Edward Tilbury 1773-1859
David Tilbury wrote me in 1999 that a relative, Jim Tilbury,1 had been walking around in London's St Marylebone graveyard in the rain, in about 1935, when he came upon a large flat stone with a lot of Tilbury names on it - and was I able to find it. Enquiries revealed that the stone had since been removed but, at Westminster Archives, a book was found which listed the monumental inscriptions from St. Marylebone Churchyard.2 The recorded remains of the inscriptions on two of the memorial stones were:-
15. In memory of / EDWARD TILBURY Junr / of High Street / son of EDWARD
and MARGARET SUSANNA TILBURY / who died 10th July 1831 / aged 23 years
Also of MARGARET SUSANNA TILBURY / sister of the above / who departed
this life [ ] April / 18[ ] in the 27 year of her age / Also of /
Mrs Ann TILBURY wife of EDWARD TILBURY Senr / died 23rd Nov 18[?3]2 /
[ ] year of her age / Also of EDWARD TILBURY Esq / who died [ ]
February 1859 / aged [ ] / He was husband of the above /
Mrs ANN TILBURY / and father of EDWARD / and MARGARET SUSANNA /
by his former wife / MARGARET SUSANNA TILBURY /
16. [12 lines illegible] / MARGARET SUSANNA TILBURY / [ ] of the above
named / [ ] / [ ] of High Street / [5 lines illegible]
/ [ ] THOMAS [? DYSON or ENSON] / [2 lines illegible] / [ ]
ISABELLA [? DYSON or ENSON] / [?] wife of the above named / [rest illegible]
So who were these Tilburys and Dysons or Ensons? Where did they live? What did they do? Were any of them related to me? These were some of the questions that set me on the trail of Edward Tilbury and his family, the Ensors and the Tarners.
Edward, son of Joseph and Sarah Tilbury of St. Marylebone, Middlesex, was born on 14th November 1773 and christened on the 28th November of that year at St Marylebone Parish Church 3. He was apprenticed as a carpenter to Edward Gray 4 on 25 July 1787. and this, regrettably, is all I currently know about his early life.
In the 1810's a house was built at Patriot Place, Brighton (right) which became the country home of Edward and his family and to which he eventually retired. I believe that Edward played a major role in the design and construction of this building, now grade II listed, and possibly the adjoining terrace of houses, though the only evidence 5 so far discovered claims otherwise. Following Edward's death, Patriot Place was renamed Tilbury Place and remains so to this day.
Edward was shown in London trade directories of 1830-1850 variously as a builder and surveyor and owner of a storage warehouse. His addresses were given as 35 and 49 High Street, Marylebone.
In his book,6 Gordon Mackenzie wrote:-
'The first Lord of the Manor was Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford and Mortimer.
He acquired the property through his wife, Henrietta, daughter of the extremely
wealthy Duke of Newcastle. Harley embarked about 1715 on a very ambitious building
scheme to produce a fashionable residential district 'suitable for aristocracy
beginning to take an interest in town houses.......' Harley was famed as a
collector of books and manuscripts and now the Harleian Manuscripts are amongst
the earliest splendours of the British Museum Library. He had a building constructed
to house his collection on the opposite side of the High Street from the Manor
House. It later became a girls' school known as Oxford House. Amongst its pupils
was 'Perdita' Robinson, one of the first mistresses of the Prince Regent, later
George IV. In a later incarnation the building became Tilbury's furniture repository
and survived into the early 1900's as 35 High Street, Marylebone'
This quotation 7 hints of Edward's relationship to John Tilbury,
the carriage builder:-
'A little beyond the top of upper Baker Street on the way to St. John's Wood is
the warehouse of Messrs. Tilbury for storing furniture etc. The name of Tilbury
is and will long be known in London on account of the fashionable carriage invented
by the Messrs. Tilbury's grandfather in the days of the Regency and called a Tilbury,
which was succeeded by the Stanhope. Each had its day, and both have been largely
superseded by the modern cabriolet, though now and then the light and airy Tilbury
reasserts its existence in the London parks.'
Edward died at his home in Brighton but was interred at St. Marylebone Parish Church, London, his burial being the only one recorded there in 1859.
Notes.
- Probably James Tilbury, a son of Edward and Esther Tilbury of Southampton, former Winchester Cathedral chorister and World traveller.
- The Monumental Inscriptions of St. Marylebone Parish Chapel and Churchyard and Parish Church. Transcribed and indexed by M. L. Bierbrier and L. Collins. 1978.
- IGI batch number C035244. For further information on St. Marylebone Parish Church (St. Mary by the Bourne) see www.stmarylebone.org.uk/
- From the Society of Genealogists publication 'London Apprentices Vol.2., Tylers and Bricklayers Company'
- The Encyclopedia of Brighton by Timothy Carder truthfully states that the house, formerly St. Johns Lodge, 'was for many years the home of merchant Edwin Tarner'. English Heritage in their document TQ3104SE (1971),claim Carder's work as their source but refer to the house as having been 'built for the wealthy merchant Edwin Tarner' but, as Edwin was not born until 1808 and doesn't appear to have been connected to the Tilbury family until the 1830's, the latter statement is regarded with considerable suspicion.
- Marylebone-great city North of Oxford Street. Gordon Mackenzie 1972.
- Walter Thornbury's 'Old and New London', volume 5., Chapter 20., p.262, published 1872.