Elizabeth Treays was born in Aug 1819 in Plymouth Dock, Stoke Damerel, Devon, the daughter of
Peter Treays and Margaret Oliver
and granddaughter of
Samuel Treays and Mary Souther.
She was baptized just over a month later at the
Morice Street Wesleyan Church
[Surname recorded at baptism as ‘Trays’.]
In 1841, she married William Pearce in the Parish Church, East Stonehouse which was then the parish for Devonport. William had been born in
Devonport in the same year as Elizabeth and, like her, had been baptized at the Morice St Wesleyan Church where his parents Edward Pearce and Sarah
Tucker had married in 1819. William, like his father, became a seaman. At the time of their marriage, William &
Elizabeth were unable to write their own names as they each made their mark "x" on the marriage register.
William and Elizabeth seem to have spent the first years of their married life in the Devonport/Plymouth area but between 1851 and 1861
they moved to Portsea, Hants, where Elizabeth died in 1867, aged 47.
Between 1861 and 1871, William retired , and appears on the 1871 and 1881 census returns as a Naval Pensioner. He died in 1896 in Buckland,
Portsmouth following a bout of influenza.
William and Elizabeth had eight children: -
- son Edward Pearce was born in 1842 at Stoke-Damerel. Initially, Edward signed up for the navy and the census return for 1861
shows him as ‘Boy, 1st Class’ aboard HMS Queen in Beirut, Syria and that for 1871 shows him as ‘Leading Seaman' aboard HMS Forte in Bombay
Harbour. By 1881 he had left the Navy and was recorded as a gunner in the Royal Artillery based at the Gilkicker battery in Alverstoke. By
1901 he had left the Royal Artillery and was recorded as living with his sister Margaret Fudge’s family in Portsmouth and working as a
general labourer. Edward never married. He died in Portsmouth in 1916.
- daughter Elizabeth Jane Pearce was born in 1844, at Stoke-Damerel. In 1851 she is recorded living with her parents and attending
school. By 1861 she had moved to Portsea Island, Hants where she is recorded as living with her Uncle George Fudge and Aunt Jemima and her
cousin Jemima who was about the same age as her.
In 1865 she married John Cawley in Portsea, Hants. He was 8 years older having been born in 1836 in Stockport, Cheshire. In the 1871
census Elizabeth is shown living with her father and her son William in Kingston, Portsea, while her husband John under the surname
‘Crawley’, is recorded away from home working as a ‘Bandsman, Royal Navy Vessels, District Immortalite’. In the 1881 census Elizabeth is
shown as lodging in Kingston, Portsea with children John and Clara Jane while John is again recorded away from home as ‘Bandsman, Royal
Navy,’ ‘Iron Duke’. By 1891 John is back at home in Kingston, Portsea working as a Drapers Porter. The 1901 census shows that by then John
had retired and become a Naval Pensioner. Later that year he died in Portsmouth.
Elizabeth died in 1907.
Elizabeth and John had six children: -
- William John Cawley, born in Portsea in 1867
- Elizabeth Esther Cawley who was born in Portsea in 1871 and died there in 1874 age 2.
- John Cawley, born in Portsea in 1873
- James Cawley who was born in Portsea in 1875 and died there the following year
- Clara Jane Cawley, born in Portsea in 1878
- Edward George Cawley, born in 1883 in Portsmouth.
- son William Pearce was born in 1846 in Stoke Damerel. After studying at the Hospital School in Greenwich (per 1861 census), he
became a Staff Commander in the Royal Navy. Sometime before 1878 he got married. His wife was called Emma and she had been born in Plymouth
around 1852. By 1881 they were living in High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk. By 1891 they had moved to Clapham London. They appear to have had
only one child who survived infancy, a daughter, Sylvia who was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in 1878. Sylvia married Hans Von Purnull and was
living in Sicily in 1929.
Currently nothing further is known about them.
- Son George Pearce was born 22 Nov 1849 in 8 Queen St ,Devonport, Devon, England, and died following a heart attack ,11 Jul 1929 in Copleston, Canada.
He married:
- Margaret Hughson on 27 Mar 1877 in Delaware, Ontario, Canada. She died 27 Mar 1881 in Ontario, Canada. They had one child, William Emory Pearce, b. Abt. 1879.
- Maria Annie Lighthart on 11 Jan 1882 in Petrolia, daughter of James Lighthart and Maria. She was born Jul 1855 in Acton, Ontario, and died 14 Oct 1888. They had one child, Frederick Pearce.
- Mary A Trotter in 1891, daughter of John Trotter and Eliza Scott. She was born 19 Sep 1865 in County of Frontenac, Ontario, Canada. They had a daughter, Almeda, & a son, Stanley.
George left home at the age of 19 and sailed for Quebec, Canada. He was first employed in railroad work in London, Ontario and in August
1869 went to Petrolia and worked in the oil fields. He was employed as foreman by H.W. Lancey and remained with him for 20 years. During
the latter part of this time he also operated oil wells on his own land which he had purchased at Concession 12 in 1882. By the time of his
death in 1929, he owned 20 productive oil wells and a very handsome home.
Politically, George was a conservative and was very prominent in local politics. In 1891 he was elected as a member of the council of
Enniskillen township and he remained in that office until December 1899. In January 1900 he undertook the duties of reeve, for a period of
three years .At the time of his death he had been a bailiff for 21 years and was one of the most prominent residents of Copleston, where
he had resided for 40 years.
See also - Obituary 1,
Obituary 2, and
Obituary 3
- Daughter Margaret Pearce was born in 1851 in Devonport. She moved with her parents to Portsea and became a dressmaker. In 1876
in Portsea she married George William Fudge, who had been born in 1843 in Southsea the son of Thomas (James) Fudge and Rebecca Bolt
(Boult). Her husband was at that time Petty Officer on HMS Asia. George and Margaret appear to have spent their married life in Portsea. By
1881 George had become 'Captain of Forecastle HMS G.B. Skylark'. By 1885 he appears to have become a dockyard labourer. In 1898 Margaret
died of bronchitis at 100 St Mary's Rd, Kingston, Portsea. Her husband died in 1923. They were both buried in Kingston Cemetery Portsmouth.
They had 10 children, all of whom were born in Portsea: -
- Margaret Jane Fudge who was born in 1877 and died of diphtheria aged 4.
- George Fudge, who was born in 1880, became a seaman. and got married in Portsmouth in 1905. He died in 1927 and was buried in Highland Road Cemetery in Portsmouth.
- Rosina Fudge who was born 1882 and worked for a time as a corset maker. She got married in Portsmouth in 1904 and had seven children, one
of whom died in his infancy. Two of her sons emigrated to Australia after the Second World war. After her husband died, she visited her sons
in Australia and returned some years later to spend her last years with her son in New South Wales.
- Elizabeth Maud Fudge (Maud) who was born in 1883 and left school to care for her younger siblings after her mother died. She got married in 1906 and in 1914 took her family to Australia where her husband worked for the Royal Australian Navy. Maud died in NSW Australia in 1961. The majority of her 60+ descendants still live in NSW.
- Beatrice Fudge who was born in 1885 and like her sister Rosina worked for a time as a corset/stay maker. In 1905 she got married in Portsmouth to a Royal Navy man. They had 4 children.
In 1921 they settled in Canada after staying a few months out there with Beatrice’s Uncle George Pearce. Beatrice died in Ontario in 1962.
- William Thomas Fudge who was born in 1881 and followed the family tradition of a career in the Royal Navy. He married in 1912 and had 2 children. He died in Chatham Kent in 1975 and his wife died shortly after in 1978.
- Frederick Pearce Fudge who was born in 1889, got married in Portsmouth in 1911, and died in 1956.
- Martha Ann Fudge who was born in 1892, married in Portsmouth in 1915, and left for Australia with her husband after the First World War was over. Her husband died in 1945, after cracking his head when he fell after being assaulted. Martha died in 1951 and was buried with her husband in the Church of England cemetery in Liverpool NSW Australia. They had no children.
- Herbert Fudge who was born in 1895, followed a career in the Navy, married in Portsmouth in 1926, and died there in 1982, twelve years after his wife.
- Sylvia Fudge who was born in 1897 and died the same year.
- daughter Emma Pearce was born in Stoke Damerel in 1853 and was working as a dressmaker in Portsea in 1881. She married John
Bowden in Portsea during 1882. John was about a year older than Emma and had been born in Bridport Dorset. In 1891 he was employed as a
shipwright in Portsea. Emma and John had 3 children. John died at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Alverstoke, on 13th September, 1895 from
"injuries received from the accidental falling of a davit on board H.M.S. Majestic
in Portsmouth Dockyard on the 25th August 1895." An inquest was held on 16th September, 1895.
Emma died in Portsmouth Hants in 1951, aged 98.
- daughter Maria Pearce was born in 1856. Maria did not marry. She became housekeeper to her brother Edward, and her brother-in-law
George and his family whom they had taken into their home after the death of their sister, Margaret. She died in 1912.
- daughter Jane Pearce who was born in 1860 and died in 1862.