John was born in Bath circa 1853 to John and Eliza Williams. No birth registration or baptismal records have been found for him. All the John Williams’ whose birth was registered in Bath and the wider area in the first few years of the 1850s have been investigated but he has not been found among them.
In 1861 John was living with his mother and father in Lambeth, London. None of them have been located in 1871 census.
On 22 November 1874 John married Julia Finley in St Mary, Lambeth. The witnesses to the marriage were Julia’s brother-in-law Charles Henry Randall and Thomas Nettlefold. His father was dead by this time. John’s occupation was given as comb maker as was that of his late father. At the time of his marriage John was living in Charles Place which was off China Walk in Lambeth. (Charles Place and the adjacent Catherine Place were later renamed Karl Place).
It is probable that John was producing a variety of types of combs e.g. dressing and pocket combs, decorative back and side combs for holding hair in place; combs for horse manes etc. Combs were made from a number of materials but it is most likely that John was working with wood.
John and Julia’s first child, John, was born on 23rd August 1876 and baptised in St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark on 17th September. His grandmother, Eliza, was his godmother. Sadly John died just a few weeks later.
Another son, Charles, was born the 19th September 1877 in Birmingham and baptised at St Catherine of Siena, Birmingham on 7th October. The Randall’s were also in Birmingham at the time and were named as the boy’s godparents. Their time in Birmingham coincided with the Michaelmas Horse Fair. John’s occupation was given as hawker on the birth certificate.
Julia gave birth to a daughter, Julia, on 4th June 1879 in the Isle of Wight. The little girl was baptised in St Mary’s Catholic Chapel in Horseferry Road at the end of July.
On 1st January 1880 Julia was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months in return for the withdrawal of the prosecution for assaulting Mrs Stephens, landlady of the Start and Garter, Great Peter Street. John agreed to be bound over in £20 in her stead.
Charles Williams died in Chorlton, Lancashire later that year aged just three.
The 1881 census shows John, Julia and their daughter Julia in Cheetham, Prestwich, Lancashire. Mass produced combs and changing hair fashions meant that there was no longer the market for hand-made combs and he was now working as a cutler on his own account. Working cutlers ground, polished and repaired all types of cutlery and some also repaired umbrellas and china and glassware and did engraving.
Over the next decade John and Julia welcomed three more daughters: Mary born Brighton 1883; Annie born Westminster 25th June 1885; and Ellen, born London 7th July 1887.
When the 1891 census was taken John was working in Cheltenham. Julia and their daughters, with the exception of Mary who had been left behind in London, were with him. The family was lodging in a single room in the home of bootmaker Richard Mills at 10 St George’s Street, Cheltenham.
Julia and John had two more children both of whom were born in Westminster. John Joseph Vincent, born 9th December 1891 and Florence Katherine, born 17th August 1893.
In the spring of 1901 Julia and John and five of their children, including Mary, were in Tormoham, Torquay, Devon. They were sharing 26 Church Lane with the labourer John Coyde and his family. Daughter Julia had married Edward Kerley in 1899 and was living in Boscombe, Bournemouth.
Ellen died in Bournemouth in 1902 aged just 15 and Mary, wife of George Ogles, and their baby daughter, Mary, died on the Isle of Wight in 1907.
John Williams died from epithelial cancer of the tongue in Christchurch Union Workhouse Infirmary 30th January 1911. There are several risk factors for this type of cancer including tobacco use, alcohol, exposure to the sun, poor nutrition and occupational exposure all of which John would have been exposed to during the course of his life.