The youngest of William Samuel Price II’s children was
probably named after distant relatives in Scotland. Mary Dodds may have been related to Archibald Dodds who was
living with a family in the East Lothian area in the early years of the 19th
century. Some notes on relations in
that area in the 1840s refers to a “Mrs Ainslie”, who may have been a relative
or family friend. He was born in Blackheath on 16th February 1873.
He was living with his family in
Greenwich for the 1881 and 1891 censuses, being a medical student at the latter
date. Archibald was the second Price
child to qualify as a doctor, doing so in 1898. He has not been found in the 1901 census, so may have been
abroad, but on 3rd October 1905 he married Beatrice Forster
Denniston, at St Paul’s Church, Greenwich. He was described as ‘Surgeon and
Physician’ of 80 London Street.
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The Denniston Ancestry
Beatrice’s father was William
Denniston (deceased in 1905) who had been a Secretary for a Charity
Organisation and, earlier, a Staff Sergeant in the Army Hospital Corps, who
had been born in Ireland in about 1844.
Her mother was Jessie M Denniston nee
Olivey, the daughter of Martha and Colin Thomas Olivey, who was born in Kent
in about 1850. Beatrice’s birth was registered with the middle name Deborah,
but at some point in the 1890s she and her six siblings all took an
additional middle name of Forster.
Although the family in both
the 1881 and 1891 censuses are recorded under the name ‘Denniston’, the
births of the eldest two - Ethel Martha J. (1875) and Jessie Mary D. (1876) -
and the youngest two – Dora Mabel D. (1881) and Archibald James D. (1883) –
are registered under the surname ‘Forster’.
The middle three children – William (1878), Beatrice Deborah (1879)
and Reginald Thomas (1880) - are registered under the surname
‘Denniston’.
When it came to baptisms of
the youngest five children in London (the eldest two were born in Portsea,
Hampshire), those whose births were registered as ‘Denniston’ were baptised
at St Mark’s Church, Battersea with the surname ‘Forster’. Those registered as ‘Forster’ were
baptised at St John’s Church, Battersea with the surname ‘Denniston’. The
reasons for all of this are unknown !
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The marriage was a short one as
Beatrice died, childless, on 3rd December 1908, from TB at 971
Romford Road, Manor Park, an area on the outskirts of East London.
Archibald Ainslie Price, 38, a
'Physical Surgeon' was living, as a widower, at the same address during the
1911 census. The only other person in
the house was his 'General domestic servant' - Rhoda Marguretta Lulham, aged
31, and unmarried. Archibald went on to
marry Rhoda in late 1915 and they had two daughters – Rhoda M. H. in 1916 and
Muriel D. in 1919.
Before they were married, Rhoda had a son in 1912 and his birth was registered as Cyril D. Lulham. His father was probably Archibald Price, as after his marriage to Rhoda the boy's name was changed to 'Price'.
Rhoda later married Richard Bertie Compton in 1925, shortly after Archibald's death. When recorded in the National Register, in late 1939, they were living at 274 Lancaster Gate, Kensington, London and the occupations of both were recorded as 'Hotel Manager'. Also living with them was her daughter Rhoda M. Price. By then 23 years old, she had no occupation was was listed as 'Incapacitated'. The dates of birth of the family are recorded as - Rhoda Compton, 21st September 1879; Richard Compton, 9th August 1885 and Rhoda Price, 29th April 1916. Rhoda Compton died in Kensington in 1967, aged 87.
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The Lulham Ancestry
Rhoda Marguretta Lulham, the
daughter of Robert and Phillis Lulham (nee
Older) and was born in Bermondsey, London in 1879. She was one of four siblings with an elder sister, Phillis
Sophia (b.1877) and two younger brothers, Charles (b. ca 1882) and Frederick
George (b.1883).
Robert Lulham was an
agricultural labourer, born in Burwash, Sussex in 1856, one of six children
of Richard and Sophia Lulham (nee
Roberts). Richard had been born in
Burwash in about 1833 the son of Richard and Elizabeth Lulham (spelled Lullam
in the 1841 census). The Richard
senior was a wheelwright, born in about 1799.
Rhoda Lulham had four sons and a daughter in the 1900s, fathered by Joseph Franklin (b. Co. Tyrone in ca 1868), a bricklayer by trade. These were - Joseph Lulham (b. 1900), Charles Robert (b. 1902), Wilfred Victor (b. 1904), Clarence Hedley (b. 1906) and May Phyllis (1909). There is no record of any marriage, so Rhoda was probably common law wife. (They may possibly have married in Ireland, but this seems unlikely).
At the 1911 census, while Rhoda Lulham was living with Dr Archibald Price, Joseph Franklin and his five children were split up and living at three different locations in Romford and Ilford, in all cases in workhouses or homes for the homeless.
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Dr Price’s servant
In 1921, Annie Bridger was an unmarried servant in the
household of Dr Archibald Price at 971 Romford Road, Manor Park. She became pregnant and, in May, entered
The Mother’s Hospital, Clapton where she gave birth to a son on 7th
July. She remained in the Hospital
until December, an unusually long period of about 7 months. The relevant paperwork concerning her stay
stated that she was very poor and that her parents could not afford the fees
“at present”. When Annie left the
Hospital, her son – Stanley George Bridger – was handed to Annie’s mother to
care for and she returned to work for Dr. and Mrs Price. At that time she earned £26 p.a., but
someone paid her mother 5/- a week to care for baby Stanley.
A number of things are unusual in this series of events
– the long period of paid stay in Hospital, the fact that the child was not
put up for adoption, the payments to Annie’s mother for child care and
Annie’s return to her previous employment.
The implication is that Archibald Price was the child’s father, and he
was taking responsibility for mother and baby. In 2013, y chromosome DNA tests were done on samples
submitted by Stanley George Bridger’s son, William and Paul Price, a grandson
of Archibald’s half-brother, William Samuel Price III, to see if they were
closely related. The result was
negative, so the reasons for events happening in 1921 remain a matter of
conjecture.
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Archibald died of TB on 24th
June 1925 at his Manor Park home. Probate was granted to his widow on 15th July and her left her £936 8s 8d.
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The Descendants of Archibald Ainslie and Rhoda M. Price
Archibald
and Rhoda’s daughter, Rhoda M. H. Price
never married and died in Hastings (date unknown). Muriel D. Price married James Henry Ellis and the couple had two
sons, Denis Richard Ellis and James Ellis. She died in 1998 and her husband
pre-deceased her in 1991.
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