By Christine Swan

William Henry Bull was born in 1850 in Bristol. He was baptised Henry but, in later life, prefixed this with William. I am aware of people who prefer their middle name and use this in preference, but, throughout his life, William, or Henry, or William Henry, used them interchangeably. St Phillip and St Jacob church, the site of his baptism, is located in the centre of Bristol and known affectionately as “Pip and Jay”. Jacob Street is today still a narrow, cobbled street that runs alongside the church reflecting the former life of this historic part of the city.

Bristol Harbour By Unknown, published c.1850. Image from the collections of Bristol Record Office – Bristol Record Office, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44112991

William Henry’s father, George, was a chairmaker, and born in the beautiful little coastal town of Rye in Sussex. How George arrived in Bristol, via London, was rather a mystery but, it is here that he set up a chairmaking business in Lower Castle Street.

Henry William was George’s fifth child with his first wife Harriet, who tragically died when he was just two years old. The family had moved from London to Bristol in 1849 which appears to be a reverse migration to so many of my other ancestors. The arrival of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway, may have been a pull factor which led to a growth in the City’s population. This and closeness to the docks, would have made it easier for materials to be transported – wood for the chair frame, rush for the seating, willow or, more exotic cane. The former two seating materials were grown in the UK but cane would have been imported. Fortunately, it came into the ports as a cheap packing material to protect cargo. The UK became the largest producer of cane furniture with many working in London and the High Wycombe area. Rush seating was seen as altogether more humble but was also popularised by the Arts and Crafts movement, which began around 1860.

The Bull family in Rise St, Bristol in 1861

So it was that my great, great grandfather Henry William, William Henry or just Henry, was born in Bristol. George Bull sought a new wife to care for his brood and married Matilda Protheroe in 1856, just two years after the death of William Henry’s mother, Harriet. I hope that Matilda was a kindly stepmother to the five children and it was not long before they were joined by two more boys – George and Edward. The family were living in River Street, which in the modern city of Bristol, lies round the back of the Cabot Circus Shopping Centre, with the River Frome running underground nearby.

My father was insistent that the Bulls were a Quaker family, and that may well have been the case. There is still a Friends’ Meeting House at the end of River Street as well as the oldest surviving example of a Quaker workhouse although contradicting this, the children were baptised in traditional Anglican churches. My father frequently referred to the selfless generosity of my great grandmother and cited her faith as the root of this. Although I have no confirmation that they were indeed Quakers, their residence may be a clue .

By 1861, the older Bull children were also employed in the family trade of chairmaking. Stepmother Matilda was a cane worker, eldest son John is listed as a chairmaker, Emma as a willow worker and Samuel, aged thirteen years, was a chairmaker’s assistant. The younger children are listed as scholars although even they may have taken a part in the family trade. George’s trade premises were in Lower Castle Street, just a seven minute walk away from their home in River Street.

Unfortunately, Matilda’s tenure as stepmother was not a long one. She passed away in 1867 aged just forty five years. Henry had six other brothers and sisters, the youngest just eight when his mother died. George married again in 1868, this time to a widow, Harriet Wells, ten years his senior. At sixty four years of age, Harriet would not have had dependent children so stepped into the breach as stepmother in chief to George’s seven children.

William Henry Bull, or, in this case, just Henry, marries Eliza Rosina Mayes in 1870

Henry William Bull was just nineteen years old when he married Eliza Rosina Mayes at Holy Trinity church on Christmas Day in 1870. Both gave their address as Brick Street. Sadly, nothing remains of the original Brick Street but old photographs show it as a busy residential area. Rebecca, my great grandmother, was baptised in the same year which may raise eyebrows. The Bulls moved to Skinner Street, on the bank of the River Frome in the St Pauls district of Bristol. William Henry Bull was the couple’s second child followed by Ada Rosina in 1873, then came George and Sarah.

The Bull family in 1871 living in Skinner Street, Bristol

In 1878, the Bull family relocated to Charles Street, Shoreditch from Bristol, a reverse of the journey that his father had made. George, had lived in London for some years and it may be that there were family still living there. Perhaps his intention was to spread the whole family’s chairmaking endeavours back to the capital. Shoreditch became the centre of the furniture making trades with cabinet makers and chairmakers living and working in the area. Earlier in the nineteenth century, Shoreditch was the fastest growing area in London to become a populous and industrious locality.

The family had become more populous too. Son John was born in 1879 and daughter Emily in 1881. All of the children were listed as scholars in the 1881 census, including Rebecca as the oldest child, now aged twelve. Emma was born in 1883 while the family were still living in Charles Street but after this date, they moved north east to Haggerston, and were living in Boston Street when youngest son Samuel Edward was born in 1886. Nothing remains of Boston Street except a path that borders Haggerston Park.

The growing Bull family in Shoreditch in 1881

At some point before 1891, the family moved further north again to Ada Street in Hackney. Here they were to remain for the next twenty-seven years. During this occupation, one by one, his children married and flew the nest. His eldest son, also William Henry, emigrated with his family to New Jersey and his middle son George, sought his fortune in Canada just before the outbreak of World War I. William Henry’s wife, Eliza Rosina, died in 1919 aged sixty-nine.

In Ada Street in 1891, where William Henry would continue to live and work for 26 years

I waited for the 1921 census to find out what happened next. Although my father could just about remember “the old grandfather”, he didn’t know what became of him, other than that William Henry died while he was still quite small. In fact, this is what happened. William Henry moved a short distance to Suffolk Road and to my great surprise, married again to a widow, Sarah Webber, twenty-three years his junior. He did not have dependent children, but she had a fifteen year old daughter, Edith, from her own marriage. William Henry died in January 1932 and was buried in Chingford Mount cemetery. He left a will and an estate of £113 , 5 shillings and 10 pence to be distributed by his executor.

Quite a roll call of names on the probate record!