There is an excellent book which portrays life in Camerton during
the early years of the 19th century. Entitled
"Journal of a Somerset Rector, 1803 - 1834"©, and published by the
Oxford University Press, it is the diary of the Rev. John Skinner, Rector of
Camerton.
The events described took place in 1816 and appear under the
entry for 3rd March of that year.
It is virtually certain that the collier referred to was Thomas,
and his wife was Grace. A search of Official Records has failed to produce evidence
of any other family with the name Main, Maine or Mayne living in or near Camerton
at that time.
The first reliable Census of the population of England and Wales
was carried out on 7th
Jun 1841 and the Return for Dunkerton includes Thomas
and Grace MAIN shown to be living next door to their son and daughter-in-law,
George and Sarah, along with their 1 year old child,
Mary Ann.
The Census of 30th Mar 1851, again for Dunkerton, shows that the number of children in George’s
and Sarah’s family had increased to six, the second-born being Charles.
A seventh child, Walter, was born later that year.
Like his father before him, George was
a collier in his younger days and, as he got older, became a carter, an occupation
which his son, Charles, and grandsons followed. All were
employed in the coal industry, coal mining being the principal form of employment
in the Dunkerton and Camerton areas. In all probability they were employed by
a Miss Jarrett, of Camerton Court, Camerton, the lady of the manor
and owner of the mines. Her palatial mansion is to this day kept in a very good
state of repair and, although no longer owned by the Jarrett family, nor open
to the public, is easily visible from a public footpath which passes through
the grounds. The church where Charles and Mary married
is, apparently, much the same today as it was in those days and is well worth
a visit. The Rector who officiated at the wedding was Edward M. A. Holland
and his grave is to be found near the main entrance of the church.
By 1861 the family had moved from Dunkerton to Camerton and it
is the whereabouts of Charles' family and descendants that will be followed.
In 1864 Charles married Mary Hancock at
St Peter's Church, Camerton; on the Marriage Certificate the surname of the
groom is spelt MAINE, a spelling which did not occur again until 12 years later,
but one of the witnesses, Elizabeth, spelt her surname
MAIN. It is most likely that she was one of Charles' sisters.
Charles and Mary then moved to Bath and
lived at various addresses. No two of the five children born between the years
1865 and 1873 were born at the same address. The surname on their Birth Certificates
is spelt MAYNE, all the Registrations of Birth having been carried out by Mary.
This possibly indicates that she couldn't read or write either; the Registrar
for the first two births, a Thomas Weston, would almost certainly have asked
her how the name was spelt. If she was unable to tell him, he would have written
the name as he himself thought it would be spelt. The Registrars for the last
two children born in Bath were different people, but by then the precedent had
been set.
Florence was the last to be born at Bath,
the address being 29 Calton Road, Lyncombe and Widcombe.
Some time between 1873 and 1875 the family moved from Bath to
Bristol, the address of the first-born Bristolian, Kate,
being 5 Ambra Vale, which is in the district now called Hotwells, but at that
time was known as Lower Clifton. Six more children were born, the last being
in 1889. All were Registered with the surname spelt MAINE. Out of twelve children,
two failed to survive to reach maturity.
Why the spelling of the surname was changed yet again is not obvious
and will evidently forever remain unanswered. It is known, however, that those
were the days when the ordinary working-class people were trying to elevate
their social standing, and it became fashionable to add the maiden surname of
either one's mother or grandmother to one's own name Thus, in 1876, when Mary
Registered the birth of Frederick Reuben, she called
herself Mary Newman Maine, and at the same time changed the spelling of the
family name, perhaps this was an additional attempt to become more "up-market",
so to speak.
Another example of this attempted "elevation of social status"
manifested itself in the Mudge family - Mudge being the surname of the lady
who married Charles James Maine in 1895. Her parents
were born as William Mudge and Eliza Gray. Their names appear on their 1866
Marriage Certificate (and some of the subsequent childrens' Birth Certificates)
as William Scoatch-Mudge and Eliza Sheppard-Gray. Historically, this attempt
to gain a more upper-class status appears to have been short-lived, and, in
the case of the Mudge family, the name reverted to Mudge when the future bride
of Charles James Maine was born in 1878.
Some, however, clung on to the bitter end - Mary
Maine's Death Certificate, dated 1929, gives her name as being Mary Newman
Maine. William Mudge, who died in 1894, the day before his 28th
Wedding Anniversary, died of pneumonia at an unfamiliar address
in Bristol, and his name is mis-spelt as William Scotch-Mudge. His wife died
of typhoid fever 9 days later at the Bristol City Workhouse at Stapleton, which
in later years became Manor Park Hospital. Her name is recorded simply as Eliza
Mudge. An apparent tragic end to a married life which obviously started out
full of expectation.
By 1885 the Maine family had moved to Haggett's Cottages, which,
it is believed, was a Tenement building. Although no longer in existence,
it was situated at the lower end of Clifton Wood Crescent, in the Southernhay
/ Southernhay Avenue area.
The year 1889 must have been a strange year in the family home,
inasmuch that Charles and Mary's last child, Lucy (or
Gladys, as she become known), was born, and ten months later their oldest son,
Harry, married Rebecca Davis.
Harry and Rebecca then had a daughter, Edith
Mary, and so we have a situation where an aunt is two years older than her
niece.
The 1891 Bristol Census Return for 12 Haggett's Cottages does
not include the names of three further children - Charles
James, Edith Mary and Florence.
Charles James was certainly still alive, although where
he was is not known, similarly, it is known that both girls married Canadian
gentlemen, in Canada.
In 1894 those who remained of the family still lived at Haggett's
Cottages, having moved to number 11. George Ernest married
a girl by the name of Christina Watkins, who lived at number 5.
The Bristol Street Directories for 1900 and 1901 show that Charles
and Mary lived at "The Prince of Wales", Western Square, Hotwells,
Charles being described as being the victualler. That they were there is borne
out by the fact that their son, Frederick Reuben, married
from that address.
The 1903 and 1904 Directories give Charles
Maine's address as 13 Rosemont Terrace, Hotwell Road, and, for the first
time since his marriage in 1895, the name Charles James Maine
appears, living at 43 Southernhay Crescent, Clifton Wood.
The 1905 Directory gives the same address for Charles
James Maine, but Charles Maine's name has disappeared,
and does not appear in any subsequent Directories.
By 1903 both Lilian and Walter
had married and left home.
The address for Charles James Maine appears
in the 1906 - 1908 Directories as being 43 Clifton Wood Crescent; the number
of his residence changes to number 11 in 1909.
There is no entry in the 1910 Directory, but his name re-appears
in the 1911 Directory, the address being 37 Bellevue Crescent, Clifton.
Where they lived as husband and wife between 1895 and 1902 has
not yet been established. The Birth Certificates for their first two sons -
Arthur and Percival - would possibly
provide the answer. Their third son - Edward - would
have been born at Southernhay Crescent, and their fourth - William
- at Clifton Wood Crescent. It is known that their last son - Reginald
- and their two daughters - Gwendoline and Kathleen
- were born at Bellevue Crescent.
Gladys, the last of Charles' and Mary's
children, married in 1913.
With the family now gone, the whereabouts of Charles
and Mary is not too easy to trace, although it is known that Charles
died in 1915 at 11 Quarry Steps, Durdham Down, and Mary died in 1929 at 6 Argle
Place, Clifton, the residence of their daughter, Lilian Kate,
who had married Frederick James Vowles in 1901. Nor are the whereabouts of their
children easy to follow, although most, it not all, seem to have stayed in the
Clifton / Hotwells areas. Although Charles James died
in Cossham Hospital in 1924, his home address was still Bellevue Crescent. His
younger brother, George, had died at the Royal Infirmary
16 years before at the young age of 36 years, leaving his widow, who never re-married,
to bring up five children. They lived at Churchpath Steps, Hotwells, at the
time. Lilian Kate Vowles died at 6 Argyle Place, Clifton.
Who lived where from this point on is far too complex a subject
to pursue.