Richard Hayter Jarvis, Esq - 1801 - 1877

Born  -  20 December, 1801 - Westminster, London, England. 

Richard Hayter was the first child of Richard and Anne Jarvis.

Baptism - 23 February, 1802 - St James, Westminster, London, England

St James Church

Source Citation: Place: Westminster, London, England; Collection: St James; -; Date Range: 1791 - 1816; Film Number: 1042309.

Richard spent his early years in Westminster and Willesden  and would follow his father into the family business.

Marriage - Richard Hayter Jarvis & Caroline Ferguson were married on the 29 August, 1829 at St Mary's Church, Willesden.

Caroline was the daughter of William and Frances Ferguson. She was born 17 June, 1810 and she and her sister, Frances were baptised on the 10 July, 1810 at St Marylebone Church, London.

Richard & Caroline's first home was at 139 Long Acre.

1841 Census.........Richard, Caroline , five of their children and Richard's sister Eleanor are at Broadwater in Sussex. This is a small village close to the coast so presumably they were on holiday.

1843 - London Post Office Directory

Jarvis, Richard & Son, Undertakers, 139 Long Acre

1851 Census.......Richard, Caroline and seven of their nine children at 139 Long Acre along with two house servants and a nursemaid. Richard snr has died and Richard now describes himself as a 'Master Undertaker employing 7 men and 50 occasional men'. Fifty! Business is obviously booming as funerals   become more and more expensive and ostentatious.

Interesting reading - Victorian Funerals and Mourning

The younger children are being educated at home which suggests private tutors or governesses.

It would not be long before the family moved to a new home in which they would live for about 10 years.

1851 London Post Office Directory

Jarvis Rd. & Son, Undertakers & Funeral Feathermen, 139 Long Acre

1856......London Post Office Directory

24 Dorset Square - Jarvis, Richard Hayter, Esq.

A Dorset Square residence today

Dec 5 ,1855 - elected Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

London Gazette March 1860........commissions signed by the Lord Lieutentant of the County of Middlesex - Queen's (Westminster) Rifle Volunteer Corps..

Richard Hayter Jarvis, Gent., to be Lieutenant. Dated 3 March, 1860

I have no idea what that means but in September he resigns....again in the London Gazette. Presumably the resignation was necessary because the family was moving out of London.

22nd Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps.

The Queen has been graciously pleased to

accept the resignation of the Commission held

in this Corps by Lieutenant Richard Hayter Jarvis. 

1861 Census..........Holmesdale House, Horton Kirby, Kent

By the middle of the 19th century London's ever-growing population, frequent cholera outbreaks and the stench from the Thames made it a less and less desirable place to live and Richard has made the move to Kent. On the census form N/A is listed as occupation - today we'd say he had retired but in 1861 it meant he'd made enough money to live on for the rest of his life and he could sit back and be a gentleman. The business passed into the hands of his eldest son Richard Ferguson Jarvis .

1871 Census........... as yet I haven't been able to locate their whereabouts but at some time after 1865 they moved to the Old Parsonage, Sutton at Hone, a village about 2 miles south of Dartford in Kent.

Richard Hayter Jarvis died at the Old Parsonage on  1 January, 1877, aged 75 years, and was buried in the churchyard at Sutton at Hone - Plot 107 , a coped cross -

Richard Hayter JARVIS of this Parish born 20 December 1801 died January 1 1877

The complete lack of any sentimental inscription seems strange for the time. Whether that was his wish or a sign of how his family felt can't be known but I do wonder why Caroline is not buried beside him.

1881 Census - Caroline is still living at the Old Parsonage with her second son, Edward, who must have retired from the Merchant Navy as they both list under occupation - Houses, Dividends etc....i.e. independent means. Also visiting is son Alfred's eldest daughter, eight year old Ada.

Caroline Jarvis died at the Old Parsonage on 8 Jan, 1885 . I have not been able to find where she is buried.

The Jarvis Family of London

The last three months I've been researching the Jarvis branch of my family and now it's time to start writing about what I've discovered. My mother's mother was a Jarvis but the only mention my mother made of this side of her family was....

• the family were wealthy
• they came from Kent

She was right about the first but only half right about the second.

Like most New Zealanders my forebears were farmers, agricultural labourers , carpenters, stonemasons - working class people with strong connections to the land and rural living so it was a surprise to find a family that were urban,  upper middle class.

The first Jarvis records I have place the family in the City of Westminster, London at the beginning of the 19th century - the marriage of Richard Jarvis and Ann Hayter....

and the first indication of their occupation in the 1811 London Directory of Professions and Trades

Jarvis, Son & Co. undertakers & patent coffin makers, 13, Piccadilly

Surprising in more ways than one! The term 'undertaker' was originally used to describe any person who undertook to provide a service and only later became used exclusively for funeral services.

At the beginning of the 19th century burials were still quite simple. The laying out of the dead was done by family or servants and coffins, plain wooden boxes, were provided by someone who constructed them as a sideline to their everyday work - carpenters, wheelwrights etc.

With its already rapidly growing population and the prevalence of disease London would have offered an opportunity to focus entirely on coffin making and perhaps offering other funeral services.

13 Piccadilly is an affluent address in the heart of what is now London's West End, which suggests the Jarvis family had been established in London for some time. As was usual for the time they would have lived above the business premises. It's a pity Mr Jarvis didn't add his christian name or even an initial to his listing - without it's almost impossible to discover which of the many Jarvis' he might have been.

Richard and Anne had 6 children that lived to adulthood.

Richard Hayter  - 1801 - 1877

Anne Gertrude - 1803 - 1887

William John - 1805 - 1883

Thomas -1807 - 186?

John - 1809 - ?

Elenora Grace - 1819 - 1879

1819 UK Poll Books and Electoral Registers

Richard Jarvis ------ 139 Long Acre ------- Undertaker

At some time between 1811 and 1819 the business has expanded and moved to larger premises at Long Acre and Richard and Anne are living there as well. 139 is circled in red and has a large court behind and a chapel close by. 

Later Anne and Richard will move to Willesden to live, in the 1820's still 'an oasis of rural tranquillity' and popular with well-off middle class families, while the business remained at Long Acre.

Anne Jarvis died aged 56 in Jan 1836 and was buried on 26 January,1836 at Kensal Green All Souls.

Source Citation: ; London Metropolitan Archives, All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green, Kensington, Transcript of Burials, 1836 Jan-1836 Dec, DL/t Item, 041/004; Call Number: DL/T/041/004.

Richard Jarvis died aged 74 in February 1848 and was buried on the 7th February, 1848 at Kensal Green All Souls. Following Anne's death he had moved back into central London and his last address was 32 Cambridge Terrace, Paddington although I have had no luck finding his whereabouts in the 1841 census.

Source Citation: ; London Metropolitan Archives, All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green, Kensington, Transcript of Burials, 1848 Jan-1848 Dec, DL/t Item, 041/016; Call Number: DL/T/041/016.

Marriage - Richard Jarvis & Anne Hayter

Richard Jarvis & Anne Hayter

were married on the 17th January, 1801 at

St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, London

Source Citation: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint James, Piccadilly: Piccadilly, Westminster, Transcript of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1800 Jan-1802 Mar, DL/t Item, 090/001.

Anne was the daughter of John (1741-1819) and Eleanora(nee Egan 1750-?) Hayter. She was baptised at St Marylebone on the 4th July, 1780 so presumably was born shortly before this date.

Richard's parents are as yet unknown but a birthdate some time during the 1770's is likely. The marriage of Richard and Anne is the first verifiable record of my Jarvis ancestry so is where the story begins.

Richard and Anne are my 3x great grandparents on the maternal side. 

Wedding Wednesday - Jarvis/Ferguson

Richard Hayter Jarvis and Caroline Ferguson were married

on the 27th August, 1829 at

St Mary's Church, Willesden, London

by the Rev. A.B.Bisset

Witnesses who signed the marriage certificate:

Anne and Richard Jarvis - parents of the groom

Frances and William Ferguson - parents of the bride

Anne Gertrude Jarvis - sister of the groom

Julia Isolde Bisset - wife of the vicar

Charles Hayter and Caroline Jarvis are two of my maternal great-great-grandparents.