John BRIDGWATER (1798–1878)
His third wife Mrs Sarah BRIDGWATER, née Tyrrell (1810–1890)
St Giles section: Row 25, Grave F34½
IN DEAR AND
LOVED MEMORY
OF
JOHN
BRIDGWATER
WHO DIED SEP. 24, 1878
AGED 80 YEARS.
“I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH”
ALSO OF SARAH HIS WIFE
WHO DIED AUG. 30, 1890,
AGED 79.
.
See also the grave of John's brother William Bridgwater
John Bridgwater was born in Islip in 1798 and baptised there on 27 May. He was the son of Joseph Bridgwater and his wife Elizabeth, who had seven other children baptised at Islip: Hannah (1793), Benjamin (1796), Joseph (1794), Martha (1800), Sarah (1802), William (1803), and Phillis (1808).
John is likely to have been the John Bridgwater who married Sarah Fletcher at Holywell Church in Oxford on 10 February 1824: both were then living in that parish. If that is correct, then she is likely to be the Sarah Bridgwater who died “by a visitation of God” at Islip in December 1830 at the age of 37 and was buried there under a coroner's warrant on 1 January 1831.
John's second wife was called Charlotte, and may have been the spinster Charlotte Smith who on 17 October 1836 at St George's Church in Bloomsbury, London married the widower John Bridgwater. If this is correct, then Charlotte (who was definitely born in Oxford in about 1810) may have been the baseborn Charlotte Smith, daughter of Ann Smith, who was baptised at St Thomas's Church in Oxfored on 18 March 1810.
John & Charlotte Bridgewater had just one child:
- John Andrew Bridgwater (born in Oxford in 1837 and baptised at St Giles's Church on 30 July).
In 1841 they were living at the south end of the Banbury Road.
In 1851 their address was given as Peers Row (also known as St Giles's Terrace), Banbury Road: John (51), who was described as a cabinet maker, was living there with Charlotte (43) and their son John (13), who was an accountant's clerk.
John's second wife Mrs Charlotte Bridgwater died at St Aldate's at the age of 47 in 1853, and her funeral was held at St Giles's Church on 27 July. She is likely to be buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery, but is not named on this grave.
Sarah Tyrrell was born in Chilworth, Oxfordshire in 1810 and baptised at Great Milton church on 29 January. She was the daughter of John Tyrrell and Barbara Verey, who were married at Albury on 25 August 1796. Sarah's two older brothers were baptised at Albury: Walter in 1796, and John in 1798. The family then appears to have moved to Great Milton, and seven more of their children were baptised there: George Verey (1801), Elizabeth Jane (1802), Jane (1804), Richard Walter (1806), Rice (1808), Mary Ann (1812), and Martha (1814). At the time of the 1841 census Sarah (31) was one of the servants in the household of Joseph Parker, a retired Oxford bookseller, at Black Hall, 21 St Giles's Street. In 1851 when she was 41 she was still a housemaid with that family.
In 1855 (reg. third quarter) in the district of Marlborough, Wiltshire, the widower John Bridgwater (57) married the spinster Sarah Tyrrell (45). They do not appear to have had any children.
John & Sarah Bridgwater moved into 33 St Giles's Street (right) in 1858 after John's younger brother, who had been running a furniture shop there, moved with his family to the Woodstock Road.
John inserted the following notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 3 July 1858:
JOHN BRIDGWATER,
33, ST. GILES'S STREET, OXFORD,
HAVING taken to his Brother's Business, begs to call the attention of the University, the Inhabitants of the City and County, and Public in general, assuring them that nothing on his part shall be wanting to execute all orders with punctuality and dispatch, and on the lowest possible terms.
Funerals furnished.–Licensed Appraiser.
At the time of the 1861 census John (62), a cabinet maker & appraiser, was living at 33 St Giles's Street with his wife Sarah (51), and his son John junior (23), who was an upholsterer.
John's only son was married in 1862:
- On 23 September 1862 at St James's Church, Bermondsey, John Andrew Bridgwater married Martha Wiblin, the daughter of the cabinet maker Joseph Wiblin: both were then staying at 11 Alfred Terrace, Bermondsey.
In 1871 John (72) was described as a cabinet maker employing five men, and he and Sarah (60) were still at 33 St Giles's Street. Living with them were John's grandson Walter Bridgwater (6) and Sarah's Wiltshire-born nephew George Tyrrell (19), who was a farm bailiff, plus a servant.
Later in the 1870s John & Sarah retired to a house in St Giles's Terrace at the south end of the Woodstock Road (which was the part then known as St Giles's Road West). John's son John Andrew Bridgwater took over the house and shop at 33 St Giles's Street.
John Bridgwater died in 1878:
† John Bridgwater died at the south end of the Banbury Road at the age of 80 on 24 September 1878 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles's Church).
His personal estate came to under £1,000, and his executors were his wife Sarah, his son, and Henry Hutt, a faggot-maker of St Bernard's Road.
At the time of the 1881 census John Bridgwater's second wife Sarah was living with her lodger, and her house was now numbered 42 St Giles's Road West.
She died at 28 Banbury Road in 1890:
† Mrs Sarah Bridgwater née Tyrrell died at the south end of the Woodstock Road at the age of 79 on 30 August 1890 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 2 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles's Church).
Her death was announced briefly in Jackson's Oxford Journal.
John Bridgwater's son by his first wife Charlotte: John Andrew Bridgwater
- At the time of the 1871 census John Andrew Bridgwater (32) was a master upholsterer living in Little Clarendon Street with his wife Martha (29) and their children John Joseph Bridgwater (7), William Pearson Bridgwater (4), and Frederick Tyrrell Bridgwater (3), plus a 14-year-old servant girl; their other son Walter Bridgwater (6) was staying with his paternal grandparents. By the time of the 1881 census the family was living over John's father's former shop at 33 St Giles's Street and had three more children: Percy Andrew Bridgwater (10), Edith Lizzie Bridgwater (7), and May Gertrude Bridgwater (ten months). By the time of the 1891 census John (53) was a valuer & appraiser living with his family at 28 Banbury Road and they had another daughter, Winifred Pattie Bridgwater (8). In 1901 their address was given as 32 Banbury Road, and only their youngest child Winifred was at home. By 1911 John (73) had retired and he and Martha (70) were living at 41 Walton Crescent. John died at the age of 77 in 1914.
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