For the Rider family we head back to the Essex and Cambridgeshire border and the villages of Great and Little Chesterford and Littlebury. The Rider name, sometimes Ryder, is attributed to ‘mounted warrior or messenger’ and is first recorded in the Yorkshire Roll of 1204 as Thomas Le Rider. Some 27% of Rider’s are shown as residing in Yorkshire with Essex being the highest southern population at 6%. The different spellings appear as mostly records scribing differences, although some may have been intentionally maintained by individuals.
As far as we can tell from the record the Rider family was pretty evenly spread across the three Chesterford and Littlebury villages but it is very difficult to identify our 1700’s source family. So what do we know? We do know that James b1811 is our family line and he is born in Great Chesterford and similarly his children, so let us try looking into the past from there.
Of those born in Great Chesterford during the 1700’s there is George b1781-5 with wife Ellen 1791-5, Joseph b 1793 with wife Ann b1791-96, Benjamin b1797 with wife Elizabeth b1801, Hannah, who is a widow, b1806 and finally John b1799 with wife Mary b1806. Because of their ages, especially the wives, it seems that George and Ellen are the main contender couple to be James’s parents, but with Joseph and Ann as a second possibility.
It seems more than likely that George, Joseph, Benjamin and John were brothers, all born in Great Chesterford. Hannah is also likely to be the widow of another Rider brother.
George was b 1781-5 and his wife Ellen b1791-5 and they probably married around 1810, but we have nothing in the record. Although the records are poor we do know that they lived in High St. Great Chesterford and had a son James born in 1810. George worked all of his life as an agricultural labourer and died in 1845.
James Rider was Tony’s patrilineal great great grandfather, he was born in Great Chesterford, Essex in 1810 and baptised at All Saints Church on 23rd October of that year. We have little information about James’ youth, except that he was almost certainly working on the land as a labourer from an early age.
James married Martha Finton from the Great Chesterford village on the 24th October 1834. Martha was born in that village on the 13th September 1813 and also baptised at All Saints on the 26th December that same year. Her father was Benjamin and her mother Elizabeth Finton, both of Great Chesterford.
By 1851 James had been promoted to a Farm Bailiff, a position he held until the 1870’s. In 1861 James and Martha were living at Park Rd, Great Chesterford and they had eight children and they were Susan b1839, Benjamin b1841, Charles b1845, William b1847, George b1850, Harriet b1853, Alice b1856 and Eliza b1859.
In 1871 the couple were living at The Cottages, Great Chesterford, James was still a farm bailiff and they were babysitting Minnie Rowlinson, who was just 1 year old. Minnie was from Shelford, and more on that connection on another page. James died in 1885 aged 75 years and is buried at Littlebury Holy Trinity Church.
Son Benjamin will continue our family line, so first a quick look at the other children’s stories.
Eldest son Charles b1845 left school at 11 years and commenced work as an agricultural labourer. He continued this employment for at least another 11 years and during which time, in 1865; he had met and married Mary Ann Hammond b1844 from Elmdon, Essex. Elmdon is a village about 4km West of Great Chesterford. The couple eventually had eight children. Charles changed employment, sometime around 1875, to working on the railway as a Station Goods Porter at the Great Chesterford station. They continued to live around the area but Charles died in 1896 and Mary Ann, by 1901, was a Lodging House Keeper, living on her own, in Saffron Walden, which she continued at least past 1911. The children of the couple were Margaret b1866, Edward b1869, James b1871, Florence b1873, Priscilla b1875, Daniel b1879, Frank b1882 and Horace b 1885.Of these children the information on their adult life is scarce. Horace lived with his mother in Saffron Walden until he was at least 16 years old and then moved to Sudbury in Suffolk. In Saffron Walden he had been a grocer’s assistant and in Sudbury he is a manager of a grocery department in a larger store. He is still single at 26 and boarding with a family.
Have no information on William after the 1871 Census, when he is 24 years and still living at home with James and Martha, working as an agricultural labourer, and that he has probably been doing since he was 10 years old.
George was born in 1850 and like his father and brothers commenced early in life as an agricultural labourer. George met and married Harriet b1858 from Kirtling, Cambridgeshire when he was living at Great Chesterford and employed as a gardener. George continues as a gardener to 1891 but now had moved to Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. In 1891, however, George is single and dies in 1899, aged 49 years.
Daughter Harriet married George Button in 1872 and continued to live in Great Chesterford. They had three children that we can identify; Charles, Walter and Martha. Her sister Alice married in 1884 but there is no further record of her family.
RAILWAYS IN ESSEX AND INSURANCE IN NORFOLK.
So, back to son Benjamin b1842 and our family line. Ben started employment as an agricultural labourer along with his father and brothers. In 1862 he married Harriet Smith b1842 from Little Chesterford. Harriet was the eldest daughter of John and Mary Smith, who had eight children before John died in 1860.
Benjamin and Harriet had eleven children and they were Allen b1863, Emily b1864, Agnes b1866, Harriet b1869, Herbert b1870, Annie b1872, Sarah b1875, Earnest b1878, Alice b1880, Frederick b1882 and Benjamin b1886. Alice will continue our family line but more stories before we get to that.
As we said father Benjamin started employment as an agricultural labourer, however the 1840’s and 50’s had seen a rapid development of the British railway network and that included the building of the London to Cambridge line, which passed through the Chesterford villages. In the mid to late 1870’s Benjamin joins the railway crew as a platelayer and amazingly was still a platelayer in 1901, 3 months before he died at 60 years. The couple were living at Mill Street, Ickleton in 1901 and had daughter Alice and son Benjamin, still at home. At this same time a boarder at the house was Herbert Parsons. It seems likely that the death of Benjamin senior brought about other changes, as Herbert Parsons married Alice Rider in 1902. We also know that they stayed in Ickleton for a few more years and that mother Harriet lived with them until around 1910, when she moved to live with her youngest son Benjamin and his new wife Ada at Southminster, Essex, which is on the East Coast at Foulness. The couple had just married in 1910. Alice and Herbert, on the other hand, had moved to Hauxton in Cambridgeshire, sometime in 1910. Harriet lives to 1927, aged 84 years and dies while living at Stapleford in Cambridgeshire. So what do we know about Benjamin’s children, Alice’s brothers and sisters, and their adult lives?
Eldest son Allen started employment on the land immediately after leaving school at around 12 years of age but by 1891 he had left the family home and had married Kate Starr. Kate was the eldest daughter of Joseph and Jane Starr, who lived in Ickleton, just over the county border in Cambridgeshire. Kate was in domestic service in 1881 to the Shelford family, who owned and ran the Drapers shop in Great Chesterford, where Allen was living with his family. The couple obviously met and it seems ran away to London because they were married in 1887 in Stepney, Middlesex, despite both their families being in Great Chesterford.
Allen and Kate had four children and they were Ernest b1888, Evelyn Emily b1891, Winifred b1892 and Bernard b 1897. Allen and Kate lived in West Ham, London in 1891 and stayed around that area (Leytonstone, Ilford) for a number of years with Allen working as a railway signalman for all of that time. Kate died in 1922 but Allan lived to 1947, aged 84 years. Nephew Eric Parsons can remember Allen and records how he stayed with Allen during WW2, when Allen was a signalman at Liverpool Street Station.
Ben and Harriet’s daughter Agnes left home and went into domestic service before she was 15 years for the Forster family, living at the Vicarage, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. Charles Forster was the local clergyman. In 1886 Agnes married John Wakefield, a drayman, from Mepal, Cambridgeshire. The couple established home in Mepal and had eight children, who were Henry b1888, Gertrude b1890, Ernest b1890, Agnes b1892, Bertha b 1893, Herbert b1902 and Frederick b 1904. By 1901 John had become an Agent for the Norwich Assurance Society, which he continued past 1911. Agnes died in 1945 aged 79 years and John in 1951, both at Norwich.
Below, son Henry’s wedding to Nellie Elizabeth Murton in 1912 at Norwich. See John standing front left and Agnes sitting front left but also Harriet, Agnes’ mother Rider, sitting front right. Henry and Nellie eventually had five children.
Ben and Harriet’s daughter Harriet b1867 had a daughter Lilly Agnes (Rider) b1888; but in 1900 she married Thomas Jeffrey b1866, a brewers carman, and they had two children; Frederick G b1902 and William b1904. The family of Lilly and Thomas lived in Great Chesterford throughout their lives.
RAILWAYS AGAIN
Son Herbert left home sometime before 1901 and met and married in 1895 Maud Mary Last, who was working in service in Camberwell, London; although originally from Feltwell, Norfolk. The couple were married in West Ham, close to where brother Allen was living and by 1901 were living in Leyton, London and had their only child, a 5 year old daughter Dorothy. Herbert worked in London for the railway, first as a stoker and then as an engine driver until he retired, when they moved to Southend. Herbert died in 1942 aged 71 years. Daughter Dorothy was 15 years and a dressmaker in 1911 and she stayed single and died aged 74 in 1968.
Daughter Sarah was born in 1875 but left home to work in service before she was 15 years but in 1891 we find her living with sister Agnes at Mepal. Agnes had had twins the previous year and was expecting again, so Sarah was probably there to help care for the children. In 1899 Sarah married Henry Jordan b1876 of Great Shelford. Henry was a railway labourer working on the line extensions and consequently they lived at various villages close to his work. Their first child, son Herbert, was born at Ickleton in 1900, where they probably lived close to Harriet and Ben. In fact Sarah may have met Henry through her father’s railway work. In 1901 the couple moved from Ickleton to Granham’s Road, Great Shelford, where Ernest was born (1902) and then to Chesterton in Cambridge, where son Leslie was born in 1908.
Henry eventually worked as Pump Engine Driver and Supervisor at the Chesterton Rail junction until his retirement. Sarah died in 1947 aged 75 and Henry died in 1965 aged 89. Tony Parsons recalls:
‘I visited my Aunt Sarah and Uncle Harry many times as a child and can remember them clearly. The most outstanding memory is a large print hanging on the lounge wall of the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’. I was fascinated by the detail in this print. Have no ideas of the original artist. They were a bubbling happy couple.’
There is little information on Sarah and Henry’s children. Ernest lived in Cambridge all his life and died at 72 years in 1974. Leslie died at 6 years in 1913.
Ben and Harriet’s son Ernest left school at 12 years and worked for a while as a ‘house boy’ before heading off to London to presumably work or play with his brothers. Between 1901 and 1911 Ernest is boarding in West Ham and is working as an engine fireman, stoker and later as a general railway labourer.
All we know about son Fred is that he also followed his brothers and went to London and died in West Ham in 1920 at the age of 42 years.
BAKERS AND SHOPKEEPERS
Youngest son Benjamin began work after school training as a baker’s hand. By the age of 15 he was still living at home with his mother and father in Ickleton but shown on the Census as a Baker and Bread Maker. In 1910 he married Ada K Fuller b1881 from Wicken, Cambridgeshire and they head off and establish themselves at Southminster, on the East Coast. Benjamin is working in his own business as a Baker and Confectioner with Ada as his business assistant. They had three children and they are Edith b1911, Olive F b1913 and Reginald S b1917. Benjamin died in 1965, aged 79 and is buried in West Ham, along with his brothers. Of the children we know that Edith married a Michael Jennings and had two children; Olive married Norman Montgomery and no children have been identified. Reginald, on the other hand married Irene Carter from Poplar, London and they had eight children. Edith died in 1939, Olive in 1997 and Reginald in 1963.
There have been no records identified for daughters Emily and Annie. As a final mystery to note, the family verbal archive says that a Rider family linked to our Rider family lived in London Road, Stapleford and that Harriet Rider b1842 lived there at some time just prior to her death. Harriet died in 1927 and in Cambridgeshire and in the registration district covering Stapleford. In 1901 and 1911 there is a Rider family living in London Road, and that is the family headed by William b1864 a widower. From 1901 to 1911 William is a platelayer on the GER railway so could have worked with Harriet’s husband Ben. Searching through this family line back to 1770 does not establish any connection as this family is solidly linked to Stapleford. The mystery will have to remain for now.
Finally, let’s go back to our family line and Alice Rider.As we have seen before, Alice was still living at home with her parents in 1901 but with her father dying that year she marries, the boarder, Herbert Parsons. The family story will continue through Alice and Herbert Parsons.
Alice
In summary, a few words about the Rider families is useful. Although they are similar in many ways to the Perrin and Titchmarsh families, with their employment being embedded in agriculture, with the Rider’s, we start to see the impact of industrialisation beginning. In particular the expanding rail network, commenced in the mid 1800’s, passes close to the village hamlets and the Rider men and some husbands of the women, take advantage of this new labour demand to move from occupation on the land. In particular, several families move to London because of railway work. The Rider women are similarly mostly employed in domestic service and again use that to enable them to move further afield. Benjamin the younger is the first Rider to start his own small business, as a baker and confectioner.