Henry James was baptised in Leintwardine, Herefordshire on 17 August 1819. His mother Elizabeth was unmarried, and his father is not mentioned. Elizabeth married John Richards a few years later and had at least 6 children.
On the 1841 census Henry is recorded as a servant for Thomas Hall in Buckton a tiny hamlet just a few miles from Leintwardine. In 1846 he married Ann Thomas, who in 1841 had been a servant at Jay House in the adjacent parish. When their two daughters were baptised at Clungunford their place of residence was given as Broadward, and Henry was a labourer.
By 1851 they had left rural Herefordshire and were recorded as visitors staying with Ann's sister and her family in Dudley. Henry still recorded his occupation as a labourer but by 1871 he had moved into a new line of work. He was living in Paradise Street and recorded as a Gardener. This area of Dudley, Red Hill, Paradise and Dixon's Green had brickworks, a gas works, and a lot of collieries and mine shafts. It doesn't seem like the ideal environment for a garden, but it seems to have been a fairly profitable venture because in subsequent census' he was recorded as a Green Grocer and later a Retired Green Grocer.
Did being a Green Grocer mean he had a store ? Or did he simply grow vegetables and take them to market ?
One of Henry's half-brothers was a Gardener. He took a bit of tracking down late one night when I was trying to work out just how the niece listed on the 1881 census fitted in to the family. John Richards was about 12 years younger than Henry. He wasn't a small time gardener selling his crops at a local market. Instead, he seems to have been gardening on a much larger scale.
In 1851 he was lodging with a family of agricultural labourers, but his occupation was Gardener, which could have been the same as his elder brother. His work led him to many locations which can be traced through the baptisms of his children. He was married in Aston, Warwickshire and his first child baptised in Stoke, Worcestershire. In 1861 he was employed at Coton Hall, Alveley in Worcstershire and living with his young family in the Gardeners Cottage. They remained there for about four years before relocating to Nercwys in Wales where a daughter was baptised. This child turned out to be the niece living with her Uncle Henry in 1881.
Sadly, John's wife died shortly after this birth in 1865 and he appears to have quickly left the area. Understandable with four young children and no family close by. He didn't waste time though and married again in November 1867 in Shrewbury, Shropshire. He and his second wife had seven more children at various places in Herefordshire; Leintwardine, Ludlow and Downton. There were several large properties in these areas where a Gardener might be gainfully employed.
In 1871, John isn't on the census with his family in Ludlow, but his wife is recorded as "Gardener's wife (absent)". By 1881 none of the children from the first marriage are with Jane at their home in which by now was Newark in Nottingham, and Jane was a widow. Of those older children, one remained in Ludlow and on the census was living in a lodging house and recorded as an Under Gardener, following in his father's footsteps perhaps. Another was in Dudley with her uncle and the other two like their father haven't left any obvious clues as to their whereabouts.
One day I might unearth them.
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