Samuel POTTAGE (1829–1873)
His wife (Hannah) Eliza POTTAGE, née Sumersford (1831–1907)
Their first son Frederick Richmond POTTAGE (1857–1918)
Their fourth son William Ephraim POTTAGE (1869–1924)
Their fifth son Frank Edward POTTAGE (1871–1874)
St Giles section: Row 4, Grave B38

Pottage

 

IN
AFFECTIONATE
REMEMBRANCE OF
SAMUEL POTTAGE,
WHO DIED FEB. 22 1873
AGED 43 YEARS

--

ALSO OF FRANK EDWARD
POTTAGE

WHO DIED DEC. 31, 1874
AGED 3 YEARS AND 6 MONTHS

ALSO OF HANNAH ELIZA
WIFE OF SAMUEL POTTAGE
DIED NOV. 28, 1907, AGED 76.

THE LORD GAVE AND THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD

ALSO FREDERICK
RICHMOND POTTAGE

ELDEST SON OF THE ABOVE
BORN AUGUST … 1857
DIED … … 1918

 

[Footstone]:

THY WILL BE DONE

W. E. POTTAGE
[William Ephraim]
DIED APRIL 2. 1924
AGED 54

Samuel Pottage was born at Bramham Yorkshire in 1829, and baptised there on 26 July. He was the son of the tailor John Pottage and his wife Elizabeth Dalby, and the younger brother of Ephraim Pottage, who also buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery.

At the time of the 1841 census Samuel (12) was at home in Bramham with his parents and his younger brothers (Peter) Richmond (10), John (7), and Tom (2). Also living with them were two tailors and two apprentice tailors, presumably his father’s employees.

At the time of the 1851 census when he was about 22, Samuel Pottage was lodging on his own at 25 High Street, Marylebone and working there as a tailor; but around the end of that year he had moved to Oxford to work as clerk for the Oxford tailor R. P. Hookham at 3 Cornmarket Street. His older brother Ephraim moved to Oxford at the same time to be Hookham’s cutter.

Eliza Hannah Sumersford (sometimes called Hannah Eliza) was born in St Bernard’s Road, Oxford on 24 March 1831 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 29 May 1831: her parents were the Oxford stationer Thomas Sumersford and his wife Hannah (née Brown). Eliza was living in Observatory Street at the time of her marriage.

On 21 August 1856 at St Giles's Church, Oxford, Samuel Pottage (27) married Eliza Sumersford (25), and the wedding was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. They had the following children:

  • Frederick Richmond Pottage (born at St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 6 September 1857)
  • Annie Lizzy Pottage (born at St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 1 June 1859)
  • Matilda Pottage (born at St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 20 June 1861)
  • Samuel Thomas Pottage (born at St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 24 December 1863)
  • Adelaide Eliza Pottage (born at 3 Dover Place, St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 29 June 1865)
  • Walter Henry Pottage (born at St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 25 July 1867)
  • William Ephraim Pottage (born at 3 Dover Place, St Giles’s Road and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 11 June 1869)
  • Frank Edward Pottage (born at Bramham Villa, St Giles’s Road East (south end of Banbury Road) and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 28 December 1871); died age three.

In 1860 Samuel and Ephraim Pottage went into partnership with their employer, as the following announcement Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 21 April that years shows:

HOOKHAM & MINTY, TAILORS & ROBE MAKERS, &c. &c.
R. P. HOOKHAM, on behalf of himself and his late Partner, Mr. Minty, desires to offer his sincere thanks to his customers for their liberal patronage for twenty-three years, and to inform them and the public that he has taken into partnership Messrs. E. & S. POTTAGE, who have assisted in the management of his business, one as Clerk and the other as Cutter, for nearly nine years.

HOOKHAM and E. and S. POTTAGE most respectfully solicit a continuance of the extensive support so long enjoyed by the late Firm, and trust that, by adhering to the same principles of business, they may be rewarded by at least an equal amount of public favour.

3, Corn Market-street, Oxford, April 17, 1860

At the time of the 1861 census Samuel and Eliza are recorded as living in St Giles’s Street with their first two children, Frederick (3) and Ann (1), and one servant. This may be an error for St Giles’s Road East, i.e. the south end of the Banbury Road, as they were living at 3 Dover Place there in the later 1860s.

Samuel Pottage was evidently prospering as a tailor and robe maker, because in 1869 he became the first leaseholder of what later became 36 Banbury Road, a large villa built by Thomas Jones (one of the houses demolished to make way for the Engineering Science Department). Samuel named it Bramham Villa after his birthplace, and it was also known as 62 St Giles Road East. At the time of the 1871 census, Samuel and Eliza were living there with two servants and six children: Anne (11), Matilda (9), Samuel (7), Adelaide (5), Walter (3), and William (1). Their eighth and last child was born later that year.

In June 1871 the partnership between R. P. Hookham and E. and S. Pottage was dissolved by a Decree of the Court of Chancery, and the business at 3 Cornmarket reverted to the name R. P. Hookham and Company.

Samuel and Ephraim made plans to start up a business at 62 Cornmarket (which was on the site of the present HSBC Bank). This house had been occupied by Thomas and Hannah Sumersford, the parents of Samuel’s wife. On 29 July 1871 the following notice appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal:

DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP.
E. and S. POTTAGE, Brothers, who have for nearly 20 years been connected with the Firm of “Hookham and E. and S. Pottage,” Tailors and Robe Makers, at 3, Corn Market-street, and who have just dissolved partnership by mutual arrangement, beg respectfully to inform their numerous connexion and the public generally that they are about to commence Business on their own account, in the premises, No. 62, CORN MARKET STREET, which are now in course of alteration, and trust, by strict attention, to receive that support which they feel their experience justifies.

The partnership between the brothers, however, never happened, as this notice published on 2 December 1871 shows:

I, SAMUEL POTTAGE, of 62, Corn Market-street, Oxford, Tailor and Robe Maker, give Notice that the intended Partnership between me and Mr. EPHRAIM POTTAGE, advertized in the Oxford Chronicle and Jackson’s Oxford Journal of the 12th of August, 1871, last, has never been carried out, and that I will not be answerable for any debts or engagements of the said Ephraim Pottage, already incurred or entered into, or which may hereafter be incurred or entered into by him in the name of "POTTAGE BROTHERS."
Nov. 30, 1871. SAMUEL POTTAGE.

In the next issue, he inserted a notice saying that he would conduct the business on his own at 62 Cornmarket.

In April 1872 Samuel took a shop just seven doors from the old Hookham’s shop at 10 Cornmarket (now part of Boot’s), and put up a sign over the door saying “S. Pottage, from Hookham and Pottage”. In June 1872 an injunction was issued against the Samuel Pottage, because it was adjudged that the use of this old-established name was calculated to deceive; he went to appeal, in November 1872, and lost. Within a few months, he died of delirium tremens:

† Samuel Pottage died at Bramham Villa, 36 Banbury Road at the age of 43 on 22 February 1873 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 26 February (burial recorded in St Giles’s parish register).

His effects came to nearly £2,000.

Eliza put an advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 15 March 1873 advertising for sale her husband’s business at 10 Cornmarket. On 9 August 1873 there was an advertisement advertising an auction on the premises of 10 Cornmarket of:

Nearly-new TAILORS’ SHOP FIXTURES, including Mahogany-top Counters, Glass Cases, Cloth Stands & Shelving, Pier Glasses, Iron Chest, Ledger Racks, Pigeon-holes, Copying Press, Bennett’s Revolving Iron Shutters with Gear (complete), Plate-glass Double Shop Front, and Folding Doors with Plate-glass Panels, and numerous other Effects.

The youngest son of Samuel and Eliza Pottage died in 1874:

† Frank Edward Pottage died in December 1874 at the age of three and was buried with his father (burial recorded in the St Giles’s parish register). The gravestone says he died on 31 December but the parish register says he was buried on 24 December: one of these dates is wrong.

Eliza was still living at Bramham Villa in 1881, making ends meet by keeping it as a lodging house (although she had only one boarder at the time of the census, as it was taken in the Easter vacation). Her seven surviving children were still at home with her: Frederick (23) was working as a solicitor’s clerk to Mr Bickerton, and Samuel (17) was a cook. They now had just one servant. Two of her children (Matilda and Samuel) appear to have married lodgers in her home.

In May 1886 Walter Henry Pottage appeared before Oxford City Police Court for discharging a firearm in the street, and in June 1886 he and his brother William were summoned before the court for damaging a tree in the University Parks. The family was then still living at Bramham Villa.

By 1891 Eliza had moved to a smaller house called Westmoor in Plantation Road, and was living on her own means. Two of her children were still with her: Ada (25), and William (21), who was now also a solicitor’s clerk; they were still there with her in 1901, when the number is recorded as 43 Plantation Road. William (31) was now a surveyor’s clerk.

Mrs Pottage died of bowel and liver cancer and exhaustion in 1907, in the presence of her son Frederick:

† Mrs Hannah Eliza Pottage née Sumersford died at 43 Plantation Road on 28 November 1907 at the age of 76 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery with her husband and young son on 2 December (burial recorded in St Giles’s parish register).


The other seven children of Samuel and Eliza Pottage
  • Frederick Richmond Pottage (born 1857) was a bank clerk all his life. He married Annie Dugdale, daughter of the master mariner William Henry Dugdale at St Giles’s Church on 23 July 1885, and they had one son, Herbert Frederick, born at 54 Kingston Road in 1887 and baptised at SS Philip & James’s Church on 8 June. At the time of the 1891 and 1901 censuses they were still at 54 Kingston Road with one servant; but by 1911 he and his wife were lodgers at 44 Southmoor Road. Frederick died at the age of 61 at 48 Southmoor Road, and he was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 27 September 1918.
  • Annie Lizzy Pottage (born 1859) married the china merchant Frank Edgar Newton, the son of Thomas & Ann Newton of 4 Leckford Road, at St Giles’s Church on 27 December 1881. At the time of the 1891 census they were living at 27 Lower Stone Street, Maidstone and Frank was a manager for a wine merchant. They had one son, Edgar F. Newton, born in Oxford in 1882/3. At the time of the 1901 census they were living at 134 Blackheath Hill, Lewisham, and Frank was now a Secretary to a Public Company; Annie was a confectioner’s manageress; and Edgar (18) was a shorthand typist. In 1911 Annie was living in Wealdstone with her son Edgar and his wife, and her husband appears to have gone abroad. Annie died at the age of 84 in 1943 (registered Watford district fourth quarter).
  • Matilda Pottage (born 1861), known as Tillie, married the brewer’s manager Edward Lovegrove at St Giles’s Church on 1 September 1884 and their wedding was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. They had just one child, Alexander Edward. At the time of the 1901 census they were living at Hemdean Hill, Caversham, and Edward (48) was working as a brewer’s traveller and Alexander (14) as a clerk to a cycle maker. By the time of the 1911 census they were living at 33 Chester Street, Caversham and both Edward (60) and Alexander (23) were working as clerks to a cycle maker. Matilda Lovegrove died on 25 November 1943 at the age of 82 in the Reading district).
  • Samuel Thomas Pottage (born 1863) was working as a chef in 1891 and living with his sister Annie Lizzie and her husband Frank Newton. He married Jane Caroline Blagg of St Dunstan’s parish, Canterbury on 21 December 1897 in the Blean, Kent registration district (with banns on 12, 19, and 26 December at SS Philip & James Church). By the time of the 1901 census he and Jane were living at Sandhurst Road, Crowthorne, where he was a college chef. They had just one child, Gladys Lilian Pottage, born at Crowthorne in 1907/8. He was in the same job at Crowthorne in 1911. He died at the age of 84 (death reg. Windsor district first quarter of 1948).
  • Adelaide Eliza Pottage (born 1865) was still living at 43 Plantation Road at the time of the census with her unmarried brother William. She was then aged 43 and a lodging house keeper. She is probably the Miss Pottage who was living at 60 Kingston Road in 1936. She died at the age of 73 in Oxford (death registered first quarter of 1940).
  • Walter Henry Pottage (born 1867) joined the Medical Staff Corps of the army, and at the time of the 1891 census, when he was 23, was serving as a Private and in the camp at Aldershot. In the Dorchester area on 4 May 1896 he married Ellen (or Helen) Humphries (born in Cerne Albans, Dorset in 1872). In 1901 he and his wife were living at 5 College Street, Southampton, and he was working as a mechanic. They had two children, but they died in infancy: Walter Henry Pottage junior (born 1896/7, died 1897) and Kate Winifred (born 1905, died 1906). Walter Henry Pottage senior then lived with Mrs Caroline Sheppard, but although he claimed in 1911 that they had been married for three years, no marriage can be found, and his first wife Ellen was still alive. At the time of the 1911 census Walter and Caroline and her her three children were living at 12 Maytree Road, Bitterne, Hampshire and working as a ship’s painter. Walter died at the age of 73 (death reg. Southampton area second quarter of 1940); his wife Ellen died in the Winchester district in 1942, with her surname still Pottage; and Caroline died in the New Forest district in 1948/9, with her surname still Sheppard.
  • William Ephraim Pottage (born 1869) did not marry. At the time of the 1911 census, when he was 41, he was still a surveyor’s clerk, living with his unmarried sister Adelaide at 43 Plantation Road. He died at the age of 54 at Hill House, Headington (now the euphemistic name for Headington Workhouse). and was buried with his parents and two older brothers in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 7 April 1924. A new headstone was erected for him in front of the old one.

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