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Henry TRUSCOTT (c.1815–1894)
His second wife Mrs Mary TRUSCOTT, née Gazey, formerly Mrs Goodchild (1833–1902)
St Giles section: Row 28, Grave J33

Henry Truscott was born at Pennycross, near Plymouth, Devon in c.1815, the son of the gardener John Truscott.

In the Plymouth registration district in 1845 (reg. fourth quarter), Henry Truscott married his first wife Sarah Rundle (born in Tavistock in c.1812), and they had the following children:

• John Truscott (born at Speedwell Street, Oxford in 1846 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 1 November)
• Charlotte Rundle Truscott (born at Friar’s Wharf, Oxford in 1848 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 13 August; died at New Hinksey at the age of 15 and buried at South Hinksey churchyard on 15 March)
• Mary Ann Truscott (born at Friar’s Wharf, Oxford in 1850 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 16 June)
• William Henry Truscott (born at New Hinksey, Oxford in 1853 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 18 April; died at New Hinksey at the age of 5 and buried at South Hinksey churchyard on 28 April 1857)

Henry Truscott worked as a policeman in Oxford from at least 1846 to 1856. By 1846 he and his first wife were evidently living in Speedwell Street, Oxford; and by 1848 they were at Friar’s Wharf.

By 1853 they had moved to New Hinksey, which although just to the south of Oxford was then still in Berkshire: Henry Truscott (46), who was now a railway switchman, can be seen there in the 1861 census with his first wife Sarah (48) and their two surviving children John (14), who was a clerk, and Mary Ann (10).

Henry’s first wife Mrs Sarah Truscott died in St Thomas’s parish Oxford (probably Osney) at the age of 57 in 1869 and was buried at South Hinksey churchyard on 20 November.

At the time of the 1871 census Henry Truscott, a widower of 55 who was now described as a railway inspector, was living at 16 East Street Osney with his daughter Mary Ann (20), who was acting as his housekeeper, and a lodger. His son John (25) was a commercial clerk to a building firm and lodging in Bray, Berkshire.

Surviving children of Henry Truscott by his first marriage

• John Truscott (born 1846) married Sarah Jane Moorcock in the Cookham district near the beginning of 1878. He was a coal merchant by the time of the 1881 census: aged 34, he was living at 24 Queen Street in Bray with his wife Sarah (29) and their son John (2), plus a 16-year-old servant girl. They were at 2 York Road in Maidenhead in 1901: John was a coal & corn merchant, and all four of their children were at home: John Archibald Truscott (22), who was a corn merchant’s manager; William Henry Truscott (16), who was a commercial clerk; and Florence Mary Truscott (13) and George Abercrombie Truscott (10). In 1911 John (63) was a coal & corn merchant, living at 2 York Road, Maidenhead with Sarah (58) and their three surviving children William (26), who was a furnishing fabrics salesman; Florence (23), who was clerk to a coal office; and George, who was a clerk to a furniture remover. John Truscott died in Maidenhead at the age of 77 on 10 February 1924. His effects came to £8,579 3s. 11d.
• Mary Ann Truscott (born 1850) married James Henry Darwood in Oxford near the end of 1874. At the time of the 1881 census Mary (29) and her husband James (23), who was a grocer, were living at 3 Radcliffe Street in the parish of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford with their daughter Ethel Alice Mary Darwood (6) and William Henry Truscott Darwood (3), plus a servant. Their address was given as 2 Radcliffe Square in 1891. By 1901 Mary’s husband was Secretary to a Building Society and they were living at 6 Aston Street in east Oxford. Mary Ann was still living there in 1911: she was now a widow of 54, and she and her daughter Ethel (34) were living on their own means with one servant. Mary Ann died near the end of 1919 at the age of 69.

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Mary Gazey or Gazy was born in Weston-under-Wetherby near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire in c.1833, the daughter of the labourer George Gazey and his wife Hannah Twigger.

Mary Gazey married her first husband, James Goodchild, a ship’s steward, on the Isle of Wight near the end of 1857, and they had two daughters:

• Mary Goodchild (born on the Isle of Wight in 1858, reg. there second quarter)
• Sarah Louisa Goodchild (born at Leamington, Warwickshire in 1864, reg. Warwick second quarter).

At the time of the 1861 census Mrs Mary Goodchild (28) was at 7 Eccleston Cottages, Leamington Priors, where she worked as the cook for Lady Elizabeth Douglas, a Marquis’s daughter. Her husband was probably working on a ship, and her daughters were likely to be with her family, but are hard to find.

At the time of the 1871 census Mrs Mary Goodchild (37), who was now a widow, had moved to Oxford and was working as a nurse at 37 St Giles’s Street (left).

This was the home of the three elderly daughters of the late Regius Professor of Medicine, John Kidd. (She may have been looking after his daughter Mrs Beatrice Wilson (63), who was described as a “partial imbecile”.) Also working as a servant there was Hannah Gazey (21), who was born in the same place as Mary and was doubtless a relation, perhaps her sister.

Meanwhile in 1871 her daughters Mary Goodchild (13) and Sarah Louisa Goodchild (6) were living with her parents in Weston, Warwickshire: her father George Gazey (60) was working as a road labourer, and her mother Hannah (53) as a carrier. Three of Mary’s siblings were also still living at home: Eliza Gazey (16), who was working as a domestic servant); John Gazey (11); and James Gazey (9).

Mrs Beatrice Wilson died on 1 February 1874 and her sister Miss Isabella Kidd on 24 November 1875, leaving Mary with just Miss Susan Kidd to look after.

Children of Mary Gazey and her first husband James Goodchild

• Mary Goodchild (born 1858) was married on 26 December 1878 at St Giles’s Church at the age of 19 to Thomas Piercy Winning, a cabinet maker of St Peter-le-Bailey parish, the son of the deceased farmer Thomas Winning. Miss Susan Kidd was one of the witnesses, and Mary was married from her grand house at 37 St Giles’s Street. At the time of the 1881 census Mary and Thomas were living at 45 Bullingdon Road in east Oxford with their first two daughters Mary Louisa Winning (2) and Bertha Alice Winning (1). By 1891 they had moved to 22 Percy Street with their daughters and now had two sons: Piercy (5) and Reginald (2). By 1901 they had moved to Mayhew Street in Reading: Mary was visiting friends in Newbury on census night, and Thomas was looking after their five children: the youngest, Bertha Winning, was 8. Mary died in Reading later that year at the age of 43.
• Sarah Louisa Goodchild (born 1864) had come to live with her mother at Miss Kidd’s house at 37 St Giles’s Street by 1881 (see below) and was apprenticed to a mantle maker. She was married at St Giles’s Church on 9 March 1885, when she was 20, to George William Handy (21), a commercial traveller of the parish of Ss Philip & James and son of the carter George Handy: again Miss Susan Kidd was one of her witnesses, and she was married from her house. They had three children: Frank Goodchild Handy (born 1885), Muriel Gertrude Handy (born 1890), and Henry George Handy (born 1900). In 1891 they were living at 113 Bullingdon Road with their first two children and one servant; they were still there in 1901, when both George’s and Sarah’s mothers were living with them. Sarah’s husband George William Handy died at the age of 40 in 1904, and in 1906 she married her second husband James Marchant Buck: they had no children. In 1911 they were living at 58 Helen Road in west Oxford with two sons from Buck’s first marriage, Muriel Handy (21), who was working as a coat-hand, and Henry Handy (11) from Sarah’s first marriage. Sarah died in Oxford on 4 July 1933.

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On 9 January 1875 at St Giles’s Church, Oxford, the widower Henry Truscott (60), described as a railway inspector of Osney, married the widow Mrs Mary Goodchild (41) of St Giles, and Miss Susan Kidd, the only survivor of the three sisters for whom Mary worked, was one of the witnesses. Mary, now Mrs Truscott, continued to live with Miss Kidd, and brought her husband to live with her too. They had just one child, born when Mary was aged 45:

• Henry Truscott (born at 37 St Giles’s Street, Oxford in 1880 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 18 March).

At the time of the 1881 census Mrs Mary Truscott (47) was the housekeeper for Miss Susan Kidd at 37 St Giles’s Street. Also living with her were her husband Henry (65), who was still an inspector with the Great Western Railway, their one-year-old baby, and Mary’s daughter by her first marriage, Sarah Goodchild (16), who was an apprentice to a mantle maker.

Henry Truscott (75), described as a retired railway servant, spent the census night of 1891 at 37 St Giles’s Street with Miss Susan Kidd and two of her servants; but his wife Mary, who was still her housekeeper, was visiting a friend in Leamington with their son Henry (11).

Henry Truscott died in Miss Kidd’s house in 1894:

† Henry Truscott died at 37 St Giles’s Street at the age of 78/79 on 8 March 1894 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

His death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: “March 8, at 37, St. Giles’s, Oxford, Henry Truscott, late Inspector G.W.R., in his 79th year.”

Mrs Truscott continued to live with Miss Kidd, and her status rose: in October 1894, for instance, she presented a silver wine strainer to Miss Morrell of Black Hall on the occasion of her marriage .

Miss Susan Kidd died eight months later on 7 December 1894 at the age of 80, and at her funeral Mrs Truscott was listed among the mourners. The house immediately passed to Christ Church under the will of Dr Kidd, and so Mrs Truscott had to move out.

At the time of the 1901 census, when she was 67, Mary Truscott was living on her own means at 116 Bullingdon Road with Mrs Sarah Handy (36), her daughter by her first marriage, and her husband George Hardy (39), who was a leather traveller, and their three children Frank Hardy (15), Muriel Hardy (11), and Henry Hardy (11 months). George’s mother Sarah Hardy (69) also lived there: but she was not as well provided for as Mary, and was working as a sick nurse.

Mrs Truscott died at her daughter’s house in 1902:

† Mrs Mary Truscott née Gazey, formerly Mrs Goodchild died at 116 Bullingdon Road at the age of 69 in December 1902 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

The only son of Henry & Mary Truscott

• Henry Truscott (born 1880) is hard to find in 1901. He married Charlotte Boorer in Croydon in 1902, and at the time of the 1911 census Henry (35) was living at 17 Montagu Road, Hendon with his wife and their four children: Roy Henry Truscott (8), Patrick James Truscott (6), Edna Mary Truscott (4), and Denis Guy Truscott (2).