Laburnum Terrace

Sarah Gerrish of 10 Gloucester Road

The 1871 census shows that a widow, Sarah Gerrish was living in number 10. 

We have found a website that Sandy Goldsmith produced to show her family history research and this includes information about Sarah and her family.  It shows that Sarah was born Sarah Houlden on September 4th 1822 in the Temple area of Bristol.  She married George Gerrish on 13th January 1849.  They married in Clifton in Bristol where Sarah was living at that time.  George was born in Bristol about 1825.  He was the son of Elihu Gerrish, a brushmaker and his wife, Elizabeth.  In 1841 the Gerrish family were living at Conduit Place, Bristol. 

It would appear that George and Sarah came to live in Castle Street in Thornbury soon after their marriage.  Their first son, George, was baptised in Thornbury on 24th July 1850.  The 1851 census shows them in living in 5 Castle Street.  George was a solicitor's general clerk. 

There is some confusion over George’s occupation.  At the time of his marriage he was described as an accountant and on the baptism record of his son born in 1850.  In the 1851 census George was described as a general clerk in a solicitor’s office.  He was described as a stationer when their daughter, called Sarah Rose but apparently known as Rose, was baptised in Thornbury Church on 21st April 1852.  He is later described as an accountant or as a law stationer.  Perhaps he kept the books for a legal stationery business. 

The 1859 Rate Book shows the Gerrishs had moved to 79 High Street.  The 1861 census also shows them there.  They now had several more children apart from George: Sarah Rose baptised on 21st April 1852, Jessy baptised on 4th June 1854, Florence baptised on 6th January 1856 and Charlotte Kate baptised on 5th September 1858.  George's mother, Elizabeth was also living with George and Sarah.  The last Will of Daniel Burchell dated 1866 shows that George was the solicitor's clerk for Richard Scarlett.

By 1867 George and Sarah had moved to 10 Gloucester Road.  George died there aged 46 and was buried in Thornbury on March 15th 1871.  The death certificate apparently shows that George died of paralysis and the person who officially reported the death was Thomas Hudson, the Inland Revenue officer who lived next door at number 8.

Sarah seems to have had quite a hard life as their son, George, had died only five years earlier in 1866 aged just 15 and another child, Jessy, had died only the previous May aged about 16.  It is possible that either Sarah herself was in poor health or her elder daughter was, because the 1871 census shows that the only person in employment was the younger daughter, Florence, who was apprenticed to be a dressmaker.

Sarah and Charlotte Kate eventually moved to Lambeth in London 79 High Street where the 1881 census shows them living as lodgers in the home of James Robertson, a carpenter from Scotland.  Charlotte was 22 by this time and a qualified dressmaker.  Sarah's other daughter, Florence presumably came too because in 1876 she married Edward Grimstone Brewer in Brixton.  We could not find Sarah in the 1891 census but we have since learned that she must have returned to Bristol because she died at Kingston Park in Redland on 30th April 1890 aged 67 years.

This page was last updated: 21/03/2012