James Stone.

James Stone was my great grandfather. He was the first of my family on the Stone side to live in Barking. I never meet him as he died in 1949 nine years before I was born but from what I have learned about him I think he must have been quite a character and I would have loved to have meet him.
He was born on the fourteenth of November eighteen hundred and sixty one in Saxlingham Nethergate in Norfolk in eastern England.He had three brothers and one sister and came from a poor family. His father was a farm worker.He moved down to Barking on the edge of the eastern side of London between eighteen seventy one and eighteen eighty one as he is first shown living in a the house of a  someone he worked with at the local gas works with his future wife Emily Hisee and their two sons Charles and James.Emma`s mother was a member of the Revell family and although I haven`t been able to prove it yet I have some evidence that James came down to Barking with a member of her family.
Emma and James got married and went onto have six other children, Henry, my grandfather, George. Mary Ann and Emily who were twins, William and Ernest.William died at the age of eight and is buried in Rippleside cemetery in Barking.Emma survived until 1896 when she died I suspect having another child but I haven`t been able to prove that yet.
James seems to have moved on from Emma`s death pretty quickly as on the 1901 census he has a Catherine Long living with him as a "lodger" with her daughter Nellie.I now know that Catherine Long was his lover and Nellie his daughter. Nellie was actually registered as Nellie Stone.Nellie was born in eighteen ninety nine but William, James`s son from his marriage with Emily, is buried with a Frederick Long who died at the age of seven months in eighteen ninety eight so I suspect that they had another child before Nellie.Catherine is a bit of a mystery as I have three surnames for her Long, Stone and Mead.I have no evidence that she married James so she may have just used his name for decency purposes as in those days it was frowned on living with someone out of wedlock and it may have been that she had been married before but I haven`t been able to find any evidence for that so far.
Soon after Nellie was born Catherine seems to have disappeared from James life and I have little evidence of what happened to her.I know that he carried on working at the local gas works until he retired and died still living in Barking.He is buried with a Elizabeth Mary Stone who died at the age of forty three in October nineteen forty three and another Elizabeth Mary Stone who died aged seventy nine just after he did in August nineteen forty nine.So it seems likely although I haven`t been able to prove it yet that he married again and had another daughter.
From family stories about James it seems that the man was a one for the ladies as they say and I would love to find out just how many wives and children he actually had both lawful and otherwise as I suspect I still haven`t uncovered them all.There was a rift between him and his children and I suspect that was because he had a roving eye so to speak.When my grandfather was asked when his father died where he thought he should be buried he said that as far as he cared he could be buried on the local rubbish tip so there seems there was no love lost there!
When you look into your family`s past and find things about various members you never meet you tend to build up a picture in your mind of what they were like. Although James was I suspect not one of natures good guys I think he was a character and must have had something about him to attract the ladies attention like he did. I would have loved to have meet him and seen for myself exactly what that was.