Alfred Webb (Neil's great great grandfather) was born on 13 September 1816 to William Webb and his wife, born Sarah McNeal, the fifth child of what was to be a large family. We are fortunate to know quite a lot about the family - see Alfred's father's page. Alfred was baptised on 10 August 1817 at St John Horsleydown, Bermondsey, and, like his father, became a tailor. In the oil painting on the right, he is clearly making a feature of his elegantly cut clothes and his hands with their long slender fingers. (These have given rise to his current nickname in the family of 'Banana Fingers'.) On 25 June 1839 Alfred married Mary Ann Partridge (Neil's great great grandmother) at St Bride's Church in the City of London. The 1841 census shows the couple at 68 Cotton Street, Poplar, with their 11 month old daughter, Mary Ann who had been born nearby at 44 Cotton Street. Alfred's life was too short for him to know much of his three children - and he did not even live to see the birth of the last one. The three were:
Alfred died on 26 February 1845 age 28, in Bromley (by Bow, Middlesex) at Tetley? (or Tatley?) Street. The cause of death, as given on his death certificate was "phthisis", an archaic term for tuberculosis. His sister Jane was present at the death. So presumably, the family had decided that it was safest to keep pregnant Mary and the two children away from such a serious infection. |
