1892 The older children

By 1892 all three of Thomas’ older children were at work, and living away from home, placing less pressure on Thomas’ family with his second wife Frances Harriet.

Tom, now 23, was progressing in his work in the office of the Robertson’s Plus Power coal mine in Wrexham. He was trusted to visit other offices to audit their books: Saturday the 3rd October 1891 Tom came home in the evening to be ready to go to Dolgelly on Monday, to check the books of the coal agent there.  We were all very pleased to see him; the little ones being very excited. Tom appeared at home several times each year in order to go to the Dolgelly office.

Tom was also involved in military interests: Saturday the 8^th. August 1891 Tom arrived here at 8 o’clock in the morning.  He took us all by surprise. He had been with his Company of Volunteers camping out for a week on Conway Marsh, and he thought he would come and have Sunday at home. He left at 4 o’clock in the morning and came by Ffestiniog here. We were all very pleased to see him and the children as excited as usual. Henry much interested in the rifle.

Mary Emily, 18, having finished her education at a small private residential school in Chester, began her working life in May 1891: May 4th (Monday) Frances went with Mary Emily to Corwen to get her into lodgings with Mr and Mrs Owen, so that she might begin an apprenticeship with Mr Davies, draper etc at dressmaking and the millinery for two years.  We trust that she may get on, and we have been fortunate to get her into a nice shop and lodgings.

The very next month William, (Willie) aged 19 departed for work: Monday the 29^th (June)  Willie off to Brymbo Steel Works by the 9.39 train.  Sir Henry kindly got him a situation there for which I am most thankful, and hope it may be for you is good. Tom was to meet him at Wrexham and go with him to the works. He is to be at a weighing machine for the present. He was very pleased to go, for he has been studying hard to prepare himself for such an opening–I mean office clerk. Tom has got on well and is very steady and good.

1890 Family Matters

This year Thomas was 48, he had been Head Gardener at Palé for 21 years, and the last of his eight children was born. Alfred Williams Ruddy was born on the 10th February 1890, so was able to be included in the 1891 Wales census

Of the eldest three children, born to Thomas and his first wife Mary, Thomas Alexander, now 21, was working as a Colliery Clerk at Brymbo, owned by the Robertson family of Palé. Thomas junior was lodging at Thomas Street, Brymbo.

The photograph of Thomas Alexander is from Southsea, Wrexham, not from the south coast!

Aged 19, William Pamplin Ruddy was living at home, and working as Monitor at the school in Llandderfel as evidenced by the 1891 census above. https://www.britannica.com/topic/monitorial-system. Later in 1891 Willie took up a clerk’s post at Brymbo Steel Works, alongside his elder brother, with the assistance of its owner, Sir Henry Robertson.

Mary Emily, aged 17, was away at school in Chester during the census period. It shows her as a scholar at Bridgegate House School in the centre of the town: . At that time, the demand for secondary education in Chester was still largely being satisfied by private schools: in 1871 there were at least 40 private schools in Chester, 30 of them for girls. Several of the larger and longer established boys’ schools in the 1870s occupied such notable buildings as the old Albion Hotel and Bridge House (“Bridge House School”, run by a Mrs Keats and known for its gardens at the rear) in Lower Bridge Street, ‘Derby House’ (Stanley Palace) in Watergate Street, and Forest House in Foregate Street, though Gamul House had closed as a boarding school in the 1860s. (From Chester Wiki) It seems that the Ruddy family were able to pay for their daughter’s education.

Bridgegate House, the site of Mary Emily’s school in 1891

We now move to consider the five children of Thomas and Frances Harriet, his second wife in 1890. Henry Ernest, 7, and Frances Harriett, ‘Francie’ 5 were at the school in Llandderfel. Caroline Elizabeth, ‘Carrie’ was 4 and may not have started school. Then came Amelia Agnes, ‘Millie’ 2 and the baby, newborn in 1990, Alfred Williams, ‘Alfie’. So over the course of 21 years Thomas had become father to eight children, six of whom were living at home in 1990.

Llandderfel School in the mid 1890’s. ‘Millie’ A.A.R, and ‘Carrie’ C.E.R. As marked by Thomas, their father. Their similarity as sisters very marked. Do enjoy the hand weights brandished by the front row and the pipe band in the back row!