• History of Cemetery
• Location/Plans
• Notable people
• Grimsley gravestones
• News
• Burials A–Z
• Current Work
• Photographs
• Restoring a grave
• Contact/Search

Henry Joseph Shuffrey (1848–1928)
St Michael section: Row 34, grave L52

Henry Joseph Shuffrey was born in Woodstock in 1848 and baptised at St Mary Magdalene Church there on 8 October. He was the son of the linen draper George Shuffrey of Woodstock and Hannah Maria Paine of Oxford who were married at St Giles's Church, Oxford on 11 June 1835. His parents had six other children baptised in Woodstock: Bennett Paine Shuffrey (1836), Lancelot Docker Shuffrey (1838), Henrietta Maria Shuffrey (1840), George Smith Shuffrey (1846), Henry Joseph Shuffrey (1848), and William Arthur Shuffrey (born 1851) and Fanny Maria Shuffrey (born 1852) who were baptised together. Henry's brother Lancelot died in 1838 at the age of four months, and his sister Henrietta died in 1847 at the age of eight.

At the time of the 1851 census Henry (2) was living in Woodstock with his father George (45), who was described as a linen draper employing two hands, his mother Hannah (36), and his siblings Bennett (14), Mary (8), and (William) Arthur (one month).

By the time of the 1861 census Henry (12) had won a scholarship as a chorister to Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford, and was staying at 3 St Bernard's Road (then called St John's Road) with his maternal grandparents Joseph Paine (75), who was a retired timber merchant, and Maria (65). Meanwhile his father George (56) had changed his career, and was an oil, grease, & lead merchant living at the Manor House in Long Hanborough with Hannah (46) and their children William (10) and Fanny (8), plus a servant.

By 1871 Henry's family had moved to Oxford, and Henry (22), who was now an assistant librarian at the Bodleian, was living at 1 Rectory Road (then called Pembroke Street) in Cowley St John parish with his father George (65), who oddly described himself as a retired agriculturalist; his mother Hannah (55); his brother William (20), who was a publisher's assistant; and his sister Fanny Maria (18). They had one servant.

Henry's mother Hannah Maria Shuffrey died 1 Rectory Road at the age of 64 in 1879 and was buried in St Clement's churchyard on 21 April.

At the time of the 1881 census Henry (32) was still living at 1 Rectory Road with his father George (76). None of his siblings were living at home, and their two servants.

Henry's father George Shuffrey died at 1 Rectory Road at the age of 80 in 1887 and was buried in St Clement's churchyard on 31 January.

At the time of the 1891 census Henry (42) was paying a visit to the home of William Timberlake, a librarian who lived at 30 Walton Well Road.

At the time of the 1901 and 1911 censuses he was boarding with William Timberlake at that address and still working as an assistant librarian at the Bodleian.

He died there in 1928:

† Henry Joseph Shuffrey died at 30 Walton Well Road at the age of 80 on 27  December 1928 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 29 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael's Church).

His effects came to £1,253 8s. 10d., and his executor was the estate agent Richard Henry John Bartlett.

He had no connections whatsoever with St Michael's parish, but as its population was dwindling it is probable that at this late date plots were being made available there to people from other parishes.