Introduction

After his childhood years at West Monkton, John James Sharman followed in his father’s footsteps and became a gardener. This occupation shaped his life for the next two decades, leading him to various locations, including Taunton, East Chinnock, Hardington, Godalming, and Willesden. Eventually, he changed careers and found work with an electrical company.

Childhood

John James was born at West Monkton in 1855, the third of four children born to James and Eliza Sharman. His father, James, was a gardener, while his mother, Eliza, was the daughter of a journeyman carpenter.[1]

John was the first of the siblings to leave home. By April 1871, John was a gardener lodging at 13 Foundry Row, Taunton.

East Chinnock

By May 1878, John lived at East Chinnock, probably working as a gardener at the Rectory.[2] There, he met Emily Voizey, who lived in the village with her mother, Priscilla, and her stepfather, William Brown, who was a saddler. Emily’s father, Thomas, had died from bronchitis when she was only two years old, and her mother married William Brown three years later. Emily was ten years older than John and had a daughter, Elizabeth, from a previous relationship, born in 1867.

After Emily became pregnant, they decided to marry. They married at East Chinnock church on 18 June 1878, and their first child was born at East Chinnock on Christmas Day of that same year.[3]

Hardington

In 1879, John took a position as a gardener for Rev. William Vassall at Hardington Rectory. This role suited them well because it included a cottage in the dip at Barry Lane, and Emily’s brother, Herbert, also lived at Hardington.

The Vassall family must have valued John’s work because when they moved to Godalming in 1883, he and his family went with them.

Godalming

John worked as a gardener at Godalming for about six years.

During this time, he acted as a witness to the wedding of a fellow servant, Emma Kirk Milford, to Francis George Purchase at Godalming on 26 December 1888.

Willesden

Between 21 April 1889 and 5 April 1891, John resigned from his gardening job with the Vassall family and moved to Willesden. The 1891 census recorded the family living in three rooms at Albert House, a property in Queens Road, Stonebridge Park.

John initially worked as a gardener but later found work in the electricity industry. By March 1901, he was an electrician; by April 1911, he was an electrical regulator working for the Metropolitan Electricity Supply Company Ltd. By June 1921, he worked as a switchboard attendant for the same company.

John and Emily remained at Stonebridge Park but moved house at least twice. By March 1901, they lived at 8 Queens Road; by April 1911, they had moved a short distance to a five-roomed house at 14 Shrewsbury Road.

Emily’s death

Emily died in about 1919, aged 73.[4]

Remarriage

Later that year, John married Annie Maria Collett, a widow and she and her twenty-four-year-old daughter, Winifred, moved in with John.

Death

John died in the Rochford district of Essex in 1936, aged 81. Annie was seventeen years younger than John and outlived him by nine years.

Children

John and Emily had four sons and two daughters.

References

[1] John’s brother, Joseph, became a porter in London, while his other brother, Richard, became a signalman at Wells. Little is known about his sister, Elizabeth, except that she was a lady’s maid at Cossington by April 1881 and lived at Stourbridge by 1951. She never married and died in 1951 at the age of 94.

[2] East Chinnock Banns Book.

[3] Western Gazette, 21 June 1878, p.5.

[4] Civil Registration Death Index, Q1 1919.