Joseph Humpfry Fuller and his family - Millers of Ray Mill Island - Brewers of the Bell Brewery

Monument to Charles John Fuller, Emily Charlotte Fuller, Elizabeth Rebecca Fuller, Joseph Fuller and Alice Hambly Fuller, St Luke's Churchyard, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.

"To The Memory Of 

Charles John Fuller 

Died Decr 16th 1872 

aged 3 weeks 

- Of such is the kingdom of heaven - 

Also Emily Charlotte Fuller 

Died March 9th 1884 

aged 23 years 

- Whom the Lord loveth the Lord chasteneth - 

Also Elizabeth Rebecca Fuller 

wife of Joseph Fuller 

Died November 4th 1884 

aged 54 years 

- Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praiseth her - 

Also Joseph Fuller 

Passed away March 11th 1917 

aged 91 years 

- Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord - 

Also Alice Hambly Fuller s

econd wife of the above 

Died Jan 13th 1927 - Asleep in Christ."

Joseph Humpfry Fuller was born in Maidenhead in 1826 to John Humpfry Milhern Fuller and his wife Charlotte.

The Fuller family in Maidenhead established Fuller, Story, & Company and built Bell Brewery in Maidenhead in 1852.

The first Census I can find Joseph on is the 1851 Census, he is living at his uncle Thomas Fuller's house in Wallingford, Oxfordershire. His occupation is given as a miller.

Elizabeth Rebecca Silcock was born in Ingoldisthrope, Norfolk, to George Silcock and his wife Mary Chadwick Stanton.

The first record of Elizabeth I was able to find, after her christening, was the 1851 Census where she is living in Heacham, Norfolk with her widowed mother Mary and her younger siblings, Martha, and Francis.

1861 finds the newly married Joseph and Elizabeth living at the flour mill on Ray Mill Island, Maidenhead, Berkshire, along with their 10 month old daughter Emily Charlotte. 

Joseph and Elizabeth's family continued to grow, in 1862 they welcomed their first son Francis Joseph, 1864 saw the birth of their second daughter Jessie Mary, 1865 another daughter Annie Grant was born and another daughter Gertrude Elizabeth in 1866.  A second son Alfred Bell was born in 1868 followed by another daughter, Marion in 1870.  Sadly a third son Charles John was born in 1872 only to pass away three weeks later.

In 1871 Joseph and his family are still living at Ray flour Mill in Maidenhead Berkshire.

In 1881 Francis Joseph has left the family to work as a clerk at a corn exchange in Clapham London and Alfred has been sent to a boarding school in Hove, Sussex.  Joseph, Elizabeth, and their remaining children have moved to Calcot House, Craufurd Rise, Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Sadly just three years after the census was taken, both Emily Charlotte and Elizabeth Rebecca were dead.

Emily Charlotte passed away on 9th Match 1884. On 15th Match 1884 the Maidenhead Advertiser carried the following announcer:

"Deaths-

March 8 [sic], at Calcot House, Maidenhead, Emily Charlotte Fuller, eldest child of Joseph and Elizabeth Fuller, aged 23."

Elizabeth Rebecca passed away 4th November 1884. On 8th November 1884 the Maidenhead Advertiser carried the following announcement:

"Deaths-

Fuller-On the 4th inst Calcot House, Maidenhead, Elizabeth Rebecca (Bessie), wife of Joseph Fuller, in her 55th year."

 
In 1886 in Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, Joseph married his second wife, Alice Hambly Edmonds.

Alice Hambly Edmonds was born 3rd Aril 1838 to Henry Edmonds, a merchant and his wife Elizabeth.  Alice's father died when she was young, leaving her mother a widow at the age of 27.  Through the 1861 Census until her marriage to Joseph, Alice lived with her uncle George Edmonds, a chemist and druggist in Surrey.

In 1891 Joseph and his second wife Alice are living at 2 Craufurd Terrace in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  Joseph's children from his first marriage have all left home to live in various locations throughout the UK.

On 12th June 1894 at St Luke's Church, Jessie Mary Fuller married John Edward Gripper, a retired corn merchant twenty years her senior.

In 1901 Joseph and Alice are boarding in the home of John Vokes, a stone mason, at 3 Clifton Terrace, St Thomas, Hampshire.

By 1911 Joseph and Alice had moved to Hillsboro House, Gringer Hill, Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The house still stands today and is currently subject of a planning dispute.  The current owner wishing to demolish Hillsboro House and it's Coach House to erect apartment housing.  The planning office is against this.

Six years later Joseph passes away on 11th March 1917.  On 28th March 1917 the a letter to the Maidenhead Advertiser read:

"Another Nonogenarian Passes Away

I was very sorry to learn from the Advertiser that Mr. Joseph Fuller had passed away. *I have been unable to locate this article* He was one of the few nonogenarians in Maidenhead, and he held the proud record of having been born in Maidenhead, Where he resided all his life. Mr. Fuller will always be remembered for his association with Ray Mills, adjoining Boulter's Lock. In his History of Maidenhead, Mr. J. W. Walker reminds us that Boulter was not a person at all. "To 'bolt' he explains, "is to perform one of the operations of milling, and a 'bolter' is a miller. This is not the lock of Mr. Boulter; it is the miller's lock'. Formally, a brewery stood next to the mill, one of the partners in which was Mr. Bell. In the process of time. Bell' Brewery was purchased by Messrs. Fuller and removed to the centre of the Borough, and when a new hotel rose near to the same, the original proprietors name was perpetuated in the sign of the 'Bell' Hotel."  Mr. Fuller continued to be the moving spirit of Ray Mills until a few years ago, when the Thames Conservancy purchased the mills and island in connection with the extension and improvement of Boulter's Lock and the erection of the mechanical craft elevator which so greatly relieved the lock pressure on busy pre-war operation. Mr. Fuller possessed remarkable vitality, and up to within a few days of his death was out walking with almost a youthful spring and speed, or riding his tricycle through our busy streets. We shall all greatly miss the familiar form of Mr. Joseph Fuller, a very highly esteemed life long resident."

Alice Hambly Fuller was to pass away 13th January 1927.