Life story retold by Pamela Moss, family descendant
When researching my family history I discovered that five direct ancestors on my father’s paternal line – all named George MOSS – are buried in Reading Old Cemetery, along with other members of their families. This is the first of their stories.
George MOSS
George is my 4x great-grandfather and was born around 1795 -1797 in Reading (according to census records/death certificate as no birth record found). In 1818 he married Sarah POWELL at Reading St Giles. She was born in Winchester around 1795, but again no birth record found. When their first child was born in 1819, George was a labourer and they were living in Silver Street, a poor part of Reading. By 1821 they had moved to the Whiteknights estate in Earley and George was a gardener and labourer on the estate. He worked there for a number of years and for some of the time was living in the Western, or Avenue, Lodge in Whiteknights Park. The estate held periodic crop sales and prospective buyers could apply to George at the Lodge to be shown the lots. In the 1841 census they were living at Mobbers Farm – possibly a contraction of Mockbeggars Farm, which was adjacent to Whiteknights Park.
George was still working as a gardener in 1851, but he and Sarah were also running the Merry Maidens public house in Shinfield Road. At the time this would have been a beer house but George applied several times for a spirits licence, one application being rejected because he failed to declare his other employment as a gardener with J. Blandy Esq. His case was probably not helped by the fact that he had been fined a number of times for keeping the pub open after hours. An article in the Reading Mercury on 31/1/1857 tells how on one occasion a group of workmen employed at a nearby house had supper at the pub where some of them were lodging. They had been given a piece of beef as a present and decided to have a little ‘jollification’ over it. Their talking and singing alerted the local policeman who found them still drinking at twenty to two in the morning! George offered various excuses but was fined £2 18s plus costs. In October 1871 George transferred the licence of the Merry Maidens to Henry Hixon.
George died at the age of 78. His death took place at the Grenadier Inn in Whitley, where his son William was the publican. The cause of death was apoplexy (possibly a stroke or heart attack). His wife Sarah died on 21/3/1882 (aged 85) at the home of her daughter Mary Ann COGGS in Crown Street, Reading. She died of ‘old age’ and bronchitis. George is buried with wife Sarah, son William, and daughter Sarah.
William MOSS
The fourth child and eldest son of George and Sarah, William (1825 – 1875) was baptised at Reading St Giles on 17/8/1825. He married Mary Ann CLARKE in 1848, and his original occupation was as a painter and glazier. In 1861 he was living at Turnpike Gates, Whitley Place, Reading, and had an additional role as toll collector. He then became a publican and took over the Grenadier Inn, Basingstoke Road, in 1864. Like his father he was fined more than once for staying open after hours. He died in 1875 (aged 50) after a ‘long and painful illness’. Mary Ann remarried and died in 1889. They had three children who all moved away from the district.
Sarah MOSS
Sarah was George and Sarah’s seventh child and spent her life in domestic service. In 1851 she was a servant in the household of George Simonds, brewer and timber merchant, at Bridge Street, Reading. In 1861 she was working in Hackney, London. She never married, and died on 25/2/1871 (aged 37) at the Merry Maidens. The cause of death was liver disease.
George and Sarah had 7 other children: Mary Ann (1819) who married James Coggs, a hairdresser, and lived in Crown Street, Reading; Elizabeth (1821) who married William McFadyean, a carpenter, and emigrated to Queensland, Australia in 1855; Rebecca (1823) who married James Lainsbury, a labourer/ gardener, and lived in Earley and Shinfield; George (1828), a cook/biscuit baker who lived in London, then Reading; Henry (1830), a bricklayer, who moved to Croydon; Frederick (1835) who died aged 5 of inflammation of the lungs and was buried at Reading St Giles; and Edwin (c1839, no birth record found), an upholsterer, who ran the Jack of Both Sides pub and livery stables in London Road, Reading, before moving to Guildford by 1881. There is an entry from Harrods Directory for Edwin Moss as fly proprietor and livery stable keeper and victualler (1868-1877).
Division 51, unmarked grave