My Great x3 Uncle Charles 'Charlie' (1883 - 1965) was a rabbit catcher/trapper/dealer, father of two, and a younger brother of my Great x2 Grandmother Lucy Vernon (nee James) (1868 - 1897).
Charles was born on 1st April 1883 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Henry James (about 46), an agricultural labourer, and Louisa James (nee Edwards) (about 34), a housewife.
Charles was baptised on 13th May 1883 in Morchard Bishop. At the time of Charles' baptism, the family lived at Watcombe/Whatcombe [farm or more likely cottage].
Charles was the sixth of eight children (four daughters and four sons):
- Lucy 1868 - 1897 (29 years old)
- Bessie 1869 - 1945 or 1956 (77 or 86 years old)
- Edwin 1875 - 1896 (21 years old)
- Louisa 1878 - 1966 (87 years old)
- Emily Maude 1880 - 1967 (86 years old)
- Charles 1883 - 1965 (82 years old)
- Francis Robert 1886 -
- Gilbert 1889 -
Charles and his siblings grew up in Morchard Bishop.
1891 Census:
When Charles was a young teen, two of his older siblings passed away in their twenties. In July or August 1896, Charles' older brother Edwin passed away, aged only twenty-one, in East Worlington. Less than a year later, in March 1897, Charles' eldest sister Lucy passed away, aged twenty-nine, of TB, in Kennerleigh. I wonder if brother and sister both succumbed to the same disease.
By his late teens, Charles was working as a rabbit trapper. He lodged with the Gale family, headed by butcher Charles Gale, in Lapford.
1901 Census:
Charles may have been close to his sister closest to him in age, Emily, for it was him - rather than their father Henry - who gave Emily away at her wedding in Exeter in 1904.
Alas Charles came up against the law an several occasions...
Firstly, on Christmas Eve (24th December) 1901, he was fined 11s, at Chumleigh, according to the ground game act. Was he catching rabbits when/where he shouldn't have been?
Secondly, he was found not guilty of unlawfully and maliciously wounding (with a piece of glass) one Arthur Ash, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, at North Tawton, on the 27th July 1904.
What had happened?
Essentially it was a pub brawl.
On the evening of 27th July, Charles was sat drinking at the bar of the Gostwyck Arms in North Tawton. Three lads had been there: Charles James, somebody Moore and Sidney Ash. Another, a witness called Skinner, later became involved. 'Chaffing remarks' were exchanged, which resulted in Charles offering to fight Moore and Sidney Ash. He struck Sidney Ash, knocking him against the wooden partition. Sidney then said he would fetch his brother Arthur Ash, though he did not. Yet soon after in the road they met Arthur Ash, who asked Charles why he had hit his brother. Arthur then stuck Charles in the face. A fight ensued. Later to the court, Arthur showed off cuts to his person and coat that the piece of glass had made. Yet Charles, the defence argued, had not one single cut to his hand, which would have been expected if he was holding tight to and using a piece of glass as a weapon. Charles denied ever having the glass, let alone using it, though he admitted to using his fists after Arthur Ash first struck him. Everyone had been drunk and fighting each other and it was dark. The rumour going around was that it was in fact Skinner (remember him) who was striking Arthur Ash with the glass, having mistaken Arthur Ash for Charles.
'There was a great degree of confusion and they were fighting one across the other'. So it was argued in their drunken haze, on that dark country road, Arthur Ash and whatever-his-christen-name-was Skinner each believed they were fighting Charles James, but they were in fact fighting each other. And sure drunken brawls were one thing, but bringing a shard of glass to a fist fight was considered beyond the pale. [I'm a pacifist and a teetotaller, I've no idea of the unwritten rules of drunken fights in or outside of pubs. Are there any?]
From the Western Times of 29th July 1904:
From the Western Times of 5th August 1904:
From the Western Times of 21st October 1904:
Interestingly his crime record of 1904 gives Charles' 'degree of instruction' (Can the prisoner read and/or write? N (No), R (Only read), Imp (Imperfectly) or Well)) as 'well'. Though only a poor rabbit trapper, he could read and write well.
In September 1906, before the bench at the Moretonhampstead Petty Sessions, Charles summoned a young man called Henry Long for stealing six of his rabbit traps from Cocktree Farm. Long pleaded guilty and was fined £1.
From the Western Times of 26th September 1906:
By 1910, in his late twenties, Charles was sometimes going by his birth name of Charles James and sometimes under the alais of Charles Scott James or Scott James. He also seems to have knocked a couple of years off his age - giving his age as 25 in 1910, when he would have really been 27. He is also giving his profession not simply as rabbit catcher or trapper but a dealer of rabbits.
By 1910, he had been convicted twice under the Game Law and once the Highway Act (between 1901 and 1908).
In 1910, Charles was again arrested and this time for a more serious offence. He was found Guilty of sending a threatening letter accusing one James Henry Hutchings of an infamous crime to extort money (eg give me x amount of money or I'll tell the police what I saw), on 15th February 1910, and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labourer.
From North Devon Journal of 24th March 1910:
Charles' 1910 Prison record:
The 1911 Census shows Charles, a prisoner in Exeter prison on New North Road.
1911 Census:
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1915, Charles (about 32), rabbit trapper, married Alice Maud Brend (about 26), a domestic maid and housekeeper, in the district of Barnstaple.
Charles and Alice had two children (one son and one daughter):
- Victor Charles 1920 -
- Beatrice Hazel Valentine 1922 -
(The name Victor grew in popularity after the victories of WWI. The few Victors I have in my family, great uncles and distant cousins, were born in the 1920's.)
At some point around the 1910s/1920's, Charles and his family moved to Saunton, Braunton, on the North-West coast of Devon, where they would live for many years. Charles' older sister Louisa Tonkin(s) and husband Walter also lived in Braunton for a few years around 1939.
In June 1928, Charles found the body of commercial traveller Henry George Gilbert on Braunton sands, near the lighthouse. Gilbert had been out sailing, there had been some sort of accident, and he had drowned.
(Somewhat eerily, Charles' nephew Leonard James Tonkin(s) (younger son of Charles' sister Louisa) would also find the body of a drown victim. In 1938, Leonard found the body of of 21-year-old Alfred Channon in the River Otter, at the Honiton Swimming Club Headquarters. In this case, the coroner gave a reluctant verdict of suicide by drowning.)
Charles and Alice's marriage may not have been one made it heaven. Charles put a notice in the North Devon Journal of 16th April 1931 that he would 'not be answerable for any Debts incurred by [his] wife':
However, they still appear together on the 1939 census, and by the time of Alice's death in 1948.
1939 Census:
By the early 1940's, Charles and Alice's young adult daughter Beatrice had married and was living in London - where she would live until her death, aged ninety-two, in 2014. And at some point their son Victor it seems may have moved to live in Scotland. However both children returned to Devon in 1948 to attend their mother's funeral.
In January or February 1948, Charles' wife Alice passed away, aged about 58. Her funeral took place on 19th February 1948 at St Brannock's, Braunton. It was attended by family and friends, including Charles' sister Emily and her husband Sam Trigger, and Charles' brother Francis and his wife.
From the North Devon Journal of 26th February 1948:
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1965, Charles himself passed away, aged eighty-two, in the district of Barnstaple.
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