8 The Plain

Occupants

William Cross - in the 1840 Tithe Survey, this property was Plot 255 - a house and garden owned by Isaac Roberts and occupied by William Cross.  The 1841 census shows William as a Dissenting Minister aged 45 and living with his wife, Mary aged 30 and Elizabeth aged 6.  In Gloucester Records Office we found a list of notes attached to the Tithe Survey which mentioned that Dr J. William Cross was the occupant of an adjoining property, Plot 254, a yard with schoolroom owned by Samuel Leonard.  

We are grateful to a fellow researcher, Heather Palmer, for sharing with us her notes on William and his family.   William Jarman Cross was born in 1796.  His father was William Cross, a Bristol merchant.  Heather discovered that there was a William Cross & Son, Merchant/ Commercial Broker of Broad Quay and at Cannon’s March with a residence at Kingsdown appearing in the Bristol Trade Directories between 1830 and 1844.  Between 1824 and 1843 advertisements for a William Cross & Son, ships broker, appear in numerous editions of The Bristol Mercury and by 1843 his business was being conducted from 57 The Quay, Bristol.  Ships departing from Bristol were headed for New York, Boston, Montreal, Quebec, Hobart and Sydney.  According to the 1841 census William Cross senior was living at St. James Place, Kingsdown with his wife Elizabeth and son Edwin.  His occupation was given as merchant and by 1851 he was aged 76 and living with his daughter’s family at Chudleigh House, Clifton and his occupation was given as ship owner, born Somerset.  In a book in Bristol Records Office entitled 'Bristol Privateers and Ships of War' a William Cross and a Rice Price were the owners of a 179 ton ship named “Diana” which had 14 guns and 18 men and was in operation during 1807/1809.  The ship carried a letter of marque which entitled merchant ships engaged on ordinary business to be legally given the right to attack and make prizes of enemy vessels.  The enterprise does not seem to have been successful as the bankruptcy of the partnership was announced in 1815.

In 1832 William (Jun) moved to become Minister at Thornbury Baptist Church and he remained in that position until 1844.  According to Baptist history books the Reverend Cross was very much an activist initiating change in the first year of his ministry, 1832.  He visited his congregation in their own homes when bad weather had set in and he encouraged female members to hold prayer meetings.  In the booklet “The Thornbury Baptist Church 250th History” produced in 1997, it records that William Jarman Cross’s father, William Cross of Bristol, gave "generous gifts" to set in motion the building of the chapels of Moreton in 1834, Berkeley In 1835 and Tytherington in 1841.  It also notes that whilst in Thornbury William distributed 8000 copies of the scriptures and when he resigned from the Pastorate in 1844 the Church had 78 members and 210 children in four Sunday schools.

William was married twice.  His first marriage took place at Thornbury on 29^th March 1832 when he married Margaret Anne Shearman, the widow of Captain Francis Shearman of the 26th Regiment of Infantry.  Margaret was born on 24th January 1794, the daughter of Morris and Margaret Anne Robinson. 

William and Margaret had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was born in 1834 and a son, William Edwin, who was born in 1835 but the latter died on 2nd April 1837.  Margaret herself died a few weeks later on 6th May 1837.  William married again on July 3rd 1838.  His second wife was Mary Elizabeth Ward, the daughter of the late John Brickdale Ward of Upper Hazel.  The Bristol Records Office has a marriage settlement dated 30th June 1838 for Reverend William Jarman Cross and Mary Elizabeth Ward of Upper Hazel.  We understand William was being given some of the Ward's lands in Olveston and Henbury on the condition that he would pay the Ward family £1000 in the event of Mary's death.

There is an interesting little article in the Bristol Mercury dated 21st February 1841 which shows William refused to pay the Church Rates.  As a consequence a portion of his furniture was seized and disposed of.  This seems to reflect what was a national issue.  Nonconformists naturally resented paying a Church Rate if the Church in question was to be the Church of England.  It seems that William was an important figure in the Baptist Church.  A newspaper report in the Bristol Mercury of December 25th 1847 describes William Cross as the "honorary superintendent for the western counties."  By the 1851 Census he was living at 2 Claremont Place, Clifton.  He was now being described as a house proprietor aged 54 living with his wife, Mary aged 43 and daughter,  Elizabeth aged 16.  On 2nd July 1853 Elizabeth married John Allen of Burnham on Sea in Somerset at St Andrew's Parish Church, Bristol. 

In 1853 a newspaper report makes it clear that William Cross was continuing his campaign against state interference in the church.   At a meeting of the "British Anti-State-Church Association William read out the strongly worded report from the executive committee and in 1857 he spoke at the a meeting of the "Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control."  Other reports show he was also very active in the Bristol City Mission Society of which he was a secretary. 

By the 1861 Census William and Mary were living at 12 Belle Vue, Clifton.  William continued his activities in the Baptist Church and the Bristol City Mission.  In 1863 he attended a meeting in support of President Lincoln and his anti-slavery policy.  They were living at the same house in the 1871 Census.  William was now being described as a land and house proprietor.  William died on 27th November 1877 aged 81.  In the 1881 Census Mary was living at 68 Ashley Road, Bristol aged 73.  She died in Bristol in 1901 aged 92.