Job Newman and Kit Mills and family 1909

Cinderford 2

Page 100 / 142

Job Newman and Kit Mills and family 1909

This is a photo of Cinderford family Job Newman (1854-1950) and his wife Eliza 'Kit' (nee Mills) (c.1858-1912) and their family. It was taken in about 1909.
They were my great great grandparents.

Back row: Rose (*married Bill Butt, 3 daughters Ethel, Elsie & Kitty) Fanny (*married Albert Robbins, 3 sons Bert, Stan and Gordon)
Alice (*married Timothy Ruck senior, 2 sons Tim and Jack)
Eliza (*married a Fred Burris and moved to Yorkshire, 3 sons and 1 daughter Fred, Jack, Harold and Margaret)
Elsie (*married William Meek, 2 sons & 2 daughters Bill, Ron, Elsie & Joyce)

Front row: Agnes ‘Mary’ (*‘Polly’) (*married a Morgan; 1 son and 2 daughters Bill Morgan, Fanny and Iris)
Grandma Kit Mills (Newman) 'Grancher' Job Newman and Florence Elizabeth ‘Bess’ (*married Albert Weaving of Littledean, 1 surviving son and daughter Frank and Elsie)

*Missing from picture: 'Jack' Newman (Job & Kit’s only surviving son) (*married an Irishwoman Kathleen Studdert, 2 daughters Betty & Kit.)

Job Newman, originally from the Birdlip area, met Kit Mills at some point in the mid-1870s in Gloucester, set up home with her and had two or three children. After moving to the Forest in the 1880s, Job worked in the pit at Foxes Bridge for 20 years, before working on the fairgrounds. He even had a gold earring. He didn’t finally retire till 1940, when he was 86!

Kit originally worked in ale houses and eventually ran a lodging house in Heywood Road, Cinderford. All sorts of people lodged there, including travelling salesmen ‘hawkers’ and performers like acrobats and singers, etc. Apparently Kit was quite a formidable character, a trait my great-grandmother Bess inherited too.
Kit passed away quite young in her early 50s, but Job lived on well into old age.

For some reason Job and Kit did not actually get married until 1885, when their eldest child, Bess, was already almost 8. Quite unconventional, even scandalous for the times!

<i>Information and Photo supplied by Kevin Marsh</i>