Thomas WINCHESTER (1817–1864)
and his brother George WINCHESTER (1823–1863)
With a mention of Thomas’s son Tom George WINCHESTER (1817–1861)
St Giles section: Row 4, Grave B26
[THOMAS WINCHESTER]
[WHO] DEPARTED [THIS LIFE]
[APRIL] 5 1864 AGED [46]
ALSO
TOM GEORGE [HIS SON]
WHO DEPARTED [THIS LIFE]
SEP. 16, 1861 AGED [20]
Interred at Finchley,
Middlesex
ALSO
GEORGE WIN[CHESTER]
[BRO]THER TO THE [ABOVE]
DEPARTED [THIS LIFE]
[SEP … ] 1863 AGED [40]
[There are then some more words,
but the footstone below has only
T.W., T.G.W. and G.W., so it is
probably just be a biblical text]
Thomas Winchester was born in Oxford in 1817 and baptised at St Peter-le-Bailey Church on 1 June and his younger brother George Winchester in 1823 and baptised on 30 May. They were the sons of John Winchester and Elizabeth Hetson (or Hutson) Webb, who were married at St Peter-le-Bailey Church, Oxford on 1 August 1802. They had six older siblings who were also baptised at that church: John (1803), Eliza (1805), Elizabeth (1811), Susannah (1813), Emma (1815), and William (born in 1820 but not baptised until 1823).
Their father was a college servant at Christ Church, and in 1813 the family’s address was recorded in the baptismal register as Sun Lane.
Thomas Winchester (1817–1864)
On 19 April 1838 at St Nicholas’s Church, Abingdon, Thomas Winchester (21) a painter, married the Abingdon-born dressmaker Amelia Tubb (19), daughter of the coal merchant George Tubb. They were both living in St Nicholas’s parish before their wedding, but moved to Ock Street in St Helen’s parish. They had the following children:
- Elizabeth Winchester (born at Ock Street, Abingdon on 15 December 1838 and baptised at St Helen’s Church on 13 January 1839)
- Martha Winchester (born at Ock Street, Abingdon on 30 August 1840 and baptised at St Helen’s Church on 27 September)
- Tom George Winchester (born at Ock Street, Abingdon on 15 January 1843 and baptised at St Helen’s Church on 16 April)
- Amelia Winchester (born at Ock Street, Abingdon on 5 July 1845 and baptised at St Helen’s Church on 27 July 1845); died in Reading at the age of two in 1847 (reg. third quarter)
- John Eustace Winchester (born in Reading in 1847/8).
At the time of the 1841 census Thomas and Amelia were at home in Ock Street, Abingdon (stated as being in the Hormer hundred) with their first two children Elizabeth (2) and Martha (seven months).
The family evidently moved from Abingdon, which was then in Oxfordshire, to Reading in Berkshire at some point between 1845 and 1848.
By 1851 they were living at 23 Alfred Street in Oxford with Elizabeth (12), Martha (10), [Tom] George (9), and John (3).
By the time of the 1861 census Thomas Winchester, who was still a house painter, was living at Durnford Place in St Pancras, London with his wife Amelia (41) and their children Martha (20), who was a dressmaker, and son [Tom] George (18).
Their son Tom George Winchester died in London on 16 September 1861 and was buried at Finchley: his name was later added to his father’s grave in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in Oxford.
The family evidently came back to Oxford between 1861 and 1864, and Tom George’s father Thomas Winchester died there in 1864:
† Thomas Winchester died at Walton Street at the age of 46 on 5 April 1864 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 10 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).
He was buried in the grave of his younger brother George (below) who had died the previous year, and the headstone must have been made at this point, as Thomas appears first on it, presumably by virtue of being born first.
Near the end of 1864 at St Pancras, his widow Mrs Amelia Winchester married Richard Bladworth, a printer and lithographer. At the time of the 1871 census they were living in part of 41 Great Smith Street, Westminster.
George Winchester (1823–1863)
George Winchester was aged 18 in 1841 and working as a grocer: he was still with his parents John and Elizabeth, who were now living at Blackfriars Road in Oxford, and his brother William (21) and sister Emma (11) were also still at home.
On 22 December 1850 at St Ebbe's Church, Oxford, George Winchester, described as a bookbinder, married Elizabeth Rogers: they were both then living at Paradise Square in that parish. Elizabeth was born in Oxford in c.1829, the daughter of the carpenter John Rogers and his wife Elizabeth, and had been living with her family in St Clement’s at the time of the 1841 census. They do not appear to have had any children.
At the time of the 1851 census George (28) was a journeyman bookbinder living at Friar’s Street in Holy Trinity parish, St Ebbe’s with his new wife Elizabeth (22).
By 1861 George (38) was working as a messenger at the Radcliffe Observatory and living on its premises in the Woodstock Road (then known as St Giles’s Road west) with Elizabeth (31), who was working as a servant of Balliol College.
George Winchester died two years later in 1863:
† George Winchester died at St Giles’s Road at the age of 40 in September 1863 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 22 September (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).
He was the first buried in this grave.
On 17 December 1864 at St Paul’s Church, Oxford his widow Mrs Elizabeth Winchester, who was then living in Upper Walton Street, remarried: her second husband was the widower Gabriel Billing, a farmer of Chalgrove.
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