Henry Burgess appeared out of nowhere when he married Jane Hordle of Wareham, Dorset, on 1st January 1865 at St Martin in the Fields, London. Their marriage certificate gives few clues:

Jane’s father is confirmed to be George Hordle, carpenter, as expected. Fortunately, Hordle is a relatively unusual name to trace through the censuses, so Jane’s background is well established.

The witnesses don’t appear to be relatives (Perks and Ponton?) but the names are worth keeping in mind. St Martin in the Fields is a long way from Jane’s origins in Dorset, so not the family parish church.

Henry Burgess states he is a bachelor, of full age, working as a fishmonger and that his father is Henry Conwright Burgess, greengrocer. There is no obvious sign of either of them in the 1861 census, but they could have changed occupation more than once in the intervening years and Henry (junior) was about to change again.

When the couple’s first child, George Henry Cornelius Burgess, was born on 5th May 1865 his father was recorded as a police constable.

The certificate also shows that Henry has expanded his name to include Conrad Cornelius as forenames. A look back at the marriage certificate reminds us that Henry (senior) had a middle name of Conwright, so there are several unusual names beginning with C associated with these Henry Burgesses. This could provide a lead to Henry’s origins, unless they were all created out of nowhere by young Henry, as he was himself!

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Research Plan to identify the origins of Henry Burgess:

Aim: to find the parents of Henry Burgess, married 1865, died 1866.

1. Timeline of evidence so far.
2. Search General Register Office (GRO) for possible birth certificates for a Henry Burgess around likely dates. Search for other Henry Burgess birth/baptism records including transcriptions.
3. Search censuses from 1841 to 1861 for father’s name and 1871 to eliminate ‘survivors’.
4. Consider all the remaining candidates in turn.
5. Further research into most likely candidates.
6. Final conclusions.

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1. Timeline of all known facts about Henry Burgess from GRO certificates:

2. Births of Henry Burgesses from GRO and other sources:

According to Henry’s death certificate he was 28 on 13 August 1866 (or 29 if his burial record is to be believed), so his birth would have been recorded in 1838 or 1837, perilously close to the start of general registration.

Searching the GRO Index for these years provides the following possibilities:

Ancestry: 1 result for 1837 and 12 for 1838

Find My Past: 1 result for 1837 and 12 for 1838, (not quite the same 12 as Ancestry)

Births/baptisms from parish and other sources:

There are a few births implied from parish baptisms and the 1841 census – see census searches below.

3. Census searches for Henry Burgess born 1838 +/- 1 year:

The first two censuses are helpful for tracing children from their birth/baptism to 1851 when their father might be named:

Ancestry 1841 census: 4 born 1837 (1 with an adult named Henry present) and 13 born 1838 (4 with adult named Henry present)

FMP 1841 census: 5 born 1837 (2 with adult named Henry) and 11 born 1838 (4 with adult named Henry)

Ancestry 1851 census: 2 (father named Henry, 1 with Henry as a visitor, 1 with no father)

FMP 1851 census: 7 (1 with father named Henry), 3 families (no father), 2 (on own)

The next two censuses are useful for eliminating all those still living in 1871:

Ancestry 1861 census: 4 born in 1837; 8 in 1838; 8 in 1839

Ancestry 1871 census: 6 born in 1837; 5 in 1838, 6 in 1839

Only one Henry Burgess from 1861 is not accounted for (following through to 1871, or back to earlier censuses showing father is not named Henry). He is a waiter, born in 1838, in Ham, Kent but working in St Sepulchre, Middlesex. I cannot find a likely birth/baptism for him. Ham is near to Deal and Sandwich in east Kent. (Note: on the original census page his birthplace was Ham, Surrey but the county had been crossed out and replaced by Kent).

FMP 1861 census: 5 born in 1837; 5 in 1838; 9 in 1839

FMP 1871 census: 6 born in 1837; 5 in 1838; 8 in 1839

There is only one possible unmarried candidate born in 1839 and he is a footman to the Austrian Ambassador at Chandos House. His birthplace is given as Lenton, Kent, which doesn’t seem to exist. Could it be Linton, which does exist?

Click here to open a new window for a summary of the search results found above

4. Remaining candidates and thoughts on each:

From the GRO Index and other birth/baptism sources:

Henry Burgess in Ipswich. Certificate states: b. 19 March 1838, father Henry Burgess, huckster, mother Elizabeth Burgess, née Sugar. The address is Cold Dunghills, St Margarets, Ipswich. The year and father’s name are correct but the occupation doesn’t match.

Henry Burgess in Penzance, b. 1838, but he might be William Henry and father might be John/Richard Burgess from transcription sources. No obvious trace found in any censuses. Doubtful if this is relevant.

Henry Burgess baptised at Wellington, Shropshire in 1838 but nothing else known. Mother Emma Burgess, a servant – no father named. No obvious trace found in any census.

From the 1861 census:

Henry Burgess b. 1838 in Ham, Surrey/Kent who is a waiter in 1861 in St Sepulchre, Middlesex. No obvious trace in other censuses.

Henry Burgess, b. 1839 in Lenton, Kent which cannot be found – possibly Linton. He is a footman for the Austrian Ambassador. No obvious trace in other censuses.

For these last two possibilities the same thought occurs to me: both occupations are a long way from fishmonger so where did that come from on my ancestor’s marriage certificate four years later? It seems unlikely either is an ancestor – particularly the footman, who might have wanted to impress with his high-powered connections! The most likely candidate seems to be Henry Burgess from Ipswich, and further research reveals naming patterns that strongly suggest a link between my ancestor and this family. See below for details.

Birth certificate for Henry Burgess from Ipswich

5. The Ipswich Burgess family:

The naming patterns which seem to be unique to this Ipswich Burgess family stretch across several generations. The details of this, and more, are recorded in the table below.

When Henry Burgess senior died in 1888 it was the first time his full name of Henry Cornelius Burgess appeared in records. Where did it come from? He had previously named a son Christopher Cornelius (b. 1845), who in turn named a son Henry Conroyd (b. 1875). That Henry’s son, Henry Conright Cornelius (b. 1901), then named his son Henry Conrad (b. 1929), the great great grandson of the first Henry Cornelius.

Compare this with my great grandfather’s naming habits. He declared his full name was Henry Conrad Cornelius Burgess on his son’s birth certificate; that his father was Henry Conwright Burgess on his marriage certificate; then named his first son George Henry Cornelius. George was Henry’s father-in-law’s name and Henry Cornelius his father’s name, as it turned out to be in 1888! (Perhaps he made a mistake on his marriage certificate with Conwright and was able to correct it when George was born?)

It seems very likely to me that my Henry Burgess is the Henry Burgess from the Ipswich family who goes missing after the 1851 census. A quick check for the latter in the 1861 census is reassuring. There were 16 Henry Burgesses in Suffolk in 1861 but none of the three born within three years of 1838 come close. Likewise, a search for the name and age together with Suffolk as the place of birth draws a blank. Did the Ipswich Henry die before 1861? A disheartening search on Ancestry of the GRO Index shows there were 132 recorded deaths for Henry Burgess between 1851 and 1861. At least the few that occurred in Suffolk can be eliminated via other records. The most we can say is that the Ipswich Henry left home sometime after 1851 and cannot be traced with certainty.

The Occupation ‘Problem’:

When he married in 1865, my young Henry stated that his father Henry was a greengrocer but we see in the table below that the potential Ipswich father was a huckster, coal porter, labourer, coke dealer and beerhouse keeper at various times; never a greengrocer. Is this significant? Might young Henry have invented ‘greengrocer’ to sound more respectable when marrying the daughter of a carpenter? (Particularly as ‘father’ Henry was a labourer in 1866 for the wedding of his daughter Susannah.) Alternatively, did young Henry even know what his father‘s occupation was in 1865? We don’t know if there had been any contact since the 1851 census when Henry senior was a general labourer. (It is interesting to notice that, in the 1939 Register, a descendant of Henry senior was a greengrocer’s hawker – perhaps that 1838 occupation of huckster wasn’t so far from greengrocer after all.)

Timeline of life events for the Ipswich Burgesses, particularly those concerning the ‘C’ names

** The Will of Henry Burgess senior, from Ipswich:

Henry Burgess wrote a will in October 1882 which was signed and witnessed but didn’t name an executor. Consequently, after he died on 11 May 1888, Letters of Administration were granted to his youngest son James, who also took over the running of the Eclipse Inn. In the will Henry lists his eight children, in order of age and includes the married names of his daughters. They will all inherit equally, and there is no mention of a son Henry. This negative evidence does at least suggest that he knew for certain that young Henry was not around to inherit his share. The will also specifies that if one of his children should die, then any surviving grandchildren should inherit in their parent’s place. If he knew for certain that young Henry had died but that there were grandchildren he would surely have mentioned them in the will.

Extract from the official copy of the will written by Henry Burgess in 1882 for Administration in 1888.
The key passage from the will with details of all Henry’s (living) children.

From the will we can deduce that:

a. Son Henry (born 1838) died between the census of 1851 and the will written in 1882.

b. There was no point naming young Henry in the will because, even if he had married, there were no known grandchildren.

c. This lack of any mention also seems to eliminate the possibility of Henry having emigrated, gone to sea and not returned, etc. He is not expected to reappear.

Where does this leave the Henry Burgess on my family tree? If the two Henrys are one and the same, then there are more questions to think about. Did Henry in Ipswich know his son had married? If so, did he know Henry had died and/or had a first son, George, who also died? If so, would he have heard from Henry’s widow, Jane, that a second son, Henry James, had been born posthumously six months later in Wareham, Dorset? Is it likely that she would have written to Ipswich?

6. Conclusions:

Given the lack of any meaningful alternative candidate after a reasonably comprehensive search, and also the compatibility of facts, (birth year, name of father, disappearance after 1851) it looks likely that the Henry Burgess born in Ipswich is my ancestor.

When the most unusual naming pattern is added to the reasoning it seems almost perverse to consider anyone else. The repetition of ‘C’ names across the generations must have been of continuing significance to the Ipswich family. Whatever the reason for it, my ancestor clearly shared the same attachment to the names.

Just how rare are these names? An “all records” search of four large data sets proved interesting. Looking at the 19th and early 20th centuries, beginning with the “C” name plus Burgess, then Henry C or C Henry Burgess, produced the following:

These results do not include family trees or pictures as they are so repetitive.

One ‘C’ name occurring in both families might be pure coincidence but not three. Cornelius, Conright and Conrad are already quite rare names to come across in any British records in any context. But here we have all three regularly used by the Ipswich Burgesses between 1845 and 1929. For those same names also to be highly valued by my great grandfather (for himself and his son) seems to me more than enough to ‘prove’ that I have found the right person.

Comparison of the use of ‘C’ names by the two families.

Are Henry Conwright Burgess and Henry Cornelius Burgess one and the same?

Is Henry Conrad Cornelius the elder brother of Christopher Cornelius?

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