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William GILLAM (1819–1873)
His wife Mrs Margaret GILLAM, née Cannon (1825–1915)
Their baby son Arthur Robert GILLAM (1871–1872)
and their daughter Miss Clara GILLAM (1862–1939)
St Paul (St Barnabas) section: Row 36, Grave H20

William Gillam was born in Duns Tew in 1819 and baptised there on 7 February. He was the son of the carpenter John Gillam and Jane Patenal, who were married at Deddington on 26 October 1814. His six siblings were baptised at the same church: twins William and John (1815, died in infancy), Charles (1817), John (1821), Joseph (1823), and Jane (1826, died in infancy).

Margaret Cannon or Canning was born in Duns Tew in 1825 and baptised there on 25 September. She was the daughter of the labourer Richard Cannon (born in Duns Tew in c.1792) and his wife Ann (born in Westbury, Buckinghamshire in c.1798). Her younger sister Hephzibah was baptised at the same church in 1834.

On 17 June 1844 at Duns Tew, William Gillam (28) married Margaret Cannon (19), who signed her name with a cross. They had eleven children:

• Jane Gillam (born in Ledwell in 1845 and baptised at Duns Tew on 25 May)
• Margaret Hatten Gillam (born in Duns Tew in 1847 and baptised there on 25 July)
• Elizabeth Jane Gillam (born in Duns Tew in 1850 and baptised there on 7 April)
• Annie Gillam (born in Oxford in 1852 and baptised at Duns Tew on 29 August)
• Priscilla Gillam (born in Nelson Street , Oxford in 1855 and baptised at St Paul’s Church in April)
• William Gillam (born in Nelson Street, Oxford in 1857 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 26 April)
• Agnes Hephzibah Gillam (born at Nelson Street, Oxford in 1860 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 11 March)
• Clara Gillam (born in Oxford in 1862 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 28 December)
• Charles Richard Gillam (born at Nelson Street, Oxford in 1865 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 11 June)
• Joseph Gillam (born at Nelson Street, Oxford in 1867 and baptised at St Paul's Church on 31 March)
• Arthur Robert Gillam (born in Oxford on 25 July 1871 and baptised at St Barnabas’s Church on 1 October);
  died aged seven months.

William Gillam was a carpenter like his father, and initially the couple remained in Duns Tew, but in about 1850 moved to Jericho in Oxford, where they were to spend the rest of their lives.

At the time of the 1851 census William Gillam (32) and his wife Margaret (25) were living at Union Street with their first three children Jane (5), Margaret (3), and Elizabeth (1).

By 1861 William Gillam (42), a carpenter & joiner, was living at 22 Nelson Street in Jericho with his wife Margaret (35) and their four youngest children Annie (8), Priscilla (6), William (4), and Agnes (1). Their first three daughters were not at home: Jane (15) was living at 62 St John Street, where she was the servant of John Haines, university bedel and librarian, and his family; Margaret (13) was the servant of Edward Cryher (Cryer) of New Hinksey; and Elizabeth Jane (11), who was still at school, was staying with her grandparents Richard & Ann Cannon in Duns Tew.

By the time of the 1871 census they had two more children and were at the same address. Their daughter Margaret (23), who was an unemployed servant, was back with them, and also still at home were their son William (14), who was a printer’s assistant, and Agnes (11), Clara (8), Charles (6), and Joseph (4). Their daughter Elizabeth Jane (21) was a servant to James Sheard, the goldsmith at 131 High Street, and his family.

Their youngest son Arthur Robert Gillam was born later that year, but died in infancy:

† Arthur Robert Gillam died at Nelson Street at the age of seven months on 10 March 1872 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas’s Church).

William Gillam died in hospital the following year of enteric fever (typhoid) and general weakness or asthenia:

† William Gillam died in the Radcliffe Infirmary at the age of 55 on 16 May 1873 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 22 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas’s Church).

Five of William & Margaret Gillam’s children were married before the next census:

• On 3 September 1874 at St Giles’s Church, Oxford, Margaret Hatten Gillam (27), who worked at the Radcliffe Infirmary, married Thomas Bishop (23), a coachman at Walton House;
• On 12 June 1875 at St Barnabas’s Church, Oxford, Jane Gillam (30) married William Saunders (41), a gardener of Lydney;
• On 27 December 1875 at St Barnabas’s Church, Oxford, Priscilla Gillam (21) married Henry Stanley (24), a papermaker of Little Eaton, Derbyshire who was born in Wolvercote;
• On 24 February 1879 at St Peter’s Church, Birmingham, Elizabeth Jane Gillam married William Henry King (born at Chesterton near the beginning of 1847);
• On 27 May 1880 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Oxford, William Gillam married Mary Green (born in Deddington).

Death of Margaret Gillam's married daughter Margaret Hatten Bishop (born 1847)
Margaret Hatten Gillam, Mrs Bishop (born 1847) went to live with her husband at the lodge of Walton House. (This house, which lay between Walton Street and the Woodstock Road, was built by the wine merchant Thomas Ensworth and became the first hall of residence of Somerville College.) Margaret died at the lodge of phthisis at the age of 29 on 17 January 1877, shortly after giving birth to only child Margaret Annie Bishop (born on 30 September 1876 and baptised at St Giles's Church on 10 October).

At the time of the 1881 census Margaret Gillam was living at 7 St Barnabas’s Street with three of her children: her married son William (24), who was an upholsterer, and his wife Mary (28); Charles (16), who was a photographer’s shop boy; and Joseph (14), who was a pageboy. Also staying with her were two of her granddaughters: Margaret Bishop (4) and Annie Gillam (three months). Her two unmarried daughters were both working elsewhere: Annie Gillam (28) was a nurse at Prospect Park House in Tilehurst, and Clara Gillam (19) was the housemaid to a doctor's family at 39 London Road in Reading.

Margaret Gillam's daughter Annie was married in 1885:

• On 15 April 1885 at St Mary's Church, Reading, Annie Gillam of Park House, Reading married James Healey, a gardener who lived at Park House Cottage, the son of the carpenter JohnHealey.

At the time of the 1891 census Mrs Gillam was living at 53 Nelson Street with her son Charles (26), who now described himself as a photographic artist, and her granddaughter Margaret Bishop (14). Her daughter Clara Gillam (48), who was employed as a parlourmaid, was paying a visit to her widowed aunt Mrs Mary Gillam (65) at 79 Eccleston Square Mews, London; and Agnes (29) was the servant of Walter Neame at the Vicarage, Forest Hill.

Death of Margaret Gillam's married daughter Jane Saunders
Jane Gillam, Mrs Saunders (born 1845) was living in Lydney, Gloucestershire in 1881 with her husband William (50), who was still working as a gardener, and their first two children Charles (4) and Margaret (3). By 1891 she was a widow: aged 44, she was described as an invalid and living in Lydney with her children Charles (15), Margaret (13), and Arthur (9). She died three months after the census and was buried in Lydney on 4 July 1891.

Margaret Gillam's son Joseph was married in 1894:

• On 16 September 1894 at St Joseph's Church, Finsbury Park, Middlesex, Joseph Gillam married Eliza Schofield (born at Poplar, Middlesex in 1865).

At the time of the 1901 census Margaret Gillam (75) was still living at 53 Nelson Street with her unmarried photographer son Charles (36).

Margaret Gillam's daughter Agnes was married in 1903:

• On 15 July 1903 at St Mary's Church, Reading Agnes Hephzibah Gillam (37) of Park House Cottage, Reading married Charles James Day, a coachman of St Michael's, Sandhurst and the son of the coachman James Day.

Death of Margaret Gillam's married daughter Priscilla Stanley
Priscilla Gillam, Mrs Stanley (born 1855) was living at Little Eaton Derbyshire in 1881 with her husband Henry (30), who was still a paper-maker, and their first two children Mary (3) and Agnes (1). In 1891 they were living at Darley Abbey, Derbyshire. By the time of the 1901 census Priscilla (46) was living in Dartford, Kent with her husband Henry Stanley and their children Agnes (21), William (19), Charles (16), Henry (13), Eleanor (10), and Reginald (7); she died there in 1908.

At the time of the 1911 census Mrs Margaret Gillam (85) was still living at 53 Nelson Street with her two unmarried children, namely her photographer son Charles (40), and her unmarried daughter Clara (48), who was described as a parlourmaid. Her granddaughter Margaret Annie Bishop (34) was also back living with her again. Four of her eleven children were already dead, namely Arthur (d.1872), Margaret (d.1877), Jane (d.1891), and Priscilla (d.1908).

Margaret Gillam's son Charles was married In 1914:

• On 20 September 1914 at the Registry Office in Oxford, Charles Richard Gillam (49), described as a photographer of 53 Nelson Street, married Emma Elizabeth Belcher (48) of 9 Richmond Road and the daughter of the (deceased) cellarman James Belcher and his wife Emma (also buried in the cemetery).

Mrs Margaret Gillam died in 1915:

† Mrs Margaret Gillam née Cannon died at 53 Nelson Street at the age of 90 on 5 September 1915 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas’s Church).

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Clara Gillam (born 1862)

Clara was the only surviving child of William and Margaret Gillam who did not marry.

By 1930 Clara’s widowed sister Mrs Annie Healey had come back to Oxford to live at 5 St Barnabas’s Street, and it appears that Miss Clara Gillam lived with her, as she died at that address in 1939:

† Miss Clara Gillam died at 5 St Barnabas’s Street at the age of 76 on 5 September 1939 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Barnabas’s Church).

Her effects came to £931 14s. 4d., and her executor was her brother Charles Richard Gillam, now a retired photographer’s assistant.

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The other six surviving children of William & Margaret Gillam

• Elizabeth Jane Gillam, Mrs William Henry King (born 1850) was living in Birmingham at the time of the 1881 census with her husband William, who was a letter-carrier. They do not appear to have had any children. By 1891 they had moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, and lived at the Union Club in Chapel Lane, of which William was the custodian they were still there in 1901. In 1911 Elizabeth, a widow of 61, was living off her own means at Shipton near Stratford-upon-Avon. She died at Waterside, Stratford-upon-Avon on 16 February 1918, and her executor was her brother Charles.
• Annie Gillam, Mrs James Healey (born 1852) went to live with her husband in Reading, where their only child James William Healey was born in 1886. At the time of the 1911 census they were still in Reading and Annie’s husband James (56) was a gardener and her son James William (24) was a ledger clerk in a biscuit factory. Annie moved back to Oxford by 1930 when she was a widow, and lived at 5 St Barnabas Street, where she died on 30 July 1937.
• William Gillam (born 1857) was working as an upholsterer at home in 1901 and living at 35 Wellington Street with his wife Mary and their six children: Arthur (18), who was an upholsterer; William junior (17), who was a machine minder; Clara May (15), who was an upholsteress; and Ada Mary (13), Ethel Margaret (11), and Henry Percival (5). In 1911 they were living at 21 Alexandra Road (off the Botley Road) with Clara (25), Ada Mary Gillam  (23), Ethel (21), and Harry (15). William Gillam died at that address at the age of 82 on 11 December 1939. His effects came to £1,542 13s., and his executors were his sons Arthur (an upholsterer) and Henry (a commercial traveller).
• Agnes Hephzibah Gillam, Mrs Day (born 1860) is hard to find in the 1911 census. She was living at 5 St Barnabas Street when she died at the Cowley Road Hospital on 15 February 1955 at the age of 95.
• Charles Richard Gillam (born 1865) and his wife Emma Elizabeth (who was 49 at the time of their wedding in 1914) had no children. Charles was living at 31 Richmond Road, Oxford when he died at Littlemore on 21 October 1946. His wife Emma was his executor. His wife Emma died at the age of 83 in 1950.
• Joseph Gillam (born 1867) was a tram conductor in London in 1901, living at 34 St Thomas's Road, Islington with his wife Eliza (33), their daughter Olive (2), and twins Charles and Violet (four months). By 1911 he was a tramway ticket inspector, living at 52 Kimberley Gardens, Haringay with Eliza and their three surviving children Olive (12), Charles (10), and Reginald (6). Joseph Gillam died at that address at the age of 83 on 21 February 1951.

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Margaret Annie Bishop (born 1876), the daughter of Margaret who was brought up by her grandmother Margaret Gillam, never married. She died at the Radcliffe Infirmary on 7 July 1978, a few months short of her 102nd birthday.