My 3xGreat grandparents Aaron Wales and his wife, Catherine Alice Stoney, lived their married life in and around Bermondsey and Southwark, South London, close to the Leather Market – convenient perhaps for Aaron’s trade as Harness Maker and Saddler. He was originally from the Burnhams in Norfolk, but was in London by the time they married in 1849. After what seems a quiet life, in 1874, Aaron was tried for embezzlement and served nine months’ hard labour at Wandsworth Prison. How had he come to this, and how did Catherine and the rest of the family cope?

Married life in London

We know that my 2xgreat grandmother Alice Mary Wales’ parents were Aaron Wales, a Harness Maker, and Catherine, from information given on her baptism and marriage records. According to the 1861-1871 censuses, her father was born around 1827 in Burnham Market, Norfolk, while her mother was born around 1829 in Newington or Walworth. Their eldest child in the 1861 census was Margaret Wales, born in 1851, which suggests a marriage before then. Their marriage certificate, ordered from the GRO, shows that they married on 19 November 1849. Ancestry has a digitised copy of the marriage entry courtesy of the London Metropolitan Archives (extract below):

Aaron Wales was 21 or over (‘full’ age), while his bride was a minor. Aaron is a Saddler, son of another Aaron Wales, a Smith. Intriguingly, Catherine’s father is shown as William Moorhouse Stoney, Gentleman (but that’s another story). The names of the witnesses appear to be Eliza Denton/Dunton and G Cleaner? – the latter also witnessed another marriage so may have been a church official. Bride and groom give their address as Waterloo Road, and they married at St John’s Waterloo. The Greek Revival style church had opened twenty years earlier. Waterloo Station had opened nearby a year before the wedding, in 1848.

Two years later, the couple appears in the 1851 census at 13 Perseverance Street, Bermondsey:

Aaron Wales, aged 24 (b1827), Norfolk, Saddler, living with his wife Catherine, 22 (b1829), a Hat Trimmer, and daughter Margaret, 4 months. Also in the household on census night are Harriet Gant, 16, a Hat Trimmer from Burnham, Norfolk, described as ‘cousin’.

They lived at 13 Perseverance Street between 1850-1855, but had moved to 2 Cottage Row, Lock’s Fields by 1857, where Alice Mary Wales was born. They stayed there until at least 1862, but by the 1871 census had moved to Northampton Street, St George, Southwark. 

A crime in the family

Three years later, on 14 July 1874, my 3xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales was tried at Lambeth Court for embezzlement. The Calendar of Prisoners held at The National Archives and available at Ancestry and also FindMyPast shows that Aaron had been a trustee for a Friendly Society, and had embezzled funds for his own use:

He was found guilty and sentenced to nine months hard labour at Wandsworth Prison. 

The record of his discharge on 26^th April 1875 is at FindMyPast, and provides a physical description, including loss of weight between entering and leaving the prison:

 “Male, 47; 5′ 41 ½ “, Hair Brown, Eyes Lt Blue, Complexion Fresh, scar on nose. Harness Maker. Weight in: 11st 2lbs, weight out: 9st 13lbs. 9 months Wandsworth prison for embezzlement. CoE. Can read/write imperfectly”.

Wandsworth Prison Register of Prisoners. National Archives at FindMyPast. PCOM2 275

The regime at Wandsworth was notoriously harsh, so it is not surprising that he lost weight during the nine months of imprisonment. I haven’t been able to trace any further information about his crime or his time in prison (unfortunately, photographs of prisoners were only kept for 1872-3).

It must have been a difficult time for Catherine and their children. Unfortunately I haven’t found any newspaper reports of the trial, and do not know how he came to be a Trustee in the first place, nor the name of the Friendly Society, which might give more background. Just before he appeared in court, his eldest son Aaron William Wales got married, and while he was in prison, he missed the weddings of my 2xGreat grandmother, Alice Mary Wales, and his second son Benjamin Wales. Two months after the family no doubt celebrated his release, son Aaron died aged just 22 from a fractured skull suffered after falling from a cart going over London Bridge.

Family life after prison, and death

By the 1881 census, seven years after his release from Wandsworth, Aaron and Catherine have moved to 43 Bowles Road, next door to daughter Alice Mary and son-in-law James Thomas Stocking, in between daughter Alice and son Benjamin Wales and their growing families.

By the time of the 1901 census, Aaron Wales is in his early 70s, and still working as a Harness Maker. Their daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Henry Lancaster are living with them at 44 Herman Road, and the ever-expanding Stocking family of their daughter and son-in-law are still next door. It seems they were a close-knit family, and Aaron wasn’t abandoned by them because of his crime.

Aaron Wales died on 19 February 1907 at 43 Herman Road, of Senile Decay. His daughter, Elizabeth Lancaster, of 45 Herman Road, registered the death. He was buried at Camberwell Old Cemetery on 26 February 1907 (Square 7, Grave 20236, Memorial ID 218268429 – FindAGrave).