William Richard WEBB (1878–1918)
William Richard Webb was born in Headington Quarry in 1878, the son of William Webb (born in Henley Workhouse to a single woman, Ann Webb of Pyrton, in 1856) and Sarah Keary or Kerry (born at Cowley Marsh and baptised at Cowley St James Church on 18 November 1855).
His parents were married at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 26 February 1876 and had the following children:
- William Richard Webb (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 28 April 1878)
- Sarah Ann Webb (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 31 August 1879; died aged three and buried at Holy Trinity churchyard on 13 January 1883)
- Elizabeth Emily Webb (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 26 March 1882; died aged six and buried at Holy Trinity churchyard on 9 June 1888)
- Harriet Maud (known as Maud) Webb (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 29 July 1883)
- Charles Henry Webb (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 30 May 1886).
At the time of the 1871 census William Richard Webb’s father, William Webb (16) was living in Headington Quarry but recorded as William Jones (as his mother had married a man called Louis or Lewis Jones): he was then working as a labourer, probably in the brickyard. His future wife, Sarah Keary or Kerry, had also come to Quarry as a child when her father, the higgler Richard Pinnell Keary (or Kerry) settled in Shotover Hill Place with his widower father of the same name in about 1859.
The 1881 census shows William’s parents living at The Clerk’s Row in Headington Quarry: young William was then three years old.
Around the time of William’s eighth birthday, his father (30) died of a lumbar abscess, and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 30 January 1886.
By the time of the 1891 census William’s widowed mother Sarah (37) was working as a laundress, and of her three surviving children, Maud and Charles were home on census night, while young William (13) had been moved out to the nearby house of his paternal grandmother, Mrs Ann Jones (54) and her husband, the agricultural labourer Lewis Jones (55).
On 26 February 1893 William’s mother Sarah married her second husband, John Thomas Ward (who was a bachelor) at Holy Trinity Church, and both signed the marriage register with a cross. Sarah’s father was now a poulterer rather than a higgler. She had three more children with her second husband, who was a labourer:
- Oliver Ward (baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 27 May 1894)
- Sarah Louise Ward (baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 December 1895)
- Edward James Ward (baptised privately via Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 25 January 1897, died the next day at the age of three weeks, buried in the churchyard on 30 January 1897).
At the time of the 1901 census William’s mother Mrs Sarah Ward was still a laundress, living in Quarry with her new husband and her children Harriet and Charles from her first marriage, and Oliver and Sarah Ward from her second. Her younger sister Clara Keary (26) also lived with her, and she and Harriet (18) are both described as laundry maids.
In 1901 William Richard Webb was still boarding with his grandparents in Winterbourne’s Piece in Headington Quarry, and was now a blacksmith aged 23; his step-grandfather Lewis Jones (63) was still a labourer on the parish roads, and his grandmother Mrs Ann Webb (63) was working as a laundress.
William’s mother Sarah Ward died at the age of 54 and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 18 March 1908. The 1911 census shows his stepfather John Ward living in Quarry High Street with his two surviving children.
In the First World War William Richard Webb served as a Shoeing Smith in the 282nd Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (Service No. 98980). He died back in Oxford at the age of 40 shortly after the end of the war on 26 November 1918, and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard four days later.
Webb’s name is also listed on the stone plaque in the porch of the church.
Left: Photograph of William Richard Webb’s grave in Holy Trinity churchyard, taken in 2009. The text reads:
98980 SHOEING SMITH
W. R. WEBB
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
36TH NOVEMBER 1916
†
Emblem of the Royal Field Artillery
with their motto:
“UBIQUE QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT”]
Postscript
William’s sister
- Harriet Maud Webb (born 1883) married William Thomas Lee of Cowley. He died of influenza in 1918 aged 36.