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William BURCHELL (1811/12–1871)
His wife Mrs Sarah BURCHELL, née Cambray (1814–1888)
Their baby grandson William Thomas HERMAN (born and died 1871)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 23, Grave G66

See also the graves of two of Mrs Burchell's siblings:
George Augustus Cambray

Emily Cambray
(Mrs Richard Cooke)

William Burchell was born in Abingdon in 1811/12, and became a master tailor in Oxford.

Sarah Cambray was born at George Street, Oxford in 1814 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 1 January 1815. She was the daughter of the shoemaker Richard Cambray and his wife Sophia Dodd. Her parents were both living in St Peter-in-the-East parish, Oxford when they were married at its church on 24 October 1808. They moved to George Street after their marriage, and had eleven children baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church between 1810 and 1828. In about 1821 Sarah’s father changed his trade to that of a clothes cleaner.

William Burchell and Sarah Cambray were both living in St Giles’s parish when they were married at St Giles’s Church on 19 August 1834. They had the following children:

• Sophia Matilda Burchell (born in Oxford in 1834 and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 25 December)
• William George Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry, Oxford in 1833/4 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 13 April 1834)
• Elizabeth Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry, Oxford in 1838 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 27 May)
• Philip John Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry, Oxford in 1840 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 26 February; died aged ten months and buried in that churchyard on 17 December 1840)
• John or Tom Cambray Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry, Oxford in 1842 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church as John on 16 December, but registered as Tom); died at George Street aged nine and buried 11 June 1852, presumably in the children’s section of St Sepulchre’s Cemetery)
• Sarah Hambridge Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry, Oxford in 1843/4 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 20 March 1844)
• Ellen Ann Burchell (born in George Street, Oxford in 1846 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 9 September)
• Emma Cambray Burchell (born at George Street, Oxford in 1848 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 23 August)
• Walter Thomas Burchell, known as Thomas (born at Friar’s Entry in 1853 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 27 November)
• Clara Burchell (born at Friar’s Entry in 1855 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 13 May)

William Burchell was a tailor, and he and his family lived in Friars Entry in St Mary Magdalen parish at the start of their marriage. They can be seen there in the 1841 census with their first three children Sophia (6), William (5), and Elizabeth (3), and William’s apprentice Frederick Quarterman.

In about 1845 they moved to George Street, which was also in St Mary Magdalen parish, and Burchell is listed as a tailor there in Hunt’s 1846 Oxford directory. (The house, which was then variously numbered 33 or 47, was on the site of the present No. 59). William (39) can be seen there in the 1851 census with his wife Sarah (36) and his children Sophia (16), William (15), Elizabeth (13) John (8), Sarah (7), Ellen (4), and Emma (3). The family had two lodgers, both journeymen tailors: John Green (29) and Benoni Packford (21).

Benoni Packford evidently had a relationship with their eldest daughter Sophia Matilda Burchell, and on 19 April 1852 when she was 17 they were discreetly married at St Nicholas’s Church, Marston, with both described as being of that parish: it was where Benoni had been born, and they may have been staying with his family. Their son Tom Burchell Packford was born in Oxford about six months after the wedding, and the couple was living back in George Street when they had him baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 27 November 1852.

Two of the other children of William & Sarah Burchell were married in 1859–1860:

• On 16 September 1858 at St Peter-le-Bailey Church, William George Burchell, described as a tailor of Broken Hayes, married Mary Ann Wheeler of Worcester Place, the daughter of the tailor Rowland Wheeler;
• On 14 May 1860 at St Peter-le-Bailey Church, Oxford, Elizabeth Burchell of Broken Hayes married William Herman, a carpenter of Jew's Mount and the son of the grocer Thomas Herman.

At the time of the 1861 census William & Sarah Burchell were still living in George Street. Four of their children were at home with them: Sarah (17), Ellen (14), (Walter) Thomas (7), and Clara (5), as well as their eldest grandson Tom Burchell Packford (8). Emma (12) was paying a visit to Green Down, Childrey to the family of Thomas Herman, a draper and grocer who was the brother of her sister Elizabeth’s husband.

Three more of the children of William & Sarah Burchell were married between 1867 and 1870:

• In 1867 in Oxford (reg. second quarter), Sarah Hambridge Burchell married Elijah Herman (the brother of her sister Elizabeth's husbandin Oxford;
• In 1868 in Oxford (reg. fourth quarter), Emma Cambray Burchell married James Tilbury in Oxford (reg. fourth quarter)
• In 1869 in the Headington registration district (reg. fourth quarter), Ellen Ann Burchell married Charles Withers.

By 1871 William Burchell senior and his wife Sarah had moved to the Cowley Road, in a house named Cambray Cottage, reflecting Sarah’s maiden name. Their daughter Clara (16) was living with them, and also their daughter Sarah and her husband Elijah Herman (24), who was now a master baker, and Sarah’s children Emma Herman (1) and William Thomas Herman (three months), who had been born in Childrey, Berkshire.

William Burchell died later in 1871 at 33 [on the site of the present 59] George Street, and was described as “formerly of 33 George Street but late of Hereford Terrace, Iffley Road”:

† William Burchell died at George Street at the age of 59 on 29 October 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

His effects came to nearly £1,000, and his executor was the tailor William Shurrock of Cowley Road.

William Burchell’s baby grandson His William Thomas Herman (the son of Elijah Herman) died at the age of eleven months and was buried with him just four weeks later:

† William Thomas Herman died at George Street at the age of eleven months in November 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 29 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

In 1881 Mrs Sarah Burchell (66), was living at 6 Hereford Terrace, Iffley Road with her unmarried daughter Clara (25) and her daughter Mrs Emma Tilbury (32) with her two children.

Sarah Burchell died in east Oxford in 1888:

† Mrs Sarah Burchell née Cambray died in Cowley St John parish at the age of 73 on 29 August 1888 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Surviving children of William & Sarah Burchell

• Sophia Matilda Burchell, Mrs Packford (born 1834) was living at London Place in 1871 with her husband Benoni, a tailor, and their eight children: Tom Packford (19) and William Packford (17), who were also tailors; Sophia Packford (15), Charles Packford (13) Sarah Packford (11), Ellen Packford (8), Ben Packford (6), and Emma Packford (3). Sophia died at 22 Princes Street at the age of 38 and was buried in St Clement’s churchyard on 18 February 1873; her husband Benoni married Mary Nora Stone (28) just seven months later, on 16 September 1873, at Cowley St James Church.
• William George Burchell (born 1833/4) and his wife Mary Ann Wheeler were living at 21 Cambridge Street, St Ebbe’s at the time of the 1861 census. Mary Ann died at the age of 33 in 1867 (reg. Headington district fourth quarter), and in 1870 he married his second wife Elizabeth Martal Smith in Royston, Cambridgeshire (reg. second quarter). The 1871 census shows him as a tailor living at Cowley Road with his wife Elizabeth and an apprentice. Elizabeth died aged 31 near the beginning of 1873 and in 1874 in Gloucester he married his third wife, Selina Smith Small. At the time of the 1901 census he and Selina were living at 83 Cowley Road with their children Elsie (24), George (23), Ethel (21) and Ernest Walter (16). In 1911 William George Burchell (75) was described as a retired tailor and was living at 158 New Avenue, Acocks Green, Birmingham with his wife Selina Smith Burchell (62) and their son Ernest Walter Burchell (26), who was a surgical instrument maker: they recorded that four of their six children were already dead. They appear to have moved to Hereford, where William died near the beginning of 1914 and Selina Selina near the beginning of 1924.
• Elizabeth Burchell, Mrs Herman (born 1838): see separate grave
• Sarah Hambridge Burchell, Mrs Herman (born 1843/4) was living at 16 Cowley Road in 1881 with her husband Elijah, who was still a baker, and their children Emma (11), Sarah (7), George (5), and Emily (1), and their nephew James Tilbury (11). They were at 36 Cowley Road in 1901 with three of their children. Elijah died near the beginning of 1910 at the age of 63, and Sarah near the beginning of 1915 at the age of 79.
• Ellen Ann Burchell, Mrs Withers (born 1846) is difficult to find after her marriage in 1869.
• Emma Cambray Burchell, Mrs Tilbury (born 1848) was living in George Street in 1871 with her husband James, who was a coal merchant’s employing man, and their son James junior (1). In 1881 when she was aged 32 she described herself as a widow and she was living with mother in Oxford together with her children Clara Louisa Tilbury (7) and Laura Esther Tilbury (5); her son James (11) was staying with his uncle and aunt Elijah and Sarah Herman at 16 Cowley Road. Mrs Emma Tilbury died at the age of 1889 aged 41 (reg. Headington district fourth quarter). Her three children were living together at 8 Stockmore Street in 1891: James (21), a printer compositor, was the head of the household; Clara (17) presumably kept house; and Laura (15) was a dressmaker’s apprentice.
• Walter Thomas Burchell, known as Thomas (born 1853) was aged 17 in 1871 and working as a porter in the coal business: he was then living with his sister Mrs Emma Tilbury and her husband in George Street. Near the end of 1880 he married Esther Priest at Amersham: he was then a coal merchant. They were living at George Street, Oxford when on 21 September 1881 their daughter Amy Beatrice was baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church. In 1891 Walter (36) was a grocer, living at 90 Charles Street in east Oxford with his wife Esther (30) and their children Amy Beatrice (10), Lilian Agnes (8), and Montague William (2). Walter Thomas Burchell died in Oxford at the age of 90 near the beginning of 1944.
• Clara Burchell (born 1855) married Silvester George Faulkner in Oxford near the beginning of 1889, but appears to have separated from him very soon after the wedding. In 1891 she described herself as married, but was living at 6 Wellington Square where she worked as a general servant. In 1911, when she was aged 56 , she was working as the housekeeper to the widower William George Grain (52) in New Hinksey: again she stated that she was married, but her husband was not living with her. Clara Faulkner died at the age of 68 in 1922 (reg. Headington district second quarter).