Albert George Squire was a baker and shopkeeper at Hardington Moor from 1868 to 1886.
When John Yeandle moved to Yeovil in 1868, he rented the premises to Albert George Squire, a Yeovil man.
Family life in Yeovil
Albert George Squire was born at Yeovil in 1841. He was the illegitimate son of Jane Squire, who was only sixteen or seventeen old. She lived with her parents, James and Sarah, at Reckleford. Her father, James, was a gardener.
In 1849, Jane Squire’s brother, William, married Eliza Leach, and Jane went to live with William and Eliza in Rotten Row, leaving Albert in the care of her parents. Jane probably moved back in with her mother when her father died in 1853.
In the meantime, Jane may have had an illegitimate daughter in 1852 while living in Bristol. Named Emily Eliza Squire, this person, who was likely Albert’s half-sister, made Albert’s two daughters the executors and main beneficiaries of her will when she died in 1924.[1]
Life in London
Albert has not been found on the census of 1861. He must have been in London at that time because it was there that he met his future wife, Martha Elizabeth Robins. When they married at St Pancras Church on 24 April 1867, Albert was a commercial clerk, living in the Euston Road.
His wife was the daughter of a wheelwright who originated from Wiltshire. As a young man, he moved to London and started his own business. In April 1861, Martha was a shopkeeper living at 14 George Street, St Pancras.
Life at Hardington
Albert and Martha moved to Hardington in about 1868. They were there by 31 January 1869, when their first child was born. By April 1871, Albert’s mother lived with them, and they had two male servants, aged 18 and 13.
On 28 April 1872, Albert and Martha presented three children for baptism in Hardington church, but one was probably the daughter of Albert’s half-sister, Emily Eliza Squire.
Albert died intestate on 6 January 1886, aged 44, leaving effects valued at £443-4s-8d.
His widow’s life at Hardington
Martha gave up the baking business and continued with the shop, helped by her daughters, Martha and Ellen. On 28 December 1886, all the horses, vans and utensils connected with the baking business were sold by auction.[2]
On 2 April 1895, at the Borough Petty Sessions, Martha was charged with allowing a horse to be worked in an unfit condition. A police superintendent saw the horse in the High Street on 15 March harnessed to a two-wheeled baker’s cart, the driver of which was Arthur Partridge, a youth of Hardington. It is not clear if Partridge was delivering to customers or collecting supplies.[3]
In about 1896, Martha gave up the business and left the village.
His widow’s later life
Martha spent the remainder of her life alternating between the homes of her two daughters. In March 1901, she was at Radipole living with the older daughter, and in April 1911, at 3 Crofton Park, Yeovil, living with the younger one.
She died at Broadway in 1919, aged 78, and was buried in the churchyard there on 19 March.
References
[1] The will of Emily Eliza Heddon, dated 26 November 1908, proved at Blandford on 18 July 1924.
[2] Western Gazette, 17 December 1886, p.5.
[3] Western Chronicle 5 April 1895 p. 3.