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William Castle LUCY (c.1807–1861)
His second wife Catherine Martha Lucy, née Jennings,
formerly Mrs Lillingston, after his death Mrs BOSWELL (1813–1868)
His mother-in-law Mrs Mary JENNINGS, née Dimmock (c.1778–1860)
and Mrs Jennings’s granddaughter Mary JENNINGS (born and died 1861)
St Giles section: Row 6, Grave B43

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William Castle Lucy’s only son William Lucy was the man after whom Lucy’s Ironworks in Jericho was named: see his separate grave for the story

William Castle Lucy was born in Westminster in c.1807, the son of the fishmonger George Lucy and his wife Elizabeth Castle, who were married in September 1806.

William Castle Lucy became a fishmonger like his father. He married his first wife, Susannah or Susan Browne, at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 10 January 1837, and they had just one child:

• William Lucy (born at 24 Villiers Street, The Strand, on 30 October 1837).

At the time of the 1841 census William Castle Lucy was a fishmonger aged about 33, living at Pelling Street in St Martin-in-the-Fields. His wife and son were not at home, but an independent lady a little older than he with a name appearing to be Sarah Koose was also in the house.

Mrs Susannah Lucy died of consumption of the lung at 24 Villiers Street on 26 March 1842: she was aged 28, and her son William only four.

At the time of the 1851 census William Castle Lucy, a widower of 43 and described as a fishmonger, was living on his own in London (at 38 Holywell Street, Westminster, with a different family living in another part of the house). His son William Lucy (13) was at boarding school in Islington.

* * * * *

Catherine Martha Jennings, known as Kate, was born at Eling in Hampshire near the beginning of 1813 and baptised on 17 January. She was the daughter of the plumber or lead merchant Josiah Jennings and his wife Mary Dimmock, who were married in Eling in 1809.

On 29 August 1837 at St John the Evangelist Church, Westminster, London, Catherine Martha Jennings of 11 New Street, Westminster married her first husband, the widower William Lillingston, who was described as a cordwainer of St Michael's parish, Oxford and the son of the cordwainer William Lillingston senior: Robson's Commercial Directory for 1839 listed him as a boot & shoe maker at 40 Cornmarket Street in St Michael’s parish. They do not appear to have had any children.

At the time of the 1841 census Catherine was living at 40 Cornmarket Street with William and his six-year-old son by his first marriage, also called William. They had one servant.

Catherine’s first husband William Lillingston died at the age of 47 in early 1849 and was buried on 11 February 1849 (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael’s Church). At the time of the 1851 census Catherine was (38) running his cordwainer business at 40 Cornmarket, living over the shop and employing 18 men and 12 boys, including her stepson William (15).

* * * * *

On 27 February 1853 at St Michael’s Church in Oxford, William Castle Lucy (45) married his second wife, Mrs Catherine Martha Lillingston, née Jennings (37), and settled with her in Oxford. His 15-year-old son William Lucy came with him, and by the turn of 1854/5, William, aged 17, already had a job at the Eagle Ironworks in Jericho.

They lived at 3 Park Place. (Park Place was at the south end of the Banbury Road, opposite St Giles's Church: map.) Catherine’s mother Mary Jennings evidently came to live with them, and when she died in 1860, she was the first to be buried in this grave:

† Mrs Mary Jennings, née Dimmock died at Park Place at the age of 81 in January 1860 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 23 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

William Castle Lucy died the following year:

† William Castle Lucy died at 3 Park Place at the age of 54 on 14 March 1861 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 20 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

His effects came to under £4,000, and his widow Catherine was his executor. In his probate records he was described as being of both 3 Park Place and his wife’s shop at 40 Cornmarket Street . He left the interest on £3000 3% bank annuities to his son William Lucy for life, then to William junior’s wife Alice for life, and then the capital equally amongst their children.

At the time of the 1861 census the newly widowed Mrs Catherine Martha Lucy (47) described herself as a master cordwainer and was living at 3 Park Place with two stepsons from her two marriages: William Lillington (25) was a cordwainer, and William Lucy (23) was an iron founder. Also living with her was her niece Catherine Jennings (21), and the family had two house servants.

Mary Jennings, the baby granddaughter of Mrs Mary Jennings, was here buried with her grandmother:

† Mary Jennings died at Clapham, Surrey at the age of four months on 28 December 1861 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 3 January 1862 (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

On 16 April 1868 in London (St Martin’s district) Mrs Catherine Martha Lucy, formerly Mrs Lillingston, née Jennings, married her third husband, Henry Boswell, who then had a trunk and portmanteau shop in Cornmarket and was later to found what became Boswell’s department store. The marriage was announced thus in Jackson’s Oxford Journal: “April 16, at St. Martin’s in-the-Fields, London, by the Rev. A. E. Northey, Mr. Henry Boswell, of the Corn Market, to Catharine Martha, relict of Mr. William Castle Lucy, of 3, Park-place, St. Giles’s.” Catherine was 55 years old at the time of her marriage, and Henry only 35.

Catherine took Henry to live at Langholme, 109 Woodstock Road, on which she had taken out the first lease when a widow in 1866 At the time of the 1871 census (with her age rounded down seven years to 50) she was was living here with Henry Boswell (37), who still described himself as a trunk manufacturer, and one servant. They were still there in 1881.

Catherine died there in 1888:

† Mrs Catherine Martha Boswell née Jennings, formerly Mrs Lucy and before that Mrs Lillingston, died at Langholme, Woodstock Road at the age of 75 (recorded as 68) on 10 August 1888 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 14 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Her effects came to £3,944, and her executors were her husband, her stepson William Lillingston, bootmaker of 20 Walton Well Road, and Thomas Henry Thurland, chemist of 67 Walton Street. Her probate document describes her as being late of 48 Cornmarket Street as well as of her Woodstock Road home. Her third husband Henry Boswell outlived her and died at the Warneford Asylum on 4 February 1897.