Henry Walkley / Hannah Jefferies
A short history of the lives of my great-great-grandparents Henry and Hannah Walkley.
Henry Walkley was born in 1831 at Horsey, Gloucestershire. He was the son of Charles Walkley, a weaver of Horsley. In 1855 he married Hannah Jefferies at Stroud.
Hannah was also born in Horsley, in 1833. She was a dressmaker and a daughter of John & Susan Jefferies.
After their marriage they lived in Croydon and Brixton on the outskirts of London. Henry had a business as a manufacturer of India Rubber goods where he employed 7 men and 2 women (as of the 1881 census) and were wealthy enough to employ a housekeeper. They had a total of 15 children, three of them dying before the age of 2 years. Five of their seven sons emigrated to New Zealand. The two older boys William Henry and Arthur remained in England and continued in the family business of H. Walkley and Co., London, manufacturers of rubber and wet weather clothing also described as “Waterproofers”.
Hannah died in 1886, aged 52 years and was buried at the Norwood Cemetery. Henry later married his house-keeper Sarah Ann. She died in 1907 and Henry died in 1918.
