James Titheridge – From Kilmeston to Kew

The Temperate House, Kew Gardens

Unconnected Facts

It is wonderful when two bits of a “jigsaw” join together! This was what happened to part of my family trees last month when some newly updated Middlesex Parish Records enabled me to connect two facts using parish records from Kilmeston in Hampshire, Chiswick in Middlesex and Mortlake in Surrey.

For Years I had known that James Titheridge who was born in Kilmeston, Hampshire in 1785 died in Richmond, Surrey in 1868, but I had no knowledge of the intervening 83 years.

For quite a while I had been aware of a family called Tytheridge who lived in Turnham Green, Middlesex but I had no idea who they were and where they came from.

As I researched the parish records of Hampshire, Middlesex and Surrey it was suddenly clear that I could follow James Titheridge from his birth in Kilmeston, Hampshire to Turnham Green, Middlesex and finally to Kew, Surrey.

James Titheridge’s family

James Titheridge was born in Kilmeston, Hampshire in 1785. He was one of four children born to John Titheridge and Sarah Allen. His mother, Sarah, died after the birth of his sibling when James was two years old.  His father John remarried Elizabeth Pike and they had three children.
 
Sometime before 1812 James left Kilmeston and travelled to Chiswick, Middlesex, a distance of nearly 60 miles. He probably moved from Kilmeston in search of work and by 1812 he was working as a gardener.  In the early part of the nineteenth century Chiswick was an area of market gardening and orchards, which provided food for the nearby city of London. Chiswick was situated on the north side of the Thames 7 miles from the city of London.

On 7 January 1812 James married Sarah Preston at St Nicholas, Chiswick. On the marriage records his surname is spelt Tytheridge not Titheridge. This new spelling was passed on to all his children. James and Sarah had six children born between 1812 and 1825 all baptised at St Nicholas, Chiswick. The baptism records show James working as a gardener, with the family living in Turnham Green, Middlesex, a small hamlet a mile to the north of Chiswick.

The children were

• Emma Tytheridge born 23 March 1812 and baptized on 7 June 1812. On 22 January 1843 Emma married Edward Gavell in West Hackney Parish Church. 
• James Tytheridge born 6 December 1814 and baptised 28 March 1815. James died aged 26 on 13 July 1840 and was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Mortlake.
• Christopher Tytheridge born 1 March 1817, baptized 15 June 1817. Christopher died in 1837 aged 20 and was buried on 23 February 1837 at St Mary the Virgin in Mortlake.
• John Tytheridge born 29 September 1819 and baptized 26 December 1819. John died in 1858 aged 40 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, Middlesex. He died at Marlborough Street, Regent Street in the parish of St James, Westminster.  CORRECTION made in February 2021: John died in 1844 not 1858 as originally thought.
• Mary Laura Tytheridge born on 18 December 1821 and baptized 17 July 1825. Mary married Samuel Casson on 31 March 1850 at the parish church West Hackney.   J
• Alfred William Tytheridge born on 19 Mar 1825 and baptised on17 July 1825. Alfred was living with his father on the 1841 census and recorded by the name of William. No further records have been found for him under the name of Alfred or William.

In the parish records of St Nicholas, Chiswick, Sarah Tytheridge of Turnham Green is recorded as buried on 21 February 1826, age 46.  One must assume this is James’ wife which would have left James with six children aged between 14 and 1. However, on the 1841 census James is living with Sarah Tytheridge aged 55. I therefore assume he has married again but the marriage record has not been found, neither has any further record been found for Sarah Tytheridge.

James Moves to Mortlake

From the parish records we know the family were in Turnham Green up to 1825. By 1840 the family had moved two miles south across the River Thames to Mortlake, Surrey, a village situated on the south banks of the River. The 1840 London City directory shows James Tytheridge as making a living from an Eating House in Mortlake. The 1841 census shows James living on the High Street in Mortlake with his occupation again given as a gardener. Living with James are his two children Mary and William plus Sarah Tytheridge aged 55. On this census James’ son John is also living in Mortlake at another address.

James Moves to Kew

The 1851 census shows James has now moved 2 miles west to Kew. He is listed as a lodger at Solms Cottage, Richmond Road, St Anne’s Kew. He is described as a 63 years old widower, with his occupation a gardener and his place of birth is given as “Hants, Kimpson” (an old historic name for Kilmeston, Hampshire was Kimpston).

The 1861 census shows James as a lodger at 1 Gloucester Road, Kew. He is listed as a 72-year-old widower, but his place of birth illegible but definitely Hampshire. His occupation is gardener at The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. What an amazing place it must have been to work in Kew Gardens in the Victorian Era.  The gardens became the National Botanical Garden in 1840, with the Palm House built between 1844 and 1848, followed by The Temperate House, which is twice as big, which opened in 1863. This was the period James was working at the Botanical Gardens. The greenhouses were built to house the tropical plants which the Victorian plant hunters brought home and must have been an amazing spectacle to the Victorians.

James died in 1868 with the death registered in Richmond Surrey. The parish records of Kew, St Anne’s show James Tytheridge was buried on 27 January 1868 aged 82.

The Palm House, Kew Gardens