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.)

The Francis Family Roots

A Family story says that the Francis family originally came from Italy and our subsequent research makes us believe that this story is probably true.

In 1841 our Great Great Grandfather Edward Francis was living in Lilley Street, Saffron Hill with his mother Harriet and his brother George and his three sisters Cora, Caroline and Phoebe.

Saffron Hill c1860

Harriet was born in Bristol in about 1795 and we know from her death certificate (she died in 1860) that she had been the wife of a Charles Francis and that he had been a musician.

Charles Booth wrote about the Saffron Hill area in the 1800's when the Francis family were living there.

He stated that it was the Italian quarter of Clerkenwell, a place of dire poverty and crime and that the Italian population earned their living as Ice cream makers and vendors or Musicians.

They earned enough money in the summer to go back to Italy in the winter.

It is also told that the Italians were cleaner and smarter in dress than the English, and that the English fought with fists but the Italians fought with Knives.

Charles Dickens Fagin's den was situated in Saffron Hill.

Edward Francis met a young girl called Martha Lydia Dewson around the 1850's. She lived at 61 Cow Cross Street (See photo) with her Brother Benjamin and his wife Amelia. Edward was a Butcher and Drover. He probably worked at Smithfield Market which was around the corner from their home in Clerkenwell.

Smithfield Market 61 Cowcross Street

Martha and Benjamin's Father was Benjamin Dewson, their mother was Elizabeth Parker, his occupation was Smith and her brothers were either Smiths or Paper Stainers.

Benjaminin and Elizabeth were married at Christ Church GreyFriars on the 31st July 1814. It was destroyed in WW2 and the ruins are located opposite St Pauls Cathedral.

Her parents were John Parker and Sophie Ann Tash. They married on the 28th Jun 1791 at St Lukes Old Street Finsbury.

Benjamin Dewson's father, our G G G G Grandfather was Richard Dewson, he was born in Wolverhampton abt 1758, his wife was Lydia Lane. His occupation was a Toy Smith. He died in 1833 aged 75 years, in Clerkenwell.

Martha and Edward were living in Eagle Court in 1856 when our Great Grandfather George Edward Francis was born.

Eagle Court

George had a brother Benjamin who worked in this Bacon Factory which was located in Eagle Court.

We have found the Marriage of George Edward Francis and Martha Lydia Dewson. It was on the 10th July 1865 at St James Church Shoreditch, this was nine years after their first child was born.

Maybe they had already married as the vast majority of Italian imigrants were Roman Catholics and before the system of Civil registration was introduced in 1837 Catholic marriages were not recognised by the state.

For the marriage to be legal it had to be in a Church of England Church.

Their son George Edward Francis married a Sarah Harris at St Sepulchre Church Clerkenwell on the 25th December 1878. (We don't know much about Sarah except that her father was a Bootmaker and that he was born in Marylebone.) They had Five children three boys, Henry George, our great Grandfather James Edward and Benjamin, the girls were Sarah Lydia and Alice Amelia.

The boys eventually all became Butchers or Slaughtermen at the Metropolitan Cattle Market in Islington.

St Clements Bansbury..This is the church where James Edward Francis married Emily Maud Small, on the 9th December 1900. Emily was eighteen and James Twenty one. Several months later she had her first child a boy named James, three weeks later this little boy died.

Emily had eleven more children in the next 22 years. Three more boys and eight girls. My mother, Lydia Margaret was the second eldest.

Emily died on the 21st January 1924.

James Edward Francis died on the 6th Nov 1936 at St Marys Hospital Paddington he was 55 years old.
His death certificate states that he died of Oedema of the lungs & Myocardial Failure due to cancer of the liver with Metastis in the heart muscle accelerated by fractured ribs due to a fall whilst at work 20 Sept 1936.

The Inquest was held 10 November 1936