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Samuel Saxon ASHOVER (1857–1870)
St Paul section: Row 27, Grave H16 (St Paul ref N24)

Samuel Saxon Ashover was born at Stoke-on-Trent in 1857 (reg. fourth quarter). He was the son of William Saxon Ashover (born in Belper, Derbyshire in 1832) and Mary Marshall (born in Belper in c.1835). His parents were married in Belper in 1854 (reg. first quarter) but had moved to Stoke-on-Trent by 1855, when Samuel’s older sister Sarah Saxon Ashover was born there.

At the time of the 1861 census Samuel (3) was living with his parents and sister Sarah (5) at 11 Liversage Street Derby, where his father was working as a 28-year-old engine fitter. They had another daughter, Kezia, in Derby near the end of 1865.

In the late 1860s the family moved to Oxford and lived in Victor Street in Jericho. Samuel attended St Paul’s School and became a chorister at St Paul’s Church. On 13 August 1870 it was reported in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that at the age of 12 he won a First Class Diocesan Prize in the Second Division (for those between the age of 11 and 13 years). Sadly he never saw his name in print, as he had just died and the paper was published on the day of his funeral:

† Samuel Saxon Ashover died at Victor Street at the age of 12 on 10 August 1870 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

By the time of the 1871 census Samuel’s parents had moved to Wolverhampton and were living at 14 Oxley Street with Sarah (15) and Kezia (5).

In 1881 they were living at 14 Derby Street Wolverhampton with Kezia (15), who was a pupil teacher, and her father was described as a locomotive engine fitter.

Samuel’s father William Saxon Ashover died at that address in Wolverhampton on 15 July 1889 at the age of 56. His personal estate came to £130, and his widow Mary was his executor.