Some of this information is backed up by documentary evidence, and some is speculative.... read with caution!
John Sell married Sarah Knightly (?) and had several children, among whom was a son called Robert. Robert Sell married Hannah Gray on 9th January1792
Robert and Hannah had a son called Robert and a daughter named Hannah before a second daughter was born. Orpah Sell was born in about 1802 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. The name is taken from the Jewish bible, and was the name of a daughter of Ruth. She was baptized on 13th August 1802 and the family's address is given as Water Lane.
Orpah married George Jeffs, a butcher from Barking, Essex, had two children, Orpah who was born in 1826 and Eliza. Eliza, born in the winter of 1831, was baptized in St George in the East in Tower Hamlets on 23
rd January 1831.
St George in the East
By 1841, George had died (d. 29 November 1835), and Orpah, aged 35, lived with her two daughters, Orpha, (15) and Eliza (10) in Union Row, Tower Hamlets, Stepney, in the Mile End Old Town Lower district. George's death is registered in the records of Wycliffe Congregational Church, Tower Hamlets.
The older daughter, Orpah, got married on 23
rd July 1843, aged 17 to George Harvest, the boy from next door, where he lived with his parents and four sisters. They married in Spitalfields Christ Church with St Mary and St Stephen in Tower Hamlets. His sister Frances was one of the witnesses, and made her mark on the register, as she could not write. I had thought that George Harvest was born in 1824, the same as Orpah, but the marriage certificate records that he is 'of full age', while she is still 'a minor'. Of course, he could well have lied about his age, as many people did.
Christ Church, Spitalfields, London
Orpah and George Harvest went on to have four children, Mary, Percy, Jessie and George. The three older children were born in various places in Scotland and the north of England and George Edwin was born in Stepney. The reason the children were born in different towns is that George was an Excise Officer, and would have been required to move around for his work.George Edwin was the third member of the family to be called George, as George Snr's father was also called George, according to the marriage register. He was also an excise officer.
By 1851, Orpah Harvest was recently widowed and once again living with her mother in 40 Grosvenor Street, Stepney in the Mile End Old Town Upper district with her four children. Both mother and daughter are listed as being Seamstresses. They had one servant, the 15-year-old Margaret Kelly.
Eliza had married James Lightly in the church of St Philip the Apostle, Stepney on 11
th April 1849, aged 17 or 18, and moved in with his family in Croft (or Cross) Street in the parish of Holyhead on Anglesey, Wales. This registration district covered a wide area, and they actually lived in Amlwch. Anthony Hopper Lightly (James' father) and James are both registered as engineers, and would have worked in the mines, in the new shipyard at Holyhead (developed to service the growing trade with newly-created Northern Ireland) or even with Thomas Telford on the building of the Menai Bridge.
Anthony Hopper Lightly (James’ father) had been born in about 1796 in Lee , Northumberland to Mary Lightly and Peter Hopper. Although married in Gosforth, Mary had been born in Hexham, Northumberland to John and Elizabeth from that same town. John's father had been tenant farmer at Fallowfield farm, in the north of the county by Hadrian's Wall.
In 1851, the Lightly household consisted of Anthony, aged 56, his wife Anne (53, born in Durham), James (26), Eliza (now 20) and their daughter Anne Lightly (aged just 1 year old). They had one other person in their house at the time of the census, James' 18-year-old girl niece Grace Pratt, who is listed as a 'house servant' under 'occupation', but she may have been on a visit, this being her occupation when at home or in another house. They employed one servant, Margaret Lloyd, also 18. Anthony’s parents (his father, Anthony, and his mother) remained in Northumberland (?) with his sisters Elizabeth (born in 1791), Mary (1794) and Ann (1797).(SEE NOTE BELOW)
I wonder how they would have managed to communicate with the local population, considering the range of accents that must have been around, Anthony, Ann and James speaking with a Northumbrian accent, Eliza speaking Cockney, and the locals, presumably, having strong Welsh accents. Looking at their neighbours, I see that they lived next door to a Confectioner from Burton-upon-Trent in Nottinghamshire, and his lodger from Wiltshire who in turn lived next door to a Coach Guard from Derbyshire. The other side of the Lightleys was a widow from Glamorganshire, and next to her, a retired Irish gentleman.
Ten years later, in 1861, the Lightly family had moved back to London and were living at 28, Bright Road, Bow, Poplar in the parish of Bromley. Anthony and Ann were still alive, and although James had died in 1860 aged just 35, Eliza was still living with them. Also in the house were Ann, now 9, Anthony H (9), James (7) and George E. (5). They were joined in the household by Eliza’s mother, Orpah Jeffs, aged 59, who is listed as a lodger and assistant. Eliza and her mother seems to be the only wage-earners, with Eliza working as a grocer (?) and haberdasher.
The younger Orpah, still only 30, has been married again. She married Joseph Bushby on 14th March 1852, and had one daughter, named Eliza Jane Bushby. Sadly, by 1861 Joseph was dead and the widowed Orpah Bushby lives with her four Harvest children, and her daughter Eliza Bushby. They live at 6 Talbot Court, and although her two older children bring in a wage, Orpah has taken in a boarder to help pay the rent.Orpah is listed as being a vestmaker, Mary, aged 16, is a shopwoman and Percy, aged 15, is a draughtsman.
Eliza's daughter Ann Lightly married William West in 1869, although he either left, died or was working elsewhere by 1871.
In 1871, the census shows that Orpah (68) is still living with Eliza, but the only one of Eliza’s children still at home is George, who was still only 15. Anthony had become a teacher but died in 1869 by drowning in The Thames, and James was a pawnbroker. Eliza is listed as the head of the household in the parish of Bromley St Leonard. Also in the house is Annie West, aged 21. From subsequent census results, this seems to be Eliza’s daughter Ann, although the age is slightly wrong, being two years too old.
In 1881, Orpah, Eliza and Anne were still living together, now in 3 Bright Street, Bromley St Leonard. All three women are listed as having been married, although Anne now goes by the name of Lightly again.
By this time, Eliza’s son George had left home to live with his new wife, Georgina Newson, whom he married on 10th August 1878 at St Paul’s on Bow Common when Georgina was still only 15. They lived at 30 Great York Mews, Marylebone, and in 1881, Georgina gave birth to their daughter, Eliza’s grandchild, Gertrude Ethel Lightly, closely followed by a sister, Hilda in 1883. George had become a Scripture Reader, employed by local clergy to go from house to house reading parts of the bible to try and encourage people to attend church, and Georgina was a schoolmistress. (see below). George’s mother, Eliza, died in 1888.
By 1891 the much-reduced family had once more moved, this time to 5 Carlyle Terrace in Little Ilford, West Ham. Orpah, now 88, is the head of the household and O. Ann West in listed as her daughter, aged 41. This would make her the right age to be Eliza’s daughter, Ann Lightly. The dwelling was shared with Mr Hills and his wife. Orpah’s occupation is listed as ‘own’, showing that she was still independent up until her last years.
Orpah died in April of 1892 in West Ham at the age of 89, outliving her husband and all her children. Although she probably would have known her great-grandchildren Gertrude and Hilda. She died before the girls married and bore the next generation.
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George and Georgina's happiness was short-lived. Sadly, Georgina died in 1884, soon after (or possibly as a result of) the birth of her third child Georgina, who died the same year). However, George got married again in 1891, to a lady called Bertha Stares. Bertha became a mother to the girls, then aged 8 and 10, and the family grew as she had children of her own. George and Bertha's children were Bertha (1893), Alfred (1894), Mabel (1895), Violet (1898), Dorothy (1891) and Edwin (1901).
By the time the last child arrived in 1901, Hilda had left home and was living with her uncle Allan Newson at 20 Walker Street in Stepney. She is registered as being a Rug or Carpet Maker. In 1903, at the age of 20, she married 29-year-old James Albert Samuel Mitcham (1873-1936) at St Pauls on Bow Common. On the marriage certificate, it shows that they both lived at 11 Walker Street, and his occupation was as Publisher's Warehouseman.
Gertrude had married Alfred Payne, a solicitor's clerk from Bethnel Green, in 1899, and was living with him and their son Alfred (1900).Her daughter Doris was born in 1907. After Alfred's death (1903), Gertrude married Louis Raven in April of 1915, a man almost 20 years her senior. They lived happily in Rettendon, Essex.
They bought a house called Broadhurst and renamed it Ravenhurst.
Louis and Gertrude Raven with Gertrude's daughter Doris Payne.
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NOTE
The Harvest family don't seem to have been very lucky. I can find no mention of Mary after 1861, although she was 16 that year, and may have changed her name on marriage. Percy married a girl called Eliza, but they didn't have any children. As with Mary, I can find no mention of Jessie after 1861. Even though she was only 14, she could easily have got married and changed her name in the next10 years. George married Annie and became a porter in West Bromwich. He had two children, Annie and John. Eliza Jane Bushby found herself a job as a servant, and at age18 is listed in 1871 in this way. However, I have found a reference to an Eliza Jane Bushby travelling on the "Indus" to Queensland, Australia, leaving London on 7th July and arriving in Moreton Bay, Brisbane, on 8th October 1873, aged 20. Perhaps it was her.......? You can find an account of the voyage and docking
here. Her name was incorrectly transcribed as Eliza Jane Buckby on the online records.
The 'Indus' in 1876. More information about the history of Brisbane can be found
here
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St Mary's, Portsea
