by Andrew Barham
I was spurred into family history research by the interesting family tradition that one of my Cundy ancestors (I know not who or when) was hanged for smuggling. I have not found him yet but the search continues. Joseph Cundy has emerged from the last century as one of my favourites, although he is just one of my 32 great great great grandparents. The more I found out about him, the more he grew on me. The reason for my particular interest in him may be because his baptism was so difficult to find. It may also be because he is the earliest ancestor I have a photo of. (The picture below was in an article of 1984 entitled "Memories of Wriggling Eels and Skinned Skate", an interview of my mother's great aunt on the Cundys and fishing in Shoebury and Southend.) Anyway, if you have not tried tracing your own ancestors, all I can say is - DO IT! - but with one word of warning. Once you start, the bug will bite and your life will never be your own again - but then, of course, you'll have countless ancestors to share it with!
Joseph Cundy was baptized at St. Andrews South,
Shoebury, Essex, on June 12, 1814. For some unknown reason the baptismal
registers show him as William, although the Bishop's transcripts of that year
show him correctly as Joseph. He was the third of eleven children of John and
Mary Cundy. John was a fisherman of South Shoebury, as was his father.
The next record that mentions Joseph Cundy is the 1841 Census return (taken in March 1841). He is found living in Wellington Place, Prittlewell, Essex, as head of the family - his mother having died in 1832 and his father in 1836. His elder brothers, William and Thomas, had already set up their own houses in Leigh-on-Sea. Joseph was living there with his siblings Sarah (16), Jane (10), David (18) and Eliza (14). Joseph himself is shown as 25, although he was about 27 by then (the 1841 Census rounded down ages to the nearest five for those over 20). Just two years later, on June 3, 1843 Joseph Cundy married Mary Ann Sharp at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London. Mary had been baptized in Prittlewell, daughter of Robert Sharp, a "Marine Store Dealer" of Southend Seafront. The Sharp family, minus Mary, was living next door to the Cundys in 1841. I am unsure as to why they married in London - perhaps Mary was 'in service' there at the time.
Like his two elder brothers, Joseph set up home in Leigh on Sea, a very well known fishing village by then. His family is shown as living in the High Street in the 1851 Census and comprised his wife, himself and their first five children: Mary Ann (7), Joseph (6), Emma (3), Esther (2) and John (10 months). At the time of the census, Joseph himself appears to have been away fishing. In 1854, part of Leigh High Street was knocked down to clear the way for the Railway line. Joseph is named as being one of those in the High Street and it appears that he was living next door to the Smack Public House. His family shared the house with Mary Quilter and William Lucking.
At the time of the 1861 Census, Joseph is again away from home. His wife Mary (now 48), Esther (12), John (11), Emma (8), David (5 [my great, great grandfather]) and Robert (2) were all at home. Joseph's ninth child was living with the Head family at this time.
By 1871 the Cundy family had moved to number 6 Gothic Row, South Shoebury where, on the census, Joseph (now 59) is actually living at home. With him are his wife Mary Ann (58), David (16), Robert (13), Jane (11) and Esther Beavans (23), one of his married daughters. His wife, Mary Ann, died in August 1871 and was buried in South Shoebury graveyard.
In 1881, Joseph is living with his daughter Jane (aged 20) in an upturned fishing boat with a crooked chimney. (The photo below was from a Southend-on-Sea and County Pictorial cutting from 1949, entitled "Shoebury was Sleepy Village - until the Guns Came". The caption said Bought by Dale Knapping from Southend in 1868 for a store for barge gear and tackle, this ketch was converted into a cottage in 1870. A Mr. Cox lived here in 1872 and Mr. Gundy until 1885, when it was pulled down.) In 1881, Jane married George Leadbeater (a Royal Artilleryman from the Shoebury Army barracks) in St. Andrews and left home.
Things obviously went downhill from here on. In about 1885 Joseph Cundy moved from the boathouse. On the 1891 Census he is shown as being in the Essex County Paupers Lunatic Asylum in Brentwood, Essex, aged 76 and described as a "lunatic". He died at the asylum on January 29, 1894 at the age of 79 and was buried five days later in South Shoebury Churchyard.
From a photograph I have of him, which must have been taken circa 1880, he was a grizzled old man with a beard and was a typical fisherman. Because he ended up in a lunatic asylum does not necessarily mean he had gone mad. Indeed there are many physical conditions that are recognized today that would have been seen as mental decay in the late 19th Century. Anyone who lived in that upturned boat with the crooked chimney must have been, shall we say, a little eccentric. Once his last daughter had married and moved away from home, he must have become a lonely old man of 70 years who simply had no-one left to take care of him. On the other hand, of course, he could have been completely mad! (Let's hope it's not hereditary.)