Edwin James (Feb 9, 1860 - Dec 24, 1921). Born in Wantz Road, Maldon,
Essex. Granddaughter Dorothy Olive, remembers him saying he was born in
Wants and had been living in Wants ever since.
In the 1891 Essex, census he is shown as a gasfitter, aged 30 who lived
at 3 Albion Villas, Brewery Road, Southend on Sea, with his wife Emily,
aged 30, Edwin J., his son age 10, born in London, Winifred E., his
daughter, age 7, born in Southend, Isabel, his daughter, age 4, born in
Southend, Grace, his daughter, age 1, born in Southend, Alice Wright,
his sister, age 22 (acting as servant), born in Maldon, and Hannah
Briton, a servant aged 15, born in Cold Norton.
Isabel and Grace died in infancy from diphtheria.
 Edwin married Emily Esther French who was born in Colchester, on June
15, 1880 in Brentford, Middlesex. He lived at Holly Lodge, Grove Road in
Southend for a time and then moved to Richmond Avenue. His granddaughter
Dorothy tells that he ran a bicycle shop at 1 Richmond Avenue, off the
High Street, in Southend on Sea in the 1880s. He made & rented cycles
and gave lessons. He gave lessons to a young girl, Mary Ann Burles, who
fell in love with his son Edwin James Jr., and married him on February
20th, 1905 in Rochford, Essex
Edwin Sr. opened a pram and pushchair hire service in 1884, supplying
these items to the public as well. The cycle factory was on the opposite
side of the road from the shop. The shop was still run by his grandson
Herbert Henry Wright when it was demolished to make way for a ring road
in the 1960s. The road was never built and a car park now stands on the
site.Henry Robert (June 12, 1862 - Dec 18,
1937). He married Ellen Morten at Colchester St Giles on October 9 1884.
He is listed in the 1881 census as a bicycle maker in Maldon. Grandson
Pearson reports that Henry & Ellen kept a tobacconist & newsagents
business in Dover, and retired to Southwick, Sussex where he died.
Henry & Ellen had four children, George, Hayden, Kathleen, and Pearson
Wright. George was a talented flautist, who lost his hearing and was
severely shell-shocked in World War I. He never married and was a
conservationist and nature lover. Hayden, a civil engineer married
Maggie, and they had two sons, William and Bernard. William emigrated to
Australia and went into radio & TV production, and Bernard became a
Church of England vicar in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kathleen never
married and was a teacher in Braintree, Essex.
Pearson married a widow named Marion, and they eventually moved to
Orchard Croft, Victoria Avenue, Shanklin. Pearson, Jr. was born February
13, 1926 and his brother Robert Henry in 1932. Marion died in 1938 and
Pearson Sr. married again in about 1941 to Laura , a Canadian Methodist
missionary/teacher returning to her Toronto home from 23 years on the
China India border. The second marriage failed, although a daughter
Annabelle was born when Laura was 47. Pearson senior died aged 92.
Robert Henry emigrated to Tasmania about 1948, married another emigrant
and had two daughters. Pearson junior married Eileen King on 19 February
1945 and had two children Anthony John ( born 1945) and Marion (born
1947). |
