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Notes on the Bayliss, Hems and Flanders Families
The following notes and writings were provided by another of my relatives (Linda Dunning) who has been carrying out research on my maternal grandmothers side of the family. They range from personal memories to published
information:
1 Bayliss family – memories by Grace Bayliss
2 Post Office London Directory 1867 – Bayliss & Bayliss entry
3 Jane C E Hems – memories by Grace Bayliss
4 Hems and Bayliss - memories by Grace Bayliss
5 The Tragic Life of Thomas and Emma Hems - attributed to Jessie Bayliss
6 The Will of French Flanders
Bayliss family, we never knew them.
As I remember it there was -
Grandad Ted (Edward) Bayliss
Grandmother, didn’t know her name
Four sons – Ted, George, Harry, John
Several daughters, I never knew names
Came from Staffordshire.
[Comment: Ted (Edward) Bayliss is a bit of a mystery as Grace’s grandfather was James Bayliss. Also the mention of Staffordshire is also incorrect, the Bayliss’ came from Worcester]
Had a good business called Bayliss & Bayliss, iron and steel, made all kinds of machinery. Invented the Fan Draw Close Up Gate, went on wheels on bottom, pull along open and shut. Most stations had them at entrance. Years back they employed lots of men, lost the business through drink.
There were big gates at Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate Street railway stations. As a treat us kids were taken to see the gates at the station that grandad had made. On the way home as a treat we had ¾ lb of toffee for 1d, that was a days outing and toffee treat for four kids.
Anyway none of our family had any benefit of these two big businesses / all lost over drink.
Lucy - a fat woman, lived in Pitfield Street, never went out.
George and wife Charlotte lived in the Avenue, had three children Jim, Rose, Charlotte.
Harry and wife Esther, worked at City of London College, lived in Falkirk Street; Hoxton market.
Edwin lived in Styman Street, had five children one of which Connie brought up family because her mother had died in childbirth.
Grandmother Bayliss had dropsy, was in workhouse in Shepherdess Walk, died there.
[On a separate piece of paper Grace had written virtually the same notes except for the following which obviously refers to Edwin and his family]
Uncle Ted married, had 5 girls 3 sons. 1 son was a sailor (eldest) he got blown up in first war, Warship (Bulwark). Left 4 children baby twins & eldest daughter Aunt Carey. She brought up all the family of Ted, her Dad; mother died in childbirth. Son George & his wife Charlot had 2 girls 1 boy. They lived near us. I knew them. Uncle Harry married 2 sons 1 daughter, I hardly knew them. Harry & Ted worked with my Dad at City of London College, Dad was over them.
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The following comes from the POST OFFICE LONDON DIRECTORY 1867 regarding the Bayliss business:
Engineers and contractors, manufacturers of fish bolts,
fancy bolts, chair spikes and railway fastenings of every description, rivets, brobs,
machine and hand made nuts, iron hurdles, patent continuous flat and round bar
fencing, all kinds of standards for wire fences for railways, colonial sheep
runs, telegraph posts, railway crossing field and entrance gates, crane chains,
cable chains, rigging chains, anchors, iron tanks etc.
84 Cannon St. E.C.
and Victoria Works, Monmore Green Wolverhampton.
Moses Bayliss
Bolt and chain manfr. See BJ&B
[The PO London Directory for 1893 has the same entry but the address is 139-141
Cannon Street EC1]
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Grandmother Jane C.E. Hems owned a house in Styman Street, also a pony & trap. Was ill with rheumatic fever and had to go into infirmary. While she was there her first son Walter sold her house and so she had to go into the workhouse. Always walked on crutches, arthritic. Very good needlewoman, would do all the mending and needlework for the workhouse, would crochet for the children (grand). Spoke Welsh when she was in a temper. She
was in the workhouse Land of Hope’ Hoxton Market – St Leonards. Died of a heart attack in first world war.
Thin long face.
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In long piece of writing Grace wrote further about the Hems and Bayliss families. I have edited it where necessary to make reading easier although the grammar and spelling are basically unchanged.
Grandad Hems (well off) had decorating business, employed
lots of men. Done these posh ceilings (fancy stuff) like these mansion homes
have & churches. Big buildings which have drop flowers & fancy statues.
This he lost all through drink. Paid his men wages three [?] etc.
This granddad, I never knew. My mother used to tell me he
used to come home Sat eve drunk. In those days they worked all day Sat to g…[?]
10oc. Well my Gran had her own little house, pony & trap which
in those days you were well off if you had that. So my mum & her sister
Jenny [I presume she means Jane], used to have the trap ready & have to
watch out for him coming home if drunk. Then Mother & them used to hop off
& go to Ongar, a little village in Essex, it took all day to get there. My
Gran & children used to stop there for a week, until he sobered up (lady
they stayed with had a tiny cottage, & made toffee which she sold in the parlor
window. They called her Toffee Grandmother).
In the end, my Gran turned Grandad out & my mum says he
was in lodgings at Kings Cross & he used to pester Grandmother & she
wouldn’t have anything to do with him. So while out shopping in the market up
he comes again & he pushed her into a big box of eggs (in those days, also
mine, big boxes of eggs used to rest against outside of shops). The police was
called & he was run in but he was let off on condition he let her alone
& she never saw him again & no one knew the end of him, so none of our
family knew him.
Now, my mothers brother Tom, he married had 1 son. Knew him
a little, sister Jenny, married a Irishman name Wogan, a dock policeman always
drunk so he got the sack. They used to come to our house a lot, they ended up
in the workhouse. Aunt Jenny smart pretty woman, wasn’t going to stand for that
so she got a job stitching & a room & got the kids out one by one. When
the 2 eldest grew up, eldest son was a butler & the daughter was a maid to
a Lord & Lady of a big mansion. When she left the place, got married to a
Irishman. I was the only bridesmaid & they opened a pub, at High Wickmon.
That was the end of them.
Then came Uncle Charly, my mums brother. He was a bachelor
a posh man, manager of Willings bill-posting of London. Stayed at home with
his mother, my nan, until she fell ill heart arthe*tus [?]. She went into
hospital & while there he sold the house & contents, went into lodgings
& Gran had to go into the workhouse attached to the Hosp. They call it in
those days the “Land of Promise”. She was on crutches after that & come
out 1 day a fortnight to us. The other Friday afternoon, we stay away from
school & go with mum to see her.
All the old ladies sat on long wooden forms & long
wooden tables, all scrubbed all white. They all had dark grey dresses &
white overalls on & at 3.30 afternoon, up came great trays of dirty looking
water supposed to be tea in earthenware mugs no handles, like farm yards,
shoved up the table (almost thrown) 2 doorsteps of thick marge bread. That was
there tea & supper combined. Couldn’t ask for more, that was there lot.
Only my Gran was expert sower, patch sheets mend the clothes
& patch nurses clothes etc she got extra slice. We used to take things in
like sweets, sugar for tea, biscuits a cake or two & a little drink in a
small bottle. We had to be careful as there was a big 6 footer fat sister on
the door & she felt you all over & took away anything she fancied. My
mum used to put the small whisky inside her hat. She used to wear her hair, a lot
of it, in a bun & her large hat stood on top of it she wedged the bottle in
it. She was afraid to move her head. Anyway after several of us went out to
work my mum had her out to live with us & Friday nights after our bath, in
a big old tin one, she used to plait & curl our hair up with long strips of
rag we used to love that.
Anyway that all came to an end, the war was on & we had
2 beds in our room, 3 of us in one bed and Gran in another, & we had a
fright. A knock on the door & in came in a soldier and policemen with a
gun, thought we were spys, shining light from the window. It was a Japanese
colour glass stuck in plants on window sill, & moon was out & wind
blowing it. Gran had heart attack, the shock killed her. Well it all scared
us the soldier coming in with a gun.
Anyway her son Charlie that done the dirty on her he had his
deserts. He had a shock when my brother Jack got killed in that war, he
thought the world of him & he lost interest went down, down, ended up in a
doss house called (Rowen House) Kings X where all the down & outs go &
he died. At one time he used to come up our house every Sat dinner time &
if my mum was shopping & we had our jobs to do, perhaps my sister Elsie had
just cleaned the kitchen, well he used to go round the fietule [?] houses &
get all the fag ends & undo them in our kitchen and all the mess would be
on the floor after being cleaned. Well he hit my Elsie, because we shouted at
him & she poured a cup of tea all over his head. When my mum came in he
told his tale & we all cop out. He used to sell the bacca to his old men
at the doss house. Well that’s him.
Then the youngest my mum, she got wed quite a girl I gather.
Her people was against it as he was a bugger, he got run over by a hansom cab
in the city & left his hand bent & you knew it when he hit you. He was
born in Frying Pan Alley the back of St Pauls. All those born in that centre
city had a few shillings pension, left from a wealthy man of the City in his
will, but my dad never claimed it too proud, & I remember them rowing over
it.
Well he also, & others, beted 1d penny each to crawl on
a pipe that went over the Thames, he fell in & was got out in time. Then
he used to pester my mother, coming out of work. She worked at box making,
also her trade was brush drawing, putting the bristles in. I remember her
doing that at table & rocking a baby on her lap. She had 9 children &
lost several before birth. They recon heavy work done it, washing for lots of
people.
My eldest brother was John Robert, very clever. Mum done
all this work to keep him at school. He went to Cowper St High School in City &
killed at 24 yrs in first war.
Then Tomas Joesif he went to war also. He first worked in
Post Office messenger, then to Murdocks Piano House West End learning to be
accountant. He ended up with Billy Butlin in West End first then Bognor &
he died about 2 months after Wally [Grace’s first husband]. Then comes sister
Jessie Dorthy as you know she lives over Merton Park.
Then comes me which I think you know about. When I first
went to work it was at fancy dress hirings, such as tassels & covering
wooden balls like buttons with silk threads, 3/- per week & then I had to
clean toilet for that. Then war being on I gave that up and worked at making
machining kitbags, bomb web slings & net tents for the far east. I got
first week 1’7/6 per week, & mother bought me a black cousturn [costume?].
War over, I worked in City, on machines. They had me taught at a machine shop
Jones button hole machine, pleating machine, hem stitching, & embroidery
machine, done my own patterns. They called it Cornelly work years ago. They
had it on dresses & coats but to make dresses & coats that wasn’t for
me, didn’t like it.
Then when I went to live at Hainault from Hackney I went to
work at Taps & Dies engineering. Went on lots of machines, & I ended
up the last few years etching name & sizes on tools for several firms with
electric pen. That was a lovely job & I got good money, I was over 4
people I was there 21 yrs, & just as I should have had my dinner & gift
for 21 years they sold out to Thorns Tele people. I never left until I was 69,
when I got married to Wally.
My eldest sister Jess, her first job was at Figets Court
back of St Pauls, she made Garbows lace neck pieces like collars & a front
piece laid on chest. She got 5/- per week, was there a few weeks & it got
bombed to ground. Then she got into Post Office Wimpole St West. At that time
my dad left his job, London College, to work for the Post Office, Mount
Pleasant King X dead letter section.
My sister Emmy Louise she worked dress making, she had 1
child Joan. My brother George Henery, 2 yrs less than me, he was eleven he
worked in Hobon insurance office. The 3 months after I got married he went to USA,
got married out there, work for the same people he was accountant. Mary his
wife catholic.
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Thomas Hems married Emma Shrimpton on 7th August 1842 at St Leonards, Shoreditch. He was just 21 and she was only 20, a young couple, and they had 5 children in the following ten years.
He was a paper stainer like his brother Joseph & his
father, another Joseph Hems. But tragedy struck this happy family. First of
all in 1858 seven year old Sarah Ann their eldest child died, followed 2 months
later by baby John William. Then shortly after the birth of their youngest
child Elizabeth, Thomas the father & breadwinner of this little family died
of Phthisis [pulmonary tuberculosis] at only 33 years old.
Emma was left to cope as best she could but alas death
struck again. Elizabeth died in 1856 only 2 years old. Poor Emma, in three
years she had lost not only her husband but three of her children.
Some years later, when the eldest son Thomas Joseph reached
the age of 21 in 1866 he claimed letters of administration for his fathers
estate & those of his dead brother and two sisters. If Emma was still
alive then I do hope Emma was able to benefit from the money & didn’t keep
it all for himself.
What stories one discovers when researching Family History.
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In the name of God, Amen. I French Flanders formerly of
Norfolk Place, Curtain Road in the Parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch in the
County of Middlesex, PRESS MAKER, but now of Mansfield Street, Dalston in the
Parish of St, John at Hackney in the County of Middx aforesaid Gentleman.
Being of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding
do make this my last Will & Testament in manner and form following.
First I direct that all my just debts, funeral and
testamentary expenses be fully paid and satisfied with all convenient speed
after my decease.
I give, devise and bequeath the same and every parcel
thereof unto my son THOMAS FLANDERS and THOMAS JEFFERIES of RAVENSDEN in the
county of Bedford, Farmer, my executors upon trust for the sole and separate
use and benefit of my wife LUCY FLANDERS for the term of her natural life,
shall pay to or permit my said wife to have, receive take and enjoy the rents,
issues, dividends, interest, profits and annual proceeds of the whole of my
said real and personal estate and after the decease of my wife I give devise
and bequeath my estate in the following way.
I give and bequeath all of my Leasehold messuage or Tennant
with the appurtences subuate of 35 Gloucester Street, Hackney Road in the
parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green, Middx unto my daughter MARY wife of JOSEPH
HEMS, for and during the term of her natural life, to enjoy the same, receive
and take rents, issues and profits, for the sole and separate use and benefit
of my daughter notwithstanding her coverture and free and independent of the
debts, control or engagements of her present or any future husband, to her to
all intents and purposes as though she were sole and unmarried.
From and immediately after the decease of my daughter Mary
Hems, I give the same 35 Gloucester Street unto and equally between and amongst
all and every child of my daughter lawfully begotten, in equal shares and
proportions, share and share alike as tenants in common.
And I give, devise and bequeath unto my daughter Esther Bond
the wife of George Bond all that my piece or parcel of Freehold Land with the
two cottages lying and being at Eaton Socon in the county of Bedford, to have
and to hold the said to her heirs and assigns forever.
Also I give and bequeath unto my son Thomas Flanders the sum
of £300 now, £3-10s-0d per cent per annum, stock standing in my name and that
of my son Thomas, in the Books of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England
to and for his own absolute use and benefit.
And I also give to my daughter Mary Hems the interest,
dividends and annual proceeds of the sum of £100 - £3-10s-0d per cent per annum
stock standing in my name and that of my son Thomas Flanders in the stocks of
the Governor of the Bank of England, the said sum of £100 stock to be
transferred and to stand in the names of my executors, and the said Mary Hems
after my decease to have and hold the dividends, interest and annual proceeds
of the £100 stock unto my daughter Mary Hems for and during her lifetime as
though she were sole and unmarried. And after the decease of Mary Hems to be
shared equally amongst her lawfully begotten children.
Also I give and bequeath unto my daughter ESTHER the wife of
George Bond the sum of £100 - £3-10s-0d per cent per annum stock standing in my
name and that of my son Thomas Flanders in the books of the Governor and
Company of the Bank of England, to and for her absolute use and benefit. As to
the Rest Residue and Remainder of my estate, I give and bequeath equally
between my son Thomas Flanders, my daughter Mary Hems and my daughter Esther
Bond.
In witness I the said FRENCH FLANDERS set my hand this 25-9-1841
Witness James Bryant Surgeon 175
Kingsland Rd
E. Wm. Bark 105
Shoreditch
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