Documenting the Caley Family
Published in Windlesora 23 (2007)
© WLHG
Researching your family tree can take many years and I have only taken a short time to look into the Caley family so my researches are not complete. I have tried to cheat by using the tree that is published on the web known as the One World Tree, but there are some parts of it that I would question and it is very vague about the person I am most interested in, Maria.
Maria is the name that we are told is the M. Caley of this first advertisement for the Caley’s business in October 1813. We are also told that she never married. However, I have found only one definite record of a Maria Caley of the right era, and that is her marriage to William Goodman of Louth at Windsor Parish Church on 21st March 1826. One of the witnesses was John Caley and another was Sarah Bedborough. An announcement in the Windsor Express tells us that she was the youngest daughter of William and Elizabeth Caley of Frogmore. However, my research in the International Genealogical Index has shown that their youngest daughter was called Mary and she was baptised at Clewer Church on 12th March 1797. Possibly she was not just a baby when she was baptised, but if this was the same person she could have been only 16% years old when she moved to Castle Street. A little more research is needed here.
There are two people that I have traced with certainty and one is ‘my sister Mrs Noke’. Charlotte Elizabeth Caley was baptised at Clewer Church, daughter of William Caley and Elizabeth née Boulton on 3rd December 1792. She married Thomas Noke, at Clewer Church on 21st January 1812. He was a hatter with a business in Castle Street Windsor at the time of the marriage. He later moved to the corner of Peascod Street and High Street. They had several children including William who was also a hatter. Both Thomas and William were Windsor councillors. Charlotte died in 1839 when she would have been about 47 years old.
The other is John William Caley who was a councillor and his date of baptism is given in the Hall Book as 18th February1787. He married Mary Ann Goodman at St Michael’s Church Stamford, Lincolnshire on 4th April 1820. Just over three weeks later the advertisement below appeared in the Windsor Express. This has been interpreted as Miss Maria Caley calling herself Mrs Caley for professional reasons. But it could also have been John’s new wife joining the business.
Additionally there are two advertisements appealing for apprentices. One in 1819 asks for applicants to apply to Miss Caley, and in 1821 they were to apply to Mrs Caley. The advertisement placed under the name of Miss Caley has the word Dressmaking first and that placed under the name of Mrs Caley has the word Milliner first as did all subsequent advertisements.
The father of John, Charlotte and Maria was William, a victualler, and in 1806 his name was on the list of people who voted for Ramsbottom when he was elected MP for the borough.
John Caley was the first member of the family to take over the premises now known as 19 High Street Windsor on Sth April 1823, and he always described himself as a silk mercer. Only a month after he moved out of the premises in Castle Street, they were burned down in a huge fire. Many other people lost their livelihoods and a fund was started to help them out. John Caley paid £1 into this fund and the inmates at Mr Caley’s paid 18s.
By the time John and his wife Mary Ann moved to the High Street they had a son named John William and despite giving birth to at least 12 children, I am sure that Mary Ann worked as a milliner at those premises, as the firm’s advertisements and bill heads dated 1846 have Mrs Caley, Milliner on them and I have found no trace of Maria Caley or Maria Goodman in the census returns for Windsor or anywhere else near.
The 1841 census return shows that John William senior and Mary Ann were living at Frogmore Cottage with four of their children while John William junior, aged 19 and calling himself only William, was head of the household at 19 High Street.
By 1851 John William junior had taken over the business. He had a wife named Elizabeth, and Frederick Goodman Caley, John’s younger brother, was living at the shop with them. Frederick was actually a twin, but his brother Charles Alfred died in 1829 when they were three years old. John William senior described himself as retired. He died in 1852.
The 1861 census return shows John William junior still at 19 High Street, but Frederick Goodman Caley had married Alexandrina Low, and moved out to 9 Brunswick Terrace. Frederick describes himself as a partner in the firm. At this time the couple had five children, the oldest named John Frederick and the second Hugh Alexander, who was five years old.
By 1871 John William had left Windsor for Norwich and Frederick, his brother, was running the firm. Several members of the family ended up in Norwich including Alfred Jarman Caley who started the chocolate firm of Caleys of Norwich and their mother Mary Ann, who died there in 1859*. Frederick and his family had moved back to the shop premises to live and Hugh Alexander was described as a drapers’ apprentice.
Ten years later Frederick was 54 years old and a silk mercer employing 52 assistants and apprentices, while Hugh Alexander was now a silk mercer.
Hugh Alexander Caley had taken over the business by 1891 and he describes himself as a silk mercer and ladies outfitter. Annie, although we know she worked for the business was, like all married women of the time, described as ‘wife’.
The last census return available to the public is that of 1901. This shows that Hugh Alexander and his family had moved to Thornbury House in Osbourne Road. Hugh now called himself a silk mercer and costumier.
However much I would like to believe that the firm of Caleys was started by a woman I cannot help but think that the few references to Maria Caley mean that her influence was short-lived. The true founders of Caleys firm in the High Street were John William Caley and his wife, Mary Ann née Goodman, who are commemorated by a plaque in the Parish Church of St John the Baptist just across the road.
Pamela Marson
Notes
*For the story of Caleys of Norwich see The Chocolate Connection in Windlesora 12.
Thanks are due to the Independent Newspaper which gave away a computer disc allowing 14 days free use of Family Tree Maker on the internet. Using this I consulted the census returns and the One World Tree.
I also used the typed copies of the Parish registers of St John the Baptist Church, Windsor at Windsor Library and early editions of the Windsor Express at Windsor Guildhall
Windsor Local History Group 