George Mobbs
[1829 - 1906] and Elizabeth Withers[1836 - 1923]
A
family tree prepared by Gladys Irene (Wren) Hart
confirms that these people were ancestors of John Hart.
Gladys recorded that George Mobbs was from
Buckingham(shire) and that Betsy Withers was from
Midlands(?). She indicated that their eldest daughter Mary
Elizabeth married Stephan Hart in Maidstone. With this
information we are able to positively find these people in
the census entries of Maidstone in 1881.
We have little family lore on this family beyond that
provided by Gladys (one wonders how and why she collected
this information?) However, with this information we are
able to create some understanding of the family by looking
at the various census records as well as the birth,
marriage and death records for England. (I have included
images of these records below)
George's childhood
We first find George in the census of 1841 where he is a
12 year old child living with his parents, Thomas and
Elizabeth Mobbs. The father is a 55 year old agricultural
labourer and the mother is 15 years younger at age 40.
George is one of six children listed in the census return;
he has four brothers (one older) and a sister.
Elizabeth's Childhood
Elizabeth appears in the 1851 census of England as a 15
year old child living with her parents Emma and George.
She is the oldest child living with the family at that
time, although the fact that her mother, Emma, is 34
and her father, George, 39, suggests that there may have
been older children in the family. It is interesting to
note that her father, George, is a printer born in
Middlesex, St. Johns Westminister. The children, including
Elizabeth, are indicated as being scholars -- they were at
school, which is again interesting as it indicates the
family were literate and concerned about the education of
their children, decades before general education was the
norm in England.
The marriage of George and Elizabeth 1Q1856, Southwark
The marriage of George and Elizabeth appears in the BMD
records in the first quarter of 1856 at St.George,
Southwark. Elizabeth uses the name 'Betsy' and is 20 years
old at the time. George is 27 as shown below:
As the BMD entry shows there are two females with the
name Elizabeth on this page; we can be sure that it is
Betsy Withers due to the family records passed down by
Gladys (Wren) Hart. We do not yet have the actual marriage
registration for this union.
The Family of George and Elizabeth
From the census and BMD records we are able to create the
following table of information on the family of George and
Elizabeth
| Name | Born | Married | Occupation | Date of Death |
Place of Death |
| Elizabeth Mobbs |
29 May 1858 Walworth, Middlesex |
Stephen Alfred Hart |
Compositor |
24 July 1946 |
Maidstone |
| Annie Mobbs |
1862/Walworth, Middlesex |
Q2, 1884?/Thomas Medhurst or John
Henderson |
|||
| Ellen Mobbs | 1864/Walworth, Middlesex |
Q1, 1881/Philip Hosmer in Maidstone |
Platelayer |
||
| Louisa Mobbs | 1869/Maidstone, Kent |
Q4, 1895/Charles Waters |
Navvy | ||
| Albert Mobbs | 1872/Maidstone, Kent | remained single, living with mother in
1911 |
Worked for railway in various jobs |
1915 at age of 43 |
Strood, Kent |
| Amy Mobbs | 1876/Maidstone, Kent | Q2, 1897/Lewis William Upton |
labourer, cement worker |
||
| Bessie Mobbs | 1879/Maidstone, Kent | Q3, 1900/Henry George Upton |
labourer | Q1, 1950, |
Bridgend, GLA, Wales |
From the census records below we see that George and
Elizabeth, although born in the Bletchley area, they were
married in London. It appears that George, though starting
life as a general labourer was able to gain employment as
a labourer on the railway. This led to moving to Maidstone
(which had signficant railway works) in the same capacity
and to later employment as a railway guard and porter in
Malling which is near Maidstone.
Census Records
George appears in all the census records from 1841
through 1901 (he died in 1906) and from these we are able
to trace his movements, his family composition and the
work that he did during his lifetime, as narrated above.
The census of 1841
The census of 1851
The census of 1861
The census of 1871
The entry for the family is spread across two pages of
the census
The census of 1881
The family located at 16 Prospect St. is next door
to the Thomas Hart household at 15 Prospect St. Although
the daughter Mary Elizabeth (who was almost 23 years old
by this time) is not living with the family, the
information on George Mobbs and his wife Elizabeth (Betsy)
corresponds. The information "Midlands" for Betsy's
birthplace is obviously a mistaken interpretation for the
actual birthplace in Walworth, Middlesex which was the
birthplace of Ellen and probably of her older sister Mary
Elizabeth. In fact, Betsy (nee Withers) was born in
Watford, Herts, on the northwest edge of the London
area.
The census of 1891
The census of 1901
The census of 1911
Birth, Marriage and Death Records
Both George and Elizabeth were born before the central registration system of 1837 so we have no possibility of birth registrations for them. From the census we have the names of the parents but not the maiden name of the mothers. Indeed the maiden name of Elizabeth is known to us with certaintly (at least initially) from the genealogical notes left by Gladys Irene (Wren) Hart.
The marriage record of George and Elizabeth would be obtainable (fairly easily but at a cost of several pounds) from the information provided by FreeBMD.
The 1911 census shown above indicates that Elizabeth was a widow at that time. George Mobbs appears in the death registries for 1906, dying in Malling, Kent at the age of 78 in the first quarter of the year. Again this record could be recovered. A death entry for Elizabeth in 2Q 1923 on FreeBMD