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Cambridge Cottages at Woolwich provided accommodation for Royal Artillery personnel and their families. The 1871 census for Woolwich records Ellen Yeo living in one of these cottages (D Block, No. 15). Ellen is described as a 29-year-old married woman born in Ireland. Listed with her are 3-year-old Ann M. Yeo and 1-year-old John E. Yeo. Ellen is the wife of the head of the household, who is not listed but whose name was John Yeo. Ann and John are recorded as his children.
The 1881 census for Plumstead records 45-year-old John Yeo and his family at 63 Ann Street, a turning off Glyndon Road and only a short distance from the Woolwich barracks. John appears to have left the Army, as his occupation is given as general labourer; his birthplace is given as Cornwall. John’s wife Ellen Yeo is 35, his daughter Ann M. Yeo is 13 and his son John E. Yeo is 11.
John Yeo senior is not straightforward to trace [note 1]. There are two credible matches:
– John Yeo, baptised at Lansallos in 1835.
– John Couth Yeo, baptised at Lanteglos near Fowey in 1836.
John was still alive and would have been in his mid fifties when the death of his wife Ellen was registered in 1891, but nothing else is known about him. It is possible that he emigrated.
Of John and Ellen’s two children, neither of their births is included in civil registration records. The 1881 census return gives Ann’s birthplace at Woolwich but the 1881 return gives it as Shorncliffe in Kent (also the site of Army barracks). Nothing further is known about her.
Both census returns show Woolwich as John E. Yeo’s birthplace. His birth was registered in Army records; his second forename was Edward. John Edward Yeo of the Criterion Tavern Church Street, Woolwich was the informant in April 1891 when his mother Ellen’s death was registered [note 2]. He died unmarried in 1893.
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Notes
1. According to a pedigree by Sheila Yeo – from research based on correspondence with Stephen Yeo of Cape Town that she refuted in later correspondence – John was baptised at St Austell in 1831, which would make John about 50 in 1881, not a good match for the age given in the census. The research also incorrectly ascribed an elder son Charles Henry John Yeo to John and Ellen.
2. Ellen died at 17 Robert Street, Plumstead. She was recorded as the 45-year-old wife of John Yeo, a carter to horse contractors.