Friday 21 September 2012

Florence Maud Mary 's prospects.

No photo has been found showing Florence, this is her elder sister Charlotte.
Florence Maud Mary was born in 1859,  the 7th child of 10 born to master tailor Edward Murch and his wife Catherine Vevyan. The family lived in Devonport, one of the 3 towns that were eventually amalgamated to become Plymouth. (Devonport, Stonehouse and Plymouth ). They were reasonably affluent, Edward employed a number of workers and the family had a servant at one stage, when they lived on Devonport’s thriving main street, Fore Street.
 



 
The dockyards were central to the lives of everyone in the area. Edward’s tailoring would certainly have included naval uniforms.
 
 Florence’s brothers were either employed in the navy or they worked at the docks, and she married a Royal Navy Artificer.
He was called William Whelen, and was the Liverpool born son of            Irish  immigrants

Although the Murch family were Methodist, Florence married William in the Royal Navy’s Roman Catholic chapel near Mount Wise in Devonport. The couple’s children were baptised as Roman Catholics.

Florence’s story is short and sad. Following her marriage she had 6 children in 10 years. Her husband was rarely at home, but she followed him back to Liverpool where he worked at the Bootle docks in the mid 1880s. Florence returned to Devonport sometime between 1891 and her death in 1898, when she was 39.
Five of her 6 children were sent to Catholic sailor’s charitable organisations. It seems her husband was unable to look after the children, and anyway, he remarried 2 years later. Florence’s own mother died the same year, so there was no possibility of her taking care of the young family. Florence’s eldest son, my grandfather, was 18 and deemed old enough to look after himself. The 5 youngest children emerged from their various orphanages, 2 of the girls marrying into naval families, one daughter seems to have vanished and I am unable to trace her at all. At least one of the 2 other sons emigrated to Australia and married an Australian woman with the wonderful name of Vera May Mulshine.
My bigamist grandfather went on to marry 3 women, leaving wife number one after his experiences in the trenches of the 1st world war. His complicated life led to 3 brothers not knowing of each other’s existence.

However, the story of my grandfather, and his siblings, is for another time.
I have wanted to know more about Florence ever since I have known of her existence. This last week I have spent 5 days in Devonport, looking for hints about her life. I did not expect to find concrete evidence of her, but I wanted to walk the streets that she had done, as a child, and as a young woman.


What have I found ? 
I have found a town that existed of appalling slums in the late 19th century, where cholera and small pox claimed the lives of many. I have found a very small town where there used to be 200 pubs, where alcoholism was rife, and prostitution even “rifer” !  One of Florence’s brothers was born again, into the Salvation Army, and I can only presume that this was connected to the Temperance movement that grew out of the horrors that alcohol abuse brought to the community.
one of the few remaining Victorian pubs in Devonport
I found the house Florence lived in soon after she gave birth to her first son ( my grandfather)...she was there with a cousin, and the baby. Her husband was at sea.
Florence lived here in 1881, with her baby....my grandfather.
I found the street she grew up on, although WW2 bombs obliterated any evidence of the houses she would have known.
I found the house her parents lived in 8 years before she was born. I walked along the streets that she would have known.
Florence's parents lived here in 1851...... I suspect it has seen better days, at least it is still standing.

The back to back streets of Devonport have gone....this is part of what has replaced them. The clock tower from one of the gateways to the dockyards has been retained.
 
I toured the dockyards where her brothers and her husband and her sisters’ husbands worked. I saw the few Victorian pubs that remain, and I saw the various, and variable attempts at regeneration that have taken place in Devonport over the years. I also found a housing development that has replaced the Roman Catholic chapel where she married William Whelen.
Houses, where the Roman Catholic chapel used to be.
 
The Church has gone, but the view from where the church used to be, wont have changed...so I spent some time sitting there, wondering what that young bride thought about back in 1879, when she must have looked out over the River Tamar, and the area around Mount Wise.
Part of the dockyard wall.....opposite where the Church used to stand.


The River Tamar, one of the ship building yards ( with royal statue !), opposite the site of Florence and William's wedding.
 
I found the street that she lived on when she died. The houses were all gone, small back to back slums, replaced by what look little better....tiny, crowded, terraced “affordable” housing. All that remains is the wall, dividing the road.....enticingly and hopefully called Prospect Row, from the dockyards behind it.
 
I didn’t find her grave. I suspected that there would have been no headstone, so I was not surprised. Her husband, so absent during her life, did not register her death, that was left to my 18 year old grandfather. So....no trace of Florence remains, but I do feel that I have walked in her shoes for a few hours.

 

 

19 comments:

  1. This is absolutely fascinating, Janice! Despite Florence remaining elusive, you have found out so much! Poor woman had a very hard life - she would never guess who would be looking for her all these years later and who has given her some dignity at last.
    You were destined to be part of a complicated family - though clearly you are now better 'blended'. Axxx

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    1. Compared to poor Florence, I dont know the meaning of complicated ! Most of the complications in her family did occur after her death... and I think my bigamist grandfather must take the award for complicating things the most. I have uncovered so much about his life... but it has always been his mother who really fascinated me. I'm off now to see what else I can uncover. Jxxx

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  2. I loved this journey into your history and the photos! Since I've been researching mine & Mr N's family I've been amazed at the stories I've uncovered, a lot of them tragic, some of them shocking. It's odd to think that I know more about these people sometimes than their close relatives did.
    And now you've given me a new trail to follow as one branch of Mr N's family were called Murch & they were from Plymouth in the early 18th century, later moving on to Honiton. His ggg grandmother was called Hannah Murch. I'm always glad of an excuse to get back to family history detective work - who knows, you may be a distant cousin!

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    1. That is amazing... Murch was quite a common name here, but the family was huge, so it is very likely that we are connected somewhere in the past. My earliest direct Murch ancestor is a Benjamin Murch who was born about 1725.....and the early ones did seem to move around within Devon. I think that was to do with the rural economy's needs for farm workers. By the start of the 19th century, my Murch lot were all based around the needs of the navy and the ship building industry. Anyway, I'll let you know if I come across Hannah. J.

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  3. Florence comes to life again in your quest for her.

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    1. I still hope that somewhere I will find a photograph of her. Unfortunately, that seems very unlikely. However, I am ejoying trying to look at and understand her world. J.

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  4. What a amazing way to honor your great-grandmother's life, Janice, by walking in her path. How hard that life must have been, especially with so many children so close together. Have you found information about Florence's sister Catherine or know where her grave is? These discoveries always lead me to more questions than answers, wanting to find out more and more. I do hope you will post more of journey with your family.

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    1. I do know quite a bit about Florence's 9 siblings. The photo is of Charlotte, who married a shipping engineer, moved to the north of the country and experienced a much more middle class life than her younger sister. I have found no graves so far.....but am about to explore yet another churchyard this morning. Who knows what I will find ! J.

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  5. Wow Janice what a story and beautifully told. I like to think that in our own way we take a little pinch from the people who have gone before us and maybe in some way quietly influence us still.

    Looking forward to reading more

    Celia x

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    1. I wish I knew more of her story Celia. I have all the official bits, birth, marriage, death certificates and all the census information throughout her life.....but that's just the bones, my imagination has to fill in the rest, which is why I wanted to spend some time in Devonport. It has helped in that it has given me more information for my imagination to work on ! Thanks for your lovely comments. Jxxx

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    2. oh... and I do really hope I have something of Florence in me ! Jx

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  6. Janice....I loved your story and you wrote it down so beautifully and great photo's. How nice that you could trace back your Family tree. Your great-grandmother sounded like an amazing woman and led a very hard life. Only if she knew that you would be researching her life and bringing it back to some kind of dignity after all these years.
    I've always wanted to trace mine but unfortunately mine came to North America from the USSR.......sometime a bit after the turn of the century and during that regime most all things and records were destroyed throughout the century. :-(
    Thanks you again for sharing your story.

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    1. Thanks Erica. I have loved trying to learn about Florence, and others in my family. Have you tried looking at shipping records....the immigration records will at least indicate where abouts in Russia or other bits that made up the Soviet Union tghat your family came from. Then if you had the names of towns or villages, you might be able to find out all sorts. J.

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  7. Janice, I as totally engrossed as I read Florence's life story. You must have done so much research and you put it all together so well that I felt I knew her by the end.

    My next-to-youngest sister is our family historian and I'll email her the link to this. I know she would enjoy it.

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    1. I have been engrossed in our family history for some time now. I keep finding snippets of information that astound me. The real "find" was uncovering my grandfather's bigamy, and then establishing contact with the descendents of his "other" wives...my cousins. It has been a real adventure of discovery. J.

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  8. Hi Janice,
    I grew up in 2e Prospect Row, Devonport Plymouth and the post code was PL1 4LD. I'm shocked I can remember that as I'm now 53. The area was like a slum in the 60s and 70s. There were many large families living in the blocks of flats and I am one of 15 children. I remember the chapel and I recognise the house where Florence lived.I thought your post was great and am glad I stumbled across it. The wall that has been left stirred up many memories for me. I still live in Plymouth but I haven't visited Mount Wise for years. You have been very thorough with your research and how amazing it was that you walked in her footsteps. Very well written too. Thanks for sharing. Christine

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    1. Thanks so much for leaving a comment Christine. I had wanted to visit Devonport for ages, and was thrilled that although Florence's Devonport is long gone....there were traces that meant I could piece together some of her story.The area has clearly gone through so much change...some of it good, but some of it seems as souless as the slums that the regeneration has replaced. It was a fascinating trip for me, and I am very grateful for your comments. Thanks. Janice

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    2. Hello Janice, I have read your blog re Florence Murch with interest. I, am at the moment, carrying out a family history for my cousin and her g grandmother was Florence Murch. Her grandfather was Francis William Whelen (Whelan) and her grandmother was Vera May Mulshine. We live in Australia. I guess that makes Linda your second cousin. I can be contacted on hjmorse@hotmail.com if you would like any more information. Regards Helen

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    3. Thanks so much for getting in touch Helen, I am just about to sit down to email you and ask a million questions....and looking forward to making contact with Linda....very best wishes J.

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