1 THOMAS GRAHAM WOODCOCK (1781-1837), baptized at St Peter's, Sandwich on 1 February 1781. He was admitted Freeman of the Borough of Sandwich by birth on 5 July 1802. He died in the fourth quarter of 1837 in the Thanet registration district.
2 MARY WOODCOCK (1782-??), baptized at St Peter's, Sandwich on 8 October 1782. She married John Andrews on 30 April 1810 at St Peter's, Sandwich. John was "an inspecting commander in His Majesty's Customs". It is possible that she was living with Elizabeth Bing (some five years older) and with Stephen and Eliza Miller (in their early twenties) and their nine-month son, Stephen, at the end of New Ruttington Lane in 1841.
3 MARGARET WOODCOCK (1784-1868), baptized at St Peter's, Sandwich on 18 March 1784. On 2 May 1803, she married Thomas Castell at St Peter's, by license. He was the son of William Castell of St John the Baptist, Margate. He had been born on 22 January 1780 and was baptized on 20 February. The witnesses at the wedding were Mary Woodcock, presumably her mother, and E Baker. From his distinctive signature, this was the Edward whom she later married. Thomas was made a freeman of the Borough of Sandwich on 4 May 1807, by marriage. For a time, all went well, but then Thomas went abroad, to fight Napoleon.
On 6 July 1813, a daughter, Margaret, was born in Strand Street, Sandwich, and baptized the next day at St Clement's. Although Margaret gave Thomas' name as the father, it seems that this ruse was discovered, for on 17 August 1815, Thomas' father, William Castell, added a codicil to his will (originally dated 24 April 1807) repudiating the child and disinheriting her unless Margaret and Thomas lived together again "as man and wife."
This was not to be. It appears that Thomas died some time between the codicil of 1815 and the beginning of 1822. On 24 July 1822, Margaret married Edward Baker, Clerk to the Collector of Customs in Sandwich. She was described as a widow. She moved with Edward to Ramsgate around 1826.
However, on 20 September 1826, Edward died. Margaret inherited his property, but this passed to her daughter in 1837. In 1833, when her mother made her will, Margaret was engaged in litigation relating to Edward's estate.
Margaret entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, Sandwich. This 14th century hospice for travellers had become a settlement of 17 almshouses for the burghers of Sandwich. On admission each sister or brother would pay a contribution to the hospital of £6/13/4, and other payments (13/4 to the mayor, a shilling to the town crier and to the ferryman, and ninepence to each of the other brothers or sisters.) The hospital was well endowed, with land and hopfields in the neighbourhood, and the inhabitants clearly lived well there. In 1841, 1851 and 1861, Margaret was a sister at St Bartholomew's, living in number 11 of the almshouses.
She died on 10 April 1868
and was buried five days later with Edward, her husband, at St Clement's, Sandwich.
Margaret's daughter was:
3.1 MARGARET CASTLE (1813-1887), born on 6 July 1813 and baptized at St Clement's, Sandwich, the next day. She may also have used her stepfather's surname, Baker.
Her mother paid two guineas a year in 1826, the year her father died, for music lessons, and a further three guineas for "schooling". She would have been thirteen at the time, and her music master could well have been the eighteen-year-old Thomas Pettman from Ramsgate.
It seems she went to stay with her uncle and aunt, Edward and Harriet Chard, in Islington, for she married Thomas Pettman on 11 October 1832 at St Mary's, Islington. Both she and Thomas were "of this parish". The marriage was by banns, and Margaret's uncle and aunt were the witnesses.
4 HARRIET WOODCOCK (1799-1860), baptized at St Peter's, Sandwich on 18 April 1799. She married Edward Chard, a lawyer of Clifford's Inn at St Lawrence on 20 August 1825. Edward was a Navy Agent, who specialized in negotiating prize money for naval officers. He was from Brickhill in Buckinghamshire, and was some five years older than her. He was a sizeable railway shareholder.
The couple were probably at Francis Place, Holloway during the 1830s. Their niece, Margaret Castle, was married in 1832 in Islington, and it seems likely that she was staying with Edward and Harriet at the time. They were at 3 Camden Place, Islington in 1841 and 1851. Harriet died in Islington in the second quarter of 1860. By 1861, Edward, with his children Thomas and Ellen, had moved to 20 St John's Park, Islington. He was still there in 1871, and died in Islington at the age of 90 in the third quarter of 1884. Edward and Harriet had issue:
4.1 WILLIAM CHARD (1829?-1897?), born in Holloway and aged 21 in 1851, when he was a clerk. He married Catherine Dunn in the first quarter of 1855 in Shoreditch. In 1861, he was a Navy Agent's clerk, living with his wife and month-old daughter Kate at Verandah Villa, Brighton Road, Surbiton, Kingston-on-Thames. His wife Kate died in the third quarter of 1866. In 1871, he was a Navy Agent, widowed, and lodging on Census Night in Brighton. In 1881, he and his daughter Kate were living at 44 Bath Road, Chiswick. Ten years later, he was living with his daughter Ellen at 3 Addison Road, Chiswick. He probably died in the second quarter of 1897.
William and Catherine Chard's two daughters were:
4.1.1 KATE CHARD (1861-1942), born in Surbiton on 11 March 1861. She joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera company in 1879 as a member of the chorus, and later took several major roles. She married James Deane Brand in the Strand registration district in the second quarter of 1882. James died at 17 North Side, Clapham Common at the age of 39 on August 11, 1899, of rheumatic fever. Kate lived on in the house, and died at Shere, Surrey, on 4 January 1942.
The couple had three children:
4.1.1.1 WILLIAM DEANE BRAND (1885-19??), born in the Chelsea registration district in the first quarter of 1885. He studied engineering.
4.1.1.2 MARGERY NANCY BRAND (1887-19??), born in the Brentford registration district in the third quarter of 1887. She was also an actress, acting under the name of Marjorie Chard, and married the actor Langhorn (or Langhorne) Burton.
4.1.1.3 DOROTHY KATE BRAND (1888-1935), (registered as Kate Dorothy), born in the Brentford registration district at Christmas 1888. She married Guy St. Barbe Sladen Watkins in Portsmouth Register Office on 28 February 1910. They had two children. They later divorced, and Dorothy married again, to Charles John Brinsley Butler, 7th Earl of Lanesborough, on 27 June 1922. He was a 56-year-old widow.
4.1.2 ELLEN CHARD (1862-1948), born in Brighton Road, Surbiton on 21 November 1862 (although the birth was not registered until 9 May 1863). She was staying with her uncle Thomas in Ramsgate in 1881. In September 1883 she entered the Royal Academy of Music to study singing, having been recommended by Mr Holland. Her address was 11 Longfield Road, Ealing at the time. It is likely that she was the Nell Chard who was a chorister with the D'Oyly Carte Company that toured Germany, Austria, and Holland, presenting H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience, and The Mikado to continental audiences from April 1887 to February 1888. However, she was at home with her father in 1891.
Ellen married Phineas Simon Abraham at Lambeth Register Office on 12 April 1900. (She gave her address as 4 Arodene Road, Brixton Hill, and Phineas gave his as 2 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square.) He was sixteen years older than her. Phineas was a well-known dermatologist and Harley Street physician, and had been born in Falmouth, Jamaica into a Jewish landowning family. In 1911, they were living at Montpelier Lodge, Ealing. The house had fourteen rooms.
Phineas died in 1921. Ellen died at 60 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead on 4 March 1948.
Ellen and Phineas had a daughter:
4.1.2.1 EILEEN ALVARENGA ABRAHAM (1903-1994), born in Paddington on 14 November 1903. She married Arthur Richard Wayman in 1935. They emigrated to Australia four years later. Eileen Wayman died in California in 1994.
4.2 THOMAS CHARD (1833-1899?), born at Francis Place, Holloway, on 7 August 1833. He was baptized on 30 August 1833, and is recorded as aged 17 in 1851. He married Martha Elizabeth Curtis at Hertford in the first quarter of 1862. Martha was some nine years younger than him. They lived in Bexley, but by 1871, they had moved to Chapman's Cottages, Wilmington, Kent. Thomas was living on his own means. Martha died in the third quarter of 1874, aged 33.
In 1881 Thomas was describing himself as a retired brewer, and was living at Norbury Villa, West Cliff Road, Ramsgate. He probably died there in the fourth quarter of 1899. His and Martha's children included:
4.2.1 MARTHA E CHARD (1862-?), born in Bexley, Kent, in the third quarter of 1862, aged 18 in 1881.
4.2.2 AMELIA LOUISA CHARD (1863-?), born in Bexley, Kent, in the last quarter of 1863, aged 17 in 1881.
4.2.3 TOM CHARD (1865-1866), born in the second quarter of 1865, who died in the first quarter of 1866.
4.2.4 WILLIAM EDWARD CHARD (1866?-?), born in Wilmington in the last quarter of 1866, aged 14 in 1881.
4.2.5 ADA CHARD (1869-?), born in Wilmington according to the 1881 census, where she was aged 12, but probably born in Bexley in the first quarter of 1869.
4.3 ELLEN CHARD (1836-?), born at Camden Road Place, Holloway on 6 February 1835, and baptized at St Mary's, Islington, on 4 March 1836. She was aged 15 in 1851.
4.4 HARRIET CHARD (1837?-?), born in Holloway, aged 13 in 1851. She married Frederick Tibbs, a druggist, at Islington in the third quarter of 1858. In 1861, they were at 34a St Paul's Road, St Pancras, in 1871 at 10a West Terrace, Park Road, Finsbury, and in 1881 at 30 Parkhurst Road, Islington. Their children included:
4.4.1 FREDERICK EDWARD TIBBS (1860-?), born in the first quarter of 1860 at St Pancras. In 1881 he was a clerk.
4.4.2 WILLIAM TIBBS (1861?-?), aged 9 in 1871. In 1881 he too was a clerk.
4.4.3 HARRIET TIBBS (1864?-?), aged 6 in 1871.
4.4.4 EMILY L TIBBS (1866?-?), aged 4 in 1871.
4.4.5 ALICE TIBBS (1868?-?), aged 2 in 1871.