Early life

Peter and his twin brother George were born on the 26th November 1828 in Stoke Damerel. His parents, Peter and Margaret Olver had named their previous son Peter but he had died three months earlier aged four and they appear to have been fearful that the twin boys would not survive as they had them baptised three days after the birth by the Morice Street Wesleyan Chapel of Devonport. Peter's father was a shoemaker and his grandparents Samuel and Mary Souther ran a smallholding close by in Middle Swilly.

Four months later, Peter's twin brother George died but Peter survived. His father was literate as he had started life as a tradesman and later became a policeman. Peter was educated to a standard where he could read and write and become apprenticed as a shipwright in the Plymouth docks and this was his occupational status at the time of the 1851 census.

Married Life

After finishing his apprenticeship as a shipwright, Peter went to work in the London Docklands. On the 30th April 1854, he married Catherine Amelia Buchan in Poplar, London (better known today as the Canary Wharf area of London's Docklands). Catherine had been baptised in 1826 in the Wesleyan Chapel at Morrice Street Devonport, the daughter of William Buchan, a shipwright, and Catherine Hoskins. Peter had almost certainly met his wife to be and her father at Devonport through his work and possibly through membership of the same Wesleyan church. Catherine, aged 27, was two years older than Peter. Like Peter she was literate.

After they married, they went to live in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where they brought up their family. Altogether they had five children, three girls and two boys, but one of their sons and one of their daughters died in their infancy. Peter's career progressed and by 1881 he described his work as "Shipwright, Leading Man" which implies that he had become by then a team leader with responsibilities over other shipwrights.

Later years

Peter died in 1886 aged 57 which was young even in those days. It is thought he died as a result of an accident or illness and may have been in hospital at Camberwell , which is where he died. Peter must have had some pension or savings as, after he died, Catherine continued to live in Minster by herself on her own means, for a time. By 1901 she had moved in to stay with her daughter Eliza whose husband Robert had died 4 years previously. Catherine outlived Peter by 16 years dying on the Isle of Sheppey during 1902, aged about 74.

Peter's children

• Daughter, Eliza Jane, their first child was born in 1856 in London. In 1878 she married Robert Evans, a shipwright, in Minster in Sheppey and they settled in the area where they had a family of at least three children who survived infancy. Robert died in 1897 aged 43 but Eliza is thought to have lived until 1932.
  
  
• Son William was born in 1858 by which time the family had moved to Sheerness/Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. He became an engine fitter and married Margaret King in 1885. They had at least five children but one son died in his infancy. William died in 1921 and Margaret is thought to have died in 1934.
  
  
• Daughter Catherine Amelia was born during 1861 in Sheerness/Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. She died there age 6 during 1867 and her burial is recorded in Sheppey Cemetery.
  
  
• Peter, who was born early in 1865 and was buried shortly after on the 12th March 1865.
  
  
• Margaret, who was born in 1866 and died just over a year later.

Early life

Eliza Jane TREAYS was born in the London area in the summer of 1856. Her place of birth is given as Bromley on census returns but the marriage was actually registered in Poplar, which is where her parents marriage was registered. Eliza lived with her parents until she was at least 14.

Married Life

On the 25th September 1878 she married Robert Evans in Minster in Sheppey in Kent, which is where her parents had settled to bring up the family. Her husband was a local man, the son of Robert & Elizabeth Evans, and was two years older than Elizabeth Jane. Like her father, he was a shipwright.

After their marriage they lived in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, where they brought up a family. Robert progressed his career to become a Recorder of Works before he died in 1897, aged only 43. We know that Robert and Eliza had three surviving children for sure but they may have had more children, some of whom may have died in infancy.

Later years

After her husband died, Eliza continued to live in Sheppey, where she worked at home as a dressmaker to bring up her youngest son George who was only three when Robert died. Her widowed mother Catherine came to live with Eliza for a while. It is thought that Eliza herself continued to live in Sheppey until she died there in 1932 aged 76.

Eliza Jane's children

Three children have been found so far but there is a 10 year gap between the second and third child during which other children may have been born.

• Daughter Eliza Jane Evans was born in Sheppey in 1879 and from childhood was blind in one eye. So far it is not known what became of her.
  
  
• Son Robert William Evans is thought to have been born in December 1882. He was baptised in Holy Trinity church in Sheerness on the 11th January 1882. After his father's death he lived with his mother and became a joiner's apprentice. It is thought that he spent his life in the Sheppey area of Kent, marrying there in 1902, and dying there in 1940.
  
  
• Son George Evans was born in 1894 and baptised in Holy Trinity church in Sheerness on the 3rd October 1894. He is thought to have married in Sheppey in 1923 but nothing more is known of him.
  
  

RETURN to START of DATA for ELIZA JANE & ROBERT EVANS