Skates family

Skates family from Berkshire

James Skates

1820-1871

All Saints Church, Wokingham, Berkshire

James Skates, my great great grandfather, was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, and christened on 2nd April 1820 in All Saints Church, Wokingham. His father, Daniel, was also from Wokingham but his mother, Mary Ann Whiffing, was from Haverhill, Suffolk. James had at least two younger sisters and when his sister, Mary Smith, was christened the family were living near Hannikin’s (Hannican’s) Lodge, Windsor Forest, Berkshire.

On James’s marriage certificate Daniel’s occupation was recorded as Labourer.

Both his parents are recorded as being buried in the churchyard at Hurst, Berkshire, but I have not seen their graves.

James was a labourer when he met and married Elizabeth Reading. She was living with her mother and stepfather in the Horse Shoes Public House, in the Hamlet of Whitley, near Reading. [This pub is still there but it is not the original building]

James was most likely a boarder at the pub as in the 1841 census, taken on 6th June, he was living there. They married in St. Giles Church, Reading, on 19th June 1841 and lived in the Reading area until about 1848 when they moved to Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire, with their family which consisted of four girls up to then. One girl, Clara Ann, had died in Reading and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s, Reading. The eldest girl, Amelia, was two when James met Elizabeth. The couple went on to have eight more children, two more girls and six boys. James obtained a job as a coal merchant and later as a railway porter at Mortimer Station.

After about ten years he obtained a job at Reading Station and the family moved to 6 Ashley Terrace in Garrard Street, which was just off Greyfriars Road, Reading. James died in 1871 and afterwards Elizabeth moved to London.

James and Elizabeth had twelve children in total but three died very young. Also there was Amelia Reading, Elizabeth’s daughter from possibly a previous liaison. Amelia always kept the surname Reading and must have been very close to her grandmother, Amelia Biggs née Glass, as she lived with her from at least the age of 11, as recorded in the 1851 and 1861 censuses.

Oakfield Cottage, Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire. It is thought the Skates family lived here. There is a large barn/shed at the back where James could have kept a pony & cart when he was a coal merchant.

Mortimer Station 1863 – waiting for a visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales

Map of Reading in 1879 showing Garrard Street off Greyfriars Road and Reading station nearby.

Elizabeth had six girls before a boy arrived. She went on to have five more boys and one daughter. Two girls went on to have families and that of Mary Ann remained in Reading, where her descendants still live.

Harriet Jane married and settled in Croydon, London, and later moved to Battersea. Four of the boys married and three went on to have families. One of these three was Mortimer Daniel, my great grandfather.

When she died, in 1894, Elizabeth was living in Battersea with her daughter Harriet and her family. She was buried in the London Road Cemetery, Reading, in the same grave as her husband, daughter Elizabeth Louisa and eldest son James William.

Skates grave in the London Road Cemetery, Reading.

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

Reading Central Library, Cnr. Abbey Square and Kings Road, Reading

Legacy Pages for Skates family

Mortimer Daniel Skates

1855-1939

Mortimer Daniel Skates, my great grandfather, was born in Mortimer, Berkshire, on 10 June 1855. The third son of James Skates and Elizabeth Reading. He was christened on 26 December 1855 in St. Mary’s Church, Mortimer.

In 1871, at the age of 16, he was an apprentice to a William Chambers, Master Confectioner, in Market Place, Wokingham. He was living there along with another apprentice, William Thresher. By 1881 he was living in Camberwell, London, with his mother and younger brother Leonard. Both he and Leonard were recorded as Commission Agents in the 1881 census. In 1882 he married Kate Pratt on 27 December. They had four children one of whom was Ida Laurie Beatrice, my grandmother.

On the birth certificates of the two younger children he states his occupation as an insurance agent but in actual fact in 1883 he, along with his brother John, established The World’s Great Marriage Association Company Limited. This was a Victorian marriage agency which became very popular. The business continued for 12 years and grew in size employing 30 clerks over three sites in central London. A publication was issued, fortnightly from conception, where ladies and gentlemen could advertise for a fee to meet a person of the opposite sex.

Mortimer Daniel Skates 1855 – 1939

The publishing offices of the World’s Great Marriage Association as seen in the Matrimonial Herald, 18 May 1895

Replies to the advertisements were done through the Editor and names were never printed. The name of the publication changed over the years from “The Nuptials” to “The Matrimonial Herald and Fashionable Marriage Gazette”. It claimed to be “The Only Matrimonial Publication recognized and exclusively patronized by the Nobility, Gentry and Commercial Classes” and it stated it was extensively circulated in every part of the globe. The price was 3d. They advertised in London and provincial newspapers.

However for several years Scotland Yard had received complaints from people, mostly men, who had subscribed to the agency and claimed they had not had any success with the ladies to whom they had written. Some suspected that clients were made up and it was thought that the written replies were in the same handwriting.

The police eventually decided to look into the complaints and on 11 November 1895 raided the premises at 103 New Oxford Street and arrested Mortimer and John Skates and their nephew Norman Golden Hennah. They were taken to Bow Street Police Station and charged with fraud and conspiracy. Also several cab loads of correspondence, photographs, papers and documents connected with the business were also taken to Bow Street. Later they also arrested John Abrahams, the father-in-law of John Skates, who held a position in the company, and Anthony Maddows, editor of the Matrimonial Herald.

Article in The Morning Post. Date 12 Nov 1895

The trial was held at the Old Bailey from 28th February to 5th March 1896. They were charged with obtaining by false pretenses postal orders, cheques and bankers drafts from seven persons with intent to defraud and conspiring with others to defraud the said persons. In their defense witnesses were brought forward who had happily met and married a person of the opposite sex. However, the writing in several letters of reply from potential marriage partners was deemed the same by a writing expert and the conclusion was that some replies were made up by the company.

Mortimer and John Abrahams were found guilty and sentenced to 3 years penal servitude. Mortimer’s brother, John, was sentenced to 5 years penal servitude. Norman Hennah, their nephew, and Anthony Maddows were found not guilty. They were sent to Portland Prison in Dorset. Mortimer was released 9 months early and John 15 months early.

Record of offence: Prisoners for Trial. Details of all defendants in the trial and particulars of the offences.

The trial and imprisonment would have had a devastating effect on all his children. Their mother, Kate, had only just died on 1st November 1895 ten days before Mortimer was arrested. It is not known who looked after the children during this time but most probably by family and friends. The electoral register and the census for 1901 found Mortimer with two of his children, Sydney age 17 and Edith age 14, living with him at 28 Hollydale Road in Camberwell. His youngest son, Frederick, was with his aunt, Adela (Kate’s sister), in Eastling, Kent. Ida, who was 16, was a live-in nursery nurse for a doctor in Denmark Hill looking after his young children. She had stated her age as 18. Sydney later changed his name to Henry Benjamin Stone. I have found no record of Frederick since 1901 and suspect he changed his name as well. The notoriety of the trial would have been hard on the children. The proceedings were reported in every newspaper in the land and then even every small town had a newspaper.

Ida Skates met Adolph Heckrath in Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, according to the family story. He apparently saw her from afar and decided she was the woman he would marry. They married in Cape Town in May 1905 three months before her 21st birthday. Her sister, Edith Elizabeth Louisa, went on to marry Hubert Beedell and they emigrated to Australia in 1913. Mortimer’s son, Sydney, never married.

Mortimer continued to live in the Camberwell area except on census night in 1911 he was a lodger in a pub in Norwich. He was working as an insurance agent. How long he was in Norwich I don’t know but from 1921 to 1933 he was back in Peckham. When his brother, John, died in 1932 he left him an annuity of £260 per annum for the rest of his life. [This would be equivalent to £12,000 in 2017]

After 1933 he went to live in Sidcup, Kent, with Alice Loates who was many years younger than him. This was, I believe, a romantic liaison since they are buried in the same grave in Sidcup cemetery. His name is on the gravestone but Alice’s is not. However she purchased the grave.

Ida’s daughters knew nothing about their grandfather only his name. Ida never talked about her family except of her sister in Australia who had two children, Dallas and Vera.

Ida Skates after her arrival in Cape Town in 1905

Children of Mortimer Daniel Skates and Kate Pratt:

Sydney Charles Mortimer Skates 1883 – 1943

Ida Laurie Beatrice Skates 1884 – 1935

Edith Elizabeth Louisa Skates 1886 – 1951

Frederick Leonard Skates 1888 – ?

Sources:

Newspaper records

National Archives, Kew

Legacy Pages for the Skates family

Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries 1870-1930 by Angus McLaren; University of Chicago Press

Ida Laurie Beatrice Skates

1884-1935

Ida and Ruby in 1906

Ida was my maternal grandmother. She was born on 4 August 1884 at 14 Tyrrell Road, East Dulwich. Her father, Mortimer, was recorded on the birth certificate as a commercial traveller, but by this time he was in business with his brother, John, at the World’s Great Marriage Association. She started school on 4 June 1888 at Adys Road School, Peckham, along with her brother, Sydney. In 1891 she was living with her family at 46 Crawshew Grove Court, Camberwell.

When she was 11 her mother died and ten days later her father was arrested. It would have been a very worrying time for her and her siblings. [I do not know who looked after them during this time and while her father was in prison but I believe it would have been her father’s family or possibly friends of the family. I do not think they were taken into care]

In 1901 she had a job as a live-in nursery-nurse and domestic for a Dr. Thomas Scott at 80 Denmark Hill. He and his wife had two young sons. She reported her age as 18 when in fact she was 16.

I don’t know when she actually met my grandfather, Adolph Heckrath, but he apparently spotted her in Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, which isn’t far from where she was living in 1901. The first time he saw her he decided she was the one for him. She had long auburn hair. In October 1904 she travelled to Cape Town along with Irene Heckrath, Adolph’s sister. She and Adolph married there on 2 May 1905.

She returned to England later and on 3 March 1906 her first child, Ruby Irene May, was born in Brighton, Sussex. She wrote in a letter to Adolph, who was in Kimberley, that in the week before the birth she and Irene, or the nurse, went to the theatre or a music hall every night to keep busy.

She told him she had to have chloroform and was thankful for it. Doctor’s orders were to stay in bed for 3 weeks. She was still in Brighton at the end of March and was disappointed that she was not, as yet, to go to South Africa to be with Adolph. She did go out eventually because she returned in June 1907 so she was in England for the birth of their second child, Laurie Elizabeth Kate, who was born on 14 October in London. In a letter dated 18 October, she says she had to have chloroform and instruments again and also she was disappointed she didn’t have a boy. She blamed Adolph for this!

The telegram Adolph received informing him of Ruby’s birth in Brighton, England.

Ruby and Laurie Heckrath 1908

Eventually she joined Adolph in Kimberley with the two girls. Their next child, Joan Olive Monica, was born on 4 May 1909 at Seapoint, Cape Town. Joan and Laurie were both christened together on 20 October 1909 at St. Cyprian’s Church, Kimberley.

On 4 June 1910 Ida arrived back in England with the three children. She travelled on her own most probably because she wanted to attend her sister’s wedding on 19 July 1910. She was a witness to the wedding. Adolph arrived back on 30 July.

At the end of January and in March 1911 Ida was in Bournemouth as she sent postcards to her sister. The 1911 census in April showed Ida and the girls were living at 11 Clanricade Gardens, Nottinghill, which was a boarding house. Adolph was most probably in South Africa as he does not appear in the census. Ida and the girls returned to South Africa in June 1911 as on 13th she sent a couple of postcards to her sister, Edie, from Madeira saying “Do not forget to write sometimes”

In April 1912 their fourth child, Claudine Elise, was born at Seapoint, Cape Town. In May Ruby became ill whilst they were still in Seapoint. After the doctors had visited on 23 May Ida wrote to Adolph “they told me Ruby either has meningitis or typhoid or some other fever. Really I think they have all but decided it is the former only did not like to tell me. They told me if it is meningitis it was very serious, at the same time I was not to give up hope. I asked if he did not think she ought to have an experienced nurse and he said it would be advisable because of the nights. I could not do both”. Adolph was in Kimberley and Ida was writing and sending telegrams.

Postcard sent by Ida to Edie on 27 Jan 1911 from Bournemouth saying “Letter and enclosure received safely”

Postcard sent from Madeira from Ida to Edie on 13 June 1911 saying “Just sending you a couple of views of Madeira. Do not forget to write sometimes” Yours Ida

On 25 May the doctor told her “meningitis is due to a germ but no one has been able to discover how it enters the body” and she continues in her letter to Adolph “She has been taking powders for days which he tells me are to try to arrest the disease but there has never been anything discovered to really treat the disease with. It just has to take its course. Her head aches all the time but he said he did not think she was conscious of the pain. She does not know me or even seem to rouse herself at all. Takes her food alright so far” Ruby died on 3 June 1912. Ida believed the illness was due to her paddling in the sea. Afterwards the children were never allowed to paddle.

Ruby, Joan and Laurie on board ship going back to South Africa in June 1911.

Ruby, Laurie and Joan – paddling at Seapoint in 1912

First page of the letter written on 24 May 1912 from Ida to Adolph updating him on Ruby and her illness.

Grave, in Cape Town, of Ruby Heckrath 1906 -1912

Ida and the girls returned to Kimberley and on 28 December 1912 Claudine was christened there at St. Cyprian’s Church. In July 1914 Ida returned to England with the girls. Adolph returned in the October.

In 1915 he signed up to serve in the Army and he was sent to the front in 1918. Then in April 1918 Ida received a letter from the army to say Adolph was wounded. He had been severely gassed and had also received shrapnel wounds to his right foot.

The family lived at 61 Kensington Gardens Square which was where her last two girls were born. Angela Barbara was born in 1915 and Pauline Anna on 5 July 1918. About 1923 the family moved to 33 Platts Lane, Hampstead. Angela and Pauline were both christened in St. Luke’s Church, Hampstead, on 25 May 1924. Hampstead was a lovely place to bring up a family. There was a decent sized garden for the children to play in and just up the road was the heath.

In February 1913 Ida’s sister, Edie, and her husband had left for Australia. Ida was never to see her again but they kept in touch with letters, which Pauline remembered her mother receiving. About the end of 1918 Hubert Beedell, Edie’s husband, visited the house in Platts Lane. Joan remembered his visit as he was in an Australian uniform. She and the other girls were laid up in bed with colds.

Adolph was now working with his father and later his father gave him the business. He made his last visit to South Africa in October 1919 returning on 6 January 1920. The children wrote him letters wishing him a Happy Christmas.

The family lived well and every year they had a holiday in Swanage, Dorset. About 1928/29 Laurie became ill with TB and was cared for at St. Katherine’s Nursing Home, near Woking in Surrey. She died there on 9 February 1930, age 22.

A year or so later Angela also became ill with TB. About 1931 Ida won £100 in a lottery and this enabled her to rent a house in the country for two winters so she could take Angela out of the London fog for fresh clean air in the countryside. The house was on the Hog’s Back in Surrey. Her youngest daughter, Pauline, also went and consequently missed school for two years.

Every weekend one or two members of the family would visit so Ida and Pauline could have some time out. Often they used to visit the cinema in Guildford. After the winters they would return to Platts Lane where a hut was built in the garden for Angela to sleep in so she could get as much fresh air as possible. Pauline later related that Angela never complained about anything. Sadly Angela died on 17 September 1934. She was just 19. Both she and Laurie were buried in Hampstead Cemetery. It would have been devastating for Ida and Adolph to lose another daughter.

Four months later, on 25 January 1935, Ida suffered a stroke causing paralysis on her right side. Then pneumonia set in. She died on 30 January. Her daughter, Pauline, believed she died of a broken heart after losing three daughters. About a year later Adolph sold the house and moved back to live with his mother and sisters at Herne Hill.

Pauline related that Ida had always hoped she would have a boy. She probably didn’t know that her grandmother, Elizabeth Reading, had six girls before she had a boy!