Great x3 Grandfather Henry James

My Great x3 Grandfather Henry (1837 - 1916) was an indoor farm servant, agricultural labourer, and father of eight.

Henry James was born around 1837 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Robert James (about 29), an agricultural labourer, and Jane James (nee Leach) (about 31), a serge and wool weaver.

Henry was baptised on 30th April 1837 in Morchard Bishop. At the time, the family lived at Whatcombe, Morchard Bishop.

Henry was the second of five children (two daughters and three sons):

• Elizabeth Frances  1835 - 
• Henry  1837 -
• Robert  1840 -
• William  1844 -
• Ann  1845 - 1847 (one year old)

All five siblings were born and grew up in Morchard Bishop. Henry would spend most of his life in Morchard Bishop.

1841 Census:

In the first quarter of 1847, when Henry was about nine, his younger sister Ann passed away, aged one year old, in Morchard Bishop.

As a young teenager, Henry worked as an indoor farm servant for farmer William Leach and his family at Higher Week, Morchard Bishop. William Leach seems to have been a better off first cousin of Henry's maternal grandfather Roger Leach.

1851 Census:

By the time of the next census, Henry, now a young man, was back living with his parents and working, like his father and grandfather, as an agricultural labourer.

1861 Census:

In Jul/Aug/Sep 1866, Henry (29), an agricultural labourer, married Louisa Edwards (20), a general servant on a farm, in the district of Crediton.

Robert and Louisa was related by marriage. Robert's maternal uncle Roger Leach was married to Louisa's paternal aunt Frances Edwards.

Henry and Louisa had eight children (four daughters and four sons):

• Lucy  1868 - 1897 (29)
• Bessie  1869 -
• Edwin  1875 -
• Louisa  1878 -
• Emily Maude  1880 -
• Charles  1883 -
• Francis Robert  1886 -
• Gilbert  1889 -

1871 Census:

1881 Census:

1891 Census:

On 25th March 1897, when Henry was about sixty, his eldest daughter Lucy passed away, aged twenty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Sometime in the 1890s, Henry moved with his wife and their youngest sons from his native Morchard Bishop to East Worlington, where they can be found in the 1901 Census:

By 1911, Henry and Louisa's youngest son Gilbert supported his elderly parents, living with them back in Morchard Bishop and working, as his father had done before him, as a farm labourer.

1911 Census:

Henry lived to see the beginning of the First World War but not its end. He passed away, aged seventy-nine, in Jul/Aug/Sep 1916, in the district of Crediton. Thankfully his youngest son Gilbert could continue to support his elderly and now widowed mother Louisa, as, when conscription was introduced in 1916, Gilbert was given exemption as he was needed at home on the farm, being head horseman at Brownstone Farm.

From the Western Times on 20th October 1916: