THE TREE
I started researching my family tree towards the end of 2002. It has been an exciting journey, 
I have met a lot of cousins I never knew before and had a lot of help. I am very grateful to 
everyone who has allowed me access to their research and allowed me to put their precious 
photographs on the tree.

MY SOURCES
If I show the full date for an event I have a copy of the registration certificate or the 
church record, if only a year is given then it is probably from the census and is approximate. 
Before 1752 the Church year started on 25 March and I have adjusted the dates of christenings, 
marriages and burials that fall between 1st January and 24 March in the years before 1752 to 
show the year as we calculate it now. 

MY SIXTEEN GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS
William COLE was an Agricultural Labourer born 1804 in Navestock, Essex, son of William Cole 
and Sarah SALTWELL. He married Rebecca DAVEY, daughter of Joseph Davey, a Haycarter and Woodman 
and Elizabeth Monk. William and Rebecca brought up their family in Navestock and then 
Doddinghurst, Essex.

George COLE was an Agricultural Labourer born about 1808 in Doddinghurst, a younger brother of 
William above. He married Susanna RILEY, daughter of Richard Riley, an Agricultural Labourer 
and they brought up their family in Doddinghurst. George and Susannah’s daughter Caroline 
married her first cousin Alfred Cole, son of William above, uniting my two Cole lines.  Alfred 
and Caroline worked for the Petre family estate at Ingatestone Hall, Essex and then around 1890 
they became caretakers at Eastbury Manor House in Barking, Essex where apparently Caroline saw 
ghosts!

Edward James PALMER was a Dock Labourer born about 1812 in Deptford. At that time Deptford was 
in Kent, later it became part of the London Borough of Lewisham. He married Elizabeth 
LANGSDALE, daughter of John Langsdale, a Carpenter, and they brought up their family in 
Deptford. Their son William was a Cook and Steward aboard the steamship 'Condor' which I 
believe went to and from New York. William married Charlotte Callow and eventually moved his 
family to the Barking/Ilford border around 1900 where they lived just a few streets away from 
the Cole family.

Edward CALLOW was a Baker, born 1821 in Dartford, Kent. After moving to Deptford he married 
Elizabeth Morris RANDALL daughter of Abraham and Charlotte Randall. Edward and Elizabeth 
brought up their family in Deptford and Greenwich. Their daughter Charlotte married William 
Palmer above.

George Frederick BRADLEY was a Ropemaker, born 1822 in Bermondsey, son of Stephen Bradley (a 
Granary Warehouseman) and Elizabeth Vizard. George married Mary Ann TURNER, daughter of William 
Turner a Cabinet Maker in the Royal Engineers at Brompton Barracks near Chatham Kent. William 
was born in Liverpool, married Jane Wallace in Manchester and spent most of his married life in 
Brompton, Kent. George and Mary Ann brought up their family in Chatham until about 1865 and 
then moved to Poplar in East London. Their son William, a Stevedore in the London Dockyards, 
married Mary Ann Appleton, daughter of George Appleton, a Mariner who lived in Limehouse. 
George and Mary Ann's sons George and Thomas emigrated to Australia and I am in touch with some 
of their descendants.

George Robert APPLETON was a Ship’s Stoker who was born 1848 in Shadwell, East London and lived 
in that area all his life. His father was Richard Thomas Appleton, a Mariner born in Gravesend. 
Earlier generations of Appletons lived in Harwich, Essex. George married Cordelia Jemima 
RAWLINSON, daughter of Frederick Rawlinson, a Mariner from Rochester, Kent, and Emma Bear (her 
father was a Shipwright from Chatham). George and Cordelia brought up their children in 
Limehouse, East London. They had 13 children of whom only 8 survived to adulthood.

Alfred DAVIS was born in 1829 in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. His father John Davis born in 
Ross-on-Wye was a Blacksmith who later became a Bookseller in Stroud and his mother was Sylvia 
Grist from Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Alfred came to London to work as a Gentleman’s servant and 
married Emma Margaret WELLMAN, a ladies maid who was the daughter of James Wellman, an 
Exciseman from Hoxton, London. Alfred established himself as a Rag Merchant and then a General 
Dealer in West Ham on the border of East London and Essex which was then a fast-growing urban 
area. He later built a house in Hastings, East Sussex, called Alfred Villa and retired there 
around 1900.

Robert WELCH was born about 1812 the son of Robert Welch, a Royal Navy Commander and Lucy 
Overy from Plymouth, Devon. He was a widower when he married twice-widowed Elizabeth LOWDELL, 
daughter of George Lowdell, a Ship’s Caulker at the Royal Naval dockyard in Deptford. Robert 
and Elizabeth lived in Poplar, East London, where they brought up two children.

OTHER FAMILIES
I have also included in the tree some members of the WALDIE, DUNCUMB and CLARK families into 
whom sisters of my Grandfather William BRADLEY married. There are also some of the 
TAMCKEN/WOSKETT families as some of my nephews are descendants via their mother (first wife of 
my youngest brother). 
Also the BLYTHE/CRAFER/HARRISON/PRATT (Norfolk) and the FRALEY/MERCHANT/JONES/HADNOT 
(Trowbridge, Shepton Mallet and Wales) families who are my son John's ancestors through his 
father's line.

My husband's KRISHNAN line from India are here too. The information is from family records and 
relatives' memories and dates have not been checked with official records which are not easily 
accessible. There are some interesting family stories about his maternal Granny presenting a 
bouquet to the Prince of Wales (later George V) on his visit to India in 1906 and the family 
have the Fleur de Lis engraved on their marriage necklaces to this day (I have one). A paternal 
ancestor was a Hindu priest and homeopath who cured the Rajah of Jaipur's son of a severe illness and 
earned the hereditary title of "Jaipur" which was last used by my father-in-law's generation. 
The priest was given a large property including a temple at Hanuman Ghat on the banks of the Ganges at 
Varanasi (Benares) by the Rajah. As he died childless one of his brothers claimed it and it passed into my 
husband's line. The house is still occupied by members of the family today.