In April 1891, Jehu Chester, aged 21, was a baker living with his wife and daughter at East Field.

Life at Hardington

Jehu was born at Hardington in 1869. He was the youngest son of William and Anne Chester, who lived in Pen Lane. After working as a weaver as a young man, his father took up farm work when the sailcloth industry declined.

Jehu’s mother died in October 1881 when he was only twelve. The loss had a profound effect on his father, who, in June 1885, tried to cut his own throat.[1] He recovered from his injuries but hanged himself eleven months later.^[2]

Jehu was a journeyman baker for most of his life. As a young man, he used the pages of the Western Gazette to seek employment. In March 1887, when he was seventeen, he advertised for a situation as a good second baker.[3] In December 1888, he sought a situation again, this time as a first, second, or single baker.[4]

On 8 May 1889, Jehu married Alice Mary Abbott at Hardington Mandeville. She was the daughter of Simeon Abbott, a farm labourer who lived in Pen Lane.

Early in his married life, Jehu tried running his own business, taking the tenancy of a bakery at Hardington Moor previously occupied by Philip Helliar.[5] The premises, which comprised a house, bakehouse, stable, coach-house and garden, belonged to the executors of William Yeandle. The venture cannot have succeeded because his tenancy, which commenced on 25 March 1890, only lasted one year.[6] By 5 April 1891, Jehu, Alice and their ten-month-old daughter, Matilda Maud, lived at East Field. Their second child, William John, was born at Hardington about a year later.

Life in Wiltshire

Jehu was committed to seeking out new opportunities. By October 1893, he and his family had moved to Ludgershall, a village near Andover that had benefited economically from a railway station opened in 1882. His third child, Jehu Simeon Wakefield Chester, was born there.

Glastonbury and Somerton

Their stay in Wiltshire was short. By April 1896, they were living at Glastonbury, and in May 1899, they were living at Somerton, in a four-roomed house at Behind Berry.

Life in South Wales

They then moved to South Wales. Between May 1906 and April 1908, they moved to Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, a village only three miles from where Jehu’s brother, Joseph, worked as a coal miner.

Death

Jehu only survived the move by a few years. He died in 1909, aged just 39, leaving a widow and eight children, five of them under thirteen years of age.

Alice’s later life

Anxious to provide for her family, Alice soon remarried. Her new husband was Ernest Pearson, a coal miner who was ten years her junior, with whom she had one child, Arthur. The same year, her eldest daughter, Matilda, married Thomas Henry Ellis, who was also a coal miner.

Alice and her new husband were often separated. In April 1911, Alice and her eight unmarried children lived in a five-roomed house at 28 Park Road, Aberkenfig, while Ernest worked in Stockport. Moreover, in September 1939, Alice, although still married, lived apart from her husband at 13 Tytalwyn Avenue, Kenfig Hill, near Bridgend, with two granddaughters. Ernest’s whereabouts at that time are unknown.

However, the 1921 census shows Alice, Ernest, and Alice’s daughter, Nellie, living together at 40 Park Street, Kenfig Hill, Pyle.

Alice died in the Bridgend area in 1949, aged 78.

Jehu and Alice had two sons and six daughters who all reached adulthood. Their only two sons, William and Jehu, were killed on the Western Front in 1917.

References

[1] Echo (London), 16 June 1885, p.1; Western Gazette, 26 June 1885, p.6.

[2] Bristol Mercury 11 May 1886 p. 7; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser 18 May 1886 p.6.

[3] Western Gazette, 11 March 1887, p.4.

[4] Western Gazette, 28 December 1888, p.5.

[5] Western Gazette, 28 February 1890, p.5.

[6] Western Gazette, 13 March 1891, p.5.