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

Joseph WELFORD (1791–1872)
His wife Mrs Susannah WELFORD, née Bates (c.1807–1889)
His wife’s mother Mrs Mary Ann BATES (c.1783–1863)
St Paul section: Row 4, Grave A4 [St Paul ref B.01]

Joseph Welford was born in Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire in 1791 and baptised there on 24 April. His parents were Edward Welford and Mary Fenemore from Launton, who were married in 1782.

Susannah Bates was born in Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in c.1807. Her mother, Mrs Mary Bates (born in Ashendon in c.1783), was already widowed at the time of the 1841 census.

On 20 November 1823 at Ashendon, Joseph Welford married Susannah Bates, and they had the following children:

• Charlotte Welford (born at Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in 1824 and baptised there on 3 August)
• Benjamin Welford (born at Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in 1825 and baptised there on 16 December)
• Mary Ann Welford (born at Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in 1830 and baptised there on 21 March)
• Alfred Welford (born at Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in 1832 and baptised on 2 June)
• Sarah Welford (born at Ashendon, Buckinghamshire in 1835 and baptised there on 26 July)
• Martha Welford (born at Westcott, Buckinghamshire in 1840 and baptised at Waddesdon on 5 April)
• Edwin Welford (born at Westcott, Buckinghamshire in 1843/4).

Joseph Welford was originally a shoemaker, as his father and grandfather had been before him. He and his wife evidently began their married life at Susannah’s home village of Ashendon.

By the time of the 1841 census the family had moved to Westcott near Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire, evidently taking other members of their family with them, as the house was subdivided, and in another part of it lived Martha Savage (75), Sarah Welford (50), who was possibly Joseph’s aunt, Sarah Eggleton (20), and Susannah’s mother Mrs Mary Bates, who was to live with them for the rest of her life.

By the time of the 1851 census, Joseph and Susannah had moved to Launton with Mrs Bates and five of their children. Their son Benjamin was now a shoemaker like his father.

Around the middle of the 1850s, Joseph Welford changed his trade to that of a coal dealer and moved to Cardigan Street in the Jericho area of Oxford. Four of his children married in quick succession:

• On 16 February 1856 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, Mary Ann Welford married Thomas Taylor, a dealer of Launton and the son of the labourer John Taylor;
• On 27 September 1857 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, Benjamin Welford, described as a coal dealer of Cardigan Street, married Mary Judge, also of Cardigan Street, the daughter of the groom John Judge;
• On 16 August 1859 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, Sarah Welford married George Handy, a labourer of Cardigan Street, the son of the labourer William Handy;
• On 25 August 1859 at St Paul's Church, Oxford, Alfred Welford, a labourer and engine driver, married Charlotte Agnes Church, a minor of Cardigan Street, daughter of the labourer John Church.

At the time of the 1861 census Joseph and Susannah were living at 73 Cardigan Street, Jericho with Mrs Mary Bates. Only two of their children were still living with them: Martha (22), who was a laundress, and Edwin (17), who was an assistant coal dealer, presumably working for his father.

Mrs Bates died in 1863:

† Mrs Mary Ann Bates died at 73 Cardigan Street at the age of 80 on 26 December 1863 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 January 1864 (burial recorded in the register of St Paul’s Church).

Two more of the children of Joseph & Susannah Welford were married in the 1860s:

• On 8 July 1862 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, Martha Welford married William Reuben Phillips, a carpenter of Nelson Street, son of the carpenter William Phillips
• On 12 October 1869 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford, Edwin Welford married Ellen Woodward, also of Cardigan Street, the daughter of the shoemaker Thomas Woodward.
  

At the time of the 1871 census Joseph (74) was still working as a coal merchant and living with his wife at 22 Cardigan Street. Also with them were their son Edwin (27), a coal merchant, his wife Ellen, and their son Edwin Charles Welford (six months).

Very soon after the 1871 census Joseph and Ellen Woodward moved to Kingston Road, which was in the parish of Ss Philip & James’s Church. It is likely that they had moved in with their married daughter Sarah (see below) rather than to a house of their own. Joseph died the following year:

† Joseph Welford died at Kingston Road at the age of 78 on 21 July 1872 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 24 July (burial recorded in the register of St Paul’s Church rather than that of his own parish because he was being buried in his mother-in-law’s grave in the St Paul’s division of the cemetery)

At the time of the 1881 census his widow Mrs Susannah Welford (78) was living at 3 Wytham Terrace Kingston Road with her daughter Sarah and her son-in-law George Handy, a carter at an iron works (presumably Lucy’s). (Her son Edwin and his growing family, who were living with her back in 1871, were now at 23 Hart Street, then named Union Street.) She died in 1889:

† Susannah Welford nee Bates died at Kingston Road at the age of 91 on 17 February 1889 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 21 February (burial again recorded in the register of St Paul’s Church).

Three of the children of Joseph & Susannah Welford are also buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery

• Mrs Martha PHILLIPS, née Welford (1840–1901) and her husband William Reuben PHILLIPS
  Row 4, Grave A5, not yet covered
• Edwin WELFORD (1843/4–1903) and his wife Mrs Ellen WELFORD, née Woodward
• Benjamin WELFORD (1825–1876) and his wife Mrs Mary WELFORD, née Judge