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Mrs Anne STOKES, née Goddard (1832–1873)
Her son George William STOKES (1861–1939)
St Giles section: Row 4, Grave B43

This is likely also to be the grave of Mrs Anne Stokes, who is known to have been buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery, as it would not have been possible to get a new plot in 1939.

The loose stone (of Mary Ann Sykes) placed on top of this grave does not belong here.

Anne Goddard was born in Garsington in 1832 and baptised at the church there on 21 October. Her parents were George Goddard and his wife Sarah, and her father was described at her baptism as a servant in Oxford. Just after her birth her parents moved to Oxford and lived initially in St Michael’s parish, and her father continued to work as a college servant. He died in Oxford at the age of 66 in 1850, and at the time of the 1851 census the family was living in Plantation Road in north Oxford. Anne’s widowed mother Sarah Goddard (41) was working as a servant, while Anne herself (18) was a governess and her sister Mary Grace (15) was a dressmaker. Together they must have supported Anne’s four younger siblings, who were all still at school: Sarah (12), Emily (10), Elizabeth (8), and George (7).

William Stokes was born in Oxford and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 6 April 1834, the son of Daniel Stokes, who was a gardener, and his wife Harriet. At the time of the 1851 census William (17), already working at his trade as a compositor, was living with his parents and four siblings at 22 North Parade.

On 25 March 1856 at St Giles’s Church, Oxford, Anne Goddard married William Stokes and they had the following children:

• Alice Sarah Annie Stokes (born in Oxford in 1857 and baptised at St Cross Church on 26 July 1857; died aged 5 months and buried there on 13 December 1857)
• George William Stokes (born in Oxford in 1861 and baptised at Holywell Church on 2 February 1861)
• Alfred Stokes (born in Oxford in 1862 and privately baptised at Holywell Church on 29 September 1862)
• Ernest Daniel Stokes (born at St Bernard’s Road, Oxford in 1868 and baptised at SS Philip & James’s Church on 2 August 1868).

At the time of the 1861 census Mrs Stokes (27) was in charge of Holywell School, and lived near the school with her husband, who was a printer and compositor, and their surviving baby George (3 months), who was doubtless looked after by their 15-year-old servant while Mrs Stokes worked.

Mrs Stokes had two more children in the 1860s, and the family was living at St Bernard’s Road in north Oxford by 1868. They had moved again by the time of the 1871 census to Plantation Road, and Mrs Stokes was now the schoolmistress at Ss Philip & James’ Infant School nearby. Again they had a 15-year-old servant girl to help with George (10), Alfred (8), and Ernest (2) while she taught at the school. Her mother Mrs Sarah Goddard died at Plantation Road in February 1873 at the age of 63 and was buried on 8 February, possibly at St Giles’s Church. Mrs Stokes gave up teaching and herself died shortly afterwards:

† Mrs Anne Stokes died at Plantation Road at the age of 40 in March 1873. She was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

The following report on the funeral appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 22 March 1873:

CHORAL FUNERAL—On Saturday afternoon the mortal remains of Mrs. Stokes (formerly mistress of St. Philip and St. James’ Infant School), who died almost suddenly a few days previously, were interred in St. Sepulchre’s Cemetery, Walton-street, in the presence of many friends and neighbours, by whom deceased was well-known and respected. The corpse was met at the lodge-gates, and was preceded to the Cemetery by the Choir and Clergy. The service was then read in an impressive manner by the Vicar (the Rev. E. C. Dermer), with the exception of the lesson, which was read by the Rev. R. V. Brown (junior Curate). On leaving the Chapel, the Nunc Dimittis was sung by the Choir; and the remainder of the service having been completed, the hymn (116, Ancient and Modern,) “Come, see the place where Jesus lay,” concluded the ceremony. Before the coffin was lowered to its resting place, a beautiful cross, composed of white flowers, was placed upon it, and, after taking a farewell look, the assemblage left the Cemetery. Deceased, some years ago, had charge of Holywell School, and was known to be gentle and kind to little children.

On 31 October 1875 at St Anne's Church in Bermondsey, her husband William Stokes (40), described as an upholsterer married his second wife, the widow Frances Elizabeth George (30), the daughter of the photographer George Gloster Twycross: they were both then living at 77 Alderminster Road in that parish. When their daughter Lily Marian Stokes was baptised at SS Philip & James Church in Oxford on 1 February 1877, they were living at North Parade, Oxford and William was working as a publican. By the time of the 1881 census William (45) and Elizabeth (34) were living at 50 Cranham Street, Jericho with Lily (2) and George (20) and Ernest (12) from William’s first marriage; his other son, Alfred (18) was employed as a butler at 30 Hill Street, Westminster. By 1891 they had moved to Victoria Street in Aylesbury, and the only child still with them was George.

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George William Stokes

George (the eldest surviving child of Anne Stokes, born in 1861) was a printer compositor by the age of 20. He was still living with his father and stepmother in Aylesbury in 1891 when he was 30, but in the first quarter of 1892 in the Woburn registration district, he married Ellen Hinley Chambers, and they had one son:

• Cecil Chambers Stokes (born in the Aylesbury district in 1894, registered fourth quarter).

George’s wife Ellen died in Aylesbury at the age of 35 near the beginning of 1901. At the time of the census that year George (40) was working as a tobacconist at 33 High Street, Aylesbury and his mother-in-law, Eliza Chambers, was living with him, presumably looking after Cecil (6).

By 1911 George (50) again described himself as a printer compositor, and was living at 49 High Street, Aylesbury with his son Cecil Chambers Stokes (16), who was a student, and one servant. He died in 1939:

† George William Stokes died at 20 Beaumont Buildings, Oxford at the age of 78 on 16 February 1939 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, probably in the same grave as his mother (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church, with burial at St Sepulchre’s specified).

His effects came to £3,052 12s., and his executor was his son Cecil, who was then an insurance official.