The owner in 1839 and occupier in 1841 was Robert Higgins, a solicitor.
The extensive Higgins family seemed to be everywhere in Ledbury in the early C19. All descendants of Joseph and Mary (née Hussey)
are worth mentioning with their local associations
Children of Joseph and Mary, birth years given:
Thomas (Rev) 1797 referred to in Southend No 45. Became incumbent of Stoulton Worcs
Joseph Allen 1798 Solicitor in Ledbury, he built West Bank
Samuel 1800 Married Elizabeth Matthews in 1826.
Ann 1801 married Rev Whatley see Southmead
Edward (Rev) 1803 lived in Bosbury House.
Mary 1805
James 1806
Robert Feb 5th 1808 The subject of this page.
Penelope 1809
William 1812
Francis 1816 married Elizabeth Williams daughter of Earl of Coventry in 1842. Solicitor in
partnership with Mr Chamberlaine of South Parade.
Back to Robert Higgins:
Robert Higgins, b 1808 was the 8th child (of 11) of the Rev Joseph Higgins, Rector of Eastnor, and Mary (née Hussey).
He married Maria Agnes Yeoman in Lyonshall, Herefordshire, on June 1st 1839.
Born in 1812 she was the daughter of Colonel Crosse and had married Henry Wilkinson Yeoman in Liverpool on Nov 1st 1833.
He died in Cheltenham on May 3rd 1837 aged 50, (Maria was just 25 at this time).
Settling in South Parade, Robert and Maria had a son Joseph Thomas Clinton baptised on July 30th 1841 by his grandfather the Rev.
Higgins of Eastnor. Unfortunately the young Joseph died only a few months old.
A daughter Cecilia Eliza Maria was born in 1840.
Robert had problems and committed suicide at his home in March 1843. He had showed signs of distress and although
all means of self injury had been removed he managed to hang himself with a scarf from a bedpost.
Maria later married William Bryden in Kington in 1847. Lets hope she lived happily ever after!
Cecilia never married and died in
London on Dec 4th 1908.
The house is unoccupied in the
1851 census. On the plan for the legal case of 1851, shown on the South Parade introduction, it quotes a
(Mr?) Price living there but he is not called as a witness and I cannot find who he is!
In the
1861 Census Charles Bargeman 23 is head of household. A civil Engineer born in Malta, he has with him William Reilly
(or Kelly) 22 born Ireland, another civil engineer, and a couple of servants.
Nothing more of these two can be found on later censuses and they were probably working here and rented the house
on a short lease.
This house does not seem to be too popular!
In
1871 William Lucy 60 is in residence with his wife Ellen, daughter Alice and just one servant:
William Francis Lucy, b 1811, a lay preacher, cider and hop merchant, married Ellen White in Tewkesbury in 1837.
Settling in Burley House, Hanley Castle they had Frances Louisa in 1840, Charles Edward in 1841, Frederick Corbet
in 1843, Emily Ellen in 1844, George William in 1848 and Alice Kathleen in 1849,
They moved to Ealing by 1876, he died in 1895.
From a Ledbury family his father was Francis William 1781-1864 born in Eastnor and his grandfather,
was Charles Lucy 1735-1824 of Ledbury.
James William Phillips is here in
1881. An Inland Revenue Officer b 1851 in Talgarth he married Emily Grubb of Kempley in Newent on Nov 19th 1878.
They had John Reginald in Ledbury in 1880, and shortly after moved away from the district.
Another short lease!
1891 William Dingley. Inspector of Nuisances.
William Dingley was born in Charlton near Pershore in 1821.
He married Caroline Gibbs in June 1851 and they had Esther Mary in 1852,
Ann in 1854, Francis Samuel in 1856, William Gibbs in 1857 and John Loxley in 1859.
In Southend Farm Mathon in 1871, Caroline died in 1879
after which William moved to Ledbury where he is in New Town in 1881, with his two daughters, as Inspector of Nuisances.
Esther Mary was married in Ledbury on May 14th 1884 to Joe Kaye, a clerk in Holy Orders. His occupation is given as Sanitary Inspector on her marriage details.
In 1891 and 1901 William and Ann are here in this house,
he died later in 1901.
In 1903 (the earliest Tilley's lists a street directory) S W Mills is in residence and the house is now called Avenue House.
The 1910 Survey lists him as the occupant and interestingly shows the Rev. Francis Matthews Higgins as the owner.
Francis was the grandson of Samuel Higgins the brother of Robert Higgins, the first resident,
suggesting that the house had remained in Higgin's hands from the beginning.
The
1911 census shows Thomas Rogers 46 resident.
Thomas Rogers was born in 1865 in Ross.
He married Alice Jane Hunt in Droitwich (District) in 1890 and they had Thomas in 1894 and Frederick in 1895 both in Hartlebury,
nr Kidderminster moving to Ledbury in 1908.
A man of many talents he is shown as a Timber Measurer and Valuer in the 1911 census and if it hadn’t been for the fact
that he had a son, William Stanley, born in Ledbury in 1908 at 'The Coffee House' with his father's occupation
given as Coffee House Keeper I would never have realized that he was the Thomas Rogers referred to on the First Coffee House page of this website(qv).
The full family here in 1911 are:
Thomas Rogers 46 Timber Measurer and Valuer Ross
Alice Jane 47 Hartlebury
Thomas Rogers 17 Solicitors Law Clerk Hartlebury
Frederick Rogers 16 Solicitors Law Clerk Hartlebury
William Stanley 3 Ledbury
Rose 16 Niece Ledbury
By 1920 he had moved to Belle Orchard where Alice Jane died at Brunswick House in 1942 and Thomas in 1947.
His son William Stanley, b 1908 in Ledbury, married Lilian M Barnett in Ledbury in 1937.
From 1920 to 1950 a Mrs Philpott lived here and it must have been her who named the House St Michael's as that house name first appears in 1937.
In 1955 Miss McKeone, (listed as T H McKeone from 1965) is in residence, E L Jeans in 1980, C Summers from 1988 to 1993 followed by J Clarke to 2002, the last year of Tilley's Almanack.