James Charles Lines, my paternal grandfather.
When James Charles Lines was born in July 1881 in Poplar, Middlesex, his father, Frederick, was 26 and his mother, Hannah, was 25. He was married three times and had eight sons and six daughters. He died on 4 May 1949 in Southampton, Hampshire, at the age of 67.
Multiple marriages shaped my paternal grandparents’ lives. My grandmother married twice, and my grandfather, James, married three times. As a result, my Dad grew up in a large family with fifteen siblings and half-siblings. This has made researching our family history challenging.
James Lines was born on Giraud Street in the Poplar area of London and spent much of his life in London’s East End. He moved to Southampton at about thirty.
The 1891 census shows him living on Church Street with his mother Hannah, father Frederick, a hammerman (blacksmith), six siblings—Frederick (13), William (10), Charles (7), Elizabeth (5), and Hannah (3)—and a lodger, Charles Smith. By 1901, the family had moved to Percy Road, further south and closer to the docks and river. James, now 20, was a blacksmith and still living with his parents and siblings.
In 1904, he married his first wife, Constance Whitley, and lived in Canning Town, where four of their children were born. Shortly before the 1911 Census, the family was at 70 Upper Road, Plaistow: James, Constance, and five children—Constance (6), Albert (5), Nellie (3), Hannah (1), and James (3 months). At this time, James was a Steam Tug Boat driver on the Thames for a Lighterage company. Lighterage is the process of transferring cargo to and from larger ships at sea using smaller, flat-bottomed vessels called lighters or barges. Steam Tug Boats pushed or towed these barges.
His son James Charles passed away in July 1911 in West Ham, Essex, when he was under a year old, and his sister Hannah died a short time later. Whether because of a growing family—two more sons were born by 1913—work, or to escape London’s East End, James and his family, along with Constance’s father George Whitley, moved to 22 Endle Street, Southampton.
His wife Constance passed away on 1 April 1922 at age 38. They had been married 18 years and had nine surviving children. Not hanging about, James married Nellie Boulter, his second wife, in Southampton in December 1922, when he was 41. He continued to live on Endle Street, which is still there today, though much has changed since it was heavily bombed during the Second World War. During their eleven years of marriage, James and Nellie had three children: Reginald (my Dad), Aunt Beryl, and Uncle Pete. Beryl and Pete are the only relations of Dad’s I really knew, as when I was young, we often went on holiday to Southampton and the south coast.
His wife Nellie passed away on 24 March 1934 in Southampton, Hampshire, at age 43. They had been married 11 years. Just over a year later he married his third wife, Jane Elizabeth Gibbons, in July 1935.
James Charles Lines died on 4 May 1949 in Southampton at age 67, at 7 Kartoum Road. He died intestate. This was settled a few months later, leaving £385 5s 5d to his wife and my Dad.
Dad never talked about any of this, but I always got the impression that his early life was chaotic and that he didn’t really get along with his stepmother. Which is probably why he lied about his age and joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 15.
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