William Coot (one of my 2nd great grandfathers) lived a remarkably long life, spanning 91 years and witnessing the transition from the rural fields of Hertfordshire to the bustling industrial streets of London.
William was born on 31st October 1848 in Flamstead, Hertfordshire. His early life was marked by immediate hardship; his father, John, passed away in 1849 before William was even two years old. By the age of three, William was living on River Hill in Flamstead, (a lane named for the River Ver). In a sign of the times, the family was supported by the local cottage industry; his widowed mother was a straw platter, a common occupation in Hertfordshire where straw was woven for the hat-making trade in nearby Luton. William eventually joined this trade as well, working as a straw platter himself by the time he was 13.
On 18th February 1871, William married Eliza Burgess in Flamstead. At the time of their wedding, William was noted as being illiterate, signing the register with an “X”. The couple initially lived at Trowley Bottom, where William worked as an agricultural labourer.
St Leonard’s Church, Flamstead, Hertfordshire
However, the late 19th century was a time of “rural flight,” as many families left the struggling agricultural sector for better-paying jobs in the city. Between 1874 and 1876, William and Eliza moved the family from the Hertfordshire countryside to Islington, London.
Settling in North London, William found work in the timber industry. By 1879, he was living at 7 Baldwin Terrace (just off Wharf Road) and likely working at a nearby Norton timber yard. He eventually rose to the position of Foreman at a timber yard, a role he held for many years while residing at 94 Rotherfield Street.
William and Eliza had a large family, but they also faced the frequent Victorian tragedy of child mortality:
The eldest two children were the only ones born in their parents’ native village of Flamstead before the family made the big move to London.
- Charles Coot (1872–1951): Born on 21 August 1872 , Charles was just a toddler when the family left the countryside. He lived to be 79 years old, passing away in 1951.
- Bertha Coot (1874–1965): Born 23 February 1874 , Bertha was the longest-lived of all the siblings, reaching the age of 91. She would have been the primary witness to the family’s transition from the quiet River Hill to the industrial noise of Islington.
Once the family settled in London around 1876, they experienced the high child mortality rates common in Victorian cities. Between 1876 and 1888, five more children were born in Islington.
- Thomas Coots (1876–1879): The first child born after the move , Thomas tragically died of Meningitis in April 1879 at only three years old. At the time, the family was living at 7 Baldwin Terrace.
- Florence Coots (1879–1960): Born 17 Aug 1879 , just months after her brother Thomas died, Florence lived a full life of 81 years [my great grandmother].
- Rosey Coots (1883–1907): Born 8 May 1883 , Rosey lived through the family’s transition to Rotherfield Street. She passed away as a young woman of 24 on 25 July 1907 of Phthisis (what we now call Tuberculosis).
- Ethel Coots (1886–1912): Born in 1886 , Ethel also passed away relatively young at age 26. Her death in 21 November 1912, of Phthisis like her sister Rosey and occurred just one year before her mother, Eliza, passed away.
- Daisy Coots (1888–1889): The youngest child, Daisy, was born in 1888 but died in April 1889 of Meningitis, not surviving her first year.
After 42 years of marriage, Eliza passed away in September 1913. William, then a 65-year-old widower working as a ladder maker, found companionship again with Ellen Sarah Stone, a widow who was living in the same house on Rotherfield Street. They married on 5 December 1914, just as the First World War was beginning to change the world.
William remained at 94 Rotherfield Street well into his 70s, eventually retiring from the timber trade. His second wife, Ellen, passed away in 1933.
In his final years, William moved to Orpington, Kent to live with his eldest daughter Bertha, and her young family. On the 1939 register he is living at the Orpington Institution (a hospital). The following year he passed away on 7 October 1940 at the age of 91, cause of death noted as myocardial degeneration (heart failure), his son-in-law, Enoch Hindley (Bertha’s husband), was the informant.
William was buried on 11 October 1940at The Islington Cemetery in East Finchley (lots of the Coot and Punchard family are buried here). He had lived from the era of horse-drawn plows to the days of the London Blitz, a truly incredible journey for a boy from Flamstead.
By the time William passed away in 1940, many of his children had already predeceased him. Two of his children died very young of Meningitis.
not just any family 