Author talk:George Agar Hansard

Sources

@Levana Taylor: The baptism has surname as Agar-Hansard for four children's baptisms, though records after say Hansard, though the marriage is just script on a line, rather than fields. Death in the workhouse is never going to be authoritative. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:01, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Name: George Agar Hansard Source:

• Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature. British and American authors living and deceased from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Three volumes. By S. Austin Allibone. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1858-1871. (Alli)
• The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Five volumes. Edited by George Watson. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1969-1977. Use the index in Volume 5 to locate entries. (NewCBEL)

Marriage

• Bristol Church of England Parish Registers and Bishop Transcripts, Bristol Record Office, Bristol, England.

Name: George Agar Hansard, a gentleman, St. Paul's parish
Record Type: Marriage
Marriage Date: 24 Jul 1817
Marriage Place: St James, Bristol, England
Parish as it Appears: St James
Register Type: Parish Register
Spouse: Jane Racster

birth / baptism

• Bristol Church of England Parish Registers, Bristol Record Office, Bristol, England.

Name: George Agar Hansard
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 16 Oct. 1796
Baptism Date: 19 Aug 1814
Baptism Place: Redcliffe, St Mary, Bristol, England
Parish as it Appears: St Mary, Redcliffe
Father: Alexander Agar Hansard
Mother: Nancy Weekly Agar Hansard

baptised at same time as several siblings, all well after birth

death

• Board of Guardian Records, 1834-1906 and Church of England Parish Registers, 1813-2003. London Metropolitan Archives, London.

Name: George Hansard, author
Record Type: Death
Death Date: 15 Apr 1876
Death Place: St Pancras, Camden, England (Workhouse)

• FreeBMD

Name: George Hansard
Registration Year: 1876 Jun. Q.
Age at Death: 76
Registration district: Pancras
Volume: 1b
Page: 78

@Billinghurst: I don’t think this death record is our author. George & Jane Hansard are recorded living together in Bristol in 1851 and 1861, both of them being life-long residents of that city. In 1871 there is a Jane Hansard, widow, living in Bristol. I am sure she must be the spouse of George who died sometime between his last publication (1864) and 1871 -- he didn’t leave Bristol in order to end in a London workhouse surely? Levana Taylor (talk) 13:25, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

@Levana Taylor: Four "George Hansard" deaths in England from 1842-1895, and this is the only that is close in age. Nothing pertinent in the "George Agar" scope, all would be less likely based on your criteria. Let me dig try and broader scope searches if you doubt this. I just went off the author, age and nothing else evident.

I can see a family tree with same conclusions. They show sisters death in St Pancras in 1864. Brother in Australia, and child named after uncle.

 Comment I will guess that the death of Jane is "Deaths Dec 1882 > Hansard Jane 96 years Barton R. 6a 56"

It is thoroughly confusing. Are there two Jane Hansards in Bristol, then? The death you mention is of a woman 10 years older than the Jane who was living with George in the 1861 census. But really, the most likely reason there is no death record for the Bristol George is that he died abroad -- Levana Taylor (talk) 13:43, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Nah, guessing that will be an (uninformed) informant issue ... old is old!, carry a down, best guess, etc. I can dig if necessary, though I am not sure that we need to chase her down. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:48, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Census

• 1861 England

Name: George Hansard
Age: 56
Relation: Lodger
Spouse's name: Jane Hansard
Gender: Male
Where born: Bristol
Civil Parish: Bristol St James
Registration district: Bristol
Sub-registration district: St James
ED, institution, or vessel: 15
Neighbors:
Household schedule number: 31
Piece: 1721
Folio: 116
Page Number: 5
Household Members:
Name Age
Mary Chapple 66
Mary A Edwards 45
Caroline King 30
George Hansard 56, general literature
Jane Hansard 54
Harriet Knowles 69

Well really, the most solid conclusion I can come to after comparing all the records for George Hansard and Jane Hansard is that Bristol consistently employed the most muddle-headed census-takers in England! I suppose you may be right, and the easily-confused person who talked to Jane H. in 1871 thought that, since her husband wasn’t with her (he was in London ?) she was a widow … Levana Taylor (talk) 13:56, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Census enumerators went from property and where the form was completed they took form and transcribed it into their books. So they may or may not have transcribed correctly, whether they could tell read the writing or not. If the person couldn't not read and write, then it was undertaken by the enumerator. Which is why the 1911 census was different in that the reproduced recors are the original forms, rather than the enumerated forms. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:02, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Jane Hansard

• 1871 England

Name: Jane Hansard
Age: 73
Estimated birth year: 1798
Relation: Lodger
Where born: Bristol
Marital status: Mar.

no George

• 1881 England

Name: Jane Hansard
Age: 86
Estimated birth year: abt 1795
Relationship to Head: Lodger
Gender: Female
Where born: Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
Civil Parish: Bristol St James and St Paul Out
Street address: No 105 Lr Cheltenham Pl
Marital status: Widow

no George

Aha! you are looking at a different version of the 1871 census records than I was (this one). So she’s not a widow there. Therefore, I agree the case is closed, as far as identification goes (though not as far as the mystery of why someone who has relatives in the neighborhood and a wife living off an annuity would wind up in the workhouse -- suggests, maybe, severe alcoholism or something?) Levana Taylor (talk) 14:09, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

@Levana Taylor: I was looking at the record, and the marital status column is marked by the reviewing office at the time of census and it is hard to read. With a practiced and concentrating eye, I can see that it is "Mar" rather than "Unm" or "U" or "Wid" though I took the time to stop and enhance it, rather than rely on the Chinese transcribers who did it for Ancestry doing it on the clock back in the 2000s. [Yes, I know the background of that set of transcriptions, and others at Ancestry for that period.) — billinghurst sDrewth 14:26, 22 November 2019 (UTC)