Reading family from Teddington, Middlesex, & Glass family from Reading, Berkshire
High Bridge, Duke Street, Reading, in early 19 century, spanning the River Kennet.
William Reading 1782-1824 &
Amelia Glass 1789-1865
William Reading and Amelia Glass, my 3x great grandparents, married in 1814 at St. Giles Church, Reading. Amelia, who was the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Glass, was a widow when she married William, a bargeman. She had previously been married in 1807, at age 18, to Daniel Cook and had a child, Daniel Henry, six months later. Daniel died seven years after marrying Amelia. Three months after his death she married William, a bargeman, who died age 42 in 1824. They had four children – three girls and a boy, Richard, who died at only a few weeks old and is buried at St. Giles Church. The girls were Anne, Elizabeth and Sarah.
After William died she and her three young daughters were sent to the Parish of Teddington by an order, dated 25th August 1824, of the Justices of the Peace in the Borough of Reading as they had no legal settlement in the Parish of St. Giles even though she was born in the parish. [There was no Social Security in the early 19C. Widows who had no income were sent to the parish of their husbands.]
On 28th December 1826 Amelia married Robert Biggs in Staines, Middlesex. He was living in the Hamlet of Whitley, very near Reading, and so she moved back to the town. He was the publican of the Horse Shoes Public House. [This pub is still there although, I believe, the building has been replaced] She later had two children in this marriage. The 1841 census showed Amelia and Robert living with Harriet and John Biggs, their children, along with Amelia’s daughter Elizabeth Reading and her 2 year old daughter, Amelia Reading, who was named after her grandmother. Also living at the inn was James Skates who Elizabeth Reading married a few months later.
Robert died in 1845 and Amelia moved to 93 Hosier Street, Reading, where it appears from the census she took in boarders. [This street is no longer there but was off St.Mary’s Butts opposite St.Mary’s Church]
The 1861 Census showed her lodging in 50 Hosier Street and her granddaughter, Amelia Reading, was living with her.
Amelia Biggs died in 1865.
Order issued by the Justices of the Peace, in Reading, on 25th August 1824 for the removal of Amelia Reading and her 3 daughters to the Parish of Teddington, Middlesex.
Map of the centre of Reading in 1840. Hosier Street can be clearly seen off St. Mary’s Butts.
Children of Amelia Glass:
With Daniel Cook:
Daniel Henry Cook 1807 – 1878
With William Reading:
Anne Reading 1817 – ?
Elizabeth Reading 1820 1894
Richard Reading 1822 – 1822
Sarah Reading 1824 – ?
With Robert Biggs:
Harriet Biggs 1828 – ?
Robert John Biggs 1831 – 1880
Sources:
Legacy pages for the Reading family
Elizabeth Reading 1820-1894
Elizabeth Reading was my great great grandmother. She was born in Reading in 1820. When she was four her father died and she along with her mother and two sisters was sent, by order of the Reading Justices of the Peace, from Reading to Teddington in Middlesex, which was the parish that her father had had legal settlement.
I don’t have any information on her life until she appeared in the 1841 census when she was living with her mother, step-father, her step sister and brother and her own daughter, Amelia, who was recorded as being born in Hurst which was where James Skates’ mother lived, who would become her mother-in-law. So maybe Amelia Reading was James’s daughter but Elizabeth and James were not married when she was born. Or Elizabeth was living in Hurst and that is how she met James. We’ll never know! They married later after the census was taken in 1841. After marrying in St. Giles Church, Reading, they lived in the town until about 1848 when they moved to Stratfield Mortimer with their four girls. One child, Clara Ann, had died in Reading and was buried in St. Mary’s (The Minster) churchyard . They had 13 children altogether if Amelia is included. Three children died young.
In Mortimer James first worked as a coal merchant and later as a railway porter at Mortimer Station. About 1865 he obtained a position as a railway porter at Reading station and the family moved to 6 Ashley Terrace, which was near Grey Friars Road, Reading. In February 1869 their fourth child, Elizabeth Louisa, age 22 died, at home, of TB. In October 1869 Harriet Jane Skates married Thomas Norman Hennah in St. Laurence Church, Reading. He was a joiner and came from Sutton in Surrey. The 1871 census found the family still in Ashley Terrace with daughter, Mary Ann, an unemployed shop assistant and John Charles a cutter in a tobacco factory. Their son Mortimer, who was 16, was living in Wokingham where he was an apprentice to a Master Confectioner. The younger boys were at school. James died later in October of that year.
After James died Elizabeth decided to move to London most probably because her children had gone to live there. Mary Ann married John Harris in 1873 in Croydon, which was where her sister was living. However John was from Reading so he and Mary moved back there. In 1881 Elizabeth was living at 14 Olmar Street, Camberwell, with her sons Mortimer and Leonard, who were both recorded as being Commission Agents in the census that year. I cannot find Elizabeth on the 1891 census but she was living with her daughter, Harriet, when she died in 1894 at Stormont Road, Battersea. She was buried with her husband, daughter Louisa and son James in the grave at the London Road Cemetery, Reading.
Elizabeth Skates née Reading 1820-1894
Children of James Skates and Elizabeth Reading:
Amelia Reading 1840 – ?1862
Sarah Selina Skates 1842 – 1861
Clara Ann Skates 1844 – 1845
Elizabeth Louisa Skates 1846 – 1869
Mary Ann Skates 1847 – 1920
Harriet Jane Skates 1849 – 1921
James William Skates 1851 – 1893
John Charles Skates 1853 – 1932
Mortimer Daniel Skates 1855 – 1939
Adelaide Amelia Skates 1858 – 1858
Leonard Golden Skates 1859 – 1910
Walford St. Clare Skates 1861 – 1895
Walter Sydney Skates 1864 – 1866
Sources:
Information from Pamela Froom, Mortimer Local History Group in 1988. This included the records, from 1859, of the Rev. Gould, Vicar of Mortimer.
Burial Records, Shire Hall, Reading, in 1989