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Alfred MAYCOCK (1852–1947)
His wife Mrs Esther MAYCOCK, née Pollard (1848–1936)
St Paul section: Row 16, Grave A2 [no St Paul grave reference]

Alfred Maycock was born at New Street, St Ebbe’s in 1852 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 8 May 1853. He was the youngest child of Stephen Maycock (born at Deane, Oxfordshire in 1809/10) and Mary Clapton (born at Cumnor, Berkshire on 22 May 1811), who were married at St Aldate's Church, Oxford on 18 October 1840. At the time of the 1861 census Alfred was eight years old and living with his parents and five older siblings at 8 New Street, St Ebbe’s. His father was a grocer’s porter. By 1871 his family had moved to Friar’s Wharf in St Ebbe’s, and Alfred (18) was a grocer’s porter like his father.

Esther Pollard was born in Thame in 1848 and baptised there on 8 December that year: she was the daughter of Walter Pollard, a painter who later became a plumber & glazier, and his wife Harriett. At the time of the 1851 census, when she was two years old, she was living at High Street, Thame with her parents and her older brother George (7). In 1871, when she was 22, she was a draper’s assistant, lodging in Croydon.

On 22 April 1878 at Thame, Alfred Maycock (26) married Esther Pollard (29), and they had the following children:

• Frank Gilbert Maycock (born at 3 Friar’s Wharf, St Ebbe’s on 22 September 1879 and baptised at New Inn Hall Street Wesleyan Chapel on 5 November); died at 80 Walton Street in May 1881
• Gilbert Seymour Maycock (born at 80 Walton Street in on 26 November 1881)
• Winifred Annie Maycock (born at Walton Street in 1885)
• Eva Dorothy Maycock (born at Walton Street in 1886, reg. second quarter)
• Gerald Frank (later Frank Gerald) Maycock (born at Walton Street on 23 December 1887).

At the start of their marriage the couple lived at Friar’s Wharf (possibly with Alfred’s parents), and their first son was born there in September 1879. By the time of the 1881 census they had a home of their own at 80 Walton Street (in the Headington registration district): Alfred (28) was then a grocer’s assistant, was living there with his wife Esther (32) and their first son Frank Gilbert (1). They had a thirteen-year-old servant girl.

Their son Frank died the month after the census, and may be buried in this grave (if his parents reserved a plot for themselves at that point, it would explain why there was space for them when they died in the mid-twentieth century):

† Frank Gilbert Maycock died at Walton Street at the age of 1 year 7 months in May 1881 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 23 May (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church). He was buried in Plot B.13 (which may be the grave where his parents are buried, which has no recorded plot number).

By the time of the 1891 census Alfred (37) was the grocer at 106 Walton Street (on the southern corner of Adelaide Street, now Daisies, right): he was living over the shop with his wife Esther and their next four children, who all survived to adulthood.

On 31 May 1893, 106, 107, 108 Walton Street and 33  Juxon Street were put up for auction by order of the representatives of Miss Alice Mills. They were all leasehold under St John’s College, with about 90 years of a 99-year lease left to run, and let to “responsible tenants”, jointly producing £135 p.a. Maycock’s shop was Lot 1, and was described thus:

A substantially Brick-built and Slated dwelling house, with Front Shop and Back Premises, known as and situate at 106, Walton-street, in the occupation of Mr. Alfred Maycock, grocer and provision merchant, at the annual rent of £50.

Alfred Maycock continued to be the tenant after the change in ownership.

On 6 February 1900 Maycock came before the city court charged with adulterating butter with 1% boracic acid (a preservative) contrary to the Food & Drugs Act. He pleaded guilty and was fined 10s., with costs of £1 0s. 6d.

The 1901 census shows Alfred and Esther living over the shop, again with all four of their surviving children. Their eldest son Gilbert (19) was now working as a railway clerk.

By 1911 only Winifred (26) was still at home with her parents. Gilbert (29), who was a railway clerk, was then boarding at Wednesbury; Eva (24), who was a draper’s assistant, was lodging with many others at 106–10 South Street, Eastbourne; and Frank (23), who was an outfitter’s assistant, was boarding at Highbury Villas, Bristol.

Two of their children were married in the next few years:

• In the first quarter of 1913 in the Headington registration district, Winifred Annie Maycock married Robert French;
• In the third quarter of 1915 in the East Preston district of Sussex their son Gilbert Seymour Maycock married Daisy A. Cattle.

Alfred Maycock was still the grocer at 106 Walton Street in 1928; but by 1935 he had retired, and he and his wife Esther were living at 8 Leckford Road. (Fred Ford was then new grocer at 106 Walton Street.)

Mrs Maycock died in 1936:

† Mrs Esther Maycock née Pollard died at 8 Leckford Road at the age of 88 on 29 November 1936 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 2 December, with a Wesleyan minister taking the service (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Alfred Maycock was still living at 8 Leckford Road in 1945, but soon after this he appears to have moved to Walton Street, as this was given as his home address when he died in hospital in 1947:

† Alfred Maycock died at the London Road Hospital in Headington (the former Workhouse) at the age of 94 on 28 December 1947 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 31 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

His effects came to £1,000.

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Children of Alfred and Esther Maycock

• Gilbert Seymour Maycock (born 1881) and his wife Daisy were living in Wolverhampton when their daughters Brenda and Una were born in 1916 and 1926 respectively. He was a temporary civil servant living in Birmingham when he dealt with his father’s will in 1947. He died at Delyn, Clwyd, Wales near the beginning of 1976.
• Winifred Annie Maycock, Mrs French (born 1885) had three children: Vera W. French (born Woodstock 1914); Reginald R. G. French (born Oxford 1919); and Gwendoline N. French (born Amersham 1925). She and her husband were listed as living at her parents’s house at 8 Leckford Road in 1928. She died at Southbourne, Bournemouth on 3 July 1966, and her effects came to £15,750.
• Eva Dorothy Maycock (born 1886) is hard to trace. She may be the Eva D. Maycock who married Alfred J. Sumner in Oxford in 1945.
• Gerald Frank (later Frank Gerald) Maycock (born 1887) may be the Frank G. Maycock who married Eva E. Rickard in Plymouth in 1958: that man died at Plymouth in 1983.