Portrait of Henry Bishop (1813-1855)

Above: One of three sketches of the Bishop brothers that were brought out from England to Australia, most likely by Joseph Bishop, and handed on to his nephew Henry Bishop after his death in 1877. This sketch of Henry Bishop is more primitive than the other two of his brothers William and Charles Bishop...the latter are much finer in detail.

The remaining children of Joseph Bishop and Sarah Barnes.

Having dealt in detail with this couple's eldest child, Joseph Bishop, I can now turn my attention to their remaining children.
Family notes that were passed down to me by my great-Uncle in the 1980s recorded that there were four sons in this family- to quote:
"Four Brothers Bishop. Joseph. William. Harry. Charlie. Charlie died young. Harry commercial traveller. Joseph hardware merchant. Very wealthy. First wife Mary Ann ?, his cousin.Married in England. Came out to Australia. Supremely happy. Wife died 1858. No children.Second wife Fanny Jane Smith. Extravagant. Ran through the wealth. No children. Joseph died about 1876.
William married Eliza. Photographs in case together. Had two children, Henry and Charlie. Charlie died as a child from overeating unripe plums. Henry married Bertha Hughan and had children Roland, Guy and the Flower sisters."

Parish records from Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, home of the Bishop family, reveal that there were in fact six Bishop boys born to Joseph Bishop and Sarah Barnes after their marriage in 1804:

1. Joseph Bishop born 1805, Whittlesey.
2.Thomas Bishop born 1807, Whittlesey.
3. William Bishop born 1809, Whittlesey.
4. John Bishop born 1810, Whittlesey.
5. Henry Bishop born 1813, Low Cross, Whittlesey.
6. Charles Bishop born 1817, Low Cross, Whittlesey.

There is a note of a Sarah Bishop being buried in 1806 in Whittlesey, with the notation ‘of Joseph’. This may have been a daughter of Joseph Bishop, named after her mother, who died in early infancy, although there is no evidence of her baptism in the Cambridge Baptism Index 1801-1837.

Thomas Bishop was the second son born to Joseph and Sarah, in 1807. There is absolutely no mention of him in any records in England, apart from this one baptismal record...no death or burial, no marriage and nothing in any census returns. The same applies for son John who was born in 1810.

A very recent discovery has revealed that youngest son, Charles Bishop, died at the age of 16 or 17 at New Haven, Connecticut, United States, in 1835. This was a very young age to to setting off on his own to a new country...I wonder if he had accompanied older brothers- perhaps John and/or Thomas? Definitely an avenue to be investigated!

Skipping Thomas and John because I have discovered no information about their lives, we next come to William, the third born son. Because he is my direct ancestor, I am going to shuffle him to the end, and continue here with son number five, Henry Bishop.

Above: Henry Bishop, fifth of six sons born to Joseph Bishop and Sarah Barnes.

Henry Bishop was born in 1813 at Low Cross, Whittlesey, in Cambridgeshire. He became a commercial traveller, and in the census returns for 1841 and 1851 could be found staying in hotels in Poole and Manchester respectively.

As an adult, Henry's home base was Bradford in Yorkshire. He worked as a commercial traveller for Bradford merchant John V Godwin, Esq. The son of the Reverend Benjamin Godwin, John Godwin was a very respected member of the Bradford community, rising to the position of Mayor.

Above: 1841 census for Poole, Dorsetshire, showing that 25 year old commercial traveller Henry Bishop was staying at the London Tavern Inn.

Above: The 1851 census for Manchester..Henry Bishop was staying with other commercial travellers at the Spring Gardens Clarence Hotel. He was single, 37 years old and a commercial traveller in printed cottons.

Poor old Henry never got the opportunity to marry...several years after the 1851 census was taken, Henry Bishop died at the age of 40 years. He was travelling at the time, and on March 17, 1855- the day he died- Henry had been in Falmouth in Cornwall, staying at the Green Bank Hotel.

Above: Memorial card for Henry Bishop. Found in the belongings of his nephew in Australia, Henry Bishop, the son of Henry's brother William Bishop.

I have found two newspaper notifications of Henry Bishop's death- one from a Lincolnshire newspaper and the other from the Royal Cornwall Gazette:

"On Saturday last, at Green Bank Hotel, Falmouth, aged 40, Mr Henry Bishop, commercial traveller, brother of Mr Bishop, plumber &c, St. Paul's Street, Stamford."-Lincolnshire Chronicle, March 23, 1855.

"At the Green Bank Hotel, Falmouth, on the 17th inst., Mr Henry Bishop, late the respected representative of J.V Godwin, Esq, of Bradford, Yorkshire, aged 40."- Royal Cornwall Gazette, March 23, 1855.

Probate documents of Joseph Bishop, 1877.

Joseph bishop's death certificate

 

Above & below: Wagga Advertiser, July 21, 1877.

 

 

Joseph Bishop's Life after Fanny 1875-1877

Unlike his ex-wife, who enjoyed another forty years of life after their marriage was annulled, poor old Joe had the wind taken out of his sails by the whole experience. Financially ruined, his character in shreds, Joseph Bishop was dead less than two years after his last court appearance.
By the end of December 1875, he had exhausted his last attempt in the Courts to have his marriage settlement with Fanny Smith declared as null and void as his marriage. The judges found that the settlement stood as first written, and Joseph was left almost penniless. After more than two years of lawyers, solicitors and barristers, what little money he had would have been eaten up by court costs...in fact, when he died in 1877, Joseph still owed 260 pounds to solicitor Thomas Pavey for ‘law costs’.
As 1876 started, Joseph Bishop was 70 years old. The only family that he had in Australia were his nephew Henry Bishop and Henry’s family- his wife Bertha and four small children- who at that time lived in the Fitzroy area of Melbourne. Henry had worked for Joseph up until his ironmonger’s business failed in the late 1860s, and then worked for other Melbourne-based ironmongers as a traveller.
Joseph Bishop was also forced to take this road, despite his advanced age. He became an ironmonger’s traveller, travelling interstate frequently on his business runs. It was while he was on one of these ventures that he met his end. The story as told to me by my great-Uncle, Gordon Oakley, (who was Joseph Bishop’s great-great nephew) related how Joseph’s firm belief in a cold water plunge every morning, regardless of the weather, resulted in him catching a severe cold whilst he was staying in Wagga Wagga. NSW. This affliction developed into pneumonia, and after seven days of trying to fight it off, Joseph Bishop finally succumbed and passed away on July 20, 1877.
He had been staying in the house of Percival S.S Stephen