The Webbs of Chelsea and Fulham

This is post was migrated from an old blog called Locke Family. Posts on that blog have now been imported into this one. The old blog will eventually be deleted.

My ancestors – on my mother’s side – were the Webbs of Chelsea and Fulham, areas in the south of what is now London. The Chelsea Webbs were not particularly wealthy people, they did not have high status, they were solid, ordinary people leading comfortable lives in Victorian society. Chelsea was in the county of Middlesex in those times and Fulham was emerging as a new housing estate, on the banks of the Thames.

The three generations, that I have traced, were born and brought up in Chelsea, a village in what was then the county of Middlesex. At the time of the Webbs, notably Francis, the village was beginning to be absorbed into the growing city of London.

In a strange twist of fate, the very first place in which I lived, when I moved to London, was Cadogan Square, literally a stone’s throw from the location of my great great grandfather’s carpentry business in South Street, Chelsea; although of course, I did not find this out until years later.

Chelsea

Three generations of Webbs were born and brought up in and around Chelsea.  In 1894, Chelsea was a parish, the northern boundary of which was the Fulham Road and, in 1896, the majority of the houses in this area were small workmen’s cottages and it was very overcrowded.  Many of ancestral Webbs were carpenters by trade.

The patriarch of the Webbs was Francis (1786 to 1860), born in the reign of George III. The census of 1851 shows that he was born in Reading, Berkshire. In 1816, when he was 30, he married Charlotte (1787 to 1860); between them they had seven children:  George (born 1816 but died in infancy), George (born 1818), Charlotte (born 1821), Jane (born 1822), Elizabeth (born 1827), William (born 1829) and John (born 1831). It was from these members of the family that the later generations were descended. Most of them were born in the Parish of Saint Luke, Chelsea. In 1851, Francis and his wife Charlotte were listed in the census as living at 7 South Street, his occupation given as  ‘carpenter’; also living with them was William, aged 21.

Francis’s second son, George Webb, lived in Chelsea and was also a carpenter. Born in 1818, his place of birth was Chelsea in the parish of St. Luke, not far from Fulham. As was often the case, he had a brother who was also called George, born two years earlier but who probably died in infancy.

George married Margaret Suter in the summer of 1846 in the district of Kensington. In 1851 they were living in rented premises at 11 South Street, Chelsea and by then they had two children: Dardanus and Athelstan. George carried on his business as a master carpenter and undertaker and was a master who employed two men. In those days, carpenters made coffins and often doubled as undertakers. Chelsea was an area of artisans and craftsmen; others living in South Street were shoemakers, dress makers, cordwainers (a type of shoemaker), boot binders and coachmen. By 1861 the Webbs appear to have moved next door to the building at 12 South Street, perhaps to accommodate their growing family; either that or the numbers of the buildings were changed.

It was George Webb (b 1818) who grew up to be a successful carpenter. He married Elizabeth Margaret Suter in 1846 in Kensington. Interestingly, Elizabeth was born in Portsmouth (if we have found the correct records). In 1851, George and Elizabeth were living in rented premises at 11 South Street, Chelsea, where he is listed as a ‘master carpenter.’ At this time, the neighbourhood in which South Street was located was one of artisans and craftsmen; the census shows shoemakers, cordwainers, boot binders, dress makers and coachmen. In 1863, George was listed at 12 South Street.

George and Elizabeth had five children:  Herbert Arthur born 1864, Dardanus Lionel born 1847, Athelstan Frederick born 1849, Reginald Walter born 1854, Sidney Algernon born 1856 and Alice. George must have been running a successful carpentry business because, in 1853, he purchased a burial plot in the fashionable Brompton Cemetery for the sum of three pounds and three shillings.  The purchase of the plot might have been prompted by the death of George’s sister Jane (1822 to 1853). By 1861, Dardanus was working as his father’s assistant and Athelstan was his ‘errand boy.’ George appears to have been a well to do artisan; his will, of 1888, shows that, when he died, he was resident in Leete Street, Chelsea; this might have been South Street given a new name. His will shows that he bequeathed five leasehold properties in West Maidenstone Hill, Greenwich to his son Sidney Algernon Snr. Francis died at 12 South Street and was buried in the family plot at Brompton. George himself was interred there in 1888.

The Webbs move to Fulham

A new generation then took up residence in Fulham in the early 1900s. Fulham is a place which dates back to Roman times and was mentioned in the  Domesday book of 1086. In 1900, the area had grown to become a suburb of London and was given its own local government – the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham. New housing estates were being built and the area was attracting large numbers of working people.

One of George’s sons was Herbert Arthur Webb, my maternal grandfather. He also was a carpenter. When His father died in 1888 he inherited his estate, along with his brothers, and it might have been this that enabled him to move into the new housing estate in Fulham.

Herbert Arthur married Emma Bugg in December 1889 at St. Peters Church, Fulham. Emma was born in Suffolk in the village of Lawshall, the daughter of a Farm Bailiff called Robert Bugg.  Herbert’s father George had died in May the previous year. At the time of their wedding, they both were living at 10 Rosaline Road. A great deal of house building took place in Fulham between 1870 to 1890 on land once famous for its market gardens.

Herbert Arthur and Emma had seven children, two of whom died in infancy; they were: Edith (born 1893), Frederick Arthur (born 1895), Ellen Maud (born 1902), Violet (born 1904), Herbert Reginald (born 1905), George Robert (born 1908) and Doris Alice (born 1909). Doris was my mother. That is how my family tree came to include the Webbs.

The marriage certificate of Herbert Arthur Webb (born 1864) shows his address as 10 Rosaline Road, Fulham. In 1932, he lived at 40 Rostrevor Road, Fulham, still working as a carpenter. He died in 1934, aged 69, and was buried in Fulham cemetery.

It is thought that Herbert was a member of the late 22 South Middlesex Regiment and played fife and drum in the band.

When Doris Webb, Herbert’s daughter, was a young woman, probably before she married Leslie Locke, she was a member of a dance troupe. There is some suggestion that the troupe performed abroad, most probably in Malta, which might have been where she met my father. I believe this was in 1934. My cousin Eileen remembers being taken to  a theatre in London to see her auntie Doris (‘doll’ as she was called then) performing on the stage. Doris also performed in Malta, judging from some old photographs that have survived from that time.

Doris Webb was born in 1909 in Fulham. At the age of 27 she married Leslie Locke at St. Peter’s Church. They were my parents.

A newspaper cutting of the wedding survives but is in poor condition, although members of the family say they have the original photos of the event.  On the far left of the photo below is Eileen Webb (as she was called at the time); she said that her bridesmaid’s dress was “sky blue”. Standing to the right of Eileen is Emma Webb, the bride’s mother. Also in the photo on the extreme right, is Herbert Reginald Webb.

The witnesses at the ceremony were George Robert Webb and Herbert Reginald Webb.  We know that Doris lived at Rostrevor Road in 1936 and moved to Portsmouth in 1943.  The young Webbs attended school in Fulham. They might have attended Sherbrooke Road School; built by the London School Board in 1898. It is close to the house they lived in at Rosaline Road.

When Herbert Reginald Webb married Ella Illsley, his address was given as 40 Rostrevor Road, Fulham. This was in 1932. In 1945, his daughter Sandra Ann was born (I believe she died in infancy.) By then, they had moved to Southall.

(This article was substantially revised on 4th September 2016.)

See also:

Main page for the Webb family tree.

 

Page last updated 8th November 2022.