William Henry Redman (1836- )

Personal details

Gender:
Male
Notes:
William Henry Redman was a Penzance local, baptised 26 June 1836, and like his father a painter and glazier by trade.

In Coulson’s Directory of Penzance for 1864 William Henry Redman, painter, is listed at 11 Daniel’s Place (or Daniel Place) - directly behind the Blewett family home 11 Marine Terrace, Penzance. William was prosecuted for waste of water during the 1864 drought, a fascinating little glimpse of life in Penzance. William had returned from a day at work to find no water available, so went to a well for drinking water and to clean up from work. Then he went fishing till midnight (remembering my brief visit to Penzance in June, the evening would have been very long and lovely, and perfect for fishing until midnight). (Penzance Petty Sessions, heard at the Town Hall, 25 July 1864, reported in The Cornish Telegraph, 27 July 1864.) He was still with his family at the time of the 1871 census, but disappears from all records after that.

In the period between 1852 and 1865 William Redman’s own family had suffered greatly. He was one of four sons born to William and Mary Redman. All three of his brothers had died by 1862: John died 3 September 1852 (age 14); Charles died 8 April 1854 (age 21, ‘greatly beloved and respected’); James died 25 April 1862 (age 18, ‘much respected’). Mary, his mother, died in 1865 ‘after a lingering illness’. William’s father was an inmate in the Union Workhouse, Madron, Penzance, which he entered sometime around July 1869, (The Cornish Telegraph, 24 November 1869). Why could William Henry Redman not have housed and fed his widowed father at this time? William Redman senior died 16 May 1875, still in the Penzance Union Workhouse (Cornwall OPC, Burials database; 'Deaths', The Cornish Telegraph, 2 June 1875, p.3, c.2).

Taken together with the situation of his wife and two daughters, all separated by the 1881 census, it appears the family fell on very hard times.