Peter Hunnisett

Robert & Hephzibah Bishop
of Cley-next-the-Sea

Robert Benjamin Bishop, a son of William and Frances, was born in Cley-next-the-sea, Norfolk, on 28 August 1858.

Hephzibah Gooch Cornwell, the illegitimate daughter of William Gooch and Elizabeth Cornwell was born in Glandford on 1 June 1861.

Robert married Hephzibah in Cley-next-the-sea on 21 November 1878. His sister Florence Bishop was a witness at the marriage. Robert and Hephzibah appear to have had 12 children:

Robert worked for most of his life as an agricultural labourer and later as a fisherman, and for many years lived in what is now called Hill Top House, on Cley Hill. In 1881 he was shown living at Hill Side, and in 1901 at Hill Top. After retiring he became the first warden of the Cley Marshes bird reserve from 1926 until 1937.

Robert died on 19 August 1941 and Hephzibah on 29 November 1941.

Of their children:

• Mary was never shown with her parents at any census. In 1881 she was with Robert’s married sister, Anna Lewis, and incorrectly recorded as her daughter, Mary A B Lewis. In 1891 she was still with Francis and Anna Lewis but this time shown as their niece, Beatrice Bishop. In 1901 she was recorded as a waitress in Islington, but she has not been traced after that.

• William was a labourer and later a fisherman. On 3 April 1902 he married Sarah Ann Barnard in Cley. Sarah already had a son, Herbert Wall Barnard, born in 1897 and said to be William's, who was brought up by an uncle, Ellis Barnard. William and Sarah's acknowledged children were:

  Ellis William

  Q4 1901

  Erpingham

  Ernest Frederick

  16 Oct 1903

  bapt. 6 Dec 1903 Cley

  Phyllis M

  Q1 1909

  Walsingham

  Magnus Benjamin

  Q4 1911

  Walsingham

  William Francis

  Q1 1914

  Walsingham

  Dorothy E

  Q2 1917

  Walsingham

  Ernest was baptised in Cley but the family later moved to Blakeney, where they were living in Temple Place in 1911.

  • Herbert Barnard married Rose Oram in 1920 and had a son Ellis.

  • Ellis Bishop married Helen Oldfield in 1927 and they had 4 children.

  • Magnus married Marjorie Pearsons and they had 2 daughters, Lorna and Judith.

  • William, or Billy Bishop as he was known was born in Blakeney in about 1914. He married Joyce Ellen Brett in Cley in 1937 and they lived in Cley where he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps to become the warden of the Norfolk Naturalist Trust bird reserve from 1937 until 1978 when his son Bernard took over as warden. They had four children, Ann, David, Jeffrey and Bernard. During his retirement Billy lived in a house called Avocet and wrote a book, 'Cley Marsh and it's birds'. He died in 1986.

  • Dorothy married William Allen in 1936 and they had five children.

• Florence went into service and in 1901 she was a housemaid in St Marylebone, London. She married a bookbinder, Fred Rogers in 1911, lived in Tottenham and had three children:

  Gladys M

  Q1 1913

  Edmonton

  Frederick C

  Q1 1915

  Edmonton

  Violet G

  Q3 1916

  Edmonton

  • Gladys lived in Eastbourne

  • Violet married a farmer in Norfolk.

• Edith went into service and in 1901 was a housemaid in Ware, Hertfordshire. Later she was in Eastbourne, Sussex, where she married Jonathan Caleb Hunnisett.

• Marjorie married William Laws in 1921 and lived on a farm at Guist. They had two children:

  Sydney H 

  Q3 1922

  Downham

  Robert W

  Q4 1926

  Downham

• Gertrude married Albert Trebble in 1907 and in 1911 they were living in Muswell Hill where Albert worked as an assistant butcher. Later Albert ran a small chain of butchers and lived near Alexandra Palace. Their children were:

  Irene Louisa

  Q3 1908

  Edmonton

  Phyllis Marjorie

  Q2 1910

  Barnet (died 1917 aged 6)

  Albert L

  Q3 1913

  Edmonton

  Harold J

  Q2 1919

  Edmonton (died 1936 aged 17)

  Gertrude Grace

  Q1 1921

  Edmonton

  • Irene married Howard Pickett in 1929 and they had 4 children; Nita, Joyce, Kenneth and Norman.

  • Albert married Joyce Holden in 1938 and ran one of his father's butcher's shops. They appear to have had 4 children; Rosemary, Edward, Jill and Jack.

  • Gertrude was always known as Grace. She married Arthur Moore in 1945 and they had two children; Hilary and Geoffrey. She then appears to have married George West in 1952 and had a further son, Richard.

• Annie, like her sister Edith, was in service in Eastbourne and married a local man, Fred Pitcher, in 1914. They had four sons:

  Frederick E

  Q2 1914

  Eastbourne

  George R

  Q1 1920

  Eastbourne

  Victor R

  Q3 1923

  Eastbourne

  Alan A C

  Q3 1930

  Eastbourne

  Fred became manager of a local dairy and later ran a grocery store in Seaside, Eastbourne. The store was on the corner of Alma Road, which no longer exists, and next to what is now 212 Seaside (268 before the renumbering).

  Fred died in 1965 and Annie in 1976.

  • Fred married Josephine Dryden in 1938 and had three children, Jane, John and Frederick.

  • George married Olive Stain in 1939 and they had a daughter, Valerie. During WWII George was a signalman with 9/11^th Indian Division Signals and was believed killed in action. However he was actually captured by the Japanese and held at Taihoku #6 (Taipei) on Formosa (Taiwan) until the end of the war. He subsequently married Brenda Hunt.

  • Victor married Patricia Kelly in 1946 and had two children; Tony and Jacqueline.

  • Alan married Violet Summerhayes in 1954 but they divorced and he married Jean Coghill with whom he had two children.

• Lucy married a policeman and they emigrated to Canada.

• Robert lived in or near Cley and married Hilda May Piggott on 2 July 1921. They are known to have had three children born in Cley:

  William Robert

  13 Feb 1923

  Leonard

  12 Nov 1929

  Norman

  20 Oct 1931

• Martha, always known as Pat, completed her education in Bolton staying with friends of the family (the Cornwells ?). She married Walter Stapleton in 1922, lived in Yaxham and they had two children:

  Mabel Dorothy

  Q3 1922

  Mitford

  Ronald W

  Q3 1927

  Mitford

  Walter died in 1976 and Pat later moved to Norwich to be nearer to her son, Ron, and her daughter, Dorothy. Pat was still living in Sprowton, Norwich, when we visited her in 1992, but died the following year, aged 94.

• Clement appears to have married Mary Masterson in 1929 and had at 3 children:

  Clement R

  Q4 1931

  St Albans

  Maureen E

  Q3 1934

  Barnet

  John B

  Q3 1936

  St Albans

• Irene married Walter Wordingham in 1923 and they had at least 3 children:

  Pearl M

  Q1 1925

  Walsingham

  Eileen E

  Q4 1926

  Walsingham

  Leonard W

  Q4 1933

  Walsingham