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Alexander Samuel HURFORD (1820–1886)
His wife Mrs Maria HURFORD, née Jacob (c.1830–1858)
Their daughter Adeline Maria HURFORD (born and died 1856)
St Paul section: Row 12, Grave A18 (St Paul ref. O9)

Alexander Samuel Hurford was born in St Pancras, London on 23 August 1820 and baptised at St Marylebone Church on 2 December. He was the son of the wine merchant Samuel Hurford and his wife Mary Ann. At the time of the 1841 census he was an office assistant in Oxford, lodging with Elizabeth Austin in New Inn Hall Street.

He moved to London shortly afterwards, and on 20 April 1842 he was articled to John Taylor, a solicitor in the High Court of Chancery, of 2 Castle Street, Holborn for five years.

In 1851 Alexander Samuel Hurford was back in Oxford: a single man of 30, described as an attorney & solicitor farming 90 acres, he was based at 21 New Inn Hall Street (now 1 St Michael's Street). Living with him was his clerk Edwin A. Thompson with his wife and two children. By 1853 Hurford was living in Walton Street.

Maria Jacob was born in Oxford in 1830 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 26 December. She was the daughter of Henry Jacob (born in Marylebone in c.1790) and his wife Charlotte (born in Holborn in c.1797). (They may be the Henry Jacob and Charlotte Blamford who were married at St Andrew's Church, Middlesex on 27 September 1818.) In the late 1820s the family moved to Oxford and her father became Clerk to the Magistrates there. At the time of the 1851 census Maria (20) was at home in Pembroke Street in St Ebbe’s with her parents and her siblings George (28), who was a carver & gilder, and Charlotte Sophia (26), both of whom were born in Clerkenwell, and Anne (22), and Sarah Haines Jacob (16), who were born in Oxford. They had one servant.

On 23 June 1853 at St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, Alexander Samuel Hurford (32) married Maria Jacob (22). They had two children:

• Alexander Edward Hurford (born at Walton Street, Oxford in 1854 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 29 May);
• Adeline Maria Hurford (born at Walton Street, Oxford around 21 December 1855 and baptised immediately).

Their daughter Adeline died aged just over four months:

† Adeline Maria Hurford died at Walton Place (now Walton Street) at the age of four months on 28 April 1856 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 26 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

The following death notice was published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal: “April 28, Adeline Maria, daughter of Mr. A. S. Hurford, solicitor, or this city, aged four months and one week.”

Adeline’s mother died less than two years later:

† Mrs Maria Hurford née Jacob died at Walton Place (now Walton Street) at the age of 27 on 15 February 1858 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 20 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her death notice read: “Feb. 15, Maria, the beloved wife of Mr. A. S. Hurford, of this city, solicitor, and fourth daughter of Mr. Henry Jacob, Clerk to the City Magistrates, &c.”

At the time of the 1861 census Alexander Samuel Hurford, a widower of 60 and described as a solicitor, was lodging at 14 Beaumont Street with the family of the architect Edward George Bruton. His son Alexander Edward Hurford, who would have been nearly seven, is hard to find: he may have been away at school.

In the Post Office Directory of 1869 Alexander Samuel Hurford’s address was given as Walton Manor, Woodstock Road, but he is hard to find in the 1871 census. His son Alexander Edward was 16 in 1871 and at boarding at Radley College; and on 1 May 1874 he was matriculated at the University of Oxford from The Queen’s College, gaining his B.A. in 1880 and M.A. in 1885.

On 11 October 1875 at St Peter’s Church in Brighton, Alexander Samuel Hurford married his second wife, Yorkshire-born Charlotte Susannah Coe.

At the time of the 1881 census Alexander Samuel Hurford (60) was still working as a solicitor and living with Charlotte (48) at 57 Rectory Road (then called Pembroke Street) in St Clement’s.

By the time of his death in 1886 he appears to have moved to 8 Banbury Road:

† Alexander Samuel Hurford died at 8 Banbury Road at the age of 65 on 26 March 1886 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 30 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

His death notice read: “At his residence, No. 8 Banbury-road, Oxford, from apoplexy, Alexander Samuel Hurford, aged 65.” His personal estate came to £5,314 15s. 4d., and his executor was his son Alexander Edward Hurford, who was now a solicitor living at Blagrave Street, Reading.

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Surviving son of Alexander Samuel Hurford and his first wife Maria

• Alexander Edward Hurford (born 1854) was a solicitor’s articled clerk aged 26 in 1881, living at 6 Kent Gardens, Ealing with the family of Henry Tailor (51), a solicitor, and his wife Laura. In 1886 at Wokingham he married Agneta Harriet Beauchamp: they had no children. In 1891 he was living at 181 Kings Road, Reading with Agneta and two servants. By 1901 he was working as a solicitor in Cornwall, and was living with Agneta and one servant at North Road, West Looe, and they were still there in 1911. His wife died at Woodcote, East Looe on 27 February 1944. and Alexander died there just two months later on 26 April 1944. His effects came to £2,761 3s. 7d.