Joseph Challis of Ramsgate

As I mentioned in my last Blog, Joseph Challis was born on the 5th April 1758 in Witham, Essex and was christened at St.Nicolas parish church on the 23rd April 1758. He was the eldest child of Joseph Challis and Sarah Havers. Joseph’s father died when Joseph was only 10 years old, his brother William was 8 years old and his youngest sister Ann was only 2 years old. His mother Sarah didn’t remarry so I assume that she had enough funds to support herself and her children.

As I also mentioned in my last Blog, Joseph’s younger brother William signed up for Military service in 1776 when he was 16 years old. Joseph would have been about 18 at this time but I have no idea whether he also joined the military or was working to help support his Mother and siblings. In Joseph’s later life he was the proprietor of a coach service between Ramsgate and Canterbury, could he have had his beginnings in this line of work as a young man ? Witham is located on the main thoroughfare between Colchester and London which is now the A12 and would have had a regular coach service to London. One of Joseph’s relatives, James Challis of Bocking was recorded as being a carrier, did Joseph work with him ?

The first definite mention that I can find of Joseph after his father’s death is that of his marriage on the 3rd April 1796 to Ann Pritchard at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London. Joseph was 37 at the time of his marriage so it is highly likely that this was his second marriage and it was also possible that it was also Ann’s second marriage as she was aged 29. No mention is made on the marriage record whether they were single or widowed, both were recorded as living in the parish and both signed their own names, their witnesses were W.H. Jones and T.H.Thompson.

The area around Hanover Square was quite a prestigious and wealthy area though of course Joseph and Ann could have been residing there as servants. An interesting fact is that there was another Challis family living close by to Hanover Square on Carpenter Street. This was the family of William Challis and his wife Sarah, they had eight children, seven sons and one daughter born between 1761 and 1782. Could William Challis have been an uncle of Joseph?One of his sons was also named Joseph, could he have been a cousin to our Joseph?

About 6 months after their marriage, Ann gave birth to twins, on the 29th September 1796, they were both christened on the 18th December 1796 at St. Marylebone’s Church and named Joseph and Sarah after their Grandparents. From the record of Joseph Challis’s future Testament we know that he also had an elder daughter named Ann, who was born between 1790 and 1794 several years before his marriage. As yet we haven’t been able to find the record of Ann’s birth and christening though it is very possible that she was a daughter from her mother Ann’s previous marriage and that she took her stepfather’s surname later in life. Shortly after the twins were born Joseph and Ann and their three young children moved to the seaside town of Ramsgate, on the Isle of Thanet in Kent.

During the mid 18th Century doctors had started to advocate the health benefits of sea bathing and places like Ramsgate began to attract more visitors, in 1790 a new safe harbour and pier had been completed and then during the Napoleonic wars the naval harbour and garrisons on both cliffs changed the town from a small fashionable watering hole to a place of some military and social consequence in Regency society. If Joseph was already working as a carrier then he probably saw the advantage of starting a coaching service to Ramsgate. In a pre 1815 guide book to Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs, it states that coaches and diligences are run from Ramsgate to London every morning and evening and that a light waggon belonging to Mr. Challis goes every Tuesday and Friday to Canterbury and returns the next day.

On the last day of the year 1797 Ann gave birth to their fourth child, she was christened Elizabeth at St. Lawrence’s church in Ramsgate on the 11th February 1798. Joseph and Ann went on to have nine more children including another set of twins. The year 1810 was a difficult year for the family, in the March, 13 year old Sarah, one of the elder twins, passed away (she is recorded as being Ann on the burial record but this is most probably a mistake). Then in April 1810, baby John, one of the second set of twins passed away and was followed by his twin sister Maria in August. On the 3rd July 1812 at the age of 45, Ann gave birth to their youngest child whom they named Johnson after the husband of Joseph’s sister Ann who lived in Hatfield Peverel. Sadly baby Johnson died at eight months old.

In September 1820, Joseph’s loving wife Ann passed away, she was 53. The youngest three boys were still under the age of 16 so it is possible that this is when Joseph’s mother Sarah who was already 83 years old came to live with him, though it is possible that she had moved to Ramsgate earlier even though her daughter Ann and son William still lived in Essex. Ten months earlier their 18 year old son Charles had married Amey Cooper and a month later in the December of 1819 the young couple departed with the Dyason Party on board the Zoroaster to settle a colony in South Africa. The Dyason Party consisted of about 21 Ramsgate men and their families, they arrived at Algoa Bay on the 15th May 1820 and settled on the right bank of the Torrens river, they named their settlement Lushington Valley. After complaints about inadequate food and clothing on the one part and insubordination and idleness on the other, most of the labourers deserted their masters or were dismissed, and the partnership was dissolved in June 1821. Charles eventually returned to Ramsgate and later became a publican, sadly his mother had passed away during his absence.

On the 18th May 1823 Joseph decided to make his Last Will and Testament even though he lived for another 11 years. In his Will he makes known that his honoured mother Sarah Challis should be paid thirty pounds and that his daughter Elizabeth should also be paid thirty pounds above what the other children would inherit. The residue of his money was to be divided equally between his nine children, Ann wife of Charles Smith, Joseph, Elizabeth, William, Charles, George, Francis, Henry and James. The share for his two youngest sons Henry and James was to be placed in a Savings Bank until they reached the age of 21. Later in a codicil he also left all of his plate, table spoons and a pair of sugar tongs to his daughter Elizabeth. At the beginning of May 1826 one of his horse and carts was waiting on the Quay in Ramsgate for a load of coals when the reins became entangled with the shafts of the cart causing it to fall over the edge of the pier into the harbour which sadly resulted in the death of the horse which was worth 30 guineas.

In March 1828 his mother Sarah passed away at the grand old age of 90. Joseph went on to live six more years and died in the February 1834 aged 75, he was buried at St. Lawrence’s Church on the 5th of February. After his death his freehold property was auctioned off on Monday 28th July 1834 at Thanet Auctioneers. His property consisted of three Lots, a substantial brick built dwelling house, nr. 46 King Street, with three airy bedrooms, a good kitchen, large cellar and backyard which was presently rented out. Lot 2 was three excellent well built cottages situate in Portland Court and Lot 3 was his own dwelling house, situated at the top of King Street next to the Liberty Road with extensive premises where a profitable concern in the van trade between Ramsgate and Canterbury had been carried out for many years. The property consisted of a dwelling house with parlour, three bedrooms and kitchen. A chaise house, stables and lofts. A large yard and garden with a well of fine spring water.

An interesting side note is that Joseph’s house and residence was most probably located next to the entrance gates to the Estate of Albion House which was owned during this same period by Lady Augusta d’Ameland or the “Duchess” as she liked to call herself, who had previously been married to Frederick Augustus, the sixth son of King George III before he divorced her.

Five years later Joseph’s sister Ann passed away in Hatfield Peveral, Essex in the February of 1839, a few months earlier she had made her Last Will and Testament in which she left everything to the seven children of her deceased brother Joseph Challis of Ramsgate, (she writes seven children but there were in fact nine surviving children.) It was this Testament that confirmed to us that Joseph was originally from Witham, Essex and belonged to the same family as Ann.

Joseph’s eldest son Joseph also went into the coaching business, he eventually became a driver of the postal carriage carrying the mail. After his marriage he lived in Dartford and later settled in Dover. His second son William died less than ten years after his father of a protracted illness, he was only 45, he left a widow and six children. As mentioned earlier, Joseph’s son Charles had tried his luck in South Africa but ended up returning to Ramsgate, he and his wife didn’t have any children but his spinster sister Elizabeth lived with them for awhile, his occupation was publican. A couple of months after Joseph’s death his fourth son George got into trouble with the law and was charged with assault and was sentenced to three months imprisonment. Later he became the publican of the Neptune Arms in Dover. Fifth son Francis was also convicted for assaulting a constable in 1836 and was sentenced to two months imprisonment. Francis was also a coachman and received a fine for mistreatment of a horse in 1856. Joseph’s sixth son Henry, my 3rd great grandfather, was also a carrier like his father and later became a Fly proprietor. The youngest son James was a Sadler but later became a Railway Porter, the era of Steam had arrived and travel by trains would take over the coaching services of the past.