Joseph was likely born between 20th November and 10th December 1860, in Okehampton, Devon, the illegitimate son of Ann Gliddon (20 or 21), a farm servant.
Joseph was baptised on 10th December 1860, in Okehampton. He was likely named for his maternal grandfather of the same name.
(Joseph's birth was not registered until Jan/Feb/Mar 1861; however we know he was born before that, as he was baptised on 10th December 1860. In the past, like today, parents had a period of forty-two days to register a birth, and assuming Ann registered her son's birth within these forty-two days, in January 1861, that would put his birth between the 20th November and 10th December 1860. Still there is the possibility, especially as late fines would not be introduced until the 1874 Act brought in tighter and tougher legislation, that Ann was late registering baby Joseph's birth and he was born prior to 20th November 1860. Yet his age given on censuses implies a birth year of 1861; thus his being born in the tale-end of 1860, and yet to have his birthday each census year, seems very likely.)
Joseph would spend the first twenty-odd years of his life in living in Meldon, near Okehampton.
1861 Census:
On 26th March 1862, when Joseph was about fifteen months old, his mother Ann (24), a farm servant, married George Yeo (27), an agricultural and quarry labourer, in Okehampton.
Through his mother's marriage, Joseph gained six younger half siblings (one half-brother and five half-sisters):
- Thomas 'Tom' 1863 - 1904 (40 or 41 years old)
- Mary 'Mary Anne' Gliddon 1864 - 1941 (76 years old)
- Emily Ann 1867 - 1872 (5 years old)
- Annie 1868 - 1948 (80 years old)
- Ellen 1869 - 1937 (68 years old)
- Harriet 1872 - 1893 (21 years old)
Joseph lived not with his mother's new family, but remained living with his maternal grandparents, Joseph, an agricultural and quarry labourer, and Hannah Gliddon.
1871 Census:
In October or November 1872, when Joseph was eleven, his younger half-sister Emily Ann passed away aged only five years old. Emily Ann was buried on 8th November 1872, in Okehampton. About three months later, Joseph's step-father George passed away, aged thirty-nine, in 1873, in Okehampton. He was buried on 30th January 1873, in Okehampton. And about three months after that, Joseph's mother Ann also passed away, aged thirty-three or thirty-four. She was buried on 30th April 1873 also in Okehampton. I wonder if they all succumbed to the same disease.
Unless relatives took them in, Joseph's six remaining younger half siblings (aged zero to nine) would likely have ended up in the workhouse. Indeed, in the next census (1881 Census), Joseph's youngest half sisters Ellen (11) and Harriet (9) can be found living in the Union Workhouse in Okehampton. I wonder if the other older siblings also entered the workhouse after their parents' early deaths, but by thirteen years old were deemed old enough to go out and work.
In Jan/Mar/Apr 1881, when Joseph was twenty-one, his guardian and grandfather of the same name passed away, aged seventy-three, in Okehampton.
1881 Census:
In Apr/May/Jun 1888, when Joseph was twenty-seven, his remaining guardian and grandmother, Hannah, passed away, aged eighty-five, in Okehampton. She was buried on 11th May 1888 in Okehampton.
In Apr/May/Jun 1889, Joseph (28), an agricultural labourer, married Lucy Ann Neno (17), in the district of Tavistock. Lucy gave birth to their first child, James Henry, on 17th October 1889, meaning, she was between three and five months pregnant, when she and Joseph married. When she conceived she may have still be sixteen, or else just turned seventeen.
Lucy Ann had been christened Louisa, but from at least the 1881 census, aged eight, if not before, went by Lucy Ann. The spelling of her unusual maiden name varies on different records: as Neno, Nino, Neus, Nono etc.
The couple's age gap of eleven years, and Lucy Ann being so young, might explain why on later censuses Joseph bumps he age down by five years or more.
Joseph and Lucy Ann had twelve children (five boys and seven girls):
- James Henry 1889 - 1916 (26 years old)
- John Francis 1891 - 1899 (7 years old)
- Winifred Harriet 1894 -
- Gertrude Charlotte 1896 -
- Dora Josephine 1898 -
- Ellen Maud (known as Maud) 1902 -
- John Francis 1903 -
- Ada 1905 -
- Harold Joseph (known as Joseph) 1907 -
- Elsie May 1909 - 1930 (20 years old)
- Florence Lucy 1911 -
- Reginald William 1913 -
The couple would settle and bring up their children in Lucy's native Bere Alston, a small village in the Tamar valley, nearly twenty miles south-west of Joseph's native Meldon. Bere Alston's 'origins lie in the once thriving local mining industry, including silver and lead, and the market gardening sector. At one time, the mainline trains to London would stop at the village to pick up locally grown produce destined for the capital.' Lucy Ann was herself from a mining family; and Joseph worked as railway labourer in Bere Alston.
1891 Census:
In Apr/May/Jun 1899, when Joseph was thirty-eight, his second son John Francis passed away, aged only seven, in the district of Tavistock. Joseph and Lucy Ann would name their next born son after him.
1901 Census:
On the night of 4th July 1906, a 'stout elderly woman' called Elizabeth Hope was caught by a policeman stealing flowers from Joseph's garden. Joseph had previously made complaint of flowers being missing. Elizabeth was 'let off on undertaking to pay the complainant 5s'.
From the Cornish & Devon Post of 14th July 1906:
1911 Census:
As a young man, Joseph and Lucy Ann's eldest son, James, joined the Royal Navy. He enlisted on the 3rd June 1910, aged twenty, for a period of twelve years. James served as a seaman on many ships, with names such as: SS Vivid, Euryalus, Active, Impregnable and Powerful. His character is repeatedly given as 'very good', his ability improves within a few years from 'very good' to 'superior'.
Sadly James died in the middle of the First World War. On 7th January 1916, he passed away, aged only twenty-six, of cirrhosis of the liver, on board the hospital ship Somali. Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver caused by long-term liver damage. The main cause of cirrhosis is drinking too much alcohol over many years; however it is not the only cause, and James' cause of death doesn't necessarily mean he was a heavy drinker, but it is a possibility.
His Service Record gives a physical description of James as a young man: he was 5'6 3/4'', had a dark complexion, black hair and dark brown eyes. With such dark colourings, I wonder if James was black or had a black parent or grandparent. The identity of James' paternal grandfather, Joseph's father, is unknown - was he was black man? Was Joseph dark? Or James' colouring could be from his mother's side: his mother, Lucy Ann's maiden name of Neno, though a very Devonshire surname, with records of 'Neno's in Devon from at least the late 1500's, there is also a 'tradition' that the surname is Spanish in origin. Was James' dark colouring the result of distant Spanish heritage?
In Apr/May/Jun 1928, Joseph passed away, aged sixty-seven, in the district of Tavistock.
He left behind a widow in Lucy Ann and ten surviving children, aged fifteen to thirty-four. Sadly, his daughter, Elsie, would only outlive her father by two years. In Apr/May/Jun 1930, Elsie passed away, aged only twenty, in the district of Tavistock.
Lucy Ann would outlive her husband by almost thirty years, passing away, aged eighty-four, in Jul/Aug/Sep 1957, in the district of Tavistock.
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