Joseph Thomas Gritton (1782 – 1859)

Master of Epsom Workhouse and Clerk to Epsom Board of Health

Epsom Union Workhouse (Post 1834)

Joseph was baptised on 11 February 1782 at Hull, son of Anthony Thomas Gritton, miller, and his wife Elizabeth, of Kingston upon Hull. During 1807, he married at St Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln, Maria Jepson (b. c. 1787), fourth daughter of the Rev. George Jepson, MA, Prebendary of Lincoln.

On 17 September 1811, J T Gritton, wine merchant, Boston Lincolnshire, was declared bankrupt, a final dividend was declared in 1826. Joseph subsequently entered a partnership with B. Caddick, trading as Lee Brook Iron Works, Tipton, Staffordshire – ironmasters. During 1829, another partnership with Joseph Birkbeck and Israel Piper, iron-merchants at Bankside, was dissolved. The members of this firm had also been listed as bankrupt by 22 February 1830.

At baptisms of his children at St Peter’s Wolverhampton between 1816 and 1821 his occupation was stated to have been ‘Accountant’.

No Ordinary Surgeon: The Life and Times of William Binley Dickinson, by Dorothy Bentley Smith, 2017, mentions Gritton as the Superintendant of Sutton Children’s Home, part of Macclesfield Workhouse about 1835. The housekeeper, Mrs Upton, had alleged that the Grittons had borrowed and did not return loaves of bread, arranged for the family’s clothes to be washed with workhouse soap, and used fine cloth intended for the inmates collars to make pillow-cases. Mr Gritton explained that he had bought bread milk and potatoes for some time to check what they would cost but charged any goods removed from the kitchen to himself in the accounts. A further accusation that his daughter took milk from the container and topped it up with water was denied. It was decided that the charges were only based on hearsay and dismissed.

Joseph Gritton and Maria are reported to have had the following 12 children: –

1. 1. MARIA JEPSON GRITTON, b. c. 1808,
   2. SARAH ANN GRITTON, b.c. 1811, Liverpool, Lancashire,
   3. TOM JEPSON GRITTON, b. c. 1812, Chester, Cheshire,
   4. ELEANOR ELIZABETH GRITTON, b. c. 1813, Boston, Lincolnshire,
   5. WILLIAM GRITTON, bap. 16 December 1816, St Peter’s, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire; d. Sydney, NSW, Australia,
   6. CATHERINE STANLEY GRITTON, bap. 25 June 1819, St Peter’s, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire,
   7. BARBARA GRITTON, bap. 9 June 1820, St Peter’s, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire,
   8. CLARA JANE GRITTON, bap. 24 October 1821, St Peter’s, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire,
   9. JOSEPHINE FANNY GRITTON, b. c. 1824, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England,
   10. HENRY SEPTIMUS GRITTON baptised 23 June 1827, All Saints, West Bromwich, Staffordshire, and died aged 19 of jungle fever in Zanzibar, 12 June 1845
   11. JOHN THOMPSON GRITTON, b. c. 1828, City of London,
   12. EMMA ELIZABETH GRITTON, b. c 1832, Hornsey, Middlesex.

By 1840, Joseph had become Master of Epsom Union Workhouse, enjoying a salary of £25 p.a., with his wife, Maria, as the Matron, and they were resident on the premises for the 1841 Census.

Joseph appears to have retired from his position to be appointed Clerk to the Epsom Board of Health  on 9 March 1850 and he was enumerated in 1851 on Church Street with Maria Gritton, 62, Eleanor E. Gritton, 39, & Clara J. Gritton, 28 plus a number of resident pupils.

The 1852 Kelly’s Directory lists Miss Eleanor Elizabeth Gritton running a ladies school which was located on The Parade in 1855.

In July 1853 Joseph resigned as Clerk to the Epsom Board of Health having reached the age of 70 and becoming deaf.  He died, aged 77, on 24 September 1859 at Sutton, and was buried at St Nicholas, Sutton on 1 October 1859. Letters of Administration were granted to Eleanor Elizabeth Gritton of Snakes Lane on 13 July 1867, the effects were valued at under £50. A newspaper announcement of Joseph’s death described him as ‘formerly a merchant at Hull’.

Maria, widow of Joseph Thomas Gritton, died at Sutton, Surrey, during 1867.

Brian Bouchard 2020