Liz's blog

After her father's death, Lucretia Butcher's journey took her out of the poverty her family were left in to stay with her better off aunts in Eastbourne and then Islington. Her widowed mother worked as a laundress and her sister, Elizabeth, from which my line is descended, did not fare so well.

As ever, FTF members have helped extensively with my research. I am in touch with a direct descendant of Lucretia's son, William Lewis. She lives in Australia and confirms some of the later events below. I have more information about William's life.

Lucretia Lewis nee Butcher

Birth: Family Search IGI: 21/3/1845. Chr: 17/8/1845 Old Church, St Pancras. Parents: John & Jane Catherine Butcher.

Marriage: Ancestry.co.uk: 7/5/1878 St Peter, Islington.
Frederick Wm Lewis born 1878 boot maker, 256 Fishport Rd.
Spouse: Lucretia Butcher, 80 Barnsbury Rd. Both full age/single.
His father: William Boyd Lewis.
Her father: John Butcher, undertaker (deceased)
Witnesses: James Procktor Harding, Kate Eleanor Harding (daughter of J P Harding).

BMD ref: Vol 1b p525.

Death: 23/12/1909 Islington. BMD ref: Vol 1b p178.
Ancestry.co.uk London burials: nil.
Ancestry Probate (edited): Lucretia Lewis of 209 Liverpool Rd, Islington (wife of Frederick William Lewis) died 23/12/1910 Administration London
5 Feb to James Robert Cornish, leather factor and Frederick George English, commercial clerk. Effects £175.

[BMD: James Robert Cornish married Harriet Lewis 9/1884 Islington]

Lucretia’s husband, Frederick Wm Lewis, death: 4/3/1920 Islington. BMD ref: Vol 1b p395.

Ancestry Probate: Frederick Wm Lewis of 209 Liverpool Rd, Islington, Middx. died 4/3/1920. Probate London 4 May to James Robert Cornish, leather factor and Frederick George English, commercial clerk. Effects £2,339 4s 2d.

Ancestry Probate: Eleanor Standen - Personal Estate £299.17s 3d 16/1/1885. The will of Eleanor Standen late of Niton in the Isle of Wight in the county of Southampton. Widow- who died 1st Dec 1884 at Niton - Proved at the principal registry by Lucretia Lewis (wife of Frederick Lewis) of 25 Upper Barnsbury St, Islington. The niece the sole executrix.

Eleanor Standen (nee Woods) was Lucretia’s mother’s sister.

Census

1911 Head: Frederick William Lewis b1855 Islington. Boot maker – dealer. Widower. 2 living children, none died.
Daughter: Edith Lewis b1881 London. Single.

209 Liverpool Rd Nth, Islington. Sub-reg district: Barnsbury. 4 rooms.

1901 Head: Frederick W Lewis b1855 Islington. Boot maker’s manager.
Wife: Lucretia b1852 St Pancras.
Dau: Edith b1881 Islington. Boot shop assistant
Son: William b1883 Islington. Boot shop warehouse assistant.

209 Liverpool Rd, Islington.

1891 Head: Frederick W Lewis b1855 Islington. Boot maker.
Wife: Lucretia b1851
Son: William b1884 Scholar

living with Wm Holloway, his wife and niece (don’t appear to be related).

37 Ringor…? St. Ecclesiastical parish: St Mary.
Sub-reg district: Islington SW.

Lucretia’s daughter stayed with Lucretia's father’s sister in 1891:

1891 Visitor: Edith Lewis b1881 Islington. Scholar.
Head: Mary J Harding b1824 St Pancras. Widow. Living on own means.
Son: Edmund J b1857 Islington. Single. Clerk assistant Solicitors Office
(?LCC)
Son: James P b1851 Clerkenwell. Single. Clerk ass’t Inland Revenue.
Daughter: Kate E b1860 Islington. Single. Living on own means.

80 Barnsbury St, Islington. Ecc parish: Trinity.

Lucretia Lewis appears to have been close to the Hardings. She was residing with them when married in 1878 and in 1871 census. Perhaps her aunts took her to live with them once she was an adult from before 1861 up to 1878 to help her widowed mother and give her opportunities. She no doubt was of help to them. Kate Eleanor Harding was a witness at Edith Lewis’s marriage in 1914 – Lucretia had died by then. Edith is mentioned in Edmund Harding’s will.

1881 Head: Frederick W Lewis b1854 Islington. Boot manufacturer.
Wife: Lucretia b1851 St Pancras
Daughter: Edith b1881 Islington - 4 months.

17 Upper Barnsbury St, Islington.

1871 Niece: Lucretia Butcher b1845 St Pancras.
Head: James Harding b1821 St Pancras. Illegible occupation
Spouse: Mary J. b1824 St Pancras.
Son: E. S. b1857 Islington. Solicitor’s clerk.
Son: James P. b1851 Islington. Solicitor's Clerk, Somerset Hse.
Daughter: Kate E. b1860 Islington.
2 lodgers.

80 Barnsbury Rd, Islington.

1861 Niece: Lucretia Butcher b1845 St Pancras, Middx. Single. Housemaid.
Head: Eleanor Standen b1810 London City. Widow. Lodging Hse keeper.
Sister: Maria Barker b1816 London City. Widow. Cook

5 Lea Houses le Windsor, Eastbourne, Sussex.

(Eleanor and Maria were Lucretia’s mother’s sisters)

1851 Daughter: Lucretia Butcher b1845 St Pancras, Middx. Scholar (eves)
Mother: Jane Catherine Butcher b1813 St Stephen Coleman St, City. Widow. Laundress.
Siblings – all born Pancras):
Elizabeth b1843 Scholar (eves)
James b1841 Scholar (days)
Robert b1849

67 Ossulstone St. Civil parish: St Pancras. Sub-reg district: Somers Town

Children of Frederick & Lucretia:

William - His grand-daughter confirmed he was born 29/5/1883 Barnsbury, Islington and died 25/9/1941 Auckland, New Zealand. I have more information about his life there. He emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, about 1911, before the census. He initially stayed with Eleanor Coull (nee Butcher), his mother's sister.

William and his fiancee, Ethel Warwick, travelled from Dunedin to the North Island and married 12/2/1914 in Wanganui. They had 5 children: Joseph William Warwick, Esther Mary Warwick, Robert Neville, Nola Lucretia and Jean Marjorie Hilton.

They moved to Auckland about 1926. William worked as a boot importer, bootmaker and storeman.

The will of Edmund John Harding made in 1922 left a bequest to William in New Zealand.

Edith Birth: ? 1/1881 Islington Vol 1b p220. Ancestry.co.uk baps: nil.

Marriage Ancestry.co.uk: 18/10/1914 Holy Trinity, Islington. By Licence crossed out but nothing else put in.
Edith Lewis b1881 single of 209 Liverpool Rd, Islington
Spouse: Robert George Dubery b1884 of Hemel Hempsted. Clerk.
Fa: Frederick William Lewis, a boot maker.
Spouse’s fa: Alfred Dubery deceased.
Witnesses: Frederick William Lewis, E…. Dubery, Kate Eleanor Harding.

I have some BMD births and marriages for descendants of Edith & Robert Dubery but as they might be alive, cannot put them on here.