John James GUMBLETON

The 1871 census shows the family living in St James Street, Shaftesbury, where John Gumbleton, the father, was a mason’s labourer and John James, aged 9, was a scholar.

The family was still living in St James Street in 1881 and John James, aged 19, was still living at home, though he had left school and was now working as an agricultural labourer. The same year, he was married at Holy Trinity Church, Shaftesbury, to Eliza Jane Hopkins. They went on to have 14 children between 1882 and 1907.

The 1891 census shows John and Eliza, with five of their children, living in St James Street, further along the road from his parents’ house.

In 1901, they were living in Alcester, a village adjacent to the Shaftesbury parish of St James.

In the early 1900s, the family moved to Monmouthshire, Wales, vie the “New Passage” (a ferry service which ran across the River Severn estuary) and the 1911 census shows them living in Hillside Villa, Warm Turn, Aberbeig, Bedwellty, Monmouthshire. John was a general labourer.

In 1928, his wife died, in the Bedwellty Registration District. John was still living in Abertillery, Monmouthshire when recorded in the 1939 register.

He died there in 1942.