Mary Eliza GEORGE (born and died 1853)
St Paul’s section: Row 13, Grave A18½ [St Paul ref. P10]
It is the LORD. Let Him
do what seemeth Him good.
Mary Eliza George
Died vi Sep. Mdcccliii
Aged vi months
.
Mary Eliza George was born at Observatory Street in 1853 and died aged six months.
This baby is the only person buried in this grave, as her family moved away to Warminster when her father was appointed relieving officer there.
The way the inscription is right at the top of the headstone suggests that the original intention was that it should be a family grave.
Baby Mary’s father George George was born in Kirtlington and baptised there on 7 October 1827. He was the son of the tailor John George and his wife Hannah Price, who were married at Kirtlington church on 9 June 1823. They had two other sons baptised there: Thomas George (1824) and James George (1826). At the time of the 1841 census George George (12) was living in Kirtlington with his parents and two brothers; but by 1850 he was a land surveyor and living in Observatory Street, Oxford, which was in the St Paul’s district chapelry.
Baby Mary’s mother Elizabeth Slatford was born at a house “facing the Parks” in Oxford in 1826 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 3 December. She was the daughter of the tailor William Slatford and Mary Walker, who were both living in St Peter-le-Bailey parish when they were married at its church on 12 January 1818. When Elizabeth’s older brother James Slatford was baptised at St Giles’s Church in 1824 her family was living at Workhouse Lane (Little Clarendon Street). They were still “near the Parks” when Elizabeth’s younger brother George Slatford was baptised there in 1831. By the time of her marriage in 1850 Elizabeth was living in Little Clarendon Street again.
On 7 May 1850 at St Paul's Church in Oxford, George George married Elizabeth Slatford, and they had the following children:
- Louisa Elizabeth George (born in Observatory Street in 1851 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 14 September)
- Mary Eliza George (born in Observatory Street in 1853 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 12 June)
- Laura Annie George (born in Observatory Street in 1854 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 24 September)
- Florence Augusta George (born in Observatory Street in 1856 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 7 September)
- Kate Eliza George (born in Observatory Street in 1859 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 20 June)
- Thomas James George (born in Observatory Street in 1861 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 26 May)
- Fanny Matilda George (born in Warminster, Wiltshire in 1863)
- Maud Alice George (born in Warminster, Wiltshire in 1868).
At the time of the 1851 census George George (23) and his wife Elizabeth (24) were living in Observatory Street, and George’s unmarried brother James George (25), who was a carpenter, was boarding with them. Their first child was born later that year.
Mary Eliza George was their second child, born in Observatory Street in about March 1853. She died the same year, just three months after her baptism:
† Mary Eliza George died at Observatory Street at the age of six months on 7 September 1853 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 12 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).
Mary’s parents had four more children between 1854 and 1861. At the time of the 1861 census they were living at 12 Observatory Street with their five surviving children Louisa (9), Laura (6), Florence (4), Kate (1), and a newborn baby, who would be named Thomas. George George (33) was still a land surveyor’s assistant, and his wife Elizabeth (34) and the baby were being looked after by a nurse, Mrs Eliza Chaundy (48).
By 1863 Mary’s father George George had been appointed Relieving Officer at Warminster in Wiltshire, and their two youngest daughters were born there in 1863 and 1868. At the time of the 1871 the family was living at Silver Street there.
Mary’s mother Mrs Elizabeth George died in Warminster at the age of 48 in 1875.
In 1881 George George was living at 32 Silver Street, Warminster with his daughters Florence (24) and Maud (12). In 1891, at the age of 63, he was still working as the Relieving Officer in Warminster and lived at 2 Ash Walk there with his daughters Florence (34) and Maud (22).
Mary’s father George George died in Warminster in 1899 at the age of 72.
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