RODWAY families, London 1800s

[Jane Elderfield]

In searching for my RODWAYs in Greater London, England, I have come across several other RODWAY families, who may or may not be related.

I have census and other details for two families who seem to have been in the furniture-making and finishing business:
James & Mary RODWAY, of St. Leonard's Shoreditch, and some of their children;
and Samuel & Mary RODWAY, and their son Samuel jr., of Finsbury / Clerkenwell.

Another family is William & Margaret RODWAY of St. Luke's / Finsbury, and their children, including son William jr. The senior William was in iron foundry, and several of the children were in book binding.

Another family is that of John RODWAY & Eliza, inn-keepers in Westminster in 1861, bakers in Greenwich in 1871.

I also have some information about Emanuel RODWAY (another baker) and his first wife Sarah, and his second wife Mary.

If you descend from any of these families, you're welcome to contact me. Who knows--my RODWAYs and yours might be related.

--Jane E

[Jane Elderfield]

[QUOTE=Jane Elderfield;444684]In searching for my RODWAYs in Greater London, England, I have come across several other RODWAY families, who may or may not be related.

I have census and other details for two families who seem to have been in the furniture-making and finishing business:
James & Mary RODWAY, of St. Leonard's Shoreditch, and some of their children;
and Samuel & Mary RODWAY, and their son Samuel jr., of Finsbury / Clerkenwell....[QUOTE]

Here's something that may be relevant:

In the 1841 census for Clerkenwell, Finsbury, London, Samuel RODWAY, 40, Cabinet Maker, and family lived in Noble Street.
Just down Noble street lived William DE BAR, 29, Coach Maker, and his family.

Now, William DE BAR's daughter Elizabeth (born 1844) grows up to marry a James John RODWAY of my family. (James John was a grandson of the earliest-known of my line, James RODWAY, who had children from 1818, so James was presumably born in the late 1700s.)

Is this coincidence?

Or is Samuel RODWAY related to James RODWAY, the progenitor of my RODWAYs? Could grandson James John have visited his RODWAY relatives in Clerkenwell, made the acquaintance of the DE BAR daughter, and later married her?

I did a little more digging.

On the 1861 census, Samuel RODWAY (the cabinet maker) was born in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, around 1796

I didn't find his birth on FamilySearch. However I did find James 1797, Sarah 1799, William 1800, Mary 1802, Harriot 1803, Winefred 1805, Horatio 1806 and Charles RODWAY 1807, all christened in Woodchester, to a Samuel RODWAY. It's not unreasonable to assume that there was also a son Samuel RODWAY (the one who became the cabinet maker).

Just two miles away in Rodborough, Gloucestershire, were earlier christenings, to a Samuel RODWAY and wife Sarah:
Frances 1791, Betty 1792, Thomas 1793, John 1794.

To me this looks like Samuel RODWAY having a family of 13 children from 1791 to 1807, with son Samuel RODWAY (not found, around 1796) in the middle.

Samuel RODWAY and "Sarah or Mary" FLETCHER, married 05 Aug 1790 in Rodborough, look pretty likely to be the parents, at least of the Rodborough lot. (Could be a second marriage for the Woodchester lot.)

Might the James RODWAY chr. 1797 be "my" James Rodway, and thus a brother of Samuel RODWAY the cabinet maker? Both apparently moved up to the Greater London area as young men.

A couple of further clues:
1) A son of "my" James, John RODWAY sr., and his son John jr., changed from being bootmakers to being "furniture broker" and "furniture dealer". (Perhaps selling the furniture produced by Samuel RODWAY??)

2) On one of the censuses, whoever filled in the form reported that John sr. was from "Gloucestershire". In previous censuses, he reported "Eltham, Kent" as his birthplace, which tallies with his christening there in 1818. Maybe his family were from Gloucestershire?

My best thinking so far. What do you think, forum members? --Jane E

By the way, William DE BARwas from Gloucester City, and apparently also came up to London as a young man, where he married a Bermondsey girl, Mary (probably the Mary Waller MERCER chr. in Bermondsey 1817, and married in Newington 1835.)