I just need to find his death record...
Q James WOODROFFE was my great-grandfather. Twenty years ago, I quickly located his birth in Poplar, 4 December 1855, and his marriage to my greatgrandmother, Emily ADAMS, in Brompton, 26 February 1878. The family story was that he was a ship’s captain.
James, aged 5, and family are on the 1861 Census in Southwark St George, Surrey. On the 1871 Census he is shown as a groom, aged 15, in Chelsea. I have a copy from the Register of Apprentices’ Indentures, provided by a professional, showing that James, as a Merchant Navy crewman on 09 October 1872, aged 16, boarded the Abbot but deserted in South Shields on 13 December 1872. On 24 January 1877 he was admitted to the workhouse in Kensington, aged 21.
Although Emily and James WOODROFFE only married in 1878, I was surprised to find them living apart on the 1881 Census. Emily and her small daughter, Ethel Emily, were staying with her sister, Mary Anne HALL and family, at 31 Arpley Road, Penge.
Where was my james in 1881?
So where was James in 1881? As a ship’s captain, I initially presumed him at sea. Subsequent searches of ship’s captains’ records by professionals drew a blank. I had to accept that he was either a crew member or the story was a fabrication!
There were two possible candidates in 1881, however.
The first candidate was the correct age, 27, and a lodger at 29 College Place, Chelsea, listed as single, occupation ‘scaffolder’. Candidate number two was lodging in Islington at 328 Cardigan Street with a family named WOODROFF, occupation ‘painter’. I know from his children’s birth certificates that my James alternated between ‘house painter’ and ‘seaman’. This family were from Devizes, Wiltshire, which is where my James’ parents hailed from. The head of the household was a William WOODROFFE born 1846/7 in Devizes – likely a cousin.
Why was he living apart from his wife?
But why would James be living apart from his wife and small daughter? A Google search brought up a record on ‘The Blacksheep Index’ which showed that in March 1885 James was in court accused of assaulting his wife, for which he was sentenced to two months’ hard labou!
The family story goes
The family story goes that at some point James went ‘missing at sea, presumed dead’, and that Emily subsequently had to wait seven years to remarry. She then married a
