The last of 9 children of John & Elizabeth Locock, William James Stag Locock was baptised at Bridport on 8 Oct 1815.
On the night of the 1851 Census at East Street, Bridport (schedule 29) were John Knight, Head, Hotel Keeper, with his wife Sarah, 5 children, 7 servants and 4 travellers. Among the servants were Kitty Williams, U, 22, Underwaitress, born Lyme and William Locock, U, 31, Under Ostler, born Bridport.
William and Kitty obviously enjoyed each other’s company in the summer of 1851 because they married on 29 September at Dorchester St Peter and their son, William, was born only 7 months later.
On 29 Sept 1851 at Parish Church of Dorchester St Peter, the marriage took place of:-
William Locock, full age, Batchelor, Ostler, All Saints, father John Locock postillion and Catherine Williams, full age, Spinster, St Peters, married on 29 Sept 1851, father George Williams Labourer in the presence of Frederick Goddard & Marianne Locock. (William signed, Catherine made her mark, Frederick signed and Marianne made her mark).
Their first son, William George Locock was born on 27 April 1852 at 8H30m AM at Church Street, All Saints, Dorchester. The birth was registered on 13 May 1852 by Catherine Locock, formally Williams, mother, of Church Street, Dorchester, giving the occupation of father William Locock as Ostler.
By 1854 the family were in Cornwall at St German, when Sarah Anne was born in Q1 1854. By Q2 1856 they were at St Austell when Elizabeth Jane was born and they remained there until the 1861 Census. John was born there in Q2 1858 and Clara in Q2 1860. No records of their baptisms were to be found in the St Austell Parish Records.
William Locock died at the age of 47 on 31 March 1861 at Kiln Lane, St Austell, Horsekeeper, certified cause of death Chronic Bronchitis. The death was registered the same day by Mary Brown of Market Street St Austell, present at the death. He was buried on 3 April 1961 at St Austell Parish Church.
In the 1861 Census at Kiln Lane, St Austell, Catherine Locock was shown as a widow, 28, pauper, born Dorset Lime Regis, (she was really 31), with her 5 children: William 9, Scholar born Lime Regis (it was actually Dorchester); Sarah Ann 6 Scholar, St Germans; Elizabeth Jane 4 Scholar born Cornwall St Austell; John 3 Scholar born St Austell and Clara 1 born St Austell.
By 1866, Catherine and her children had left Cornwall and were in Bridport, the hometown of her dead husband’s family, where she remarried and had two more children.