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Brentford Families - Christmas

The National Trust surname profiling web site, which maps surname density by current postal districts, shows 'Christmas' in the eastern half of England and particularly in postal areas of Stevenage and Guildford. Brentford is in Twickenham postal district and 'Christmas' shows up as a little higher than normal density in this area

William Christmas

The ancestry.co.uk website includes some Brentford baptisms, including that of Elizabeth Christmas, daughter of William & Elizabeth Christmas, New Brentford parish, 29 May 1835. The baptism includes a note 'Maternal: George Best': I take this to mean the maternal grandfather was George Best

The 1841 census shows William's widow, Elizabeth Christmas, aged 40 (so 40 to 44 in practice) carrying on the business as well as bringing up her two young daughters, Elizabeth aged 6, Sarah aged 4. Frances Crook, aged just 12, was a female servant: perhaps she helped with the girls or worked in the shop. The census shows that the mother Elizabeth was not born in Middlesex, but her two daughters were. As her husband William Christmas is not recorded in the 1826 Brentford directory it seems likely he moved to Brentford after this date.

Mrs Christmas's china business

In 1851 Elizabeth is described as a 'china and glass dealer' and the census reveals her birthplace as Richmond, Surrey: a couple of miles from Brentford on the south of the Thames. It also confirms her daughters were born in Brentford, so the family were settled here by around 1835. There is no servant living with the family, but the girls would have been old enough (at 15 and 14 according to the census) to help their mother.

What did the shop sell and who to? My guess is china and glass for domestic use and sold to Brentford people. The Grand Junction Canal ran through Brentford and could have brought stocks of china and earthenware from the Staffordshire potteries.

Ten years later: 1861

By 1861 the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was not living with her family at their High Street address. A search of the census index shows she was visiting William Gray, a lodging house keeper at 3 Old Palace Terrace, The Green, Richmond. As her mother was born in Richmond was he an uncle or more distant relative? Or perhaps the relationship was through Harriet Gray his wife, who, at 59 was a contemporary of Elizabeth's mother. William Gray was 50 and born in St Peter's Kent, his wife in Guildford, Surrey.

1871

In 1871 the Christmas family is recorded in New Brentford, mother 'dealer in china and glass', two daughters unmarried at 35 and 34. Neither had an occupation recorded against their name. Later in the year their mother Elizabeth died, aged 77.

After their mother died the business continued in the hands of the two daughters. An 1874 trade directory includes the elder daughter, Miss E Christmas, china dealer, High Street New Brentford. However by 1881 it is Sarah Christmas who is running the shop and the census shows for the first time the address as '219 High Street'. Sarah had two older lodgers sharing the house: George Boxall, a retired baker, and his wife Jane, both aged 76. The index to deaths shows that Sarah's elder sister Elizabeth had died in 1877 at the age of just 41.

The last Christmas?

Sarah continued to run the business, living on her own at 219 High Street; the 1891 census shows she was an 'employer' so presumably, at the age of 54, she had some day help in the shop. The description of her occupation is 'china dealer' and later the word 'earth' has been added with a 'x': perhaps referring to earthenware either being, or not being, sold.

In 1901 no. 219 High Street has a new occupant: Albert C Moore, grocer & provision merchant. Sarah Christmas, aged 64, was visiting Emma Stanbury, an unmarried lady aged 51, in Richmond (8 St John's Grove). Emma Stanbury was born in Richmond and may have been a relative of Sarah's mother. Perhaps Sarah had retired? No occupation is shown in the census.

There is a death of a Sarah Christmas in Guildford, Surrey aged 70 in 1906, but there are other possible matches: however none, at present in Brentford, so it seems likely that Sarah moved away in her retirement.

We do not know...

No Sarah Christmas baptism has been found, around 1836/7.

Published December 2009