Theodore before Gertrude
Theodore's early life
I knew about my great grandmother and Theodore's previous wives but at this point there were questions that
still puzzled me.
I had found a number of things in Theodore's personal life in the years from 1867 when he
married Annie Marion Evans to 1891 when he married my great grandmother Gertrude Journeaux. But I wanted to know
what his life was like before this.
Where was he born?
What type of upbringing did he have?
How did he become a surgeon.
How did he meet Annie Marion Evans?
The first thing I wanted to do was to look at the world into which he was born. His upbringing, family
background and education may help explain the man he became and the ambitions that shaped his later life.
Theodore's birth record shows that he was born in the district of Kingston on April 17th 1845 and christened on
8 May 1845 in Thames Ditton.
The 1851 census shows Theodore age 5 residing in Thames Ditton with his family consisting of
- his father, Charles a General Practitioner,
- mother Penelope,
- sister Penelope,
- twin sisters Catherine and Albina,
- sisters Marian, Emilia and Florence.
- cousin James Weaver
- 3 servants.
The census immediately reveals several things about Theodore's childhood.
The size of the house and the
presence of three servants suggests a prosperous household. Theodore was not brought up in poverty but in
comfortable middle-class circumstances.
A cousin is either visiting or living in the house. His surname is Weaver which is Theodore's mother's maiden
name so he must be from that side of the family.
Charles Garrett had settled his growing family in Thames Ditton sometime before 1841, then a prosperous Surrey
village on the Thames. Although still largely rural, it was becoming increasingly attractive to professional
families commuting to London where most residents worked in farming, river trades, skilled crafts, or domestic
service.
By 1861 Thames Ditton was starting to evolve into a desirable residential and commuter village, with new
villas appearing alongside its older cottages and historic parish church.
Charles Garrett was one of the new residents. When he and Penelope moved to Thames Ditton it was a small
village on the opposite bank of the Thames to Hampton Court Palace. Looking at early maps there were few houses
and even fewer large houses. The census doesn't list an address or street number. I believe residents were
probably known by name. In fact it describes the census as 'Ditton Street, the road from London to Portsmouth'.
So I suspect that their house would be one of the larger and more affluent houses.
Charles was described as a surgeon in the 1841 census and general Practitioner in the 1851 census. He seems
to have worked at the London & Southwest Railway. I'm not sure what role he had.
He was a nationally known doctor who wrote many papers and published books on medicine. He had moved to
Thames Ditton from Hereford where his father (Theodore's grandfather) was a prosperous banker and mayor of
Hereford.
Theodore grew up in a household where education, medicine and publishing were already part of everyday life so it's not surprising that he was greatly influenced by this.
This is a privileged start to life and must have had an influence on Theodore's outlook. Knowing about his married life, I wonder if this secure background allowed him to push the limits in his later life.
10 years later the 1861 census shows the same family members plus new arrivals Constance age 9,
Annie age 7, Walter age 6 and Percival age 4. Also in the house are Catherine Garrett, Charles' mother, age 77,
a visitor Augustus Buckley age 15 and three servants.
By 1861 the Garrett household had settled in Hastings. Charles had established himself
as a physician, while Theodore, now fifteen, was still a scholar. Everything suggests a family continuing to
prosper despite their move from Surrey.
The most noticeable things is that the family are living at 39
Wellington Square, Hastings.
The move can't have been before 1856 as Theodore's brother Percival was born in 1856 in Thames Ditton. Records
also show that Charles was resident in Hastings in 1860.
If anything these circumstances seemed to have improved for the family.
Why did they move to Hastings?
A search of the National Archives shows a dispute between James Martin Sanderson and James Garrett along with the whole of the Charles Garrett household.
The dispute is about a loan on their property in Thames Ditton.
James Garrett is a new name and he is Charles Garrett's half brother. It turns out the he was a trustee of the property and the case work I've seen shows a dispute about a loan of 350 pounds (abut 400,000 pounds in today's money). I'm not sure that this caused the move to Hastings but the timing is intriguing.
Within the decade the family had left Thames Ditton for Hastings.
Hastings in 1861 was a bustling Victorian resort filled with visitors with horse-drawn carriages along the seafront, elegant terraces overlooking the English Channel and new churches and public buildings under construction.
It was still a fishing port so there would be fishermen hauling boats onto the beach each morning but there was a clear divide between prosperous resort neighbourhoods and the older, working-class fishing quarter.
The population was increasing rapidly. It went from 17,000 in 1851 to 26,000 in 1861. It was a fashionable resort and the railway opened in the 1850s made access easy from London. The family's house in Wellington Square was part of the oldest and most elegant planned developments in Hastings. If you were standing there in 1861, you would have been in what was considered one of the town's most desirable residential addresses. It was designed in the Georgian style with a long, landscaped central garden with views south towards the sea and west towards Hastings Castle and wide carriage roads surrounding the gardens.
I would really liked to have found more about his residence, school and how he was brought up in Hastings but the records are brief.
By 1867 Theodore had left Hastings and was living in London and had married Annie Marion Evans.
This image is of Constance Bertha Garrett possibly with a brother. I'd like to think that this is
Theodore but, although he has similarities to Theodore, it's impossible to know.
This is Theodore's background at age 15. He was on the verge of adulthood and had a father that was well respected as a physician and an established writer. He lived in a prosperous household in the centre of a dynamic and growing town. Together this is a solid foundation for his professional life.