The Barnes Family:
Their son John (born 1746) married Judith Read in 1772 at Stratfield Turgis, Judith was from the parish but John was at the time living in Hartley Wespall. They had eleven children, born between 1772 and 1795 in Hartley Wespall and Heckfield. The oldest son, also called John, was born in 1772 and he married Mary Hunt in 1801 at Heckfield and they had at least eight children, one of which was George Barnes (see Family Photos).
George married Elizabeth Banks in 1832 and in 1841 they were living at the nearby Riseley Common. Their sons were agricultural labourers. Son Thomas Barnes (born 1838) married Jane Arlott in St. Mary's Church, Reading in 1863 and soon after sons Thomas George (1864) and William (1866) were born. The family moved to London to start the London branch of the family sometime between 1866 and 1869. My great grandfather, Charles John Barnes was born at Nine Elms, London in 1871. George died in 1874 aged 67. Elizabeth died in 1898 aged 87.
The young Thomas Barnes (born 1838) may have worked at the nearby Bramshill House in the 1850's -on the 1851 census he is shown as an 'errand boy'. There is a photograph thought to have been taken at Bramshill House which shows the staff and Thomas is one of the young lads seated in the front row - maybe you can see a family likeness. It is said that Thomas met his future wife Jane Arlott (born 1842 in nearby Burghfield, Berkshire) while they were both working at Bramshill House. Thomas and Jane moved from Reading, Berkshire to South London sometime after 1866. A daughter Miriam was born in Lambeth in 1869, sadly dying in 1870. In the family is a photograph taken in Clapham which could be Thomas with his daughter Miriam or maybe his son Charles John (1871-1956 - my great grandfather). Thomas Barnes and his wife Jane and their two children lived at first in Lambeth but by 1901 they were living in Tooting with another four children firmly establishing the London branch of the family. Thomas was an agricultural labourer in Hampshire and after moving to London worked as an unskilled worker variously employed as a porter, general labourer and council worker. He appears on the 1901 census aged 62 with the occupation of labourer and on the 1911 census he is aged 72 and recorded as an old age pensioner. Thomas died on the 1st April 1917 aged 78 of hemiplegia which led to respiratory failure. His place of death was 14 Holdernesse Road, Tooting, his daughter Annie (now Annie Jane Forster, having married in 1904) was present at his death. He is most likely buried in Streatham Cemetery.
The Barnes family lived at various addresses in London and when Thomas and Jane moved from 23 Cobbett Street, their son Thomas George and his wife Annie moved in. Thomas George appears to have spent his working live in the brewery trade, employed variously as a drayman and as a brewer's assistant. He was most likely working at the Anchor Brewery in Dorset Street - almost on his door step. Of son William not much is known, except that he married Blanche, had a daughter called Grace and was living in Clapham Park Road in 1901 and working as a tram driver. There may have been other children born in later years.
Thomas George and his wife Annie had four, (and maybe five) children, certainly we know of two boys and two girls. A letter in the family states that one of the sons, Bob, died in the First World War after receiving a stomach wound. After several years trying to find "Bob" and after a few false trails, I finally found "Bob" on the 1911 census. Bob, is in fact Herbert Robert Albert and with cross-referencing the Commonwealth Graves Commission website and the Medal Index Cards I have found him listed as Albert Robert Herbert - killed on the 18th September 1918 at the Battle of Ephey Wood. He had served in the 24th Battalion of the County of London Regiment since 1916. Of his two sisters Florence and Ethel and his older brother Thomas Charles I have no information after 1911, although I have found a possible marriage to a Lydia M Wade and that is currently being researched. Sadly, Thomas George committed suicide by hanging in the September of 1922.
Charles John Barnes (my great grandfather), was born in 1871 to Thomas and Jane and married Elizabeth Holloway in March 1894 at the Holy Trinity Church in Upper Tooting. Their eldest son Charles George Thomas Barnes (1895-1986) served in the First World War as did his younger brother (my grandfather) Ernest John Barnes (1896-1972). Details of their war service can be found under the First World War pages. Charles married Agnes Rawlings in the March of 1926, they had no children. Ernest John Barnes married Olive Wooldridge in 1926, living at 42 Chetwode Road, Tooting until their house was destroyed in a bombing raid in the October of 1940. Ernest served as a Special Constable during the Second World War. William Henry Barnes (1905-1968) brother to Charles and Ernest married Violet May Welch in the June of 1931, they had two children Margaret and Colin. The youngest son of Charles and Elizabeth, Horace (born 1907) was widely known as 'Jack' and was nicknamed 'Bubbles' by his family as he bore a resemblance to the young boy in the Pears Soap adverts. Horace married Lilian Margaret Phillips in 1932 and he served in the ARP in World War Two. Charles and Elizabeth had one daughter, Annie May Barnes (1899-1996), known as May she married a Canadian soldier in the March of 1919. Her husband David Cyril Butterworth (1897-1979) was born in Derbyshire and had emigrated to Canada sometime between his birth in 1897 and 1918. They had two daughters.
You can find out more on the Holloway and Wooldridge families by following the links.
The Barnes family that remained in Heckfield were farm workers, I am yet to research possible descendants.
Today, the descendants of John and Sarah Barns can be found all over the UK and in Australia, Canada and America too.
