‘Lizzie’ Stocking married Arthur William Evans in 1910, aged 23. They lived their married life in London, leaving little documentary record other than the death in infancy of their only baby, enumeration in the decennial censuses and long-term residence in Ringstead Road, Catford. There were, however, more convoluted connections between the Stocking and Evans families, as her story shows.

School to marriage

Elizabeth Bridgetina Stocking was born on 11 June 1886 and baptised at St Mark’s Camberwell a few weeks later, on 27 June. I don’t know where her rather exotic middle name ‘Bridgetina’ came from. A search at FreeBMD shows only ten birth registrations where this is a first or middle name between 1840 and 1921, with no particular clusters.

Extract from St Mark’s Camberwell parish register (Ancestry)

She was the ninth child (of 19) of my 2xgreat grandparents James Thomas Stocking and Alice Mary nee Wales.

Like her siblings, she was enrolled at Rolls Road School, being listed in the admissions books from 1890, by which time the family is at 44 Bowles Road. Aged 15 at the time of the 1901 census, recorded as ‘Lizzie’, she has no listed occupation. That same year, on 4 August 1901, again as Lizzie, she was one of the witnesses to her sister Emma Mary Ann Stocking‘s marriage to James Mayers, who seems to have been lodging with the family for some time previous.

She was 20 when her mother died, and presumably moved with her father and younger siblings to Catford. On 26 March 1910, she married Arthur William Evans at St George’s, Perry Hill, Catford. FreeReg has a transcript of the marriage which shows that he was 24 and she was 23. His occupation is described as Fitter, of 14 Beechfield Road, the son of Thomas George Evans, Skin Dresser. Her father is described as a Decorator, her address 18 Beechfield Road. The witnesses were her brother and sister-in-law, my great grandparents James Aaron Stocking and his wife Susan Caroline Stocking.

Married life and infant death

In the 1911 census, Arthur and Lizzie are enumerated at 14 Beechfield Road, next door to her father. She is working as a Gent’s Hat Trimmer and may have been working in the clothing industry like several of her sisters for the past decade. Given the size of the houses in the road, they are surprisingly the only household registered at no.14. Perhaps vacant rooms were waiting to be rented, as they are only occupying three rooms themselves. Google Street View shows nos. 14-16 as they are now.

After six years of marriage, their only child, a daughter named after her mother, was born. Baby Elizabeth Bridgetina Evans’ birth on 13 March 1916 was, it seems, a traumatic one. The baby died 14 days later of ‘injuries sustained during a difficult birth’ as well as of sepsis and convulsions. Her mother may well have suffered injuries and later ill-health as a result, and may not have been able to have more children.

Digital death certificate (GRO)

At the time of the baby’s death, they were living at 96 Ringstead Road, Lewisham. Two months later, the Conscription Act was amended to include married men. Arthur William Evans is too common a name for me to verify his army service without extensive searching, which I haven’t yet done, but he may well have had to join the army, like others in the family, even if only for home service.

In 1919, her father married for a second time, to his wife’s widowed sister, Margaret Emma Goodchild. Elizabeth Bridgetina Evans was one of the witnesses. Both her father and stepmother died within a short while of each other in 1920.

At the time of the 1921 census, they are still living at 96 Ringstead Road, Catford. Arthur William Evans is employed as a Pipe Fitter for W G Cannon & Sons, 107 London Road, Southwark. Sharing the household with them are his brother, George Evans, who is also a Pipe Fitter for the same firm, as is Boarder Fred Smith, who has a wife and one year old daughter.

They are still at the same address by the time of The 1939 Register. Arthur William Evans is described as a ‘Pipe Fitter, Heavy Worker’ as is his brother George, who is still living with them. Electoral registers show that they continued to live at 96 Ringstead Road throughout WW2 and the following decades. Arthur William Evans died on 26 January 1954.

Extract from probate calendar (Ancestry)

Probate of his estate was granted to his widow. She did not outlive him long, dying on 1 March 1960, her address still shown as 96 Ringstead Road. Probate of her estate was granted to John Edward Phipp, a Hot Water Fitter like her husband; he had married Arthur’s relative – possibly his sister – Violet Evans in 1938.

Extract from probate calendar (Ancestry)

Family inter-connections: Stockings, Hills, Evans

Lizzie Stocking’s marriage to Arthur William Evans was not the only connection between the two families, although possibly one of the more straightforward. Arthur’s widowed father, Thomas George Evans, married for a second time when his son was about ten years old. His bride on 26 May 1895 at All Saints, Stoke Newington, was widow Elizabeth Sarah Hill. Born Elizabeth Sarah Windebank, she was the widow of John Hill (1846-1891). They were my 2xgreat grandparents and parents of Susan Caroline Hill (1875-1951), who married my great grandfather James Aaron Stocking (1876-1939) in 1900. He, of course, was Elizabeth Bridgetina Stocking’s brother. So, Lizzie Evans’ brother’s wife was the daughter of her husband’s stepmother!