An intriguing marriage at St George's Hanover Square

Guild member Sian Plant has found another marriage for me in the registers of St George's Hanover Square which has led me on an interesting search through the censuses. Frederick Thomas Cruse married Catherine Harriet Frances Pringle on 6th June 1853 at St George's Hanover Square. Frederick was a bachelor of full age living at Charlotte Street, Pimlico. His occupation was given as "Bank of England". He was the son of Thomas Cruse, a land surveyor. Catherine was a spinster of full age living at Bentinck Street, St Marylebone. She was the daughter of William Henry Pringle, a lieutenant colonel. I didn't have any record of Frederick Thomas Cruse in my database but I've now located him and his wife Catherine in the 1861 census living in Greenwich. Frederick is now known as "Fred". He is a clerk at the Bank of England and obviously a man of some substance as he has sufficient means to employ a live-in cook and housemaid. Fred and Catherine have a six-year-old daughter Harriet Margaret Cruse. Harriet's forenames are mistranscribed as "Hartwig" which is understandable when you look at the census image as both names are abbreviated and are quite difficult to read. I wonder if the transcriber had been reading too much Harry Potter and was subconsciously thinking of Harry's owl Hedwig! Frederick was born about 1818 in Somerset. I've not been able to decipher his place of birth. If anyone can read it do let me know. The census image can be viewed here if you have an Ancestry subscription. The transcriber had similar difficulties and transcribed the place as "Kateth". I cannot check the place of birth in any subsequent censuses as Fred sadly died in 1864. In 1851 he was lodging in St Pancras but only gave the county of Somerset for his place of birth. I've been unable to find a suitable match in the 1841 census. It seems likely that Frederick is in some way related to the Cruses of Rode in Somerset.  Jeremiah Cruse (1758-1819) of Rode was a well-known land surveyor, but without a baptism for Fred or the 1841 census entry I am unable to link him into the tree. I don't have any record of a Thomas Cruse of the right age working as a land surveyor.

© Debbie Kennett 2010