Elizabeth CAVE.
Ancestral line - not yet traced..
Born: about 1814 in Bath, Somerset, England
parents - not yet traced
Elizabeth married: 12 APR 1835 in Chelteham, Gloucestershire, England
Spouse: Thomas MARGRETT, born about 1812, in Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire.
Children: Henry Cave MARGRETT, 1837
Edward MARGRETT, 1839
Maria MARGRETT, abt 1841
Thomas MARGRETT, 1843
William MARGRETT, 1845
Samuel Cave MARGRETT, 1850
Robert MARGRETT, 1851
Frederick Clitheroe MARGRETT, 1853
Ellen MARGRETT, 1854
Died: 30 OCT 1876, aged 62, in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England.
Every genealogist places cautious reliance on the facts included in the decades of Census Returns contained in the nations' archives (some of which have been so far released to the 'public domain' dating from 1841 and every ten years, currently to 1911, soon to include 1921). If you were to examine thousands or even a great portion of the millions of household returns, you will find that each one has a person named as the “Head” of the house. To find one that has the Head of household who is not a man would be exceptional.
In todays great thrust for sexual equality, this historic fact might not sit comfortably with some. From May 2021, at last, marriage certificates will now include the names of the mothers of the bride and groom as well as the fathers. And indeed, it might be felt that in the past, the lack of acknowledgement of women ignores the vital and sacrificial work of the mother or principal woman of the household. You may find in this account of the life of Elizabeth Cave, that she was a shining example of industry and family care, without which any family cannot prosper.
We have a great deal of information about the life of Elizabeth Cave, as you will see soon, except that, as yet, have no knowledge of the twenty-first years of her life. We know she was born in Bath, Somerset because she recorded just that in the Census Returns. What was the situation of her parents when they were living in Bath as she was born and what caused them to move from Bath to Cheltenham before 1835? By 1835 they had been in Cheltenham long enough for Elizabeth to meet, fall in love, and in that year, marry Thomas Margrett.
We may presume that it is a love match, but on the other hand, the age of 21 in those days, is the youngest that an individual can get married without the permission of their parents. We'll take the kindlier answer. Perhaps it is a sparkling Spring day on Sunday the 12th of April in 1835 in Cheltenham with her parents in happy support. We may be surprised to find that they are married on a Sunday because it is almost unheard-of nearly 200 years later, but to take time off work to get married is probably at least un-economic. As they marry, they are both very young – Thomas, aged 22, is just a year older than Elizabeth. Where do they live as they start their married life – in one of their parents homes, or squeezed into the room already occupied by Thomas in Gloucester? Alternatively, many homes had lodgers renting a room to such as this young couple.
In any case, Elizabeth immediately has to take her part in this new marriage, looking after the two of them; shopping, cooking, housework, and supporting Thomas as he works for wages, to pay their way. Then in due time there is the next great step in life for Elizabeth - becoming a mother. She may well have learned maternal skills, watching her mother with siblings, even helping look after them, and at least for her first birth, there is likely to be family support.
Perhaps it is this early in life that Elizabeth finds or has already found a way of earning from home, because for the rest of her life she is a home-worker as well as a housewife and mother. Our first real picture of their married life is some six years after marriage in June 1841. Elizabeth is settled in her home in Southgate street, in the parish of St Owen, in the city of Gloucester. Southgate street is right in the centre of the city. Their home is almost certainly rented, and is just as likely to be some accommodation over a business premises, because Southgate street is not a residential housing estate, but a commercial street of shops.
In 1841, to help her, she has another Elizabeth living in their home, who is aged about 15 and is recorded as a “F.S.” an abbreviation for “female servant” by the Census enumerator. This Elizabeth is not family, and so will be a living-in employee. What hours does she have to work, and is there a wage as well as full board? Our Elizabeth needs that help because 12 or 18 months after they married, their first child, Henry, was born. Back in 1837, Elizabeth insisted that Thomas, her husband, agree that her maiden name “Cave” should be Henry's second name. Then, about a year later, in 1839, their second child, Edward was born.
It looks like life is hard because husband Thomas is working as a “char-room man”, which sounds like minimum wages, perhaps in the cellar of an inn or does it describe something in catering? Elizabeth Margrett's occupation is not 'housewife' but is called a “stay-on” recording that she is working from home. It may be that Thomas is out at dawn, after which she is probably employed on piece-work. In any case she is making stays for a corsetier. In the years to come, this becomes a permanent occupation for Elizabeth, as we will see. So that is our first sight of the married Elizabeth, running a household, caring for two boys as their mother, acting as an employer, and also caring for a husband.
Here's another date; Saturday 28th December 1850. This is the date entered on the Last Will and Testament of George Margrett; George is the father of Thomas. Very soon after, in 1851, Thomas aged 37,sees his father die, possibly aged about 70 suggesting that the death was an expected event which caused the making of the will. Thomas finds himself appointed as one of the executors, along with Henry, his brother and neither are to benefit at this moment because the whole estate is left to their mother, (also called Elizabeth) as directed in the Will which they proved in 1851. However, there are three cottages in Clare street, Cheltenham, owned by their late father, to put into their mothers' name. (In 1841 the Census records George as aged 60 and a bricklayer. He was obviously financially astute.)
And in 1851 there is another Census return to make. Elizabeth and her family are still in Southgate street, perhaps in the same accommodation. Her husband, Thomas, has obtained skills and is now an employer himself as a cabinet maker. Thomas has not taken over his late fathers' bricklaying business.
Elizabeth, now aged 37, is a professional corset-maker at the same time as having produced another four children since our last view of the family. Missing on that Sunday night of the Census is Henry who would now be aged 13. Where is he? But present are all the other five; Edward aged 11, Maria aged 9, Thomas aged 7, William aged 5, and lastly Robert aged 2 months. Again, Elizabeth has a servant to help out and strangely, it is yet another Elizabeth who is marked as “unmarried” with the family name “Cole”. So it is a different servant from ten years ago
But as well as Thomas, Elizabeth, servant Elizabeth and the five children, there is another adult living here. She is Maria Ockford, entered as sister to the Head of house and so was of the Margrett family and now married. Where is her husband? That she and her husband are separated might be a serious possibility because, although Maria is recorded as 'married' aged 40 (two years older than her brother Thomas) she is a 'shopkeeper', born in Cheltenham. This statement is actually untrue for whatever reason (confusion during the Census Enumerators' visit, or trying to appear local) because she was actually born in 1805 (showing she is really 46 not 40) in the village of Staverton, Gloucestershire. These 'little', what we might call variations of detail, are not uncommon in Census returns, especially ladies choosing to be slightly younger. And then, what sort of shop is she keeping? Does she own it or is she employed to run it? We don't know. What a full and busy family home it is in 1851.
Later, in 1857, the inevitable occurs. Thomas' mother, Elizabeth, dies and the remaining covenants in Georges' Will now become operable by Thomas and his brother as executors. When the Will was made, George allowed his wife to inherit all his estate, but made provision for the moment of his wife's death. The three cottages are now to be given to Jane Margrett, youngest of the daughters of George and Elizabeth (and sister to Thomas). Once the two executors have done that, they have completed their work. But the 1850 Will also stipulated that, at the moment Jane inherits from her mother, she is to make five gifts of £25 (each worth £2,891 in 2020) to Georges' children - Harriet b:1804, Henry b.1808, Hannah b.1810, Thomas b.1812, and Joseph b.1816 (as far as we have traced, they are all alive at this time). Jane's cost of this is 5 x £25 = £125 ( equivalent to some £14,455 in 2020). But there is one person not going to receive a £25 legacy;
The exception in the Will is a larger payment to Maria Ockenden of £40 (that would be worth £4,626 in 2020). That would certainly be of help to a shopkeeper. Maria Ockenden is the sister of Jane, the residual beneficiary in the Will. Jane therefore has to pay out a total of £165 (= £19,081 in 2020).
Four years still later, we see a third 'snapshot' of Elizabeth's family in the 1861 Census. They've moved now to 36 Eastgate street, Gloucester. Once again this is a significant commercial or retail throroughfare and the property numbered 36 is on a corner. That building of 1861 is long replaced today. Thomas is listed as an upholsterer. Perhaps there were display windows and the work undertaken upstairs or at the rear. He is now an employer of 8 men, 3 boys and 3 women. This is a serious business in the centre of the city. Still at their home are four of their children, one of whom, Maria aged 19 is assisting in the upholstery trade, with William aged 15 out at work as a watchmaker.
Elizabeth is now aged 47, still a “stay-maker” and she also employs people; 3 women. And there's a live-in servant, Eliza Meredith aged 21 helping run the home with the two youngest children, Frederick and Ellen aged 8 and 6 respectively, both at school. Elizabeth and Thomas must be far beyond the “making-ends-meet” level of life and are showing professional commercial skills.
In March the next year, 1862, Frederick (Clitheroe) Margrett, now aged 9, is baptised nearby at the Southgate street Congregational Chapel. Perhaps the family has been going there every Sunday since they lived in Southgate street and Frederick is now at an age when he can make spiritual decisions for himself, and has decided to follow Jesus Christ making this public promise as evidence of that step in his baptism. What of his parents and his siblings? It looks like his parents are church-goers, and therefore his siblings will have seen the merits of loving God and learning to have a relationship with Him.
It is good in any era to see where successful and honest businesses become established, giving a comforting presence of continuity in a community. The publication called “Kelly's Directory”, was a regular hard-back book produced in those days and listed all the classified businesses as well as the head of a household in each residential address. The 1870 edition lists “Thomas and Son, cabinet makers & upholsterers, 36 Eastgate street”. We see that now in 1870 we've added cabinet making to the upholstering; perhaps this needs a bought-in skill that Thomas did not have? In any case the next year's 1871 Census shows Thomas as employing 6 men, 2 boys, and two women.
In that year, Elizabeth is now aged 57 and just described as “upholsterers wife”. She has given up her business of stay-making. Do we assume that Thomas is sufficiently profitable that her small business is no longer needed? She still has help at home with Louisa Davies aged 20 living-in as a “general domestic servant”.
Where are the children? At home for a start are William, who is still watchmaking aged 25 and single, and Frederick is now aged 18 and has been given an apprenticeship as a “slate and marble maker”. In another ten years Frederick C Margrett will be 28, married with five children, a “slate enamiller", a master employing 17 men, 5 boys, and 8 women, and operating in Aston, Birmingham. He will have acquired a high level of business management, perhaps from his father.
In the intervening years after 1871, we have not researched yet as to the state of Thomas' business or Elizabeth's health or the family interaction, but on Monday 30th October 1876, Elizabeth dies at what we might think of today as an early age of 62 years. We would like to think that Thomas is surrounded by his children in support as he deals with her estate. It may be that her death was unexpected, because there was no Will already prepared for the eventuality. Instead, a Letter of Administration was issued to Thomas five months later in March 1877 by the Gloucester Probate office. Her estate is sworn in the sum of £299 which would be worth about £35,000 in 2020. If not a fortune, it is interesting that in 1876 Elizabeth owned assets herself.
Perhaps a man, so heavily entwined in his business, needs sound support when 'out-of-hours' and away from business. We next see Thomas in 1881 operating his upholstery business, although perhaps now reduced in scale, and supported by Mrs Mary Ann Margrett. He has re-married since Elizabeth died. There is an age difference of some 12 years, but that is no hindrance to many marriages. There are others living with him at home; Fanny Margrett, (son) Edward's wife aged 39, and Ellen Glover her sister who is 30 and an unemployed governess.
Thomas lives some ten years after his first wife, Elizabeth died, evidence of strong family bonds, and the years of hard work put into laying those foundations for those consequent lives.
None of the life of Elizabeth appears to have been published previously before the above record was created.
None of the Margrett Magazines from 1986 to 2012 included any of her experiences and therefore those experiences were not previously recorded in the public domain through the magazines deposited at the British Library under the I.S.S.N. 0269-0284 in those years.