Morgan GUMBLETON

He was a son of William Gumbleton, an agricultural labourer in the Wiltshire village of West Grimstead, and his wife Martha, nee England. In 1841, William and Martha's family were living with William's parents, Samuel and Betty, in a cottage in West Grimstead, where Samuel was a carrier.

In 1851, the three generations of Gumbletons were still living together. By then, Morgan, aged 13, had already left school and was listed in the census as a labourer.

On 1 Jan 1856, when he would have been aged 18, he enlisted for service in the Royal Navy. It is not known how long he served, nor on what vessels.

At the age of 21, Morgan was married to Mary Hazell, the daughter of William Hazell, another agricultural labourer. They were were married at the Parish Church in Alderbury (adjacent to West Grimstead) on Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 1858.

In 1861, Morgan, his wife and their first child, were living at Finsbury Street, Portsea, Hampshire. He was still listed as a labourer in the census but it is not known what had taken them to Portsea. Around 1869, they must have moved to Salisbury, where their third child Mary Anna, was born.

In the 1871 census, Morgan and his family were living in Charlton, Downton, Wiltshire, the village where Morgan's mother originally came from. By then he was described as a waterman. Downton is on the River Avon, which passes through Salisbury and ends in the Solent at Christchurch.

By 1881, the family had moved to Tu Gwyn, Llanllechid, Caernarvonshire, Wales, where Morgan was a gamekeeper. However, on the night of the census itself, Morgan was staying with John Hazell (A brother-in-law, perhaps?) in West Grimstead. In the same year, his daughter, Flora Martha, was married at the Cathedral Church in Bangor, to John Galloway, a gamekeeper. In 1883, another daughter, Mary Anna, married James Gordon, another gamekeeper, also at Bangor. Morgan was a witness.

The 1891 census shows him and his family living at Foel Rhiwen, Llanddeiniolen, Bangor. He was still a gamekeeper, working on the Vaynol Estate, an ancient estate of parkland and farmland, then belonging to the Assheton Smith family. On Saturday 5th May 1891, Morgan appeared at the Carnarvon County Petty Sessions as a witness, having apprehended a poacher on the estate.

Mary, his wife, died on 2 Aug 1895, at Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales. She was buried in Glanadda Cemetery, Bangor, but is mentioned on Morgan's own gravestone at West Grimstead.

In 1900, Morgan remarried in the Dover Registration District, in Kent. His second wife was Martha Feist, nee Longhurst, a widow. In 1901, Morgan and Martha were living at 124 Park Lane, Tottenham, Middlesex, where he was a "excavator, ganger".

In 1908, Martha was admitted from the Infirmary to the Woolwich Union Workhouse. Perhaps she was terminally ill at that point, as she died about three months later.

In 1911 Morgan was living with the family of Edwin Hazell in Spiders Island, Whaddon, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Edwin had married Morgan's daughter, Agnes. Morgan's occupation is described as "Navvy ganger. Pensioner. Railway" so perhaps his work, when he was in Tottenham, was connected with the building of railways. Spiders Island is an area of Whaddon, just north of the Grimstead Road.

Morgan died in 1914 and was buried in West Grimstead Churchyard, where his gravestone still stands.