Robert Nurse of Hanham (Born 1821)

2^nd Great Grandfather - FFFF¹

Robert Nurse, my great-great grandfather was the youngest child of Robert Nurse and Sally Nurse (nee Couch).

Robert was born on the 30^th April 1821 and baptised at St. George’s Hanham on the 30^th Dec 1821.²

Not much is known about his early life. During the late 1840’s he is listed as an elector for the Western Division of Gloucester living in Hanham Green³. By 1847,⁴ while he is listed as an elector in Hanham, as he owned property there, he is listed as resident in St George’s the neighbouring parish in the City of Bristol.

In the 1851 Census⁵ he is listed as resident on Bath Road in St George’s, where his occupation is given as Licensed Victualler. According to Bristol’s Lost Pubs⁶ he was the licensee of the Pied Horse on Summerhill Road.

In 1854, at the age of 33 he married Ann Jane Taylor at St. Michael, Two Mile Hill on 30^th May, two months after his father Robert died. In the marriage certificate (see Figure 3) his profession is given as Maltster, so by then he was obviously working in the family business.⁷

It is not clear how Robert and Ann Jane met, as Ann’s family were living in Winsley, just outside of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire. However there is a possible clue in the marriage certificate. One of the witnesses to the marriage is Ann Williams. I believe that Ann Williams is Ann’s maternal cousin, as her Aunt Eliza Hanks had married George Williams, a farmer in Kingswood, and one of their children was called Ann Williams, so it’s possible that Ann Jane met Robert while visiting her cousin Ann.

Ann Jane Taylor, Robert Nurse’s wife, was a descendant of John Taylor, the Landscape Painter. John Taylor’s father, Abraham Taylor was a prosperous Philadelphia merchant and friend of Benjamin Franklin, before the American Revolution.  It is through the Taylor family that later generations of the Nurse family are linked to the landed gentry and especially to the Gordons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - a junior branch of the Scottish Gordon clan, and the Luther family of Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, an important family of that county.

Robert and Ann were Innkeepers at the Rose and Crown, a public house in a fairly good area of St George, on the eastern outskirts of Bristol.⁸ The licensed trade had long been a family tradition, and several members of the family ran public houses in the locality.

As mentioned above Robert had also inherited a share in the malting business from his father, which was operated by his older brother Samuel after the death of their brother Jonathan in 1862.

Their other brother Silas, operated the Crown Inn in Longwell Green for at least 20 years.⁹

Over the next ten or eleven years, Robert and Ann Jane had six children, four of these children surviving infancy.

The family, although not rich, was fairly well off, running their own businesses and owning a moderate amount of land around the eastern outskirts of Bristol.

The boys, at least, were well educated, Robert Francis initially attended the local Church School, Two Mile Hill but both boys finished their education at Dr. Nunn’s School, a private boarding school in Portland Square, near the centre of Bristol.

I have a separate article on the eldest boy, Robert Francis, my great grandfather, who was named after both his grandfathers, Robert Nurse and Francis Fane Taylor (Ann Jane’s father)

The younger boy and second child, William Richmond (named after Robert’s deceased older brothers) grew up to be an auctioneer, organist and choirmaster at St.Paul’s Bedminster.

William was also involved in the early days of professional football in Bristol. In 1894, he was elected as the first chairman of the Bristol South End club, which changed its name to Bristol City Football Club when it turned professional 3 years later and joined the Southern League.^10,11

Two of the girls, Annie Jane and Ellen Matilda died in infancy. Neither of the other two girls married, Salley Jane dying in 1894, while Alice Mary Couche (Aunt Alice as I used to hear her called at family gatherings) died in 1945 at Bleak House in Winsley, Wiltshire, just after the end of the Second World War.

On the 6^th March 1871 Robert Nurse died, and he was buried a week later at St. Michael, Two Mile Hill. Ann took over as licensee of the Rose and Crown Inn¹² and also acted as co-trustee with Robert Willis Nurse (son of Silas Nurse and Robert’s nephew), in the running of her late husband’s share of the malting business.

Robert had directed in his will that they should run the business until his eldest son, Robert Francis (my great grandfather), had reached the age of 21. At that time he would be offered the opportunity to purchase the concern at a price to be ascertained by a fair evaluation by “some competent parties to be appointed by the trustees”.

Ann eventually moved to Bedminster where she lived with her surviving daughters. She spent the last few years of her life living in Winsley, Wiltshire, with her younger brother Charles Taylor dying on the 12^th May 1912 at the age of 85. She was buried at the parish church of Winsley on 18^th May 1912¹³.

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