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John JESSOP (1852–1886)
His baby daughters Nellie Emma JESSOP (1876–1877) and
Ellen Rose JESSOP (1880–1881)
St Paul section: Row 14, Grave A17 (St Paul ref. O.11)

John Jessop was born at Clarendon Place in Upper Walton Street, Oxford in 1852 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 10 October. He was the only surviving son of the butcher Richard Jessop and his first wife Emma Jelfs, who were married at All Saints’ Church, Oxford on 29 January 1846.
For more about his parents, see the separate graves of (1) his father and (2) his mother and his sister Betsey.

John’s mother died when he was two years old, and he was brought up by his stepmother, also called Emma. By 1861 the family's address is given as 49 Walton Street, which may be the same house as before. John became a butcher like his father, and he and his sister were still living there with his father and stepmother and their two children at the time of the 1871 census.

Ellen (or Ella) Wharton was born at New Street, Oxford in 1859 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 5 May. She was the daughter of William Wharton (born in Oxford) and his wife Ann (born in Nottingham, and possibly the Ann Wagstaff who was married in Nottingham near the end of 1848). At the time of the 1861 census Ellen was two years old and living at 46 New Street with her parents, who were both aged 30, and her older siblings Elizabeth Ann (9), William (7), and the twins Fanny and Sarah (4), plus her two unmarried aunts Maria Wharton (22) and Anne Wharton (20), who were both sempstresses. Her father was then described as an engineer & smith employing two men and two boys. By the time of the 1871 census when she was 12 Ellen was living with her family at Bridge Street, St Ebbe’s. Her father now employed an extra man, and by 1876 was described as an iron founder.

On 21 March 1876 at St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford John Jessop (23), described as a butcher of Walton Street, married Ellen/Ella Wharton (17) of Bridge Street, St Ebbe’s. They had the following children:

• Nellie Emma Jessop (born at Cardigan Street in 1876 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 19 October); died 1877
• Minnie Jessop (born at Cardigan Street in 1877 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 28 October)
• Ellen (or Helen) Rose Jessop (born at 103 Cardigan Street on 16 June 1880 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 30 June); died 1881.

Their first baby daughter died near the beginning of 1877:

† Nellie Emma Jessop died at Cardigan Street at the age of three months on 7 January 1877 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 12 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Their second daughter Minnie was born in about September 1877, and their third daughter Ellen Rose around June 1880.

John Jessop was admitted to the St Andrew’s Hospital for Mental Diseases in Northampton around the end of 1880, and his wife Mrs Ellen Jessop went with him to work there as a nurse. They left their two surviving daughters with different people: Minnie went to 1 King Street with the baker’s wife Eliza Smith, and baby Ellen Rose to 5 Penson’s Gardens, St Ebbe’s with the carpenter’s wife Emma Hutchings.

At the time of the 1881 census John Jessop (28) was back temporarily with his father and stepmother, while Emma (who was still only 22 years old) was at the Northampton hospital and described as a “Nurse on insane”. Their daughter Minnie (2) was described as a boarder with the Smiths, and Ellen Rose (eight months) as a nurse child with the Hutchings family.

Baby Ellen Rose Jessop died just after the census while in the care of Mrs Hutchings and was buried with her sister Nellie:

† Ellen (or Helen) Rose Jessop died at 5 Penson’s Gardens, St Ebbe’s at the age of eleven months on 11 May 1881 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 17 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

An inquest was held two days after her death, and was reported thus in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 21 May 1881:

On Friday the 13th inst., at 5, Penson’s Gardens, St Ebbe’s, on the body of Ellen Rose Jessop, aged 10 months, who had been ailing for some time.—Bets[e]y Emma Jessop, spinster, 49, Upper Walton-street, said the deceased was her brother’s daughter. John Jessop was her brother’s name; he was a butcher, and being out of health he was away from home. His wife was an attendant at the asylum at Northampton, where he was a patient. She (witness) had known the deceased from her birth: she was brought up by hand. Mrs. Hutchings had had the care of her for about five months, and she had always been delicate, and at times had been worse than at others. They had thought that the deceased’s inside was diseased, and Dr. Gray saw her about three weeks ago, and after that she revived a little.—Emma, wife of Jacob Hutchings, carpenter and joiner, 5, Penson’s Gardens, said she had had the care of the deceased for about five months. She laid her down in the cradle about two o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, and in about ten minutes she saw that the child was nearly gone, and she died immediately. Witness had been nursing the deceased, but she did not seem to be worse than usual.—Verdict, “Death from natural causes.”

By the time of his death in 1886 John Jessop was at Stone Asylum near Aylesbury (later known as St John’s Hospital):

† John Jessop died at Stone Asylum near Aylesbury at the age of 33 on 30 July 1886 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 2 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

His death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “July 30, at Stone, near Aylesbury, after much suffering, John, eldest son of the late Mr. Richard Jessop, of Walton-street, Oxford, aged 33.” There is no mention of his wife Ellen or his surviving daughter Minnie, who never returned to her mother.

Mrs Ellen Jessop began a new life three years later in 1889 when at the age of 30 she married the college servant Harry Charles Poulter (reg. Headington district third quarter). They lived at 28 St Clement’s Street and had nine children. She died in Oxford at the age of 82 near the beginning of 1940.

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The surviving daughter of John and Ellen Jessop

• Minnie Jessop (born 1877) was living with her father’s sister, Mrs Betsey Hale and her family at the time of the 1891 and 1901 census, first at 6 Cardigan Street and then at 49 Walton Street. On 1 August 1906 at St Paul’s Church Minnie (26) married Alfred William Mansell Walford (24), a cabinet maker of 6 Cardigan Street, and her address was still given as 49 Walton Street. Their son Albert William John Walford was born in Oxford in 1907. At the time of the 1911 census Minnie and her husband were still living with their son Albert (3) at 6 Cardigan Street. Mrs Minnie Walford died at 7 Juxon Street at the age of 75 on 23 January 1953. Her effects came to £136 7s. 7d., and her son was her executor.