By Christine Swan
William Henry Bull junior, his wife Emily, and their three children, Emily, Rose and Ada, travelled back to England between 1898 to 1899. I cannot deduce what drove the family away from their new home in America, to the crowded and smoky London. I wondered if a family crisis had bought them back but found no evidence of this. Perhaps they were homesick for London? Only William Henry had lived in London but his wife Emily had emigrated from Bristol. It certainly is a puzzle. Most of William Henry’s siblings were living in Hackney but one married sister, Sarah, was living in the Newington area of Southwark.
William Henry and his wife Emily moved to Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell. This was five and a half miles from William’s parents in Hackney but only about a mile and a half from Sarah and her husband Alfred Pooley. Maybe this was it? Perhaps having another sibling on the same side of the river was his motivation to settle there? The other possibility was that it was close to his place of work – but not that close. In 1901, William Henry was working as a deal porter, most likely at Surrey Commercial Docks, Rotherhithe.
The Bull family in Sedgemoor Place with William Henry working as a deal porter
The job of a deal porter required nerves of steel. Deal porters moved and stacked timber in dock warehouses, up to heights of up to sixty feet. It was hard, physical work, with a considerable element of risk. At the end of the day, dock labourers could enjoy a pint of beer at the Ye Old Compasses Inn, which later became known as the Deal Porter, and then the Three Compasses, then The Compass, and finally, to demolition. Having served in both the British and American military, and worked for the Cunard luxury shipping company, this does seem to be a strange turn of events.
Sedgemoor Place now consists of modern housing and only one building remains that William Henry Bull would have walked past every day, is the Aged Pilgrims’ Friendly Society Home and Almshouses which were opened in 1837 and have stood ever since. The society was founded by William Wilberforce, better known for his anti-slavery campaigning. Forty-two of the aged Christian poor, were accommodated in this unusual, castellated building. William Henry and his family lived at number 61 and then, 53 Sedgemoor Place, and address that, like the Compass pub, no longer exists. Street number appears illogical due to the development of large apartment blocks, replacing the small, tightly packed houses that would have been there in their time.
The rather magnificent Pilgrims’ Friendly Society Home and Almshouses in Sedgemoor Place, Camberwell
William Henry Bull junior, junior, was born in October 1899, Edward Daniel Bull was born in October 1901 but was baptised along with new brother, George, in July 1903, at St George’s Church, Camberwell. Sadly, this church has been demolished after suffering decline, disuse and vandalism. In 1993, it was turned into a modern apartment block, leaving nothing of the original structure visible, and a much smaller, modern church constructed close by. Sadly, baby William Henry did not survive, and died in March 1902. This would have been the first tragedy for the family at a time when infant mortality was high enough to be a cause of concern in London, and particularly, in Southwark, which had one of the highest rates of all. In 1904, parliamentary committee gave the rate as 17.4%. Only Shoreditch exceeded this.
Baby William Henry Bull junior was born in 1899 but sadly did not survive
These baptismal records show that the family moved to the neighbouring, parallel, Havil Street. Florence Martha was born in February 1905 and Ivy Elizabeth in August 1906. Sadly, these two babies were also part of the truly terrible infant mortality statistics. Florence Martha died in December 1905 and Ivy Elizabeth in March 1907. The family had lost three little children within exactly five years. The decision was made. William Henry, Emily, and their five remaining children, boarded the SS New York in Southampton, and headed back to the United States of America for good. William was thirty five years old, and Emily thirty two. He must have known that he would probably never see his parents again but he must have believed that a better life for his children could be found in America. They would also never again be able to visit the graves of their three little lost children in Camberwell, the last lost just three months before they left.
The Bull family arrive in New York, aboard the S.S. New York, in 1907
I do not enjoy the experience of flying, but it has always been a dream of mine to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island come into view from a transatlantic ship, as William Henry and his family would have. Emily, Rose and Ada could not have possibly remembered the country of their birth. For Edward and George, this was an entirely new experience. Interestingly, the entire family are listed as American citizens – perhaps this is something that they were able to establish prior to landing.
Ellis Island and New Jersey in the background, in modern times – By Ponor – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112300928
The final Bull child was Charles, born on 23rd October 1908 but, curiously, baptised two months later in Nashville Tennessee. Perhaps the family were on holiday or visiting relatives at the time? It seems bizarre that they would have travelled almost one thousand miles for the purpose of baptising their son. I have not yet found the link with Nashville but there must have been a purpose.
Charles Henry Bull baptism record in 1908 – bizarrely, in Nashville, Tennessee
In the 1910 census, the family were renting a house in 2nd Street, Kearny, Hudson, New Jersey. I discovered that the street is now called North 2nd Street, and consists of traditional weatherboarded, houses, and apartment blocks. William Henry was working as a steam pipe fitter for an electric company. Daughter Emily, aged sixteen, was working as a clamper, also for an electric company. Daughter Rose, aged fourteen, was a winder for a thread company. All of these wages would have been welcome in the family coffers, with six children still living at home.
By 1915 the family had moved a little further north to Chestnut Street. Eldest daughter Emily was now married to George Metcalf, and was also living in the apartment block. Ada was the only daughter now employed as a mill hand and father, William Henry, still working as a steam pipe fitter.
The Bull family in 1915, living in Chestnut Street, Kearny, New Jersey
By 1920, William Henry had taken out a mortgage on the same property, with George and Emily Metcalf still living in the block. Rose was working with her father in a lamp factory, in a quality control role as a lamp examiner. Ada had married and was living with her husband Frank, a chauffeur. They were renting rooms in a large house in Midland Avenue, just half a mile from Ada’s parents. Son Edward was employed as a salesman in a grocery store, and George, at sixteen years old, was working as an electrician’s helper. With most of the family employed, this would have contributed to the family income and enabled them to be freed from the shackles of renting and on the path to property ownership.
The 1930 census finds William Henry and Emily one mile further north in Stuyvesant Avenue, in the Arlington district of Kearny with youngest sons George and Charles still at home, both in their twenties. William Henry was still working his regular job, George as a electrician, and Charles as a clerk for a motor company. However, I stumbled across a Charles Bull advertising his services as a music teacher in a local directory. I then recalled that he had been born in Nashville, Tennessee, so by rights, should have had music coursing through his veins.
If you wanted to learn to play the saxophone in 1928, Charles Bull could teach you
William died in 1937. I cannot find any records of him returning to England in his later life, so I must assume that his final crossing in 1907, was the last time he saw England in his lifetime. The boy from Bristol, who grew up in Hackney, travelled to America to set down roots and give his family a better life, was the first of my ancestors to cross the Atlantic. I am privileged to have been able to reforge those links again, and to learn more about William Henry’s early life. We have reached out the arms of kinship across that vast stretch of water known on both simply as The Pond.
The City of New York in 1901, the ship that brought the Bulls to America in 1907
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 