Through the Trees: 55.5-6 Cousins of Ellen Lucy MacDonald

Mr and Mrs Donald MacDonald had only one known child, so Ellen Lucy has no known cousins on her father's side.

James and Mary Anne Bolton had two children. Their children are Ellen Lucy's cousins.

At home in 1871. No other record found, other than a potential death record from Kent.

1881: General servant at the Post Office in Snodland
Married Henry John Atkinson (1861-1924) in Milton, Kent in 1891
He was a cement labourer, and they lived in Birling nr West Malling; later 1 Dover Terrace, Snodland; and 8 Prospect Place, Holborough Road, Snodland.
Children:

1881: Servant to a steward at 4 Waterloo Place, St James, Westminster. This was almost on the corner with Pall Mall, and two records away from the Pall Mall Club, since rebuilt by Lutyens. The Guards' Crimea Memorial was there, right outside, though, and happily I photo'd it just before the Covid-19 lockdown.

Guards Crimea Memorial, Westminster (my photo)

Alec was a storekeeper at the cement works, and they lived at Lee's Works off Railway Place, Halling nr Rochester, Kent.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a whole series of cement works grew up along the banks of the Medway from Frindsbury to Burham, each with its pits, industrial railways, works, wharfs and barges. (Snodland history) Burham is across the Medway from Halling; Frindsbury is five miles down the river - and where William Little had been busy building barges. The cement industry, naturally was big user of such barges.
According to Kent County Council: "In 1868 the [Lee's] works consisted of several large banks of limekilns. All the kiln banks were connected to branch lines from the main line railway and by standard gauge railway from Lee's Pit, to the west of Holborough House. By the end of the nineteenth century the southern banks of lime kilns were still in operation but the northern part of the works had expanded dramatically and had been rebuilt as a cement works." The works would have been visible from the River here (now demolished, replanted and largely taken over by school playing fields - the old wharf may be visible). There is more at cementkilns.co.uk! By 1911, their home, still at the works, was Vine Cottage. This was the year that the works were taken over by Blue Circle.

Rochester Cement Works, Halling (credit). Outlived Lee's.

1891: Housemaid (15) for the Rector of Greenhithe
Married Horace Thomas Russell (1876-1939)
Horace was a Police Constable with the Kent Constabulary, and they lived in Longfield nr Dartford. By 1911, they were at 15 Dartford Road, Dartford.
Children:

1939: 13 Maple Avenue, Maidstone. Widowed. Her son Percy is with her, and working.

1901: Domestic servant to a widow at 4 Alma Villas, Foots Cray, Bexley
Married John Samuel Barnes (1873-1957) in 1908; no known children
John was a general labourer, and they lived at 131 Birkbeck Road, Foots Cray [Sidcup]. They are still there in 1939, by which time he is a coal porter.

Railway porter. A patient in Maidstone Hospital
Married Rosalind Harriet Boyde (1883-1915) in Malling in 1908
He was a lime and chalk labourer ('cement loader' according to one researcher), and they lived with his father in Snodland.
Children:

Widowed in 1915
He enlisted into the Army Reserve in December 1915 in Maidstone. He became a gunner with the 185 Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery. They were sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in October 1916, and was killed in action in August 1917, leaving his two young sons orphaned.
"Siege Batteries RGA were equipped with heavy howitzers, sending large calibre high explosive shells in high trajectory, plunging fire. The usual armaments were 6 inch, 8 inch and 9.2 inch howitzers, although some had huge railway- or road-mounted 12 inch howitzers. As British artillery tactics developed, the Siege Batteries were most often employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, store, roads and railways behind enemy lines." The Long, Long Trail (with photo)
He was buried in the War Cemetery at Ypres; and is remembered at All Saints, Snodland, and on Snodland War Memorial.

1939: Clock House Lodge (here?), Capel nr Dorking. He was a works foreman: hollow bricks.
Capel is where the Songhurst family came from. There was a brickworks at Clock House, and another nearby. Both (or their adjacent clay pits) are now Sites of Special Scientific Interest, with Clock House important for its fossil insects! A far cry from the 42 million bricks it made only 20 years ago. There are photos of the derelict site here. By contrast the rather grand Clock House itself is for sale.

Clock House clay pit (credit)

More information on these families in Chapter 60.

Next (or skip to Part IV)

Through the Trees