GRAN HEDGES' MARRIAGE TO HENRY GILBERT MADELEY & THE TRAGEDY OF HIS NIECE KATHERINE...

GRAN HEDGES’ SECOND HUSBAND, ALBEIT BRIEFLY:

HENRY GILBERT MADELEY (1881-1972)…

Henry Gilbert Madeley...

My Nan married Henry in 1938, just two years after her husband Albert  passed away but the marriage was over by 1939 and Nan moved out. My mum, aged 18, lasted but days, leaving to live with her brother Albert Clarence and his wife Alice, until Nan set up house again in Ward End for the duration of World War Two and beyond. 

My mum said that she hated Mr Madeley and that Nan had become rather ‘silly’ in her behaviour before marrying him, wearing lots of unnecessary make-up. 

But who was Mr Madeley? And what kind of family had he been brought up in? His father had been in the police force, as I shall explain below and he had married twice before my Nan completed his hat-trick. The three wives of Henry the Hated, then…

Sadly, Henry had been a witness in the criminal trial of one of his sisters and her husband, who had been accused of causing death to a child through neglect. The revealing information was published in the Leamington newspapers of 1908, details of which are to be found below. 

So, first of all, let’s look at Henry’s ancestors, beginning with his grandfather, like his dad and himself, named Henry… 

This guy was born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire in 1830 and by 1871, he was the innkeeper at the Spread Eagle in Portway Road, Wednesbury. He was married to Elizabeth Power at St James’ Church in Wolverhampton on 29th May, 1856. 

Elizabeth had lived at Lower Brook Cottage, Trysull when she was young, where her father Jonathan was an agricultural labourer. At 22 she had been a house servant in Seisdon, Trysull, at William Banton’s 225 acre farm.

Remarkably, Henry lived into his eighties, subsequently residing in Potters Lane and Piercy Street, Wednesbury. His son Henry Albert was born in 1857 in Codsall and grew up in North Street, Wolverhampton, although when he was 1, his father doesn’t appear on the 1861 census, where his mum and the children were lodging…

OLD IMAGE OF PIERCY STREET...

OLD DWELLING IN NORTH STREET...

Henry Albert married Anne Elizabeth Gilbert in May 1879 but their address on the census form of 1881 sees the couple and their 1 year old son Henry Gilbert (clearly after his mother’s maiden name) living at 123 St James Street in Doncaster, where his occupation was described as a police constable. Son Henry Gilbert had been born in Chillington Street, Wolverhampton on March 25th 1880.

CHILLINGTON TOOL WORKS...

Still a policeman in 1891, Henry Albert’s family had moved back to the Midlands and was living at 64 Little Green Lane, Birmingham and he was still working in the police force. Ten years on, in 1901 and residing at 1 Robert Road, Handsworth, Henry Gilbert had become a 21 year old toolmaker, although his father stated that his occupation was an ‘agent’ but 'declined further information’!

The 1911 census sees Henry Gilbert married to Bertha Hawkes and living at 21 Maxstoke Street, Birmingham with a 3 month old son named for the child’s grandfather Henry Albert.  The family would eventually move to 33 Maxstoke Street, although interestingly Henry Albert was living at and then died at number 35 in May 1926, following a 10 day bout of influenza. 

Bertha Hawkes was from the Warmington area of Warwickshire, near the villages of Mollingford and Shotteswell, which is amazing, for Shotteswell is the name of the Solihull road I live in… 

WARMINGTON...

SHOTTESWELL ST LAURENCE CHURCH...

Bertha’s dad was a labourer from 4 Warwick Road, Warmington, whose son Joseph was listed as a shepherd on the 1891 census form. Ten years on, as a 19 year old, Bertha was living at the vicarage for All Saints Church, Mollington, a housemaid for clergyman Walter Hill and his wife Frances. Laura Hartley did the cooking!

ALL SAINTS, MOLLINGTON...

MOLLINGTON VILLAGE...

She had married our Henry Gilbert at St Andrew’s Church, Bordesley on 3rd October 1909 but Bertha died on 1st March 1917, aged 34, having given birth to sons Henry Albert in 1911, Herbert Thomas in 1913 and then Gilbert Alonzo (!) in January 1917. 

ST ANDREW'S CHURCH...

Henry Gilbert remarried in November 1920, when he was listed as an electroplater and caster at Griffin’s in Cliveland Street. Amy’s parents were Frederick and Emma Cox of 89 Staniforth Street.

Still living at 31 Maxstoke Street, more children arrived to add to Henry III’s three sons: Walter Charles in 1921, Lillian Edith in 1923, Harold in 1924, William Dennis in 1927, Arthur John in 1929 and James Edward in 1931. Amy passed away in January 1934, leaving 6 children aged 13 and below…

My Gran married Henry Gilbert on 19th March 1938, taking on a husband and almost certainly the 6 children ranging from 16, down to nearly 4… My mum moved in too, though managed to survive for a very brief period. Nan lasted not much longer.

Sadly for Henry Gilbert, his son Gilbert Alonzo was killed aged 24 in 1941, whilst fighting in the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II.

Henry Gilbert was last heard of living at 54 Edenhurst Road in 1955 with Harold, a Dorothy and a Lillian. He would eventually die in 1972…

However, the main story about Henry Gilbert concerns his sister, Alice Mary Julia Madeley, born on 13th January 1884, unluckily perhaps for her, for she married widower William Simons on 30th September 1906. In 1911, the pair were living at 98 Maxstoke Street, with Alice listed as a cook at the Pinafore Works.

He was a plumber when he married Alice and he was a 27 year old living in Sheffield Road, Erdington. William was the son of Robert Simons (Simonds), a brass finisher and they had lived at 58 Ladywood Road in 1881. By 1891, the family had moved north to 59 Tiber Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool.

William had married Mary Ann Marie Hitchens in 1892 but there is an anomaly here, for he was apparently born in 1877, meaning he was 15 at the time… Hmm, not quite right, surely? However, two sons were born, Walter David in 1900 and William Arthur in 1901 and the family was then living at 45 Coles Lane, Sutton Coldfield.

A daughter, Katherine Eliza followed in 1904 but her mother died on 19th July that year, after childbirth… 

Alice Madeley married William in 1906, as already stated but by then, William had handed daughter Katherine to a woman who originated from County Durham called Fanny Smith of Farthing Lane, Sutton Coldfield, although he kept his sons… 

William certainly blamed Katherine for the death of his first wife…

However, on 4th June 1908, Katherine died and her parents were arrested and charged with manslaughter, ill treatment and neglect. They pleaded innocence but until the trial began, they were already serving a magistrates’ sentence of 3 months’ hard labour in Warwick Gaol. 

WARWICK GAOL...

Originally, following the death of his first wife, William had arranged for the childless Fanny Smith to look after Katherine in 1905 and paid her 6 shillings per week but after 3 months the payments ceased. A written agreement was then made for Fanny to adopt the child but that didn’t happen. Fanny Smith then became ill in August 1907 and needed hospital treatment, but William and Alice only agreed to take the child in at the second time of asking. Fanny reckoned the child was quite healthy when she was handed over to William and Alice in early September of that year, except for a sore on one shoulder. 

Gravelly Lane was William’s address at the time but by January 1908, upon ‘information received’, an NSPCC inspector called to see the child, finding her face bruised and the top lip swollen. The visitor was told of Katherine’s ‘dirty habits’ and ‘ill temper’ but a doctor was called in to examine the child and William and Alice were duly warned of the consequences of neglect.

On 7th February, a visitor wasn’t able to get to see the child, only Alice and then on subsequent visits, no-one was home. On May 1st, however a health visitor did see the child, whose face was bruised and both eyes blackened, whilst she sported a weal across her forehead which Alice admitted had been caused by the wielding of a cane. There were wrist marks too, Katherine having presumably been tied up and there were also sores on her body and other injuries.

The visitor was told that Katherine was always falling about, often downstairs, but the couple admitted that the weal across the head had been administered by them.  Alice showed the visitor a decent bedroom where she said that the child slept but then she changed her story, admitting her lie and showed the visitor a bare room with damp walls, no bed and only an old piece of blanket for the child to sleep upon. Alice had already guessed that she and William could well be imprisoned for child neglect…

A doctor was sent for and noted the body sores and injuries and a fresh head wound. William and Alice themselves then sent for a doctor on 3rd May, who found Katherine had a broken arm and was suffering from pneumonia, and on the following day the same doctor returned and found ribs broken too, although Alice and William said that Katherine had fallen downstairs. The child was sent to the workhouse infirmary for treatment on May 13th but her health worsened and she died on the 4th June from pneumonia, accelerated by neglect and ill treatment. She was covered in sores, she had broken bones and was emaciated, appearing skeletal.

The evidence:

The health visitor cited finding Katherine cowering, crouched in the hallway in a nightdress, dried blood on her face, head bruised, lips swollen, nose flattened and eyes black. A weal across her head from a cane blow had been administered because she ‘wouldn’t eat her dinner’… 

The girl was starved and weak-boned, she waddled rather than walked and weighed only 21 pounds. Her thumbs had likely been tied to her hands and had become stiffened and were tough to free…

William admitted having written to Alice’s mother, Anne, (the wife of a police sergeant, remember) wishing Katherine, the ‘dirtiest little cat that ever lived’ was dead, although he reckoned later that that was written in temper. He considered the girl would never alter and wasn't worth one of his boys’ fingers. He accepted though that her wrists had been tied by stockings, despite never noticing the marks left behind and agreed that a cane had been used on her, although not unreasonably…

She was only FOUR years old…

William said that he had never used a walking stick or a poker on the child.

Well, that’s all right, then…

A doctor had thought that she might have had rickets, he admitted and he thought that his wife Alice had ‘devoted herself to the child’ but had never removed her clothes, thus never noticing the fractures…

Presumably she wasn’t properly washed, then…

Alice said that she had run into debt buying milk for the girl but denied lying to the health visitor. She produced the nightdress Katherine had worn when the health visitor had arrived but at this point in the trial, Alice felt faint and was taken out for air.

Witness for the defence Lilian Bird declared that Alice was particularly clean and she never saw any sign of ill treatment to Katherine by either parent. Alice had told her that the child had ‘dirty habits’ but Bird didn’t believe that Alice had a quick temper.

Then Henry Gilbert Madeley spoke for his sister, declaring that on his frequent visits to the house, there was no reason to think the child was being ill treated or neglected.

The verdict:

The couple were found guilty of gross neglect (actually wilful neglect, according to the jury’s foreman) in a manner to cause unnecessary suffering and injury to health.

The sentence:

Remarkably, Alice and William were, er, discharged…

The Judge thought that the magistrates’ original 3 month sentence for the offence had been enough, added to by an extra two or three weeks whilst they had been awaiting trial…

Conclusions:

A get out of jail success for the couple…

William joined the RAF in March 1917 as an Air Mechanic 1st Class. He remained married to Alice and they were living at 1/2 Wynn Street in 1939 with a 44 year old servant, no less. She was Mary Westwood, originally from Dudley Road, next door to the Engine pub, before William died in 1954 and Alice passed away in 1959.

My grandmother married Henry Gilbert Madeley in 1938…

HENRY & MY NAN...

And soon left him…

The case was reported in the Leamington Spa Courier of 27th November 1908 and The Warwick & Warwickshire Advertiser & Leamington Gazette of the following day.

Not the most pleasant of stories to relate…

(THANKS TO Jan Pick FOR LOCATING THE NEWSPAPER REPORTS...)