| Notes |
- "COUCH--At the Royal Jubilee Hospital on December 29, 1937, Anthony Couch, of 568 Hillside Ave; aged 86 years; born in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, and a resident of this city since 1919. Survived by two sons, Anthony Couch, Victoria, and Alwyn Couch, Toronto; three daughters, Mrs. John Matthews, Toronto, Mrs. James Beckerley, Victoria, and Mrs. Richard Gyles, Flint, Mich.; also 34 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. The remains are resting in Hayward's B.C. Funeral Chapel, from where the funeral will take place Friday morning at 11 o'clock. Interment in Royal Oak Burial Park." [Victoria, British Columbia, Daily Times, 30 Dec 1937, p. 14]
Called a "fisherman" when his daughter Lottie was baptized in 1888. He and his wife, with their son Alwyn, emigrated on the Royal Edward, which departed from Avonmouth (near Bristol) and arrived at Montreal on 25 Oct 1911. On the passenger list, he's described as a "gardener."
(Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Glasgow, Scotland, the Royal Edward was placed in Avonmouth-Quebec-Montreal service in May 1910. Converted to a troopship in 1914, it was torpedoed and sunk near Kamadeliusa, Aegean Sea, August 1915, with the loss of 935 lives.)
He was baptized a Methodist, as was his daughter Lottie Couch. His mother was Elizabeth Uren, daughter of John Uren (1781-1862), son of Philip Uren, "tinner," who marred Anne Odgers, "sojourner," in 1777. A History of the Parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor in the County of Cornwall (by John Hobson Matthews; London: Elliot Stock, 1892) notes that in St. Ives, "in Street-an-Garrow, are the ruined remains of an old house where Wesley stayed during his later visits to Saint Ives, when the house was the home of the Uren family." The Wesley in question being John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. This is confirmed in Wesley's own journals, published in seven volumes in the late 19th and early 20th century. On 27 Aug 1789 Wesley reports that he preached first at Truro (near St. Ives) and then at Port Isaac (a few miles further up the north coast). "I preached in the evening, in an open part of town, to almost all the inhabitants of it. How changed since the time when he that invited me durst not take me in, for fear his house should be pulled down!" A editor's footnote to this passage states that "During his later visits to St. Ives he was the guest of the Uren family in the house adjoining that of John Nance, his earliest host."
Wesley wasn't kidding about the threats of violence during his earlier visits. His entry for 4 April 1744, on the occasion of his first visit to St. Ives forty-five years earlier, notes that "I was a little surprised at entering John Nance's house, being received by many, who were waiting for me there, with a loud (though not bitter) cry. But they soon recovered; and we poured out our souls together in praises and thanksgiving. As soon as we went out we were saluted, as usual, with a huzza and a few stones and pieces of dirt." An editor's footnote notes that John Nance's house "stood at the top of the Street-an-Garrow (the rough street)", thus further confirming the accuracy of John Hobson Matthews's report. Street-an-Garrow exists today and can be viewed on Google Street View, which shows it to be one of those impossibly narrow English streets that would be terrifying to drive a car on. Its upper reach is capped by a U-shaped street now called Wesley Place.
In the next day's entry, 5 April 1744, Wesley writes "I took a view of the house which the mob had pulled down a little before, for joy that Admiral Matthews had beat the Spaniards. Such is the Cornish method of thanksgiving. I suppose, if Admiral Lestock had fought too, they would have knocked all the Methodists on the head." The house the mob had "pulled down" was that of a Methodist named James Roberts, who, like our ancestor Philip Uren, was a "tinner." In other words, Wesley's hosts and associates, both at the beginning of his long career as a travelling preacher, and at its end, were frequently working people just like the Urens, most of whom lived in what we would consider the rough part of town.
|
Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1851 - 1937 (86 years)
[1, 2, 3] 
Siblings