Introduction
I was spurred into family history research with 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 reasonfor my particular interest in him may be because his baptism was so devilishly difficult to find. It may also be because he is the earliest ancestor I have a photo of. 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 !
His life
Joseph Cundy was baptised at St.Andrews South Shoebury on 12th June 1814. For some unknown reason the baptismal registers show him as William - although the Bishops transcripts of that year (seen below) 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 (also called John).
The next record that mentions him is the 1841 Census return (taken in March 1841). He is found living in Wellington Place, Prittlewell as the 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. He 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 3rd June 1843 he married Mary Ann Sharp at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London. Mary had been baptised in Prittlewell, daughter of Robert Sharp a 'marine store dealer' of Southend Seafront. The Sharp family minus Mary were 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 on the 1851 Census. Comprising his wife and his first five children - Mary Ann (7), Joseph R (6), Emma (3), Esther (2) and John H J (10 months).
Joseph himself appears to have been away fishing at the time. 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 (copy above) Joseph is again away from home. His wife Mary (now 48), Ester E (12), John H (11), Emma C (8), David W (5 - my great great grandfather) and Robert J (2) were all at home. Jane (1), 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 died in August 1871 and was buried in South Shoebury graveyard.
In 1881 he lived with his daughter Jane (aged 20) in an upturned fishing boat. In 1882, 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 he moved from the boathouse. On the 1891 Census he is shown as being in the Essex County Paupers Lunatic Asylum in Brentwood aged 76 and described as a lunatic. He died on the 29th January 1894 aged 79 at the asylum and was buried 5 days later in South Shoebury Churchyard.
Epilogue :
From a photo I have of him (seen at the top of this article) which must have been taken circa 1880 - he was a grizzled old man with a beard and a typical fisherman. Because he ended up in the lunatic asylum does not necessarily mean that he had gone mad. Indeed there are many physical conditions that are recognised 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 home he must have become a lonely old man of 70 years who simply had no-one left to care for him. On the other hand of course he could have been completely mad! (Let's hope it's not hereditary.)