Chapter 5 - William GILLAM (1855-1891) and Lavinia Eliza MORRISS

THE GILLAM FAMILY OF CROYDON AND BRIGHTON

Chapter 5 William GILLAM (1855 - 1891)

William GILLAM was born on 15th November 1855 at 51 Pimlico, Brighton, Sussex, the son of William GILLAM, a fish hawker, and Jane GOODMAN.

Brighton's Pimlico was not a very nice place as this description extracted from the internet shows:

Some of the worst housing in Brighton could be found here, an area that housed over a thousand inhabitants. Many of the houses were described as mere huts with small gardens in front. The inhabitants were mostly fisherman and it was not uncommon in the 1850's to see girls of 10-12 walking naked in front of the houses because of the poverty of their families. The gardens in front of the houses were full of the skins and intestines of fish. Yet rather extraordinarily the area was quite free from the diseases that other such areas suffered from. Perhaps this could be put down to the ventilation of the houses for with the many cracks in the houses there was an abundant supply of fresh air.

Pimlico Links:

Brighton's Pimlico slum was cleared in the 1860's (and replaced by Tichborne Street which is still there). Maybe that was when the family moved away.

When William married on 2nd March 1874 (at Holy Trinity Parish Church, Penge, Surrey) he described himself (and his father) as a fishmonger. His wife was Lavinia Eliza MORRISS (known as Eliza in practically every other document) the daughter of William MORRISS and Elizabeth WATERS. The photograph below shows Eliza circa 1890.

Lavinia Eliza MORRISS c.1890

In 1881 William and Eliza were living in Croydon as Table 4 shows

William died at the young age of 35 on 25th January 1891 due to acute pneumonia. The death was registered by his step-mother Drusilla, which was how the Drusilla connection was discovered. What he most probably didn't know, and what the 1891 census (see Table 5 ) later doesn't show either, was that Eliza was pregnant with Eliza Kate who was born on 7th October 1891 (and died as recently as 1975).

However what Table 5 DOES attest is that Eliza and most of her children and lodgers kept the family fish selling business going.

William and Eliza's known children (see Figure 4) are:

William, b. 26th Jan 1874/5
Thomas Charles, b. 1st Mar 1876
Albert Edward, b. 16th Jan 1878
Jane, b. 1880
Arthur, b. 10th Nov 1883
Ada Eliza, b. 26th Dec 1885 (see Figure 14)
George Frederick, b. 29th Jan 1888 (see Figure 10)
Harry, b. 7th Dec 1889 (see Figure 15)
Eliza Kate, b. 7th Oct 1891

After almost two years as a widow Eliza remarried on 24 October 1892 at Holy Trinity Parish Church, Selhurst, Surrey. Her new husband was the widower John VICKERS, as noted in the Barbara HEMSLEY letter. The witnesses were Edward Farmilo and Hannah Farmilo. Is this the same H.Farmilo that later appears on Eliza's son's marriage certificate?

Eliza was born on 5th July 1857 at Milton in Kent. This registration district covers Sittingbourne and Milton Regis amongst others. Her father William MORRISS was a bricklayer's labourer.

John and Eliza continued to live at 170 Gloucester Road and Eliza had at least two more children as recorded in the 1901 census (see Table 6).

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