Person:George Gates (46)

George Gates' origins have yet to be established. He claimed to have been born around 1788 at Sewell, a hamlet in the parish of Totternhoe, Bedfordshire. His first confirmed sighting is on 28th February 1810, when he married Eleanor Turnham (known as Nelly) at Totternhoe.

George and Nelly went on to have five children together between 1810 and 1821. Their eldest child was baptised in the neighbouring parish of Houghton Regis, and later gave her birthplace as Thorn, a hamlet in Houghton Regis parish which is quite close to Sewell. Nelly and George's younger four children were all baptised back at Totternhoe. George worked as an agricultural labourer.

Nelly died in 1836, aged 45.

George appears in the 1851 census living with his daughter (by then a widow herself) and grandson at Totternhoe. He died in 1860, when he was said to be 72 years old.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1757; Folio 11; Page 15, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: Totternhoe, Bedfordshire
   George Gates, head, widower, male, 62 [1788/9], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], b. Sewell, Bedfordshire
   Eliza Snoxell, daughter, widow, female, 40 [1810/11], Straw Plaiter, b. Thorn, Bedfordshire
   Enoch Gates, grandson, unmarried, male, 19 [1831/2], Straw Plaiter, b. Totternhoe, Bedfordshire

2. ↑ Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. George GATES, March Quarter 1860, Luton Registration District, Volume 3b, page 307, aged 72 [1787/8]