William 1829

The decade between 1871 and 1881 must have been very busy and eventful. After son John got married as an accountant in 1875, John became a Clerk in Customs in Gloucester, but in 1878 is recorded as a merchants clerk in Cardiff. Cardiff will become the place where the family moves. At sometime in these ten years William had started his own business because the April 1881 Census describes him as aged 51 and trading as a Builders Merchant occupying 4 men. Three of William and Phoeby's children are still at home. George (and his wife Eliza both aged 25 who married two months earlier),  Charles unmarried aged 21 who is a slate mason, and Minnie who is now 10 years old.

The Birmingham Daily Post on 21st September of 1881 reports "Liquidations by arrangement, William Margrett and Benjamin Callaway, of Southgate Street and docks, timber and slate merchants and dealers in building materials under the style of Margrett, Callaway & Company, the said William Margrett residing at Peabody House, Southgate Street in the said city; and the said Benjamin Callaway residing at 19 Berkeley Villas, Bristol Road in the said city.  Also the separate estate of William Margrett. Also the separate estate of Banjamin Callaway."  A liquidation might be the ending of a partnership but the phrase "separate estates of..." are more like bankruptcy.

Three years later, 1884,  the Birmingham Daily news reports something similar "Adjudications William Margrett trading as W Margrett and Co at 17 Stroud Road, Gloucester, and St Owen's Steam Warf, the Docks, Gloucester, builder and builders merchant." This is most certainly a bankruptcy and a dreadful experience, no less for his employees.

Within three years William's wife Phoeby has died, but the death happens in Cardiff. Their son John William, who by now is calling himself William John, has been working in Cardiff since just after he married, and is now a "Sack Agent" aged 30. On his wife's death certificate, William is described as a commercial traveller and obviously got a job with a builders merchant in the locality through his past business contacts.  William must have moved to Cardiff after his business collapse and, whilst he is now a widower he at least has some of his family living nearby as well as John William; Minnie still 'at home', Charles and Frederick.

Meantime William's son,  Maurice,  has been in London becoming a ladies tailor and gets married in 1889 in Wallington.

Charles is the next to get married aged 34 down in Bristol but recording his home address as Alexandra Villas, Cardiff which is the address his father, William, is shown to be at in 1901, and in that year Charles, aged 41, has two sons and is a stationery engine driver.

Frederick married late in life in 1905 in Macclesfield but his wife died four years later and he married again in 1911 in Cardiff. 

William in 1901 is 71 years old and still working as a commercial traveler from his home address in Alexanders Street, Cardiff. He is supported by daughter Minnie aged 30, an assistant mistress presumably at a school.  On the day of the Census there is a Jane Price described as a visitor aged 20 and working at a private school.  She is a daughter of the brother of his deceased wife Phoeby. 

Tragedy struck in 1909 when William's son  Charles dies of TB at a young age of 49 leaving two vulnerable boys and their mother who will be a widow for the next 37 years.  William is 80 - how did he manage?

The 1911 Census is just two years before he died.  He completed the Census return himself recording that he is a widower and no longer working at the age of 81. Now the 1911 Census records what no previous returns have required; length of the marriage, total number of children born alive, children still living, and children who have died. Being a widower, William was not required to answer these questions directed at married women. But he did write that he and Phoeby had 7 children born alive, 5 still living and 2 already died. Here is a great mystery. Only Charles, his son who died of TB in 1909 pre-deceased him.  Is he counting as dead one of his children with whom he fell out? Could that be Maurice who went off to London, or George who went to Australia?  We shall never know and perhaps it was just a bad day.

Family oral history says that William in his later years in Cardiff was an ardent Temperance man, and there must be Temperance Society meeting minutes recording his involvement in the Cardiff archives. More interesting, he is reputed to have been known as "The Old Man of Cardiff" but this may have been family members distinguishing one William Margrett from another, because the newspaper report of his death makes no use of that title.

But the end came in  January 1913 when William had reached the age of 83.  His death certificate says he died of "senile decay and cardiac failure". His son, John William, not Minnie registered his death and his estate was small enough to not require Probate or pay death duties. A long and hard-fought life.    

Parts of William's biography have previously been in Margrett Magazines number 3 (1998), 7 (1992), 19 (2006), and 22 (2009), published and deposited with the British Library in those years under I.S.S.N 0269-0284