52 Ancestors 52 Weeks: Week 12. Loss. WILLIAM & ELIZA PITTS

This is the story of my Great Grandparents, who experienced so much loss within their lives, not least the death of 4 sons before reaching adulthood and ultimately their marriage to each other.

WILLIAM RICHARD PITTS, the eldest son of Thomas and Esther Pitts of Sherborne Gloucestershire, b. 11 Sept 1876 married ELIZA DEANEY, the daughter of Frank and Ann Deaney nee Dean of Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire b. 5 April 1878.

From the agricultural rural areas of English countryside by 1900,William  had found his way to London, probably to obtain work. On thE 4th August 1900 William and Eliza were married at Eliza's local parish church in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Little Missenden Church British History Online

                                             

                                                                                            crown copyright.

Married life started in Paddington, in the 1901 census they are living at Hall Place in Paddington, William is working, labouring on the roads.

On the 29th August 1901 their first son, RICHARD THOMAS FRANK PITTS was born. He was baptised at Little Missenden Church on the 8th Sept 1901, this document suggests that the family have now moved to West Kilburn, although William is still working as a general labourer.

 

Sadly on 16th Oct 1906 Richard Thomas Frank Pitts died aged 5 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. His father William was with him at the time of his death. Richard died of 'Lymphatism Syncope.'

A definition for this specific diagnosis could not be found, but Lympatism is described as:- Enlargement or swelling of the lymphatic tissue, associated in the past with the sudden death in children, but no longer considered to be an authentic ailment.

Syncope:- is a temporary loss of consciousness usually related to insufficiant blood flow to the brain. It's also called fainting or passing out. It most often occurs when blood pressure is too low and insufficient oxygen flows to the brain.

After the birth of Richard, a daughter, ALICE ESTHER EMMA PITTS was born on 29th June 1903. Alice recalled happy childhood memories in Penn, Bucks, but it would appear that the family home remained in the London area. On the 1906 death certificate of her brother, Richard, her father was working and living as a caretaker/housekeeper at 28 Bowmans Buildings, Marylebone

Bowmans Buildings was indicated as an Artisans building, this was developed from the Artisans and Labourers Dwelling Improvement Act of 1875 an act passed by Disrali's government, allowing local councils to buy up areas of slum dwellings in order to clear them and rebuild.

A report within the Wellcome Library published by the Medical Officer of Health for Marylebone in 1905 showed that a total of 354 people were living in Bowman Buildings at the time, 191 adults and 163 children, being one of the newer dwellings it showed a below average morbidity rate as against older style areas, with 4 deaths recorded for that year.

By the 1911 census 2 further children had been born, two boys, FREDERICK WILFRED JOHN PITTS in 1905 and STANLEY JOSEPH JACKSON PITTS in 1908 and they were living in Harrow and William is employed as a 'Horsekeeper for a butcher'.

 

Another son. WALTER WILLIAM BRAMWELL PITTS, was born in 1913, followed by WILLIAM CHARLES REGINALD PITTS on the 11th Sept 1915. 

The family were completed when a daughter, MAUDE ETHEL DOROTHY PITTS was born in 1917.

But the year before. in 1916, another setback struck the family, with the background of World War One, William senior was working for the war effort as a labourer in an aircraft factory. Their son FREDERICK, aged 10, was accompanied by Eliza and admitted to Edgeware Workhouse, Hendon on March 25th 1916 with a diagnosis of 'Feeble Minded'. 

Edgeware Workhouse c.1905 www.workhouses.org.uk 

1918 proved to be a bad year for the Pitts/Deaney family. Initially seeing that 2 sons died in that year and knowing they were too young to have gone to war, I assumed that they died of the Pandemic of the time, Spanish Flu. However on obtaining documents related to this the story becomes increasingly sad.

 FREDERICK didn't leave the workhouse, he died on 20th July 1918 of Heart Failure/Dropsy.

 

Four days later his brother WALTER also died at the family home, in Willesden, Menengitis being recorded as the cause of death. William's sister, Sarah, who was married to Eliza's brother, Charles, was present at the time of his death. 

The next event in the Pitts household occurred in 1924, when their son STANLEY died. Looking at the death index his death was registered in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire and yet the family were living in the Willesden area.

 STANLEY died as an inpatient at Stoke Park Colony, Stoke Gifford, on 18th Sept 1924 aged 16 of Pthisis (TB) of 15 days duration. The death was registered by the Assistant Matron.

Stoke Park Colony was established in 1909, for children with 'Mental Deficiancies' near Stapleton, Bristol. In 1924 there were 340 people living there.

 Children at Stoke Park Colony.

It is unknown when STANLEY was admitted to this Children's Home, but it would appear that family interraction would have been limited, whilst distance would have been a factor, this article would suggest that the institution restricted contact too.

Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain

By Deborah Cohen

Page 111/112:

There were of course , those patients whose families visited monthly or even weekly, though they became a small minority over the course of the 1920's and 1930's.

If parents visited less frequently, many institutions sought, for their own part, to limit familial involvement. Normansfield remained a privilidged place: a parent or any other authorised relative or friend could, with a weeks notice, visit almost any time, except Sundays. By contrast, at the Stoke Park Colony, founded in 1909 for the lifelong segragation of the mentally defective, only parents or near relatives over 16 years of age could visit. Patients could have no more than 2 visitors in one day, a visit could not exceed 2 hours. Requests to visit had to be made a week in advance and were not permitted on Saturdays or public holidays, meaning that parents who worked during the week were effectively barred from seeing their children regularly. Those parents who lived at a distance, as many of Stoke Parks families did, could apply to see their children on a Sunday, but no more than 4 times a year. Correspondence was similarly regulated. If families furnished them with stamps, patients who could write, always a small number, were permitted to send letters to their families once a month; however families were only allowed to request reports on their children  from the Colony's authority twice a year. With 1700 patients in residence, Stoke was the largest of Britains hospitals for the Mentally Defective, but not the most regimented.

The family began to fragment around the 1930's. My mother recalls my Grandmother talking about a sister who ran away when she was young, She never mentioned the brothers who had died and as a family we were only aware of her brother Bill, who had a Grocery store in Rickmansworth. 

Working through the electoral rolls William and Eliza remained together at 49 Denbeigh Rd Willesden, until 1931, when Eliza has moved in with her daughter Alice and her husband in Harlesden, whilst William is living in Hendon with MAY VICTORIA BLANEY, b.1892, and her father. These address areas remain fairly constant and then in 1935 a divorce petition was filed by Eliza against William on the 8th October, for desertion in July 1930 and committing adultury with May from that time. The divorce was granted on 22nd April 1936. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of the divorce as the National Archive had retained a copy, possibly as it is an example of what was known as a 'Poor Persons Divorce.'

In 1914 poor persons possessed of less than £50 (excluding clothes and trade tools) or a woman earning less than £2 a week, could be given the services of a solicitor and counsel without charge, providing that the out-of-pocket expenses of the solicitor and witnesses were paid. Eighty-eight did so that year. This effectively reduced the cost of a divorce to less than £10. By 1920 some forty per cent of divorces were thus assisted. The remainder normally cost about £50 to £60.

It was, however, only in July 1923 (following the failure of many marriages during the First World War) that a divorce could be granted on the petition of the wife solely because of her husband’s adultery. 

www.familysearch.org: Divorce in England and Wales

Following their divorce, it was in fact Eliza who married first, the decree absolute was completed in Novemeber 1936 and before 1936 was out, became the third wife of HARRISON ROBERT PETER SWATRIDGE b.1884. 

 

It appears that May and William were reluctant to marry until they were certain that her 2nd husband Joseph Henry Blamey had died. They married in 1941 and had one daughter, PAMELA V BLANEY/PITTS, born in 1931.

 

The embroidered pages are work completed by the author and are part of a family fabric book.