William WILSON senior (1818–1876)
His son William WILSON junior (1846–1857)
St Paul section: Row 15, Grave A8½
(St Paul ref. F.12)
On horizontal bar of cross:
WILLIAM WILSON … … OF
… … …
DIED IN CHRIST NOV. 1, 1857
Sideways on stem of cross:
IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM WILSON WHO DIED
DEC 1, 1876 AGED 58 YEARS
William Wilson was born in Oxford in 1818 and baptised at St Michael's Church on 8 March. He was the son of William Wilson senior and his wife Charlotte (probably the William Wilson and Charlotte Mulcock who were married at St Mary Magdalen Church on 6 April 1815). His parents had two other children baptised at St Michael’s Church: Eliza (25 February 1816) and Thomas (25 December 1820). By 1816 William’s father was working as a hairdresser in Oxford, and his son followed him into the same trade.
On 19 February 1844 at St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, William Wilson, described as a hairdresser of St Giles, married Elizabeth Hodgkins, the daughter of the sexton Samuel Hodgkins. They had the following children:
- William Wilson junior (born in Little Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1846 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 23 August); died age 11
- Thomas Edwin Wilson (born in Little Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1848 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 27 September)
- Sarah Jane Wilson (born in Little Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1851 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 9 June)
By 1846 William Wilson was a hairdresser like his father. At the time of the 1851 census he was aged 31 and living at Little Clarendon Street with his wife Elizabeth (30) and their sons William junior (4) and Thomas Edwin (2). Their daughter Sarah Jane was born soon after the census.
By 1857 the family had moved to 21 Walton Place (now 24 Walton Street) in St Paul’s parish. Their son William Wilson junior died there that year:
† William Wilson junior died at Walton Place (now Walton Street) at the age of 11 in November 1857 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 19 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).
At the time of the 1861 census William Wilson (41), who was still working as a hairdresser, was living in Walton Street with his wife Elizabeth (39) and their surviving children Thomas (12) and Sarah (9).
By the time of the 1871 census William Wilson (50), now described as a naturalist, was living at 115 Walton Street in St Giles’s parish with his wife Elizabeth (48) and their daughter Sarah (20). Also staying with them was his cousin Louise Smith (2), born in South Lambeth.
Their two surviving children were both married in the mid-1870s, and in each case their father’s occupation was given as a naturalist:
- On 12 May 1873 at St Giles’s Church, Oxford, Sarah Jane Wilson married Frederick Pass, a dentist from Lambeth and the son of another dentist, Horatio Pass;
- On 5 September 1875 at St Clement’s Church, Oxford, Thomas Edwin Wilson (27), also described as a naturalist, married Margaret Wallis (20) of St Aldate’s, the daughter of the bricklayer William Wallis.
William Wilson senior died in 1876:
† William Wilson died at Walton Street at the age of 58 on 1 December 1876 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 4 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).
His effects came to under £200, and his widow Elizabeth was one of his executors. She does not appear to be buried with her husband and son.
Surviving children of William & Elizabeth Wilson
- Thomas Edwin Wilson (born 1848) is hard to find after his marriage in 1875.
- Sarah Jane Wilson, Mrs Frederick Pass (born 1851) was living in Battersea in 1881, where her husband was a dentist’s assistant, and they had two children: Arthur (5) and Horace (3). She may be the Sarah Jane Pass who died in Halifax at the age of 46 in 1897.
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