Person:William Timothy (7)

William Timothy's origins have yet to be established. The age given when he died suggests that he was born around 1760. Although all confirmed sightings of him are in the London area, it seems quite likely that he was from Wales, on the basis that his wife was from Wales and they had most of their children baptised at a Welsh-language chapel.

William's first confirmed sighting is on 14th July 1799, when he married Mary Davis at Shoreditch in Middlesex, just outside the City of London. He was described as a widower, although the details of his first marriage have yet to be established.

William and Mary went on to have seven children between 1802 and 1818, all born in the eastern suburbs of London. All their children born after 1806 were baptised at the Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel on Little Guildford Street in Southwark, which had opened in 1806. Although it was a couple of miles across London from their home to the chapel, they must have considered it worth the effort in order to attend services held in Welsh.

The family moved about frequently, and William did a variety of jobs. When their first two sons were baptised in 1805 they were living at 20 Church Lane in the parish of St George in the East and William was working as a labourer in the warehouses of the East India Company. When their daughter Mary was baptised in 1808 they were living at Gouldstone Street in Whitechapel and William was a milkman. They then lived for a time on Great Prescot Street in Whitechapel, where William worked a victualler, as recorded on the baptisms of their sons John in 1809 and William in 1811.

In 1812 the family suffered financial troubles; William was put into the King's Bench Prison in Southwark as a debtor, owing "£49 and upwards" to a Benjamin Pursell. He was sent there in September 1812 and appears to have stayed there for over a year, during which time Mary and the children would have had to support themselves by other means and would also have had to pay for William's upkeep in the prison. During 1813 the government passed "An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in England" (later termed the Insolvent Debtors (England) Act 1813), which created a new Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, giving a fairer mechanism for debtors to reach agreements with their creditors and be released from prison. William was one of many debtors who took advantage of the new system immediately after it came into force in December 1813. At the he was described as a cook, "late of Oxford Street" in Whitechapel.

After William's release, he and Mary went on to have two more children. They had another son called William (implying that the first had died young) in 1816, and a daughter called Eliza in 1818. Both were baptised in 1818, when the family was said to be living at Church Row in Stepney, and William was working again as a milkman.

William's elder two sons both married in 1822, and his first grandchild was born later that year. William had at least 8 grandchildren born in his lifetime, although one died young.

By 1838 the family had moved to 7 Mansion House Street (later renamed Cottington Street) in the Kennington area of Lambeth, in the southern suburbs of London. William died there on 9th November 1838, when he was said to be 78 years old. He was described as a gentleman, indicating that he had achieved a degree of affluence again by the end of his life. He was buried in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate in the City of London, where his eldest son lived. Mary survived him by nearly 22 years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Deaths register, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   Superintendent Registrar's District Lambeth / Registrar's District Kennington 1st Part
   1838 DEATHS in the District of Kennington 1st Part in the County of Surrey
   No.	When and where died	Name and surname	Sex	Age	Occupation	Cause of death	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   386	Ninth of November at 7 Mansion House Street Kennington	William Timothy	Male	78 years [1759/60]	Gentleman	Decay of Nature	Eliza Timothy Daughter Present at the death 7 Mansion House St[reet]	Thirteenth of November 1838	William Easter, Registrar

2. ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. St. Giles Cripplegate Church (London). Parish registers of St. Giles Cripplegate Church (London), 1559-1936. (London: London Metropolitan Archives).

   BURIALS in the Parish of ST. GILES, WITHOUT CRIPPLEGATE, in the City of London, in the Year 1838
   No	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   244	William Timothy	Kennington	November 18	78 [1759/60]	J.L. Haden

3.   London, England, King's Bench and Fleet Prison Discharge Books and Prisoner Lists, 1734-1862 (The National Archives / ancestry.co.uk)
   Piece 148: King's Bench Prison: List of Prisoners (1813).

   Prisoners Names: Timothy, William
   When Committed: 1 Sept[embe]r 1812
   At whose suit: Benjamin Pursell
   Sums charged with: £49 & up[ward]s

4.   England. The London gazette. (London, England)
   Page 2591, 21 Dec 1813.

   INSOLVENT DEBTORS.
   THE following persons being Prisoners for Debt in the respective Gaols or Prisons hereafter mentioned, and having been charged in custody, on the Sixth day of November one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, for the non-payment of a debt or debts, sum or sums of money, do hereby respectively give this public notice, that they intend to take the benefit of an Act, passed in the fifty-fourth year of His present Majesty's reign, intitled An Act for the Relief of certain Insolvent Debtors in England. And they do hereby give notice, that true and perfect schedules, containing discoveries of all their real and personal estates, hereafter to be sworn to, are now ready to be delivered to any creditors applying for the same, in manner as by the said Act is directed, to the Keepers or Gaolers, or their Deputies, of the said prisons.
   ...Prisoners in the KING's BENCH prison, in the County of Surrey...
   William Timothy, formerly of Great Prescot-street, late of Oxford-street, both in the parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel, in the county of Middlesex, cook.