William Taylor

William Taylor was the son of Robert Taylor and Martha Smart who married in the Radford registration district in 1879. They could be found living at 1 Abbey Buildings, Ilkeston Road, Radford in the 1881 census with their son, William (b.1879). However what subsequently happened to Robert Taylor, a labourer in the lace trade [C.1881], is unclear. He was not living with Martha Taylor at the time of the 1891 census when she could be found living at 12 Smith Street, Radford. Martha now listed herself as a widow working as a lace clipper. However no one called Robert Taylor of the right age died in Nottingham during the 1880s. So the supposition must be that Robert Taylor abandoned his family. However there were two more children, Alice (b.1884) and Thomas (b.1889/90). Whose children they might be is unclear as the situation is complicated by the presence of Thomas Spouge, listed as a widower who was lodging with Martha Taylor at 12 Smith Street, Radford. Ten years later the 1901 census had Thomas Spouge as the head of house of 6 Underwoods Yard, Bovil Street, Radford with Martha Taylor and her children described as lodgers. The two adults were both described as married rather than widower and widow. There were also further children: Thomas Henry Spouge [Taylor] (b.1891), Lucy Spouge [Taylor] (b.1893), Lewis Spouge [Taylor] (b.1894), Ernest Spouge [Taylor] (b.1900). Given the choice of names there is no doubt who their father was. [Quite what happened to the Thomas Taylor born 1899/90 is not certain.] In the 1911 census Martha and her four youngest children could still be found residing at 6 Underwoods Yard. However Martha listed now herself once more as a widow, employed as a charwoman. Tom Spouge, the father of her younger children, had died back in 1903 at the age of 63. Martha Taylor would die at Nottingham, aged 67, in 1926. By the time of the 1901 census William Taylor had left home and was boarding with a family at 49 Crompton Street, Hallam Fields, Ilkeston. Later that year he married Ada Shipley at Nottingham. Their children included: Thomas Sydney (b.1902), Ada (b.1903), Elizabeth Isobel (b.1904), Kathleen Mary (b.1906), Hilda May (b.1907), William Arthur (b.1909), George (b.1913), Grace (b.1915) and Lucy Marion (b.1917). At the time of the 1911 census the couple were living at 19 Crompton Street, Hallam Fields, Ilkeston. The post-war address provided by the CWGC records for his widow was 12 Leonard Terrace, Denman Street, Radford. Assuming his widow did not remarry she probably died at Nottingham aged 63 in 1941 or aged 77 in 1953.