Jabez Carter (1837-1921), Nathaniel Sturges (1805-1877) and their families
A LINE OF SIX GRANITE GRAVESTONES
As you enter Foster Hill Road cemetery (FHR) through the arch, quite soon your eye is taken on the right to an unusual row of large granite gravestones placed flat on the ground. Each of the six solid stones is approximately six inches deep, and measures 30 inches by 20 inches. They mark the graves of 10 members of the Carter and Sturges families of Bedford. They include the doctor and public servant, Jabez Carter, and the draper, Nathaniel Sturges, with a shop on the High Street. Unmentioned on the stones but buried there is a prominent member of the Panacea Society, Gertrude Searson. These families played an important and diverse part in the story of Bedford.
Jabez Carter (1837-1921) – Doctor of Medicine, Surgeon and leading member of Bedford’s public life.
Jabez’s background
Jabez was born on 9 March 1837 in Bedford to John and Mary Ann Carter. He was baptized on 28 June 1837 in the Howard Chapel, a Nonconformist or ‘Dissenting’ Chapel on Mill Street. The name ‘Jabez’, less used these days, is a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning ‘sorrowful’ or ‘born in pain’. It comes from the Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament referring to a mother’s joy in her baby son after a difficult birth. It was used in general to show that joy can come from negotiating difficult paths in life.
His father, John, was a farmer who came from Hail Weston in Huntingdonshire and moved to Bedford before Jabez’s elder brother, Joel, was born in 1833. According to the Bedfordshire Times and Independent John farmed land belonging to Peter Livius, nicknamed ‘the Squire’, a wealthy and colourful member of Bedford’s community. This land lay at the back of the Fox and Hounds pub on Goldington Road and stretched nearly to Kimbolton Road.
His mother Mary Ann came originally from Needham Market, Suffolk, and was born in 1808.
John and Mary Ann lived at 22 Harpur Street for many years, according to the 1851-71 censuses. In 1861 John is referred to as ‘Butcher’ as well as ‘Farmer’. Mary Ann died in July 1880 aged 72 and then John lived alone, retired, according to the 1881 census, in Lurke Lane. He died in April 1882 aged 78. John and Mary Ann are buried at FHR and share a grave, between that of Joel and Jabez, their two sons.
Jabez’s education
He attended Harpur Infants School, followed by Harpur Junior School for two years from the age of seven and then moved on to the Commercial School (renamed Bedford Modern School in 1873)
Early medical experience
Jabez served a five years’ apprenticeship at Dr Blower’s Dispensary to learn pharmacy. He spent a further year there and passed a preliminary examination for the medical profession.
He then spent two years in Bedworth, between Nuneaton and Coventry, gaining medical experience in a colliery area. While there he prepared for Matriculation (the required entry qualification) for London University, which he passed with Honours in Botany.
Matriculation and Medical Qualifications
Studying at University College he won a medal for first place in Botany. He then moved on to hospital practice and gained the MB (Bachelor of Medicine). He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and qualified for LM (Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery) and LSA (Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries) both in 1862.
Medical career in Bedford
He came to Bedford temporarily for a three month’s rest after a spell of ill health but never left again. He lived in St Johns and as more patients approached him he found that he had a thriving practice.
He was appointed Medical Officer for Kempston and Bedford Union, which included Biddenham, Wootton and Bromham, a position which he held for nearly 25 years.
He took over Dr Blowers practice from Dr Hakon at 22 St Peter’s, opposite where he was living on St Peter’s Green.
He was Surgeon of Bedford Provident Dispensary, opened by the Marquis of Tavistock in 1887 on St Peter’s Green. This was a charitable organization dependent on donations to provide medical services for those of little means.
The London Gazette of 1st July 1873 announced his position as Acting Assistant Surgeon to the 1st Bedfordshire Rifle Volunteer Corps from 17 May that year. This arose as he was a skilled member of the Volunteer Rifle Corps, originally formed in fear of the effects of war between Austria and Italy of 1859, and he captained a successful shooting team.
The 1891 census records that by then he had gained the qualification M.R.C.S.
He was the practising surgeon of the practice of Carter, Phillips and Chillingworth, a position he held until 8 years before he died.
Municipal Career
In 1863 he was elected to the Town Council for East Ward, ousting the sitting Conservative. His Liberal sympathies led to his nickname, ‘The Radical Doctor’. He represented this ward for many years although it was considered a Conservative area.
In November 1871 he was elected Alderman of the Borough (senior member of the Council, elected by other councillors, and abolished by Act of Parliament, 1972)
From 1873 he was a governor of the Harpur Trust and held the position for many years.
Sanitation
Under the influence of Dr Blowers, who had written articles of concern about the water supply and sanitation of Bedford in the early 1860s, Dr Carter became an ‘advanced sanitarian’. (Bedfordshire Times) An early achievement was the establishment of the Commercial Road baths, against much opposition. An outbreak of enteric fever in the town (typhoid caused by bacteria from infected faeces or by food or water contaminated by faeces) led to the clearing of butchers from a newly paved St Paul’s Square and restrictions on the keeping of pigs in backyards in certain parts of the town. All this was achieved against much opposition.
Tree Planting
This was greatly encouraged by Dr Carter on wide streets where the sun would not be blocked from drying the road surfaces. Some trees were provided at his own expense, including the young willows along by the river.
Another nickname ‘The Witty Doctor’ arose due to his spontaneous quips which apparently lightened tension in meetings of tense debate.
In 1882 he became a Justice of the Peace and eventually became the senior magistrate for the Borough.
Politically he was a supporter of the Whig/Liberal tradition, attending meetings at the Swan Hotel before the formation of the National Liberal organisations. After the Liberal Association was formed it selected nominees for elections and Dr Carter was always their nominee, and winner, in East Ward in Bedford’s Municipal Elections.
In 1889 he was a proud member of the first Bedfordshire County Council (below) following the Local Government Act of 1888, passed to bring local services under democratic control.
In religion he was a supporter of the Free Church traditions, following his father John’s tendencies. In accordance with these beliefs both he and his brother had been baptized at the Howard Chapel. In adulthood he was a member for many years of the Moravian Church.
He was a keen supporter of the Temperance Movement at a time when it was not popular among the medical profession. In this he was firmly supported by his wife and together they hosted eminent temperance leaders including Lady Henry Somerset, a leading temperance activist.
He was a member of the Freemasons, initiated into Stuart Lodge on 31 March, 1869.
He was also a member of the Order of Oddfellows, a fraternal society. These societies had begun following the decline of the Guilds in the C18. The aim was, by subscription, to improve the quality of people’s lives through friendship, care and charitable support in hard times.
Purchase of Land
There is evidence that Jabez had made money from buying and selling land in the rapidly expanding borough of Bedford. Documents show that this was in partnership with Henry Steers, a stone mason who was born in Bedford and lived on Foster Hill Road. In 1890 they bought from an estate undeveloped land ‘on the cemetery road’ which was let out in allotments. For this he and Mr. Steers each paid £874.
In 1891 documents record that the two men had made a new road called ‘Park Road’ according to the terms of the covenant in their previous purchase and then sold their land on its south side to a Mr. Frederick Parrott, a builder. For this purchase Mr Parrott borrowed £400 from the aptly named ‘Bedford and District Perfect Thrift Building Society’.
Henry Steers clearly made much money from his purchases of land which reflects the rapid building boom at this time. After moving to Harpenden, Hertfordshire by the time of the 1901 census he was no longer described as a stone mason but as ‘Property Owner’ and in 1911 as ‘Estate Developer’.
In November 1911 Jabez retired from the Town Council. The Bedfordshire Times and Independent, 17 November, carried a letter requesting, on behalf of ‘fellow working men’, that a fund be set up to show the warmth and respect with which he and his wife were regarded in the town.
Death
Jabez died at his home at 8 Albany Road, aged 84, on 25 November 1921. The Bedfordshire Times and Independent notes that his health had been failing almost since retirement and he had been bedridden in his final weeks. His funeral took place at the Moravian Church, and was attended by many local dignitaries and members of the medical profession. He was buried at FHR next to his parents John and Mary Ann, and close to his brother Joel who predeceased him by many years.
Grave Ref: D1.23
Rose Eunice Sturges (1837-1924) Jabez’s wife
Rose’s background
Rose was born on 29 June 1837 and was baptized at a much later date in the Moravian Chapel. She was the second of 5 daughters of Nathaniel and Anne Sturges. Nathaniel was a draper, originally from Wymington, Bedfordshire. In 1851 he lived with his family in St John’s Street and moved to 7 High Street in 1853. By the 1861 census his family, 4 daughters and a son, were living with him and Anne at his shop at 7 High Street.
In the 1851 census Rose, aged 14, was one of six pupils listed at a Ladies’ Seminary in Olney, Buckinghamshire. In 1861 she was back home living with her family at her father’s shop at 7 High Street, Bedford.
Marriage
On 10 March 1863 she married Jabez Carter at St Paul’s Church, Bedford.
In 1871 she and Jabez were living at 9 St Peter’s Green, with Jabez’s medical student William Scott. That year she was baptized in the Moravian Chapel, possibly due to the influence of her husband Jabez, a member of the Chapel. In 1881, Rose was now aged 43, and the household at 9 St Peter’s Street included her unmarried sister Laura, two nieces, Jessie and Gertrude, daughters of her sisters Julia and Selina, and a new medical student Ernest Eastwood.
By 1911 the only family members listed at 9 St Peter’s Street are Jabez, Rose and Rose’s unmarried sister Laura.
In the last few years of their life, in retirement, Jabez and Rose lived at 8 Albany Road and are recorded on the electoral register there.
Death of Rose
Rose died on 5 March 1924. She is buried at FHR with her husband, close to the graves of her parents and sister Laura.
Joel Horatio Carter (1833-1872) – Jabez’s elder brother
Joel was born on 16 June 1833. Like his younger brother Jabez he was baptized at the ‘Independent’ Howard Chapel on Mill Street on 8 July 1834. Also like his brother Jabez he was given a biblical name, from the Hebrew for ‘God’, and there is a book in the Old Testament of that name.
Marriage
On 9 February 1858 aged 24 he married Matilda Biffen at Pilton, Somerset. She had been born in 1828 in Somerset, and lived there until she moved to Bedford after her marriage. She, like Joel, was the daughter of a farmer, William Biffen. In 1859 a daughter, Sarah Louisa, was born to Joel and Matilda.
Joel was a printer, bookseller and stationer with a shop at 4 Silver Street. In the 1862 Directory for Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire he had added ‘newsagent, bookbinder and paperhanger’ to the services that he offered.
Brush with the law
In the Bedfordshire Times and Independent of 14 May 1853 a case was reported at Bedford Petty Sessions. A boy had stolen books from the Commercial School. He was found guilty, ‘privately whipped’ and warned of a prison sentence next time. He had sold one of the books to the bookseller Joel Carter, who was cautioned by the court for not checking the origin of the book before buying it.
Brush with bankruptcy
In a report in the London Gazette of 6 June 1862 and locally in the Bedfordshire Mercury of 21 June Joel Horatio Carter was named on a list of bankrupts.
On 29 July 1862 the London Gazette reported that he had been discharged from bankruptcy on examination of his accounts. This report was repeated locally in the Bedfordshire Mercury of 2 August 1862.
His business then appears to have flourished and the 1871 census records him as occupying numbers 4 and 6 Silver Street, and employing 2 men and 5 boys.
Political leanings
Like his brother Jabez he supported the ‘Whig-Radical’ lines of thought. He made his feelings known in the public affairs of the town in which he played a prominent part.
On one occasion in November 1860 he attempted to have candidates of this line of thought elected to be trustees of the Harpur Trust; ‘Radical friends’ the newspaper reported, (were) proposed by Mr Joel Horatio Carter ‘whose eccentricities are well known’. It continues: ‘no attention was paid to the silly harangues’ and the final result was the election of Conservatives. The writer was clearly not sympathetic to Joel’s beliefs!
On another occasion in February 1862 there was an ‘Indignation Meeting’ to censure the trustees of the Harpur Trust, attended by over 2,000 people. It was felt that the trustees were spending more money than was allowed on the building of new grammar schools. This was at the expense of free education, and especially the free use of books, stationery, and entry into examinations conducted by the University of Oxford. Also, the focus on new grammar schools was neglecting the regular marriage portions for poor girls in lieu of a dowry. A resolution to censure the trustees and to force them to ‘deal more justly’ with the funds was drawn up. It was seconded by Joel Horatio Carter, and was duly passed.
The Oddfellows
Like Jabez he was an active member of the Order of Oddfellows, in the Duchess of Bedford Lodge.
Joel died at 4 Silver Street on 3 August 1872 of meningitis. He was only 39 years of age. The funeral was conducted by Charles Sutcliffe, a Moravian bishop. Joel was laid to rest in Foster Hill Road Cemetery, the first to be buried in the family area of 6 grave spaces in D 1 section. Documents show that subsequently Jabez bought the other grave spaces in the row so that the family could be buried close to Joel.
Emigration of Joel’s wife and daughter
After Joel’s death, in 1879 Matilda and Sarah are recorded on the passenger list of ‘Algeria’ sailing from Liverpool to New York. Matilda was aged 50 and Sarah was 20. They are listed on the 1880 census of U.S.A. in Colorado Springs, El Paso, Colorado, and on 15 June 1882 Sarah married a Richard Wright in El Paso. No record has been found of their return to England.
Nathaniel Sturges (1805-1877) – Jabez’s father-in-law
Nathaniel was born in 1805 in Wymington, Bedfordshire to William and Elizabeth Sturges. He was baptized on 1 December 1895.
Marriage
On 1 June 1835 he married Ann Presland at St Mary’s Church, Bedford. Ann, the daughter of George Robinson of Burton Latimer, was a widow, having married Daniel Presland of Rushden on 11 December 1828. Daniel and Ann had a daughter, Ann Elizabeth, born on 1 February 1829. The entry in the Protestant Dissenters’ Registry records Daniel as ‘Surgeon’. A Dr Daniel Presland’s death is recorded in Family Search, in Rushden in 1830, at the age of 35. Their daughter Ann Elizabeth died in 1869.
Nathaniel and Ann were living in Bedford on the birth of their first child in 1836.
Occupation
Nathaniel was described as ‘draper’ in the 1851 census, more precisely as ‘woollen and linen draper’ in 1861, and ‘lace manufacturer’ in 1871 and in the probate report following his death.
Brush with the law
In April 1861 he was charged with ‘exposing goods for sale on public highways’. He had put out goods for sale in a box on the pavement opposite his shop and 2 other tradesmen had done so also, as they were accustomed to do. This was then said to contravene the recent ‘Local Improvement Act’ of that month, by ‘fouling’ the pavement. The 3 accused protested about the strict nature of application of the act but agreed to observe it in future. They paid the costs of the case and it was then dismissed.
Political Beliefs
Like Jabez and Joel Carter he supported the Whig/Liberal, Free Church tendencies. He stood and served as a Liberal in public affairs.
Public Service
Nathaniel devoted much time to serving the people of Bedford in a variety of ways.
He was elected as an auditor to the Burial Board for St Paul’s area in October 1860. He served alongside Joel Horatio Carter.
He was elected several times from 1852 to be a trustee of the Bedford Charity. In 1862 he was elected without opposition, replacing Reverend Fitzpatrick who had resigned. This followed the ‘Indignation Meeting’ which had criticized the trustees for the ‘wrong’ use of funds (as explained in a previous paragraph under Joel Horatio Carter)
He served on the Grand Jury at Bedford Quarter Sessions.
He served for three years as a councillor for Eastern Ward of Bedford Corporation, alongside Jabez Carter, his son-in-law.
Deaths
Ann predeceased him, on 11 July 1874, aged 66. She is buried in the grave next to his at FHR. The spelling of her name varied in documents from ‘Ann’ to ‘Anne’. Her name on the stone is spelt ‘Anne’ Grave Reference D1.45
Nathaniel died on 4 June 1877 at St Cuthberts Street, aged 72. The executors of his estate were his 3 sons-in-laws Jabez Carter, Thomas Johnson (Julia’s husband) and John Gane, (Selina’s husband). He is buried at FHR, marked by the furthest of the row of 6 gravestones.
Nathaniel and Ann Sturges’s children
Nathaniel and Ann had two sons and five daughters. Their sons, William Nathaniel and Alfred, emigrated and settled in New Zealand where they lived until their deaths.
Elizabeth, the eldest daughter
Elizabeth was born on 9 May 1836. The birth was recorded in the Protestant Dissenters’ Birth Registry. There is confusion arising from the Register. Ann is recorded as the daughter of George Robinson but her surname at that date from her first marriage was ‘Presland,’ and this is illegible in the Register.
Elizabeth emigrated to New Zealand soon after her marriage to Joseph Gane (1859) and died there.
Rose Eunice Sturges/Carter
Rose, the second daughter, married Jabez Carter, (see above) . She stayed in Bedford with him all her life and supported his roles in the town. There were no children of this marriage, although they were very close to their niece Gertrude, Selina and John Gane’s daughter.
Laura Sturges (1838-1922)
Laura was born in December 1838. She also stayed in Bedford. She lived with her parents until their deaths and after that she lived with her sister Rose and Jabez Carter.
It appears that, as the unmarried daughter, she helped her father in his draper’s shop and at times took sole responsibility for it. This is inferred from prosecutions involving stealing items from the shop, recorded in the local papers.
Giving evidence on one occasion against a woman stealing two cloaks she is cited as ‘Draper, Silver Street.’ She speaks of ‘my shop’ remembering the woman coming in and taking possession of the cloaks on false pretentions. The cloaks were found at the home of the accused who was imprisoned with hard labour.
On another occasion she was called upon to give evidence that two stolen hair nets were from her father’s shop. The accused was found guilty and given one month in prison.
Laura was living at 8 Albany Road with her widowed sister Rose when she died on 17 December 1922. She was buried at FHR between Jabez and Rose’s grave and that of her mother Anne. Much later she was joined in the grave by two nieces Gertrude and Frances, but only Laura is inscribed on the gravestone.
There is no hint on the stone of the burial in the grave of Gertrude Blanche Searson and Frances Laura Starling.
Julia Sturges (1840-1878)
Julia was born in 1840, the fourth daughter. She lived with her parents and siblings in Bedford until her marriage.
Julia married Thomas Rider Johnson, an ironmonger and iron founder, on 13 April 1865 at St Paul’s Church. Thomas was born in 1838 in Saffron Walden, Essex, the son of Thomas, also an ironmonger and iron founder, and Mary Johnson, nee Rider. In the 1871 census Julia and Thomas were living in Saffron Walden with 4 daughters and a son. The second daughter was Frances Laura.
In February 1878 Julia died aged nearly 40 and is buried in Saffron Walden Cemetery.
In the 1881 census Thomas was living alone, as a widower, with a housekeeper. By the 1891 census he had remarried; his second wife’s name was Marie Anne Adele, born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She then became a naturalized British subject. On the 1891 census record was a daughter of this marriage aged four and two daughters and a son of Thomas’s first marriage, including Frances Laura aged 23, a governess in a school.
By 1901 Thomas had retired and was living with his second wife and youngest daughter aged 13 in Hampshire. By 1911 he was widowed again and living alone. Thomas died on 11th October 1925 in Southsea, Hampshire.
Frances Laura Johnson/Starling (1868-1956)
Frances was the 2nd of five daughters of Julia and Thomas and had one elder brother. She was born on 1st March 1868 in Saffron Walden, Essex, and is recorded in the 1871 census aged three living with the family at Church Street, Saffron Walden.
In the 1881 census, aged 13, she was a ‘Boarder’ at school in Bedford, at 34 St Peter’s Street with her elder sister Alice. Another sister Jessie was also at school in Bedford, together with a cousin Gertrude, both living with Jabez and Rose Carter.
In 1891 both she and Alice were back home at Church Street, Saffron Walden, both recorded as ‘Governess in school’. Their mother Julia had died in 1878, their father had remarried and they had a half-sister aged four.
Frances’s marriage to William Haycroft Starling was registered in Bedford in the first quarter of 1894. William was born in 1869 in Saffron Walden, Frances’s birth place. He was the son of William, a wine merchant also born in Saffron Walden, and his wife Mary who came from Glamorganshire.
In the first quarter of 1895 a daughter Mildred Frances was born in Brighton.
By 1901 Frances was no longer recorded as living with her husband although documents record her as ‘married’. In the census that year she was living in Bedford with her daughter Mildred who was 6. They were ‘Boarders’ living at 24 St Peter’s Street and Frances was a ‘Teacher of Music’. Her husband was living in Brighton, looked after by a housekeeper. His occupation was ‘Tea Taster’. Tea drinking had become more popular in the nineteenth century, especially among the upper classes, and the job of the tea taster was to evaluate the quality of the imported tea to ensure that it met consumer expectations.
In Kelly’s Directory of 1910 and the 1911 census Frances, aged 43, was recorded as ‘Teacher of Music’ at 32 St Peter’s Street. Mildred was living with her aged 16 at the time of the census. William Starling was living in Finchley, London with his brother and 2 sisters. His occupation was then ‘Journalist’. It appears that soon afterwards he was living with a new ‘wife’ Agnes from Ireland and they had two sons born in 1914 and 1917. He was recorded in London in 1918 when he was initiated into the Freemasons, at Covent Garden Lodge. In 1923 on his daughter’s marriage certificate he is noted as ‘Journalist’.
Frances remained in Bedford and appears on the electoral register in 1926 living at 184 Foster Hill Road.
William Haycroft Starling died on 1 January 1938 in Burgess Hill, Sussex. By then he had changed his name by deed poll from Starling to Stirling, which he claimed was the original spelling. He was buried in St John’s churchyard, Burgess Hill on 5 January. After his death his ‘wife’ Agnes and the two sons emigrated to the USA where they remained until their deaths.
The 1939 Register notes Frances as a widow, now in her early 70s, as ‘Private School Mistress’ still living at 184 Foster Hill Road, with another lady of the same age, a ‘Private School Governess’.
Foster Hill Road burial register records Frances’s burial on 28 September 1956. She was living at Southsea, Hampshire when she died, possibly with or near her daughter who by then was widowed and lived in Southsea. Frances was buried in the same grave as her aunt Laura Sturges and later her cousin Gertrude Searson at FHR. She is not mentioned on the gravestone. Grave Reference D 1.34
Selina Sturges (1843-1934)
Selina was the youngest of the Sturges girls, born in 1843. She is recorded on the census of 1851 aged 8 living with her family on St John’s Street, Bedford and in 1861 aged 18 at 7 High Street.
On 11 September 1866 Selina married John Gane of Richmond, Surrey at St Paul’s Church Bedford., He was the elder brother of Joseph Gane whom her eldest sister Elizabeth had married before they emigrated to New Zealand.
John Gane was born in East Harptree, Somerset. His baptism is recorded on 17 October 1841. His occupation at the time of his marriage was ‘Chartered Accountant’.
Selina and John lived in Richmond, Surrey and had five daughters. The eldest was Gertrude Blanche who is buried at FHR, (see below).
In 1908 John, Selina and daughter Hilda are on the passenger list of the ‘Luciana’ sailing from New York to Liverpool. They arrived back in England on 27 May. The purpose of the trip is unknown.
In the 1911 census Selina and John were living in Heathfield, Sussex with their unmarried daughter Hilda.
John died on 24 April 1914 at ‘Spring Lodge’, their home in Heathfield, aged 72. He was buried in the parish churchyard there. Selina died in 1934 in France, aged 91. She was cremated in France and her ashes were interred at Heathfield parish churchyard where her husband was buried.
Gertrude Blanche Gane/Searson (1868-1943)
Gertrude was born on 7 January 1868 in Richmond, Surrey, the eldest of Selina and John’s children. She appears on the 1871 and 1881 censuses in Bedford at the home on St Peter’s Green of Jabez and Rose Carter, her uncle and aunt. In 1871 she was aged 3, visiting Bedford. In 1881 ages 13 she was at school in Bedford. She remained close to Jabez and Rose and on her marriage she was described in the local paper as their ‘adopted daughter’
On 16 December 1891 Gertrude married James Searson at the Moravian Church in Bedford. He was a doctor and surgeon born in 1859 in Dublin, 9 years older than Gertrude. The couple had two daughters, Norah Kathleen and Laura Gertrude, both born in Bedford.
In the 1901 census the family were living in Brighton, James aged 41, Gertrude 32, Norah eight and Laura four. This appears to be the last time the family were recorded living together.
The marriage was not a happy one. Gertrude, according to Jane Shaw’s book ‘Octavia Daughter of God’ described her husband as ‘a bad man’ whom she had had to leave after ‘years of misery’. In the 1911 census Gertrude aged 42 was living in Barnes, Surrey with Norah (18) a student and Laura (14) at school. James was living in Brighton according to Kelly’s Directory. He died in London aged 68 on 19 March 1928.
Early in 1919, when the girls were grown up Gertrude moved to Bedford to help to look after her ailing uncle and aunts, Jabez and Rose Carter and Laura Sturges. Living with them at 8 Albany Road she became friendly with Mabel Barltrop who lived nearby, and who, following the upheaval of the First World War, was forming a new community which became the Panacea Society. The two ladies found that they had a lot in common.
Jabez, Rose and Laura died within the next few years, Jabez in November 1921, Laura in December 1922 and Rose in March 1924. Gertrude continued to live at 8 Albany Road and was then free to give her full attention to the development of the new Panacea Society.
Gertrude was a trusted companion of Mabel and a respected follower due to her early association with the society. Her importance in the community was shown as Mabel made her an Apostle, for the zodiac sign Capricorn. In 1934 when Mabel died Gertrude was one of those chosen to watch over her body to witness, as they hoped, her rising from the dead. This did not happen and Mabel was eventually buried at FHR.
Gertrude died on 13 January 1943. She was buried in the grave of her aunt, Laura Sturges, and later joined by her cousin Frances Laura Starling, according to the burial registers, but only Laura is mentioned on the gravestone.
Grave Ref: D1.34
Sources
-Censuses 1841-1911
-Ancestry, Find My Past, Family Search, Find a Grave 1300s-current
-Non-Conformist Dissenting Registers 1833 and 1837
-London Gazette July 1910
-United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Register 1863-1887
-Electoral Registers, Bedford
-England and Wales National Probate Calendars
-GRO- details of Joel H Carter’s death
-Burial Registers for D1 FHR
-Octavia, Daughter of God’ by Jane Shaw
-Bedfordshire Archives- Photos of Beds C.C. 1889 and details of Jabez’s property investments
-Kelly’s Directory Bedford 1890 and 1910
-Kelly’s Directory Brighton 1899
-Medical Directory 1920
-Sussex Express November1891
-Marylebone London City Directory 1736-1943
-Bedfordshire Times and Independent and Bedfordshire Mercury- Many entries
-Friends of FHR Cemetery- Adrian- Panacea information
-Anni- help with burial details and grave spaces in D1
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