Robert Greenway

Wine & Spirit Merchant, Cherry Orchard Farm, Siston Hill.


Robert Greenway was a very difficult man to find information about because of his brief and tragic life. He has a fleeting appearance in an 1880 trade directory, and because Siston Hill was rather remote at the time, info on the area is scarce. That being said, however, my first clue came from the Bucks Herald - Saturday 10 November 1877 p. 8. in the Deaths announcements:

"At Cherry Orchard, Siston Hill, near Bristol, on the 7th inst., suddenly, of convulsions, Nellie De Fraine, daughter of Robert Greenway, aged 7 months."

This announcement enabled me to find the family on the Ancestry website.

Robert appears in an 1880 directory of Gloucestershire at Orchard Farm, Siston.

Robert son of Henry Olive Greenway, farmer and wife Eliza Light. Born in Hambrook Sept 1842, baptised on 21 Sept 1842 at Frenchay St. John the Baptist. Roberts parents were formerly of Mangotsfield but appear to have moved to Hambrook shortly before Robert was born. Robert Greenway married Elizabeth De Fraine 28 Jun 1871 at St. John the Baptist, Hoxton, East London. Elizabeth was the daughter of George De Fraine, a London printer, and at the time Robert was working as a clerk in the London Docks, Islington, along with his brother Francis.Robert had been working here since he was 18.

Robert and Elizabeth's first son, George Francis Greenway, was born in Hoxton on 8 April 1872 and baptised at St. John, Hoxton on 2 June. Another son, Henry Olive Greenway, after Robert's father, was baptised in Mangotsfied St. James on 5 July 1876. Daughter Nellie De Fraine Greenway, whose death is recorded above, was baptised at Mangotsfield on 12 May 1877.

Elizabeth De Fraine was born in 1847 in Aylesbury, Bucks, which explains perhaps the newspaper report on her daughter's death. She was sister-in-law to Thomas Albert Lee, landlord of the Earl Grey public house at 96 New North Road, Hoxton, and Elizabeth was living here at the time of her marriage in 1871. Elizabeth's father George died in Bath on 25 Jan 1863. By 1881 Elizabeth had moved back to London, where she was landlady of the Golden Anchor pub, 82 Farm Street, Finsbury. She married again to Clement Rogers at St. Barnabus, Finsbury, on 8 May 1881. Clement's father was a publican. The couple had two more children, Beatrice E Rogers, and Clement R Rogers. Clement, Elizabeth's second husband, died in Barnet in 1918. I cannot find a death record for Elizabeth.

Son Henry Olive was cared for by Isaac and Margaret Bates of Siston, he appears in the 1881 census as Oliver H Greenway aged 4. It seems he emigrated to New South Wales, Australia, where he married Mary Lawrence in 1905. He died there on 1 Nov. 1863. His brother George Francis Greenway moved to London where he worked as a warehouseman, he married Pattie Coulthard on 13 Aug 1898 at Hornsey Rise parish church, Islington. He died in 1932 in Hendon, Middx.

 "The Will of Robert Greenway, late of 82 Farm Street, in the City of London, Wine and Spirit Merchant, who died 12 October 1880 at Rodway Hill, Mangotsfield in the County of Gloucester, was proved at Principal Registry by Elizabeth Greenway, of 82 Farm Street, Widow and Sole Executrix."

1 Gallon Stoneware Flagon Greenway1.jpg
Impressed:  R GREENWAY / Wine & Spirit Merchant / Siston Hill / BRISTOL



Potter:  Powell, Bristol.

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