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 |
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Impressed:
R GREENWAY / Wine & Spirit Merchant / Siston Hill / BRISTOL
Potter: Powell, Bristol.
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