Henry James AKERS
When I started to research his life, I had no idea how many men I would find with the same name!
Henry was 70 when he died at Long Grove hospital on 23rd June 1910. From this I found his birth registered in the March quarter of 1840 and his mother’s maiden name was Cope. Robert Akers and Harriot (sic) Cope were married on 27th July 1832 at St Luke’s Finsbury.
The 1841 Census of Tower Hamlets shows his father was Robert Akers 30 (so born 1811) and his mother Harriot 31 (1810). Robert was a silver polisher and father of 3 children – John, Robert and Henry. Three other residents were Ann Akers, a laundress age 60, born in Wales, George Akers, brother (30) and a visitor.
Ten years later, the census shows the family at 5 Waterloo Place in Finsbury. Robert a silver cutter, John a gold beater apprentice and Henry – only 11 – an errand boy. Two more children are recorded, William (7), a scholar and Edward (1). George, Robert’s brother, is still with them.
In 1860, a newspaper notice announces that Henry Akers, Gold Beater has removed from 21 Rahere Street to 68 Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell. Was Henry running his own business? The next census suggests not, or it did not last long.
1861 and the family has moved again to 33 Upper Rosoma Street, Finsbury. Robert is a silver plate finisher, and Henry has become a gold chain maker. Young William is a bookbinder. The family has moved around over the years but in the same area. This census records 9 males, and 16 females were living in 2 houses. Could have been rather crowded!
Now Henry’s life changes. In 1862 he married Sarah Ann Dent whose father John was a porter. Grief must have been overwhelming when Sarah Ann died in 1863.
I hope he found happiness when, a widower, he married Eliza Heinsen in 1866. Her father, John, was a wine worker. They had a son Henry, born 1870, and an infant just 6 days old on census day 1871 – 2nd April.
The 1881 3rd April census has Henry a working jeweller, his wife Eliza and 3 children, Henry 13, Elen 8 and Frederick 5. Sadly, Henry is now deaf and young Henry is noted as ‘afflicted’.
Admission to Banstead
On 26th May 1881 a Henry James Akers was admitted to Banstead Asylum as a male pauper and discharged on 15th October, recovered. I could not find any more information, not even his age or occupation just these bare facts, so am not sure he was the one who eventually died in Long Grove.
On 6th April 1878, a Henry James Akers was admitted to Colney Hatch as a pauper patient. As Henry was a working jeweller on the 1881 Census, I cannot just assume this was the same man who died in Long Grove in 1910.
BUT, by the time of the 1891 census our Henry definitely is in Holborn Union Infirmary, Archway Road, Upper Holloway, Islington parish. He is 51 years of age, born Hoxton, London, a jeweller and a sick patient. By 1901 he is in St Saviour’s Union Workhouse as a pauper inmate.