Thomas Edwards was born on 30 December 1850 in the busy heart of Wrexham, at Beast Market, an area long associated with livestock trading and daily commerce. By the time of the 1851 census, he was recorded there as a child aged one, growing up in surroundings filled with the noise and movement of animals, carts and market traders. His father, Charles Edwards, was a wheelwright, one of the skilled craftsmen whose work kept the town’s wagons and transport moving, and it was into this world of tools, timber and practical skills that Thomas was born.
By 1861, the Edwards family had moved to 45 Chester Street, a step away from the bustle of Beast Market but still close to the centre of town. Thomas was now ten years old, growing up in a household shaped by skilled manual work. His father Charles continued his trade as a wheelwright, while his mother Mary was recorded on the census as a grocer and tea dealer, an occupation not commonly listed for married women at that time. With both parents engaged in trades, Thomas was raised in a home where work, skill and self-reliance were part of everyday life.
In the 1871 census, Thomas had reached his early twenties and was already following a skilled trade of his own. Living at 20–21 Lambpit Street with his widowed mother, he was recorded as a cabinet maker, marking his place within a long tradition of woodworking that ran through his family. His mother Mary, now aged sixty, was still working as a grocer and provision dealer. This was a household that continued to be self-reliant. Lambpit Street lay close to the older industrial heart of Wrexham, an area where skilled tradesmen and labouring families lived side by side.
In the 1870s, Thomas’s life briefly took him beyond Wrexham, and he married Mary Edwards at St Nicholas Church in Liverpool. Though both were originally from the Wrexham area, they gave their address as Parliament Street, Liverpool, at the time of marriage, a busy district close to the docks where lodgings were often taken by those seeking employment. Thomas was already established as a cabinet maker by this time, while Mary, recorded as a minor on the marriage certificate, was still under the age of twenty-one. Witnesses to their marriage, John and Eliza Samuel, were also Wrexham-born but living in Liverpool, suggesting familiar connections.
After their marriage, Thomas and Mary did not remain in Liverpool long. Within a short time they had returned to Wrexham, settling in Holt Street where their early married life began to take shape. It was here, at number 19 Holt Street, that their first child, Mary Alice, known as Polly, was born in June 1873. Then at 8 Holt Street Buildings, another child, Thomas Charles, was born in 1875, followed two years later by Loretta. Moves within the same street were often a family adjusting as it grew. For Thomas, these would have been busy years of steady work, his skills as a cabinet maker becoming ever more important as the family expanded. The family appears to have briefly moved out of the town centre to Madeira Hill, as shown on the baptism of their next child, William Henry, in 1879.
By the time of the 1881 census, Thomas and Mary were living at 32 Lambpit Street, only a few doors from his mother, showing the importance of family ties. Their household now had five young children, including Anne Harriet, aged 6 weeks. Thomas would now be balancing the demands of skilled work with the responsibilities of a growing household. The death of Thomas’s mother led to another move for the family. For many years she had run a provisions business from numbers 20 and 21 Lambpit Street, continuing her work as a grocer and provision dealer well into later life. After her death, Thomas and Mary moved into the same premises, and by this time Mary herself was recorded as a provisions dealer, suggesting that she might have taken over the running of the business. Perhaps a practical decision, to maintain that source of income.
Looking at the census of 1891, the family had grown with the addition of Ernest, Reginald and Evelyn. Several of the older children were already working, helping to support the family, but William, aged fourteen, and Anne, aged ten, were recorded as scholars. In a town like Wrexham, where children could be drawn early into mines and ironworks, I like to think Thomas valued keeping his children at school for as long as he could.
During the late 1890s, the Edwards family moved to 17 Smithfield Road, and by 1901, Thomas junior was boarding in Chester, while Polly and Loretta were living with their aunt in Mold. Still at home, William was employed as a plumber and Ernest was a joiner’s apprentice, following his father into the woodworking trade. Also in the household was daughter Cissie, aged 3.
Some years ago, while searching local newspapers, I came across a report stating that Thomas Edwards of 17 Smithfield Road had been summoned over animals being kept in unsanitary conditions. At the time, it felt like a rather juicy discovery about a great-great-grandfather who otherwise appeared respectable and hardworking. Only when writing this story, and returning to the newspapers to double-check details, did I find a later notice correcting the earlier report. The name and address had been printed in error, and another man was responsible. It was a reminder that even contemporary newspaper reports are not always as reliable as they first appear.
In the years leading up to 1908, the family moved again to 24 Kingsmills Road. It was there that Mary died on 31 July 1908, aged fifty-six. She had suffered from chronic nephritis for several years, and ten days before her death experienced a cerebral haemorrhage from which she did not recover. By this time the family was already beginning to change. Thomas junior married Ethel Dyble in 1903, while Loretta married Ernest Tew in 1904 and moved some distance away. Mary’s death left Thomas widowed after more than thirty years of marriage, responsible for a household that still included younger members.
The 1911 census shows Thomas still in Kingsmills Road, with Polly, Ernest, Reginald, Edward and Gwendoline, aged thirteen. My family tree now showed both a Cissie and a Gwendoline as daughters of Thomas and Mary. They appeared to be the same age, but I could only find Cissie in the 1901 census, and only Gwendoline in the 1911 census.
So, when visiting Mum’s uncle Charlie, Reginald’s son, I showed him the tree and asked what had happened to Cissie. He told me that there had never been a daughter by that name to his knowledge, and also of a family rumour that Gwendoline had, in fact, been a granddaughter rather than a daughter. That conversation stayed with me, and not long afterwards, I decided to apply for Gwendoline’s birth certificate to settle the question. I searched first for a birth registration under the name Gwendoline Edwards, thinking that Cissie might simply be a pet name for her, but found nothing. It was only when I looked for a birth certificate for Cissie Edwards that a certificate appeared, for Cissie Pritchard Edwards.
Thinking back to Charlie’s comment, Mum and I were almost convinced that Polly would be named as her mother. She was back at home, and our family knew that she had once been engaged, but left standing at the altar. In the family photograph above, she appears older than her years, her expression more serious than her sisters. It was just a feeling we had, but it seemed to make sense at the time. The surprise came when the certificate arrived, Cissie Pritchard Edwards was not Polly’s child at all, but the daughter of her sister Loretta. No father was named, but the inclusion of the name Pritchard might offer a quiet clue. It was not uncommon for an unmarried mother to give a child the surname of the presumed father.
Looking back through the records, in 1901 three-year-old Cissie was living with Thomas and Mary at 17 Smithfield Road, while Loretta was living in Mold with her aunt and sister. When Loretta married in 1904, and moved away, Cissie remained with her grandparents. No document has been found to explain why this arrangement was made, and it is impossible to know whether it was Loretta’s decision, a family one, or simply what worked best at the time. What is clear though, is that throughout her childhood, in census records and her baptism at age 15, five years after Mary’s death, Cissie, later known as Gwendoline, was recorded as the daughter of Thomas and Mary.
By the early 1920s, the household at 24 Kingsmills Road had grown quieter, with most of the older children now married and living elsewhere. Only Polly and Gwendoline remained at home with Thomas. At seventy years old, he was still working as a cabinet maker and joiner, employed by Harold Davies & Co, builders of Lord Street, Wrexham. State pensions had been introduced, but were only paid from the age of seventy and many men continued working, as Thomas clearly did. Polly was earning her own living as a dressmaker, working on her own account from home. She never married after being jilted at the altar, but her engagement ring still survives within the family today, now in the possession of her sister’s granddaughter. Gwendoline, now a young woman, was recorded as a typist but out of work, giving her last employer as the Wrexham Tailoring and Clothing Company in King Street, an example of the newer kinds of employment that had opened to women in the early twentieth century. A boarder also lodged with the family, working as a sanitary plumber for a Carlisle firm engaged on the new council housing scheme at Acton Park in Wrexham. He would have brought extra income into what had become a large house for a small household. In the official records, Gwendoline continued to be listed simply as Thomas’s daughter, just as she had been throughout her childhood.
Thomas Edwards died on 30 June 1926 at his home, 24 Kingsmills Road, Wrexham. The local newspapers recorded that about three months before his death he had fallen and broken his leg. He was said to be recovering and had begun to walk again, when complications followed, bringing his life to an end at the age of seventy-five.
His obituary noted that he had been a widower for eighteen years. He left a large family of sons, daughters and grandchildren, and throughout his life had been closely connected with the life of the town of Wrexham. He was a member of the Chester Street Congregational Church and served for many years as secretary of the Hand-in-Hand Tontine Society. He had also served as a Colour Sergeant in the Volunteers and had been awarded the Long Service Medal. In his trade, he was described as a craftsman of very high repute, and many cupboards and cabinets he made were presented to local schools, described as fine specimens of his workmanship. His many grandchildren were also gifted pieces of his work.
His funeral was well attended, and he appears to have been well respected within the community. Probate was granted later that year, leaving effects valued at £249 18s to his daughter Mary Alice, known as Polly, who had remained at home with him for many years.
All those properties Thomas lived in, some of which still stand today, are part of his story. I can stand outside them now and imagine the lives that unfolded within their walls, from busy households filled with children to quieter years in later life.
After her father died in 1926, Polly and Gwendoline remained at 24 Kingsmills Road, the two women continuing the household that had been centred there for so many years. Polly continued to support herself through dressmaking, working on her own account from home. Sadly her time at 24 Kingsmills Road was not long after her father’s death. She died on 24 April 1927 at the same house, less than a year after Thomas. She was fifty-three years old and buried in Wrexham Cemetery alongside her parents, Thomas and Mary. Probate, with effects valued at £235 12s 9d, was granted later that year to Gwendoline Edwards, the niece who had lived alongside her for most of her life.
This story has been about Thomas, but is impossible to tell without also thinking about Gwendoline. From childhood, she had been part of the household he created, recorded in official records as his daughter and raised within the homes he provided.
Gwendoline’s life moved forward after the death of Polly. She married for the first time in 1933, and in 1939, she and her husband, a draper, were living on Park Avenue, a more suburban area of Wrexham than her childhood homes.
Years later, after being widowed, she married again in 1962 at the age of sixty-five. In her later years she lived in a bungalow with her second husband, and it was there that I remember visiting her as a teenager. At the time, she seemed simply a great aunty, and I never imagined the story that lay behind her life. Gwen died on 20 March 1986.
There are still questions that cannot be answered with certainty. Why did her name change from Cissie to Gwendoline? Did it happen after Loretta married and left home, or later, when circumstances had settled? Charlie, Thomas and Mary’s grandson, remembered growing up alongside his cousins without ever knowing who Gwendoline’s mother was. It raises quiet questions about what was known within the family, and what may have been left unspoken.
Whether Gwendoline herself knew the full truth, or whether Loretta remained part of her life, is something the records do not reveal. Later records show that Loretta named one of her sons Harold Gee Tew, using Gee, the maiden name of Thomas’s mother, a small detail that links her child back to the earlier family name. Many questions remain, but they are reminders that family histories are often only the brief glimpses we see in census returns and certificates.
Linda EYEonthePAST
