Biography of Henry GREATOREX
[Ref. O.245]
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Biography of Henry GREATOREX
[Ref. O.245]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Index for GREATOREX |
Henry Greatorex was born in Vauxhall, Surrey in 1829 and was baptised in Camberwell on 6 September. He was the fourth child of Wiliam and Mary Greatorex. The census of 1841 shows him living in Southampton Street in Camberwell with his widowed mother and his siblings William, Mary Ann and Frederick. He was employed as a Tin Plate worker. The census of 1851 shows just Henry and his mother at 9 Southampton Street.
In 1855, Henry married Rosa Jane Hewitt in the parish church of St.George Hanover Square in Middlesex having, on 25 June, signed a Marriage Bond. They were initially at 9 Southampton Place, Southampton Street in Camberwell but then moved to The Grange in Guernsey. Their daughter Rosa Mary Jane was born in Jersey on 31 March 1856. They were next at 384 Kings Road Chelsea and son Henry Spratley was born in Chelsea in 1858. The 1861 census shows the family living at 281 Kings Road Court in Chelsea with their children and a servant. Henry is now described as a Zinc worker. Next they were at 9 Milton Street, Wandsworth Road in Wandsworth and by 1964 they had moved to 39 Danvers Street in Chelsea.
On 29 January 1864, Rosa filed for divorce on the grounds of Henry's cruelty and adultery. On 15 February Henry filed a his own petition for the marriage to be dissolved, citing her drunkeness and frequent absence and adultery. The Daily News newspaper reported the hearing to take place at the Court of Probate and Divorce in Westminster on 8 March 1864. Rosa later emigrated to Australia and remarried.
On 19 April 1870, Henry married widow Mary Ann Mills at Kew parish church. When the 1871 census was taken, they were living with James' children at 5 St.Johns Road in Battersea. By 1881 all the children had left home but Mary's sister-in-law Flora Mills was living with them at 67 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Henry had described himself as "Zinc worker man and boy". The household was still the same when the census of 1891 was taken but Henry was now a Ware Monger and Iron Monger.
Henry passed away in Chelsea in 1899. Mary survived him by ten years.
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