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

Charles WHITEHEAD (1817–1866)
His first wife Mrs Esther Ann WHITEHEAD, née Horewood (1808–1851)
His second wife Mrs Sarah WHITEHEAD, née Stanton (1817–1892)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 13, Grave D58

Charles Whitehead was born in Beckley in 1817 and baptised there on 10 August. He was the son of the shoemaker James Whitehead and Susannah Timberlake, who were married at Beckley on 1 February 1813. His five siblings were also baptised there: William (1813), Henry (1815), George (1819), Louisa (1822), and Levi (1825). At the time of the 1841 census Charles (23) was a servant at Worcester College, Oxford.

His first wife Esther Ann Horewood (or Horwood) was born in Headington in 1808, but was not baptised there. At the time of the 1841 census Esther (33) was a college servant at Christ Church, Oxford.

On 2 October 1844 at St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, Charles Whitehead married Esther Ann Horewood, but they do not appear to have had any children. At the time of the 1851 census Charles (34) was a college servant, living at Gloucester Green with Esther (39), and they had their own servant. Gardner’s Directory for 1852 shows that he now worked at Balliol College.

The first Mrs Whitehead died later in 1851:

† Mrs Esther Ann Whitehead née Horewood died at Gloucester Green at the age of 43 in June 1851 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 12 June (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Charles’s second wife Sarah Stanton was born in Yarpole, Herefordshire in 1817 and baptised there on 11 April, the daughter of John & Anne Stanton. At the time of the 1841 census when she was 24 she was working as a servant in Yarpole. By the time of the 1851 census she was living with her widowed sister Mary Gough (35), who was a schoolmistress, at the school in Staunton-on-Arrow, Radnorshire and working as an assistant teacher.

In 1853 (reg. third quarter) in the Stoke on Trent district, Charles Whitehead married his second wife Sarah Stanton, and they had the following children:

• Anne or Ann Whitehead (born at St John Street, Oxford in 1856 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 8 October)
• Ada Whitehead (born at 2 St John Street, Oxford in 1858 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 26 December)
• Charlotte Stanton Whitehead (born at St John Street, Oxford in 1860 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 5 August)

At the time of the 1861 census Charles (43), who was still working as a college servant, and Sarah (38) were living at 2 St John Street with their daughters Ada (2) and Charlotte (1); Anne (4) is hard to locate.

Charles Whitehead died in 1866:

† Charles Whitehead died at 2 St John Street at the age of 43 on 7 December 1866 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

His effects came to under £800, and his widow Sarah was his sole executor.

At the time of the 1871 census his widow Sarah (48) was a lodging-house keeper at 2 St John Street, where she lived with her three daughters Ann (14), Ada (12), Charlotte (11), and their sixteen-year-old servant girl.

By 1881 Mrs Whitehead had moved to 29 Beaumont Street, where she again kept a lodging house. At the time of the 1881 census she was there with her three daughters Anne (24), Ada (22), and Charlotte (21), plus a housemaid, kitchen maid, and four lodgers.

All three of her daughters were married in the 1880s:

• On 28 March 1883 at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, Anne Whitehead (26), described as a spinster of 29 Beaumont Street, married Frank John Robertshaw Harris (25), a traveller of 28 St John Street;
• On 21 January 1885 at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, Charlotte Stanton Whitehead (25) married Robertie Charles Wharton [sic] (23), born in Hinksey and now a gentleman of St Mary Magdalen parish;
• On 2 April 1885 at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, Ada Whitehead (26) married the widower Frank Perry (35), a chemist of Wootton Bassett.

Sarah Whitehead’s two younger daughters, Mrs Charlotte Stanton Wharton and Mrs Ada Perry, appear to have emigrated to the USA with their husbands in the late 1880s.

Her eldest daughter, Mrs Anne Harris, remained in Oxford with her husband and died at St John Street at the age of 34 early in 1891 and was buried in the St Giles’s section of St Sepulchre’s Cemetery: see separate grave for more about her.

At the time of the 1891 census Mrs Sarah Whitehead was lodging with a tailor and his wife at 33 Walton Street. By the time of her death the next year, she had moved to Cripley Road:

† Mrs Sarah Whitehead née Stanton died at Cripley Road the age of 76 in March 1892 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 18 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).