My 2xgreat grand uncle started life with a slight identity crisis, being baptised Frederick William on 10 March 1861 (exactly a month after his birth), but named as Frederick James Stocking when his birth was registered. Nothing too mysterious there. But I struggled to fully identify the woman who was to be his wife, and the girl who appears to be their first (illegitimate?) daughter … both called Rose.

Childhood and marriage

Frederick was the fourth son and sixth child of my 3xgreat grandparents James Stocking and his wife Mary Ann Collins. His baptism (below) at St Mary Newington shows that he was initially named Frederick William, but by the time his birth was registered, he was Frederick James.

By the time he was 20, still living at home at 24 St Thomas Street, Bermondsey when the 1881 census was taken, he was working as a Labourer, although the census does not tell us for whom. So far, all seems fairly straightforward with his life, following a similar pattern to his siblings.

On 5 February 1883 he married Rose Wallen at the Church of All Saints, Walworth, London. The copy of the marriage register (London Metropolitan Archives via Ancestry) confirms that the groom is the son of James Stocking, his siblings Henry Stocking and Mary Ann Ward are witnesses. The bride is just 19 years old (born 1864), the daughter of a Carman, Henry Wallen. Her address is given as 6 Aylesbury Street. Neither bride nor groom could write their names.

Family name puzzles

At the time of the 1891 census, the couple are living at 28 Alfreton Street, St George the Martyr, London. Frederick is listed as James Stocking, a Builder. Rose’s birth year and birth place are shown as 1865, St George’s East. They have four children: Rose (9), James (7), Henry (5) and Frederick (4 months). To check that this ‘James Stocking’ is really Frederick James, I searched for the children’s birth registrations on the GRO to confirm their mother’s maiden name (MMN), starting with the youngest, Fred junior. Clearly her former surname Wallen was open to much interpretation, as the children’s birth registrations show:

Name	Quarter/Year	MMN	GRO Ref
Frederick Alfred Arthur	Mar 1891	Warren	1d 208
Henry Richard	Dec 1886	Walling	1d 136
James Frederick	Jun 1884	Walley	1d 203

It seems, however, that their eldest child, Rose Mary Stocking, was actually born before their early 1883 marriage. Her birth registration shows a number of anomalies (not least that her parents were married):

Her birth date is given as 23 July 1882, at 315 Weston Street. Her father registered the birth, giving his name as Frederick Thomas Stocking (a third variation), her mother’s name as Rose Elizabeth Stocking, formerly Walley.

Rose’s maiden surname also made it difficult to trace her in earlier censuses and birth/baptism records. In 1881, there is a Rose Wallen lodging at 24 Nelson Street, Bermondsey, with a James Pilgrim, a Carman, and his family. She is 19 (born 1862) and said to be born in London. At 37 Nelson Street, on the same census, we find Henry Waller, ‘Carman, Railways’, born in Hornsey around 1828, with his Irish wife Maria and a 24 year old son ‘Rodie C Waller’, born in Lambeth. It seems likely that these are her family, although I have found no birth registration nor baptism for her (under first and second name variations) in the 1860s, and no other sightings of any of the family in earlier UK censuses.

Painting, decorating and building, and more name variations

We can trace Frederick’s career in the building and decorating trades through the censuses and other records. Just a labourer on the 1881 census, by the birth of his daughter, he is more specifically a Builder’s Labourer, although back to a simple Labourer at the time of his marriage in 1883. By 1891, he is described as a Builder; ten years later, he is a House Decorator (Paint). They have added two more children to the family – Ellen (actually Elizabeth Ellen, born 1892, MMN Warren) and William (William Robert, born 1895, MMN also Warren). Their mother’s year and place of birth are 1863, St Luke’s.

By the 1911 census, the family is at 33 Leroy Street, off Tower Bridge Road. Frederick, aged 50, is a Builder’s Labourer, while Rose is 46 (b.1865), born in Clerkenwell. They state they have been married for 30 years (actually 28), and have had ten children, all still alive. All but one are still living at home, including the eldest, Rose Stocking, now 29 and a Solderer. The four youngest children are Alfred Charles William (b1897), Percy Frank (b.1900), Catherine Florence (b1905) – all registered with MMN Walling – and Albert, registered in 1906 with MMN Walby!

The 1921 census at FindMyPast finds them still in Bermondsey, but now at 105 Barlow Street. Frederick is a Labourer for Mr E Cole of 78 Tulse Hill, while son Henry is a Paper Hanger for the same firm. Rose’s birth year and place have changed yet again, to 1861, Islington. Five of their children are still single and at home, including 38 year old Rose Mary Stocking, who is working as a Solderer still, for Mr Wyatt of 69 Tanner Street.

Wyatt & Co of Tanner Street were well-known Tin Box Manufacturers, with premises close to London Bridge station, according to this blogpost from Know Your London. Written in 2016, the author advises that the premises are about to be demolished to make way for a new housing development, having been an antique furniture shop for some years.

Frederick’s occupation on his children’s baptism records varies from Builder’s Labourer to Painter/Decorator, House Painter; on his son’s marriage record in 1916, he is a House Decorator.

A few months after the 1921 census was taken, Frederick Stocking of Barlow Road, Walworth, is mentioned in local newspapers on 25 November 1921:

Mr Stocking, it was stated, was riding on the top of an omnibus in Albany Road, Old Kent Road, and rang the bell. The vehicle slowed up, and he was alighting, when the conductor, who was inside collecting fares, again pulled the bell and Mr Stocking was thrown in the road and injured.

Forest Hill & Sydenham Examiner, 25 November 1921. FindMyPast (British Newspaper Archive)

He was awarded £100 damages against the London General Omnibus Company at Southwark Crown Court. The nature of his injuries is not reported.

Later lives

Both Frederick and Rose lived to be Old Age Pensioners, as they are described in the 1939 Register. Rose’s birthdate is shown as 25 May 1863, Frederick’s as 10 February 1861, consistent with his baptism record. They are both nearly 80 years old and are still living at Barlow Street, but at 103 rather than 105, four of their grown-up ‘children’ still at home: Rose (b23 July 1880), still working as a Solderer at Tin Works; Henry (15 September 1886) a Jobbing Builder; William (18 December 1894), a Wharf Labourer and ‘young’ Albert (31 August 1908 and by then 31 years old), a Ledger Clerk.

The death of Frederick Stocking was registered in Southwark in January 1940, and he was buried on the 29th of that month; he was 78 years old (although age at death is recorded as 79). There is a death index entry at the GRO for a Rose Stocking in the final quarter of the same year, aged 76.

Of their ten children, six married and between them produced 26 grandchildren.