The Cuddefords of Ilfracombe 1823-1900s

Ilfracombe Town

Known as Alfreincombe in medieval times, this seaside town has long been famous as a holiday resort. Situated around its small harbour, it is one of the few havens along the rugged north coast of Devonshire affording shelter from the prevailing winds. It once served as an important port for the surrounding parts of the county. However, improvements to the harbour at Barnstaple, a large town nearby, led to a decline.

Eventually, its agreeable situation and climate attracted many wealthy people who settled there in retirement and built fine houses. The town prospered. At first, access by sea was the favoured route as road communication was difficult and a regular steamship service from Bristol had been established. The coming of the railway in 1874 put Ilfracombe within the reach of many more people. New hotels, shops and other facilities were built and the town prospered even more. By the end of the 19th Century the population had risen to over 8000. But it then remained fairly static for many years. Still a popular holiday destination throughout the early 20th Century even up to the 1960s when cheap air travel and package holidays attracted away many of those who had formerly enjoyed the pleasant facilities of Ilfracombe. Then in 1970 the railway line was closed. It would be true to say that Ilfracombe had seen better days.

Near the west end of the High Street in Ilfracombe is a street called Victoria Road. On each side is a row of well built brick terraced houses. They were built in the 1880s. Connecting this road to the High Street was a narrow lane called Cuddeford’s Passage where there were five small buildings called Cuddeford Cottages. The land was bought and the houses built around 1870 by Robert Cuddeford the carpenter (see later) Most of these cottages were occupied by members of the family at some time. At least four of them were owned by Cuddefords in 1934 when the town council bought the properties as part of a road improvement scheme. This scheme was never completed. However, the cottages were eventually demolished and modern buildings erected on the site.

Robert the Stonemason

Born in Newton St Cyres on 13th August 1793, Robert is probably the first Cuddeford to travel to Ilfracombe. It is likely that Robert came in search of work. The growth of the town at that time would offer opportunities for a good stonemason. It is nearly 50 miles to Ilfracombe from his birthplace and it is unlikely that he would have walked carrying his tools all that way. He would more likely have come by some form of horse transport as this was many years before the railway came to Ilfracombe. We do not know when he arrived but he was certainly there are on the 8th June 1823 when he married Ann Rumney in the parish church.

Ann was the daughter of John and Honour Knill. She was a widow by the time of her marriage to Robert. She had formerly been married to a Mr Rumney. Robert and Ann raised four children.

• The first of these was Robert Knill Cuddeford. He seems to be the first Cuddeford to have a middle name. This Robert became a carpenter and raised his family in Ilfracombe as described later
• Maria was the second child born on the 18th November 1826. She eventually married Edward Ablett in 1851

• The youngest of the children of Robert and Ann was Richard. He was born on the 19th December 1830. Nothing more is known about this son

The Second Generation – Robert the Carpenter.

Robert Knill, as we have seen, was the first son of Robert and Ann and was born in Ilfracombe on the 14th August 1824. He became a carpenter. He married Eliza Dubb on June 11th 1848. The family consisted of four sons and two daughters.

• The first child, Charles, was born on the 27th March 1849. Charles, known as “Charley”, was a painter. He married Mary Ann Gumm on 26 the December 1871. More of him and his family later.
• The second child was Louisa. She was baptised on the 25th of April 1850 but this little girl died in August 1851 and was buried in the parish churchyard on 31st of that month.
• The third child was another Robert, also carpenter. He was born on 1st February
  1852. Before his marriage to Mary Ann Moore on 27th October 1892 he was
  living with his parents in No 3 Cuddefords Passage and later moved to No 24 Victoria
  Road. When he died on 19th December 1931, childless and a widower his home
  was still No 24 Victoria Road.
• The second daughter was Maria. She was born in 1854 and eventually married John
  Flew in 1878. They had several children. In 1931 Maria was living in No 4
  Cuddefords Passage.
• Henry Young Cuddeford was the third son. He was born in 1856. He later joined
  the Royal Marines and afterwards became a seaman in the merchant Navy.
  According to his grandson, he sailed to and from South America for over 30 years.
  He was said to be fluent in Portuguese. More about Henry Young the Mariner later.
• The youngest child of Robert and Eliza was Joseph Richard. He was born in the
  High Street, Ilfracombe on the 14th May 1860. He became hairdresser and
  moved away to Newton Abbot where he married Mary Lydia White in the nearby
  village of Ashburton on 20th July 1881. Joseph set up his own business in Newton
  Abbot where, it is said, he once had the privilege of shaving Kaiser William of
  Germany. Later he and Mary went to Vancouver in British Columbia and established
  a family there – the Cuddefords of Canada. At some point, Joseph returned as a
  widower to Devonshire and later married Clara Wood in Exeter on 23rd November
  1908. Joseph returned to Canada were he died on a train journey eastwards from
  Vancouver, presumably on his way back to England. Clara is believed to have
  returned from Canada to live in Ilfracombe.

The Third Generation – Charles the Painter

We have seen that Charles (Charley) was the eldest son of Robert and Eliza and that he became a house painter. He married Mary Ann Gumm on 26 December 1871. They lived in No.2 Cuddeford Cottages, they had 9 children – two sons and seven daughters:

• Their first child was Charles Henry on the 9th June 1872 he died at the age of one year in December 1873 and was buried on the second of January 1874
• Eliza Jane born, 1874 married H. Blackford 1908
• Annie Maria, born 1876 died 1955
• Alice Luisa, born 1879 married Albert Ley in 1902
• Mary Elizabeth, born 1881 married Edgar Ley in 1905
• Ethel, born 1884 married A. Gay (date unknown)
• Florence Lucy, born 1886 married G. Mogridge in 1910
• Abi Lilian, born 1894 married W. Stentford in 1915
• Finally in 1896 there was another son, Albert Henry born 1896 who married Edith Goy. They had one daughter, Pamela, who married a Mr Cudmore

The Third Generation – Henry Young and Mary Jane (1st wife) and Caroline (2nd wife)

Henry Young Cuddeford, the mariner, as we have seen, was the third of the four sons of Robert and Eliza. He married Mary Jane Harvey on the 26th June 1877. When their first child, Henry Charles was born on 10th July 1878, they were living in East Stonehouse near Plymouth and Henry Young was at that time a private in the Royal Marines. It must have been later that he went to sea in sailing ships. It appears that the family made their way to Kings Norton near Birmingham. All the rest of the family were born there. Henry Young and Mary Ann had seven more children they were:

• William Robert, born 1883, died 1903
• Walter Herman, born 1885, married in 1910
• Eliza Jane, born 1887, married in 1908
• Richard Travers, born 1889, died 1892 at age two years
• Joseph Merrick, born 1892
• Minnie Elizabeth, born 1894, died 1912 at age 18 years
• Maria Louisa, born 1896, died 1902 at age six years

It would appear that, with Henry at sea for so much of the time, Mary Jane was left to bring up this large family on her own. She died in 1903 leaving Henry with 4 or 5 children to look after ranging in age from 10 to 17.

So, Henry Young, at the age of 48, married Caroline Carnforth at Kings Norton on 29th February 1904. Doubtless, he needed a wife to help with the younger children. Henry and Caroline had three children:

• Caroline Maud, born 1905, died 1966
• Robert James, born 1908, died 1995
• Ethel, born 1910, died 1914

Henry Young died in 1929. His widow, Caroline, died in 1969.

The Fourth Generation – Henry Charles and Emma (1st wife) and Emily Louisa (2nd wife)

Henry Charles, the first son of Henry Young and Mary Jane, was born in Kings Norton on the 10th July 1878 . He married Emma in 1901. They had two children: The first was Lily, born in Kings Norton in 1904. She died aged nine in 1913. The second child was Henry (known as Harry) who was born in 1909, he was brought up by his grandfather Henry Young and remembers hearing from him tales of ships sailing to South America. He also remembers that his grandfather was a very religious man and insisted upon family prayers four times a day. Harry himself joined the Royal Marines for short while and then later transferred to the Royal Navy where he served for many years in the marine engineering branch. In retirement he lived in Surrey.

The second marriage of Henry Charles Cuddeford was to Emily Louisa Hacknett in about 1917. They had three daughters: Evelyn, who married A. Cook, Diana and Susan.

The Fourth generation – Robert James

The youngest son of Henry Young Cuddeford was born in Kings Norton. His name was Robert James and he married J.P. Williams. Robert James served in the Army during World War II and became an expert in radio and telecommunications. He became an electrician and had his own electrical contracting business in Birmingham from 1930 to 1970 and did a lot of work in Birmingham and Warwickshire area. There were two children of this marriage, Muriel Joan who was born in June 1931 and John Henry born in 1934.