(We have been unable to find a William Wilson with the Occupation Sugar Baker in the Scottish census.)


Catherine was the daughter of Thomas Beattie and Alice. Both were born in Ireland and Alice had stated that she was born in Dublin.



Thomas was a Porter/Huxter (Sells small wares, or a street seller of ale)


They had four children John, Martin, Catherine and Margaret.

(When he was 69 he was living in the Whitechapel workhouse.) Thomas died in 1858 at the age of 77.

Robert Wilson and Catherine had three children William born 1849, Robert born 1858, and Alice in 1859, all were Christened at St Dunstan in Stepney.

Their first son William married Mary Ann Pinchback on the 13th October 1879 at All Hallows Bromley by Bow.
Between September 1880 and January 1889 they had five children, Catherine, William, Benjamin, Robert, and Arthur.

They were living in Orchard Street Rainham in Kent when on the 28 March 1890 William Died he was 41 years old. His occupation had been a Cooper.

We can only imagine the terrible life Mary would have had, being left with five very young children to bring up with only the money that she earned by taking in sewing.

On the 14th June 1893 they all entered the Milton Regis Workhouse.

The next day Mary was taken to Chartham Hospital where she died 15 years later on the 10th December 1913.









Mary Ann Wilson (Nee Pinchback)

The children stayed at the workhouse, but they frequently went for weekends at Mary's sister Louisa's home.

When Catherine reached the age of fourteen she went to work at a school in Margate.

William, Benjamin and Robert were all were apprenticed to Bakers at the age of fourteen.

Arthur went to Borden Grammar school in Sittingbourne at the age of twelve.








He is recorded as having successfully taken the Oxford junior examination in 1903 and the Cambridge senior examination with first class honours in 1905, together with the London matriculation in the same year.
He left Borden School in 1905 and possibly went in to one of the Armed services.

(June 2009 We have found more information about Arthur. Click on the link)

We were told that Catherine had married a Doctor but so far we have been unable to find her in the records

William and Robert both did very well in later years Robert became an Architect.

Benjamin Married Rosalind Ivy Lemon on the 4th August 1907.

Benjamin remained a Baker and was a leading light in the Bakers Union.

He frequently spoke at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park London.

He was an acquaintance of Aneurin Bevan.

We know that at one Time he was a Trapeze Artiste with a troupe called the Swann Brothers.






Benjamin Wilson














Benjamin with his wife Rosalind Ivy and their eldest children Gertrude and William

William their eldest child went to School at Tollington Park school in Holloway North London. His parents were living at Hatchard Road at the time.

After he left school he went to work at Crowes a Shipping Agent later called LEP Transport in London

He Married Gladys Ellen Hoffmann 26 Jun 1937 at Islington Register Office

When the War started in 1939 he joined the Police Force

Later on in the War he joined the Marines

On board the ship HMS Sainfoin (Standing second left in the back row)

While sailing home the ship was diverted to help another ship that had caught fire. This is a newspaper report of the event.

1966 with his first grandchild Karen
1969 in Wales with Karen and Clare


William died on the 9th May 1970 two months after our son Matthew was born.

The Lemon Wives and their family origins

Alexander Lemon's wife was Elizabeth Walton. She was the second child born to JohnWalton and his wife Eliza Ireland.







John and Eliza had married on the 9th March 1857 in Southill Bedfordshire where Eliza had been born 24 yrs before. After their marriage they went to John's village of Westoning where he was a Blacksmith. They lived and raised six children there, four daughters and two sons. John, Elizabeth, Jane, Emma, Joseph and Ann.



John's father was also called John and he had been born about 1810 and he was a Labourer.



Eliza's Ireland's father, another, John was born in Old Warden in Bedfordshire in abt 1810. He was married to an Elizabeth and they lived at Southill Park where he was a Groom. They lived in a cottage in the grounds. They had thirteen children, Eliza was their second daughter, their first born child also called Eliza had died just before our Eliza had been born.



They went on to have seven boys, George, Joseph, John, William, Charles, Frederick and Robert. The girls were named Emma, Fanny, Mary Ann and Elizabeth and of course Eliza.

John was one of the seven children born to Joseph Ireland born 1773 and Elizabeth Brown born 1779.

Joseph and Elizabeth Brown had both been born in Old Warden and they had married on the 10th October 1798 at the Parish Church. Their children were Mary, Joseph, Ann, John, William Brown, Elizabeth and Francis.

Joseph had died before 1837 and we haven't yet found the death date and we don't know what his occupation was.






This is Elizabeth Beckett pictured with her husband Martin Lemon. Her home village was Boxmoor in Hertfordshire where she was born about 1824, she had been a Straw Plaiter in the village. She was living in St Pancras at the time of her marriage to Martin in 1850.


We know they were living in Boxmoor after their marriage as on the 1851 Census they are living next door to her parents cottage with their first child called Martin.





Her parents were William Beckett and Sarah Mansfield. They had married on the 23rd April 1820 in Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire and had eight children. Five girls, Mary, Elizabeth, Martha, Ann and Susan and three boys William, John and James. William Beckett had been a Shoemaker, Sarah was also a Straw Plaiter.

Sarah's parents were Sylvester Mansfield and Mary. He had been born about 1772.


They had two boys Sylvester and John and the two daughters were Mary and Sarah.



Grace Denyer (Married to Mark Lemon born 1755) was born in Dunsfold in Surrey about 1760, her parents were Thomas Denyer and Grace. They had twelve children, all born at Dunsfold. Five girls Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Jane and Susannah and six boys George, Thomas, William, John and two named James (The first one died).


Mark Lemon is named in Thomas Denyer's will.


Thomas Denyer's father was William Denyer and he would have been born around 1710. We haven't found a marriage for him but there are four children, Thomas, William, John and Francis and one daughter named Jane.

The Lemon Family Roots

The Story told by Mike's Paternal Grandmother, Rosalind Ivy Ann Wilson (Nee Lemon), was that she was related to a Mark Lemon who was the founder and first Editor of Punch magazine. She had always been extremely proud of this fact.

This photograph is of her as a young girl

This is her with her husband Benjamin Wilson, (They had married on the 4th August 1907) her eldest daughter Gertrude was born in 1908 and Mike's father William, was born in 1911. They had two other children Joyce and Alec.

Rosalind's parents were Alexander Lemon and Elizabeth Walton.

This is Elizabeth Walton as a young girl











Elizabeth with her husband Alexander Lemon

Alexander and Elizabeth were married on the 28th November 1885 at St Pancras Register Office.
They had five children three boys Alexander, Martin and John. Their two daughters were Rosalind and Gertrude. (Mike's Grandmother).
Alexander worked in the Pianoforte trade. He was born on the 27th March 1866 at 139 Maldon Road Haverstock Hill in Kentish Town.

(Elizabeth was born in Westoning in Bedfordshire on the 11 April 1860. Her parents were John Walton and an Eliza Ireland). Mike's Aunt had told us there was an Irish connection and we think this is it!!. (Well the surname is Ireland).
Alexander was the seventh child born to Martin Lemon and Elizabeth Beckett.



Martin Lemon and Elizabeth Beckett










Martin and Elizabeth had married on the 22 July 1850 also at St Pancras Register office.
They had eight children Five boys, Martin born first in 1851 in Boxmore, Elizabeth's home village, George, Mark, Alexander born 27th March 1866 and another Martin. (Probably their first son Martin had died). The three girls were Elizabeth Rosalind and Annie.


Martin was a Musical Smith and Master Brass Finisher who had his own business.


Martin's parents were George Mark Lemon who was born on 31st Dec 1797 in Marylebone, and Sarah Playsted. They were married about 1825 at St James's Paddington.


They had two sons Martin and George Mark. Their daughters were Mary and Sarah they were twins.

George Mark was also a twin with his sister Betty, they had seven siblings, two more boys, Thomas Martin and Mark and three sisters Maria, Grace and Mary.

It was Thomas Martin who was the father of the Mark Lemon who Nanna Wilson had spoken about.

Thomas had died at the young age of thirty two in 1818 and so the young Mark had grown up with his Grandparents Mark Lemon Senior and his wife Grace Denyer at thir home Church Farm House in Hendon.


This is Church Farm House (Now a museum).






George Mark died on the 29th November 1831, his twin sister Betty died on the 16th October 1871.

Betty had never married and in the Census' of 1851/61 and 1871 she was living with her sister in Law Alice Lemon (Nee Collis) Mark Lemon's mother. After Mark's father Thomas had died she had married Thomas Ver(s)ey who Betty had once been engaged to.

*Mark Lemon Senior who is Mike's Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather had married Grace Denyer
(She was born in Dunsfold in Surrey). They had married in St Marylebone Parish Church on the 16th May 1784. They had eight children,three sons,Thomas Martin, George Mark and Mark and four daughters Betty, Maria, Grace and Mary Ann.
Mark was a Farmer and Horse Dealer.
Mark died in 1820 and Grace in 1823. They are both buried in St Mary's Church Hendon which is next door to Church Farm House.



This is Mark Lemon Writer/Dramatist.
(For our Grandchildren...he is your 1st cousin six times removed... that's the number of direct grandparents)

Mark Lemon was born in London in 1809. His writings were first published in the New Sporting Magazine in 1834 under the pseudonym 'Tom Moody'. He also had contributions published in the Illustrated London News and his friend Charles Dickens' Household Words. He was also a prolific writer for the stage. From 1836 when he had his first work was performed at the Strand until the late 1860s, he wrote over 70 shows: comedies, farces, melodramas, operas and pantomines.

His most famous performance was as Falstaff.

Mark Lemon pictured with the Dickens family.





Nanna Wilson mentioned a cousin of hers, also a Mark Lemon. We haven't yet established the connection to her father but we hope the 1911 census will shed light on this.

Meanwhile here is his billing....

*During our research we were contacted by the Great Grandaughter of Alexander Lemon's sister, she has recently found Mark Lemon Senior's birth and is continuing the research. We hope to update the Blog at a later date.

The Theobalds Family Roots

This is the history of the Theobalds family. They mainly lived in Steeple Morden and Guilden Morden in Cambridgeshire. We have traced them through the church records back to approx 1600.

The registers have the name Theobalds written with various spellings, such as Tibballs Tibbalds Tibbells etc but for continuity on our tree we have kept to the name Theobalds.

We start with my Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents.......
(Our grandchildren they must add two more Greats !!)

William Theobalds was born about 1600 and married Anniss (We don't know if this is a Christian or Surname)in about 1620 in Steeple Morden . They had four children one daughter Mabbell and three sons Edward, John and William all christened in Steeple Morden.

St Peter & Paul Parish Church Steeple Morden

John Theobalds was christened 20th May 1627. We haven't found a marriage for him but we know he had a son also a John Theobalds who was born about 1650 and married Mary Bird on the 31st March 1673 at Abington Piggotts. They had three sons and two daughters.

Abington Piggotts Church

Their third son Henry was christened 29th September 1683. He married Elizabeth Barons on the 4th May 1707 at Steeple Morden. He was a Baker. (Her parents were Richard Barons also of Steeple Morden and Mary Bouset)

Henry and Elizabeth had three sons. Their first son John Theobalds was christened 20th March 1707 he married Sarah Austin on the 7th October 1730 at Steeple Morden. (Her parents were Christopher Austin and Mary Bennit they were married at Steeple Morden on the 28th Sept 1700. They had three daughters and one son.)

John and Sarah's first son also John was born abt 1734 and he married Ann Bray 18 April 1763 at Abington Piggotts. He was a Baker.

Inside the church at Abington Piggotts there is a board naming Rectors of the church and there is a William Bray named with the date 1345

After they married they moved to Steeple Morden where they had their six children,two daughters and four sons. Four of the children married into a family called Jeneway .
William married a Hannah Jeneway, Henry married a Mary Jeneway, Sarah their sister married a Pearce Jeneway and another brother Jesse married a Sarah Jeneway. Very confusing !!


Their other daughter married a John Hitch. (The Hitch family were still living in the Village in the 1960's.)

John & Sarah's eldest child was also named John. He was christened on the 4th July 1764 and he married Sarah Harper on the 19th November 1789 in Abington Piggots. John was a Tailor.

Their first two children were born in Guilden Morden and they then moved to Steeple Morden where they had nine more, Seven sons and four daughters in total.

St Marys Guilden Morden

Their second son William was christened 11 May 1793 at Steeple Morden, he married Elizabeth Bygrave on the 30th November 1818 at Wallington Hertfordshire, Elizabeth's home village. William was a carpenter.
Their first child was born in Wallington and then they settled in Brook End which is in the NE of Steeple Morden.

Simeon Theobalds was christened on the 27th March 1836 at Steeple Morden church. He was the eighth child of the eleven children born to them, four daughters and eight sons.

We have traced Elizabeth's father's Bygrave family back to the early 1700's. They were Farmers and Blacksmiths.

Elizabeth was the eldest of eleven children.

She died of Typhus in Steeple Morden in November 1849. Three of her children died the same year, George aged 10 on the 2 September, Hannah aged 16 on the 29th Sept and Jesse aged 20 on the 21st October 1849.
The children are buried at the Parish Church and Elizabeth at The Congregational church.

Congregational Church Steeple Morden.

Elizabeth's mother's family (The Ginn's) has been traced back to 1450 in Aston Hertfordshire.

This Windmill was owned by the Ginn family in abt 1720

My father's (Harry Reginald) mother Mary Elizabeth Theobalds was born in Guilden Morden on the 30 April 1870 the fifth child of eight children born to Simeon Theobalds and Lucy Marion Phillips. On the 25th December 1898 she married Joseph Dexter Page at Steeple Morden Parish Church.

(Lucy Marion was born about 1834 in Marylebone, London to Thomas Phillips and Susannah Gordon, they had six children five daughters and one son and Lucy was their fourth child.)