My interest in family history was sparked by the stories my Grandma told me of the forest of masts she could see over the roofs when she grew up in Rotherhithe in the 1890s. She was very proud of her father and brothers who built barges and lighters but she also told me more about how the family first started this occupation in Berkshire in the 18th century.
Every descendent of Robert Talbot has been told the story of
how he and his brothers brought the family barge building business up to London
from Berkshire on a stage coach.
Certainly there was a stagecoach route from Thatcham to London along the
Bath Road and some time before 1799 Robert and Richard moved to London, as they
were both married there in 1799. There
is no evidence of any other living brother accompanying them. As Richard and his wife Elizabeth Jenkins do
not appear to have had any children, Robert Talbot is seen as the founder of
the barge building dynasty.
Robert and Richard were born in the beautiful village of
Pangbourne, on the river Thames in Berkshire, the sons of John Talbot and Mary
Ivey. Their other brother Edward died in
1792 and their sisters married in Pangbourne.
Although there is no proof that John Talbot was a barge builder, there
were other Talbots who built barges in Pangbourne at that time. As yet no family connection to these other
Talbots has been made. After the death
of Mary Ivey in 1795, John Talbot married Mary Kirton and had seven more
children before his death in 1837 at the age of 92.
Robert Talbot married Ann Proud at St Andrew by the
Wardrobe, near St Paul’s cathedral in 1799.
At first they lived in Shadwell, a crowded dock area between Limehouse
and Wapping, but by the time of the birth of their second child, Thomas Talbot
in 1804 they were living by the Thames in Fore Street, Lambeth. Fore Street, as its name signifies lay on the
foreshore of the river Thames. It was a
very busy area of boat builders, whiting works and potteries including
Doultons, later Royal Doulton.
By 1839 Robert had moved his barge building business to the
up and coming boat building area of Rotherhithe Street. It is probable that all their premises were
rented. Leaving Fore Street was wise, as
by 1866 it was disappearing beneath the Albert Embankment.
Robert and Ann Proud had 8 children, before Ann’s death in
1830. Robert married again twice; to Ann
Richards, a widow, in 1833 and to Cricey Finley in 1848, the year before his
death of Asiatic cholera. Robert Talbot
was buried in a graveyard on Lambeth High Street, near St Mary at Lambeth (The
Garden Museum). The stones were moved
against the walls by 1950 and have since eroded but it is a peaceful park with
a children’s playground.
Four of Robert’s sons, Thomas, Robert, Richard and Edward
followed their father, becoming barge builders while Charles became a stationer
and printer, with premises in Tooley Street.
The barge building sons undertook 7 year apprenticeships
with the Worshipful company of Watermen and Lightermen, and 16 members of the
extended family became important officials of the Shipwrights company,
including Edward James who was a liveryman of the Shipwrights company and a
Freeman of the river Thames. His uncle
Edward L. Talbot was Master of the Shipwrights company in 1869, as was John
William Talbot in 1880.
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| Lucy Talbot and Sons 1866 |
Rotherhithe in Victorian times, was a vibrant part of the
Pool of London, teeming with Irish labourers, boat builders and sea
captains. The “Fighting Temeraire”
sailed into port to be broken up here in 1838 and the Mayflower had set sail from
Rotherhithe in 1620. There were rope
makers, sail makers and oar makers like George Henry Leggett. Large quantities of timber were unloaded
here. Grain was unloaded into the
flat-bottomed lighters made by the Talbots and other barge builders. The wife of Edward James Talbot, Elizabeth
Palmer Hopkins came from several generations of lightermen.
Later Richard Talbot (b. 1813) moved his barge building
business to Caversham in Reading, returning to Berkshire where his wife had
been born. It was said that this was
because so many of his children died in the unhealthy atmosphere of
Rotherhithe. Robert Talbot (b. 1828)
based his business at Strand on the Green and Percy Sutton Talbot established
his at Wood wharf, Greenwich.
This article first appeared in http://russiadock.blogspot.co.uk/ in September2013.
