FAMILY LIVES
TALES FROM THE CENSUS
& OTHER RECORDS
ROBERT LAKE 1831 - ?
My 1st Cousin 3 times removed
Robert Lake has become a personal battle for me because I do not like unanswerable mysteries and Robert is one very big mystery.
Robert was the 3rd of 7 children of parents John Lake and Mary Bray.
Charlotte, John William, Robert, Fanny, Emanuel, Susanna & David.
Like most of his siblings, Robert was born in Oreston, Devon in 1831 but his parents moved around for work. In 1840 his youngest brother David was born in Newport Wales, about 10 miles from where I now live.
By 1851 his parents and some siblings had moved to Alderney but Robert was in Stoke Damerel, Devon, living with an Aunt. Perhaps, this was because the love of his life was in Plymouth, where is where he married Eliza Collins Hill in 1856. After the marriage they also moved to Alderney where on the 1861 census the family were in Jackson Place, St Anne, the main town on Alderney, where Robert worked as a stone mason. The family grew over the next few years and by 1867 Robert and Eliza had, 4 children born in Alderney and 3 in Guernsey, where they were then living. Unfortunately, 3 of these 7 children died very young. Then in 1869 Robert brought his family back to Newport, where he had been as a child.
Drawing of Oreston circa 1830's
Bedwas near Newport Wales
Lincoln Cathedral from Castle Hill
Drawing of St Anne. Alderney 1840
Robert & Eliza had 2 more children in Newport in 1870 and 1872. During this time they were living at 4 Bryngwyn St, Lower Bedwas, but in 1874 during the birth of another child, both mother Eliza and the baby, named Sarah Ann, died. This left Robert a single father with children as young as 2, so it wasn’t surprising to find Robert marrying again in 1875, to Ann Townley (nee Merriman).
Ann Merriman was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire in 1848 and had married Alfred Albert Townley in 1863 in Gloucester. They had 3 children, William Henry, Emma Ellen and Mary Ann, and by 1871 Alfred was a Labourer in Roath, Cardiff, where he died in 1873. So Ann was a recent widow like Robert a recent widower.
It appears that the family must have got on together because in 1886, Ann’s eldest son from her first marriage, William Henry Townley, married Selina Lake, one of Robert’s daughter’s. They married in Cardiff where in 1891, William was a general labourer. By 1901, William and Selina had moved to Lincoln, where he was a bricklayers labourer. They made Lincoln their home with their 5 children. Selina died in Lincoln in 1941 aged 79 and William died there in 1945 aged 82.
But what happened to Robert Lake and his new wife Ann?
Following their marriage in 1875 in Newport, there is not a single trace of them.
On the 1881 census his children are scattered.
Mary Ann (24) is a servant in Battersea London, Selina (19) along with Esther Elizabeth (14) were with their Uncle Emanuel in Guernsey, Emily Ada (11) was with her Uncle William Allen in Guernsey and Albert (9) was with his Uncle John Hocking in Cardiff.
Robert and Ann have simple vanished, Jonathan Creek, where are you when I need you?
Alan Davies plays the BBC sleuth "Jonathan Creek" who can solve any mystery..