Person:Arthur Odell (2)

Arthur Odell claimed to have been born in about 1873 at Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, although a birth or baptism record for him has yet to be identified. He was the son of Ann Odell, a straw plait sewer from Luton in Bedfordshire. Arthur and his mother did not stay long in Wolverhampton and moved to Luton where Ann went on to have a daughter named Mary Jane a couple of years later. In 1876, when Arthur was only about three years old, his mother married a bricklayer named William John Linney, after which Arthur appears to have taken his stepfather's surname.

Arthur appears in the 1881 census with his mother, stepfather and sister living in Luton. Some time between 1881 and 1891 the family left Luton and moved to the Hampstead area of London, where he appears living with his mother and stepfather and working as a bricklayer's labourer.

Arthur has yet to be traced for certain after the 1891 census, but he was probably still alive in 1905; when his mother died in 1905 the inquest heard that until about a month before her death she had been living "with a son in London", and Arthur is the only son Ann is known to have had.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 England. 1881 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands: . (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG11; Piece 1650; Folio 91; Page 18, 3 Apr 1881.

   Address: 47 Hitchin Road, Luton, Bedfordshire
   William John Linney, head, married, male, 24 [1856/7], Bricklayer, b. Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
   Ann Linney, wife, married, female, 32 [1848/9], Straw Plait Sewer, b. Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
   Arthur Linney, son, male, 7 [1873/4], Scholar, b. Wolverhampton, Staffordshire
   Mary Jane Linney, daughter, female, 5 [1875/6], Scholar, b. Luton, Bedfordshire

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 England. 1891 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG12; Piece 112; Folio 10; Page 13, 5 Apr 1891.

   Address: 13 Lowfield Road, Hampstead, London
   2 rooms occupied
   William Lenney, head, married, male, 32 [1858/9], Bricklayer, b. Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
   Ann Lenney, wife, married, female, 44 [1846/7], b. Luton, Bedfordshire
   Arthur Lenney, son, male, 20 [1870/1], Bricklayers Laborer, b. Wolverhampton