#52Ancestorsin52weeks 19/52 George Forfar 1848-1923 - Food
George FORFAR – 1848 - 1923
Ahnentafel Number 28
Context for discovery:
This biography was written as part of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks exercise devised by Amy Johnson Crow. You can join in too here. The theme for this month is Social and this week is food and drink.
Amy says:
Few things bring back memories like food does. This week, write about an event that prompted a special meal, an ancestor who was a really good (or really bad!) cook, or a food that always makes you think of someone in your family.
George was my 2nd great-grandfather. He was a grocer by trade, so we are sure to find out plenty about food and drink. I must preface this article with a trigger warning as some of the details may be quite upsetting to some readers.
The map above shows all the places I have been able to identify that George Forfar lived in the UK and Australia.
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| Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church Tom Sargent on geograph.org.uk |
Childhood
Birth Date/Place:
George Forfar’s birth was registered 23 October 1848 at the Episcopal Church Stirling, Scotland.[i] His parents were recorded as Robert Forfar and Lucy Swait - residence Bannockburn.
Lucy and Robert married 30 January in 1842 at St James Westminster.
Baptism Date/Place:
George’s early childhood seems to be quite unsettled. We cannot find his father anywhere and we never seem to find him living with his mother.
1851 Census
George seems to be staying with his step-great-grandfather James REMNANT. [ii]James is Lucy's step-grandfather - I know, weird - in Mitcham, Surrey. In turn James seems to be staying with his sister-in-law Elizabeth FRANKS. James is on Parish Relief, a former Ag Lab aged 90. How come he is left holding the baby? Well maybe he isn't holding the baby. Maybe it is Harriet Franks aged 28 unmarried who was looking after George. Anyway - it's all very odd.
In the same census (1851) Lucy is working as a Nurse at 56 Grove Terrace in Barking, Ilford for the solicitor Edmund Griffin.[iii]
We cannot find George’s father, Lucy’s husband, Robert anywhere.
1861 Census
George Forfar is a school boy at the Byron House School in Ealing.[iv] This became Ealing Grammar School and closed in 1917 according to this website.
I wrote to the Ealing Local History Library to ask if there was any further clarifying information about Robert or George Forfar as they hold the letters and accounts for the Byron House School.
This was
their reply:
"There are 56 letters in this archive dating to 1866 (mostly dating from 1866) or previously, and a number of undated ones, which you would be welcome to examine, but which we do not have staff time to read.
However, there is an index to boarders' accounts for 1859 and 1861 and both these list Forfar (no Christian names listed).
The 1859 list notes expenditure on boots and clothing for pupils and under these headings, against the name Forfar, are 4s 4d and 8s, though the writing is not very legible. Later in the same pamphlet are references to expenditure, probably for the first quarter of the year, on shoes, clothes, pocket money, hair curling and oil; for Forfar these are 4s 9d, 2s, 2s, 1s and 1s. Later there is a list of pupils and a monetary figure by each; for Forfar this is £5 5s 3d.
The 1861 document mentions Forfar in a list of pupils and £5 6s noted next to his name but the entry has then been crossed out, but bon the next listing therein he is included and £5 7s 6d entered next to his name.
Then there are itemised accounts for the Christmas term. Forfar has 1s 8d for shoes, m1s 4d for clothes, 3s 6d for drawing (this entry ruled through), hair and oil 1s each, a blank next to 'Train' and 4s pocket money.
There is another list of pupils under headings of the first five months of the year (year not stated) and Forfar has a 1 marked under each of the months' four sub-divisions. Others have the same or higher numbers.
I hope all this helps; it certainly suggests he was at the school from 1859-Christmas 1861 at least."[v]
George’s mother, Lucy, is now working as a servant at 152 Westbourne Terrace Paddington for Roseth (Rosetta in later census) Ballin aged 56 of independent means and her three sisters – Elia, Amelia and Matilda Goodman. Lucy works with two others servants Fanny Summer and Elizabeth summer – mother and daughter judging by the ages.[vi]
Five years later, Lucy died on 3 October 1866. George would have been about 17 or 18 years old. The death duty register gives me her address – Harrow Road. William Wise was the executor of her will. She is described as a widow in the probate calendar so we can assume that Robert had died by this time. She leaves a modest inheritance of effects under £200.[vii]
1871 Census
George is Manager of a Grocer Shop living at 106 High Street Kensington Chelsea.[viii] I suspect he is living above the shop. Sharing the residence with him are shop assistants, George Cowen aged 27 (born Somerset), James Bridges aged 21 (born Brompton, London), Charles Scotney aged 24 (born Nottingham). An Eliza Webb, aged 43 is their Housekeeper. Perhaps George used his inheritance to purchase a lease on the shop. I’m not sure if this is possible to investigate further. Maybe newspapers? Local council records? Did the shop assistants come with the shop? Might be worth looking for their names in newspaper records.
Married Life
Marriage Dates/Places:
George and Emily Mercy Hollingham married in Trinity Church, Eastbourne, Sussex on 11 September 1872.[ix]
To be honest with you I think they may have married twice. When confirming my sources while entering data into my new family tree software program, Family Historian, I found a shaking leaf on my Ancestry tree. It was a reference to another marriage for them a few days earlier in Leamington, Warwick on 8 September. [x]
So George and Emily married on Sunday 8 September in Leamington, Warwick and then hot-footed it down to Eastbourne for another wedding ceremony on Wednesday. I have the marriage certificate for Eastbourne.
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| 12-42 Parade Leamington Spa by Tom Bastin on Flickr |
Leamington
Leamington (Leamington Priors, or Royal Leamington Spa), mun. bor., par., and watering-place, Warwickshire, on river Leam, within parliamentary limits of Warwick and Leamington, 2 miles E. of Warwick and 98 miles NW. of London by rail, 1720 ac., pop. 22,979; 3 Banks, 5 newspapers. Leamington appears in Domesday Book as Lamintone, but was subsequently designated Leamington Priors, through its being granted to the priors of Kenilworth. Since 1811, when the town contained only 543 inhabitants, Leamington has risen with marvellous rapidity, its progress being due to its sheltered position in the valley of the Leam, and the historical interest and beauty of its neighbourhood, but chiefly, perhaps, to the excellence of its medicinal springs. The town was incorporated as Royal Leamington Spa in March 1875, and was included in the parl. limits of Warwick and Leamington in 1885. Its trade is in a large measure connected with supplying the wants of numerous visitors; but there is a prominent industry in the mfr. of Leamington cooking ranges, which have gained a high reputation.
1872
And here comes the food ! And a bit of wine to boot!
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| 6 July 1872 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLV Issue 27 Page 2 accessed through National Library of Australia eResources |
There is an article about the shopkeepers windows leading up to Christmas.
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| 21 December 1872 Christmas-tide in Leamington page 4 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLV Issue 51 British Library Newspapers |
1873
This was the ad that took my fancy. Have you ever heard of Cambridge sausages? I hadn't.
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| 20 September 1873 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVI Issue 38 Page 8 |
But oh dear, I think George is a bit too busy to be attending Jury Duty.
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| 18 October 1873 Leamington Spa Vl XLVI Issue 42 Page 6 |
Best have a cup of tea and re-evaluate business strategy.
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| 8th November 1873 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVI Issue 45 Page 8 |
1874
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| 7 March 1874 Leamington Spa Courier Vl XLVII Issue 10 Page 5 |
What's a Westphalian ham you may well ask. This from Wikipedia....
Westphalian ham (German: Westfälischer Schinken) is a ham produced from acorn-fed pigs raised in the forests of Westphalia, Germany.[1][2] The resulting meat is dry cured and then smoked over a mixture of beechwood and juniper branches – from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westphalian_ham
Or perhaps if you are feeling nationalistic:
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| 28 November 1874 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVII Issue 48 Page 1 |
Something sweet?
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| 19 December 1874 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVII Issue 51 Page 2 |
And no, I didn't know what a Normandy Pippings was - dried apples.
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| 16 January 1875 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVIII Issue 3 Page 1 |
Don't you just love the flowery language? It's all obsequiousness and forelock-pulling don't you think...but you can just detect a smidgin of frustration. The customers have been disappointed and George has been disappointed. It reminds me of that phrase in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Two Bad Mice
Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca.
I love reading that story...come to think of it, there is a lot of food in that story too - red lobsters, ham, fish, pudding, pears and oranges....but I digress.
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| Unidentified man Date created: 1859-1870 Local accession number: 13_05_000932 photographer, R. L. Graham, 7a Upper Parade, Leamington |
I'd like to be able to tell you that this is George but unfortunately no-one knows who this is. I just thought I would share it with you as I found it when looking for Creative Commons images on Flickr. This image is from the Boston Library collection. I chose it because the photographer was on Upper Parade Leamington and the subject of the portrait was probably about the same age as George was at the time he was running his shop in Upper Parade.
George and Emily had three sons.
Children’s Birth Dates/Places:
George Robert born 6th October 1873 (died 16th April 1946) [xi]
Ernest (later known as Eddie) Albert born 29th October 1874[xii]
Walter William born 6th June 1878[xiii]
George was admitted to the Guys Lodge of Freemasons in Leamington 2 Feb 1874 [xiv]
But grim days returned again.
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| 26 June1875 Leamington Spa Courier Vol XLVIII Issue 26 Page 8 |
There were
proceedings for Liquidation instituted by George Forfar of No. 20 Upper-parade
Leamington in the country of Warwick, Grocer, Tea Dealer and Wine and Spirit
Merchant in The London Gazette in 1875.[xv]
1881 Census
George aged 32 is recorded as being with the Laurences – a Grocer and Wine Merchant at 1 High Street Notting Hill. [xvi] George is a Grocers Assistant, and his wife Emily is a house keeper. Sons George aged 7, Earnest aged 6 and William aged 2 are also living there with another Grocer’s Assistant James Shears and Mary Moore a maidservant.
George and Emily's marriage was not a happy one.
They divorced in September 1885 when George Jnr would have been 12, Ernest 11 and Walter 7.[xvii]
The divorce papers record the dates of the children’s births and that they lived in the following places:
- Leamington, Warwick
- Teddington, Middlesex – confirmed in the Electoral Registers - Albert Road[xviii]
- 21 Belgrave Road Norwood, Surrey – 1878 – 1883 according to Directories[xix]
- Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, Sussex
- 38 Ditchling Rise, Brighton – 1882 according to Directory[xx]
- 123 Church Road, Hove (An article written by Judy Middleton in 2002 and revised 2015 gives an account of Forfars bakery in Hove. It says that in the 1880s George Forfar took over the business. [xxi])
Six homes in thirteen years. So an unsettled childhood and now an unsettling time as an adult. This is a picture of a sweet dish that my mother bought back in the early 80s from the shop in Hove when we visited there.
Emily asserted that George ...
committed adultery in 1879 on divers occasions and wilfully communicated to her a certain venereal disease.
She said that he committed adultery again in 1884 and deserted her on 18th July leaving her destitute.
As if that wasn't bad enough, things started to get really ugly.
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| 26 July 1887 Horsham Petworth Midhurst and Steyning Express Page 1 |
It is mentioned in the newspaper article that George went to Australia in
1884 after leaving her. And then he is of no fixed abode. Grim indeed.
1892 from 1st
October until 26 November in the Eastbourne Chronicle a George Forfar is listed
as a fashionable visitor at 12 Bath Road along with Mr Henry Murray. I am not sure whether this is George Senior or George Junior .
Emily committed suicide (Sussex Eastbourne Gazette newspaper notice 20 September 1893) at the age of 41 on 14 September 1893.[xxii]
I have a copy of her will and she divided her estate equally between her three
sons when they attained the age of 21.[xxiii] Emily's gravestone can be found at Ocklynge
Cemetery, Eastbourne.[xxiv]
In terms of shipping records for George Forfar I have been able to find the following:
In May 1887 a G Forfar departing Melbourne on the Lusitania for London via Suez Egypt and Naples aged 40, birth year 1847.[xxv]
A George Forfar of the right age who describes himself as a Shepherd arriving in Melbourne on the Austral via Colombo, Sri Lanka and King George Sound and Adelaide on 24 October 1890. Whether the description of him as a Shepherd is a joke or a clerical error or indeed we have the wrong George Forfar we will never know.[xxvi]
A Mr G Forfar also arrives on the Wyreema in Melbourne on the 1st July 1918. [xxvii]No other details like age or birthplace are provided unfortunately. So whether George came out to Australia and stayed or went backwards and forwards to England a bit it is difficult to determine, particularly as he has a son called George as well. I have been unable to find any deaths in England for a George Forfar that match our George Forfar born in 1848.
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| Classified Advertising (1922, February 22). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 17. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4698596, courtesy of Trove, NLA |
Senior Years
Date and place of Death
There is a George Forfar aged 75 who died in Homeopathic Hospital South Melbourne on15th May 1923. [xxviii] Also noted in the column is U R (which I take to mean Usual Residence) and 187 George Street, East Melbourne. He was described as a labourer. He died of Empyoma and Bronch Pneumonia. The doctor was Dr O.E. Rae of the Hospital and the informant was Alice May of the Hospital in St Kilda Road. There were no particulars known of his parents or how long he had been in Australia. His birthplace was recorded as Scotland.
Buried
George Forfar was buried at Springvale Cemetery on 17th May by W A Graham undertakers. I have written to the Cemetery to ask if there are any details of who paid for the burial. I need to see if WA Graham undertakers still exists.
Conclusion
After Emily died George’s sons Ernest or Ed and Walter left England. George Junior continued to run Forfars bakery for many years successfully I believe.
Ed went to Canada to find his fortune and Walter came to Australia.
Walter arrived in Western Australia first in 1895 and worked for the railway department for a few years and then took a leave of absence on 22 May 1899. He then arrived in Sydney on 1st September. He and Kate Doe (nee Ellis) seem to spend some time in Melbourne. (In November he advertises that he is of Albert Park in Melbourne and looking for a furnished cottage in Hobart). Walter and Miss ? Forfar (I suspect Kate Doe nee Ellis) then travelled to Hobart in December and their son Ernest was born in early 1900.
If the George Forfar that arrived in 1890 is our George Forfar, maybe that is why his younger son went to Melbourne. I feel that there is a family connection in Melbourne but haven’t been able to identify it yet. Kate Doe nee Ellis also had family in Melbourne.
When George Forfar died in Melbourne in 1923 his son Walter would have been living in Sydney. His wife Kate had died in 1902 and he remarried Alice Bourke in 1913. In 1925 they lived in Innisfail for a while before returning to Sydney.
Ernest died in 1940 - also suicide. George died in 1946 and Walter in 1949.
Oh dear, I think we all need a cup of tea now after that....
References
[i] 23/10/1848 FORFAR, GEORGE (Old Parish Registers Births 488/60179 St Ninians) Page 179 of 420 accessed Scotland’s People website 13 May 2022 21:51
[ii] Ancestry.com 1851 Census Class: HO107; Piece: 1602; Folio: 161; Page: 8; GSU roll: 193500-193501
[iii] Ancestry.com 1851 Census Class: HO107; Piece: 1772; Folio: 417; Page: 22; GSU roll: 207418-207419
[iv] Ancestry.com 1861 Census Class: RG 9; Piece: 778; Folio: 41; Page: 41; GSU roll: 542699
[v] Email received from Dr Oates, Archivist, Ealing Local History, Carillion Services addressed to Alex Draw (Daw) 25 January 2016
[vi] Ancestry.com 1861 Census Class: RG 9; Piece: 6; Folio: 15; Page: 34; GSU roll: 542555
[vii] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[viii] Ancestry.com 1871 England Census Class: RG10; Piece: 38; Folio: 2; Page: 2; GSU roll: 838761
[ix] Certified copy of an entry of Marriage at the General Register Office No 92 in 1872 register in Parish of Easbourne George FORFAR and Emily Mercy HOLLINGHAM.
[x] Ancestry.com England Select Marriages 1538-1973
[xi] Ancestry.com UK Civil Divorse Records 1858-1914 The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, later Supreme Court of Judicature: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Files; Class: J 77; Piece: 344; Item: 355
[xii] ibid
[xiii] ibid
[xiv] Ancestry.com England, United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921, Library and Museum of Freemasonry; London, England; Freemasonry Membership Registers; Description: Register of Contributions: Country and Foreign Lodges, 421-588 (1832); 336-407 (1863)
[xv] London Gazette 22 June 1875 page 3228 and 13 July 1875 page 3605
[xvi] Ancestry.com, 1881 England Census Class: RG11; Piece: 30; Folio: 42; Page: 16; GSU roll: 1341007
[xvii] Ancestry.com UK Civil Divorce Records 1858-1914 The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, later Supreme Court of Judicature: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Files; Class: J 77; Piece: 344; Item: 355
[xviii] Ancestry.com London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 from London Metropolitan Archives
[xix] Ancestry.com UK, City and County Directories, 1766-1946
[xx] Ancestry.com UK , City and County Directories, 1600s-190ss, 1882 Kelly’s Directory
[xxi]
Forfars on Hove In the Past accessed 12 january 2016 http://hovehistory.blogspot.com/2015/11/forfars_14.html
[xxii] Ancestry.com England & Wales FreeBMD Death Index 1837-1915
[xxiii] Ancestry.com England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1966
[xxiv] Find My Past, Sussex Monumental Inscriptions Memorial Ref E148u
[xxv] Find My Past Victoria Outward Passenger Lists 1852-1915
[xxvi] Ancestry.com Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Victoria; Unassisted Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) [Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]; Series: VPRS 7666
[xxvii] Find My Past Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972, New South Wales Unassisted Passenger lists
[xxviii] Death Certificate from District of South Melbourne Number 3162 in register
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