Part of the Earley family tree
Family background
George Rose was born on 21 December 1807 at West Grimstead, Wiltshire. He was the youngest of eight children born to Joseph Rose (1768–1853) and his wife, Martha née Beach (1765–1844), who had married at West Grimstead on 27 July 1789. George was baptised at St John’s Church, West Grimstead on 27 December 1807.
Little is known about George’s early life, until the first national census taken in June 1841, when he was living at West Grimstead with his 75-year old mother at the home of his brother-in-law, Joseph Mussell, and three of Joseph’s children. Joseph’s wife, Martha had died in July 1836, aged 36, shortly after the birth of her fourth child, David. George, aged 30, was an agricultural labourer.
At the same census, George’s father Joseph was living in the “House of Industry” at Alverstoke, near Gosport. He lived in the poorhouse for the remainder of his life, and died there in February 1853, aged 84.
Marriage and children
On 4 December 1843, aged 35, George married 23-year old Jane Grist at Alderbury parish church (replaced by the present St. Mary’s church in 1858).
The couple’s first child, Martha Rose was born six months later, on 1 June 1844. She was baptised at St John’s Church, West Grimstead on 28 July 1844.
Over the next 15 years, five further children were born, all at West Grimstead:
Mary Elizabeth Rose, born 1 April 1846 (known as Elizabeth)
Joseph Rose, born 5 November 1850
Mary Jane Rose, born 16 October 1852
Emma Rose, born 8 September 1855
Thomas Grist Rose, born 2 November 1859
After the birth of their first child, the couple moved away from the Anglican church, and their subsequent children were all baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on the Salisbury circuit.
At the 1851 census, George and Jane were living in West Grimstead with their three oldest children, including 5-month old Joseph. Ten years later, the two eldest daughters had left the family home, but their places had been taken by the three youngest children. George’s occupation was now recorded as “shepherd”.
In 1871, the family’s address was now recorded as High Street, West Grimstead. Living with George (a shepherd, aged 64) and Jane, now 51, were the same four children, plus 7-year old Charles, the son of their eldest daughter, Martha. Ten years later, the couple were still at West Grimstead; living with them were their unmarried daughter, 35-year old Elizabeth, together with Charles, now a plumber, aged 17, and Helena White, the 3-year old daughter of Emma and her husband, Joseph White.
George Rose died aged 81 on 20 March 1889; the cause of death was recorded as “cerebral disease”. He was buried at St John’s, West Grimstead on 23 March.