Here’s a photo of my grand aunt Edith Ingold Puddifant, older sister of my grandfather George Ingold. She’s pictured with her husband James Puddifant and 6 children. I’ve dated this about 1906 because Edith had two more children in 1907 and 1910. She may very well have been pregnant at the time this photo was taken. 

I value this photo because Edith was my father’s aunt. My father never met any of his 8 Ingold uncles and aunts and knew little about them, so by extension, my siblings and I never met or knew about any of his Ingold cousins or their children. My grandfather George was 10 years younger than his sister Edith and didn’t father children until his 40s, so even though the children in this photo are my father’s first cousins, they are over a generation older. 

The family is pictured at the Puddifant farm, Croxley Green, in Edgware UK. James Puddifant is the picture of of a gentleman farmer in fine clothes, proudly showing off his watch chain and large family. The boys are similarly dressed in suits and short pants.  Edith has outfitted her young daughters in frilly white dresses and immaculate hair styles. Edith herself looks like a very upstanding Edwardian woman with her full pompadour, high necked blouse and patterned jacket. I imagine the photo was meant to celebrate their prosperity as a family. 

I realize it wasn’t common to smile in photos back then, but I enlarged Edith’s photo and I can’t help but notice how tired she looks. Tired and sad (she’d be about 32 in this photo). Aside from that, I see the family resemblance to my grandfather George and the Ingold features – a long oval face, equally long nose and an unusual and somewhat “prissy” mouth which turns down at the edges. Noting that family resemblance gives me comfort. 

The Puddifants eventually emigrated to Canada to join my grandfather in 1912, where they farmed in Headingly, Manitoba for several more decades. My grandfather moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1923 and never saw his sister again….

My Grandmother Was A Bigamist

On May 7, 1917, my grandmother safely crossed the border into Canada at Emerson, Manitoba with $25 dollars on her person. She was listed on the manifest as “Mrs. E.G. Folsom”. It was likely the last time she would go by that name. She had left her American husband in Fairmont, West Virginia and was returning to her previous life in Winnipeg, as a single woman named Lina Walker (Pronounced “LIE-na”). She was the only woman to cross the border that day.

Below: Canadian Immigration Admissions at Emerson Manitoba, May 7, 1917

Years later, she would confess to my mother: “he was an awful beast, he made me do terrible things”. As kids, we always knew George Ingold was her second husband, that she had never divorced Edward Folsom. She always claimed she didn’t know there was any such thing as divorce. We knew that was nonsense: her own sister Lottie had been divorced. 

Let’s go back to the beginning ….

On July 3, 1911, 25-year old Angelina Walker married Dr. Edward Folsom in Toronto. He was a native of Chicago and a recent graduate of the Ontario Veterinarian College. The newlyweds made their home in Fairmont, Virginia where he was employed as a horse doctor at Consolidated Coal Company.

There’s nothing unusual in any of that other than only a few weeks earlier, she had been enumerated in the 1911 Canadian Census as living in Winnipeg at the same rooming house as her sister Ella, and another man who hoped to marry her, our grandfather, Walter George Ingold.

Below: entry from 1911 Census of Winnipeg, taken in June of 1911.

We know Lina and George were a couple at this point, because her sister, Lottie Walker Thompson, announced it in the local newspaper. 

Winnipeg Tribune, July 25, 1910

Whatever possessed Lina to suddenly abandon George Ingold and run off to Toronto to marry Dr. Folsom? 

I have a theory:

In 1910, George Ingold was working as a meat cutter for Wm. Coates Meats. I’m guessing Lina’s siblings, particularly her older brothers in Toronto, didn’t think George was good enough for her.

After all, sister Ella was a nurse, sister Jennie had married a respectable shoe store manager who would eventually own his own shop in Barrie and Lottie married an insurance broker.

(I say these things because Lina herself was a bit of a snob – all we ever heard from her as kids was “you must marry a doctor or lawyer”….”so and so is a teacher”…”this person is a banker”. She judged people by their profession”. )

Somehow, on a visit to Toronto, she met Dr. Folsom, recent graduate and a member of an elite University of Toronto fraternity. Lina may very well have been manipulated by her 3 Toronto brothers – Hawley was a successful clothier with his own shop, Chauncey was a manufacturer of farm equipment. A third brother, Frank Walker, a grocery wholesaler, would eventually help George buy into his own grocery business in Niagara Falls in 1923.

I really believe the siblings didn’t want Lina to marry a “meat cutter”.

Below: Dr. Folsom’s University of Toronto fraternity credentials likely knocked the Walkers off their feet.

The marriage certificate offers evidence that could support my theory of family influence.

The ceremony took place in York (east of Toronto) where her brother Chauncey Walker resided. One of the witnesses to the marriage is “Bob Walker”, who lives at 420 Brunswick Avenue in Toronto, which just happens to be the the address of Lina’s brother, George Hawley Walker. Hawley’s fifteen-year son old “Bob Walker” must have gotten a kick out of being a witness to a marriage. Also witnessing the marriage is one of Lina’s and George’s Winnipeg room-mates, Annie Mutch. The cuckolding of George Ingold was complete.

We’ll never know exactly what Lina endured during her 6 year rust-belt marriage to Dr. Folsom but it drove her to an act few women of the time considered. According to my father, Frank Ingold, an unhappy Lina consulted her sisters and they urged her to return to Canada. I like to think she left without Folsom knowing.

Folsom was the first to commit bigamy: he married Lillian Baker in 1918, then Evelyn Hamilton in 1924. Both women divorced him on the grounds of “extreme cruelty”. No children came from any of his marriages, so there’s that.

Lillian Folsom divorce – 4 years of marriage

Evelyn Folsom divorce – 5 years of marriage

Recently on a genealogy site, I spoke to a descendant by marriage to Dr. Folsom. He confirmed to me that Folsom had been repeatedly whipped behind the woodshed as a child and he learned to “give what he got”. A brother of his was an angry alcoholic.

Back in Winnipeg, Lina reunited with George Ingold. In January of 1920 they travelled to Hennepin Country, Minnesota where they were married. Presumably they thought a US marriage would throw a smoke-screen over her Canadian marriage. The nuptials were never valid and she risked 5 years in jail if caught. They spent a few years “on the run” in Regina, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto before settling down in Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1923.

The date below is incorrect. I’ll have to order the certificate for proof.

When I was younger, I judged Lina as squeamish about marriage and there is plenty of evidence of that, but now, with all the information about Folsom and how he treated his subsequent wives, I sympathize with her. She just wanted to be rid of him, and men held all the cards legally.

Dr. Folsom died in 1930. I remember Lina showing us a news clipping about him, which I now possess. I don’t know where she got it, but she kept it all those years. I wonder why…?

Below: Angelina Walker (1886-1977)

Below: Edward G. Folsom (1886-1930)

Walter George Ingold (1884-1954) and Lina Walker in Headingly, Manitoba about 1920

The Resilience of Aunt Bertha Maud Ingold

On July 11, 1917, 47-year old Frederick James committed suicide by hanging himself at his workplace, William Barker’s butcher shop. He left behind his widow, Bertha Maud Ingold, 6 children and a history of professional failures.

Below: 9 Chalk Hill, Bushey, UK where Fred James hung himself

Tragically, it wasn’t the first time Bertha had suffered the suicide of a loved one.

Twenty-two years earlier her father, Henry John Ingold drowned himself in an Edgware pond. Henry had been suffering from melancholia since the death of his wife and wrongly believed his business was failing. His suicide shaped the direction of Bertha’s life.

It was Bertha who found Henry’s suicide note. She was the chief witness at the inquest, and as the eldest child, she had to administer his estate and wind down his building business. At 23, she was already considered a spinster and in addition to weathering the suicide scandal, she had to take on responsibility for 7 younger siblings at home (ages 4-19), one of who was my grandfather, Walter George Ingold.  Sometime between 1895 and the 1901 census, the Ingold family had to give up their home on High Street and scattered. Eventually, the two youngest, Frank Ingold and Charley Ingold, were placed in the London Orphan Asylum and the others were put out to work at 14 years old. As each sibling came of age, Bertha gave them their inheritance from Henry’s estate. Assuming the estate was equally divided among the siblings, each received the equivalent of $15,000 Canadian dollars in today’s currency.

Below: A terrible photocopy of Bertha provided by the Puddifant family. I can see the long, angular face and prominent nose of an Ingold.

A year after Henry’s death, Bertha appears in the 1896 London Trade Directory as a “builder”, reflecting her role in winding down her father’s business…

Beginning in 1901 and by virtue of occupying a house, Bertha becomes the first female Ingold in my family to get the vote. It was only the parochial and county vote, but a milestone for the women in the family

About Frederick James (1869-1917)

Sidenote: A few years ago, I corresponded with Fred and Bertha’s granddaughter. Marg Cortens described him as “a bad businessman who lost all his money”.

The red flags are in the UK census: 

In 1891, Fred was running a shop in Islington, declaring himself a “master butcher” and employing 3 people. At the tender age of 21, he may not have been up to the task.

Ten years later Fred is no longer running his own business, but living in a Public House in Edgware and employed as a butcher at the Muddle family’s shop. This is likely around the time he met Bertha Maud Ingold.

Below: The Green Man Pub, home of Fred James in 1901

Fred and Bertha married in October of 1904 around the time her family responsibilities ended. She was 33 and he was 35. Given their daughter Ellen Maud was born the following March, Bertha was likely pregnant at the time of the marriage.

In 1905 Fred bought the Muddle’s shop. He seems to have had some animosity towards the family. Muddle Jr. was reportedly an alcoholic and unpleasant to be around.

Sidenote: my 17 year old grandfather Walter George Ingold was working as a butcher in Edgware according to the 1901 census, and I’ve often wondered if he was employed at the Muddle’s shop.

Fred James failed to make a go of the butcher shop. By 1908, he and Bertha and their growing family were living in Bushey, Hertfordshire where he was employed at “The White Hart”, a public house. Fred took over as landlord in 1911, but that didn’t work out either and he surrendered the license after a year.

Below: The White Hart Public House, Bushey, UK

Below: 1911 Census: Fred is listed as “Licensed Victualler” at “The White Hart. He and Bertha have 4 children at the time.

Who knows what transpired in the years between 1911 up until his suicide in the summer of 1917, but Fred’s death certificate provides a clue: Once a master butcher, he ended his life as a delivery man. (“butcher’s roundsman”).

Below: “Suicide by Strangulation by Hanging”

As for the long-suffering Bertha, she sent her eldest son, 13-year old George to Canada to live and work at his aunt Edith Puddifant’s family farm in Headingly, Manitoba. 

Bertha’s brother, Frank Ingold directed his WW1 army pay to Bertha until he was demobilized. Frank was one of the siblings she shepherded through the London Orphan Asylum. Fifteen years older, she must have seemed like a mother to Frank.

The recent release of the 1921 UK census revealed that Bertha was operating a “tea and coffee room” at 266 High Street, and her 16 year old daughter Maud was contributing to the family by working as a tailor.

Below: 266 High Street, Bushey, Watford, UK

I lost track of the James family after the 1923 directory, but Marg Cortens told me a member of Fred’s family took in Bertha and her remaining children.

In the 1939 UK registry, Bertha was retired and living on Whippendale Road in Watford. Three of her children remained at home and were employed in lucrative war-time jobs. 

Below: 22 Whippendale Road, Watford, UK

One final note, my late father, Frank Ingold, did a family history in 2007 and he got a lot wrong, including his belief that 4 of the Ingold sisters, including Bertha visited the Puddifant family in Canada around 1920. There is absolutely no proof of that, no travel records exist on either side of the Atlantic, and particularly in Bertha’s case is logistically impossible. It’s a reminder that family memories can be sketchy and some need to be taken with a grain of salt…

Bertha Maud Ingold James b. Edgware UK 1871 d. Watford UK 1953

My Grandfather George Ingold and his Larceny  – Debunking a Family Story

Why lie about going to prison? Who would do that? My grandfather did.

As our dad told it, George took the blame for his boss in a shady deal cheating the Canadian army of meat supplies during WW1.  George allegedly spent a year in Stoney Mountain Prison, Manitoba.

That story was only partially true. I’ve learned from my family history research that you shouldn’t rely on any wild information your family gives you. Get the back up details.

I found the facts about George’s arrest and court case at Newspapers.com 

In 1916 George Ingold was 32 and unlike his brothers, didn’t volunteer for wartime duty and somehow avoided conscription. He was employed as a manager at one of John Enright’s two meat shops in Winnipeg.

Below: George’s entry from Henderson’s Winnipeg Directory, 1916

Like many food suppliers of the day, John Enright secured a government contract to supply meat to Canadian troops in Winnipeg. In late March of 1916 and after some investigation, evidence of a conspiracy was found. Enright’s government contract was cancelled and George Ingold was arrested and charged with fraud and bribery. George may or may not have “taken the fall” for his boss.

Below: Winnipeg Tribune, May 16, 1916

At the trial in November of 1916, Sergeant Milgate, George’s co-accused turned King’s evidence and testified for the Crown.

The jury didn’t accept Milgate’s testimony and acquitted George.

Whether or not George’s boss, John Enright had anything to do with this crime, we’ll never know. Enright must have been angry at the loss of a lucrative government contract.  It’s also telling that in the 1918 directory George is no longer a “manager”. He’s listed as a “meat cutter”.

Below: George’s entry from Henderson’s Winnipeg Directory, 1918

George died before we were born, but everything we heard about him indicates he was entirely capable of this type of larceny. He was obsessed with money schemes.  I believe he saw an opportunity to profit from the war and jumped at it. His boss knew it too and demoted George to meat cutter.

George was lucky to be acquitted. At worst, he may have spent a couple of days in jail. He paid his own surety – $100.

Walter George Ingold, b.1884 Edgware, UK d.1954 Niagara Falls, CA

Charley Ingold’s scandalous wife: Florence Caroline Newman Selby Linley Ingold Brown (yes, that’s her name).  

Part One:

In April of 1937, Florence Caroline Ingold sat in the witness box at the inquest into the death of her “border”, 39 year old Reginald William Frank Jauncey. On the evening of March 24, 1937, Mr. Jauncey went out drinking and never returned. Mrs. Ingold reported him missing 3 days later and he was found in her garage at the wheel of his car, dead of carbon-monoxide poisoning. 

From The Norwood News, April 2, 1937 – BritishNewspaperArchive.com

Accidental death was the verdict, but I wonder if the Court or the Police were aware that Mr. Jauncey was a former lover of Mrs. Ingold and who was 22 years his senior? Would the law have looked a little closer into Florence? I would not be surprised if she had something to do with Mr. Jauncey’s death.

She was the legal wife of my father’s uncle Charley Ingold (1890-1968) and the widow of “lyric-writer” and “comedian” Albert Linley, the father of her young daughter, Audrey. She fancied herself an “actress” and used the stage name “Florence Selby”.  I could find only 2 references to her in the theatre columns of the time, but I also believe she was living with a stage actor named Arthur Selby at one point.

I like to believe Charley was a “Stage Door Johnny”:  on leave from Flanders in 1918, he takes in a few London theatricals and meets “actress” Florence Selby. The oddest thing about these two is that they married twice – once in 1918 and once in 1920.

Photo: Charley and Florence on the “Victorian”, headed for Canada in June of 1920..

After the second marriage to Charley in 1920, they emigrated to Winnipeg. Charley worked as a confectioner and she at a grocery shop. I’m guessing she didn’t like working, so she left Charlie after a year and ran off to Australia with a man named Leslie Townsend. She also had an affair with Joe Higgins, who was on the same ship to Australia. After returning to England she took up with Reginald Jauncey, 22 years her junior, the same Reginald who would later die in her garage.

In 1927 Florence sued Charley for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Charley contested the divorce, producing convincing evidence of her above-mentioned lovers. The King’s Proctor refused to grant her a divorce. 

In the meantime, she opened up a night club in Streatham with a much younger man, Ernest Brown. Predictably, she named it “The Florence Club”…

Florence had a knack for getting her name in the newspapers. Previous to her appearance at the inquest to Mr. Jauncey’s death, she reported the disappearance of her daughter in 1926. 

…and in June 1939, a Mr. Moore was charged with passing bad cheques to Florence and her “club”…

She was enumerated as living with Ernest Brown in the 1939 War Register.

In 1945, obviously giving up on ever divorcing,  she put an ad in the London papers announcing she would be foregoing the surname “Ingold” and henceforth be known as “Florence Brown”.

To Be Continued…

I will be writing a 2nd post on Florence delving into her years in Australia, where she got her money, her “club” and whatever happened to her daughter Audrey…

Florence Caroline Newman Selby Linley Ingold Brown 1888-1968

William Ingold and the 21 Turkeys

William Ingold, b. Elsenham, Essex, 1785, d. Bishop’s Stortford, Essex, 1858

My 3rd Great-Grand Uncle, William Ingold (1785-1858) was transported from England to Australia in 1836 for taking possession of 21 stolen turkeys from a local farmer. He was one of several men involved in the crime. 

One of William’s descendants on Ancestry.com describes his crime as a “desperate act of a widowed man trying to feed his 9 children”.  I wondered if there were more to the story.

At BritishNewspaperArchive.com, I found a much more colourful story of William Ingold’s criminal past..

He didn’t actually steal the 21 turkeys – his accomplices did the thieving and William took possession of them with intent to sell. Trouble is, by the time he got them to market the turkeys had rotted. He was arrested and charged.

While William may indeed have been a widower with 9 children, he was also a habitual criminal. Not only did he confess to receiving the stolen turkeys, but he showed no remorse and offered a plea deal to give up his accomplices, save for his stepson, Henry Claydon. You have to admire a man who would hang rather than implicate his stepson.

From the Essex Standard, December 15, 1835, British Newspaper Archive: 

“If I am promised no punishment and not obliged to name one of them (his son), I will make a further confession, but if not I will have a rope put around my neck and be hanged afore I will impeach one of them”

At trial it was revealed William had been a member of the notorious “Elsenham Gang”, who terrorized the locals with a series of violent night time burglaries in 1817. William Ingold escaped and fled while 3 of his accomplices were hanged for the crimes. 

Also, in 1825  William spent a month in jail for an “offence against game laws” (stealing).

Getting back to the case of the 21 Turkeys, William pleaded to the court he should not be jailed as he had not done the stealing. 

In the end, William’s plea fell on deaf ears and he was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour at Goulburn, Australia. In January of 1836 at age 51, he was placed aboard “The Bengal Merchant” with 270 other “criminals” bound for the penal colony at Goulburn, New South Wales. His stepson, Henry Claydon continued his thieving ways and was transported 2 years later

Below is a fascinating blog which gives some insight into the kind of hard prison life he experienced at Goulburn. A terrible punishment for thieving.

https://towrangstockade.com.au/convicts/

William Ingold earned his pardon after 14 years and returned to England in 1854. His pardon record describes him as 5’3″ with a ruddy complexion, grey eyes and hair. He had no front teeth and was missing the forefinger of his right hand.

Four years after returning to England, William died in the Workhouse at Bishop’s Stortford in January, 1858. He was 73.

I’m looking forward to digging deeper into his life in Australia, and his return to England. I am also anxious to examine the criminal pasts of his stepson, Henry Claydon and his biological sons, Joshua and Jasper…