Q and A

WHAT WAS THIS INSTITUTION?

Please could you help solve the mystery of Harvey WRIGHT, born 1858 at Cobham, Surrey? His parents were Henry WRIGHT and Sarah (nee MYHILL). Sarah died in 1865, leaving Henry, aged six, Jesse, aged four (my husband’s granddad), Harvey, aged two, and George, aged four months.

The next time I find Harvey is on the 1881 census as an inmate in an ‘institution’, with the occupation of oilman. I wonder if this was a military place, because if you keep turning the pages there is what seems to be an army barracks, with ages ranging from 21 to 85 years. If this was just an institution, why was the address withheld, or is it a prison?

I cannot find Harvey after this and would value your help.

Mrs J E Wright

The ages you give for the children in 1865, when their mother died, are in fact the ages given on the 1861 census, so they would all have been four years older in 1865, meaning Harvey was born about 1858. The family, with other children born after 1861, is also on the 1871 census, headed by Sarah – so she could not have died in 1865. Sarah is described as married but her husband, Henry, is not at home.

The 1881 census entry you have discovered (RG 11/5643), which includes Harvey, comes from a collection of 1881 census pieces, known by The National Archives as ‘unidentified fragments’. Therefore, where the enumeration was taken and what the nature of the institution was is not evident from the record itself. The first page includes some quite elderly inmates, including a Rebecca STANYARD, aged 76, and Emma BEDDELL, aged 73. Emma died in 1882, and Rebecca in 1884, both in Wandsworth Registration District. I think it possible that the institution in question was the Wandsworth and Clapham Union Workhouse on St John’s Hill. You can find out more about this workhouse on the Workhouses website mentioned in the answer to Pat Jones’ question below.

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