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George DORRILL (1821–1885)
His wife Mrs Julia DORRILL, née Carter (c.1827–1911)
Their daughter Miss Emily Carter Wareham DORRILL (1858–1939)
Their son Sidney Owen DORRILL (1865–1870)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 22, Grave G65

George Dorrill was born at Broadway, Worcestershire in 1821 and baptised there on 25 November. He was the son of the labourer Edward Dorrill and his wife Mary. By the time of the 1851 census George (29) was a college servant (almost certainly at St John's), living at 12 Park Place, St Giles in the home of an older servant at St John's College. (Park Place was at the south end of the Banbury Road, running north from opposite St Giles's Church (map).

Julia Carter was born in Oxford in c.1827, the daughter of Joseph Carter, a college servant, and his wife Elizabeth. Five of her siblings were born at Gloucester Green and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church: John (1826), Joseph (1828), Emily (1831), William Henry (1833), and Thomas (1835). By 1841 Julia (14) was living at St Giles's Street (possibly at No. 27) with her father, who was a college servant, her mother, who was a laundress, and her siblings Elizabeth (16), Joseph (13) Emily (11), William (8), and Thomas (6). Also living with them were Anna Carter (65) and Mary Prior (80), who may have been Julia's grandmothers.

On 3 October 1854 at St Paul's Church, Oxford, George Dorrill, described as a college servant of Little Clarendon Street, married Julia Carter of Walton Place (now Walton Street). They had the following children:

• George Edwin Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1856 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 9 March)
• Walter Bayzand Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1857 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 7 September)
• Emily Carter Wareham Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1858 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 29 December)
• Charles Christopher Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1860 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 27 September
• Herbert Bayzand Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1863/4 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 8 January 1864)
• Sidney Owen Dorrill (born at 8 St John Street in 1865 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 2 August)
• Edgar Thomas Dorrill (born in Oxford in 1868 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 6 January 1869).

At the time of the 1861 census George (39) was still working as a college servant and living at 8 St John Street in St Mary Magdalen parish with his wife Julia (36) and their first four children George (5), Walter (3), Emily (2), and Charles (seven months). They had two servants.

They had three more sons in the 1860s, namely Herbert, Sidney, and Edgar. Sidney died in 1870:

† Sidney Owen Dorrill died at 8 St John Street at the age of five on 20 June 1870 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 June (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

At the time of the 1871 George and Julia were at home with their six surviving children, who were all still at school.

In January 1878 and again in April 1880 George Dorrill sat on the Grand Jury in the Oxford City Quarter Sessions.

Their eldest son was married in 1879:

• In the second quarter of 1879 in Penzance, George Edwin Dorrill married Emily Prockter, who was born in Penzance.

At the time of the 1881 census George senior (59), described as a college bedmaker, was at home at 8 St John Street with his wife Julia (55) and five of their children: Walter (23), who was a solicitor's clerk; Emily (32); Charles (20), who was a college bursar's clerk; Herbert (17), who was a bookseller's apprentice; and Charles (12), who was still at school. The family had one servant.

On 30 July 1884 George Dorrill was admitted to the Oxford Lunatic Asylum (now the Warneford Hospital) in Headington. He was discharged on 9 April 1885, and died at his home “after a long illness” just twelve days later:

† George Dorrill died at 8 St John Street at the age of 63 on 21 April 1885 [22 April according to the newspaper announcement, and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 25 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

His effects came to £358 9s. 8d., and his wife Julia was his executor.

Two more of their sons were married before the next census:

• On 12 July 1887 at St Clement's Church, Charles Christopher Dorrill (26), described as a cashier of 8 St John Street, married Rose Curtis Butler (23) of 8 Cowley Road, born in Kennington, London, the daughter of the college cook and manciple George Allnutt Butler;
• On 4 August 1890 at St Clement's Church, Edgar Thomas Dorrill (21), described as a photographer of St Mary Magdalen parish, married Ada Kate Matilda Couling (19) of St Clement's Street, born in Oxford on 21 November 1870, the daughter of the carpenter & joiner James Henry Couling.

At the time of the 1891 census, Mrs Julia Dorrill (64) described herself as a lodging house keeper: she had two lodgers (a solicitor and a brewer's clerk) at 8 St John Street, and no longer had any servants. Two of her children were at home: Walter (33), who was a brewer's clerk and organist, and Emily (42).

Her son Herbert was married in 1893:

• On 1 September 1893 at St Mary Magdalen Church, Herbert Bayzand Dorrill (29), a bootmaker of that parish, Married Alice Lizzie Enser Davis (21) of Ascot-under Wychwood but born in Shepherds Bush London, the daughter of Joe Ray Enser Davis, gentleman.

In 1901 Julia (74) still described herself as a lodging house keeper, although on census night she had no lodgers, and she now had a servant again. The same two children were at home: Walter (43), who was now an accountant and organist, and Emily (39).

Julia died early in 1911:

† Mrs Julia Dorrill née Carter died at 8 St John Street at the age of 84 on 11 January 1911 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 14 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £364 16s., and her son Walter was her executor.

At the time of the 1911 census Emily (57) described herself as the lodging house keeper at 8 St John Street, but again there were no lodgers on census night. She had one servant, and her brother Walter (53) was still living with her.

Walter was married later in 1911:

• On 13 July 1911 at St Aldate's Church, Oxford, Walter Bayzand Dorrill, an accountant of 8 St John Street, married Mabel Annie Savage (29) of 125 Marlborough Road, the daughter of the butler Harry Savage.

Emily, who never married, moved out of the family home soon after her brother's marriage. She died in hospital in 1939:

† Miss Emily Carter Wareham Dorrill died at the Radcliffe Infirmary at the age of 80 on 12 April 1939 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

The other surviving children of George and Julia Dorrill

• George Edwin Dorrill (born 1856) was a tobacconist at 19 Broad Street in 1881, living over the shop with his wife Emily and their daughter Gladys Maude Procter Dorrill (nine months), plus a servant girl. By 1891 George (35) was a college cook, living at 20 Little Clarendon Street with Emily (39), and there were now four more children in addition to Gladys (10), namely Gertrude Julia Dorrill (9), Laura Constance Collings Dorrill (8), George Herbert Dorrill (5), and Charles Harold Dorrill (four months). By 1901 George had lost his right leg, and was working as a cook & confectioner and living at 34 St John Street with his wife and six children, the youngest being James (6). George died at 25 Wellington Square, Oxford at the age of 51 on 6 July 1907 and was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery on 9 July in the grave of his four infant children (St Giles section, Row 49, Grave 33, not yet covered on this website).
• Walter Bayzand Dorrill (born 1857) and his wife Mabel had one daughter, Violet M. Dorrill, born in 1913. He died at 158 Kingston Road at the age of 67 on 4 October 1924 and was buried at St Sepulchre's Cemetery on 9 October (St Mary Magdalen section, Row 40, Grave N54½, not yet covered on this website). His effects came to £309 9s. 4d., and his wife was his executor.
• Charles Christopher Dorrill (born 1860) was a theatre cashier in 1891, living at 51 Marston Street in east Oxford with his wife Rose and daughter Daisy (1). In 1901 they were living at Rest Dene, 186 Iffley Road with Daisy Marion Dorrill (11), Winifred Ida Dorrill (9), and Stanley Dorrill (7), plus a servant. By 1911 Charles (50) was the manager of the New Theatre, living at 186 Iffley Road with Rose (47) and two of their children: Daisy (21), who was a piano teacher, and Stanley (17), who was a bookseller's apprentice, plus a servant. Charles died at that address on 26 November 1912. His effects came to £4,429 10s. 4d., and his executor was his wife Rose. His obituary appeared in the Oxford Journal Illustrated on 27 November 1912, and a description of his funeral on 4 December 1912. His son Stanley Dorrill (who died in 1965) continued to manage the New Theatre after his father's death.
• Herbert Bayzand Dorrill (born 1863/4) was living at 3 Grandpont Villas, Abingdon Road in 1894 and trading as a bootmaker when he went bankrupt. In 1901 he was working as an insurance agent and living at 5 Colebrooke Road, Islington with his wife Lizzie and their son Frederick Ray Dorrill (1). He is hard to find after that date.
• Edgar Thomas Dorrill (born 1868) was a photographer in 1891, living at 22 Adelaide Street in Jericho with his wife Ada and their daughter Dorothy (five months). By 1901 they had moved to Bedford, where George (31) and Ada (30) were living at 9 Denmark Street with Dorothy Julia Dorrill (10), Lewis Edgar Dorrill (7), Julia Dorrill (5), and Gerald Wilfred Dorrill (1). In 1911 Edgar (41) was living in Gillingham, Kent (at 283 Canterbury Road) with his children Julia (15) and Gerald (12) and three more born since the last census: Lillie Emily Dorrill (10), Ada Kate Dorrill (6), and Edward Gordon Dorrill (5). He described himself as married, but his wife was not living with him and he had a housekeeper, Lilly Rabbitt, a widow of 32, who lived in his house with her two own children; and as Edgar's children Ada and Edward were both registered in the same year, it is possible that the latter was Lilly's child. Meanwhile in 1911 his wife Ada (40) was the housekeeper of a dairy farmer George Baker (36) in Stock, Essex. Edgar was living at 55 Woodlands Road, Ilford, Essex when he died on 19 July 1931 at Oldchurch Hospital. His effects came to £127 12s., and his former housekeeper Lillian Rabbitt (who must by now have been regarded as his common-law wife, as she was described as his widow) was his executor. His real wife Ada died in Cambridge in 1946.