THE LANGLANDS FAMILY

(This article is in six sections, each of which ends with a clickable link to its neighbours.)

Part 3: 3rd generation – Charles, 1823-1889 & Augustus, 1829-1886

On 29 October 1851 and in St Martin’s, Lawrence’s son Charles (now aged 28) married 23 year-old Elizabeth, the daughter of  Moses Hands – who was rather more than the “local baker” of census record. The couple made their home in Epsom and went on to have seven children, as set out below. Of the five who survived to adulthood, only Gerald Walter (in later life, generally known as “Walter Gerald”) carried the family business into the next generation.

• Charles Reginald, born on 29 September 1852. By the time of the 1881 Census, this 28 year-old was still living with his parents in South Street and had no recorded occupation. In Q1 1882 and registered in the St George, Hanover Square District of London, he married Lina Felicita Watson (who, four years his senior, been born in Switzerland). They set up home at 4 Waterloo Road, Epsom and were recorded there in the 1891 Census supported by two domestic servants, and with Charles listed as “Living on his own means”. It does not appear that they had any children. The couple later moved to 90 Cromwell Road, Hove. That was Charles’s home address when he died on 16 October 1897, but his death was at 15 Jermyn Street, London. His estate was valued at £7,140.
• Harold, born on 28 February 1854, and who died, aged 4, in 1859.
• Lewis William, born on 25 July 1855. The 1871 Census records him as an apprentice watchmaker to William Arnold at 66 Union Street, Ryde in the Isle of Wight. As reported in The Isle of Wight Observer on 13 December 1873, the 18 year old was lost in the Solent on 7 December during a solo canoe trip to Portsmouth.
• Alfred Ernest, born on 1 March 1858. As a 13 year-old, he is found in the 1871 Census as a boarder at Deal College, Kent (a school for the “sons of gentlefolk”). In 1876, he was sentenced to 12 months with hard labour for “Assault leading to actual bodily harm” which he served in Wandsworth prison. On 1 September 1879, he married Mary Jane Westwick. Although both were “of Epsom”, the wedding was in the church of St Mary-le-Strand, London. They – or at least Alfred – subsequently moved to Australia, where Alfred died on 18 August 1888, aged 30.
• Oswald Lawrence, born on 2 January 1860. As an 11 year-old, he is found in the 1871 Census as a boarder at Deal College, Kent alongside his older brother Alfred. Sadly, he died in July 1873, aged 13.
• Gerald Walter, born 27 April 1862 – who will be our main focus in Part 4.
• Percy, born in late 1866 (and baptised in St Martin’s on 6 December that year). In due course, he joined the Army. On 10 April 1901 this now 34 year-old Captain in the 1st West Indian Regiment (resident in the Parish of St Martin in the Fields, London) married 19 year-old Daisy Emily Braithwaite at her Harpenden parish church, in Hertfordshire. Percy was subsequently promoted to Major and, aged 47, died on 1 February 1914. He was buried on the Channel Island of Jersey.

While the local 1855 Kelly Directory lists Lawrence Langlands as a “Carpenter & Builder”, the 1859 entry is for “Langlands, Lawrence & Son, Builders & Cabinet Makers” – the “Son” here apparently being Augustus. The 1861 Census records the now 65 year-old Lawrence still living in Epsom’s High Street, and listed as “Builder & Upholsterer”. Still living with him were his three unmarried children. As before no occupation is listed for the two unmarried daughters (38 year-old Mary and 33 year-old Emily), but Augustus is now listed as “Builder’s son”. The family had also gone up in the world: for the first time, they are recorded as employing a maid, 15 year-old Mary Wells.

Charles, Elizabeth and three children are recorded in the 1861 Census as living in South Street, Epsom. The local 1862 Kelly Directory repeats the 1859 edition’s entry for “Langlands, Lawrence & Son, Builders & Cabinet Makers” in the High Street but, this is now followed an entry for “Langlands, Charles John, Land & Estate Agent”, also in the High Street. The 1867 Kelly Directory lists “Langlands, Lawrence & Son” – now just as “Builders” (dropping the “Cabinet Makers”) – still in the High Street, but the entry for Charles has him at his South Street home and listed as “Auctioneer &c”.

Lawrence Langlands died on 19 March 1867 aged 70. He was buried in the same grave in St Martin’s churchyard as his unmarried daughter, Emily, who had died on 16 June 1864, aged 38.

Just 8 months after the death of their father, Lawrence’s two remaining single children both got married in St Martin’s. On 9 November 1867, 45 year-old Mary married the widowed 54 year-old Alfred Browne, described in St Martin’s records as a “Commercial Traveller” of 21 London Road, Southwark. She then left the district. We leave her with the listing in 1871 Census of her and her new family (husband Alfred as a “Wood Turner” – an occupation not unrelated to Mary’s father “upholstery” interests – and four children from his first marriage) living in Edward Street, St Pancras. She now leaves our narrative.

The next entry in St Martin’s Marriage Register, dated 11 November 1867 – just two days after Mary’s wedding – records the marriage of 38 year-old Augustus to 25 year-old Eliza, daughter of the late Charles Bentley (whose widow, Sarah, had taken over from him as landlord of the Marquis of Granby in what is now West Street).

While we have no photographs of these people, we do have their signatures, as below.

The signatures of Alfred Browne & Mary Ann Langlands, and of Augustus William Langlands & Eliza Bentley from St Martin’s November 1867 Marriage Register.

By the time of the 1871 Census, the Langlands presence in Epsom was mainly Lawrence’s two sons, Charles and Augustus (occasionally using his second name, William) and their families. We listed Charles and Elizabeth’s children above. Augustus and Eliza’s children were as below.

• Emily Eliza, who was baptised on 10 January 1869. She never married and stayed in Epsom all her life, mainly at the family’s High Street home. By the time of her death on 7 August 1944, at the age of 75, she had moved only a few yards from there to the now-lost 4 Ashley Avenue. Her estate was valued at £4,579.
• Edith Ellen, baptised on 12 June 1870. On 9 November 1892 in St Martin’s, the now 22 year-old married Walter Lucas of Burgh Heath (who was, like his father Caleb, a “Tanner or Farrier”). They had two children: Frank, who was born and died in Q4 1893; and Claude born on 29 January 1896. The couple and son Claude were recorded in the 1901 Census at the High Street Epsom address, but then left the district. 
• Augustus Lawrence, baptised on 13 October 1872, but who died in January 1875 at the age of 2.
• Charles Cecil Gordon, baptised on 12 January 1881 and buried a fortnight later, having lived for only 22 days.

Both brothers’ children were all baptised at St Martin’s. It is interesting to note that while, the church’s register always record Charles as a “Builder”, Augustus is designated “Gentleman”.

Augustus (“Builder”) and Eliza remained at the High Street address and – now aged, respectively, 39 and 36 –  recorded there together in the 1871 Census with their younger (11 month-old) daughter, Emily, and their two domestic servants. (The couple’s older daughter, 2 year-old Edith, is recorded as staying with her widowed grandmother, Sarah Bentley, at the Marquis of Granby.)

It makes sense to complete Augustus’s story here. The 1881 Census records Augustus and Eliza, together with their two surviving daughters and Eliza’s now 96 year-old widowed mother (all supported by a domestic servant) at the High Street address in the 1881 Census, in which Augustus is listed as a “Retired Builder”. Augustus died on 7 October 1886, leaving an estate valued at £1,007. He was buried in Epsom Cemetery on 12 October 1886, when the records listed him as a “Gentleman”. The widowed Eliza remained at the High Street address where, together with her two daughters –  all supported by a domestic servant – she was recorded in the 1891 Census as “living on her own means”. (For the first time, that Census noted that the next property was noted as an “Auction Hall, not occupied at night”.)

By the time of the 1901 Census, the High Street property is listed as “Auctioneer’s Office”. The residents are listed as: the 57 year-old widowed Eliza (still “living on own means”); unmarried daughter Emily; married daughter, Edith, with her husband and their son; plus a domestic servant. Eliza died on 12 April 1907, and was buried alongside her late husband in Epsom Cemetery on 17 April. She left an estate valued at £112, administration of which was awarded to her unmarried daughter Emily.

As previously noted, older brother Charles – the lead Langlands of this fourth generation – had moved to South Street. The 1871 Census recorded him and Elizabeth – now aged, respectively, 47 and 42 – there together with their three children (Reginald, 18; Gerald, 9; and Percy, 4) all supported by a domestic servant. Charles is listed as “Auctioneer & Builder, employs 14 men and 3 boys”. 19 year old Charles Reginald is (as “Reginald C”) listed as “Clerk to Builder” – doubtless his father. Charles, Elizabeth with son Charles Reginald (all supported by a domestic servant) were still in South Street for the 1881 Census. Charles continues to be listed as “Auctioneer & Builder” but now employing “16 men and 2 boys”. Now 28 year-old Charles Reginald (who was “Clerk to Builder” in 1871) now has no occupation recorded and, as noted earlier, was shortly to marry and live “on his own means”, presumably with no active interest in the family business.

The Langlands’ burgeoning property business employed many individuals from outside the family. Particular mention should be made here of 17 year-old William Henry Corbett (the son of an Ashtead gardener) who, in 1888, Charles employed as a clerk. William left the firm in 1896 to establish his own practice as an Auctioneer and Surveyor. He died – at “the Chestnuts”, Church Street, Epsom – in 1915 leaving a widow, four children and an estate of £3,202. In 1912, he had taken on William Edwards as a partner. Through subsequent mergers,”Corbett & Edwards” became “Edwards & Sharp”, a firm which will reappear in our story in 1965.

Alongside this Charles Langlands was an enthusiast for horse-racing, initiating his family’s close connection with Epsom race course, and also involving himself in the training of race horses. He was a member of the Epsom Grand Stand Association and, in 1871, he – together with another local businessman, John Barnard – subleased land surrounding the Epsom grandstand and track on which, customarily, booths and stalls were erected. Langlands and Barnard in turn rented out space in stands erected on the land on race days; places for carriages and sites for stalls. (It appears a similar operation existed at Kempton Park – where Langlands was a shareholder and director – as his pocket book for 1885 mentions rent for the Park of £1,750.) Indeed, it is as a “Clerk of the Course” that we have a picture of Charles – the first of any of the Langlands – as below.

Charles John Lawrence Langlands as a “Clerk of the Course”.

On 18 July 1881, shortly after that year’s Census was taken, Charles’ wife (Elizabeth) died at the age of 52. In Q1 1883, the widowed 58 year-old  Charles married the much younger (the records differ on her date of birth around the 1860s) Dorah Redfearn in Chorlton, Lancashire. It is not clear how they had met. They had only six years together before Charles died on 15 December 1889 at the age of 66. He was then buried with his first wife in Epsom Cemetery.

The range of Charles’ interests may be gauged his personal journal from 10 December 1888 (just over a year before his death) onwards – which was donated to the Surrey History Centre (ref SHC 3798/2) by Mr D A Cunningham of Epsom in 1974. The contents are described as below.

“Entries are of both a business and personal nature. Many of the receipts are for rent and fire insurance premiums from a large number of people. Some of these receipts are on behalf of a Mr Wood. Langlands’ multi-faceted business ventures necessitated a weekly wage bill of around £20. His building activities are reflected in the settling of accounts with local traders such as the brick makers, George Stone and Co, the timber merchants, Aldin and Co and the ironmonger, William Dorset, from all of whom he received a trade discount. There are also payments for the transport by the South Western Railway Co. of such items as stoves, gutters and sinks. Payments to the corn merchant, Samuel Barton, and for manure, seed, grass, ploughing and threshing indicate a degree of farming activity, as does the regular sale of calves. Race horse training is indicated by payments to a Mr William Holt in connection with the ‘training account’ and there are several entries for expenses incurred in the dispatch of horses to and from Hatfield and Ludgate Hill. Horses named include Ayrshire Lass, Town Moor, Pandemonium, Peloponnese and Pompadour. Entries related to Langlands’ involvement in the spring and summer race meetings on the Downs appear in red. Included are receipts from stand hire, and the renting of space for booths and carriages, and payments for the hire of police and for Langlands’ share of the rent of the land. Dividends from Langlands’ various investments are regularly recorded. He held shares in, amongst others, Epsom and Ewell Gas Company, of which he was a director; Kempton Park race course, and the Cuba Submarine Telegraph Company. On a more personal level are payments to Langlands’ sons, Walter, Reginald and Percy, the last of whom went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in February 1889. Dorah Langlands, his second wife, also appears regularly. The purchase of household provisions is recorded, along with the names of the suppliers, as are journey expenses.

“The last 14 pages of the journal, spanning the months September to December, are almost entirely in a different hand. Evidently Langlands was a sick man as there is frequent mention of doctors and nurses in attendance. The last entry is for 18 December 1889, the date of his funeral and subsequent burial in Epsom Cemetery.”

Charles and Dorah do not appear to have any children. The widowed Dorah remained in Epsom, although she is not found in the 1891 Census. The 1901 Census records her “living on own means” still in South Street (with the property now named as “Inglewood”) with an apparently unrelated visitor and supported by a domestic servant. By the time of the 1911 Census, she (of “Independent Means”) had moved to Caithness Lodge in Ashley Road, and was recorded there with her unmarried sister, Emma, as “Companion” and supported by servants Benjamin and Edith Litton (who had five children”). She was still at at Caithness Lodge when she died on 19 July 1929, leaving an estate of £1,746. She was buried alongside her late husband in Epsom Cemetery, where the records give her age as 73. (Her name is not, however, mentioned on the family memorial over the plot.) 

Roger Morgan © 2022
with special thanks to Terry Friday for his research from which this series of articles has been developed.

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