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Charles FAULKNER (c.1815–1882)
His wife Mrs Maria FAULKNER, née Bolter (1816–1892)
Their son Aubrey FAULKNER (1839–1878)
St Paul (St Barnabas) section: Row 24, Grave E15 [St Paul ref. N21]

Charles Faulkner was born in Oxford in c.1817. He may be the child of that name who was baptised at St Giles's Church on 28 December 1817; but that child was born in Summertown (Diamond House) rather than in Oxford, the son of the labourer Thomas Faulkner of Steeple Barton and his wife Hannah Turner, who were married at Islip on 23 April 1810 and had six other children baptised at St Giles's Church.

Maria Bolter was born at Merriscourt, Lyneham (near Shipton-under-Wychwood) in 1816 and baptised at Sarsden church on 28 March. She was the daughter of the farmer John Bolter and Sarah Porter, who were married at St Giles's Church, Oxford on 24 November 1814. For more about her background and three siblings, see the grave of her uncle William Bolter and her mother Mrs Sarah Bolter, who are buried in the adjacent plot.

In 1838 in the Newport Pagnell district, Charles Faulkner married Maria Bolter. They had the following children

• Aubrey Faulkner (born at Castle Street, Oxford in 1839 and baptised at St Peter-le-Bailey Church on 7 October)
• Sarah Ann Faulkner (born at Great Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1841 and baptised at St Paul's Church on 15 August)
• Oldham Charles Faulkner (born at Great Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1845 and baptised at St Paul's Church on 25 December)
• Mary Ann Eliza Faulkner (born at Great Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1849 and baptised on 4 February; admitted into St Paul's Church on 18 February)

The family was evidently living at Castle Street in Oxford in 1839, but by 1841 they had moved to Great Clarendon Street.

The 1841 census shows Charles Faulkner (25), who described himself as a bacon factor, living in Great Clarendon Street, Oxford with his wife Maria (25) and their son Aubrey (1) and daughter Sarah Ann (two months), plus a servant.

They were still there in 1851 with their children Aubrey (11), Oldham (5), and Margaret (2), plus a servant, but their daughter Sarah Ann (10) is hard to find.

On 20 March 1855 when he was only 16 their son Aubrey joined the army: he probably exaggerated his age, as in the next two censuses his age is recorded wrongly. He fought in the Crimean War.

In mid-1860 their son Oldham (15), who was trained as a butcher, went to stay in London to get a situation and got involved with a fraudster who promised him a job as a traveller's assistant in the leather trade (see his evidence in The Times of 13 February 1862).

In 1861 Charles & Maria Bolter were at home at Great Clarendon Street with their daughters Sarah (20) and Mary (12). Aubrey (21) was in Hulme Cavalry Barracks in Lancashire (with his age wrongly given as 25), but Oldham (15) is hard to find.

Three of their children were married before the next census:

• On 3 June 1868 at St George's Church, Hanover Square, Sarah Ann Faulkner married James Sayer of Eastcott, Middlesex (but born in Harleston, Norfolk in c.1824), with an announcement placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal;
• On 5 October 1870 at St Barnabas's Church, Oxford, Mary Ann Elizabeth Faulkner (22) married Frederic Slatter, a farmer of Wigginton and the son of the farmer Thomas Slatter, with an announcement placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal. The witnesses were Richard Bolter and Annie Sophia Porter.
• By early 1871, probably in Ireland, Aubrey Faulkner married Sarah Jane [surname unknown] (born in County Dublin in c.1841).

At the time of the 1871 census Charles (56) and Maria (55) were at home at Great Clarendon Street with their son Oldham (25), who was a law clerk, and their married daughter Mrs Sarah Sayer (29).

Their elder son Aubrey Faulkner was a sergeant in 1871, living with his wife Sarah Jane in Cavalry Barracks in Isleworth, Middlesex. On 6 December 1875 he had to leave the army, as he was suffering from a progressive general paralysis and melancholia, and the word “insane” was scrawled across his records. He was admitted to Littlemore Asylum on 6 March 1876, and died there from epilepsy two years later in 1878:

† Aubrey Faulkner died at Littlemore Asylum at the age of 38 on 25 April 1878 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 30 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul's Church).

His death announcement in Jackson's Oxford Journal read simply: “April 25, Aubrey, eldest son of Mr. Charles Faulkner, 20, Walton-street, Oxford, aged 38.” He was buried in the plot next to the one where his great-uncle William Bolter had been buried in 1878 and where his grandmother Sarah Bolter would be buried in 1881.

By the time of Aubrey's death in early 1878, Charles & Maria Faulkner, had moved into 20 Walton Street, the home of Maria's widowed mother. At the time of the 1881 census they were both aged 65 and described as annuitants, while Mrs Sarah Bolter was 91. Maria's sister Sarah and her husband Robert Wyatt were also living with them in the same house.

Charles Faulkner died in Birmingham in 1882: he and his wife had probably moved there to live with their daughter Mary Ann, or were paying a visit. His body was brought to Oxford for burial with his son:

† Charles Faulkner died at 39 The Parade, Birmingham at the age of 67 on 23 May 1882 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 25 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas's Church).

Mrs Maria Faulkner is hard to find in the 1891 census, but had moved to Bushey in Hertfordshire by the time of her death in early 1892, presumably to be near her daughter Sarah and family. Her body was also returned to Oxford for burial:

† Mrs Maria Faulkner née Bolter died at Spring Villa, Villiers Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire. at the age of 76 on 29 January 1892 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 4 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas's Church).

Her effects came to £404 17s. 6d., and her son-in-law James Sayer was her executor.

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Surviving children of Charles & Maria Faulkner

• Sarah Ann Faulkner, Mrs Sayer (born 1841) is hard to find in the 1871 census. In 1881 she was aged 40 (but always shaved a few years from her age) and was living in California Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire with her husband James Sayer (56), who was a coal merchant, and their children Minnie (11), Charles (9), Ernest (8), Florence (6), May (3), and Hugh Stanley (2). In 1891 and 1901 she was living at 39 Lower Paddock Road, Bushey with her husband and her younger children. She died in Watford at the age of 67 (but recorded as 63) near the beginning of 1909.
• Oldham Charles Faulkner (born 1845) is hard to find after 1871, when he was a law clerk living with his parents in Oxford.
• Mary Ann Eliza Faulkner, Mrs Slatter (born 1849) was living in Wigginton in 1871 with her husband Frederic Slatter, who was a farmer of 140 acres employing six labourers and one boy, and their as yet unnamed one-month-old baby son and their 15-year-old servant girl. Her husband died at the age of 56 near the beginning of 1901. By the time of the 1911 census Mary (62) was living at 23 Woodlands Park Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham with five of her twelve children (of whom three had already died): Ethel Marion (37), John William (34), Madeline Louise (32), Mabel Mary (23) and Evelyn Gertrude (21). Mary died in Birmingham at the age of 67 near the beginning of 1915.