CHARLES COLLIER JONES (1832-1882) & FAMILY

This account of an interesting family was triggered by a set of three stained glass windows in the south aisle of Christ Church Epsom Common which   commemorate Charles Collier Jones. Epsom Cemetery’s record of his burial on 4 May 1882 lists him as a “Gentleman”. He was certainly a wealthy man: the probate value of his estate was £32,290 – about £3½ million at 2017 prices. However, Census returns list him as a Wine Merchant, so it may be more than coincidence that the rightmost depicts the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) – when Jesus saved the day with his first miracle of turning the water into wine.

Charles Collier Jones’ memorial windows.
Photograph © Nishi Sharma of Light & Shade Photography, 2015

The windows were installed in 1883, the year after Charles’s death, and were made by James Powell & Sons to the design of Henry Holiday, the firm’s head designer. They show:

• Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman (John 4:3-42, text from verse 24);
• Jesus throwing the money changers out of the Temple (John 2:13-22, text from verse 16); and
• the marriage at Cana (John 2:1-11, text from verse 11.)

The indicated texts are immediately below the images, and above the decorative panels at the foot of each window. The panel at the bottom of the middle window reads, “To the Glory of God and in loving memory of / Charles Collier Jones / who fell asleep 30th April 1882.”

Now to the history. Charles Collier Jones was born in 1832, the fifth child of Edward Henry Jones and his wife Mary Emma (née Collier), who had married on 25 May 1818 at St Clement Danes, London. (Charles’ second Christian name is clearly his mother’s maiden name. While, formally, his surname remained “Jones” he and his subsequent family sometimes tended to use “Collier Jones” in a double-barrelled way.)

The 1851 Census records the family at South Side, Well Street, Hackney. Edward and his eldest son (another Edward, now 30 but unmarried) are both listed as Wine Merchants, Also at home were: three unmarried daughters, aged 23, 27 and 31; a 12 year old son listed as a scholar; two visiting Collier relatives; and three domestic servants, showing the family were comfortably off. The 19 year old Charles was not at home for that 1851 Census – and “Jones” is not a forgiving name for search purposes.

In 1860, Charles married Henrietta Ann Robinson. For reasons as yet undiscovered, the wedding was in Thame, Oxfordshire, even though both were Londoners by birth. The 1861 Census finds the couple living in the village of Wormley, Hertfordshire, about 15 miles north of Charles’ parents. Charles is now shown as a Wine Merchant (presumably working with his father and older brother), and the couple are supported by two domestic servants.

Charles’ father, Edward, died in 1865 aged 64. Perhaps assisted by an inheritance from him, Charles and Henrietta moved to Epsom – with their first two children – taking a large house in Downside. By the time of the 1871 Census, another child had been born and, with the parents, are recorded the three young children (Charles Payne aged 7 – doubtless named after his father; Henry Edward aged 5 – likely to have been named with the male equivalent of his mother’s Henrietta; and Mary Louisa aged 2) together with three resident domestic servants.

By the time of the 1881 Census, the family had moved to the grander Woodcote Green House (now 1 Woodcote Green Road). On Census Day, Charles Collier was away – as was the 15 year old Henry Edward. The 17 year old Charles Payne is shown as “Clerk in Merchant’s Office”, presumably his father’s.

Charles died in 1882, aged only 50. He was buried in plot A19 of Epsom Cemetery on 4 May that year. (A photograph of the headstone over his grave – and the others mentioned below – is at the end of this article.) The widowed Henrietta and family moved to 3 Queen Ann Villas in Worple Road, where the 1891 Census records the three children still living with her – all supported by two domestic servants. (It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the next residents of Woodcote Green House were fellow members of Christ Church, Charles and Mary Bischoff.) The 27 year old Charles Payne had followed in his father’s (and grandfather’s) footsteps, being recorded as a “Wine Merchant”. No occupation is recorded for the 22 year old Mary, but her 25 year old brother (now called “Harry”) is shown as an “Artist”.

While Harry seems never to have made much of a mark as an artist, Christ Church does contain an example of his work. On 20 February 1891, Leonard John Hunter, the youngest child of the then Vicar of Christ Church, the Revd Archer Hunter, died of meningitis. Harry was commissioned to decorate the organ in the child’s memory – as may be seen in the article about Archer Hunter.

The following year, on 8 September 1892, the 29 year old Charles Payne married the 19 year old Eleanor Bertha, daughter of the Revd Charles Hobbes Rice, the Rector of St Dunstan’s, Cheam. (The marriage was in St Dunstan’s with the service conducted by the bride’s father.) The newlyweds set up home at “Fieldside” (later, numbered 14) in St Martin’s Avenue, just round the corner from Charles Payne’s childhood home in Downside. Eleanor quickly became pregnant and gave birth to their son, Bernard, on 27 June 1893. Sadly, died on 5 July – perhaps from post-natal complications – and was buried in plot A102 of Epsom Cemetery (next to her father in law in plot A19) on 7 July 1893. Although Charles Payne lived in Epsom, Bernard’s baptism, on 20 July 1893, was conducted by his maternal grandfather in St Dunstan’s, Cheam – just under a year since he had conduced his late daughter’s marriage.

The 1901 Census records Henrietta and daughter Mary Louisa still in Worple Road. (Son Harry had travelled off to pursue his artistic career: the Census shows him boarding – together with another artist, Clarence Bird – in Lyme Regis, Dorset.) The Census also records Charles Payne and son Bernard (supported by three domestic servants) still in St Martin’s Avenue.

In passing, it is worth noting that Charles Payne  had struck up a friendship with Elizabeth Welchman who lived at Down Lodge in nearby Church Street. She died in 1906 and the first codicil to her will provided:

“Whereas I have also by my will devised the chalk pit adjoining my garden upon certain trusts [which, in due course, led to the Council’s creating the Elizabeth Welchman Gardens there] I have hitherto granted permission to the family of my friend Mr Collier Jones to have a gate into the pit and have certain use and enjoyment of the pit and I may hereafter grant similar permission to others, now I hereby direct the trustees of my will and the future trustees of the said pit so far as may be consistent with the trusts of my will to permit Mr Collier Jones and family – and any others having permission as aforesaid – to have similar use and enjoyment of the pit as theretofore.”

By about 1905, the widowed Henrietta and daughter, Mary Louisa, had moved to “The Beeches” in Burgh Heath Road. They were certainly there in 1908 – it being the address at which Harry, returned from his travels, died on 11 November that year, aged only 43. He was then buried in plot A577 (within yards of his father and brother Charles’s late wife, Eleanor). As will be seen in the photograph below, the cross which topped his headstone has since fallen down. It now conceals most of the verse from Psalm 126:5 chosen by the family, and perhaps reflecting his less than wholly fulfilled life: “They that sow in tears / shall reap in joy“.

Henrietta died on 12 September 1910, by then aged 82. Four days later, she was buried with her husband in plot A19 of Epsom Cemetery Charles Payne (together with an unrelated solicitor) was granted administration of his late mother’s £8,112 estate. Indeed, the 1911 Census records the 47 year old Charles Payne (“Wine Merchant”) not at “Fieldside” but – perhaps temporarily – as the head of the household at his late mother’s “The Beeches” in Burgh Heath Road, together with his now 42 year old sister, both supported by three domestic staff. (17 year old Bernard was recorded as a pupil at Lancing College, Sussex.)

Charles Payne, who never remarried, remained connected to Christ Church – indeed serving as a Churchwarden for the period 1916-18. He was also active in civic matters, among other things being Joint Hon Sec of the Epsom & Ewell Grandstand War Hospital. Charles Payne died in 1919 at the age of 53 – relatively young, like his father. He did, however, live long enough to see young Bernard survive service with the Royal Flying Corps/RAF during WW1. On 22 February 1919, he was buried in the same plot (A102) of Epsom Cemetery as his wife Eleanor.

Administration of Charles Payne’s £6,883 estate was granted to his sister, Mary Louisa, and his son Bernard (noted as “Captain RAF”). It may be that Mary Louisa had already moved from “The Beeches” in Burgh Heath Road to her brother’s “Fieldside”, but that (now numbered 14 St Martin’s Avenue) is certainly where the 53 year old (“not occupied for a living”) was recorded in the 1921 Census, supported by two domestic servants. (Her nephew, the orphaned Bernard, was travelling abroad.)

Mary Louisa never married and, like both her brothers and her father, died relatively young – at the age of 57 – in January 1926. Although she had by then moved to the smart address of 8 Pembridge Crescent, West Kensington, she was buried in with her parents in plot A19 of Epsom Cemetery – where, as shown in the photograph below, all the family (except Charles Payne’s son, Bernard) lie close together.

The Collier Joneses’ graves in Epsom Cemetery.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2023

In the left hand photograph above:

1 marks Plot A19 in which are buried Charles Collier Jones (1832-1882), his widow Henrietta (1828-1910) and their unmarried daughter, Mary Louisa (1869-1926).

2 marks Plot A102 in which are buried Eleanor Bertha Jones (1873-1893) and the widowed Charles Payne Collier Jones (1866-1919).

The arrowed headstone is over Plot A577 (detail on the right) in which is buried the unmarried Harry Edward Jones (1865-1908).

So, what of Charles Payne’s son, Bernard – the only member of the next generation? He in not found in the 1921 Census, because of his foreign travels. There are two 1921 records of him (in both cases, listed as a “Merchant”) landing in Southampton on return from South America: on 9 April, bound for his old home “Fieldside”, Epsom; and on 5 December, bound for 7 Mincing Lane, London EC3.

On 3 July 1923, the 30 year old Bernard (“Merchant”) married 24 year old Mildred Caroline Hayes (“Spinster” and daughter of “Charles Hayes, Artist”). The wedding was in St Jude’s Church, Kensington, and Bernard’s aunt Mary Louisa was one of the witnesses. Bernard’s address was noted as 10 Collingham Place (just round the corner from the church in Collingham Road), and Mildred’s as 1640 Penn Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania USA. It is not known how the couple met, although Bernard’s travels may well be the answer. Anyway, the couple settled in the USA and their only child, Charles Collier Jones, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 11 November 1928.

In due course, Bernard took American citizenship. As noted above, he had served as an RFC/RAF airman in WW1. In WW2, he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the USAF, seeing service in both England and North Africa. He returned to the USA and, just short of his 74th birthday, died in Boston Massachusetts on 22 June 1967 – by then with three grandchildren.

Roger Morgan © 2017 & 2023