Early in the 2000s, my father received a type-written letter from someone researching the ancestry of one Ronald Stocking. The letter claimed that Ron’s grandparents – my 2xgreat grandparents James Thomas Stocking and Alice Mary Wales – had had 21 children “all of whom were known to have survived”. I was intrigued to find out more. This is the result. But first, the letter:

It seems that Ron’s recollections were a little hazy. The building firm J Stocks & Sons was run by my grandfather James Aaron Stocking – Ron’s ‘cousin Jimmy’, although from family entries on the 1921 census, there was an earlier business run by another family member: W Stocks & Sons. Similarly, the family didn’t move to Beechfield Road, Catford, until the early-mid 1900s, by which time several of Ron’s father’s brothers and sisters were grown up and had left home to start families of their own. Eventually I managed to piece together evidence for the children born to my 2xgreat grandparents.

A hasty wedding?

I had a copy of my great-grandfather’s birth certificate from 1876 which showed his mother’s maiden name (Alice Mary, formerly Wales). At the time he was born, his parents were living at Bermondsey New Road. A search for his parents’ marriage shows that they wed on 29 November 1874 at St John the Evangelist, Walworth in London, which was built in 1859, and stood about 1.5 miles away from Bermondsey New Road:

They were married by banns when James Thomas Stocking was ‘of full age’ and Alice Mary Wales was just 17. James was actually 21 years and five months old. He was working as a Plasterer, living at 2 Smith’s Street, son of another James Thomas Stocking, a Labourer. Alice Mary was living at 67 Clandon Street, and her father is named as Aaron Wales, a Harness Maker. The witnesses are her brother Aaron W Wales (who died in an accident a year later) and Elizabeth Wales – who may have been Aaron’s wife, or Alice’s sister, both called Elizabeth. All parties sign the register.

Their eldest daughter Alice Caroline Stocking was born just 11 days later on 10 December 1874, so this was perhaps a wedding arranged in haste to ensure that their child was born in wedlock (just).

Southwark Heritage’s blog gives a potted history of Walworth, describing the many changes that occurred in the area during the 18th and 19th centuries, and particularly the growth in population.

Walworth became the location for some pioneering social work and  services. It boasted the first family planning clinic in the country, while its celebrated health services department in Walworth Road brought all health facilities under one roof for the first time in London and preceded the NHS by ten years.

Southwark’s Heritage blog – History of Walworth. Last visited 3 January 2022.

It seems that James Thomas and Alice Mary Stocking did not avail themselves of the family planning clinic’s services, although they lived most of their married life in Camberwell rather than Walworth. By the time the family photo at the top of this post was taken in about 1904, they had had 19 children (the last born in 1902) and had been married nearly 30 years. They were still in their 40s, although these rather blurry images taken from the larger photo make them look older:

21 children: What do the records say?

The decennial censuses of England and Wales at Ancestry.co.uk, The Genealogist (and other sites) are a good place to trace a family over time. The first census taken after their marriage in 1874, was in 1881. James and Alice are living at 43 Herman Road, Camberwell. James is working as a bricklayer’s labourer, and they are shown with five children aged six months-6 years. Ten years later, they are at 44 Bowles Road (which may be the same address given road and house number changes), and their family has grown to include 11 children, aged 6 months-16 years.

At the time of the 1901 census, their address is once again at Herman Rd (but no.44). James is said to be aged 49, a Builder’s Labourer, and Alice, 43. Listed with them are 13 of their children, aged between 5 months and 23 years, along with a lodger, 22 year old James Mayers, who married their daughter Emma Mary Ann a few months later. Their eldest children, Alice Caroline and James Aaron had both married in the previous year. So this would suggest that by 1901, the couple had had 15 children in all.

Sadly their son Richard Henry (b1890) died in August 1904, just a few months after the ‘Edwardian family photo’ is thought to have been taken, of septic arthritis in his right elbow and an abscess on the lung. He was just 14 years old. It’s likely – although not confirmed – that he was one of the boys seated at the front left in the photo.

By the 1911 census, Alice had died (in 1907) and James Thomas Stocking filled in the census form that year as a widower:

Although the enumerator has crossed through in red the details of the number of children born and died, we can clearly see that James has noted that he had had 19 children, three of whom had died by the census date. This information was only required of married woman, but many widowers completed the form with this detail anyway. In 1901, the youngest child was Violet, 5 months, but she does not appear with the rest of the family in 1911 (she was living or staying with her brother John and his wife); one more child has been added – Alexander, aged 8 in 1911, so born around 1903.

The censuses between 1881-1911 name 16 Stocking children. So who were the others? Searching for the birth records helped to fill in the gaps, at first using FreeBMD to find children registered with the Stocking surname in Bermondsey and nearby between 1874-1907, and double-checking the mother’s maiden name (Wales) in the records at the GRO’s website. I was able to find the birth/baptism records for what I thought were the 19 children born to James Thomas Stocking and Alice Mary. However, I was wrong!

A daughter – Mary Ann Susan was born between the censuses in 1895 (her birth registered in the March-June quarter that year). She died in 1896, buried on 18 January 1896 in Southwark. I thought I had found another daughter, Violet, who also died as a young baby, her birth registered in October-Dec 1899, and her burial taking place on 21 November that year. The third child to die before 1911 was Richard Henry (mentioned above), who died when he was 14. BUT, I didn’t check my facts enough. When I ordered Violet’s birth and death certificates, I found that she was in fact the illegitimate daughter of Emma Mary Ann Stocking, born on 10 October 1899 at 44 Herman Road. She died there aged just five weeks from acute bronchitis. I clearly had NOT checked the mother’s maiden name in the GRO index for this entry. Who was the missing child? That’s another story.

Remarkably for the time – and the area of London they were living in, 16 of their children survived to adulthood and most went on to marry and have children of their own. Not quite the 21 Christmas Stockings mentioned in Ron’s letter, but close enough. Ron Stocking died in 2005, his father Archie in 1961. Ron’s sister Joan had a son, Roy, my second cousin once removed, who was in touch towards the end of 2022 about our shared family history.

This photo from the London Image Archive shows adults and children on Bermondsey New Road at the turn of the century, close to the Stockings’ home in Herman Road – I don’t think any of them are from my family, but this might have been a scene familiar to them at the time.

The first 18 known Stocking children: the full list

The 19 (verified) children of James Aaron Stocking and Alice Mary née Wales were as follows. Interestingly, most of them seem to have had relatively small families:

• 1. Alice (Mary Ann) Caroline 1874-1928 (Hat Trimmer)
  • m. William Schofield (Brushmaker) 1900. Two children.
• 2. James Aaron (Jim) 1876-1939 (my great grandfather)
  • m. Susan Caroline Hill 1900. Three children.
• 3. Emma Mary Ann 1877-1939 (Corset maker)
  • m. James Mayers (Labourer) 1901. Emma had an illegitimate baby who died in infancy, otherwise no known children.
• 4. Harriett Elizabeth 1879-1945
  • m. Alfred Edmund Ilott Bishop 1899 (Carman). Ten children.
• 5. William Henry 1880-1966 (House Decorator)
  • m. 1905 Rosina White (Boots Dresser). Five children.
• 6. John Arthur (Jack) 1882-1957 (Telephone Jointer)
  • m. Hannah Lewis. No known children
• 7. Aaron Archibald 1883-1917 (Gas Fitter). Military Medal
  • m. Emma A. Flack 1915. One son born posthumously, father Killed in Action
• 8. Catherine Alice (Kate/Kit) 1885-1965 (Shirt Machinist)
  • m. Charles Hall (Engineer’s Fitter, LCC Trams) 1908. Three children.
• 9. Elizabeth Bridgetina (Lizzie) 1886-1960 (Gent’s Hat Trimmer)
  • m. Arthur William Evans (Hot Water Fitter) 1910. One child (died in infancy).
• 10. Lavinia (Lily) 1888-1968
  • m. Frederick Monk (Card Cutter) 1909. Five sons.
• 11. Mary Alice 1889-1889. The missing child.
• 12. Richard Henry (Dick) 1890-1904. Died aged 14.
• 13. Annie Louise 1892-1975 (Collar Turner)
  • m. Francis Turner (Bus Driver) 1918. Two children.
• 14. Archibald David (Archie) 1894-1961 (Heating Engineer)
  • m. Jane Louisa Isabella Crofts 1917. Three children.
• 15. Mary Ann Susan 1895-1896. Died before the age of one.
• 16. Susan Caroline (Sue) 1896-1971
  • m. (1) Frederick Thomas Smith 1920. (Fitter’s Mate). At least one child.
  • m. (2) Harry Catlow 1933. One child.
• 17. Alfred Edmund Ilott 1898-1978 (Fitter’s Mate/Carpenter. Military Medal)
  • m. Ada Delcie Styles 1923. Two children.
• 18. Violet Rose May Ivy 1900-1963
  • Albert James Golder 1928 (Stock jobber). One child died in infancy.
• 19. Alexander Edward 1902-1971 (Career soldier)
  • m. Florence Carlow 1924. One child.

I’ve researched some of their lives in more detail including some of the boys’ service in World War I and WW2 (follow the links in the list above).